YMMV / Tokyo Revengers

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Shinichiro is often portrayed as the post-mortem Big Good of the story, but as later revelations come some fans believe that he wasn't as good an influence on his younger peers as they themselves believed. His influence in getting Mikey and Kisaki interested in gang life, coupled with the questionable decision of wanting Mikey to succeed him when he's well aware of the boy's multitude of issues, makes him come off as a toxic influence.
  • Did Sanzu feel a genuine attachment to Muto, or was it really all an act to fool him into letting his guard down? Likewise, does he regret killing him or does his loyalty to Mikey truly override everything else? It's all deliberately left ambiguous due to Sanzu's complete lack of hesitation in taking him down as well as his Manipulative Bastard nature, coupled with his unusually somber expression when watching the news report about the authorities finding Muto's body, his lack of response when confronted by Kakucho about it, and the fact that his favorite food is cheesecake - which is what Muto bought him when trying to befriend him in the past.
  • When Brahman dissolved, Wakasa and Benkei joins Kanto Manji Gang when Mikey was in charge. The fans was so disappointed when they have not joins to Senju or Toman when Takemichi took over. Some fans believe that they have history with Shinichiro, who was first leader of Black Dragon, they join Kanto to stop Mikey from his dark impulses. Wakasa informed him that Shinichiro was time leaper, probably because he did this for his friend's sake. Or maybe they were joined Kanto themselves because Shinichiro's death, they were still mourned so they had nothing to do without him.
• Arc Fatigue: The final arc of the manga is fairly long by Tokyo Revengers standards and a lot of the new twists revealed caused many a fan to be divided, with a popular opinion being that the final arc itself was unnecessary and that the story should have ended with Takemichi and Hina's wedding.
• Awesome Art: The volume covers are well-known for their aesthetics, incorporating visually-appealing color combinations and garbing the characters in stylish clothing to the point where they wouldn't look out of place in a fashion show. Here are a◊ few◊ examples◊.
• Awesome Music:
  • The opening, "Cry Baby" by Official HIGE DANdism, is a vibrant, catchy song with strong vocals and distinct parts that flow well thanks to clean transitions.
  • The ending, "Koko de Iki wo Shite" by eill, is a slick, jazzy piece that has a good balance of funk and emotion with a touch of rock.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Half of the fanbase sees Takemichi as a Loser Protagonist who not only cries at the drop of a hat but also never develops any serious fighting skills and gets horribly beaten up in every fight. Other complaints include how Takemichi does not use his knowledge of the future to his full advantage in preventing his friends' deaths. The other half is far more sympathetic, given that Takemichi has witnessed the deaths of his friends repeatedly, and that being The Heart is his strongest point.
  • Tetta Kisaki, the initial Big Bad of the series. He was originally relatively well-liked for being The Chessmaster who constantly threw wrenches into Takemichi's attempts to fix the future. When his actual motive got revealed; that he's motivated solely on his one-sided and unrequited obsession with Hina, many a reader were quick to jump ship, dismissing him as a simp and attribute his past feats to weak writing. However, there are some fans who find him pitiful and pointing out how the others who were quick to hate on Kisaki for his shallow Entitled to Have You motive also missed how Kisaki is also motivated in one-upping Takemichi since their Forgotten First Meeting. And then there's the third group, those who dislike his motive but otherwise think he's an intriguing character.
  • Manjiro Sano aka Mikey. He's beloved by his fans for his badassery, carefree attitude, charisma, underlying melancholy, and friendships with characters like Takemichi and Draken. His detractors dislike him for becoming a terrible criminal in several future timelines due to his inner darkness. Opinion on Mikey became much more polarizing with the final arc, which has Takemichi time leap one more time to save him from becoming a criminal, with the final arc considered dragged out and unneeded by many, and Mikey ending up as the final Big Bad of the story. And with the reveal that Mikey's dark impulses originated when Senju accidentally destroyed his toy airplane, readers' opinions on Mikey became more divisive than ever.
• Broken Base: Kisaki's motivation for his actions — his one-sided obsession with Hina, killing her rather than let her be with Takemichi. Some fans feel that his motivation adds depth to his character and makes sense with his backstory involving her. Just as many fans, if not moreso, think that it diminishes Kisaki's character from a cunning, ambitious villain into a psychotic incel and that it clashes far too much with the sheer extremes he went in his actions.
• Critical Dissonance: The manga has won the 44th annual Kodansha Manga Award in the shonen category and ranked 9th in the "Book of the Year" list by Da Vinci magazine. However, among some anime and manga fans, the series became the "worst" shonen manga, because not helping was Hype Backlash and the manga entering its divisive final arc around the time the series was gaining a lot of popularity.
