Manjiro "Mikey" Sano (2024)

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Manjiro "Mikey" Sano is the deuteragonist of the 2017 Japanese manga series Tokyo Revengers and its 2021 anime adaptation. He is a founding member and President of the Tokyo Manji Gang, the younger brother of Shinichiro Sano, the founder and the very first president of the Black Dragons, and the half-brother of Emma Sano.

Throughout the arcs, he played as the deuteragonist, however, his fourth timeline counterpart played a minor villainous role in the Tenjiku, his Bonten timeline counterpart served as the main antagonist of the Bonten Arc, then Mikey after 2 years later after forming the Kanto Manji Gang serves as one of the main antagonists of the Three Deities Arc (alongside South Terano) and the titular main antagonist in the Kanto Manji arc, two parts of the final story arc for the series.

While he is mostly an anti-heroic character, as the series furthers more throughout the arcs, he is beginning to slowly embrace his "dark urges" due to the loss of his older brother, Shinichiro Sano, and childhood/long-time friend, Keisuke Baji, but he is trying to maintain his mind's conscience and not let his best friend's death get to him. However, everyone he cherished and loved begins to fall apart under Kisaki's actions as the only one left was Emma, who has been keeping Mikey in check of his mental state. It was also the final straw for Mikey to no longer accept loss as he begins to slowly descend into darkness.

Before his "dark urges", he was mostly a carefree, optimistic, and caring teen who cherishes everyone around him, even Takemichi, who he considers as one of his dearest friends alongside Draken. Apart from what he becomes in the series, later on, Mikey had intentions regarding that he and all members of Toman, formed by himself and his dear friends, to have the ambition of creating an era for all delinquents as a whole once he and the rest of Toman become top of Japan one day. However, said intentions evade once he lost the three things he cherished most.

He is voiced by Yū Hayashi in Japanese and Aleks Le in English.

Appearance[]

As a child, Manjiro is a small boy with a set of pitch-black eye pupils and long, slightly wavy, dyed blonde hair tied on top of his head sideways. He is mostly seen wearing a white long sweatshirt that is underneath the signature Toman outfit, consisting of a baggy jacket, pants, and beige boots.

In the fourth timeline, now an adult, Mikey's hair is black (its natural color), resembling his brother Shinichiro's, as well as having to have got himself a tattoo on the left side of his neck near his left shoulder. His clothing attire consists of a black colored sleeveless shirt, a white polo shirt that only reveals his shoulders, and left one button open on the upper top of his chest, black sweatpants, and slippers.

In the Bonten timeline, Mikey has then dyed his hair once more, only for it to be the same hair color that resembled his "brother" Izana Kurokawa (White/Silver), in which his hairstyle seems to consist being a haircut due to the middle part undercut down to the bottom near his neck, in which the neck down there has the official Bonten symbol behind it for a tattoo. He also seems to have bangs over his eyes, showing the results of Mikey not having to have slept well to that matter.

In addition for the Bonten timeline of Mikey's clothing, he is seem wearing the very same earrings that once belonged to Izana, with his clothing attire being the same one as his fourth timeline counterpart's, the only difference being a black colored sweatshirt, black pants, and the only thing remaining to be slippers.

Personality[]

Mikey is described to be a completely complex individual with a lot more expressions and feelings to his personality. For instance, on one hand, Mikey is mostly seen as serious and strong, meanwhile, he's more of a carefree optimist who values and cherishes everyone around him, especially his comrades in Toman and his half-sister Emma being big examples of his pride.

For the first thing to know about Mikey is that most of his carefree nature consists of his mischievousness, laziness, and childlike demeanor. Despite being the leader of Toman, whenever he's not serious, he can somewhat act more like whatever a little kid could think or just play around and mess with his friends. An example of his type of behavior occurred when he whined about his kid's meal not having a flag and can be a lot reckless when arguing with Draken, to which they destroyed all of Takemichi's childhood possessions. Additionally, he has a sleeping habit after having to eat a meal every time and can sometimes be a jerk when it comes to his mischievous nature when he and Draken made fun of Takemichi having dog poop on his hair.

