Tokyo Revengers: Christmas Showdown

Episode 9

Well, that was anti-climactic.

It's not like I was expecting – or wanting – another full episode of action. This fight with Taiju has dragged on long enough, so wrapping it up with Mikey's arrival is a welcome move. The issue is that this episode still seems desperate to stall until it can end on the moment it wants to, and it manages that by continuously introducing new drama only to immediately resolve it. The result is a series of tension cul-de-sacs that promise the resolution to this fight might not be as clean-cut as Mikey just kicking Taiju into the ground, only to shortly circle back and admit that no, this was always going to go how it does.

Technically it started last week, with the insinuation that Mikey might not be showing up to help the Toman crew, but to punish them for breaking the truce without his permission. Except that we know full well Mikey cares more about his friends than any kind of inter-gang diplomacy, and he immediately makes it clear he's here to help. Then we spend about two minutes thinking Taiju instantly knocked Mikey out, only for him to stand up because duh, Mikey's a tiny terminator who got brained with a piece of rebar and walked it off. Neither conflict held much sense in the context of everything we know about the character, and it makes the minutes of fretting and characters gasping in surprise feel like weightless padding. Then we spend a few minutes worried about the hundred mooks outside the church that are coming, only to find out Drakken beat them all off-screen, which really begs the question of why Toman was ever worried about Black Dragon to begin with.

About the only part of this sequence that worked on me was the insinuation that Mikey was mentally unstable, consumed by the loss of Baji and resurfacing his brother's death. That, at least, I could believe, and I was genuinely relieved when he revealed his comments about “riding with [his] brothers” was just a good ol' sentimental shonen metaphor. Unfortunately it came sandwiched between those aforementioned false starts, which dulls the impact a lot. What should be a climactic, emotional moment as Mikey arrives to save his brothers-in-arms turns into a frustrating exercise in walking in circles.

Then there's the resolution to the Shiba family that just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. For one, it's not really a resolution, because we have no indication of what's going to change – if anything. Sure, Hakkai says he won't just take Taiju's beatings anymore, but are he and Yuzuha going to move out or anything? With the double attempted murder they probably can't call the authorities, so I guess the idea is that Taiju got his ass beat so totally that he'll never try to brutalize his family again? It doesn't really make sense, outside of the laws of storytelling dictating that once a bad guy loses, they stop mattering.

My bigger issue, however, is with Yuzuha's parting line. In a different version of this story, where the Shiba family's lives and personalities had been intricately fleshed out and established as complex humans, I could maybe buy her saying she still loves Taiju. That's not the story we got. Instead, Taiju has been a cackling supervillain who abused his younger siblings for years and attempted to beat both of them to death about ten minutes ago. His entire relationship with Hakkai and Yuzuha has been that of a vicious and remorseless tyrant who meted out violence as naturally as breathing. Trying to add some emotional nuance now is a misfire that actively makes the preceding story worse, and it's hard to get over that.

The one bright spot of this episode, besides seeing Mikey roundhouse kick Taiju into the next century, is the post-credits scene. I have no idea how Mikey wound up working with Hina, but the thought of her confronting Takemichi is genuinely interesting. With the titular Christmas Showdown over with, we've got three episodes left this season, and I desperately hope it will provide some kind of progress to the larger story and character arcs. If it can't, then I feel safe calling this arc a total dud.

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Tokyo Revengers: Christmas Showdown is currently streaming on Hulu.