Tokyo Revengers - Reviews

Tokyo Revengers is an average to bad anime that blew up in popularity by people with bad taste. And I’m going to tell you the reasons why.

1) Terrible protagonist
The biggest issue most people have with it is the terrible protagonist. He’s 26 years old and he still acts like a 10 year old crybaby. Call it arrested development all you like, excused by the harsh life he had, or that such people exist in real life therefore it’s realistic (Chibi). It’s still not going to make him a protagonist most people can get behind.

2) No development
Although there are lots of shows that start off with a lame loser protagonist for the sake of having a lot of room for character development, this show is not doing that. He never changes and every time he acts brave it doesn’t last long before he goes back to being a crybaby. Therefore it’s a major turnoff when you see him acting the exact same way all the time without ever changing to something better.

3) No brains
Also, he’s not smart. You could excuse his lack of guts or power and you could still like him for using his brains or life experiences for solving whatever issues he has. It would make the show to feel smart as well. Well, he doesn’t even do that. For the most part he’s incapable to do the slightest thing and never uses his knowledge of past events in present time, although that is supposed to be the whole point in being given the ability to time travel. If you are given a second chance to do things right, why aren’t you using what you know to your benefit? For example he doesn’t invest in Bitcoin so he can be a billionaire in the present. That way he is not going to be a collar worker loser anymore and he will have enough resources for hiring people to investigate the murder case of the past. But nope, all he does is acting like an idiot who doesn’t know a thing and doesn’t do anything about it.

4) Dating a minor
Also let’s not overlook the fact that he’s an adult who dates a minor. Don’t give me that shit about being in the body of a 14 year old makes it okay. It is not okay for the same reason 300 year old loli vampires are fine to have sex with. He has the brain and knowledge of an adult and he is doing who knows what with a minor. He’s a pedo.

5) Worst character
For all these reasons he ends up being the worst character in the show, which is not a good thing when he’s supposed to be the main character. There are those who claim he’s not the protagonist since it’s gang members like Mikey who are doing all the work. They are very cool to watch, they are the actual protagonists, Takemichi is only the viewer’s point of view. It still doesn’t change the fact that we are watching the show from the perspective of the worst character. Why isn’t Mikey the protagonist? And why isn’t Takemichi doing something for not being such a waste of time? The presentation is all wrong and it was a bad idea to have that loser as a focal point.

6) Looks versus age
If only the above problem was limited to the main character then things wouldn’t be that bad. Sadly nobody looks or acts like how he’s supposed to. The school kids are 14 years old children, yet look and act like 30 year old professional mobsters. Takemichi is supposed to be a man in his 20s and he acts like a baby. It’s very off putting.

7) Dumb setting
The setting doesn’t do much for allowing you to take the show a bit more seriously. We hardly see any parents or teachers or the police doing anything to stop a bunch of 14 year old boys. It’s as if children are free to do anything they like and there are no adults that can do anything about it. It comes off as a juvenile power fantasy and ruins the gravity of the drama it tries so hard to make you care about. Yes, parents and adults are almost always absent in anime so that the teenagers can do a whole bunch of dangerous nonsense. No, removing them from a story that is supposed to be grounded in reality (especially when the author used to be a gangster as well and has first-hand experience) does not make the show better. It makes it stupid.

8 ) Overblown drama
Setting aside, the drama in general is stupid. It uses all the typical clichés you expect to find in low-tier shonen. Talk no jutsu, the power of friendship, using willpower to stand up after being beaten up, convenient last moment saves, and forgetting to call an ambulance when one of your friends is dying right in front of you. It just makes you facepalm all the time. How do you expect your audience to care about anything when you are not even trying to have some realism in a story that is supposed to be realistic and not a fairy tale?

