Tokyo Revengers Review: A Work Inspired by Ken Wakui’s youth
As an anime and manga fan, I do keep a track on some of the franchises that I consider have a well-written plot or even a mind-blowing plot that makes the reader sometimes left dumbfounded. One of those anime/manga that has a well-written plot is Tokyo Revengers written by Ken Wakui.
Tokyo Revengers tells a story about a 26 years old man - Hanagaki Takemichi learns that his girlfriend in middle school, Tachibana Hinata was killed by a certain by a villainous gang called Tokyo Manji Gang. Being forced in his lowest point of his life, he suddenly travelled back to the past, twelve years ago where he’s a middle-schooler that is totally different from his life twelve years in the future. With the given power of travelling back to the past, this reasoning of Hanagaki Takemichi to save his girlfriend, his pathetic life and everyone he cares about.
As for me, I just followed this series right after the anime adaptation was released. Throughout the story, I found that the Tokyo Revengers concept of time travelling is quite unique. We often see time travelling using a media such as a complex machine that can set which time you want to go but not in Tokyo Revengers. The only media to time travel is by shaking hands with the person. What makes it more interesting is Takemichi does this by shaking the hand of Tachibana Hinata’s brother, Tachibana Naoto – who actually seeks help from Takemichi to save Hinata. The concept of shaking hands with someone who asks for help in order to save someone is what makes this series worth watching and reading. Another part that interests me is the concept of a gang that is not actually a ‘baddies.’ Twelve years in the past, the Tokyo Manji gang is actually a gang full of brave and good delinquents who have a principle of helping each other. As I heard and read some of the articles and interviews about Tokyo Revengers, I found out that this whole story is based on the author’s youth as a delinquent in the past and has a lot of similarities from his past life which kind of surprised me with such a concept.
In Glénat interview published in 2019, Ken Wakui included some questions regarding about Tokyo Revengers. At first, his editor wants a different story that is based from delinquent’s life and decided to have an idea of a Main Character that can time travelled through the past with the time set in early 2000s where Wakui himself is used to be a delinquent, too. Wakui also stated that he draws Takemichi based from his own depiction of himself in order to attract readers’ empathy. According to Wakui, the Main Character has a good quality has a same similarity with the author. Another interview, ATOM interview 2019, Wakui stated again that Tokyo revengers was inspired from the furyo era where they have style. This concept of delinquent in the era of 2000s, has a principle of not everything about money but a principle of fighting with another furyo not with the citizens, a style about appearance and respect to others. Lastly, In Kodansha interview 2020, Wakui’s stated that as a delinquent, he also works as a host around Shinjuku’s area as he was expelled from school for an entire month because of misconduct. This somehow reflects to Takemichi’s life twelve years in the present where he is a worker.
In all, this series of Tokyo Revengers is worth it to watch and read. Not just by the concept of the story, it also has a lot of moral value, a good visualization and not to mention the daily life of the characters that is ready to make you laugh and accompany your day.
