#takemichi is not in the right mindset to do shit | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

animebw · 2 years

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Halfway through Tokyo Revengers, and sadly, I can’t say I’m too impressed. This show has a habit of coming right up to the edge of being really good, only to chicken out and settle for mediocrity instead. Remember when I talked about how this show was at a weird inflection point between glorifying and criticizing toxic masculinity? Well, we’ve really started going all-in on the glorifying now. Which I honestly might not have minded as much- dumb power-of-friendship shonen punch-em-ups have their place- but after this show hinted at being able to push against that mindset, it feels like cowardice.

Same goes for Hina. Remember when she was introduced as someone who knows karate and isn’t afraid to stand up to a freakshow like Mikey? Well, she’s mostly relegated to cheering from the sidelines now and barely seems to have a life outside of her relationship with Takemichi. Oh, and of course we have to shoehorn in some accidental pervert jokes where Takemichi accidentally fondles some other girl and Hina gets mad about it, because god forbid a shonen have an actual stable romantic relationship at its core for a change.

Still, I think my biggest problem is how the show treats Takemichi himself. Not the fact that he’s weak and constantly getting his ass kicked; that works in his favor, honestly. He’s not strong enough to just get what he wants by fighting and winning, so he has to try and help everyone through their issues instead of beating them into submission. That stuff works. What doesn’t work, at least to me, is how the show frames his “failure” as a human being.

Which goes back to that toxic masculinity stuff I was just talking about. Takemichi is presented as weak and pathetic because he “runs away,” meaning he has to learn to stand his ground like a proper man and tough out the pain. But if you’ll remember, Mikey literally chastised Hina for doing the same thing. Takemichi’s arc is learning to do the exact same thing that his girlfriend is told not to, except in his case it’s presented as a good thing. It’s honestly mind-boggling how unintentionally perfect this is at showcasing gendered expectations. Hina gets in over her head to try and save Takemichi, and she’s scolded for it and never does it again. Takemichi gets in over his head to try and save Hina, and he’s rewarded for it. It feels like Takemichi’s arc should be about bettering himself as a human being and taking life into his own hands rather than blaming his circumstances on others, and there’s some of that, but it’s all mixed in with the more toxic stuff. And that’s not even getting into the gross undercurrent that part of Takemichi’s weakness comes from him being a virgin and he needs to “be a real man” by getting the girl.

Which is frustrating, because there’s so clearly a better version of this self-betterment theme right underneath the surface. One of my favorite parts of this show is how so many of the badass punks we meet in the past have grown up into miserable, bitter adults trapped by the mistakes of their past. They were hot shit when they were kids, but only until their stupidity drove them into a corner and they realized too late how badly they messed up. There’s a version of Tokyo Revengers in my mind that really explores this idea, where Takemichi recognizes his own failures in the failures of his fellow failed delinquents and learns how to not repeat those mistakes in the past and present alike. I hope this gets explored more, because it’s by far the most potent emotional hook in this show’s arsenal. Right now, though, it’s just sort of hovering in the background waiting for a chance to really break through.

So that’s all for now. We’ve still got half a show to go; maybe this is where it really starts getting good? I guess we’ll see.

#anime #the anime binge-watcher #tabw #tokyo revengers #2021 aniwatch

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chifuyusgangshirt · 3 years

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a little thing that got me spiraling:

Kisaki will always be the villain but mikey is the antagonist of this story.

It doesn't matter if kisaki is alive or not, the only thing really keeping him at bay is takemichi- who is a replacment for shinichiro because mikey projects on him hard -the one person who can't and won't stay around him 24/7 like draken or even sanzu would do without giving up his life. (best example would be the future where takemichi leaves toman very late to finally live a normal life and mikey kinda goes crazy over it)

So if we're honest here the only possible future where mikey could live happily ever after is takemichi staying by his side until the end of time like his personal babysitter to keep takeomi and sanzu away from him as far as possible.

Takeomi because he clearly is the one who introduced toman to the world of organized crime and sanzu because he, hands down, is the toxic replacment for takemichi and gaslights mikey only further.

This possibility doesn't sound very realistic thinking how takemichi went all this lengths to live with hinata in the end and not the dude who shot him.

There also is the thing that bonten mikey kilks takemichi so he can't just leave things as they are now (that one is on you boy, don't get too greedy and just start to concentrate on yourself babyboy)

The best and most realistic endings, that would still give across a message, are (for me, I don't talk for others) that only mikey or takemichi survive at the end

If takemichi dies the possibility is high that it throws mikey off so much that he gets out of his dark mindset for once. Future mikey is apathetic enough to not even bother with feelings for anyone apart from takemichi but even here he was able to shot him and deciding suicide is the only way out before takemichi could reach him. So only takemichis death seems to trigger something in mikey. Would it be a good ending? No. Because no one of the main characters besides naoto gets a happy end in this one. Obviously.

Best way out for most people would be mikeys death. Simply because right now it's the only way to get takemichi to survive and prevent bonten or any other crime organization this type to form. ( though I guess koko, the haitani brothers, takeomi, kakucho and the rest of s62 would still be big in the game)

Of course we can also get the fairy tale ending where mikey only needs one main character moment and the power of friendship trope to turn the future bright and happy, where hinata and takemichi ride into the sunset and get 4 children called shinichiro, baji, draken and emma while mikey uses his inhuman fighting ability to idk be the next superman and fight crime with his other 20 half siblings who turned up sometime in the future because mikeys dad is a little hoe. But that would be... might as well bring baji and everyone else back under the explanation that takemichi gets a power up and can travel to every point in the past and just stops kazutora and kisaki from doing shit before even shinichiro can die.

ANYWAY.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk, I will go cry now.

#tokyo revengers #tokyo revengers spoilers #manjiro sano #takemichi hanagaki

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