• Do Not Do This Cool Thing: Inherent in delinquent media, but makes an appearance here as well. The story goes to great lengths to show how while being in gangs gave the main characters a sense of purpose and a community of friends, it's also a very hard life to escape and will always end in your death or the death of someone close to you. Heck, Bonten timeline Mikey actively dissuades the rest of the surviving Touman members from coming back to gang life by scaring them off and drowning in it himself to protect them. However, considering how stylish, cool, and powerful many cast members are, that aesop's likely to fall on deaf ears.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Despite his relatively short screentime, Keisuke Baji became beloved by plenty of fans for his wild personality, friendship with Chifuyu, and fierce loyalty to Toman, with his death within his introductory Valhalla arc leaving many fans heartbroken.
  • Chifuyu is pretty popular among the fanbase for offering support for Takemichi and being the only person who gives him helpful advice when time goes on, especially when Takemichi loses more chances to go back to the present to talk to Naoto. He's also well-loved for his Undying Loyalty to his friends, such as Baji.
  • Mitsuya is popular, especially among yumejoshi (self-ship) fans, once he got character focus during the Black Dragons arc. His Big Brother Instinct towards Hakkai, Yuzuha, and his sisters, as well as his domestic skills (such as cooking and sewing), have endeared him to fans. He is also regarded as one of the most attractive members of the Tokyo Manji Gang, especially when he grows his hair out in the present timelines.
  • Senju Kawaragi became extremely popular among the fandom after it was revealed that she's a girl, making her the first female boss of the series. Senju's fun, lovable personality seen while shopping with Takemichi only further endeared the Brahman boss to many fans.
  • Hina herself which is pretty remarkable given the series has a Periphery Demographic due to the Cast Full of Pretty Boys. Normally the Love Interest in Hina's position becomes the recipient of Die for Our Ship treatment from the fandom or quietly shipped away so that she doesn't interfere with the more popular characters, but Hina largely avoids this due to her chemistry with Takemichi and people instead took shipping the pair with Mikey rather than treating her like a roadblock.
• Estrogen Brigade: Tokyo Revengers is popular with women partly because of its mostly male cast, many of whom are unique looking pretty boys. When the anime hit, female readership for the series exploded.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Tetta Kisaki, a manipulative, cunning, and heartless sociopath who manage to use his skills to bring delinquent era into criminal organization. He owns his status so he can bring Hinata to his love but she rejected him. That makes him really angry to kill her on mostly previous versions of timeline. Numbers of fans hate him for killing fan favorites characters but his charisma and intelligence make him quite cooler on some scenes.
  • Shuji Hanma, an Ax-Crazy energetic individual who was looking for excitement of madness and chaos for his lingering desires so he can get out from his boredom. He has some very impressive fighting skills and despite his skinny figure he has some great strength and endurance. His laid back personality and his leadership make him really popular by the fans.
  • Ran and Rindou, the Haitani brothers, sadistic and charismatic duo, they were well known for combine their incredible strength and power. Their inseparable relationship and attractiveness have been making scene more appealing every time they make appearance on manga and anime.
  • Sanzu Haruchiyo, a silent and mysterious character until latest chapter revealed he was psychotic sociopath who haven been loyal to Mikey. He became his right hand man of Mikey in the Kanto Manji Gang and soon become no.2 in Bonten. However, thank to his backstory, he used to be getting along with his friends and family until Mikey's dark impulses changed him, he became one of the most popular villains in the series
  • Izana Kurokawa is a ruthless and cruel leader who want to destroy Toman and get revenge on his brother Mikey for being favored by his older brother, Shinichiro. However, he used to be a broken and lonely kid that had been separated from his sister, Emma and abandoned by his mother. When he find out Shinichiro is dead, he became homeless and depressed and eventually he started Tenjiku at the beginning of this arc in the series.
• Fan-Disliked Explanation: Mikey's Dark Impulses are eventually explained to be universal karma for Shinichiro's only time leap, which affects a number of people and especially Mikey since he was supposed to die. A number of fans found the reveal to be disappointing, since the tragic and messed up lives of the characters warping their personalities and clouding their judgement would have made for a much more natural explanation.
• Fandom-Specific Plot
  • Shortly after the Bonten arc concluded, many Fix fics where Takemichi time travels to attain a future where everybody lives and is happy, Mikey included, are abound, with either Takemichi being able to travel all the way back to a time where Shinichiro is still alive or Takemichi time traveled at the start of the story where Takemichi is able to approach things better so he could rescue Baji and Emma from death.
