
a review by femboydirt

a review by femboydirt
This review is relevant up to chapter 260. I am writing this assuming the final fights are coming up and the series will end by the end of the year. The ending to the manga will impact my overall score by a bit, but everything in this review stands even when it ends. My overall score for the manga is 8.3/10 if you're only here for the score. This review will contain spoliers, but in their own section at the end. I am writing this mostly for people coming from the anime so anything from season 1 isn't gonna be considered a spoiler.
-Gonna shorten Tokyo Manji Revengers to just Tokyo Revengers or TR throughout the review-
My Personal Thoughts about Tokyo Manji Revengers:
I binged watched the anime and then binge read the manga and have been reading a couple chapters when every month to catch back up. This series is just a ton of fun, the fashion and character designs are so creative. Fashion in anime has generally taken a downturn in recent years, but this is the kinda thing you read and want to go out and style your hair something different or buy some piece of clothing you initially didn't think would look nice. Now for the actual review
Characters - 9 -
The characters in TR range from amazing to ok. There are a lot of characters in this story especially near the end. Not all of them stick, but the ones who do really stick. Mikey is the stand out character, stealing the series and any scene he is in early on. Takemichi is a good mc, you want to see him succeed. His character growth is slow but worth seeing. You care about a lot of these characters.
Character Design: The best aspect of the characters is their designs. Characters will have striking hair styles and fashion while things like scars and tattoos really add to the presentation. The characters just have drip and there are so many distinct silhouettes. The rival gangs all look cool, but too often understay. Keeping some important characters from the gangs around in the story is good, but it can end up with the problem of too many faces and not enough screen time.
Story - 8.5 -
The plot: The story moves at a very rapid pace and the twists and turns never slow down. The story is split up into arcs like most long running manga. The gimmick of having the arcs seperated by leaps through time is very smart and very engaging. There is always some excitement to see what has and hasn't changed. TIme travel is very much a double edged sword, for all the drama and suspense, the plot is always at risk for being lost and have holes. They keep it mostly consistent so if you aren't analysing it very closely and are just enjoying the ride there is no harm.
Powers and the Fights: The fights in the series are often short and exciting. They never get to the point of being unbelievable. They are street fights and you can feel the weight of each punch and kick.
Visuals - 7.5 -
Art style is subjective so I don’t factor style that heavily into the score for visuals unless it does something I genuinely think makes it better or worse. The Jojo’s art style being the best example for an art style being different but in great ways. That being said, the manga is nice to look at. If you have seen the anime then you are already familiar with the necks. They are long and can be very distracting. While they can make some scenes and characters better, once you notice it you can’t unsee it and it does get distracting.
In terms of the more objective things about the visuals. Like others, when the mangaka really wants to, they can make some incredible looking panels. While I don’t think the level of detail and impact is incredible, itsit is still very good. Some panels and pages you can really tell not a ton of work was put into them. The mangaka is great at building up moments and showing impact, it makes fights and action scenes fun to read. Any recurring character looks very distinct and their outfit and hair always have a lot of detail put into them. This is a double edged sword, because as mentioned some scenes fell too empty or detailess. This can be done for dramatic effect and sometimes it works, but it more often feels like they didn’t have time to fill in the background or detail the character. It is consistently good and sometimes great which is why I rated it an 7.5. It is right in between all time great and average.
Enjoyment - 8 -
This is the part of the Review that contains spoilers. I will split my personal enjoyment into non spoiler and spoiler heavy in 2 separate paragraphs.
I don’t read a lot of delinquent stories, but I have watched a decent amount of anime that does have them. The culture of late 90s and 2000s delinquent culture in Japan is super fascinating. I was fully invested in Hanagakii and his struggle to save the future. It was a very easy binge read and I enjoyed it a lot.
Spoilers: The last arc… The fanbase is very split about this arc. I am too. People are right that it is very unnecessary and that it should’ve ended with Kisaki losing. Going back one last time to save Mikey and be selfish… This is everything Takemichi’s character arc has been building towards. All the people he affected came together and put aside their dreams to follow him as the leader of Tokyo Manji redeemed a lot of this arc. But the introduction of him being able to see the future by touching things is too much for everyone reading. And while Mikey’s dark nature were heavily foreshadowed, the backstory we got as too when it first started was just fine. Just fine is underwhelming to a lot of people. This last arc did not spoil my overall enjoyment too much tho. Compared to the two arcs before this it is an underwhelming conclusion, but the big fight at the end is the biggest and most grand and seeing Mikey vs Takemichi feels like the best final fight post Kisaki.
Final thoughts:
Great manga overall and I recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the anime. I would tell people to watch the anime first over reading the manga however. Season 2 was announced and might be out when you are reading this. The anime is as good if not better than the manga. I rarely think this way, so it goes to show how well they adapted this manga
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