One of the upsides of living in Japan is the opportunity to browse the manga sections at the big bookstore chains (I take advantage frequently).  I’ve found a lot of stuff to read just from grazing the covers.  But it’s also a good way to keep abreast of where the next big titles are coming from.  One thing that seems to be a new rite of passage for series that transition from “hit” to “phenomenon” is the status board that pops up in the bookshops – the one that tells you which volumes are sold out.  I’d previously only seen two series get one in my entire time in Japan – Kimetsu no Yaiba and Jujutsu Kaisen.  This week, Tokyo Revengers became the third.  It’s officially a monster.

While I feel like this is a series that works best if you don’t think too hard about it, I do get it.  Tokyo Revengers has an unaffected charm that carries it in good stead through its sometimes dubious plot twists.  The “resolution” to the Mikey-Doraken feud was a good example.  Basically Takemitchy being a literal shithead is all it took.  And to be fair, that seems to be his role in their dynamic – something just above the level of a pet that both feuding parents are fond of.  These are all teenagers (and boys at that), and their motivations are sometimes going to be kind of dumb by adult standards.  It’s not a stretch.

The problem is that the feud isn’t truly settled, of course.  And that Takemitchy allows himself to believe it is.  I kind of get that, too – having traveled back from a thoroughly unfulfilling adult life, the temptation to bask in Hina’s glow is going to be overwhelming.  But if the history you came back to change happens on August 3rd I’m not going to relax until August 4th.  Relax he does, though.  And when Hina (at Emma’s urging) invites him to the summer festival, of course Takemitchy isn’t going to say no.  Who would?

I was never fooled by this sense of idyll, but I don’t think we were supposed to be.  The other shoe was always going to drop, and I don’t mean Hina’s geta.  The timing couldn’t have been worse but it was always going to happen sooner or later.  It’s interesting that Yamagishi has “sources” cluing him in on Toman events.  Where does a kid like that, barely on the fringes of the gang, get sources?  Armed with what Yamagishi tells him, Takemitchy has no choice but to park his lips and get back to work.

What happens next is a bit confusing, perhaps intentionally.  Are Kiyomasa (who I always expected to pull this stunt) and Peh-yan acting in concert, or independently?  It wouldn’t be impossible of for two parties to have a grudge against Doraken, though it certainly would be a coincidence.  Of course Takemitchy isn’t going to be able to much against Kiyomasa and his entire crew – not many would.  But it sets him off on a new bender of self-pity, a reminder of just how fragile the protagonist’s psyche really is.

Is Takemitchy kind of an unconventional hero for this sort of series?  I would say yes, to an extent.  He’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and he’s a crybaby to be sure, but that part of his nature is why Hina loves him.  And, I’d argue it’s why Doraken and Mikey keep him around, too – he keeps them grounded (and amused).  The most interesting element of this for me continues to be how Takemitchy – and by extension Tokyo Revengers itself – view those two.  Are they heroes?  Not to me, they’re not.  And the consequences of their choices should be obvious to an adult, even a beaten-down one like Takemichi.  How the series answers that question will go a long way to determining its staying power.