Tokyo Revengers was an anime series that truly snuck up on me. Airing during the spring season of 2021, I was immediately hooked by its premise and, most of all, its cast of delinquent good boys who really just need a kid’s meal and a good, long hug. With the manga currently going through its final arc and the anime set for a second season, let’s look at how much the series has to offer (so far).
Synopsis
Takemichi Hanagaki is a freelancer that’s reached the absolute pits of despair in his life. He finds out that the only girlfriend he ever had in his life that he dated in middle school, Hinata Tachibana, had been killed by the ruthless Tokyo Manji Gang.
The day after hearing about her death, he’s standing on the station platform and ends up being pushed over onto the tracks by a herd of people. He closes his eyes thinking he’s about to die, but when he opens his eyes back up, he somehow had gone back in time 12 years.
Now that he’s back living the best days of his life, Takemichi decides to get revenge on his life by saving his girlfriend and changing himself that he’d been running away from.
How many anime episodes are there?
Despite the anime only having one season, a lot goes on in those first 24 episodes. Here are the three story arcs covered.
Toman Arc: The beginning of the story where local loser Takemichi Hanagaki gets shoved in front of a train just as he’s trying to figure out why his life is so meh. He doesn’t quite get isekai’d into another world, instead he goes back to his middle school days, which is the perfect opportunity to figure out where things went wrong, oh, and to figure out why the local gang killed his middle school girlfriend (Hina) in the future. Fortunately, Hina’s little brother, Naoto, is working with Takemichi to try and create a better future. The arc in the anime is 5 episodes.
Moebius Arc: There’s more to Toman and its leader, Mikey, than Takemichi thought, as the middle school gang isn’t all that bad. In fact, Mikey’s pretty admirable, with solid morals and a gang that feels more like a family. Things take a turn, though, when Takemichi figures out that, in the future, Mikey’s “heart” and second-in-command, Draken, is killed in the past. Now Takemichi has to figure out how to save him, Hina, and one of his closest friends, Akkun. The arc in the anime is 7 episodes.
Valhalla Arc: Knowing without a shadow of a doubt that Kisaki is the one orchestrating all of the bad things that lead to a terrible future, Takemichi is stunned to see him joining Toman after what happened with Moebius. On top of that, one of Toman’s founding members, Baji, leaves to join an opposing gang known as Valhalla. Things get even more complicated when Takemichi returns to the future to see that Draken is alive and well, but in prison. From the future Draken, Takemichi learns of an event called “Bloody Halloween” where Baji died, sending Mikey into a rage that lead to him killing for the first time.
As the longest arc in the anime (12 episodes), it actually ends on a cliffhanger, whereas the manga continues the arc with a couple more chapters before heading into a new arc. This new arc takes place over Christmas and will be where the second season of the anime picks up.
What about the manga?
The manga has been available to read digitally and is finally set to have a print release here in the U.S. this July. The manga is a little over 250 chapters so far with the first season of the anime covering up to chapter 73.
You can watch the first season of Tokyo Revengers over at Crunchyroll. The manga is available to read over at Kodansha.
(Featured image: Ken Wakui, KODANSHA/TOKYO REVENGERS Anime Production Committee)
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