The (paramilitary, ultra-nationalist) Black Dragon society was created in 1901. It did espionage, sabotage and assassinations (mostly in Russia, China, Manchuria and Korea) and had an information network which went as far as Central Asia ; it even had alliances with Buddhist sects in all of Asia. It also financially supported revolutionaries (Sun Yat Sen in China and Emilio Aguinaldo in the Philippines). At first, it tried not to use criminal activities like its predecessor, Gen’yosha ‘Black Ocean’ (玄洋社) did but at the end, the use of criminal activities was convenient. The Black Dragon was close to the Japanese military and helped them (for espionage, sabotage and assassinations), it also did a lot of propaganda.
In the 20s and 30s, Black Dragon had way more power and influence than other groups because of its close ties with leading members of the government, military and powerful business leaders. In the 30s, Black Dragon also expanded to Ethiopia, Turkey, Morocco, Southeast Asia, South America, Europe and the US.
The Black Dragon Society was disbanded in 1946 by the US.
It also inspired the ‘The Black Dragon Society’ of DC comics which is a group of terrorist villains and was created in 1942.
As for the Black/Dark Ocean Society… it was a ultra-nationalist secret society which wanted to bring the samurai class back (and the Imperial family and Empire). It was a terrorist group made of former samurai and organized crime members. It used intimidation, violence, and murders. It provided funds and weapons to different Chinese secret societies and even took some leaders of those secret societies to Japan to keep them safe (since they were against the Qing government, like Black Ocean)
To gain information, blackmail material and have meeting locations, Black Ocean had a large network of brothels across China (and then all of Southeast Asia). The brothels also provided income. Prostitutes were employed to get information out of clients.
Black Ocean shared its information network with the Black Dragon Society (or so it seems) – they had one covering all of Asia and Japan military found it useful.
It was the precursor of several organizations and tied the far-right wing politicians and Yakuza together. Although Black Ocean was a political group and not Yakuza (on paper at least), a lot of its members were. Yakuza and Black Ocean shared, and continue nowadays even if Black Ocean was disbanded by the US in 1946, the same ideology.
Anyway. What the fuck Shinichiro. What the fuck Wakui.
A fairly frequent theme in Tokyo Revengers is how adults influence the behavior of young people and how the lack of affection, supervision, positive attention and care lead them to create these gangs to unload the emotional stress that this causes them as well as fill their emotional emptiness. This can be seen in how adults abandon their children (Izana), are abusive (Kazutora), are absent most of the time for work (Mitsuya) or for other reasons (Sano siblings), have no one to take care of them (Draken and Kakucho), are guide and teach the kids to an wrong path and then not help that kids to abandon said path because they cannot do it or they're not interested in it (South) and we even see how some adults are still stuck with the gangs (Takeomi, Benkei and Wakasa) as they don't feel like they have anywhere else to belong and the closest they have to a home or a place where they feel comfortable or welcome is with the gangs, this is because Shinichiro (leader of the Black Dragons, a rather notorious gang) was there for them when no one else was.
One of the reasons that Pah, being in the correctional facility, didn't become someone like the S-62 is because his parents visited him every day giving him support and positive attention, thus showing their love and concern for him.
Even Kisaki's situation would have been avoided if only his parents had provided positive attention and been more aware of him, what he does, his behavior and setting limits on it.
Also, in a previous post, I mentioned that Mikey has never had a positive interaction with any adult in his entire life. That's why Takemichi must defeat Mikey and not kill him because he's the first adult who cares about him and doesn't want him to go down the wrong path besides being the first adult to guide him, correct him and make him see reason.
Takemichi (an adult who can travel back in time to his teenage self) is the protagonist, and also one of the reasons why I like him as character and protagonist, because symbolically he's the adult who does what no other adult wants or can do: provide positive support and care for kids who belong to gangs and keep them from going down the wrong path. Tokyo Revengers is the story of how an adult (Takemichi) takes revenge on the system that abandons or sets aside people like him, like Mikey or like all the people he knows by not caring what happens to them or simply considers them criminals, forgetting that they're people, and there is no better way to take revenge on a system that makes adults absent from the lives of teenages than an adult doing the opposite of the system: caring, guiding, providing support and positive attention to said teenages.
