Where to Watch ‘Tokyo Vice’ Season 2 — Premiere Date, Episode Schedule

After nearly two years, Max’s hit crime noir, Tokyo Vice returns for an all-new second season. And with that, fans will once again get to go back to the neon-lit 90s and dive into Tokyo’s seedy underbelly that raged during the time. Created by Tony Award-winning playwright, J.T. Rogers, of Oslo fame, Tokyo Vice takes a look at the underworld of the Asian capital where a young American journalist begins to investigate the local warring gangs and teams up with a seasoned local detective. As the reporter-detective duo set out to seek truth and justice at any cost, they are faced with social, political, and legal challenges that also threaten their lives. The plot of the second season reads,

Season 2 of the series, filmed on location in Tokyo, takes us deeper into the city’s criminal underworld, as Adelstein comes to realize that his life, and the lives of those close to him, are in terrible danger.

The series is loosely inspired by American journalist Jake Adelstein’s personal account, as published in his memoir, Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan. Tokyo Vice features Ansel Elgort (The Fault in Our Stars) in a fictional version of Adelstein while Ken Watanabe (Inception) portrays the gritty local detective, Hiroto Katagiri. Among other significant characters, Rinko Kikuchi, Rachel Keller, Show Kasamatsu, and Ayumi Ito, also return for the second season.

On its premiere in April 2022, Tokyo Vice met with positive reception and reviews and was highly acclaimed for its concept, narrative, and cast performances. Soon after the first season, the series was renewed for a second season in June 2022, with the lead cast members and showrunners returning, and once more taking us back to Tokyo’s deadly and dangerous underworld.

The first season of the crime noir drama ended with a bunch of cliffhangers. Of these, the fate of Sato (Kasamatsu), the young and super slick, yakuza antagonist, and the future of Katagiri and Adelstein’s investigation, remain the most pressing ones. Tokyo Vice Season 2 picks up right where the first season left off, where our favorite protagonists will be forced to make hard choices in terms of their personal and professional lives. As the show’s creator, J.T. Rogers comments about the second season, “the danger and the violence get heightened exponentially.”

For fans of crime dramas, especially the gritty, noir-style thrillers, Tokyo Vice is a perfect watch. If you haven’t had a chance to watch season one yet, you can always get caught up with the first season’s plot in the three-and-a-half-minute-long recap included in the first episode of the second season, which highlights the key arcs and prepares you for what’s coming in Season 2. While you get ready to dive into Tokyo’s past, once more, check out how, when, and where you can watch and stream Tokyo Vice Season 2.

Is ‘Tokyo Vice’ Season 2 Premiering on TV?

Tokyo Vice is a streaming series and is not premiering on television. Tokyo Vice Season 2, just like the show’s previous season, will only be on the network’s streaming service, Max, on and from February 8, 2024.

Is ‘Tokyo Vice’ Season 2 Streaming Online?

Being a Max original series, Tokyo Vice will be exclusively available for Max subscribers, starting February 8, 2024. If you are already signed up on Max, you can also catch up on the first season of the crime drama series, currently streaming on the platform. And even if you are not subscribed to the streaming service yet, this all-new season of the critically acclaimed show might be the best reason to start.

Can You Watch ‘Tokyo Vice’ Season 2 Without Max?

If you do not have a Max subscription or don’t wish to sign up for the service, you can still watch Tokyo Vice through Prime Video, by adding Max to your account add-on, or get a bundle of Hulu with Max.

Watch the Trailer for ‘Tokyo Vice’ Season 2

If the first season of Tokyo Vice was thrilling and dangerously exciting, the second season is simply explosive. Released in January 2024, the official trailer of Tokyo Vice Season 2 gives a high-octane look into the next chapter of Adelstein and Katagiri’s investigation. As the young, ambitious journalist plunges himself deeper into the city’s criminal underworld, the new season promises a new pulse to the narrative.

Diving head first into the dangers, the trailer boasts a series of action-packed sequences that hint at massive disruption for everyone involved. While Jake and Katagiri go all-guns-blazing at the yakuza, the rising yakuza leader, Tozawa (Ayumi Tanida), prepares for “the future” and turns up the heat on them, threatening their lives and that of everyone around them. Per the trailer, the second season takes off right from where Jake shares Polina’s murder video with Katagiri. This evidence causes massive upheaval and chaos at the newspaper where Jake works. Meanwhile, Samantha (Rachel Keller), who is now the owner of her nightclub, becomes a major witness in the case.