9) Dumb time travel
Not even the time travel mechanics make any sense. Not that they ever do in any story, but in this case the author didn’t even try to explain why does it work that way or why there is no butterfly effect for every change in the past. It’s only used for revealing information in the present after something happened in the past, which comes off as if everyone knows about it and talks about it in the present only when the plot demands for it and not because they could have done something for over a decade but didn’t. Are you really telling me these people are waiting a decade for a specific day to come so they can reveal something that they knew about for years?

10) Mediocre
If most of what I said can be labeled as nitpicking, remember that we are now in the post Demon Slayer era. Since most people only care about pretty colors and are willing to forgive all the plot holes and the bad writing as long as the fights are cool, Demon Slayer raised the bar so much for those people to the point it’s no longer easy to turn a blind eye. Anything that is not as good as Demon Slayer can no longer be forgiven for its mishaps, and since nothing can be so well animated, there are no excuses for any show anymore. Tokyo Revengers has average production values and nothing about its plot or characters is that good compared to other shows. There are better anime with school delinquents, or gangsters, or time travel, or pretty colors. It’s just a mediocrity that was blown out of proportion by dumb seasonal hype when by itself it has nothing exceptional about it.

In summary
The worst thing that can happen to any series as it is airing, is being mediocre yet presented as a masterpiece. The internet was full of fanboys screaming for months about how amazing it’s going to be. Most people will obviously dislike it before it even begins airing since there is no way in hell it’s going to be as good as the hype made it up to be. And what did you know, a month after it began airing the internet was filled with even more people who were asking why is this mediocrity considered to be a masterpiece by so many sellouts who only care about hyping seasonal trash for clout. Well, the answer is in the question, isn’t it? Tokyo Revengers was never good and anyone with critical thinking like me would know that right away. It’s a bottom of the barrel power fantasy for those who like teenage gangsters and love the idea of going back in time to fix their mistakes and be a badass. Too bad execution matter more than cool ideas. Tokyo Revengers fails in everything. Everyone who was hyping it was a liar after clicks and ad revenue, or someone who has no idea what good writing or directing are all about.

I don't like writing reviews but I felt compelled to offer an alternative perspective to the glowing reviews and ratings that this show is getting. This review is based on the first 4 episodes and no... i don't need to watch more of the show to critique it. I will avoid spoilers as much as possible and adress the issues in a very general manner.

The writing of this show is not very well thought out. Firstly Tokyo revengers time travel done very poorly. The logic breaks down almost imediately and you can't make sense of how actions in the past will affect the future.

MINOR SPOILERS FOR TIME TRAVEL ASPECT OF THE SHOW(skip to dotted line to avoid)

The time travel is very similar to the time travel used in Steins;Gate where the characters conciousness travels to their past self. The problem arises when the MC is aslo allowed to return to the future by shaking hands with another character(i'm sure this will be used in some silly way later to keep the MC from going backwards or forwards in time). This is a blatant paradox that is impossble for someone like me to ignore. It gets worse when a character in the future starts helping the MC and is able to retain their knowledge of alternate time lines when the MC changes the past. I could list many more reasons why this shows time travel is so stupid(and I"m certain it gets worse) but that's the gist of it.

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Second, the dumb story. The MCs main goal is to change the past and save his ex girlfriend. Initially this is a very awkward motivation but becomes a little more endearing as the show progressses. The method they come up with to save her is essencially to stop the bad guys who killed her from becoming bad... ok... sure. This isn't a huge issue in and of itself but it's so awkward how the show sticks to this as being the "only real way to save her". At one point the MC asks why he can't just save the girl directly(cause OBVIOUSLY!) and he is told "not to take the easy way out?"... THE WHAT!? and this piece of diologe is even dumber when you know the context of who says this line. This exchange is the author straight up admiting that his story is stupid and that he is gonna use this convoluted story thread anyway...

