Streaming: Crunchyroll
Episodes: TBA
Source: Manga
Story Summary: Takemichi feels as though his life peaked in middle school. In those days he was a member of a gang, had a girlfriend, and generally felt as though he belonged. In the ensuing 12 years, however, his life went off the rails. One day while eating chips in bed he hears the news that his former girlfriend and her younger brother were killed in an act of violence perpetrated by the Tokyo Manji gang, with whom Takemichi had some run-ins as a kid. As he’s waiting in line for the train, he’s pushed onto the tracks and his life starts to flash before his eyes – or, he soon realizes, he gets sent back in time. He re-experiences the fateful day in middle school when the direction of his life steered off course, and wonders why God would curse him to experience it all again. When he meets Hinata, his girlfriend at the time, and then her younger brother, he vows to try to make sure that they both survive.
Impressions: For whatever flaws it might have, one of my favorite anime time-travel stories is Erased. What drew me to that series was its tale of self-sacrifice for the purpose of ensuring the survival of a friend. I think what’s special about it is that the narrative isn’t quite so self-serving for the protagonist; unlike, say, Steins;Gate which pits its main character’s desires against those of the ensemble cast. Tokyo Revengers feels a bit more focused around protagonist Takemichi’s needs – whatever benevolent higher-power that’s granted him this second chance seems to be doing so in order to allow him to live his life better, or at least that’s the sense I’m getting.
And those types of stories aren’t necessarily bad, but they do come packaged with their own issues. Take Hinata, Takemechi’s middle school love. During this episode, she serves almost as a figurehead for the time he felt like things were best in his life. Until he sees her again in person, he can’t even remember what her face looks like. She’s like a symbol for his nostalgia that revolves around choices he can never get back… until, of course, he can. One of my narrative pet peeves is when girls and women are treated less as their own unique, interesting characters and more like the sort of generic, idealized female figures that serve as the inspiration for cheap love songs and bad poetry. They don’t get to be their own people because they’re an image of the memory and the imagination. I can’t claim to know where the arc of this story will take Hinata – she may end up being an interesting person. But she may also end up being nothing more than a figurative prize, and the thought of that is boring to me.
Aside from those misgivings, though, I found myself really getting wrapped up in this episode. I think it’s on trend to talk about how “interesting” flawed (by which folks seem to mean bad people who have no interest in changing that) characters are, and on some level I can see how that might be the case. It’s good to try to know how those sorts of people operate, if only to be able to recognize them in real life. However, I almost always prefer watching stories about troubled characters who take responsibility for making their own or other’s lives better. Considering Takemichi’s dead-end lifestyle, there’s really only one direction he can go; if he’s able to use his time travel ability to steer things in a more positive direction – to help himself and help others – then that, to me, would be a story worth watching.
Pros: It’s sort of fun to get the chance to check in on the year 2005, the age of flip-phones and such. While in my mind it wasn’t that long ago, it’s the year I graduated from college and started my job, and that was 16 years in the past (how, though?).
I think the premise of this series is a good reminder that the reasons people might not be doing well in life are varied and may be partly out of their control. The urge to belong to a group can be so strong that it sometimes doesn’t even matter what type of organization the group is. Sometimes people end up with a bad crowd just to have a place to be, and the consequences of those choices may follow them longer than they anticipate.
Cons: I can’t tell at this point whether it’s just a consequence of the middling animation quality, but for all Takemichi talks her up, his meeting with Hinata is sort of cringe-worthy due to her freaky eyes.
I’m also not sure how much I believe the middle school third years that the boys encounter are 14 or 15 year olds. Lots of anime have this issue where the characters look aged up (there are also plenty where they are kind of ridiculously aged down in appearance), but the post pubescent thugs that give Takemichi and company a beating look almost like grown men, which makes the situation more difficult to believe.
Content Warnings: Violence, specifically gang violence (beatings with bleeding and bruising).
Would I Watch More – Admittedly the story intrigues me, and in a lesser season I might be tempted to keep up with it, but I honestly don’t know how much time I have for series like this which I have mixed feelings about and some very specific-to-me criticisms.