Well, that explains things to an extent, but this episode actually raises as many questions as it answers. It was very good for what it was, but it also serves as yet another reminder than for all Tokyo Revengers is sometimes guilty of romanticizing them (along with a shit-ton of other manga and anime), gang bangers are gang bangers. I kind of equate them to drunk drivers. Not every DUI is going to kill somebody, but whether they do or not mostly comes down to chance. Is there any moral difference between a drunk driver who causes a fatal accident and one who doesn’t, or is it simply a matter of luck?
Mikey is what he is, and this whole notion of his riding a slow-ass moped while everybody else is riding baby choppers is kind of in-character. His running out of gas on a beach trip to Yokohama was entirely his fault, though he makes Baji search for a gas station (after declaring that a game of janken will decide rather than taking responsibility himself). At first I thought this was the event that lead to the schism, especially after Baji got torn up defending the moped from the local zaku, but Mikey ends up rescuing him and trashing his own bike to prove a point.
The real trouble begins when Kazutora makes an extremely stupid decision – as pubescent gang bangers are wont to do. He decides he’s going to “get” Mikey a new ride for his birthday – and of course the only way a grommet who still reeks of mother’s milk is going to do that is by stealing it. I give him credit for good taste at least – the Honda CB250T was a sweet bike (Japan-only). Baji at least has the sense to realize this is a really bad idea, but – and I can personally vouch for the fact that even 14 year-old boys who aren’t in gangs do this sort of thing – gets swept along in Kazutora’s slipstream.
Of course this is all going to go disastrously wrong, it’s just a question of how. The “how” in this case is that the shop owner – who turns out to be Mikey’s older brother Shinichirou, in a rather unlikely coincidence – is inside, and (after calling the cops) confronts the thieves in the act. Or Baji at least – which Shinichirou emerges Kazutora is in the back preparing for the getaway. Kazutora compounds the stupidity by killing Shinichirou (despite Baji screaming at him to stop). I don’t buy for a second that he didn’t mean to do it – you hit something in the head full strength with that weapon, you’re aiming to kill.
First off, the fact that Shinichirou was the owner should make absolutely no difference – it would be just as evil to kill him either way. But fine, let’s deal with the specifics, and why this event leaves things muddled. Baji knows what Kazutora did was stupid. He knows Mikey has every right to be furious at both of them. We know Kazutora ended up in juvie for the killing. So how did we get to the point where Baji takes Kazutora’s side in all this? Apart from being a hoodlum in the first place none of this is Mikey’s fault, and Baji obviously knows that. So something in the aftermath of this incident must explain his turnaround – and that will presumably be explained next week.
