Tokyo Revengers Takemichi's Time Travel - How does it work?

Updated on: July 27, 2022
by Ernie

Tokyo Revengers, without a shadow of a doubt, is one of the best things to come out of the anime industry this season. It has interesting characters that are both good and bad in their own way. And the series packs an interesting plot with tons of mystery.

One of the reasons the anime has accomplished this feat is because of the tricky time travel mechanic. It lays the foundation upon which the anime builds the entire mystery element.

Table of Contents

How does Takemichi time travel?

Firstly, Takemichi doesn’t really know he had this power to time travel. At least not until he almost got run over by a train that could have killed him. The first near-death experience of almost being run over a train is when he first made the first time leap.

As he was dying, the only thing he could think about was the one girlfriend he made back in middle school. This was surprising, as he hadn’t really talked to her in over 12 years

However, instead of dying, he found that he had traveled back 12 years to when he was just an ambitious boy looking for some street fights. This was the first time he realized that he could time travel. Though, judging by how clueless he was after the first time leap, it became clear that he couldn’t quite grasp exactly how that happened.

After touching Naoto’s hand in the past, Takemichi had traveled back to the present. It became clear from that moment on that shaking Naoto’s hand is what causes the time travel.

Interesting time travel mechanics

There are two things that make this time travel mechanic interesting. Firstly, when Takemichi travels back to the past, his current body in the “present” goes into a comma. However, when he travels from the past to the future, his “past” body just becomes a normal kid again.

In a way, it’s debatable if this is even time “travel”. You see, what’s actually happening, is that the memories/Consciousness of the “present” Takemichi is traveling back in time to his body in the past.

Not only does it set it apart from normal time travel shows, but it also creates an interesting condition that adds to the mysterious atmosphere of Tokyo revengers. One thing in particular that caught my attention was how Hinata observed a change in his behavior.

He has all the memories of his future packed in his past body, so it’s natural for him to behave in a bit more mature way. This behavioral change plays an important role in character interaction and development.

It should come off as no surprise that his ability to time travel has limitations as well. This shouldn’t come as a surprise because if there were no limit, there might as well have been no plot either, as it would’ve just made Takemichi too strong. The limitation is that he can’t travel back more or less than 12 years, and he also can’t travel to the future.

I’m sure if you haven’t watched the show you’d still think that it’s an OP ability to have, but to be fair, he’s against an entire gang with a genius mastermind. And the mastermind proves himself to be quite the formidable foe, despite Takemichi’s time travel ability.

Why can Takemchi time travel?

Sure enough, the idea and mechanic of time travel is interesting in the show. However, there is one question that is bound to fill anyone’s mind after learning the mechanic of time travel. How does it happen? What happens when Takemichi touches Naoto’s hand that causes him to go back 12 years?

This certainly isn’t normal. Trust me, despite being an introverted weeb, I’ve shaken thousands of hands, and none of them really made me go back 12 years. The answer to that question is literally not there. The manga refuses to explain any reason as to how Takemichi can send his consciousness across time.

Not surprisingly, it also comes with a few plot holes. If I’m being honest, all shows regarding time have them. Another example of a great show not explaining everything is Stiens gate. Okabe was able to travel across world lines while retaining his memories. There was never really a solid explanation for this.

Yes, I know there was something regarding his brain. However, it was pretty flawed, and it felt like that the writer just wanted to slap some reason in there, just to make sense of the show. Over here, we don’t really see that, as the writer has openly decided to not make an explanation for the time travel.

Now that I think about it, the perfect example of an anime where time travel is completely left unanswered is Erased. We see the main character time travel, and the author decides to go on with the plot and completely denies explaining anything about it.

Unanswered time travel mechanic doesn’t really leave a bad taste if a show has an interesting plot. And that is something that Tokyo Revengers definitely has. With that being said, that’s it for the blog. I hope to see you guy’s in the next one, till then, Bye.