WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episodes 1 to 3 of Tokyo Revengers, which will begin streaming on Crunchyroll on April 11.
A special premiere broadcast on March 30 in Japan with a 25-minute compilation of the first three episodes. The special premiere had a fairly seamless storyline despite covering three episodes, making it a comprehensive sneak peek for fans to get hyped for the official series premiere. Most importantly, the episode provided a great introduction to the main characters of Tokyo Revengers: Takemichi, Hinata, Mikey and Draken.
Takemichi Hanagaki
Simply put, Takemichi is a loser. He works a low-paying job, has a rundown apartment and has had just one girlfriend -- back in middle school. While waiting for the train, he suddenly gets shoved onto the tracks by someone he can't see. Instead of dying when the train comes, Takemichi goes back 12 years in time, giving him a chance to prevent the death of his girlfriend at the hands of the Tokyo Manji Gang, or Toman for short.
Affectionately called a crybaby for his tendency to break out into tears, Takemichi proves that his tears won't stop him from standing his ground in a fight. Even if all of the odds are against him and he's much weaker, physically, than his opponent, he won't back down and won't run away. As long as he's alive, he's still fighting. Takemichi gets horribly beaten up by the thug Kiyomasa but his tenacity, determination and courage to stay in the fight is what catches the attention of Toman's leader, Mikey.
Hinata Tachibana
It would have been incredibly easy to write Hinata off as a love interest who met an unfortunate and untimely death, especially since Tokyo Revengers focuses mainly on Toman. But as the premiere shows, Hinata is compassionate and, despite being at a disadvantage in fights, she isn't afraid of protecting those she loves, like "crybaby" Takemichi.
Although she laments that she isn't as strong as a boy, there is no hesitation whatsoever when she slaps Mikey after seeing him and Draken seemingly threaten Takemichi. It's not like she doesn't know who Mikey and Draken are, but she swallowed down all of her fear in order to pull her boyfriend away from danger.
Ken "Draken" Ryuguji
With a tattoo of a dragon on the side of his head, Draken paints an imposing figure. In terms of strength, he might only be second to Mikey and just barely. Similar to Hinata, it's easy to characterize Draken as merely the second-in-command and the one who does the dirty work in Toman, but that's not the case.
Draken is extremely proud of Toman, as shown when he warns Kiyomasa to stop holding underground fights if he doesn't want to bring shame to Toman's name. When Takemichi chooses to stand up to Mikey and Draken despite the two being much stronger than him, Draken commends Takemichi for holding his ground to protect Hinata, showing his respect.
Manjiro "Mikey" Sano
We first meet Mikey as the leader of Toman, a gang notorious for their heinous crimes -- gambling, murder, assault...you name it, Toman has done it. When Takemichi first meets Mikey, he knows who Mikey is on some level: he's the person who will be responsible for Hinata's death in the future. Mikey is dangerous and someone who you can't mess around with. But, when Takemichi meets the Mikey from 12 years ago, Mikey isn't at all what he thought.
Mikey, the "boss" of Toman, has a childlike and carefree personality, but proves his formidable fighting prowess when he knocks over Kiyomasa with a single kick and proceeds to beat him to a pulp without a second thought. What stops Takemichi in his tracks is how it's clear that, despite the fact that he's the leader of one of the most terrifying gangs in Japan, he's not a bad guy. Mikey has principles: he doesn't hit girls, thinks underground fights are pointless and all he wants to do is create a new era of delinquents.
Something must have triggered a sudden shift within Toman because it's clear that the present gang is no longer the Toman Mikey and Draken led 12 years ago and it's up to Takemichi to find out why.