This post is NOT about Akkun pushing Takemichi onto the train tracks. That makes sense. It's a manipulative power play by Kisaki to have one of Takemichi's former friends be his murderer. It fits both Kisaki's personality and Akkun's underling status at the time. This post is about Akkun guessing about Takemichi's time leaping ability.
This is a LOOSE theory. It is not neat and I don’t have all the nuts and bolts figured out. This is just something that’s been on my mind that I think may have merit.
➼ intro.
(Season 1, Episode 4)
"This probably sounds insane... But you can go back into the past, can't you?" - Akkun, Season 1 Episode 4
I've always been confused how Akkun jumped to "time travel" so quickly. No normal person would randomly accuse someone of that, especially since Takemichi hasn't shown any hints about being a time traveler during their reunion on the rooftop. They were just joking about smelly farts ffs.
An Argument: "Akkun is unstable, so his mind jumping to irregular conclusions makes sense."
Now in this future (Takemichi saves Naoto + meets Mikey), Akkun is unstable. He's been living in fear for years - so terrified of Kisaki's corrupted Toman, that when ordered to murder one of his childhood friends in broad daylight, he does it.
So the above argument is fine. Akkun's psyche is all over the place at this point in time, so rushing to an unbelievable belief isn't too ridiculous. But the fact it's SPOT ON feels like way too much of a coincidence. For a long time, I believed it was just Wakui's way of forcing in a twist. A "betcha didn't see that one coming!" kind've move.
But after reading about Shinichiro, the Original Timeline, and Sanzu's role in it, Akkun knowing about time travel makes a lot more sense.
➼ sanzu and shinichiro.
(Chapter 273)
"You got two different memories?"
"Yeah... I was just at your funeral a few days ago. Mikey died and Shin-nii jumped off into the river. But then suddenly, I was back home and a new memory of the past appeared. You were supposed to be a nurse, but now you're a mechanic at a bike shop..." - Sanzu talking to Shinichiro, Chapter 273
In the timeline Shinichiro created, the one we start the series from, Sanzu has contrasting memories.
An Argument: "Of course Sanzu has contrasting memories, he became Shinichiro's trigger. Like how Naoto was for Takemichi."
Very true! Whenever Takemichi leaped to the present day, Naoto recovered his memories of all the timelines he was Takemichi's Trigger.
But if it was just about being the Trigger, then Sanzu would talk more about his scars. About just being in the hospital because that was his "last" memory from before Shinichiro's return to the present. But he doesn't. Instead, he talks about the ORIGINAL timeline where Shinichiro committed suicide.
To compare to Naoto, after he becomes Takemichi's Trigger, he makes no reference to any of the events of Takemichi's original timeline. He refers to Hinata's death and the things that carry over into the timelines afterwards, but there's no proof he remembers the timeline before he became Takemichi's trigger. He does not mention what his occupation was in the original future (he couldn't have been a cop because he only became it to save Hinata), or any other information like it. So I don't think it's a reach to say Naoto likely does not remember the original timeline.
So if Naoto didn't, why did Sanzu? Because Sanzu was more than just Shinichiro's trigger.
➼ a fourth.
When it comes to time leaping, 3 roles have been established - the Leaper, the Trigger, and the Rescuee/Victim. I now believe there is a 4th, more subtle role:
The Leaper - Shinichiro, Takemichi
The Trigger - Sanzu, Naoto, Mikey
The Rescuee - Hinata, Mikey
The Witness - Sanzu, Akkun
Both Sanzu and Akkun were prime witnesses during the First Death of the Leaper.
Just so we're all on the same page:
I'm working under the basis that in order for a time leaper to first leap, they must die. They will receive the ability from a previous Leaper (Shin from the old man, Takemichi from Shin), but it will remain dormant until they die in some way (Shin from suicide, Michi from the train). They must pay the cost to leap with their lives.
After they pay that toll, which I'll be referring to as "The First Death", they no longer need to die to time leap. They simply need a Trigger, the first person who's life they significantly change.
So back to the post, Sanzu and Akkun were witnesses to The First Death, the ironic beginning or "birth" of the Leaper.
Unlike the Trigger, the Witness maintains their memories of that original timeline. What's unclear in my theory (sorry!) is if they retain the memories of all the timelines in between. After Takemichi's fourth time leap in Chapter 30 / Episode 11 (after saving Draken), Akkun has become a hairstylist.