Whenever he is seen leading Toman, he can be passionate, serious, and rather charismatic due to his intentions and beliefs that he and his pals will reach the top one day. He solely sees potential in others as he chose Takemichi to be a part of Toman, even considering him as one of the greatest friends he made due to being a sole reminder to his older brother, Shinichiro. However, when leading Toman when before or now in battle, things can get intense for Mikey when it comes to fighting while holding back his truest potential.

Though from the majority of his personality, it's his strength that got his title as "The Invincible Mikey", having to have greater strength and agility in his martial arts and combat alike. However, he fights seriously and thinks carefully to defend himself when in battle, however, he can let his guard down when it comes to being distracted for a while as an example started with Kazutora's lecture on him about Shinichiro's death. Despite this, it was one of the greater aspects of Mikey's "dark urges", which the more fierce he grows, the more his strength follows up to his bottled tendencies of violence and bloodthirst.

Everything about Mikey is understandable, including his straightforward nature, but a big matter of how Mikey's character gets even more bizarre is that he had been surrounded by an unsure, violent nature he named "dark urges". Whenever he embraces them, he comes far much emotionless and quiet, though can speak often but the tone of his voice gets slightly violent, even near homicidal, as he would end up becoming more dangerous when left too mentally unstable when losing the very people he cherished, to which Shinichiro, Baji, and Emma were those catalysts that would leave Mikey to have the inability to accept their losses. What's worse is that these "dark urges" would allow Mikey to be easily manipulated to one's side if it was for a greater purpose, which was the reason for Kisaki to break him once he's become his pawn.

To describe the "dark urges", Mikey is suffering from his own melancholy deep within his surface up till now these events would often have him mature to be better as it transpires him. However, the losses of the very people Mikey loved only made his "dark urges" get the better of him as he ends up having a highly negative result to both his personality and his behavior as a whole, which allowed him to be easily used in the first place if he lets it succumb him to have a darker heart inside. It goes to show how the deaths of Mikey's loved ones greatly impact him to a personal level and that it would cost him his sense of morality and psyche alike if he was finally pushed to the last straw.

This serves to be a reminder of how badly Mikey's behavior would get worse if he doesn't learn to accept the losses around him, which is why he has to force everyone in Toman to hate him all in order to protect them, even when embracing it, he is still willing to think morally for a few more seconds in order to protect the very last things he cherished, to which is in order to avoid harming them from his "dark urges" as shooting Takemichi in the future where he formed Bonten is the very example to the consequences, in which the urges can make him suicidal ever since he lost everything good that gave him the happiness he once had and how it badly effected him as he begins to change from a carefree, caring friend with the heart of a child to a seriously cold-hearted being with an aura only filled with a sadness underneath the mask.

To fully summarize and describe the characteristics of Mikey's entire personality, he is portrayed as a tragic and complicated individual who once had everything he cherished and brought together more than just friends, but a family became nothing more than a catalyst sign of his own downfall due to his decisions. This ultimately led to everyone falling apart or dead by his enemies due to his desperation and senselessness before having to mature slowly, which also led to him embracing his "dark urges" as a result, a very heavy mission Takemichi must always have full priority on ever since Kisaki came to Mikey in the first place.

However, it is later revealed what exactly are the dark urges within Mikey himself, it was never a mental illness, but rather a curse due to Shinichiro killing an old man for his time-leap abilities which resulted in Mikey becoming consumed by the curse's influence and being the indirect cause of his loved ones' deaths under the hands of his enemies, including Kisaki, as a result. Therefore, it continued to further Mikey's tragic situation even further that he has no self-control over his surroundings.

Overall, Mikey's just a misguided kid with a lot of struggles and grief behind his back, despite his happy and mischievous nature. As he grows up but if ever corrupted, he'll never be the same Mikey everyone once knew. As of now, Mikey's currently on verge of his "dark urges" on his time of being the leader of the Kanto Manji Gang.

