Tokyo Revengers season 2: Why Ken Wakui's action thriller lost most of its fanbase in the sequel

Tokyo Revengers garnered attention from fans across the world when the manga first made its debut and its popularity only increased multi-fold when the anime adaptation was announced. Things were smooth sailing until the second season of the anime was announced, which should have been good, however, the series is suffering from a staggering drop in viewership.

This isn’t uncommon in the anime and manga industry and usually, there are quite a few variables that account for such drastic changes. Tokyo Revengers too has a few issues that the fanbase has rightfully pointed out. There are three predominant issues that are causing a negative impact on the viewership.

Disclaimer: Please note that this article contains massive spoilers for Tokyo Revengers as the plot ending will be mentioned.

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Tokyo Revengers: Understanding why the series isn’t performing as well as fans anticipated it to

1) Choice of streaming platform

One of the few primary reasons for the negative impact on viewership is owing to the streaming platform. Disney+ had acquired the exclusive rights to stream the anime series, which meant it wasn’t present on Crunchyroll.

Members of Toman gang in Tokyo Revengers (Image via Liden Films)

The latter has already made its name as one of the best, if not the best, anime streaming platforms. The lack of marketing from Disney+’s end could have also played a role in the drop in viewership. However, this is just one issue that was a contributing factor.

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2) Failure to use good quality details

A massive reason why the show failed is owing to the quality of writing, plot, and the overall execution by the animation studio as well.

Tokyo Revengers can be considered a shonen title and one of the main factors that make it worth reading are the well-drawn fight sequences and the hype it builds. The series has a great setting in the sense that the story revolves around delinquents.

Naturally, fans expected a ton of fight sequences, and the show provided them. However, the fight sequences were lackluster, to say the least. The character traits of the main character also didn’t resonate with the audience to a large extent.

Coming to the plot of the series, there are plenty of things that fans were unhappy with. Some of the characters’ backstories remained untouched even though the manga concluded.

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3) Presence of inconsistencies in the plot

There were a ton of plot inconsistencies throughout the series. Time travel, one of the most important factors that facilitated plot progression wasn’t explained well either.

The logic and working of time traveling in this world was not defined and therefore, caused a ton of confusion towards the ending of the manga. Mikey mortally wounded Takemichi and the two returned to the original timeline with memories. They worked together to unite all gangs in Japan to avoid conflict and the death of their loved ones.

The happy ending that Wakui strived to achieve was at the cost of poor writing and plenty of loopholes. Since manga readers were quite unhappy with how the final arc was treated, it is highly possible that a majority of the fanbase decided not to watch the anime adaptation.

What topped it all off was how the animation was done for this series. The fight scenes weren’t animated well and the choice of angles seemed lazy. With such fundamental issues, it isn’t altogether surprising to see that Tokyo Revengers isn’t performing well.

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Stay tuned for more manga and anime updates as 2023 progresses.