When it was announced that Tokyo Revengers would be getting 24 episodes, it was a bit of a cause for celebration given the dominance of one-cour schedules for anything not a LN adaptation or CGDCT series these days.  As it turns out we needn’t have worried, because the manga sales have exploded more than any adaptation since Jujutsu Kaisen, probably.  It seems almost a given now that Tokyo Revengers will get multiple seasons, and with 22 volumes of the manga already in print there should be enough material for at least five or six cours.

That’s good news for me, even if TR is yet another “yes, but…” series this season.  There’s a lot of good stuff happening here and more so than with most of the others, the good outweighs the bad by a comfortable margin.  One of the annoyances is not the series’ fault in any way, as it happens – the ridiculous censor bars that were so prevalent this week.  Not for nudity or gore, but because of the presence of the Manji symbol – proof that there’s no trust in Western audiences’ historical perspective (which may not be unjustified, to be fair).  You can see the uncensored version in Japanese broadcast and streaming versions of course, but how many outside Japan will go to the trouble to do that?

The hard practicalities of Takemichi’s strange existence are acknowledged a little more this week, starting with his getting fired from his job.  Even allowing for the fact that Takemichi is not especially good at it, making a living is going to be pretty problematical when you disappear for days or weeks at a time.  Is Naoto going to pay Takemichi’s expenses on a rookie cop’s salary?  I would hope so, because he’s unbending in his demands on Takemichi.  He refuses to allow him to come clean with Hina-chan about his time-leaps, on the grounds that she’d never buy it (Nao-ko only does because he’s a sci-fi fan).

The focus now turns to Doraken, whose death Akkun swears was responsible for Mikey’s downturn.  Naoto’s research tells him Doraken died in a gang fight after a dispute with Mikey on August 3, about two weeks away (less 12 years).  Takemichi immediately dismisses the idea that those two fell out, but not the idea that saving Doraken is crucial.  He leaps back and wakes up in a compromising position with (under) Emma (Uchiyama Yumi) in a karaoke room.  Clearly, judging by his reaction this was not something that happened to Takemitchy the first time around.

This leads to some interesting questions.  We know what happens with adult Takemichi when he leaps – he basically goes into a coma in the present for however long he’s in the past.  But what about 14 year-old Takemitchy?  Is this something like demonic possession for him, where Takemitchy loses control of his body for the duration?  Does he have any sense of Takemichi’s presence while it’s happening, or remember any of it afterwards?  Is it like a blackout where he loses all memory of that time period, or does he remember the events as being perfectly normal?  These are the sorts of questions time-travel stories kind of have a duty to answer.  And in this case I think the answers could be quite important as it relates to Takemitchy’s sanity.

Emma, as it turns out, was only trying to jump Takemitchy’s bones to make Doraken jealous.  It all gets him a sound beating from Hina but he’s lucky that’s all she does.  What’s brewing is a battle with the rival (and senior) gang Möbius, who run Shinjuku, after they recently terrorized one of Toman’s lieutenants and put his girlfriend into a coma.  Takemitchy assumes this is the direct cause of Doraken’s death and sets about trying to protect him (which Ken wants no part of), and in the process of tailing him takes in the strange but symbiotic relationship between Mikey and Doraken.

The scene where Doraken literally carries Mikey to the hospital to see the stricken girl is the best of the episode for a number of reasons.  Ultimately this is what Takemichi is going to have to decide – is Mikey right in denying all responsibility for what happened, or are the girl’s parents right (hint: yes) for blaming their lifestyle for their daughter’s condition?  Takemichi can’t have it both ways – Mikey and Ken are not heroes, not noble – they’re somewhat less sociopathic sociopaths who at any given moment are one false step away from suffering or causing a tragedy.  I could see Takemitchy not understanding that, but Takemichi really has no excuses.