That this week’s episode of Seiya Kessen-hen would be a marked improvement was eminently predictable.  That’s what this series does – whenever it has to resolve major plot points, it founders because of the inherent flaws in the premise.  But the in-between stuff can be very good.  That’s when the unaffected charm which is undeniably a strength of Tokyo Revengers can assert itself.  The last few eps have been a slog, but this one was far better.

Mind you, we’re still mired deep in the noble hoodlum nonsense which underlies everything in TMR.  Takemitchy is enough of a simpleton to believe it, which I suppose is what makes the series somewhat plausible, but when it really goes all in like it did here it’s a lot to take.  Turns out it was Emma (Mikey’s half-sister and Draken’s girlfriend, who I don’t think we’ve seen this season) who asked – well, ordered – Mikey and Draken to find Takemitchy after Hina told her what happened with the breakup.  And when Hina found out the reason, she was pretty pissed.  Which she has every right to be, though TBH if I was her dad I might just have done the same thing.  Letting kids make their own mistakes is fine, but as a cop he knows just how dangerous the life Takemitchy has chosen is.

That’s the real irony here – Dad is right.  It was being involved with Taketmitchy that ultimately led (in every timeline so far) to Hina’s death.  That’s the elephant in the room TMR continues to pretend isn’t there, even though it makes a huge noise and stinks to high heaven.  But back in bizarro world life goes on – and Mikey and Takemitchy go for a ride (I guess nobody needed to go to the ER after that brutal beating in the church).  Takemitchy, it seems, reminds Mikey and Draken of Mikey’s aniki Shinichirou.  And Shinichirou, as we know, was someone very important to Mikey in every way.  That at least explains why Mikey is so tolerant of Takemitchy’s obvious flaws as a gang leader.

Capping things off is a flashback about the meeting of Draken and Mitsuya – the “two dragons”.  This was fine for what it was, both of these guys being among the more believable and nuanced (relatively speaking) members of the cast.  Nothing too much to see here, but Draken’s cathouse upbringing is always an interesting element of his character.  Even as a kid he had a charisma such that it’s easy to see why he drew people to follow him – more so than Mikey, if I’m totally honest.