Well – never mind, I guess.
If I’m honest, I think this business of having to use 3-4 minute recaps in order to end episodes where you want to is kind of sloppy. I know not everyone is as annoyed with them as I am, but they definitely set my teeth on edge. Be that as it may, the episode itself was pretty much a microcosm of everything Tokyo Revengers. Somehow with this show the whole is better than the sum of the parts, and it’s rather like Mr. Elinoff’s gossamer – one really shouldn’t dissect it.
Takemitchy is a bit of a conundrum as a main character. He’s not exceptionally intelligent, or exceptionally strong, or exceptionally charismatic. Indeed what stands out about him is that nothing really stands out. So when the time comes for him to be exceptional, that’s a tricky needle to thread for the writer. You have to make it believable, and you run the risk of taking away the character’s signature. It can extremely rewarding to see meek types rise to the occasion, but I don’t quite identify with Takemichi enough for that to be the case here.
On balance, I thought this worked pretty decently. Takemitchy did show a lot of guts here, but he wasn’t magically able to rise above himself for the most part. He succeeded (maybe) because he declined to give up and didn’t allow himself to be constrained by decorum. Once Kiyomasa pulled a knife on Doraken – and then stabbed Takemitchy through the hand with it – all bets were pretty much off. Biting and choking sounds good to me, though in truth I’m not sure Takemitchy would have been strong enough to actually pull that off.
There are enough head-desk moments here to make you wince, but then you remember that this is Takemitchy we’re talking about – he’s not always going to make good decisions. Trying to carry Doraken all the way to the hospital was darkly absurd – fortunately Hina was smart enough for both of them and called an ambulance. With Mikey fully occupied with Honma – who proves to be the most formidable opponent we’ve seen for Mikey so far – all Takemitchy really had to do was plow straight ahead and be a punching bag (and pincushion). And fortunately, he’s good at that.
The loyalty of Akkun and the others was rewarding, though they were pretty overmatched (realistically so). The real question of the moment is whether Doraken is going to survive all this – I mean, he could easily die from that stab wound or cranial bleeding once the adrenaline wears off. If indeed he does survive it’s going to be interesting to see how that’s explained, given that Takemitchy doesn’t seem to have done anything to have directly changed the circumstances under which he died in the original timeline. All he really did was turn this into a bigger gang brawl than it was, and I’m not sure why that would matter.
Kim
June 13, 2021 at 10:51 pmThe fact that Draken was still pretty conscious after what he looked like was the most unbelievable thing about this episode for me. But then this is Shounen and I’ve seen even more unbelievable feats in other Shounen fighting series.
And Tokyo Revengers is unabashedly Shounen from the not giving up when the odds are stacked against you to the friends who the main character inspired showing up at just the right moment.
I am not really into the romanticizing Gang aspect that I still feel Tokyo Revengers does at this point. But I admit these emotional moments do work for me in a ways that they don’t in a lot of other modern popular Shounen Jump series. Though I was very surprised that Tokyo Revengers is not in Shounen Jump.
Anyways it’s a very weird comparison and I am not talking plot obviously but Tokyo Revengers actually gives me a similar feeling to Haikyuu. It has the same sort of heartfelt energy for me.
Guardian Enzo
June 13, 2021 at 11:03 pmYeah, you know, I can sort of see that. Haikyuu is better on the whole, but there is a common vibe.
Kim
June 13, 2021 at 10:56 pmSorry for the double post but I would argue that while Takemitchy couldn’t stop Draken from being stabbed he was able to stick with him and get him help sooner. It was Takemitchy who found that Draken was stabbed. If in the original timeline no one noticed that Draken was hurt until it was too late he might have died before getting help. Just that little thing might save him.
