Tokyo Revengers: Christmas Showdown

The first season of Tokyo Revengers was a real smash hit as in a shallow mainstream anime once again- the worst anime to come around in the last few years for me. When you have a show that you find yourself thinking about at other times during the day, you know you've got a bad one on your hands. That really has fallen apart with season two, unfortunately. There were two key points that made season one what it was: the characters (with a notable exception we'll get on to shortly) and the storyline. TR opts for the 'large cast' approach which, when not done right,can often end up with a chaotic character list that is hard to follow. To its credit, it handled that well and every character was well fleshed out and felt personable. With one exception... Takemichi. He really is what made Tokyo Revengers a 2.5 star anime instead of a solid 2. Had he been one of the major side characters, like Mikey or Chifuyu, the show would have had top marks. Given that he was the MC, however, it held the show back; the saving grace being that the show used its time to focus on everyone involved and not just him, which gave the viewer a break from the one dimensional, misplaced MC. And that's the cardinal problem with season two - too much Takemichi. For the majority of the second season, the show descended into 'MC is God Emperor regardless' mode and it's just lazy writing, to be honest. Compared to the first season's deep-dive into most of the major side characters, this season focuses much more on Takemichi and it really lets the show down; he has always seemed so incredibly out of place in this story that he makes no sense being there most of the time. That can be overlooked or even a source of comic relief at times, but not when he's the main character. Alas, now we've entered the realm of everyone worshipping every fart he lets rip, just because he's Takemichi. "The real hero of the day was Takemichi," it was said, after the defeat of Taiju. Funny that, I would have said it was Draken beating 100 seasoned fighters on his own in 5-7 literal minutes off-screen, personally, but obviously I'm just not graced enough to bask in God Emperor's crying glory. Let's not talk about the dive Taiju took from one half-baked Takemichi fist slap either, despite him getting knocked around by the much stronger Mitsuya at the start of the fight with zero repercussions whatsoever. While the time traveling angle was a bit weak in the first season, it could be taken for the lighthearted excuse to tell an intriguing story that it was. In the second season, however, it's just wearing a bit thin; that said, it wouldn't if Takemichi wasn't so painfully dense. The amount of times you find yourself yelling at the screen with the answer to a Captain Obvious moment that Takemichi takes half an hour figuring out is ridiculous. For an anime centered around gangs and violence, why the writer made the MC a painfully thick, painfully weak idiot who cries every five minutes is a bit beyond me. If it's to put across that he's the glue that holds everyone together because he isn't like the other guys, it's not working, to be honest. That said, this is still a good anime in its own right. As a Tokyo Revengers season, however, it pales a bit in comparison to its predecessor. I'll be looking forward to season three nonetheless, though if the show continues to descend into 'Takemichi is Heaven's gift to the world' mode despite him doing literally nothing but getting his sh*t shoved in, I might reconsider if there ends up being a fourth. At least we still have Chifuyu, eh? He just gets more wonderful by the episode.

So the first season was kind of good but i was completely annoyed by the main character, so now that the second season aired i was kind of unsure if i should try watching it, but i did and i got exactly what i expected, even more annoying protagonist ( he's seriously so badly written) and a story that's not exciting in any way, you know every time he gets back something different is messed up it's not a suprise anymore. if they had given Takemitchi some kind of good character developement then i would say this is getting good, but that's not happening, so ithink season 3 to X will have no surprises and will be the same mechanic over and over again

