Discusses the biggest mystery leading up to the climax of “Tokyo Revengers”: the final time jump.

This article contains spoilers for “Tokyo Revengers” (Ken Wakui, Kodansha). Please note that this article contains spoilers from “Tokyo Revengers” (Ken Wakui, Kodansha). (Author)
　The 31st and final volume of Ken Wakui’s smash hit “Tokyo Revengers,” which has sold more than 70 million copies worldwide, was released on January 17. In addition, the second season of the TV anime (“Christmas Decisive Battle”) is currently being broadcast, and a second two-part live-action movie (“Bloody Halloween”) is scheduled to be released in April and June, so the “Tokyo Revengers” boom is not likely to subside for the time being.

In this article, we would like to consider the “greatest mystery” of this work, the “final time leap” of the main character, Hanagaki Takemichi.

What is the mystery of Takemichi’s final time leap?
In the final chapter of “Tokyo Revengers,” Takemichi, who time leaps from the present day (2018) to the past (2008) to become the second president of Tokyo-manji-kai, is watched over by many of his friends. Takemichi, who became the second president of Tokyo-manji-kai in the past (2008), dukes it out with Sano Manjiro, the president of Kato-manji-kai, while many of his friends watch. After a fierce battle, he catches the curse (black impulse) that had been consuming Mikey’s mind and runs out of power on the spot. ……

Meanwhile, Mikey comes to his senses, grabs Takemichi’s (presumed) lifeless hand, and drops a tear. At that moment, Takemichi’s “final time leap” is triggered.

He finds himself time-released back to the year 1998 – when he was in the first grade of elementary school.

First, a certain question arises here. As fans know, in the story “Tokyo Revengers,” with a few exceptions (to be discussed later), the time leaper basically travels back and forth between the past and the future (present day) by shaking hands with the trigger.

According to that timelapse mechanism, the moment Mikey in 2008 grabs his hand, Takemichi should come back to the present day (2018) again (Note: Takemichi’s trigger is originally a person named Tachibana Naoto, but in this last chapter, Takemichi in 2018 Mikey was triggered and time leapt to 2008).

In other words, in the aforementioned scene, we can understand that “Mikey, the trigger, grabbed Takemichi’s hand, which triggered the time leap phenomenon,” but the question is why he did not go back to the future (the present day) as he had done in the past, but went further back in time to 1998. However, the question is why he did not return to the future (the present day) as he had done in the past, but went back further into the past, to 1998.

However, it is not impossible to explain this question by saying that Takemichi, the time reaper, or Mikey, the trigger, subconsciously wished to go to the past rather than the future (the present time).

However, it would be a different story if not only Takemichi but also Mikey (who is supposed to be the trigger) had time leapt to the past, to the world of 1998.

In fact, the two “reunite” in that time period (episodes 276-277). They join forces to create an ideal future (this is their true “revenge”), but the mechanism of time leap at this time (how they were able to time leap at the same time) is never revealed until the very end (Takemichi only says “It’s a miracle!!!”). (Takemichi says about this mystery, “I thought I gave up my ability to you, but I guess I came back with you when we shook hands at that time,” which may be a tentative “explanation” ()). (……).

Reconfirming the Mechanism of Time Leap
Let me reexamine the mechanism of time leaps in the story “Tokyo Revengers”.

First, in this work, the ability of time-lapse is passed from one person to another in one of the following ways.

(1) By killing the person with the ability, the “power” can be obtained.
(2) If the person with the ability wishes, he or she can pass the “power” on to another person.

Incidentally, Mikey’s older brother, Sano Shinichiro, once became a time reaper using method (1) in order to avert his brother’s death, and after fulfilling his purpose, he transferred his “power” to Takemichi as a boy using method (2) (Takemichi, however, grew up without knowing about this “power. (However, Takemichi grows up without knowing about his “power.)
As mentioned above, time leaps basically require the cooperation (handshake) of a trigger person, but there are exceptions. For example, the following two cases are examples.

(1) When Takemichi first went back in time (episode 1), there was no one to act as a trigger.
(2) When Shinichiro went back in time (Episode 271), there was also no one to act as a trigger (although it could be seen that Chiya Sanzu Haru witnessed the “scene” and indirectly acted as a trigger).

　From these “exceptions,” we can see that in some cases, time leaps can be performed on one’s own (without the need for a trigger).

　So, to return to the previous question (why were Takemichi and Mikey able to time leap at the same time?), for example, could this “hypothesis” not be true?

Takemichi, on the verge of death, decided to pass on his “power” to Mikey, and he actually inherited it.
　However, this was not all of his “power,” and Takemichi still had the ability to make time leaps.

　In other words, if the situation of “two time leapers” is established, even if only temporarily, it is not impossible for one (Takemichi) to time leap by holding Trigger’s hand, and the other (Mikey) by his own power.

　Or (to stretch the imagination a bit further), Takemichi could have given up half of his “power” to Mikey and at the same time become his trigger. In this case, since they are both “time reapers and triggers,” they can both time leap at the same time by joining hands.

　In any case, “Tokyo Revengers” leaves many other mysteries, large and small (for example, who was the homeless man who holds the key to the story? ), we should not assume that these questions and unanswered foreshadowing are “broken settings,” but rather that they are “blank spaces in the story” that are left to the readers to fill in in their own minds and enjoy the story.