Summer 2018 First Impressions – Mr. Tonegawa: Middle Management Blues

Teiai Group is one of Japan’s largest firms. Yukio Tonegawa, a man with a larger-than-life presence and sharp intellect, works as the right-hand man of Chairman Kazutaka Hyodo. One day, the chairman commands Tonegawa to spearhead “Game of Death,” an evil project that employs debtors. He rallies his direct reports and scrambles to form Team Tonegawa, only to encounter a barrage of challenges from the erratic chairman and his disloyal employees, ultimately leading to his demotion. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 24

Source: Manga

Episode 1 Summary: Long before Yukio Tonegawa met Kaiji Itou in a card game that changed both of their lives, he was simply a middle manager for the Teiai group, a finance and loan outfit providing monetary loans at unreasonable interest rates. Tonegawa and his underlings collect on their debts regardless of the circumstances, and Tonegawa himself is especially good at shaking-down those who become delinquent with their debts. His position at the company puts him in the path of the company chairman Hyodo, whose boredom has brought him to seek unconventional pleasure in the suffering of others. Hyodo puts Tonegawa in charge of setting up a “death game” wherein debtors will fight for their own lives in a series of death-defying challenges. But Tonegawa has to get over the first hurdle of telling his underlings apart before he can possibly ask them to help come up with deadly gambles.

Impressions: I’m not really sure how many viewers out there are familiar with Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji; it was a weird, offbeat sausage-fest of a thriller from about ten years ago wherein a hapless debtor goes on a last-chance trip to erase his debts once and for all through extreme gambling. The show appealed to me quite a bit and I have fond memories of it; I think we all can enjoy a good underdog story, and Kaiji is the epitome of underdogs. It also contains one of the more horrific scenes I can recall from any anime, where Tonegawa is forced to bow his head to the surface of a grill after losing the final card game against Kaiji. If it sounds as though a lot happened over the course of that series, you’d be correct (and that’s only in the first season!). Helpfully, though, the first few minutes of this episode manages to provide a decent recap of twenty-six episodes of material, so while I think Kaiji is worth a watch no matter if you want to watch this series or not, it’s not a requirement to understand what’s happening here.

On its surface, Mr. Tonegawa has some traits that would normally be very appealing to me. Most anime stars younger characters and tends to be aimed at teenage viewers, something which doesn’t prevent me from watching a ton of anime but it does serve to make it less-than-relateable for me as an adult viewer at times. So far this series exists fully in the realm of adults, starring a middle-aged protagonist who supervises other men in their mid-thirties. The debtors, though they clearly haven’t lived up to their adult monetary responsibilities, all seem to be attempting to live real, typical lives – buying houses, owning businesses, blowing their money at the race track (well, that last situation isn’t so universal, I hope…). It’s good to see an anime acknowledge the reality of these kinds of things once-in-a-while, because paying bills and budgeting for my lifestyle are responsibilities that are often on my mind as someone who’s been a member of the workforce for a while now (and I know there are a lot of other people around who are just as boring and typical as I am). The issue I have with how this form of adulthood is portrayed in this episode, though, is that all the people Tonegawa’s employees are hassling throughout the first half are extremely irresponsible with money to the point of spending it gambling, drinking, and shopping while still owing on their loans. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that someone might take out a loan for something serious and specific and end up mismanaging it, but all of the people squandering their funds seem as though the thought of these loan sharks collecting on their debt has never crossed their mind and they’re portrayed as silly and irresponsible. Perhaps this was a way to try to build some sympathy for Tonegawa and the job he’s doing, because his character traits certainly don’t lend themselves to sympathy on their own. In any case, I didn’t feel that it was successful in cultivating positive feelings towards the character or his job.

The first episode seems to have an issue with maintaining a specific tone as well. I’m not a fan of series that try to blend humor and drama in awkward ways, and I feel like there are only a few creators that can do so really well (for example, watch any series by Kunihiko Ikuhara). This show and its creators seem to recognize that there’s a fundamental ridiculousness to the story they’re trying to tell; the premise is already far afield of realism and the cast of characters are anything but down-to-earth. That’s all well and good, but rather than embrace how silly and unrealistic the story is required to be, the final product gives off the impression that it’s taking itself too seriously. When a character is introduced literally laying atop the backs of his employees as Hyodo is partway through this episode, the aspects of his personality which are truly frightening – his casual disregard for human life and his willingness to play games with it – are overshadowed by the visual goofiness. There’s also a scene which I feel is actually meant to be funny, but which comes across poorly due to some poor choices made in narrating the scene. Tonegawa organizes a group of several men to help him with the task of developing the death games, and all the men are dressed the same, look the same, and have confusing names and the same hobby. Even Tonegawa who is said to have special managerial skill and mental cunning, gets confused and finally gives up on trying to learn which man is which. This could have been really funny but for the overbearing narration that carries throughout the entire episode and provides an unneeded play-by-play for every action. I don’t recall whether this was a trait that also got out of hand in Kaiji, but if so perhaps I was more patient with it back then.

I really want to mention the visuals, because the character designs in particular are what originally drew me to this franchise way back when. Anime character designs are really not as homogeneous as people think, but they do tend to blend together after a while especially if you’re watching a lot of shows per season. I don’t think it’s possible to confuse Mr. Tonegawa with anything else airing this season; with all the sharp angles and extreme facial features littered throughout, there’s just no mistaking this show. I kind of love that; even though the animation itself is more functional than striking, its characters are clearly not beholden to any visual trends.

I’m slightly disappointed that I didn’t have anything better to say about this first episode, though despite looking forward to it prior to the season I was well aware of the fact that my sunny memories might have been more nostalgia than anything else. As I am now, it’s also very questionable to me when the gender make-up of a property is so profoundly one-sided in the male direction; it was the same with Kaiji even more so, but as I continue to consume media I find that my tolerance for male-heavy casts diminishes with each passing year. At least with Kaiji I felt something for the protagonist and wanted to see him succeed, whereas Tonegawa is a little more difficult to love. I think there’s potential here and I have to celebrate non-standard anime protagonists when I can get them, but this series definitely hasn’t found its footing yet.

Pros: Extremely unique compared to almost every other anime in recent memory. The cast is comprised of adults. The opening theme is great!

Cons: The constant narration is intrusive and distracting. The episode strikes an awkward balance between humor and seriousness that’s ill-fitting.

Grade: C-