I have to be honest here, that was pretty dumb. 20 minutes of dumb guys doing dumb shit for dumb reasons, with dumb results. I suppose in a sense it amounts to an acid test of just how much you buy into the non-time travel part of the premise of Tokyo Revengers – the idea that there’s something heroic or noble or GAR about being a gang banger. These guys are all peas in a pod as far as I’m concerned, so it’s hard to muster up much of a rooting interest.
The plausibility issue is a big part of the dumbness factor for me without a doubt. 150 middle schoolers from Toman taking out 300 young adults from Valhalla? OK, I’ll grant you that military history is littered with examples of huge upsets where the numbers didn’t seem to matter. But those upsets mostly came down to tactics and/or strategy, which matters in an actual battlefield scenario (especially pre-20th Century). Not so much when it’s a bunch of thugs beating the crap out of each other in melee form.
Then we have Takemitchy’s ridiculous stumbling rant being the turning point of the battle. Seriously? Takemitchy being effectively useless in a real fight I can see – it’s in-character. I can tell you I’d be terrified and useless in a brawl like this so I don’t judge him for that whatsoever. One might reasonably ask why he seemed to have gone into this not grasping the idea that he was actually going to have to fight, but again – Takemitchy gonna Takemitchy. But that little show he put on turning the tide of the battle was supposed to be rousing, and to me it was just very, very silly.
Whatever. This was all designed to get us to the Mikey vs. Kazutora showdown, so let’s talk about that. Doraken (easily the most compelling character in the series for me) is suitably heroic, but Honma (who’s a beast in combat himself) does his job of sidelining him very well. Kazutora is a coward, disinterested in a fair fight with Mikey. He just wants to use his cronies from juvie to gang up on Mikey so he can take him out (all the way out). The joke here is, it’s actually Kazutora who’s respecting the situation – why should Mikey have any right to expect honor to have a role in a gang rumble?
That said, I make no claims about Kazutora not being fully crackers – even Honma brags on it. I guess we’re supposed to feel sorry for him based on his family situation or whatever, but he’s a punk who’s convinced himself that Mikey is to blame for what his own stupidity did to his life. Mike taking the punishment he did – repeated full-strength blows to the head with a hunk of steel almost as long as a baseball bat – and not even losing consciousness is preposterous. But the whole scenario and the whole episode are preposterous, so at least it doesn’t feel out of place.
Well, I suppose this takes us to the point in the story where according to convict-Doraken Mikey kills Kazutora. He certainly looks pissed off enough to do it, and Takemitchy would have to be pretty crazy to try and stop him under these circumstances. That said, it’s hard not to notice that Baji is nowhere to be seen during this entire melee (or Kisaki for that matter – isn’t he supposed to be a captain?). Baji was obviously integral to the sequence of events Doraken related, so one can only assume both he and Kisaki – there’s the matter of that patsy to consider – are about to make their move.
Kim
August 15, 2021 at 10:58 pmFirst half of this was pretty boring for me but then I don’t like all out brawls. There were a few moment sprinkled throughout I liked (characters coming to Takemitchy’s aid) but overall it didn’t feel much different from the
other big brawls we saw. And I am afraid we will get a lot more of these in this series. I guess it’s par for the course in a gang story
The Draken and Mikey parts were definitely the best part of the episode. Yeah Mikey surviving those blows is very silly but this show has never been exactly realistic. Most of those characters in Toman don’t even look close to a Middle Schooler for one thing.
Anyways I don’t think we were meant to feel sympathy for Kazutora. I think it was just showing us how a human can turn into a monster. I am especially interested in Kisaki’s flashback now (I am sure there will be one)
As for Mikey whether Kazutora killed him or he kills Kazutora it’s a “bad end” so I wonder how Takemitchy will stop the worst scenario from happening.
Pelly
August 16, 2021 at 3:05 amI don’t really understand all those sad childhood flashbacks to try to justify henious characters like Kazutora. Tons of people live in abusive houses and they appeal to social services, they don’t become head smashing maniacs.
Princess Usagi
August 16, 2021 at 8:31 amIt was quite annoying (and unrealistic, although I guess it’s hard to talk about realism in the first place when a show centers around time travel) that Mikey has become a physics defying being. Part of me wants him to survive but another part thinks it’s just ridiculous for him to not only survive serious head trauma, but soon afterwards, lift and kick guys with his leg. I also don’t feel much suspense because based on how the show has played out so far, this red flag will get resolved in the end and move on to the next death flag to be avoided. I still keep watching, though, because I am curious how exactly it will play out (and hopefully won’t involve more 24 straight minutes of dudes punching each other out).
