The beginning of arcs (and interstitial eps) of Tokyo Revengers are almost always better than the climactic ones.  All the plot holes and logic chasms every arc of TMR has make them effectively impossible to wrap up in satisfying fashion.  But this series does setup pretty well for the most part, and this ep (as contrasted to the ones preceding it) is an example.  While the head-desk moments still happen they aren’t fatal, and this sort of material allows the series’ charms to shine through.  It’s not War and Peace, but it’s pretty good when it’s like this.

The somewhat unexpected result of the not-so-silent night is that Mikey has decided to kick Kisaki out of Toman.  These gang meetings always annoy the hell out of me – these snot-nosed idiots playing soldiers and the supposed emotional moments.  But this was interesting, Mikey taking Chifuyu’s word for it that Kisaki was responsible for the confrontation at the church.  That’s because he was apparently harboring suspicions about Kisaki all along, which is interesting in and of itself.  We’ve not seen Kisaki like this before – while it’s worth remembering that he’s a good actor, he seemed genuinely unnerved by these developments.  I guess we’ll see.

With Black Dragon capitulating to Toman and asking to be folded into Takemitchy’s First Division (yeah, that’s not suspicious or anything) Toman is seemingly bigger than ever.  But with Kisaki bowing out and Hanma going with him, it’s about to be seriously cut down to size.  Mikey’s reaction that Toman had gotten too big is also interesting – not least in that it’s correct, and Mikey is not normally a paragon of good judgement.  If he wants to keep his group operating in a manner consistent with his bogus vision for it, he’s got to keep it small enough to exert direct, personal control.

All is smiles and self-congratulation – Mikey even gives Takemitchy the twin of his own CB250T “Dream” that his brother scavenged the engines for in the Philippines.  But Kisaki is not the sort to take this sort of thing lying down, so while Takemitchy can sod off to the future thinking he’s won the game, it’s pretty obvious the enemy will still have been out there doing his thing in the interim.  After a meeting with Naoko (that kid must think Takemitchy has a serious number of loose screws) that’s exactly what he does.  And he wakes up in a suit and not a prison, which certainly counts as progress.

Unfortunately, Takemichi is in a (black) suit because he’s at a funeral.  Whose?  The girl who greets him seems familiar, but it’s not till the names “Luna” and “Mana” get dropped that I (and Takemichi) put the pieces together and come up with Mitsuya.  And he looks quite respectable in his photo, too – though that could be deceptive.  Mitsuya being dead doesn’t necessarily mean anybody else (like Hina or Akkun) aren’t – there may be some sort of alchemical equivalent exchange to this mythology but we have no proof of that.  But even if so, this is probably another outcome Takemichi won’t find acceptable.  Maybe instead of trying to make the gangsters better, try not being a gangster next time?