  • "Baji Lives" AUs and fanworks can be found in both the west and eastern hemisphere in part to his popularity as many fans lamented and wished he still lives.
• Fanon Discontinuity: A large chunk of the readers vastly prefers the story up to the Tenjiku Arc, finding much of the plot afterwards unnecessary and overly long where many controversial plot points happen. The replacement of Kisaki as the main villain, Draken's death, The Reveal of Mikey's dark impulses first happening when his toy airplane was broken, and the handling of Senju and South made many people come to dislike the final arc. It's for this reason that many Fix-it fics had it that Takemichi time traveled back at the start of the story at 2005 or earlier after Mikey became the new trigger for Takemichi's time travel in the end of the Bonten arc. This all becomes Hilarious in Hindsight when part of the ending does in fact have him and Mikey managing to travel all the way back to 1998, technically rendering the aforementioned events Canon Discontinuity by allowing them to fix everything for good.
• Fan-Preferred Couple:
  • BajiFuyu (Baji/Chifuyu) is one of the most popular pairings in the fandom, and their relationship-focused Origins Episode was even titled "Man Crush." BajiTora (Baji/Kazutora) and ToraFuyu (Kazutora/Chifuyu) are also other popular variants.
  • MaiTake (Mikey/Takemichi) has a huge community behind it, especially as the story goes on and makes clear how strong their friendship is and how much Takemichi is willing to go through to keep Mikey from killing himself in the future. Some have even claimed that Mikey's become the true heroine over Hina, since saving her was what kicked off the premise in the first place. Heck, official social media accounts encourage it, with the official Twitter releasing a music video about their relationship set to "Stay" by The Kid LAROI.
  • DoraMai (Draken/Mikey) is rather popular for Mikey and Draken's close relationship, and the fact that Draken's initial death would have caused Mikey to succumb to his dark side.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • With Twisted Wonderland, this is due to how a good portion of fans who read Tokyo Revengers, especially in Japan, had played the game and despite the different demographics, both series share a similar tone at how morally gray the respective stories can get beyond the majorly Bishounen casts.
  • With Nii Satoru's WIND BREAKER. Several Tokyo Revengers fans also read WIND BREAKER and are friendly with each other due to both being manga about delinquents.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The series is very popular in Indonesia for having a story based around conflicts of school delinquents that are rather unfortunately close to real-life school delinquents in that country, which gained the Memetic Mutation of "Tokyo Revengers is a slice-of-life anime". It became so far, one of the very few, if not the only, non television broadcast anime to have an Indonesian language dub (link to IQIYI).
• Ho Yay:
  • Baji, Chifuyu, and Kazutora all have strong bonds with each other, making all their relationships the Fan-Preferred Pairing by a great portion of the fandom.
    • In Baji and Chifuyu's case, Chifuyu highly values Baji. In the present timeline of the Black Dragons arc, Kisaki points out that Chifuyu hasn't gotten over Baji's death and continues to "chase after his shadow." Morever, the flashback chapter focusing on how Baji and Chifuyu became friends was titled "Man Crush." Mikey also accurately predicts that in the future, Chifuyu might have a job that reminds him of Baji.
    • In Baji and Kazutora's case, Baji calms Kazutora down and promises to stand by him after Kazutora kills Shinichiro by mistake. When Chifuyu first meets Baji, Baji is seen writing a letter to Kazutora. Later, during Kazutora's Villainous Breakdown, he realizes how important Baji is to him.
    • In the present timeline, Kazutora and Chifuyu become strong allies. In the Black Dragons arc, both of them tried to dethrone Kisaki, and Kazutora even tells Takemichi that Chifuyu was the one person he had wanted to save. In the current present timeline, Chifuyu opens a pet shop, with Kazutora working there with him.
  • Inui and Kokonoi have been together since they were young. Kokonoi also kisses Inui while the latter is sleeping, though a lot of it mostly has to do with how Inui looks like his older sister, Kokonoi's actual crush.
• Hype Backlash: Due to gaining a large fan following after the anime's release with the series gaining huge popularity in both Japan and the West, However, some people have come to treat the series with disdain after watching the anime or going on to read the manga, claiming that the series didn't meet their expectations and recency bias was the cause of its large hype. Not helping is that when Tokyo Revengers began gaining popularity the manga was entering its controversial final arc.