But I think this shows that Takemitchy can’t completely stop things from going into motion because there are other powerful players here like that new head of Mobius who was taking on Mikey.
leongsh
June 13, 2021 at 11:32 pmThe reality is Takemichi is a dumb kid. His 26 year old self is working as a part timer in a video rental shop. He has no social circle to speak of at that age. The things that he does, whether as a teenager or a young adult, shows a lack of smarts. You cannot be expecting him to do some things and react in the way that you would expect yourself to react. He is truly pathetic, easily cries, lacks self-awareness, etc. There is nothing much to endear himself to readers/viewers. He is very low level in society but one thing he isn’t is that he is no scumbag, not a violent person. You could even call him a MC who is the antithesis of the usual manga MC. A subversive type of MC. All that is by design by the mangaka for the context of this manga. What most readers/viewers that rant against Takemichi’s stupidity is because they self-insert themselves into Takemichi and voice out the various actions that Takemichi could have done. However, by doing that, they have lost sight of who Takemichi is and now present themselves as the MC – which they aren’t and the story isn’t about them.
What has happened in this episode is the very first turning point for Takemichi. He has been given this chance to change his life. No more running away. He wanted to be someone like Mikey but that was fantasy thinking. He acknowledges reality (with a big thank you to Hina for that). He will be himself but now, putting himself on the line to take his chances. His fight with Kiyomasa is running on pure fight-adrenalin instead of his usual flight-adrenalin to run away from the situation. There’s not much more you can ask from him.
As to the recap at beginning of the episode, again it is to fit in and end the episode at a certain point. Based on where they ended this episode, it is clear to me where the next few episodes each will end. That’s the least spoilery that I can explain.
Riv
June 14, 2021 at 4:23 amThose are good points about Takemichi’s character. I still just don’t care very much about him, though. I feel much more invested in wanting Draken to live and get a chance to turn his life around, for example, than in Takemichi evolving. But maybe that’s his function as a MC–to tie the supporting cast together and spur their storylines. In fact, it reminds me a lot of Midoriya in BNHA. Midoriya is also a MC who I like but am not super invested in. I find supporting characters like Todoroki or Shinsou far more compelling. Personally, I think Midoriya’s “blandness”, for lack of a better word, is necessary to hold all the characters around him with more dramatic and intense personalities together.
Yukie
June 14, 2021 at 12:30 amI really want to like this anime, I really do. The premise is interesting, the delinquent theme is nostalgic, some of the cast are interesting, and there’s been real pathos displayed here and there. These last few episodes, however, have been esp. grueling to watch, and I think my frustration has reached the peak with this episode (pretty sure there are cellphones by this time, why isn’t anyone calling the ambulance?). I don’t mind stupid main characters, but if the plot hinges on stupidity to push things forward…
Guardian Enzo
June 14, 2021 at 12:33 amThere are, they’ve shown to have them, and Hina did call. I was groaning when Takemitchy decided to carry Doraken at 10 meters an hour to the hospital rather than call an ambulance, but I could see Hina being smarter about it than him in the moment.
Aisha
June 14, 2021 at 1:56 amI kinda love draokon
Princess Usagi
June 15, 2021 at 3:28 amIt seems that the one thing Takemichi has on his side is luck. The right people or things always come at the right time for him, getting him out of situations he certainly couldn’t handle alone. Like when the stronger gang members come as back up during gang-fights or when the poop landed on his head during Mikey and Draken’s argument. I wonder how much longer they can keep the right place at the right time thing up before it starts becoming an unbearable piece of mobile plot armor. Maybe now that Takemichi is learning to become more resilient and to fight harder, he’ll handle more on his own and we’ll see less of the “in the nick of time” rescues. Although, there’s only so much one person can do against a whole gang of angry, strong bikers and in this case, his newfound courage can make him overlook what in this case would be the wiser flight option.
Color2413
June 17, 2021 at 5:12 pmWhen Takemichi was stabbed through the hand, it would have been “game over” for any non-anime character. This kind of thing, a “Hollywood Moment” where the protagonist is not only vastly overpowered but also takes a couple of bullets and then rallies to win, is a pet peeve of mine. I’m sorry that the anime’s creators chose to throw this completely implausible plot point into the script. Takemichi’s middle-school posse was sufficiently underpowered without adding the injury
That said, this is not a deal-breaker for me, particularly since there are relatively few compelling shows this season (despite its promising start) .