Tokyo Revengers

Tokyo Revengers mixes two kinds of stories that do not often meet: a street gang drama and a time travel tale. It is based on a manga by Ken Wakui that ran in Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine from 2017 to 2022. The manga was a huge hit, with more than 80 million copies in print, and it won the Kodansha Manga Award in 2020. The anime was made by Liden Films and directed by Koichi Hatsumi. This first season has 24 episodes and aired in Japan from April to September 2021.

The main character is Takemichi Hanagaki. He is twenty-six years old and works part-time jobs. He lives alone in a small, messy apartment and feels his life has gone nowhere. One day he sees on the news that Hinata Tachibana has died. She was his girlfriend in middle school, the only one he ever had. Her death is tied to the Tokyo Manji Gang, a powerful and violent criminal group. Soon after, Takemichi falls onto the train tracks at a station. Instead of dying, he finds himself back in 2005, twelve years in the past, when he was still a middle school student.

In the past, Takemichi was a weak delinquent, a word for a teen who gets into fights and breaks the rules. Now he has a reason to be brave. He wants to change what happens so that Hinata can live. To do that, he decides to get close to the Tokyo Manji Gang, also called Toman, back when it was still a group of teenage boys. The gang is led by Manjiro Sano, known as Mikey, who is small and friendly but almost impossible to beat in a fight. His right-hand man is Ken Ryuguji, called Draken, a tall and calm fighter. Hinata's younger brother, Naoto, also plays a big part in Takemichi's fight to fix the future.

The show is full of fist fights, motorcycles, and gang battles, but its heart is about loyalty and friendship. Takemichi is not strong. He loses many fights and cries often. What makes him stand out is that he keeps getting back up. The story asks how small choices made as a teen can grow into big changes years later. Each time Takemichi changes something in the past, he must face what that does to the present, and the results are not always what he hoped for.

The anime was one of the most talked-about shows of 2021 in Japan and around the world. It won the anime prize at the 2021 Yahoo! Japan Search Awards and was among the most discussed TV shows on Twitter that year. Some scenes show strong violence, so it is better for older teens and adults. For viewers who like action, rough but caring friends, and a mystery that keeps pulling them forward, Tokyo Revengers is a gripping start to a long story.