Mikey, Hanma, or Sanzu: Who is the second time-leaper in Tokyo Revengers?

Ever since the end of the Tenjiku arc, fans have wondered about the possibility of there being a second time-leaper in Tokyo Revengers. This was purely speculation until Haruchiyo Sanzu’s proclamation in chapter 256 confirmed it as a fact. However, the identity of this time-leaper was not disclosed, leaving the fandom in confusion and debate.

Ironically, Sanzu was not one of the people who fans suspected of being a time-leaper. Fans have long since considered and discarded the possibility of Tetta Kisaki being a time-leaper. Lately, the two most prominent contenders for this position have been Mikey and Hanma.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers from the Tokyo Revengers manga. Sportskeeda does not claim ownership of any media used here unless otherwise stated.

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The recent Tokyo Revengers chapters put the identity of the second time-leaper into question

In Tokyo Revengers, a time-leaper is a person who can go back and forth in time via a trigger or motion of sorts. Originally, it was believed that only Takemichi Hanagaki could leap through time, that too at 12 years intervals. Takemichi’s trigger was a handshake with Naoto Tachibana. To trigger this ability, he would shake hands with Naoto in the present to go back to the past and shake hands with him in the past to go back to the present.

After several of Takemichi’s attempts to save his comrades were thwarted or subverted, many fans came to the conclusion that there was a second time-leaper who worked to undermine Takemichi’s efforts. All signs pointed towards Kisaki, and many believed that Wakui would confirm it during the Tenjiku arc. However, it wasn’t until Tokyo Revengers chapter 184 that Kisaki alluded that he might not have been the time leaper.

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Kisaki’s allusion

Considering that Kisaki was killed before he could finish what he wanted to say, when he asked Takemichi, “Do you still think that I am a time-leaper?”, can be interpreted in three ways. Listed in order of increasing probability they would be,

A) Kisaki was the second time-leaper, as suggested by his previous statement of starting over again and again, and he was simply toying with Takemichi to confuse him.

B) Kisaki was not the time-leaper, but he was either assisted by someone who was, or he was the trigger for someone else. This person would quite obviously have to be Shuji Hanma.

C) Kisaki was a time-leaper, or in some way gifted with a temporal power, but he was not the only temporally powerful person other than Takemichi. There was likely another time-leaper, one who came from Takemichi’s own time and worked to reverse every progress the Cry-baby Hero made. This person is also likely to be Hanma.

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Shuji Hanma

The chief issue with Shuji Hanma is that he is almost Kisaki-level involved in everything in Tokyo Revengers, perhaps even more, but he is always presented as a second fiddle, a subordinate. While Kisaki has an origin, a clear reason to detest Takemichi, and an equally clear goal to monopolize Mikey, Hanma has no apparent motivation other than his desire to be an agent of chaos.

He is invested in Kisaki, and clearly remains his subordinate in the future as well, and yet his words and actions insinuate that he is the true master here. At several points in Tokyo Revengers, particularly during Hinata Tachibana's murder before the Valhalla Arc, he has alluded to wanting to kill Takemichi. On multiple occasions, Hanma seemed far too aware of the future, especially around and after Kisaki’s death.

Hanma and Kisaki are often denoted as the Reaper and the Pierrot throughout Tokyo Revengers. After Kisaki’s death, Hanma sat in front of his grave to talk about “the story of the Reaper and the Pierrot,” with the air of an old man recalling a story from his youth. It is clear that Hanma is somehow involved in the time travel process, either as a time-leaper or as a trigger. However, the probability of a third time traveler arose during the Bonten arc, when Hanma joined Mikey.

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Mikey’s declaration

During the Three Deities arc, Takemichi travels back in time by holding Mikey’s hand, not Naoto’s. When he arrived in the past, Mikey immediately knew about it despite being physically far away from Takemichi. This, combined with Mikey’s altered, colder demeanor and his calculative treatment of Takemichi, made fans wonder whether Mikey is the second time-leaper.

It is certain that even if Mikey is a time-leaper, he has not been one at the beginning of Tokyo Revengers. Many readers believe that Mikey is not another time-leaper, rather his newfound temporal power is a direct result of him becoming the new trigger to Takemichi’s own time travel. One theory suggests that Takemichi and Mikey are each other’s triggers, and thus cannot travel back without each other. However, it doesn’t explain why Mikey would be aware of Takemichi’s jumps while the latter remained oblivious.

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Sanzu’s sudden candidature

In Tokyo Revengers chapter 256, Haruchiyo Sanzu asked Takemichi, “Are you a time-leaper too?” This led the fandom to recalibrate their stance and consider Haruchiyo to be a time-leaper as well. With his loyalty to Mikey despite the origin of his scars and the murder of Mucho, Haruchiyo’s actions are also suspicious and speak of an indefinable awareness of the future.

Many have speculated that Sanzu’s knowledge about time travel comes from watching Mikey or Hanma, but it is unlikely that either of them would confide in someone else about it. Another possibility suggests that Sanzu is the trigger for either Mikey or Hanma, and is thus aware of the nature of time jumps. While this is a possibility for Mikey, Hanma and Sanzu do not share enough history for either one to be the other’s trigger.

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Final thoughts

Tokyo Revengers is in its last arc, with Mikey and Takemichi squaring off against one another. The point of Takemichi’s jumps has shifted from saving Hina to saving Mikey, or perhaps it has always been about saving Mikey. In such a conundrum, the presence of multiple time-leapers, one of whom might be Mikey himself, complicates things beyond imagination. Hopefully, Wakui will give readers a satisfactory resolution to this question, be it Hanma, or Mikey, or Haruchiyo, before his series ends.