He makes no mention of his suicide, of Draken previously being dead, nothing. He and Takemichi do not have a conversation regarding time travel at all. However, when he rams the truck into Hinata's car, he repeats the exact same lines he said to Takemichi when he committed suicide in Chapter 8 / Episode 4. He even says, "Please save everyone, our crybaby hero." Making it clear he knows of time travel in some regard, but not exactly which or how many timelines he remembers.
Did he repeat those lines because he remembers the first time he's said them? Or was it simply to show the future hasn't changed and Akkun was still dealing with the same circumstances? I don't know.
I'm personally leaning towards the latter - that Akkun does not actually remember saying them. It wouldn't surprise me if this was a key difference between the role of the Trigger and of the Witness. The Trigger remembers everything except the original timeline, whereas the Witness remembers nothing except the original timeline.
This is an interesting contrast, similar to how the Leaper needs a Trigger to time leap in all the timelines after The First Death, but not before it. Meanwhile, the Leaper needs a Witness to time leap during The First Death, but for none of the time leaps after it.
But this point is purely speculation.
➼ why not others?
An Argument: "Sanzu was the only one on the bridge with Shinichiro. But Akkun and Takemichi were in a public train station surrounded by tons of people. Wouldn't they count as 'witnesses' too?"
Good question Debater In My Head! Yes, it's true Akkun and Michi were surrounded by tons of people. However, what makes Akkun and Sanzu unique are two things:
An already established relationship with the Leaper
A wish for the Leaper to not die
When it comes to time leaping, a LOT of it hinges on connections + intentions. Triggers are created when the Leaper forms a connection by significantly changing someone's life. From then on, Leapers cannot time leap without he and the Trigger having the same intentions.
"This is just a theory, but... without strongly believing that I want to change the past, I probably can't function as the trigger." - Naoto to Takemichi, Chapter 197 (Bonten future)
(Season 1, Episode 4)
(Chapter 271, Panel was cropped because of it's size)
Akkun and Sanzu fulfill the first part of the requirements. They have an established relationship with Takemichi and Shinichiro respectively.
Sanzu also clearly doesn't want Shinichiro to die. Akkun is a much subtler case.
"I've been waiting for you to show up, Takemichi"
"I wonder how things ended up like this..."
[...] "I'm scared. I'm terrified of Kisaki."
[...] "I'm rooting for you Takemichi." - Akkun, Season 1 Episode 4
The only reason Akkun pushed Takemichi was out of fear. Later on, he is grateful Takemichi is still alive. So it's pretty clear that while he pushed Takemichi onto the tracks, he had no genuine desire for Takemichi to die and wished things had not turned out the way they had.
So with Akkun fulfilling both of my theorized “requirements”, it makes sense that he’d fall into the same role as Sanzu while the other bystanders would not.
➼ bonus - chifuyu.
I have a theory that Chifuyu may have become the Witness of the time leap at the end of the series, ergo why he remembers all the chaos that happened. But I'm still uncertain of that one, to be honest.
My theory regarding what exactly happened between Takemichi, Mikey, and Chifuyu is short, but messy so I will save that for another time.
➼ conclusion.
Akkun's "guess" about time travel always felt off to me because of how sudden it is. But with this theory that he remembers actually killing Takemichi because he remembers the original timeline, it makes a lot more sense. Well, in my opinion at least.
If you've read this far, thank you! I hope all this makes some kind've sense.
When it comes to Kisaki, I couldn't help but remember what Watts said to Cinder in RWBY Volume 8 as it perfectly sums up Kisaki's ideology:
Watts: You think you're entitled to everything just because you've suffered, but suffering isn't enough. You can't just be strong, you have to be smart. You can't just be deserving, you have to be worthy.
It was never about Kisaki loving Hina but about proving that he was worthy of having her. Kisaki mistakenly thinked that Hina loved Takemichi for his dream of being the number one gang member when in reality she loved him for his bravery and willingness to help others so Kisaki, using his intellect, set out to create plans and manipulate everyone to become the number one gang member and then become the most powerful gangster in Japan and he succeeded. For Kisaki, being the most powerful gangster was to prove to everyone that only he was worthy of having Hina by being better than Takemichi for successfully achieving what the latter wanted.