Abilities[]

Mikey's strengths are nothing more than a natural yet feared gift he has in himself, goes to show how he earned the nickname "The Invincible Mikey", but it also considers him to be one of the strongest fighters within the series so far. Although, this is not Mikey's only personal gifts in general, other than how incredibly strong, endurable, and fast he seems to be, it's his charisma and leadership that became the sole reason why Toman was formed in the first place.

• Immense strength and fighting prowess: His primary gifted skill, to which Mikey possesses superior strength compared to other delinquent fighters throughout the series in comparison, with his only match being Hanma and his right-hand Draken. Mikey, despite his appearance and small height, is highly skilled in fighting through battle or a one-on-one, managing to single-handedly defeat elite members from other rival gangs in just one hit, that being his signature kick as that example, even going against other brutal fighters like Taiju Shiba or his "brother" Izana Kurokawa. In addition to his strength, its his highly accelerated agility that comes out as a surprise to all of his physical attacks.

• Martial Arts: Mikey is known to have been training under using the fighting techniques and skills of being a Martial Artist since he was younger and one of the reasons he's considered to be one of the strongest. His expertise onto using his fighting prowess through Martial Arts carries out a different perspective on how he fights, given his experiences throughout his childhood, he has been given greater flexibility that is much more faster to his timing when he is fighting. His signature move when using Martial Arts is his roundhouse kick at full speed blinding.

• Charisma and leadership (Authority): He has an incredibly admirable and defined control over how he would lead the Tokyo Manji Gang through his charismatic nature, which is also aided by his vice-president and division captains through that matter. Mikey's words are the source to keeping Toman together and shows enough determination to have them lead through battle under his commands. His presence strengths his members to be inspired and determined to that said point.

• Endurance level: He may be strong in terms of physical strength, its his defense that says differently of Mikey. While his appearance seems averagely weak, he surprisingly has great endurance that tolerates full blown physical attacks, so strong that it could knock him out in one go, yet he manages to proven superior in his endurance as he still stands against it no matter the impact.

• Intuition and average intellect: While he does not seem as smart in his description, he is rather uniquely and fairly keen about his understandings to one's character supernaturally, something that manifests within Mikey himself, as well as being intellectually capable of learning from his experiences and mistakes. To which his intuition started with asking Takemichi if he is a middle schooler, foreshadowing a possibility that Mikey can understand one's characteristics if their true nature is hidden within the depth of their personality or even gain predictable suspicion regarding who they actually are. Another possibility is that Mikey's cherished bonds with his friends and families are the reasons for his intuition, in which he is capable of detecting others' wills through them to him back, even claiming that the souls of his siblings, Shinchiro and Emma, even Baji, are guiding him.

Trivia[]

• Even though Mikey is the one who originally led the Tokyo Manji Gang, now called Toman often when he and his friends founded in during 2003. It was originally Mikey's childhood friend Keisuke Baji, the real founder of Toman's name, who came up with the idea for their gang's decisions from the beginning.
• Despite being one of the series' most tragic characters, by the time Chapter 241 revealed that Mikey brutally ripped Sanzu's mouth over a model airplane, it caused a fandom outcry and a divide about whether or not Mikey is genuinely misunderstood or he was simply evil from the beginning on where he embraced his Dark Urges earlier. On one hand, it is understandable that Mikey took it personally because it took months for his brother, Shinichiro, to model the airplane while on the other hand, it does nothing to justify this kind of assault.
  • It is later revealed that it all happened because of Shinichiro's gift to Mikey during the original and first timeline where Mikey suffered from a head injury and was in a vegetative state before his death, making Mikey all the more tragic while Shinichiro's actions were the reason for Mikey's adversities and dark urges in the second timeline.

External Links[]

• Manjiro "Mikey" Sano on the Heroes Wiki.
• Manjiro "Mikey" Sano on the Tokyo Revengers Wiki.

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