Tokko Review

By Miki

This series was amazingly full of action, suspense, and Demons.

During the middle Ages, a wealthy family had a puzzle box created in order to gain immortality, not knowing that it would in fact open a portal to the demon world. 108 demons were unleashed, shattering the device into 108 fragments which they then absorbed. Once extracted from demons and reassembled, the 108 fragments can be used to close the demon’s portal, which if allowed to grow will result in the destruction of all humans on Earth.

Ranmaru Shindo lives with his younger sister Saya Shindo they are both survivors from Machida (a city located in the western part of Tokyo’s greater metropolis) 5 years earlier, after the massacre of their parents in their apartment complex, which was attacked and overrun by demons who ruthlessly and brutally killed almost everyone in several buildings in the complex.  Someone used the puzzle box to create a portal to the demon near the Machida apartment complex, whence came the demons who killed most of the residents. Ranmaru has been having recurring dreams of a girl for some time, but they are now growing more frequent. She seems to be covered in blood holding a giant sword.  He finds this is Sakura Rokujo who lived in the complex and they were friends.  Their friendship evoles into more and Sakura evens saves Ranmaru.  With a fulfilling sense of justice this series keeps me on the edge of my seat.  I was sad it ended so quickly and hope for more to come later.

At the beginning of the tale, Ranmaru graduates from his cadet class to become a new investigator for The Special Mobile Investigation Troops First Division to avenge his parents’ death. Later on the day of his graduation, he sees the girl from his dream wearing a police uniform. She is a member of Section 2, known officially as Special Public Safety Task Force, or Tokko for short, being under the eye of the Public Security Intelligence Agency. Throughout the story, it is explained that there are many rumors about Tokko, one of which is that they use swords to execute criminals and that body parts are often found at the crime scenes Tokko investigates. There are also rumors that they aren’t even human.  They really are symbionts.

All members of Section 2 bear a tattoo (except for Ibuki who is not a symbiont). This is their “symbiont tattoo”, which marks them as carriers of a “phantom”, one of the 108demons. Not all of the symbionts are with Section 2.  Tokko division section 2 contains:  Ryoko Ibuki, Kureha Suzuka, Takeru Inukai Sakura Rokujo, and Ranmaru Shindo.   A symbiont may be good or evil, but the spirit’s alignment is unknown until it is awakened within the host. The tattoo also imparts a type of protection from other phantoms and expands after the phantom’s awakening. Only symbionts have the strength, speed and endurance to kill the demons with bladed weapons. Using the symbionts, Section 2 hunts down the other Phantoms, dismembering them to get the 108 fragments to close the Machida hole before it expands and the entire world is covered with Phantoms. All the symbionts are boy/girl siblings of around the same age.  All the symbionts are pieces of the box as well.  There are sad twists and some incidents can be upsetting, but overall it’s a great story.  They have left it open for more which I’d really love to see.  The flavor of animation goes back to a more 80’s style and the colors are vivid.