If Kisaki had really loved Hinata, he would have talked to her, trying to establish a friendship with her, and if Hinata had rejected him, then, out of love for Hina, he would have respected her decision and wouldn't have killed her, but Kisaki never saw Hinata as a person but he saw her as an object to possess, a goal to achieve. Kisaki didn't care about Hinata as a person and the feelings and desires that she had, he just wanted to show that he was the most worthy of possessing Hina by working hard to get her, becoming what he thought she liked but not achieving his goal, he saw that his effort to be worthy of having Hinata was wasted and if he wasn't worthy of having her then no one else was worthy of having her.
In this post I mentioned how similar Luz and Mikey are and recently I found another similarity that they have and that is that they both created a video mentioning how they wanted to fix what they think is their fault and how Luz and Mikey decide isolate themselves from their loved ones and asking them not to look for them.
and the saddest and most terrifying thing about all this is that both videos have suicidal connotations.
I don't know about you but the anger and despair Shinichiro felt at losing Mikey and all his family reminded me of Gyutaro when he lost Daki.
Although both grew up in different circumstances (Gyutaro was poor and Shinichiro came from a middle class family), the context remains the same (Shinichiro and Gyutaro are boys who don't have parents to take care of them and their siblings and have to assume the roles of parents for their younger siblings).
For them the most important thing was their brothers and they lost them in the worst possible way due to situations beyond their control (Daki dies burned alive for hurting a samurai who insulted Gyutaro and Mikey remains in a coma as a result of an accident and dies) that were indirectly caused by their actions (Gyutaro and Daki grew up in an environment where everyone mistreated them and Daki learns to attack against anyone who mistreats them and Gyutaro never taught her anything else and he encouraged this aggressive behavior and Shinichiro gives Mikey the toy plane that would trigger the chain of events that would lead to his death).
Both Shinichiro and Gyutaro were so desperate that they were willing to accept almost unreal methods if it meant saving their siblings (Gyutaro accepting Douma's offer and both he and Daki becomes demons and Shinichiro wanting to travel back in time to save Mikey). Also, Shinichiro and Gyutaro kill someone before getting their powers and "die" to gain said powers to save their siblings (Gyutaro and Shinichiro's death is metaphorical because they die as humans but are reborn as something else, Gyutaro becomes a demon and Shinichiro becomes a time traveler) but this power affects their brothers in a negative way (Daki is turns into a demon and devours beautiful women as well as helps Gyutaro kill Hashiras and Mikey develops dark impulses as a product of Shinichiro's time travel).
Basically Gyutaro and Shinichiro tried to save their siblings but ended up dooming themselves and their siblings in the process.
If there is something that I noticed while watching The Owl House and Tokyo Revengers, it's how similar Luz and Mikey are and here I will explain why:
Both lost their parents (Luz lost her father and Mikey lost both parents) at a young age and it's implied that they're develop a fear of loss from that trauma.
Due to these traumas they prioritize the problems and happiness of others over their own, neglecting and endangering themselves and the reason they do this is to be able to show that they can solve their problems on their own, showing that they're strong and they're not a burden to others.
Because of the fear of loss, Luz and Mikey blame themselves for whatever bad thing happens to their loved ones to the point of punishing themselves (Luz does this trying to fix for what she thinks is her fault, going into dangerous situations without caring if she gets seriously injured and Mikey does this by allows his opponents hit him first even if he ends up being seriously injured) but at the same time they show an aggressive side towards people who hurt their loved ones.
They both have a cheerful personality and always smile
but actually is a facade to hide how they really feel.
This occurs because they have the defect of not opening up to anyone and show vulnerability.
Mikey got worse because of the constant losses he had to endure and on top of the fact that while he sacrifices his own happiness for his loved ones at the same time he feels unworthy of his affection since he believes that he is the cause of their misfortunes and feels that his loved ones are constantly pushing him away, consciously or unconsciously even though he wants to be with them and this same begins to happen to Luz during and after what happened in King's Tide.
