#🍓🍊 tr ramblings

[strawberryclementine]

obsessed with the idea of a young Final Timeline Kisaki confessing his feelings to Takemichi because he's deliberately taken Hinata's place as the first person to treat him so warmly and tenderly in this timeline and he just blurts, "What about Hina???" and Kisaki is confused and responds, "Huh? So you're rejecting me, right?🥺" because Takemichi and Hinata aren't even dating yet and it hits Takemichi all at once the precarious ✨situation✨ he may be in so he quickly says, "No, no, of course not!" and Kisaki quietly asks, "You have feelings for me too, then?🥹" and Takemichi just takes a deep breath and says, "Give me a minute," before contemplating all his life choices like

[strawberryclementine]

I feel like we don't talk about the fact that Hinata literally beat up Takemichi when he broke up with her... I think that Wakui wrote that scene with the intention of some humour because of how Takemichi looks afterwards but it's not funny just because a girl is beating up a boy. It's worth examining why she beats him up and what that says about her character.

I wouldn't go so far as to say this scene was out of character for her, but it really stands out. It isn't totally out of character because of how much she has been shown to care/think about Takemichi (even 12 years later, when she wears the necklace) and the lengths she has been willing to go to for him (ie, slapping Mikey). With these two points in mind, this breakup scene really stands out to me because instead of sticking up for Takemichi she's lashing out at him due to her strong feelings for him.

I always thought it was a little odd that she had worn the clover necklace for twelve years after the Meobius Arc, considering Takemichi was just her middle school boyfriend, and also her childhood and grown-up selves had always seemed more well-adjusted than the lonely Takemichi (ie, she has a career as a teacher, and we see her on the pedestal that Takemichi puts her on since the story is from his POV). But if you really think about it, she's been devoted to one person since middle school who she hadn't interacted with after all that time, even though she easily could have. And when we actually see her being rejected by that person, her response is violence. I can't help but recall a really unnerving parallel.

The story fails to address the fact that Kisaki and Hinata actually have some really interesting similarities. Kisaki's response to being rejected by the person he idolizes is exponentially more violent than Hinata's, and his obsession has a much more tangible/real impact on his future since he becomes a top gangster for Hinata, but I think it's worth mentioning that Kisaki and Hinata do in fact have similarities, that they really heavily fixate on someone they admire. (I'm not even going to get into the fact that Kisaki's obsession is also directed on Takemichi, that's a whole other discussion)

There are actually parallels between all three characters in the Takemichi, Hinata, and Kisaki "love triangle" that I wish were further explored/discussed because these characters all mirror each other at least slightly. They somehow manage to be quite similar but also quite different. A lot of these differences stem from circumstance, I believe, but intrinsically there are similarities that tie them so closely together it's no wonder the series can be traced back to the day these three met.

[strawberryclementine]

what did Kisaki do immediately after he was fired from Toman? After the meeting ended, did he leave by himself or did Hanma try to follow him? Did he shoo Hanma away? Did he wait a few days before meeting up with Hanma again? Did he allow himself to cry, even when he was alone? Did he ever, for even an accidental second, let Hanma know how devastating this was to him? Did Hanma try to console him? Did he express gratitude to Hanma for following him out of Toman? Did they even once say in plain words "I care about you" or was it unspoken? Did they-- *gets hit by a truck*

[strawberryclementine]

Idk if this had been addressed or not but the Tachibana parents look exactly like Kisaki and Hinata as a married couple

[strawberryclementine]

I just had a premonition that this scene will not be animated in season 3/it will be cut out

It's a shame because this is one of my favorite scenes, but because it's Kisaki-sympathetic I sense that at the very least the dialogue will be significantly altered or cut down, maybe eliminated entirely. I always got the vibe that Mr. Wakui was foreshadowing something different from (or something more than) the Kisaki + Takemichi reunion in a restarted timeline (ie, a Hanma time leaper moment), but we never got that, so the scene might be reduced, maybe to just this panel, for some foreshadowing of the reset timeline. Other than that, I feel like the producers will be worried this scene asks the viewer to like Kisaki, which it doesn't, and that would also lead to the scene being altered.

