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Takemichi Hanagaki is the protagonist of Tokyo Revengers and a member of the Tokyo Manji Gang (Toman). Although he lacks physical strength, he is defined by his unwavering determination and resilience. With the ability to time-leap into the past, Takemichi fights to save his friends and change their tragic futures. His courage, persistence, and emotional growth make him a key figure in shaping Toman’s destiny.
Takemichi stands at an average height with a light complexion. He has bleached yellow hair kept in a faux hawk but sometimes has it down in a tousled style. He bears blue or gray eyes in the anime and green or brown in the manga. He has a scar on his left hand from a stab wound and another scar on his left foot from a bullet wound, although it is never shown. He usually wears either his high school uniform consisting of a white button-up and light gray pants, or his gang attire comprising of a black tokkō-fuku with the Toman logo and manifesto woven on the sides and Keisuke Baji's white sash. He also wears a matching clover necklace with Hina. In the final time leap, Takemichi always keeps his hair tousled.
In 2005, Takemichi wore the Mizo Middle School uniform, which consisted of a white dress shirt with a black blazer, black slacks, and loafers. As an adult, Takemichi has tousled wavy black hair. He wears plain casual clothes, and sometimes his work uniform from the CD DVD Rental Store.
In an alternate timeline, Takemichi has slicked back black hair. He wears a striped suit.
Takemichi was an individual who has lost his sense of direction. Thus, he had low self-esteem, always apologizing for even the smallest things and easily crying. As noted by those around him and even himself, all he is good for is apologizing. He also holds a grudge towards wealthy people because he himself is not very financially stable.
Takemichi's tendency to cry
However, going back in time again and again gradually molds Takemichi into a completely different person. Slowly, he turns from a coward into a man with unshakable conviction. Even facing insurmountable odds, he refuses to back down. He becomes the one who holds Toman together through their hardships and turns into its unofficial leader, guiding even Mikey and Draken onto the right paths. During even Toman's lowest points, it is Takemichi's unyielding spirit that pushes on his fellow companions.
Takemichi is completely loyal to those he considers his friends and fiercely protective of them. He is willing to risk his very life to ensure that they are safe and sound. This loyalty spurs his determination to create a better future for the ones he cares about. This is shown through his countless leaps back in time to change the gruesome outcome of his loved ones.
Takemichi's unwavering spirit to protect his friends
In a fight, Takemichi has never backed down. He is more willing to be beaten within an inch of his life than to admit defeat. This has become a huge source of inspiration for Toman's members and has proven instrumental even against all odds.
Takemichi is noted to be very similar in personality to Shinichiro Sano with Draken pointing out both are "weak to women, weak at fights, but reliable". Due to being an adult, Takemichi tends to address others more politely.
Takemichi has horrible hygiene and habits as he neglects cleaning his room and has become accustomed to its disgusting state.
As a captain in Toman, Takemichi has power over his squadron and can lead them as he wishes. His outstanding leadership has been instrumental in strengthening Toman as a whole.
Takemichi is noted by many people to possess an extensive charisma similar to Shinichiro Sano. He has constantly inspired Toman members throughout every fight. His charisma is more prominent after the Kanto Incident and was fought over by top delinquents to have him on their respective teams.
Over the course of the series, Takemichi has seen a notorious rise in his name. As he travels to the past and gets himself involved in many fairly dangerous incidents and elevates his status inside of Toman, it has greatly bolstered his delinquent career in stark contrast with his fighting ability. As his many exploits and feats have become public knowledge within the delinquent world, it has granted him an elevated status to the point he was a target for recruitment by some of the most infamous gangs after the Tokyo Sengoku Period. Despite lacking the fighting aptitude normally associated with one with such a historical, those who have witnessed him are fairly aware of Takemichi's character including many just as infamous and more powerful delinquents, which further propels his image. When he openly declared his intentions to defeat the infamous Mikey when surrounded by both Brahman and Rokuhara Tandai, there was not the tiniest shred of doubt among the central figures from either nor from Draken or Seishu Inui, a testament that they believe he is capable of such a nigh impossible feat. The only exception being South Terano likely by virtue of personally not knowing Takemichi himself.
Takemichi is nowhere near the strongest fighter, but he is noted to be one of the, if not the most, resilient fighters thus far. He has been shown to take blows that would have knocked cold anyone else and still stand up and even retaliate. Among his greatest demonstrations of durability include, but are not limited to: Being stabbed in his hand with a knife and still being able to fight competently and defeat a much stronger enemy; Taking a bullet to the foot and still being able to run in pursuit of his enemy; Getting ambushed with a brick to his head to fundamentally no effect, even though he was already beaten to a bloody pulp. Thus, his willpower and ability to take hits are his forte.
