SPOILER WARNING!
People have a lot of mixed feelings about Tokyo Revengers, a popular anime and manga series in Japan. You either like it or you don’t; it really just comes down to your taste and whether or not you can handle the crybaby main character (MC). I’m one of those who can! In fact, Tokyo Revengers is among my top favourite anime/manga series. It follows a boy named Takemichi (the aforementioned crybaby MC) who somehow travels back in time, using this to his advantage in order to save his girlfriend from getting killed by the Tokyo Manji Gang (Toman for short). This series comes with a lot of heartbreak, and it gets very dark. And now that the manga series has officially come to an end (thankfully a happy end), I decided to share what I believe are the three most heartbreaking timelines in Tokyo Revengers.
1. Bonten
“Please help me… Takemitchy…”
In this timeline, we’re deceived. It all seems like Takemichi succeeded in saving his girlfriend Hinata and several of his friends along the way. We’re told of the lives of those who were formerly in Toman, like Draken, the former vice leader of Toman, who now runs a bike shop. We’re then told that the former leader of Toman, Mikey, a very good friend of Takemichi, runs a successful restaurant. However, it is soon revealed that this is not truly the case. Mikey is actually now the leader of a criminal organization known as Bonten, which does not bode well with Takemichi at all – he cares deeply about Mikey and will not stop using his power to go back in time until everyone he cares about is safe and happy. Eventually, he meets with Mikey to find out what went wrong. This meeting does not end well. Mikey shoots Takemichi, claiming that the reason he never wanted to meet with any of his former friends was because he knew this would happen. Then, he ends up on the rooftop of a building, planning to jump and end his life. But Takemichi, still conscious, grabs Mikey’s hand and urges him to just admit that he needs help. After this tense interaction, Mikey finally breaks down in tears (which is very rare to see from him) and begs Takemichi to help him. What makes this timeline so painful is knowing that Mikey has suffered for so long but has never asked anyone for help – he always shouldered everything on his own. This time, he finally broke.
2. Tenjiku
“All my life… I have been suffering.”
Speaking of Mikey suffering… this timeline is the result of the Tenjiku story arc. Tenjiku is a gang that Toman battled and lost to in the past. This gang, led by Izana Kurokawa, Mikey’s adopted brother, is also the reason Mikey’s little sister, Emma, was killed. At this point, Mikey had lost a great deal. He’d had to grieve the death of his older brother, he’d lost a lot of his childhood friends, and now his little sister was dead. Seriously, who can handle that much agony? Following the events of Tenjiku and fast-forwarding to the timeline it lead to, Mikey ends up on a murdering spree – he takes the lives of his closest friends, including the vice leader of Toman and his best friend, Draken. Then, Mikey tries to get Takemichi to kill him so that he can be stopped. But Takemichi refuses. Instead, Mikey is shot by police officer Naoto and dies in Takemichi’s arms. This results in Takemichi time-leaping once again to the past so he can fix what went wrong in this timeline.
3. The Original Timeline
“I should have just asked him to give it to me.”
Interestingly enough, the original timeline is not what we first see in the beginning of the series. The original timeline occurs before that. Revealed in the now-finished manga, Mikey’s older brother, Shinichiro, was a time leaper just like Takemichi. In this timeline, we learn what originally happened and why everything that follows goes terribly wrong. Mikey suffers a severe head injury from an accident, goes into a vegetative state, and eventually dies a few years afterwards. Shinichiro can’t accept what happened, fearing that he’s at fault. He loses everything in this timeline – Mikey, Emma who ran away, his parents, and his grandfather who was taking care of them. In his grief, he hears about the ability to time leap from an old man, who tells him that the only way to receive this ability is to kill. Shinichiro does not think twice and kills the man, which causes a severe karmic reaction. Things lead to Shinichiro going back in time to save Mikey, dying himself, and then everything else ensues. Every bad thing that happened all goes back to Shinichiro’s mistake of killing that man.
If you’re looking for an anime or manga series that will tear out your heart, stomp on it, grind it to dust, and spit on it, then this is the series for you! If you’re not prepared for agony, then I wouldn’t recommend getting into this because this list doesn’t even cover a quarter of the heartbreaking twists and turns in the story. Personally, I love a dark storyline, which was why I was able to sink into this series so easily. But I am beyond relieved that this series got a surprisingly happy ending. If you plan on getting into this series, then take comfort in at least knowing that you have the possibility of happiness!