This review contains full spoilers.

What disappoints me about Tokyo Revengers the most is that its problems do not make the series irreversibly broken beyond repair. I wouldn’t even say that this series even has multiple problems with its story, rather that it only really has one singular problem. There are other bad series that I’d say are slightly better than Tokyo Revengers whose story problems are far more ingrained into the core of the show in a way that can’t be fixed without a total overhaul of the story. However, Tokyo Revengers's case is far more saddening due to how much good there is in it. On paper, the series has an intriguing story, likable characters, intense moments of suspense, and enough of a tinge of the emotional heart. This one singular problem ends up being so detrimental to its own story, that it manages to affect the quality of the series in a way that strips the series of most of the strengths that it otherwise normally would have. It leaves what otherwise would have been a good series into one that leaves a very bad impression. The one singular bad problem that Tokyo Revengers suffers from is that it heavily struggles with introducing its characters. Contrary to the problems of the wider series itself, the reasons as to why Tokyo Revengers has trouble with introductions are more of just separate problems with the individual characters rather than a unifying concept that affects everyone. The only way to truly extrapolate this is to go through each character one by one. However, I would say that the sloppy introductions get more and more apparent as it goes on as they get more and more egregiously bad.

Takemichi

Takemichi as a protagonist fits into an archetype of protagonist where the viewer can easily self-insert themself in his position. While he isn’t a fish out of water type protagonist, he mostly experiences the events of the plot along with the audience. With his relatively fresh position in the context of the story, he doesn’t need any long-winded introduction, since he more so is just a vassal for other characters to introduce themselves. Even though protagonists of this nature have been overdone to oblivion at this point, it always manages to work in the right context. And for Takemichi, it works, at least in the beginning. His established connections to Hina, Mikey, and even Naoto to a certain extent are pretty well done, all things considered. Before the plot moves into a direction where we need to care about Takemichi’s relationship to characters early on, the series has already done a good job at showing why we should even care in the first place. However, this character work becomes undone at the end of Episode 4. At the end of episode 4, Takemichi vows that he wants to save Akkun and Draken in the past after the present Akkun commits suicide. Takemichi in an instant loses his classification as an audience surrogate. While Takemichi’s relationship with Akkun is fully justified in the story both practically and emotionally, Draken had barely even a few lines of dialogue with Takemichi by Episode 4. It is reasonable to assume that Takemichi may want to save Draken from a purely moral standpoint, but his wanting to save Draken doesn’t work from a story or emotional standpoint. This moment starts a general trend of Takemichi caring about characters that he wants to save, while the story does no further justification as to why these characters should matter to the audience. Since the character introductions of this series get worse and worse, it harms Takemichi due to him being a vassal for those characters. As a result, he drifts more and more away from relatability.

Draken

As said earlier, Draken doesn’t get the same type of emotional establishment that would make an audience care about him. He was introduced to Takemichi’s motivations as a character at a premature time. Draken was always going to be handicapped when it came to being portrayed as someone to get attached to. He was never going to have the same kind of character development as any of the other characters. However, Draken’s characterization takes continuous missteps that are more confused than developed. One example that sticks in my mind the most is when Draken took the responsibility for the rape and assault of Pah-chin’s girlfriend to her parents and made Mikey take responsibility for it too. While it is supposed to establish Draken as the more calm and pragmatic counter to Mikey’s brashness, it is completely snuffed away by the fact that Draken admitted to a serious crime that he didn’t commit. Just the fact that Draken admitted to something like this throws off all of the development that this scene was intended to make. Probably the instance of failed characterization that is most detrimental to Draken, and even Mikey, is in the second half of Episode 7 and the beginning of Episode 8. After Pah-chin stabs Osanai, Mikey and Draken are supposed to have a rift that eventually leads to the corruption of Toman if not stopped. Instead of showing the actual rift itself, the series instead fakes out that the two of them were fighting, unfakes itself out by pretending that they will fight, and then just fully fakes out the fight anyway. Throughout, there is a tinge of bad comedy that shatters any serious tone that there probably would’ve been otherwise. This is the point where Draken and Mikey each should go through an impactful character arc surrounding their friendship and eventually amend their bond to be stronger than ever. However, the series treats this potentially impactful moment as a big joke.

Baji

To be honest, I never really understood anything about Baji’s character. His motivations and actions contradict each other so much that he becomes incomprehensible in the story. He is introduced to the story by his betrayal of Toman and the joining of Valhalla. This turn in the story seems like it would be a great avenue for interesting drama around Baji’s relation to Mikey and the rest of the founding members of Toman. However, it is revealed by Chifuyu that Baji only pretended to betray Toman, and just pretended to betray them to investigate Kisaki. However, he doesn’t act like he has betrayed Toman until the last moments of his life at Bloody Halloween. All of the drama surrounding Baji’s character is centered around this fake betrayal, but this fake betrayal at its core doesn’t make much sense. What does Baji have to gain from not telling Mikey and the other members of Toman that he is still loyal to them? From my perspective, Baji has no reason to take the actions he does. His actions are counterintuitive to what his motivations are. It is a complete non-issue. What this nonsensical plot point accomplishes is delegitimize Baji’s character as well as making much of Bloody Halloween feel completely avoidable. To have a climax centered around a character built from duck tape and glue makes the climax feel way less impactful than it should.