[strawberryclementine]

This panel haunts me for its blatant disregard of canon character heights

I wonder what it'll look like animated

[strawberryclementine]

Thinking of Takemichi being so gentle and tender with Kisaki in the final timeline. The first time they meet, Takemichi bursts into tears and hugs Kisaki so tight when he realizes it's him. He's too young to be lonely, and Takemichi is desperate to finally have another try at saving him. He is an incredibly supportive friend to Kisaki, who can't help but wonder why someone as amazing as Takemichi would so badly want to befriend him. They walk home together, stand at the bridge and watch the traffic pass below, and they study and talk until late at night. Takemichi lets Kisaki squeeze his hand when he gets his ear pierced, and when Kisaki asks Takemichi why he didn't pierce his own ear Takemichi just says, "Because I don't wear an earring! You do," and Kisaki has no idea why Takemichi said it like it's an absolute truth, but he believes it. They're also good friends with Hinata, who teaches them how to play Chopsticks on the piano, and they all play it together at the same time, going faster and faster until Takemichi messes up and they all start laughing and tumble off the bench. Kisaki realizes that this is all that he needs and all he ever wanted, and he loves both of them more than the whole world. On the day of Hinata and Takemichi's wedding, when Kisaki arrives at Takemichi's house to help him get ready, he starts crying just at the sight of him in his wedding suit and he apologizes for breaking down because he never wanted Takemichi to see him cry but when Takemichi says, "It's okay," and nods yes, I've never seen you cry until today there's some dishonesty in his eyes that Kisaki can't comprehend but then Takemichi starts crying too and he hugs him and Kisaki never wants to let go because as happy as he is for Takemichi's happiness, he's terrified of being alone and he doesn't know how to tell Takemichi that he and Hinata taught him what love is and how to be loved, so his heart aches with the notion that Takemichi will never know, but Takemichi knows very well how true this is and for a moment he also thinks that he never wants to let go, lest Kisaki ever feel lonely, because nothing is more painful than loneliness. Takemichi does everything in his power to make sure no one he loves ever feels lonely again.

[strawberryclementine]

when Takemichi is finally old enough to get his hands on some beer in the final timeline he's so excited because it is his favourite brand from the timeline he originally came from, but then he drinks it and discovers that his tastebuds aren't developed to like it yet so he cries. "I'm supposed to like this!" he exclaims, and then Hinata laughs at him for failing to seem mature

[strawberryclementine]

very interested in the idea of Hanma trying to piece together what Kisaki wanted out of being a delinquent, specifically when he said "I will get what I want" while they were on their way to kill Emma. He becomes obsessed with finding out what it was that Kisaki wanted because he wants to either (a) complete his mission or (b) exact vengeance (whichever ends up being more applicable). he says it's just for fun because Kisaki was the only fun in his life but also he never stops thinking about him.

maybe he even joins Bonten as a part of this mission and gets the Bonten tattoo on his ring finger

[strawberryclementine]

Thinking about Bad Toman Kisaki slowly becoming more and more disenchanted by Takemichi over the years as he watches him devolve into a selfish, heartless delinquent who always does as he's told, eventually becoming a Toman Exec who quickly accepts murder orders. How this is exactly what Kisaki wanted, to keep Takemichi close and to have him suffering, but he still almost hates seeing Takemichi devolve from a willingness to be hurt for others to fearful obedience of authority. How he's simultaneously disgusted by the villain Takemichi has become and delighted by the grip he has on his life. How though this is a way of exacting punishment on Takemichi for stealing Hinata's heart, by the time Kisaki holds the gun to Takemichi's head, his hero has already been gone for quite some time.

He must be shocked to see Takemichi cry for probably the first time in years after Chifuyu gets shot. When Takemichi begins to cry, Kisaki basically asks him if he's still a crybaby after all their time together and says he's disappointed. I'm not exactly sure why he says he's disappointed, but there are at least two probable reasons.

First, he's disappointed that he wasn't able to fully remove Takemichi from his old crybaby self. He wanted to erase the "crybaby hero" from Takemichi, to make Takemichi terminally unrecognizable from his "crybaby hero" self.

Second, he could be disappointed that Takemichi, who hadn't seemed like his old self in years, is only returning moments before death. Kisaki misses the old Takemichi, his old hero.

I think Kisaki is conflicted between these two very different sentiments here, because while he chose to keep Takemichi around for twelve years and make him suffer, he also always idolized the hero Takemichi used to be and probably missed him very much.

[strawberryclementine]

While it's nice that the cast got a happy ending, the rush-through of the final timeline in Tokyo Revengers overlooks so much trauma and manufactures happiness for the cast in a highly presumptuous way, and I don't care for how it diminishes the events of the entire series. It's presented to seem pleasant (maybe even perfect) but Takemichi relived almost his entire life while on a constant guard to "protect" numerous people who didn't know him yet, with only the support of one person who didn't know what he went through in all the other timelines. Imagine how all-consuming that self-imposed responsibility is! Takemichi's hero complex consumed him for two decades until he could reach a life he had always wanted with Hinata, but she is completely oblivious to it. She has no idea what Takemichi has been through to reach this point. She has no idea who Takemichi really is! How can something so orchestrated be what he always wanted? Isn't he exhausted? How is he supposed to live after reaching an age he has now reached twice, in two separate lives? What is he supposed to do with himself with all that he knows? How does he carry on?

