It sounds funny coming from the guy who has “announce BokuYaba anime already” (5 volumes) in his Twitter handle, but Tokyo Revengers is am exemplar of the right way to do an an anime adaptation.  It’s getting two cours right off the bat, and there’s plenty of source material (23 volumes and counting) for the sequels and movies sure to follow.  That part was contingent on the anime making the franchise the (mega-)hit it’s become, but I think that was a good bet.  This season will likely use around 8 volumes and the future is basically limitless.  The anime can go at whatever pace the studio is comfortable with, and keep the brand popular for as long as it wants.  It’s textbook, frankly.

The fact is, of course, that generally speaking when the industry believes a franchise has a chance to be huge, it doesn’t wait four years to adapt it.  That begs the question as to whether there was more doubt about Tokyo Revengers‘ ability to explode like Kimetsu or JJK (the only properties in the last few years to exceed it in popularity) than something like, for example, Chainsaw Man (adapted at 11 volumes).  Whether that’s the case or not, it could hardly have worked out better – unless the manga’s storyline totally jumps the shark (which doesn’t seem to be the consensus so far) this series has a chance to be huge for a very long time.

In that sense, I think it helps that Tokyo Revengers is basically a pulp thriller.  It’s not high-concept or high-risk, or remotely avant-garde – it tells its straightforward tale in slightly clumsy but generally winning fashion.  I don’t expect a lot of highs and lows going forward, but a pretty steady continuation of the story we’ve had so far.  And that story is clearly entering a new phase, with Valhalla – the “headless angel” – moving center stage.  And with it the characters crucial to the Valhalla storyline.

As much as I generally hate exposition by explanation I really didn’t mind Kazushi’s lecture, because one can easily see that Takemitchy is the sort of guy that isn’t going to bother learning the gritty details himself.  I’m not a math major but 150 in Toman and 300 in Valhalla sounds kinda bad for Toman.  Osanai seems to be the odd man out here (his future self would imply that’s the case) but the remnants of Moebius have been swept up by Honma and Kazutora, along with the “mysterious” true head of Valhalla.  Who that person likely is seems so obvious that I almost wonder if it’s a feint, but I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

Was Takemitchy dumb to go to Valhalla headquarters with Kazutora?  Well, this is obviously not a guy with a history of making good decisions.  The question I suppose is whether he had a choice – if Kazutora and his two lieutenants tried to force him to come, could they – with broken legs?  Naturally Takemitchy doesn’t force them to try, instead walking straight into the lion’s den.  It’s true that if he intends to bring Baji back he’s going to have to go to him sooner or later, but one could certainly question whether these were the most advantageous circumstances.

In point of fact one could make the case that the best way for Takemitchy to accomplish his current goal would be to follow Baji in denouncing Toman and fake-joining Valhalla.  But Valhalla don’t make that transition easy, as witness the “faith” ritual Baji has to complete before they’ll even consider accepting him.  And that’s with Takemitchy corroborating what Baji said as he bolted from Toman.  Whatever went down that caused Kazutora to be arrested and blame Mikey for it, that seems to be the key event that brought us to this current situation.  Takemitchy is, as usual, swept up in the current – exactly where he needs to be, but hardly the most comfortable position.