Tokyo Vice follows the fictionalized life of the very real journalist Jake Adelstein, who rose to fame as the first Westerner to be admitted into working for a renowned Japanese newspaper. This is where his quench for the truth has a tryst with the deadly yakuza.
The show received a lot of good reviews and viewership, bringing forth the most asked question in the industry: Is it renewed for a new season?
HBO Max has renewed Tokyo Vice for season 2. It is expected to air sometime in spring, 2023 with most of the original cast members returning.
Tokyo Vice began its story with the swagger that demands more than one season. You may remember how Ep 1 actually starts in 2001, when Jake and Katagiri try to make a deal with the yakuza members, who are not elaborated upon beyond their initial introduction.
As everything else in S1 takes place in 1999, the show is still miles away from unveiling the significance of that opening scene. I’m counting this as the show’s second cliffhanger after the S1 finale ending, making it quite a gamble for the show to close the season with so many unresolved notes.
Ultimately, it seems to have paid off as Tokyo Vice has now been renewed for S2. While there aren’t a lot of details about the new season, here’s what you can expect.
Tokyo Vice S2 Release Date & Cast
The renewal news is quite recent. So even if Tokyo Vice did anticipate a S2 and started filming in advance (which they didn’t), we’d only get S2 in 2023 at the earliest. Like S1, there may only be eight episodes.
The main cast, that is, Ansel Elgort, Ken Watanabe, Rachel Keller, and Show Kasamatsu are expected to return. Yes, even Kasamatsu’s Satu, who last we saw was bleeding his guts out on a pavement. But he’s been an important character throughout the season, and I don’t think this is how we’ll be bidding farewell to him.
The two characters that I don’t expect to return (at least alive) are Hideaki Itō’s Miyamoto and Ella Rumpf’s Polina.
Tokyo Vice S2 Plot
The producers have made it clear that they’ve been “inspired” by the book, which means it’s not followed to the T. With good reason, since the book covers an extensive period of Adelstein’s life and multiple cases.
There are some elements, scenes, and even dialogues that are fitted into the show exactly how it was in the book, but not enough for us to use it as a guide to future storylines.
As for now, we will have to rely on the groundwork laid out in S1:
- The show still has to deal with the top tier yakuza members depicted in Ep 1. Are they connected to Polina’s death, is that the “story” they ask Jake to cover up in that first scene? (Noting how Jake now has solid evidence of her being murdered) Or, are the yakuza talking about a different issue altogether?
- Is Miyamoto really dead? How will play out for the Ishida-Tozawa’s feud?
- While we can safely assume Sato is not dead, we still don’t know who ordered the hit on him. Viable suspects are Tozawa, Matsuo’s allies, or whole new adversary.
These are just some of the bigger unresolved arcs mentioned from all the other loose strings of Tokyo Vice S1, which proves that the show has plenty to chew on for S2 when it returns.
As we know that Adelstein dealt with some really high-level yakuza in real life, I expect the show to build up the stakes as well!
About Tokyo Vice
Tokyo Vice is an HBO crime drama series created by J.T. Rogers based on Jake Alderstein’s 2009 book of the same name.
It follows a fictionalized Alderstein, who becomes the first Western-born journalist to work at a renowned Japanese newspaper. Here, he teams up with a veteran detective to uncover the crimes of the yakuza.
The cast includes Ansel Elgort, Ken Watanabe, Rachel Keller, Show Kasamatsu, among others.
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