TV Series Review: ‘Tokyo Revengers’ - The Story Of A Time Travelling Crybaby-Hero

 

Source: IMDb

“The moment I thought I was going to die, I didn’t remember my parents or friends. I remembered Tachibana Hinata.”

Let me just set everybody straight who, after just reading the description, is thinking that this story is anything like Erased just because it contains time travel. It's not. This one has gang wars with lots of blood, lots of emotion and lots of humour.

Introduction

Series Name - Tokyo Revengers

Directed By - Koichi Hatsumi

Genre - Action-Thriller, Sci-Fi, Yankee

Language - Japanese

Original Run - 11th April 2021-present

No. of Episodes - 21 (Ongoing)

Plot Synopsis

Takemichi Hanagaki is a 26-year-old freeter with no prospects in life. While watching TV, he discovers that his middle school ex-girlfriend, his only girlfriend ever, Hinata Tachibana and her younger brother Naoto have been murdered by the legendary Tokyo Manji Gang. 

While standing on the railway platform, reminiscing about his past, Takemichi gets shoved in front of the train and somehow teleports exactly 12 years into the past to 2005, when he was in middle school. 

While reliving his middle school years, Takemichi visits Naoto and tells him the precise date he and Hinata would die. Takemichi is abruptly transported back to the present when they shake hands, causing a time paradox in which Naoto survives the accident and becomes a detective. 

Naoto and Takemichi come to the conclusion that Takemichi is taken 12 years into the past every time they hold hands and that they can change the future. Takemichi swears to save Hinata by changing the events that eventually lead to her death in the future.

Series Review

Tokyo Revengers is the anime adaptation of the manga drawn by Ken Wakui who, by the way, was also a gang member or ‘yankee’ in his school days. After watching a few episodes, I liked it but I didn’t really get the huge hype that it was getting. Most of the 10/10s that the anime is getting are from the readers of the source material. Since people were saying that the manga is an amazing read, I thought I would give it a try. And boy were they right.

After I picked it up, I just couldn't put it down and binge read the whole thing and well, I can safely say that the anime really doesn’t do justice to it. The anime, even though its following the storyline to a T, doesn’t give the heart-throbbing feeling you get while reading the black and white pages which is a bit of a disappointment since it's a mind-blowing story.

Tokyo Revengers is one of the series that you have to give a 3-episode try. The protagonist, Takemichi, might rub some people off the wrong way since he’s a cry baby, a total good-for-nothing and might seem like the straight up annoying dog outside your house that just keeps on barking into the night when you’re trying to sleep. But that does become a plus point for him as the story moves on.

Compared to the manga’s artstyle that’s dark and gritty in depicting the criminal gangs and all the emotions so realistically, the anime is vibrantly colourful and at first glance, looks like a slice of life anime instead of shonen. There are also many still frames and looks like the manga pages were coloured in and voices were added from behind. 

But since the studio is a fairly new one, I won’t blame them much but it does take away a lot of the original feel of the story. The most amazing part of the anime are its opening and ending songs. Skipping Tokyo Revengers’ opening is a sin you should never commit. I’ve even had days when I listened to the opening song Crybaby by Hige Dandism on loop. 

The song is like an anthem of redemption and determination and encapsulates all the emotions the story aims to convey and the lyrics are apt for the desperate situation of the protagonist and all the characters. The voice actors have also been chosen well. Every character’s voice feels natural, the emotions expressed in their voices feel authentic and provide depth to each moment.

Characters of Tokyo Revengers

Tokyo Revengers has put on a platter and offered us to feast upon an amazing number of characters with diverse personalities, all capable of stealing your hearts away. All characters are worth simping for, to be honest, since everybody is just so badass and cool in one way or the other, especially the two majorly charismatic dudes, Mikey and Draken. I’m sure nobody will disagree.

These two characters ooze this badass yakuza vibe even though they’re mere middle schoolers. Even Takemichi, who is downright lame and wimpy, ended up being the coolest character around and claimed a spot inside my heart. 

Tetta Kisaki is the biggest mystery in all of Tokyo Revengers. When his story unveils, rather than hate, I’m sure many people will end up admiring him. There’s still a huge number of characters that either haven’t been introduced or are just a part of the mob characters for now but there’s surely a lot of chaos waiting ahead.

The Bottom Line

Overall, rather than complimenting the anime, I’d say that it majorly owes its popularity to its source material. From the standpoint of a viewer who has read the manga, the anime might seem underwhelming, fall short of expectations and some aspects of the anime might ruin their overall enjoyment of the plot. 

However, a first time viewer’s opinions about the anime might differ greatly. The anime isn’t half bad, it's actually one of the most amazing spring anime we got this year. The story is really compelling and full of emotional highs and lows. If you like the anime, then I highly suggest you read the manga too if you can because it's on a completely different level and is way more thrilling and gut-wrenching.

IMDb ratings - 8.6 on 10

Written By - Sanjana Chaudhary