Takemichi is quite lacking in his attack power. His strength and fighting abilities are around the average delinquent's. Rarely has he won by himself, but his resilience has stalled enemies enough to allow more powerful allies time to rush to the scene countless times. If the situation is desperate enough, his willpower makes it nigh impossible to knock him down and allows him to significantly weaken foes stronger than him through exhaustion. Takemichi's strength scales depending on how high the stakes are. Normally, he has trouble against a few regular delinquents, but he has temporarily knocked down an incredibly strong fighter in his desperation before.
His fighting abilities have nonetheless, been shown to improve over time. Nonetheless, Takemichi lacks finesse and technique in his approach even downright resorting to methods considered disgraceful such as biting. He is later capable of overwhelming the likes of Tetta Kisaki in a one-on-one fight, and even kicking the gun Kisaki held at Takemichi out of his hands before he could even react, and all of that, despite being previously beaten to an inch of his life and having a gunshot on his foot. He is also capable fighting on par with Kakucho, where he sent the latter flying with a single punch during his fight against Kanto Manji.
Takemichi possesses a supernatural skill that allows him to time travel. However, he is only able to travel back exactly 12 years. Also, whenever he is in the past, the present timeline does not stop, but keeps going for however long Takemichi is in the past. To trigger this ability, he must shake hands with Naoto Tachibana in the present to go back to the past and shake hands with him in the past to go back to the present. Whatever Takemichi does has an impact on the present, which allows him to change the future.
Takemichi requires a handshake with a trigger person to time leap
This time leaping ability has several side effects, for one it causes memory lapses to occur. When Takemichi travels to the past, he often finds himself in situations he does not understand, as his past self still lived his life normally with Takemichi having to piece together how he came to where he is and what he was doing. The same holds true when he jumps back into the present, whether this has changed or not Takemichi awakens with no knowledge of what he was doing at that point in time.
Another effect involves his own persona since his present and past selves are comparably different despite being the same person. Many note that Takemichi acts more mature at certain intervals and wonder about his drastic personality changes. Whenever Takemichi travels to the past, he is in full control of his body and is the dominant entity. It is not known if his past self has any awareness of his future self's time-traveling abilities or whether the past self remains conscious or aware of any of the actions of his future self when it takes over.
This ability to travel in time triggers based on a strong, mutual desire to change specific events in the past to alter the future. When Naoto no longer had any major inclination to change time as he had achieved his goals, Takemichi was unable to travel in time. This ability to travel in time is not limited exclusively to Naoto, but can be triggered by shaking the hands of another individual with whom he shares a strong desire to change events. As of the Final Arc, Takemichi is capable of time leaping by shaking hands with Mikey, however, in this case, he is only able to travel back 10 years into the past. Although this difference in time leaping ability is not fully explained as of yet, it can be hinted that Takemichi can leap only at the precise point of time where his actions can have the greatest impact.
Even though the effects of his interventions on the timeline seem to occur immediately after Takemichi alters certain aspects, the full extent of what has changed is not immediately known to either Takemichi or Naoto. In fact, whenever Takemichi alters the timeline, Naoto is ignorant of any change that occurred, and lives his life normally, as if the time leaping never existed in the first place. It is only when Takemichi travels back into the present that Naoto remembers about the time leaping, thus serving as an instant alert to Naoto that Takemichi has returned. It can be argued that the reverse is true, when Takemichi travels to the past, the past version of the people whom he shook hands with will sense him too. Although Naoto is not seen knowing this, the past Mikey was able to sense that Takemichi was back in the past.
There is a significant limitation to this power, however. In order for Takemichi to time leap back into the present, both he and the person he shook hands with must be alive. If either is dead, then Takemichi is effectively stuck in the past no matter how many times he shakes hands with the person in the present. When this happens his only means to return to the present is by changing the timeline so that both people will live in the present.
It is revealed that he inherited this power from his predecessor, Shinichiro Sano, in the current timeline after the latter successfully saved his younger brother, Mikey from an accident in the past, and saved both Takemichi and Hina from middle school bullies, few months before Shinichiro is accidentally killed by Kazutora Hanemiya. Takemichi first awakened this power in the first timeline of Kisaki's reign involving Hina's first death.
After meeting up with Senju Kawaragi, Takemichi sees a future vision of her demise. The triggers for this power are unknown. He also felt her blood on his hands and clothing. An extension of this power of his was already foreshadowed previously as he had been able at times to catch glimpses of events he himself had no knowledge of but that had already occurred, such as Mikey murdering Kazutora Hanemiya during the Bloody Halloween or when Hinata Tachibana rejected Tetta Kisaki whenever he confessed to her.
Takemichi using his foresight to block one of Mikey's attacks
During his rematch with Manjiro Sano, Takemichi's ability to see the future has improved to the point that he can predict Mikey's sudden movements.