English Dub Review: Tokyo Revengers: “One and only”

Overview: Baji’s (Lucien Dodge) wounds, unbeknownst to others, finally begin to take its toll on the Toman member as he tries to mend the ill-will between Kazutora (Joe Zieja) and Mikey (Aleks Le). 

Our Take: Like most had probably assumed, Baji was putting on a brave face when he suffered a near fatal blow from being stabbed by Kazutora. But the real kicker is what Baji chose to do after thrusting a knife through himself once again. Even with the “explanation” that is given in making his demise his own doing by sacrificing himself and alleviating Kazutora of the blame from Mikey, it’s quite puzzling nonetheless. You could argue that there was a very good chance Baji was going to die all along but if he had enough strength to get up and stab himself, it stands to reason it would’ve been much simpler to just keep his body movements to a minimum and try to survive. Not to mention he could have tried to appease the bad blood between Kazutora and Mikey by helping Hanemiya through his issues if Baji pulled through. A moment that was meant to foster an emotional reaction instead leaves me scratching my head at its contrived absurdity masquerading itself as deepness. 

But besides laughably bad logic behind the demise, Baji’s death lacked any real punch because we got to see very little of what made his relationship with Mikey, Pa and the gang significant. Sure, we saw that Mikey was an inspiration for Baji, but never got to anything crucial as to why, not to mention how his cherished friendships with others were born and/or developed. Although I do like what this is doing for Takemichi’s character in this yet again being another ordeal that cultivates his inner strength and confidence with him trying to knock some sense into Mikey. Hopefully, the charm that Hanagaki has leads to the reason why I should be broken up about Baji’s untimely passing.