Lurk-chan
August 16, 2021 at 9:49 amHonestly, at this point this series feels more like your regular Shonen, than a time-travel drama. What with those ridiculous inspirational speeches, unrealistic fights (the force required to push-back Hanma like that would be akin to getting hit by a speeding truck, and don’t even get me started on the Mikey issue). You might just as well replace the whole gang premise with, I don’t know, let’s say pirates! (“I am going to become the next Pirate Ki- errr.. Head of Toman!”) and would be left with basically the same series. Heck, even the whole time travel thing is starting to feel tacked on, considering how little value Takemitchy is taking out of it (just think about it, you have the incredible power of being able to know how a particular situation is going to play out way in advance, by sheer virtue of being able to gather information about it in the present times, and Takemitchy is utilizng it to stumble from one unforeseen situation to the next!)
Why, let’s take this thought to the extreme and consider the following proposal for an alternate series:
“One day the local farm boy Mitchell sneaks away into the forest where he encounters a fairy, who warns him of great impending doom which will befall his future wife (and current crush) and the Kingdom. Seeking his help, the fairy agrees to whisper him visions of the future, but only under the condition, that he tells noone else about them. Hilarity ensues, when Mitchell uses his newfound knowledge to stumble into the ranks of the heroic King Mike and his most loyal retainer, Duke Drake. Soon after he gets thrown into great battles together with the King’s generals, with only his wits and compassion at his disposal, as he tries to subvert the future outcome of visions shown to him by his fairy companion! Will our hero be able to oust the evil, mysterious Wizard Kisakidorf, who has schemed his way into the inner court of the King, and change the fate of his love and Kingdom?” 10/10 series in the making, some producer please hit me up :^)
Kim
August 16, 2021 at 9:55 am“ Honestly, at this point this series feels more like your regular Shonen, than a time-travel drama.”
Um it is Shounen it is in Kodansha’s weekly Shounen manga. It’s not meant to be a complex drama
leongsh
August 16, 2021 at 11:28 amTrue. From the outside looking in, that is.
Actually, the series is a subversion of it but you won’t come to the subversion until much later. However, it is not a spoiler since the first scene with death-row Draken has inserted the idea/hint of it. Recall that he mentioned that the whole idea of having a motorcycle gang was for having fun and fighting. That was for their youth. That time of youth is when you do dumb things thinking you were great, heroic, noble, etc. Except that for Toman, Kisaki stepped into the picture and changed its direction towards becoming a ruthless underworld behemoth.
Mikey had fair warning from Hanma that Valhalla is coming for Toman. All the way back on 3 August. Why Mikey ended up taking in Kisaki and the younger ex-Moebius who split from the older Moebius into Toman. Numbers are needed and even after absorbing them, Toman did not have enough members on an equal basis with Valhalla. Generally in gang culture, unless your gang is the largest and most powerful gang, you can’t ignore being called out for a fight especially when it’s over turf and face value. That would be a loss of prestige and can mean the effective death of a gang. In effect, Toman is being challenged on the right to be relevant and to exist. It’s dumbass on the outside of the bubble but it isn’t for those within that bubble. All this needs to be taken into consideration for context before questioning plausibility of the fight.
Was it supposed to be rousing? It wasn’t for me. He was just trying to survive in the brawl, wildly flaling his arms and shouting out his frustration. What it did do was to show that Takemichi, the known weakest fighter and newest member of Toman, was still trying despite getting badly beaten up. He shamed the other beaten down Toman members back into fighting. They are more experienced in fighting and longer term in the gang than Takemichi but he is showing them up. Shame is a big thing in Japan. Maybe not for those who are not familiar with Japanese culture. If you consider it supposed to be rousing, then it would look silly. Shaming them that they needed to stand back up and fight back even when the least capable of them who is well beaten up and still doing so?
Logical reasoning is that the stronger individual would want a 1-to-1 fight with the weaker individual, whereas the weaker individual would want a many-to-1 against the individual stronger fighter. As the situation affords Kazutora the benefit of additional fighters to fight off Mikey, he uses it to his advantage. Mikey does not have that as Toman members are outnumbered by Valhalla members and engaged now in the mass brawl. If Mikey could afford the benefit of others fighting for him if they have the upper hand in numbers, he would do so. They are both playing with the cards that they each have in hand. Kazutora having more cards against than Mikey. Why Valhalla/Kazutora chose mass brawl rather than a 5-vs-5 matchup. They have the numbers edge over Toman.
Fully agree. I rolled my eyes when I read this in the manga. Same again watching it in this episode. No mention of lifting a taller and heavier person holding on to his foot into a fast head high kick against Kazutora? *rolls eyes again*
JHNSeph
August 18, 2021 at 5:35 pmMy 3 takeaways of this episode were:
1) Baji and Kisaki nowhere to be seen? That’s not good.
2) Even if he can take a steel pipe to the head, Mikey is still no Kiryu Kazuma.
3) Doraken-kun kakkoii!