REVIEW: ‘Tokyo Revengers,’ Episode 25 — “It Is What It Is”

Tokyo Revengers is easily the best sci-fi-lite gangster story in shonen. Oddly specific, I know, but both genre pieces the series hits is what makes it work so well narratively. There is betrayal and high action stakes that come with a gangster story, but at the same time, the element of time travel and correcting the past makes the series’s emotional moments hit hard. Season 1 of the series ended with a bang, and immense growth for Takemichi. Tokyo Revengers is kicking off Season 2 on Hulu instead of Crunchyroll and Episode 25, “It Is What It Is,” has upped every stake there is.

If you’re unfamiliar with the premise of Tokyo Revengers, the series follows Takemichi Hanagaki, who discovers he has time-traveling abilities after being pushed on train tracks by an unknown person. Using this new-found time, Takemichi vows to save his girlfriend from being murdered by the ruthless Tokyo Manji Gang and thereby changing the destinies of those around him. Season two starts with Takemichi being interrogated by Kisaki, tied to a chair, and shot. It’s a far detachment from where he thought he would be after changing the past, but the worst part? Hina is still dead. While the changes he made sent ripple effects throughout his life, the life of Toman members, and ultimately his friends, the future is somehow worse.

Tokyo Revengers puts viewers back into the front seat of the emotional rollercoaster. It doesn’t let up much at all, even for a fairly straightforward exposition dump. We get the lay of the land of the new timeline and Takemichi’s place in it before the episode ends with him back in the past, and yet I still found myself pulled in from start to finish. The quality of LIDENFILMS’s animation remains top-notch, particularly when Takemichi learns about the timeline and entirely breaks down in tears.

While Takemichi was able to make sure that some Toman members are still alive, their present isn’t a happy one. Draken is on death row. Kisaki is still in control. But most shockingly, Takemichi is evil. While Kazatora is out of prison, he’s stuck watching Toman devolve into a gang without morals and honor and instead driven by money. The new era for hoodlums that Mikey wanted to build is unrecognizable, and now with this season, the goal isn’t about saving one person but saving the people and the gang Takemichi had come to love. But with no memories of anything that led to the changes, Takemichi has to rely on Naota’s small point of reference to hopefully undo it all and correct the past once again, this time with the goal of getting Kisaki out of the way. 

The idealistic leader that put honor and his found above all changed into someone untrusting and evil thanks to Kisaki’s penchant for violence and Black Dragon’s money. Everything about the new present is wrong. And that weight crushes Takemichi completely. While there is joy in seeing Kazatora back, there is an immense sorrow that ripples out from every revelation that takes place in Tokyo Revengers Episode 25, making Season 2 come into the Winter 2023 season with a bang.

The biggest moment of all is that in the yoyoing between timelines has resulted in larger changes than just people existing, but in who people fundamentally are. While Takemichi had no power in the original timeline, in this one he does. But his involvement in Toman isn’t good, in fact, it’s the worst version of himself he can be. Cut off from Naoto and arrested, the episode ending by going back to the past after setting the stage lets the audience know exactly how much is riding on the past changing. The stakes seem even higher in Tokyo Revengers Season 2, and I can’t wait to see it undold.

Tokyo Revengers Episode 25 is available now, exclusively on Hulu with new episodes airing every Saturday.