There’s been so much talk of this “Bloody Halloween” that I’m just about ready to get it over with already. A few thoughts as we approach this milestone moment…
- Never really thought about it before, but it’s interesting that Naoto calls Takemichi “-kun”. In Japan for a guy to use that with someone older is a pretty fundamental sign of disrespect, unless he’s the older man’s “senior” at a company. I suppose it reflects their respective places in the adult social ladder.
- The whole idea of referees and rules at a gang brawl strikes me as such a quaintly Japanese notion, though Kazutora makes pretty quick work of that.
- As soon as Doraken described what happened after Bloody Halloween as Kisaki having a “patsy” set up so Mikey can skate away after killing Kazutora, my mind went immediately in one direction. That is, the guy on death row telling the story. What better way for Kisaki to kill two birds with one stone than have Doraken take the fall for Mikey and get him out of the way? The only flaw in the reasoning that I can see is that Ken likely wouldn’t end up on death row for killing someone in a gang fight (and he did mention multiple victims).
Kisaki is pulling the strings here, but Kazutora’s willingness to be manipulated seems like the key to the whole thing. He just seems flat-out psychotic at this point. He’s convinced himself that Mikey is to blame for what happened, which I can certainly see. What’s less obvious is why Baji is going along with this. He’s certainly taking the act to the wire if it is an act, offering nothing to Chifuyu to suggest that he’s acting as a Toman spy. Of course something causes Kazutora to turn on Baji and kill him (supposedly), and him reverting back to Toman during the fight is the least messy explanation. But I wonder if there’s more to it than that.
One problem I see is that the whole current premise hinges on the ridiculous man-crush Takemichi has on Mikey, which is preposterous. Mikey isn’t noble or kind, the way Takemichi builds him up in his head – he’s just a few notches down from Kisaki and Honma on the wheel of scum. What’s interesting is that I still don’t know whether Tokyo Revengers itself gets that or whether it actually agrees with Takemichi – and I’ve never been sure, right from the beginning. But if it’s the former I think it’s a real issue, because the entire story is basically a false construct.
il-Palazzo
August 8, 2021 at 8:50 pmDraken was still a minor during the Bloody Halloween brawl though, so by Japanese law it would be impossible for him to get a death sentence for anything. Whatever put him on death row would have to come much later.
Guardian Enzo
August 8, 2021 at 9:02 pmYeah, that too.
leongsh
August 8, 2021 at 10:29 pmIt has been that way from the start – adult Naoto has been talking down to adult Takemichi throughout. Naoto is a police detective with the rank of Sergeant. Takemichi is a part-timer clerk in a video rental shop. Naoto is higher up on the adult social pecking order than Takemichi even though Naoto is younger than Takemichi.
Nope. Draken is not the decoy fall guy. Kisaki already has a decoy specially prepared for this. Recall in previous episode when Osanai revealed Kisaki approached Mikey with an offer to cut short Pah-chin’s time in juvenile detention, that means Kisaki has connections in the system. Kisaki’s plan is to have Mikey enraged enough to kill Kazutora during the fight. With that killing hanging over his head, Mikey effectively lost his bargaining power and Kisaki took over with a plan to “protect” Mikey from being hauled up over the killing by using his prepared fall guy. This allowed Kisaki to muscle his way to be the 2nd-in-command and having Mikey lead the new Toman as the head. With that set, the new Toman eventually went into underground and criminal activities to grow to what it is in the future.
As to why Draken is on death row, Draken was setup by Kisaki to kill off some people. Why did Draken get setup when he should know better? That’s for the future to be revealed.
The current answer to that is Takemichi is one of the few that Mikey has let in into his very personal circle. Draken is the only person is closer to Mikey than Takemichi is. The rest of the founding members (except Kazutora) are in the next closest circle. Mikey has been sharing his thoughts with Takemichi that he does not share outside his close circles. Mikey has not seen Takemichi as gang material and has been keeping him away from joining Toman until Takemichi butted his whole body into it. Mikey wants someone outside the gang circle that he can connect with and Takemichi is his lifeline. Thus, Takemichi sees what Mikey is outside of him being a gang leader and as a real friend outside of his middle school circle of friends. Mikey is no saint for sure. He behaves like that of a bully due to his fighting prowess and reputation as leader of Toman but most of his fighting is often that of striking at those who take the fight to him.
There’s something else that Takemichi sees in Mikey but that is best left to be discussed when the time comes.