Who needs time travel when the solution to everything is gang fights?

Tokyo Revengers is a story with a spectacular premise… that is promptly squandered. That's what makes it so frustrating to read: it entices you with aspects that are truly unique; aspects that give you a glimpse of tremendous potential – and then devolves into run-of-the-mill shonen schlock.

The time-travel mechanic, detailed in the first few chapters, works in a novel way: Takemichi, the protagonist, can only travel exactly 12 years back in time, and from there only exactly 12 years forward again. While he's in the past, time keeps progressing in the present (with him in a comatose state), and while he's in the present time keeps progressing in the past. This means that if, say, someone dies in the present (or sometime in the last 12 years, for that matter), he can travel back and set things right – but if someone dies in the past? Well, then there's no traveling back before that and fixing it. This is a fantastic way to ensure that there still are stakes – something most other time travel stories could learn from. And indeed, a lot of the intrigue comes from there! Sadly, though, that's about the extent to which Tokyo Revengers explores its premise.

Though the manga hits a high point in around volume 3–4, with Takemichi following the central conceit of retroactively saving his girlfriend, going back in time to diagnose and tangibly solve problems – I truly felt that it was great for a few brilliant chapters there – it loses its footing afterward, and becomes an entirely different story. A palpable loop emerges: go back to the present, see that things went wrong in a different way this time, go back to the past, and… oh! There's a new rival gang, the existence of which has never been mentioned before, and conveniently enough, they're the source of all the problems this time! I guess the only thing to do is fight them. Even when the present offers an interesting plot hook – “this character grows up to be a psychopath; you need to make sure he has a better youth” – the result is invariably the same: “actually, that was all because of this new rival gang.” In this way, Tokyo Revengers deftly nullifies its own premise to become a bog-standard shonen manga where fighting the villain of the week is always the answer.

It's a terrible shame that a manga with such a stellar premise, such fantastic art, and such undeniably heart-tugging moments should falter so utterly, but falter it does. Coupled with a motley crew of other sizable blemishes – new characters keep being introduced at far too rapid a pace for you to care about them, the deuteragonists are forgotten about; barely appear through large swaths of the story and receive little to no character development, the manga's view of women is on the further end of “iffy”, and its morals are out of whack (“sure, he's a psychopath who indiscriminately beats people bloody, but he's not a bad guy!”) – Tokyo Revengers ends up being largely an exasperating, unenjoyable read.