• I Knew It!: Upon seeing Senju's appearance with prominent eyelashes and shorter height in comparison to the other delinquents, many fans correctly guessed that the Brahman boss is actually a girl.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Takemichi would always gets shipped with the most of the cast of the series. This includes the major members of Toman, his childhood friends, characters from other gangs, most of the girls from the past, Naoto, Kisaki, and Shinichiro too.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "This is all Mikey's fault." ^explanation Kazutora's reaction to having killed Shinichiro has become popular in social media and a specific screenshot of him with the quote is prone to be overreferenced in anime-related posts.
  • Takemichi's Dump Truck! ^explanation During the Tomon vs Vahalla brawl in episode 20, a scene of Takemichi desperately running towards Mikey, made it look like Takemichi had a really fat ass◊ because of how off-model it was. Naturally, viewers had a field day with this, going on about how thicc Takemichi was.
  • Tokyo Revengers necks. ^explanation The character designs in the manga tend to have unnaturally long necks that have been joked about, with comparisons to Apple AirPods and giraffes.
  • Taiju's 100%. ^explanation Taiju Shiba, the main antagonist of the Christmas Showdown arc has a tendency of boasting that he's not fighting at "full power", measuring his output in arbitrary numbers like 30 or 70%, which some fans find silly in a mostly grounded setting. He eventually gets defeated and written out without ever getting to show his supposed 100%, even when he comes back later on.
• Narm: Chapter 241 reveals the origin of Mikey's "dark impulses" and why Haruchiyo became a terrible person. It's intended to be serious and tragic, but became ridiculed by many for revealing that it's all because Senju accidentally broke Mikey's toy airplane, which led to a kid Mikey viciously beating Haruchiyo, who was blamed for it, giving him his characteristic mouth scars. So Mikey's descent to darkness and Haruchiyo's psychopathic tendencies all started over a broken toy.
• One True Threesome:
  • On the off chance that some people don't want to choose between Takemichi ending up with either Hina or Mikey, they end up bringing the three together in fan works.
  • Baji, Kazutora and Chifuyu are put together due to the strong Ho Yay between the three of them throughout the story in different occasions. On the chance a fanwork has content where Baji lives post Bloody Halloween, they will be paired together.
• Periphery Demographic: Tokyo Revengers is a time-travel series about delinquents primarily meant for young and teen boys, being released in Weekly Shōnen Magazine. However, it's amassed a large female following for its male cast, many of whom are certified Bishōnen pleasing to the eye, as well as its character building, with many characters showing emotional growth throughout the story and Takemichi himself being a kind, emotional protagonist.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Mikey's dark impulses are an important plot point throughout the story, with the loss of people close to him causing Mikey, who has a tragic past and can become unnecessarily violent at times requiring others to reel him in, to become a monstrous criminal in Bad Futures, leading Takemichi to time leap into the past to prevent this. His attempt at suicide for devolving into a heinous person after the deaths of his friends and family in a possible future and asking Takemichi to save him is the reason Takemichi time leaps one final time for the final arc. The revelation that his dark impulses manifested as a result of Shinichiro's time leaping, with the catalyst event (Mikey slipping on his home stairs while playing and going into a coma) being changed to Mikey brutalizing Haruchiyo for breaking the toy, was seen as a very unsatisfying reveal by many people, who began to question if Mikey even deserved to be saved by Takemichi and whether or not the final arc was needed if he was a bad person before the tragedy in his life. When the final arc later clarified that the Dark Impulses affected everyone, it made fans angrier as their psychological issues were explained away with a curse.
  • The last 2 chapters has Takemichi being sent all the way back from 2008 to 1998 and time traveled together with Mikey to change the timeline. But because of all the Wham Episodes and tragedy he has gone through earlier before this, many fans lament that Wakui should have just sent Takemichi back to 1998 right from the start and make the final arc about Takemichi inserting himself into Mikey's childhood and changing things instead of the drama and tragedy that the final arc was majorly filled with beforehand.
• Too Cool to Live: This occurs frequently enough with several of the casts, notable examples include:
  • Baji Keisuke, first division captain and Childhood Friend of Mikey. He dies in the same arc that he is first introduced in and his death is one of the biggest Tearjerkers of the series.
  • Kurokawa Izana, Tenjiku's boss. His death is another Tearjerker among many in the series due to the tragic nature of his death and heavily mourned by many a fan who ponder on what could have been had he lived past the Tenjiku arc.
  • Shinichiro Sano, founder and First Generation President of Black Dragon. He's the older brother of Mikey, Emma, and Izana, and his many friends speak highly of him after his death.
  • Draken, a founding member and the former vice-leader of Tokyo Manji Gang, who loves a good fight but has a caring side and is a voice of reason, ends up fatally shot by the Rokuhara Tandai, and asks Takemichi to take care of Mikey as he dies.