Third, the dumb plot. You would think that based on the premise of needing to change the life trajectories of multiple people in the past who the MC has never met would be difficult? nope.... The exact characters that the MC needs to deal with fall into his life IMEDIATELY and become friends with him for no decernable reason other than the author being too lazy to write beleivable plot threads. Rather than feeling like a real world with real characters it is instead structured like a video game where there is a specific "trigger" that the MC must find and deal with to save the future.

If these things bother you then I highly recomend skipping Tokyo revengers and not wasting your time. If you can overlook these issues and "turn your brain off" and/or your brain was never "on" to begin with then ignore this reivew and enjoy!

TL;DR- The show is more poorly written than this review.

[EDITED]

Man , i cannot believe I was hesitating to watch this anime, This anime used to get reccomeded to me on YT but in most of the thumbnails the MC was mostly crying so I thought it would be a anime about a wimpy and bullied MC like MIDORIYA from MHA . I am a big fan of these time travel anime like ERASED,STEINS GATE and RE ZERO where the mc goes back in time to save his loved one. Th is anime is one of the few ones to accomodate GANGS properly in the series with many failing before. The last anime to potray GANGS in a proper manner for me was GTO. This was so great that i could now wait any longer for the new episodes that i started reading the manga. Its character development and story pacing is great. There are some plotholes like the MC parents are never seen.not even in hospital and who allows their children to rum amok in the city and what the hell is the police force doing

Final ratings a solid 9/10

OK ik the valhalla arc was pretty dissapointing with it being too long drawn and the death being avoidable plus the series has droped in quality in recent epsodes 

so i will reduce it from 9 to 7.5 as i have read the manga and hope the anime rebounds

I watched the first episode when it first aired, thinking the concept sounded interesting. However, it didn't manage to hook me in, and I was slightly disappointed with how it was set up. I had dropped it there, but after seeing it everywhere, I decided to pick it up again and give it a second chance. This time, I made it to episode seventeen before I dropped it again. People say the storyline is unique when it's literally just the butterfly effect and has been done quite often, though not so much these days. If anything, it's more common to see in video games, but I wouldn't call it unique. Anyway, I tried really hard to like it the second time, however, there hasn't been anything in particular that makes me enjoy it. The show often uses the pronoun game ie: "Watch out for him," or "It's all because of him,". Which, in my opinion, is a cheap cop-out for suspense and mystery. And the characters...there really isn't anyone I like. None of them are relatable and are quite bland. The only one I can actually say I semi-like is Mikey, and that's only for the badass factor more so than his character. Takemichi constantly bounces between being a coward and being brave, which is understandable at the beginning, but the further in the story goes, the more I would like to see some growth for him. Every time I thought he was growing, he would jump straight back to being the crybaby they describe him as, despite worse scenarios he had already been in. I can not root for him as the main character without being utterly frustrated. Don't even get me started on the relationship between him and Hina. The bit of romance this shows tries to incorporate feels out of place and like it was added as an afterthought; simply to be a driving force for Takemichi. And while his feelings for her were what helped him strive to correct the past could have been interesting, if they had done it a little better. 

Now, I get that this is an anime, and it isn't supposed to be realistic but as an adult with a full-time job and bills, seeing how intense they are trying to make this show, comes off as cheesy. No one that I know really even talks to people they were friends with in high school let alone middle. So the fact that Takemich and Hina had been broken up for twelve years, and neither of them had moved on after only a brief relationship when they were still going through puberty, is baffling to me. The fact that there are so many middle schoolers running around literally attempting murder is weird. Where are any of their parents? Not all of them can have terrible home lives that drive them to such a rebellious state. There are practically no adults, and these kids are just running around and even driving motorcycles. It breaks my emersion. I feel like it could have been better if it was set with the characters aged up. 

All in all, I feel this show is overhyped and I probably won't be giving it a third chance.

I can't belive that I told myself this is just another anime with the MC crying all the time. THIS IS SO MUCH MORE! I came to this anime looking for 'a bit of delinquintness' AND I FOUND A MASTERPIECE!! OMFG YES.