Luz and Mikey like magic and gangs because a deceased family member taught them about it (Luz knows and starts to like magic and Azura's books because her father gave her a Azura's book and Mikey likes strength above all because it reminds him of his father because that was how he believed he was and his mother for trying to cheer her up with his victories in the fights he had as a child. gangs and wants to create a new era of gangs because Shinichiro inspired him, wanted Mikey becomes the new Black Dragons leader and taught him how to ride a motorcycle) and they stick to his likes because it makes them feel somehow that their loved ones (Luz's father and Mikey's parents and his older brother Shinichiro) are still alive with them somehow but even the things they like (Luz with fantasy and witches and Mikey with strenght and gangs) and what they want to be or do (Luz wants to be a witch and Mikey wants to be a gang boss and start a new era of gangs) become a coping and escapism mechanism that allows them to create a narrative where they're in control of their lives and don't suffer nor anyone else (Luz acting as if she were the heroine of a story like Azura and Mikey acting as the Invincible gang leader). Luz and Mikey do this to avoid facing their trauma because it's too painful for them.
The reason Luz hasn't had a breaking point before like Mikey is because she has adults who, although they're not perfect and have flaws, love and care for her and guide her (Camila and Eda) and she has a healthy support system (her friends and Amity) whereas Mikey never had any positive attention from adults, the people who approach him only do so because of his strength and charisma (either to use him as a tool or simply follow him out of admiration or fear) and the only positive support he had was his siblings and friends whom he trusted but he have lost them in the worst possible way.
While Luz is a little more peaceful, Mikey is more aggressive and there is a risk that Luz could become like Mikey and decide to distance herself from the others for fear that something bad will happen to them because of her like Mikey does and as well as Mikey's friends gave up on him, Luz feels her mother gave up on her and that Eda and King (the ones who inspired her that weirdos should stick together) gave up on her too and represses what she feels and distances herself from her loved ones because she believes that they too will give up on her. Therefore, Luz and Mikey feel that they're not worthy of being loved because everyone has given up and will give up on them and believe that they only bring problems to their loved ones.
Another thing they have in common is how they're manipulated by the antagonists (Kisaki and Belos) and unknowingly end up helping them get what they want, hurting the loved ones that Luz and Mikey wanted to protect. This only makes the guilt that Luz and Mikey feel be greater than before.
And this guilt is further increased by the fact that they are participants in the events of their respective stories by helping the antagonists directly (Luz teaching Phillip the light glyph and helping him find the collector, Mikey allowing Kisaki to join Tokyo Manji for Toman to have more strength and power and tell Kisaki to do what is necessary to achieve said goal) or indirect (Luz's intervention by traveling to the past when she helped Phillip causes the events that would result in the horrible government of Belos about the Boiling Islands and Day of Unity and Collector's release, Mikey being left in a coma from an accident he had as a child while playing with his toy airplane sparked the events that would cause Shinichiro to kill a traveler from the time to save him from that horrible fate in the original timeline resulting in Mikey having the Dark Impulses which are a karma curse for Shinichiro's actions and Mikey's subconscious desire to never be powerless or weak again so as not to be a burden to anyone (which would end up making Mikey unstable and violent as well as those impulses affecting anyone who is close to him) to the point that both Luz and Mikey consciously or subconsciously they want to die so as not to suffer any more and not to cause any more problems for anyone. They know that Belos and Kisaki would have manipulated someone else in their place to achieve their goals, Luz knows that Collector's release would have happened anyway, and Mikey knows that Shinichiro would have made the same decision if someone else he loves would have helped him. The same thing would have happened to Mikey plus the deaths of Baji, Emma, Izana and Draken would have happened at any time without Luz and Mikey doing anything but they continue to blame themselves as a result of the traumas they have and the situations out of their control that caused and aggravated those traumas in the first place.
A curious detail is (no intentional puns) that while Luz is always represented with light (light glyph),
Mikey is always surrounded by darkness (Dark Impulses).
It seems that despite being different characters from different universes, they're somehow complementary by having similar trauma and coping mechanisms (remember, light and darkness are different but complementary). With the above already mentioned, if we use Jungian terms, Mikey would be Luz's shadow because he represents what she could become if she doesn't receive help in time and he also represents the traumas and the side of herself that Luz wants to hide.
Luz and Mikey have to learn to let others in and allow themselves to ask for their help and be vulnerable and rely on them, just being a kids who needs comfort and love, letting the others do the same for them as Luz and Mikey did before for them.
It really gives me some feeling that Izana's favorite song is Bohemian Rhapsody because it suits him a lot. It's like he's literally singing it, and if you think about it that makes a lot of sense to mention a lot of his "mother" in the song who is the root of all his problems.
