Tokyo Revengers

Episode 18

With now weeks of buildup, ominous foreshadowing, and unraveling mysteries, the day of Bloody Halloween has finally arrived, and it's time for Toman and Valhalla to put it all on the line and earn this arc its violent title...next week. Despite the name, “Open Fire” is more like a couple of warning shots across the neutral zone, as both sides assemble their various chess pieces and make 1000% sure the audience knows what the stakes are and how important this is. There's even an honest-to-god montage of trailer shots with just about every important character (and Mitsuya) steeling themselves for the coming conflict.

That could make for some frustrating viewing, but thankfully this episode justifies its time spent better than last week. For one, it sets up some immediate stakes about how Takemichi needs to change the past next: preventing Baji and Kazutora's deaths during this whole gang war to prevent Kisaki from weaseling his way into Mikey's upper echelon. My first thought was that this was a rehash of saving Draken from last arc – and even the character comments on that – but I can appreciate this situation's nuances a lot better than the simple assassination prevention before it. Baji is clearly carrying some kind of baggage about Kazutora and what happened to Mikey's brother, and I imagine saving everyone will involve untying the gnarled motivations and emotions behind all of this rather than just stopping anyone from getting stabbed.

There's also some hints that something might be going on with the mechanics of Takemichi's time jumping. This aspect of the story is something I've done my best not to think about since it began, as the exact logic behind time travel is a bottomless rabbit hole that would make for some terribly tedious discussion. And since the show itself has taken to just skipping over the requisite scenes of Takemichi fist-bumping Naoto, I figured we were all in agreement that it was just a vehicle for delivering this story. But now that Takemichi Prime seems to be awakening memories from world lines he's never been a part of, I imagine something timey-wimey will become relevant before the end of the season. If nothing else, it's an interesting and haunting concept to consider, memories of a past you've never seen that are ultimately some twisted premonition.

But there's no time for that, as we at last get to the junkyard featured so heavily in the new ED for Bloody Halloween, and are introduced to the surprisingly structured world of gang warfare. I'd assumed based on everything I've ever seen that the planned fight between Toman and Valhalla would just be a lawless brawl – and it does get there eventually – but for a while Revengers sees fit to lay out rules of order, complete with spectators and referees. While this does offer some glimpses into the larger world of gangs in Tokyo – and I'm sure all those new named characters will be important at some later date – it sure does raise a lot of questions. How often do formal duels like this happen? Do they always bring in an impartial gang leader to moderate? Are there any actual consequences to shirking any established rules or guidelines? Considering Kazutora decks the ref and calls the charge, I imagine the answer is “no” which just makes the whole preceding ritual kind of pointless, right?

Nitpicking the politics of Gentleman's Gang Warfare aside, I am definitely excited for next episode. This arc has had plenty of issues with pacing and delivery, but if there's one thing Revengers has always done well, it's violence. We've got an entire car park of colorful, teenage sociopaths ready to crack skulls, and plenty of tragic backstories to motivate them, so let's see what kind of carnage they can unleash.

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Tokyo Revengers is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.