#and I’d treat them worse than gege

[veggieharumaki]

“We are not heroes fighting for justice. We’re jujutsu sorcerers.”

part of the dtkplusmultiverse collab on twt! scene and color palette inspired by the JJK season 2 opening.

[goldenthyme]

Misogyny within New Supernatural Shonen

There's a thread on Twitter that everyone is rightfully dunking on that compares Jujutsu Kaisen and Bleach. And one of its ways of doing that is a statement that "Women don’t get oversexualized and actually serve a purpose in the story other than just being fap material" in JJK.

While there's some obvious "telling-on-yourself-there" involved in that statement, I wanted to use this as a jumping-off point to talk about two Bleach-inspired manga and their treatment of girls and women: Demon Slayer by Koyoharu Gotouge and Jujutsu Kaisen by Gege Akutami.

This is coming from the perspective of someone who is completely caught up with the JJK manga as it is right now (chapter 233) and has read the entire Demon Slayer manga. Spoilers will be below.

Quick note: both are referred to using gender-neutral terms and Gotouge reportedly is incredibly uncomfortable using feminine terms to refer to themself. People often base using she/her pronouns for Gotouge off a supposed leak of a Shonen Jump staffer, but I am going to respect how both present themselves and refer to both using they/them pronouns.

Gege has stated that a reason there is not a lot of fanservice is that their parents read the manga. It could be them joking to make it seem more palatable (apparently SJ editors push fanservice a lot), but either way. It's how they chose to present their choice.

First, more generally, less sexualization =/ respect or even tolerance for women. Look at Naruto, which had less sexualization than Bleach but definitely hated its female characters.

Secondly, both of these series publish(ed) in Shonen Jump, which has a uniquely notorious reputation around its treatment of female characters. Even more so than most shonen magazines.

Jujutsu Kaisen

As of the now, the following female characters are either dead or missing and presumed dead by their surrounding events:

Mai (Maki’s twin sister, killed to power her up)

Nobara (not confirmed, but she received a massive head injury from Mahito as shock value for Itadori. Even if she's alive, she's been out of action for a very very long time)

Yuki (not confirmed, but. Uh. She definitely is dead unless some weird shit happens. Her tag-team partner is alive)

As of now, two of the introduced new female characters are both motivated by the love of a major character.

One majorly powerful character joins because she has a crush on Megumi.

The person who took control of Megumi’s sister is obsessed with Sukuna.

Romantic love is never stated as a primary motivation for any of the male characters.

Lastly, I want to point out that there ARE some sexualized characters. There’s Uro, a newer character who is naked and uses her cursed technique to cover herself. And there’s Mei Mei. Who sleeps with her baby (and by baby I mean he is a literal child) brother naked.

A lot of people have talked about how it’s super weird that the main female character is basically treated like a pet who can also fight but doesn’t get to talk until later in the manga. Like, this is a foundational problem. She is the most prominent female character.

Quick aside: A lot of the “no sexualization” thoughts come from people who seem to conflate intentional choices with art style. I noticed this with Chainsaw Man. Sorry, it’s still an active choice to have that character in her underwear. And the author probably knew what the choice implied. Just because the art isn’t typical sexy art doesn’t mean it’s not doing something.

Demon Slayer

Jumping over to Demon Slayer. Demon Slayer has a problem. Its problem I’d argue is worse than JJK. And that problem starts with Nezuko.

Shinobu is notably weaker physically. Which can be realistic – and I’ll discuss that in a minute. Mitsuru is the opposite. She’s super strong. But… was given a ribbon sword? For some reason? And given an excuse not to be muscular.

There’s also Daki, the one female Upper Rank. And she’s portrayed as childish and overly emotional.

These are all real things women can be, but when you have so few significant female characters that follow what are pretty typical stereotypes and trends, that’s a pattern. If you want to write these characters, write other ones to contrast them.

The lack of more female characters, when there are tons of men and boys who get different personalities and characterization, is the problem.

In Conclusion

So, Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen have problems regarding girls and women. Just because another series is worse in your opinion doesn't mean they don't exist. Misogyny can be pretty bad in shonen, especially in Shonen Jump published manga.

There are probably more aspects that I missed about these two, but I think it's important for fans to be cognizant of these biases where they occur. Not just in series that you're personally mad it. But also in ones you like and enjoy.