English Dub Review: Tokyo Revengers: “Once upon a time”

Overview: During a trip to the beach, Baji (Lucien Dodge) and Hanemiya find themselves in hot water when they do something that will forever change them and their relationship. 

Our Take: When looking back once upon a time as to just how the strife between Hanemiya and Mikey started, I was left with as many questions as the answers I received throughout.

Toman’s beach getaway starts off as a typical teenage affair with the boys gawking over girls and such. This really is to help lay the foundation of how Mikey earned the respect and admiration from his friends and members. His standing up for Baji and disregard for his favorite moped against an antagonizing biker gang plays out as your standard for the sake of others’ variety. What made it standout is how stagnant and lazy the animation continues to be. Especially during a brief swim sequence a few moments beforehand that looked like something out of a PowerPoint animation. Because of how by-the-numbers it played out, it would have been nice if it could have at least looked good while doing it. 

For all intents and purposes, this flashback beach episode was to fill in the holes for us as to how the disconnect happened between one of the Tokyo Manji gang’s founders, Kazutora, and Mikey. And the only answer that seems to make any sense is it all comes down to how much of a looney bat Hanemiya actually is. And it is especially well-founded and a proper culmination for who he is in the present, especially when taking into consideration the violent tea leaves left behind previously by how cruelly Hanemiya treats his subordinates in Valhalla. 

However, there are still aspects that don’t add up. It is very puzzling as to how Hanemiya feels wronged. Unless, of course, Hanemiya is just that warped regarding Mikey, which could be a cool rabbit hole to explore in that of his delusional mind. What’s also weird is how much Baji sympathizes with him, seemingly. Although, similarly it could be that Baji is just batshit crazy too which wouldn’t be terribly surprising considering what we’ve seen of him too. But there must be more meaningful and realistic answers to those specific inquiries that have yet to be revealed, right?