Anime: Tokyo Revengers

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.