WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Tokyo Revengers Episode 8, "Rechange," now streaming on Crunchyroll.
In Tokyo Revengers, Mikey is the pillar that holds the Toman gang upright and the one who will lead them to victory, while Draken will guide them so nobody will stray far from the light. Takemichi may not be the strongest or fastest delinquent, but he is the glue that holds Toman together when it looks like everything is falling apart. Just as Takemichi thinks he's got Draken's life back in order, it becomes blatantly clear that danger is still lurking nearby.
Enraged that the two Toman leaders trashed his entire childhood before his eyes, Takemichi tries to fight Mikey in Episode 8, seemingly forgetting that he's challenging the gang's strongest member. Mikey easily dodges and Takemichi careens into a pile of garbage. He yells at them for focusing on themselves and not realizing that their fight is not only hurting them but Toman as well. His impassioned speech gets totally upended when Mikey points out there's a piece of poop stuck in his hair.
Draken and Mikey burst out laughing and run off together. After he cleans his hair, Takemichi meets up with them and his other friends where the two Toman leaders formally apologize to each other. Although Mikey seems to be okay on the outside, his eyes turn sad and lost as he thinks back to the moment Pah-chin gave himself up. He quickly bounces back and declares that they're going to throw a huge party when Pah-chin gets released.
With the crisis averted and Draken's death looking less and less likely, Takemichi turns his attention to something just as important: his festival date with Hina on August 3rd. It turns into a double date with Draken and Emma joining them, and Emma tries to get him to notice how she feels. The couples soon get separated and when the rain falls, Takemichi and Hina take cover in the woods. Just as he is about to share his first kiss with Hina, his phone interrupts.
It's Yamagishi, who warns him that Draken is in danger. Some people from the Mikey faction are still angry at Draken, who they perceive as being responsible for Pah-chin's arrest. Immediately, Takemichi takes off to find Draken. He arrives at a shrine where a group of Toman members, including Kiyomasa, are inexplicably clustered along with someone from Moebius. Kiyomasa takes the knife that Moebius hands to him and declares he will kill Draken for what he had done to him in Tokyo Revengers Episode 3.
Takemichi gets knocked out and dragged in front of Kiyomasa for a horrifyingly familiar situation: taking orders from Kiyomasa and being brutally beaten. Despite how much stronger Takemichi is -- and even though he now has Mikey and Draken -- mentally and emotionally he's still just as weak as before. It's a painful realization for him.
Kiyomasa ties Takemichi up with duct tape and leaves him lying, helpless, on the ground in the rain. Even though Takemichi had resolved to save Hina, Akkun and Draken, in the end, he isn't able to fight back against people like Kiyomasa. He starts crying in frustration, angry at himself. But with a kiss, Hina shows him that he's strong but in a different way, and it shouldn't be discounted for weakness. Hina's faith gives him the resolve he needs. Although this isn't the first time Takemichi has stood up against Kiyomasa, something has changed and he isn't the same person as in the early days of Tokyo Revengers.
Takemichi meets up with Mitsuya, the captain of the Second Division, who tells him that before Mikey and Draken reconciled, Mikey had proposed to pay for Pah-chin's freedom -- which was rejected by Draken. Although most of Toman had settled down after the two leaders' conflict dissipated, Peh-yan hasn't and his eyes are now set on Draken. Now, Takemichi must find the inner and outer strength to protect Draken against not just one but two gang members who are hellbent on revenge.