Anyways, depending on the direction of the wind or the phase of the moon, I'll go from thinking of the final timeline as this horrific Twilight Zone situation in which Takemichi is driven to madness but then I'll laugh at the idea that he's upset he can't drink beer for like ten years after time leaping to grade one.

[strawberryclementine]

I wanted to share an old theory of mine for how Kisaki found out about time leaping. I know at the end of the series it was implied that it was because Kisaki watched as Shinichiro transferred his power to Takemichi, but I wanted to share my theory from before us even knowing that Shinichiro was a time leaper. I thought that Kisaki's knowledge could be traced back to Naoto. Here's my train of thought:

During Takemichi's first time leap in chapter 1, Takemichi admits to Naoto about being a time leaper and being grateful to have seen Hinata one last time because he loves her so much. So from the start of the series, Naoto is always aware that Takemichi is time leaping for her.

In chapter 8, when Takemichi visits Akkun on the roof, Akkun asks him about time leaping for an Ultimate Love, Hinata. He also mentions that he knows it was Naoto that saved him and that he seemed to have somehow known in advance that Takemichi would be pushed, and him knowing this was because of time leaping.

Kisaki was watching this scene unfold, and at first it's unclear whether he told Akkun to ask Takemichi about time leaping or if Akkun pieced this together by himself, but later on it becomes clear that Akkun was unaware while Kisaki suspected Takemichi of time leaping.

But how did Kisaki find this out?

The only person other than Takemichi who the audience knew was aware of time leaping at chapter 8 was Naoto. So maybe it was Naoto who told Kisaki about it? I thought that perhaps they knew each other somehow, and since Naoto was interested in the occult, he told Kisaki about the time leaping to some extent.

Naoto and Kisaki having some kind of friendship seemed even more plausible when Naoto said Kisaki's catchphrase in chapter 88:

This made me think that Kisaki and Naoto spoke frequently and recently enough to adopt each other's catchphrases. Additionally, in the following chapter we find out that Hinata and Kisaki walked home together from cram school, which sets a precedent for Kisaki and Naoto meeting at a young age!

It would have been very ironic if Future Naoto forgot about any friendship with Kisaki (because it was 12 years ago) and accidentally helped Kisaki along the way as a child. Similar to the way Takemichi was implicated in Hina's murder in the Bad Toman timeline, I thought that past Naoto would be revealed to be accidentally involved in Kisaki's plan.

I still like this theory because in the final chapters when it's revealed that Shinichiro transferred his powers to Takemichi, Shinichiro only vaguely describes the power to Takemichi. Also, it seemed a little odd to me that Kisaki would have believed that Shinichiro actually transferred a magical power to little Takemichi. I would have thought that Shinichiro was just trying to console him. Unfortunately we'll not get to see what exactly Kisaki was thinking in that moment or how he pieces together that Takemichi was time leaping.

[strawberryclementine]

by the end of the Meobius Arc I was so invested in Akkun's character I'm still not over how they pretty much just dropped him entirely immediately afterwards

justice for Akkun

[strawberryclementine]

say what you want but these three had some sort of unhealthy love triangle for 12 years in the Bad Toman timeline; we were just deprived of seeing any of it

Hinata is the fourth part and makes it a square since Takemichi still thinks about her, Kisaki is obsessed with her, and she's still fixated on Takemichi, but she's the unseen vertex in this setup because she never actually interacts with them until the very end

[strawberryclementine]

considering Takemichi most likely met Kisaki before he became a full-on delinquent in the final timeline, it's so odd to me that he just let Kisaki makeover himself with the obviously Takemichi-inspired hairstyle like ... my guy. he wasn't only obsessed with Hinata in all those other timelines. he was also deeply obsessed with you and idolized you. that Takemichi didn't suggest a different style or colour suggests to me that he really didn't understand the meaning behind it and focused more on preventing an obsession with Hinata (which makes sense), but this is why I can't help but think Kisaki had, at the very least, a lot of long-lasting admiration for Takemichi in this timeline.

I've also considered that maybe Takemichi doesn't gel up his hair in this timeline, since it's not shown, but Kisaki, who didn't know any delinquents, dying his hair blond to be like Takemichi (and staying blond into adulthood) is still telling. if this is the case, then I don't even want to unpack Takemichi suggesting the gelled up style to Kisaki, because we can pretty much say for certain that Kisaki got the inspo. from Takemichi in the other timeline. so where would he have gotten the inspo. from in this timeline ಠಿ⁠_⁠ಠ

[strawberryclementine]

New theory: Kisaki would've liked the team name The Hanmas but he couldn't hear Hanma blabbering from across the bridge