Kazutora

Just like Baji, Kazutora is built from the contrived drama that feels illogical in the greater context of the story. The introduction of his main motivations in the flashback to explain why he betrayed Toman doesn’t make any well-made assertion as to why he did it. When his trust in Mikey isn’t being challenged by anything, he flips on a dime and changes allegiances just like that. His change against Mikey isn’t gradual like it probably should’ve been, but rather it was completely instant. This type of instant change happens again at Bloody Halloween when he betrays Baji. These spontaneous betrayals don't paint him like he is a character, but as a plot device who goes through bouts of insanity when it is convenient for the plot to progress.

Chifuyu

Out of all of the characters in this series, I don’t think that Chifuyu is a bad character. He is one of the better ones when there is full context. The important thing to note here is the “full context” part of that statement. When Chifuyu is introduced, he is framed as a friend of Baji that cares for his well-being. However, there is no further development or explanation for why they are friends until Episode 23. However, by that point, Baji had already died, and Chifuyu had already said his goodbyes to him. That final scene with Chifuyu and Baji fell completely flat due to their relationship not being established at all. This makes it even more baffling when the establishment of their friendship is placed after that relationship had fully concluded. The flashback would’ve made the final scene where Baji is dying on Chifuyu’s lap have its intended effect. The viewer would care about these two characters, and there is no compromise. While this isn’t the worst example of character writing in this series, this is the one that confuses me the most since fixing Chifuyu’s character involves the simplest fix.

The botching of character introductions and the subsequent characterization is detrimental to this series in a unique way. Fights like The Battle of August 3rd and Bloody Halloween are weighed down heavily by the poor development of those involved. It isn’t the fights themselves that are bad. Many parts that further the development of characters is quite good in a vacuum. However, when you evaluate a series, it is very important to take in the whole picture. Even if a character’s development progressed in a good direction, the character isn’t going to magically be in a good place when the quality of their introduction was immediately in the gutter. This principle applies to most of the characters in Tokyo Revengers. While I appreciate the strides made in improving characters, it isn’t even close to enough to recover from their poor start. The thing that would benefit Tokyo Revengers the most is if it introduces characters well from the start. If a character has a good start, then what developments would come after that has much greater value. With good introductions, Tokyo Revengers's story problems would vanish all at once. There is one character that provides that perfect window.

Hina

Out of every character in Tokyo Revengers, the only character that had a well-executed introduction in this season was Hina and the aspects of Takemichi’s character that involved Hina. In just the first two episodes, the series manages to establish the relationship between Hina and Takemichi efficiently enough so that the audience could care about the two of them. Since they aren’t caught up in the interlocking world of the gangs, the love story between Hina and Takemichi is simple yet tragic. This simplicity leads to the possibility of screwing up a character introduction going way down. In the end, Hina has the best character introduction out of all of the characters in the entire show, and this leads to something different happening to her compared to every other character when the story gets an emotional climax. In Episode 12, the subplot involving Hina and Takemichi’s relationship hits a point of high stakes, tension, suspense, and weight. However, instead of it falling flat like nearly every other climax like it thus far, this time, it soars. The emotional impact hits like it is intended to, and it makes for probably the best episode of the entire series and maybe even one of the best episodes of the entire year of 2021 in anime. What is truly interesting is that Episode 12 as a climax isn’t that different from a quality standpoint from what The Battle of August 3rd and Bloody Halloween has to offer. The main difference is however that Episode 12 had enough context to stand on its own, while the Battle of August 3rd and Bloody Halloween were left out in the dust. What Hina and Takemichi’s subplot of Tokyo Revengers provides is a window into a world where Tokyo Revengers didn’t screw up its introductions. A world where every character got the proper context needed for them to be well written. Hina’s storyline stands out, not because it is all too different from what had already partaken, but because the path was properly paved all the way through.

Conclusion

A lot of the episodes of Tokyo Revengers never really had the chance to send the proper impact that they might have. The genuinely good moments of it would always be dampened by the poor quality of content that would have come previously. It didn’t help that the poor anime adaptation’s animation gives everything a distinct level of cheesiness that the manga didn’t even bear a trace of.

Tokyo Revengers relies on the care that the audience has for its characters most of the time. It very well could work, but the series doesn’t properly get to that point where the audience can care. A sturdy structure can only be strong if it has a good foundation, otherwise, it will topple very easily. However, even if I didn’t even enjoy Tokyo Revengers for the bulk of my time watching it, I found myself finding appreciation in what it did right when thinking back on this series while writing this review. Even though I didn’t find a lot of it enjoyable when watching it, looking back on what Tokyo Revengers did right paints a more textured picture. I still have a tinge of hope for what is to come after this though. When I read ahead in the manga for this review, I got unexpectedly sucked into the series, even with all of its problems plaguing it at that point. It shows that this series can pull off engaging storytelling at times. The future of Tokyo Revengers relies upon if it can somehow rise past its poor character introductions and create something that can overshadow the problems that those introductions brought with it. I may be a bit too hopeful for what is to come, but honestly, there is enough that Tokyo Revengers that did right there is still sufficient room for amazing content to come. As it is though, Tokyo Revengers in its current state is still very broken. It is a series dragged so down by its problems that there is very little room to show its actual strengths. It is a case of a story. that could’ve lived up to what it could’ve been if it set itself up in a better way. It is a series that was so close to absolute glory, but it fell at the worst time. It is an opportune story thrown away when it never really needed to be. It is the absolute epitome of wasted potential.

Thank you for reading to the end of the review if you did. I really appreciate the willingness some of you have to get to the end of a review that probably disputes your own opinion. If you have any criticisms with how this review was made, you are free to message me or to comment in this activity to critique what I had to say.

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