JT Rogers’ Max series Tokyo Vice about the real-life accounts of American reporter Jake Adelstein living through the Tokyo criminal world is back with a second season on Max starting Thursday, Feb. 8. The first season was a solid eight-episode run that checked all the boxes but never really excelled at anything — besides delighting me with having Japanese people speak Japanese amongst them. (I know it sounds ridiculous, but how many movies featuring non-English-speaking cultures have them speaking in English?)
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You might have noticed, however, that the first season ended on a slightly abrupt note. And if you didn’t, you’ll soon realize this was the case, after you see the first two episodes of season 2. Episode 1 effectively acts as the season 1 finale we never got, picking up moments after the ending of the previous season and tying up some loose ends, while setting up some plotlines for the rest of the story. When the second episode starts, we see a small time jump, and we start to figure out what the whole season is going to look like.
Overall Thoughts on Season 2 of Tokyo Vice
I’ve now seen the first five episodes of the season, and so far, I’m satisfied with what we got. Having the first episode of the season be a direct continuation of the last one may have been jarring at first, but it certainly helped in terms of bridging the gap and making both entries feel like two pieces of the same story. The overall goal for season 2, which most of our characters are centered on, is bringing down Tozawa, the head of the criminal organization that rivals Ishida’s.
Jake (Ansel Elgort) is back, though he’s a bit all over the place. He’s given an assignment by his newspaper, the Meicho, that doesn’t really have anything to do with what he did last season. And though I initially appreciated the change in course, by the end of episode 5 they still haven’t had a dramatic payoff to that subplot.
The character is a bit all over the place this season, and I can’t quite define his arc yet. His relationships with Katagiri (Ken Watanabe) and Samantha (Rachel Keller) are severely underdeveloped, with his main focus in terms of human connection being Misaki (Ayumi Ito), Tozawa’s former mistress who is now liberated after the crime lord went away on a trip.
Katagiri is under a lot of pressure this season after Tozawa threatened his family, yet he doesn’t want to give up yet. However, the character is not as present this season, which is a problem with the show overall: They have so many characters that they end up giving such limited screen time to each one, so in the end they have to prioritize some over others. Katagiri got the short end of the stick here.
Samantha, however, didn’t. Her character is as prominent this season as it was in the last one, but her arc is completely different. She brings along an old friend played by Hyunri Lee, whose full potential is yet to be exploited by the end of the fifth episode, though the actress brings enough charisma and mystery to her character that I’m genuinely intrigued by it.
I’m not sure how much I can share here in terms of plot details, considering that the main storyline of the season doesn’t start until the second episode, but I’ll tease that Samantha gets more involved with Ishida and his gang, the Chihara-Kai, and is desperately trying to get out. I like her character quite a bit, but more than anything, I enjoy the fact that it is actually unique to this series — I’m not too familiar with Japanese TV, but the idea of a club where men go to have company for the night but not sex is certainly one we don’t see much of in Western TV.
The Criminal World of Tokyo Vice Season 2
When talking about the bad guys, we have to talk about Sato. The marketing campaign already confirmed that Shô Kasamatsu is back in the new season after surviving the brutal murder attempt at the end of season 1, and he’s such an integral part of the story that I have to talk about him.
A big part of the second season is about testing Sato’s loyalty to the Chihara-Kai, through multiple avenues. I won’t name all of them, but one of the most prominent ones is the incorporation of Naoki (Yosuke Kubozuka), a Joker-like nutjob who is one psychotic breakdown away from eating his victims after murdering them.
Sato remains one of the most interesting characters in the show, and I’m glad the writers recognized it and gave Kasamatsu enough narrative weight to play around. I’m super intrigued to see where he goes in the second half of the season.
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The yakuza is against the ropes in the new season, as the police are doubling their efforts in taking them down, thanks to a new strike force set up by Miki Maya’s new character. This will force them to reinvent themselves, leading to interesting subplots I still haven’t seen paid off. But let me assure you that the gray areas explored in the first season are all the more relevant in the second season, which goes to even darker places at times.
Season 2 of Tokyo Vice debuts on Feb. 8 on Max. Season 2 will feature episodes, with one episode released per week.
About Tokyo Vice
Release Date: Feb. 8, 2024
Created by: J.T. Rogers
Executive producers: J.T. Rogers, Alan Poul, Alex Boden, Josef Kubota Wladyka, Brad Caleb Kane, Adam Stein, Ken Watanabe, Emily Gerson Saines, Ansel Elgort, Jake Adelstein, Kayo Washio, Destin Daniel Cretton, John Lesher, and Michael Mann
Distribution: Max
Cast: Ansel Elgort, Ken Watanabe, Rinko Kikuchi, Rachel Keller, Show Kasamatsu, Ayumi Ito, Yosuke Kubozuka, and Miki Maya.
Synopsis: Loosely inspired by American journalist Jake Adelstein’s first-hand account of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police beat, season two of the series, filmed on location in Tokyo, takes us deeper into the city’s criminal underworld as Adelstein (Ansel Elgort) comes to realize that his life, and the lives of those close to him, are in terrible danger.
Are you looking forward to Tokyo Vice season 2? Were you a fan of the first season? Is there any character in particular you’re eager to see where they go? Let me know your thoughts on Twitter or via our Discord server! Stay tuned for my episode recaps every Thursday.
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