English Dub Review: Tokyo Revengers: “Dead or Alive”

Overview: Unexpectedly, Kisaki comes to Mikey’s (Aleks Le) rescue, trying to get in his good graces, while Baji (Lucien Dodge) goes after the new Toman recruit to take him down once and for all. 

Our Take: As Takemichi discovers thorugh the course of the episode, the fight between Kazutora and Mikey transitions into an absolute cluster fuck of people chomping at the bit to get to Mikey or someone close to him for some reason or another. One character that had me questioning his role moving forward was Kisaki in how Baji, Chifuyu and Hanagaki all want him out, but his sly strategies seems to be paying off for him in winning the hearts of Toman and even Draken perhaps. This lays the foundation for shaky grounds in all the uncertainty surrounding how his position in the Tokyo Manji Gang will progress, if at all. And if not in Toman, perhaps he will turn into an antagonist that is more upfront about his goals, which could be an interesting new spin for a character that likes to work behind the scenes and brand new territory for Takemichi’s timeline. 

Thankfully, watching Baji beat the ever-loving crap out of goons has just gotten a little bit better with the animation quality improving somewhat. It’s nothing awe-inspiring like something on the level of incredibly performing studios such as Toei Animation, MAPPA, Production I.G or Madhouse. But at the very least, there is a little more looseness and three-dimensional movement on Draken and the other captain’s part with it being a notable improvement over the opening to the battle.

Chifuyu and Baji relationship is beginning to take center stage as the former finds himself being incapable of fighting with Baji. We’ve heard Chifuyu exclaim just how much Baji means to him, but we need to see why that is if we are ever able to care about them and their friendship as the emotional wrenching pain that Chifuyu felt, fell flat as a result. While some may have thought Baji to be out of the woods in regard to his death, he has suffered a fatal blow seemingly which may mean his untimely demise will still come to pass. This subverting of expectation is always fun due to how well Revengers has been able to execute it in different ways like with Hina’s different deaths or reversing the terrible fates of Akkun. The only thing I hope is that there is a reasonable explanation for Baji’s injury, such as perhaps he was just acting tough and pushing through the pain of his stabbing and not some nonsensical twist that has little believability, like Kisaki poisoning him or that he took too much damage (because we legitimately never saw that).