Hanma struggles with emotions a lot. He can't feel them the way people normally do because for him, everything is numb. Others are able to enjoy life but he never is, because he doesn't even know the meaning of his own life. When he said that his life is boring, he meant that he tried EVERYTHING he could to find joy in living, happiness in being alive, but failed miserably and went down to wrong path, one of violence and fights, thinking it'd make him feel something, make him feel entertained and finally have some joy in life but he was wrong here as well. But then, yes, he found someone who basically gave him a meaning behind his life and coloured his white and black life into many different colours, but unfortunately, that someone was also ripped out of his hands. He's apathetic and lacks the ability to identify emotions.
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.
"Izana doesn't care about anyone!" "Izana is so selfish!" "Izana is so evil!" "Izana is emotionless!" SINCE WHEN???
[SPOILERS]
The only thing he wanted was a family just like any kid in orphanage does. People seriously decided to call Izana selfish for wanting Shinichiro to be only his brother like hello?! He doesn't know how families work because he never had one. Literally any kid would wish for their brother figure or parental figure to give ONLY them attention but when Izana does that suddenly he's so selfish and heartless. Like uhh we're talking about a KID here. Despite having big brother which he should have spend time with alone, he still invited Kakucho to go with them. By creating Tenjiku, he wanted to give orphans a HOME. Where they'd feel like they belonged. But this IZANA is SELFISH?!
He did care about Emma. I understand if people are angry at Izana for agreeing with Emma's death but that doesn't mean he didn't feel guilty or didn't care?! He was manipulated by Kisaki and thought that it was right thing to do because of that. He felt guilty but he couldn't tell that. He does feel feelings, he just can't tell what he's feeling.
In anime, his LAST word was Emma. And when Izana hallucinated Emma and Shinichiro by Mikey's side, it's not because they really stood by Mikey's side. It was Izana's HALLUCINATION, hence he thought Emma and Shinichiro wouldn't stand by his side. And he hated that thought because that meant Mikey still wasn't alone like him but Izana was.
LOOK HOW HAPPY HE LOOKS AT THE THOUGHT OF HIS MOM VISITING HIM. Even if she abandoned him, even if she broke his heart and left him completely alone...He still cared about her.
Currently crying💕
Izana did care about people and loved them but he thought HE was unloved and uncared for. He couldn't even believe when Mikey told him that he wasn't alone because Izana still had Mikey.
Until his last breath, he thought he was being used by Big Four when they truly respected Izana and cared about him.
The way he looks and mother and son, wishing he had same relationship with his mother.
Tokyo Revengers manga spoilers! Do NOT read if you're anime-only and haven't read manga yet or haven't finished it yet!!
Summary: Curse of Sano family, Dark impulses, how Takemichi is able to break the curse, what is Takemichi to Mikey and why.
What is Dark Impulse exactly? It's the curse that was given to Sano family by previous timeleaper, who was killed by Shinichiro then. Old man's curse wasn't only affecting Shinichiro but the whole Sano family--especially Mikey.
Shinichiro got his karma, but "Dark Impulses" aim wasn't to ruin Shinichiro only, but also his siblings, everyone Shinichiro held dear to his heart.
Dark Impulses are called Dark Impulses because Mikey introduced them as that, since the curse was violent and pushed its owner to the embrace of evil and wickedness.
The most interesting thing about it is that Dark Impulses are also introduced as another Mikey, ANOTHER HUMAN and living being. Just in one body. (I thought it was DID reference ngl)
I just think that it's interesting way to introduce a curse because it's usually introduced as someTHING and not as someONE ("there's SOMETHING inside of me that I cannot control" for example) but I think this shows how Mikey thought that Dark Impulses were HIM, that it was Inseparable from him and it was part of who he was. Which makes sense because he has had it since he was very young and learned to live with it. Mikey has been struggling to keep his darkness away but that just caused it to bottle up and get harder and harder to control.
His Dark Impulses got so much worse because of the loss of his loved ones, since his mentality got so much weaker to the point that he wasn't able to fight back dark impulses and Kisaki's manipulation, he has fallen victim of them. He managed to appear calm about it and pretend that everything was alright but there's a limit to how much one can take.
Many people thought that Takemichi was stupid for this and I've even seen the comments saying that they didn't get this part at all. But Takemichi, in fact, was the ONLY ONE who could break the curse and it's because Shinichiro transferred his powers to Takemichi, but not his curse. Let's note one thing that Shinichiro died few days after giving his power to Takemichi, which could be interfered as that he was alive (after his time leaping) because of his powers. Which means that the power to timeleap can and will break the curse of previous timeleaper. In order for Takemichi to do that, Mikey had to completely give in his Dark Impulses and placed his trust in Takemichi to break the curse.
Which is why Takemichi actually was Mikey's hero, because he was the only one who could break the curse that he has been suffering with for a good while. Takemichi is indeed a hero. Mikey's hero.
Everyone remember this part where Mikey meets Kisaki after the latter shot Izana?
Before I thought that Kisaki was scared because he was found out and his whole plan failed but now I think Kisaki was scared because he knew about Mikey's Dark Impulses because he told him before and therefore he knew that when Mikey was consumed by his impulses he always kills those who were targets of his wrath so Kisaki feared becoming the target of Mikey's wrath because that would mean that Kisaki would be killed by him in a horrible way. I think that even though Kisaki admirated Mikey and manipulated him, actually Kisaki deep down was always afraid of Mikey.
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.
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.