Plot: I believe that the mangaka of Tokyo Revengers has a wonderful and strong ability to twist the plot and direct it into places you never thought of, BUT, he has this weakness of never untwisting that twist in a good way, meaning, When you give me a surprising turn in the events (in a good way of course) you will have to explain how this unexpected turn happened and why it happened and if you fail to explain it in a good, smooth, and logical way, no matter how good this twist is it will become a bad twist, and that's Ken Wakui's writing fragilityin my opinion where he never fails to surprise me but almost always fails to elucidate these twists, But I said almost impossible because he was capable of clarifying the biggest twist/mystery which was what happens to his body when he goes back to the future and how timelines change which is something I liked. And since this is a continuation of a previous season, we see the storyline and the world-building getting bigger and bigger each arc even though the timeline seems tighter and the end is closer with every passing episode. Art style: I'm gonna start by saying Coloring of scenes, characters, backgrounds is eye captivating, and the precise drawing of some things like clothing, vehicles, and bikes, and buildings shows that the mangaka cares a lot about such things which raises the level of the art style in this anime. But to be fair, what a stupid character design, you either give me the body and voice of a 40-year-old or the body and voice of a teenager, you can't just give me a character that dead serious looks and sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger and then tell me he's 16 years old. Also, the characters' physique is really irritating, the bodies are all standard but then the heads are twice the size they should be. Animation: Except for some short scenes in fights and scenes of certain hard angles where it lost a bit of its smoothness, the animation level was high for most of the season, and what matters most is the consistency of the animation and the coordination between animation and art style to make them seem more suitable and appropriate and that was well done. Characters: characters development is either so slow or so sudden, this kind of development would be perfect for an anime with the episode number of One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, or Conan, but not for a 37-episode anime, we don't clearly see a change in the personality of a character and sometimes like in flashbacks we see the moment that character forever changed but it happens like a tick in a clock, instant. it either takes a whole season to see change and it happens vaguely or it happens immediately. This makes the anime less surprising and more predictable, and don't misunderstand me, I don't think the characters' development is bad, I just would've loved it if it was more perfectly paced. Even though the flashbacks didn't help that much in pacing the character's development, we did witness very good flashbacks that made us more attached to the characters in specific and the whole anime in general. Antagonists: The villains are well written and properly fitted into the story and never fail to pull me more and more whether they are new villains or already existing ones. It's all good, but I would appreciate it more if we were shown, informed, or aware of how many gangs there is and what areas each gang controls because I think that would've made the world more understandable, and every time we find out there is still another gangs/enemies it adds to the joy of the watching experience of course, but at some point, it becomes an overused and a cliché way of building the story and providing plot twists. Fights: Peer-to-peer fights are rare in this season, there is always a massive difference in power between the two sides. And it's goddamn impossible for someone to black out in this anime, someone got shot in the head for god sake, and still didn't fade away. Even though this is considered a non-superpower anime it still has some exaggeration in characters' power and endurance, and the balance between characters' power, endurance, and stamina couldn't have been worse, some characters are weak as a pigeon but can bare the power of a human tank hits nonstop, and what makes it more annoying is seeing a character taking a deadly hit and they show us the knocked out eyes, then immediately that character stands up as if nothing happened. Music: This anime musical staff from songwriters to composers and producers did a great job by introducing to us the terrific opening and ending of this season, the themes of this anime are catchy and beautiful to listen to, even independently and without watching the anime I'd still listen to them, the opening theme though was more beautiful and more fit to the anime, but most importantly, they are properly compatible with the events of the anime. While the soundtracks and background music weren't too good to remember, I still don't think there was a moment where I felt that there should be music here or there should be better music here, meaning that the music composers made good choices throughout the whole anime. Also, sound effects were perfectly executed, from Voice-over, hits and kicks, walking and running, bike sounds, and sound in general. Ratings: Plot: 8/10 The plot showcases impressive twists and turns but occasionally falls short of delivering clear explanations, slightly impacting narrative satisfaction. Art Style: 6.5/10 While the meticulous detailing and coloring are commendable, character design inconsistencies and proportions could use improvement for a more cohesive visual appeal. Animation: 8/10 The season maintains high animation quality for the most part, but occasional lapses in fight scenes slightly affect overall fluidity. Characters: 7.5/10 Character development's mixed pacing, while suited for longer series, impacts predictability; well-crafted flashbacks enhance attachment, yet slight imbalances persist. Antagonists: 7.5/10 Villains are well-integrated, though the repeated introduction of new adversaries occasionally leans towards a clichéd approach, affecting narrative freshness. Fights: 6/10 Infrequent peer-to-peer fights exhibit imbalanced power dynamics; occasional exaggeration in character abilities disrupts realism and engagement. Music: 7.5/10 Themes effectively complement events, with opening and ending themes standing out; while soundtracks align well, memorability could be enhanced. Attraction and Enjoyment: 8/10 Now it might be because of my love for this anime, but I still enjoyed it so much despite the drop in the general level of this season from the previous one. Overall: 7.4/10 - Good.

This is incredibly disappointing! It honestly frustrates me because Season 1 was an absolutely solid anime! One that I would absolutely recommend, but this season basically feels like filler! We continue our development from the end of the previous season, and most of the beats have a similar rhythm. The problem is that this season only features a single thread. The thread is perfectly fine, but it's NOT enough to carry the entire season. If this had been a movie or even 6 episodes long, I would have probably rated it an 8! However, because they decided to stretch it across 13 episodes everything endedup so incredibly awkward! There's a bit of development, a bunch of nothing, a bunch of hanging around, a bit of development, repeat. The fight scene is basically the same, as each character will often stand around doing nothing or take turns getting beat up with minimal consequences. It honestly felt like we were back to classic DBZ, in which characters spend entire episodes powering up. That's how bad it is! Again, the core story and reveal and all that good stuff was FINE. The problem is that there wasn't enough content for 13 episodes. It's like as if World of Warcraft decided, 'You know what, a single quest per city is more than enough.' You know what, let's poke some holes in the core story too. WTF is this boss man who is basically a 7 foot tall perfectly muscle sculpted mountain of a man 15 year old kid... You know what, it's FINE. Villains are allowed to be strong. How is Takemichi going up against him? He easily defeats significantly stronger fighters, yet somehow Takemichi is able to be a contender... You know what, its FINE, protag syndrome... but then they just got lazy with it... They sell the Black Dragons as being essentially militarily trained super soldiers, then hand wave them away when it stops being convenient. It's just lazy. I'm honestly just disappointed.