Among other plot arcs, fans would be relieved to know that Sato is alive and recovering in a hospital, but whether he’ll return to his old life and self is yet to be seen. As the two-and-a-half-minute clip is evident, Tokyo Vice Season 2 is about to unleash more mayhem as both sides of the law go head-to-head in an ultimate war of power, prestige, ambitions, and justice.

What’s the Tokyo Vice Season 2 Episode Schedule?

The brand-new second season is expected to run longer than the previous season by two more episodes. Tokyo Vice Season 2 is slated for 10 episodes, each running for roughly 60 minutes. The first two episodes will stream together on the season premiere day, February 8, 2024, followed by each new episode dropping every week, same day, for the coming eight weeks. The Season 2 finale will stream on April 4, 2024.

Check out the complete episode schedule for Tokyo Vice Season 2 here –

• Episode 1: February 8, 2024 – Written by J.T. Rogers and Brad Caleb Kane
• Episode 2: February 8, 2024 – Written by Karl Taro Greenfeld
• Episode 3: February 15, 2024 – Written by Francine Volpe
• Episode 4: February 22, 2024 – Written by Ashley M. Darnall
• Episode 5: February 29, 2024 – Written by Adam Stein
• Episode 6: March 7, 2024 – Written by Annie Julia Wyman and Joshua Kaplan
• Episode 7: March 14, 2024 – Written by Brad Caleb Kane
• Episode 8: March 21, 2024 – Written by Arthur Phillips
• Episode 9: March 28, 2024 – Written by Jennifer Silverman
• Episode 10: April 4, 2024 – Written by J. T. Rogers

Other Shows like Tokyo Vice You Can Watch Right Now

While there’s no shortage of gritty crime shows on television and streaming, Tokyo Vice made its mark with the complexities of the characters in crime, more than the crime itself. And if that’s the kind of storytelling you are looking for, then this Max original isn’t the only one. Check out these other series exploring similar concepts.

Giri/Haji

Translated in English as Duty/Shame, this British crime series from 2019 is a lot like Tokyo Vice on some levels and also not, at the same time. Created and written by Joe Barton (The Lazarus Project), Giri/Haji follows Kenzo Mori (Takehiro Hira), a detective from Tokyo who travels to London in search of his presumably dead brother, who is accused of killing a yakuza leader’s son, thus sparking a gang war in Tokyo. Although the BBC original drama also explores the law and lawlessness of the yakuza like Tokyo Vice, there is a more personal narrative to the story in Giri/Haji. And yet, it also showcases the self-discovery of a man seeking justice in an unknown territory, where Kenzo, quite like Jake, also finds himself plunging into the city’s seedy underbelly. The international ensemble cast of Giri/Haji also features Kelly Macdonald, Yōsuke Kubozuka, Will Sharpe, Masahiro Motoki, Justin Long, Anna Sawai, and Charlie Creed-Miles.

Watch on Netflix

Miami Vice

Perhaps the only reason this classic show is on this list is because of Michael Mann, and also nostalgia. Mann, who serves as an executive producer for Tokyo Vice, gave us this hit series that ran from 1984 to 1990. While Miami Vice and the Max original are strikingly different shows, there’s one small element that ties them to a common ground, besides Mann. In both these shows, life in a big city goes on while the city’s criminal underworld runs parallel, underneath, where two detectives continue to bring justice. Created by Anthony Yerkovich as a police procedural, Miami Vice follows two Metro-Dade police detectives, Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson) and Ricardo “Rico” Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas) working undercover.

Watch on Freevee

Narcos

It’s true that Narcos and Tokyo Vice are vastly different. But the diabolic reign of the underworld lords remains the signature element in both stories, where the seekers of justice must navigate the dangerous life and local cultures to stay alive. Chris Brancato, Carlo Bernard, and Doug Miro, Narcos follows the upsurge of the cocaine trade in Colombia in the 1980s, focusing on the drug kingpin, Pablo Escobar (Wagner Moura), and his rise and fall. In a dramatic, fictionalized account of Escobar and his notoriety, the series explores his dynamics with law, rival cartels, political entities, the military, as well as the local public. Narcos explores Colombia in the 80s, while Tokyo Vice explores Japan in the 90s, and despite starkly contrasting premises, they both have a raw and grungy narrative to their tales. The series also led to a spin-off series,Narcos: Mexico, which lasted for three seasons.

Watch on Netflix