It's been months since I've watched anime, and as someone who was present to hear the excitement about the anime adaptation of the manga, I had high expectations for Tokyo Revengers. I was ready to go back to that anime grind during summer break. Although this anime has failed to reach those expectations, I will still continue to watch it in hopes that it improves and meets them.
Story: If you read Lookism and Life Completely Ruined, Tokyo Revengers are those two combined (to some extent of course, it's not 100% the same). The synopsis does cover the main plot, which is that
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the main character must go back in time to save his girlfriend and everyone else from death and a dark future. There are gangs, though fair warning; the main gang we are to root for have middle schoolers as members. Yes, these people are quite young. They fight people who are their age or a bit older (high schoolers).
One problem I have with the anime is how it always repeats information, resulting in a slow pace that most watchers despise. "Show not tell" has always been common advice across any kinds of storytelling. It is incredibly annoying to face the exact opposite of that, aka "tell not show" (which nobody likes). An example of this is two characters fighting, one clearly massacring the other. The anime shows that one is losing, and the audience is able to comprehend this through the art and sound. However, the anime decides to make their main character tell us through his thoughts that the bloodied and wobbling character is losing. Was it necessary? Absolutely not. I'm not a very bright person, so the anime must be even that slow for me to catch on to this detail.
Art: The art is nothing spectacular. The animation is disappointing though. I expected some exciting action scenes, but what I got were ones with many cuts to them. The anime does fall under the action genre, but there was less than anticipated.
(Spoilers for episode 11. Skip this paragraph if you do not wish to be spoiled.) Our MC has participated in fights, but he was not victorious for any of them. However, he finally confronts his main bully and fights them. Somehow the protagonist has a choke hold on the bully. This scene would've been better if it didn't cut out the context beforehand and did not show the sky for a good few seconds on such a crucial part. If it was to add suspense, well, how the scene was executed ruined the entire mood.
As someone who loves hand-to-hand combat scenes, the only satisfying action scenes to watch were of Mikey's (a powerful side character).
Characters: This is incredibly important. Our protagonist is an underdog who cries often, is not capable of fighting physically, fears many of his strong opponents/bullies but is able to overcome those, and is quite...slow. I say slow because he constantly asks rhetorical questions but in a serious manner. It's almost as if he represents the audience who started off from a clean board. You can't blame him for some things because he did travel back to the past with minimal knowledge, but it does get on my nerves when I'm even able to answer the questions he has. Or some of his questions are just unnecessary lines, which adds to the slow pace. As for his physical abilities, twelve episodes in, but he has not achieved as much as you would think (as far as I remember he has defeated one bully in a fight). We will have to understand that in the beginning of the anime it is not about our protagonist; it is about the people around him. He is there to highlight other characters and follow their journey. This is because the other characters are more powerful than him. Does he have his moments? Of course, he's the main character! But to say that the story spotlights him is wrong. If you're turned off by "weak" main characters, many other manga readers assure you of that juicy character development we all love. I look forward to watching him grow (especially after watching episode 12).
The side characters are fine. None of them are notable to me, but perhaps it's because I take time before being attached to a character. But there are a variety of them, so I'm sure you'll be able to find a favorite and enjoy their screen time. None of them annoy me, so at least that's a win.
I will say though I do enjoy the dynamic of a certain pair (Mikey and Draken). I also like this anime for their character design though. We are introduced to some pretty cool hairstyles. It's not a bad thing, but interesting to note how our main characters are all blonde. Are they saving the black-haired character for later? I wonder who it will be. (I am respectfully looking at Baji, who had around 0.5 seconds of screen time so far.)
Enjoyment: I'm not going to lie, all the jokes just passed straight by me. I didn't initially start watching this expecting humor, but the humor that is there has failed to make me laugh. That combined with everything else I said above has made my enjoyment level quite low. Episode 12 (the most recent one I watched) was better, and I predict a shift in the anime. There is only hope for this anime to become better that is pushing me to keep watching.
Overall: I rate anime based on the words (masterpiece, great, very good, etc.), and I give this anime a 6/10 (average/fair).
Should you watch this anime? Whether you are a manga reader or an anime-only, I would personally wait until the anime has finished airing and then read some reviews (where the user watched it until the end) to have a go at it. Go watch another anime while this one is still airing.
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Jun 27, 2021
Tokyo Revengers
(Anime)
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It's been months since I've watched anime, and as someone who was present to hear the excitement about the anime adaptation of the manga, I had high expectations for Tokyo Revengers. I was ready to go back to that anime grind during summer break. Although this anime has failed to reach those expectations, I will still continue to watch it in hopes that it improves and meets them.
Story: If you read Lookism and Life Completely Ruined, Tokyo Revengers are those two combined (to some extent of course, it's not 100% the same). The synopsis does cover the main plot, which is that ... 
Aug 12, 2019
So I recently started to keep up with seasonal anime. My journey was going smoothly, and I was thoroughly enjoying my experience. That is, until a certain anime came rolling in.
Since all the previous anime I watched were amazing, I had high expectations for Dr. Stone. The plot sounded fantastic and was something to look forward to. Unfortunately, what I received wasn't satisfying. Story: The synopsis is interesting, right? Right. But when the plot is going in a good direction, something disturbing always appears. It kills the mood and makes me wonder why I would have ever considered watching this anime in the first place. (Minor spoiler ... |
