The Winter 2023 Anime Preview Guide

Tokyo Revengers: Christmas Showdown

Watching the news, Takemichi Hanagaki learns that his girlfriend from way back in middle school, Hinata Tachibana, has died. The only girlfriend he ever had was just killed by a villainous group known as the Tokyo Manji Gang. He lives in a crappy apartment with thin walls, and his six-years-younger boss treats him like an idiot. At the height of his rock-bottom life, he suddenly time-leaps twelve years back to his middle school days. To save Hinata and change the life he spent running away, hopeless part-timer Takemichi must aim for the top of Kanto's most sinister delinquent gang.

Tokyo Revengers: Christmas Showdown is a sequel to the Tokyo Revengers anime based on Ken Wakui's manga and streams on Hulu.

Nicholas Dupree
Rating:

I had a looooot of problems with the second half of Tokyo Revengers' first season. But many of those problems have faded with memory, while its season finale has still stuck with me as compulsively watchable TV. It rocketed both the audience and Takemichi out of the doldrums of the Bloody Halloween story and into a new status quo that nobody could predict, then ended on a cliffhanger with our hero moments from meeting his death at the end of a gun barrel. This new season picks up right where we left off, and while it spends a lot of time getting us back up to speed, in classic Revengers fashion, it manages to pull things together for an exciting start to the next arc.

Though there's a whole lot of exposition to get through first, and that's definitely where the show struggles with its own supernatural conceit. The excuses Takemichi gives for why he has no clue about his own life after middle school have worn very thin, to the point where you have to assume he has some aura that stops anyone around him from asking about his sudden onset amnesia. Beyond that, his car ride with Kazutora is mostly just exposition – providing helpful information that we'll need going forward but doling it out in such a utilitarian manner that it takes you out of the moment. We're learning that Toman has grown so corrupt and violent that they've become drug kingpins that wipe out their own, but it's all just dumped in Takemichi's lap while he sits quietly. It's a repeat of the many times Takemichi felt like a bystander in the previous arc and is a reminder of the show's biggest weaknesses.

Thankfully, things pull together by the end once Takemichi is back with Naoto and confronted with the type of man he'd become in this new timeline. Not only was he one of Kisaki's lackeys, he indirectly ordered the hit on Hina himself, and learning that damn near breaks the guy. It's genuinely affecting how much it shatters him, especially after witnessing miserable deaths in both timelines. Naoto continues to be the ultimate bro and pulls his friend out of that pit, and altogether it's a return to the kind of addictive drama that I've come to expect from this show.

The production is, unfortunately, also what we've come to expect: functional at best. The time between seasons – and the manga's explosive success during that time – clearly didn't translate to a more lavish production. Characters look identical, and when things aren't moving, the show is perfectly average. But there are already some awkward, pitiful pieces of animation that will doubtlessly make the rounds on Twitter. Having seen some of the manga art since finishing season one, it is disappointing how poorly the anime continues to adapt to motion. I've long made peace with that deficiency, but it's still hard to ignore.

Still, this is a satisfactory return for folks who stuck with the first season and wanted to see a follow-up to that cliffhanger (read: me). We've got new and returning villains for Takemichi to face and a renewed sense of urgency to finally confront Kisaki himself. So here's hoping for the best with this very late Christmas story.