#anyways!!!!!!!! this is how you know mahito has become one of my all-time favorite characters

[sinterblackwell]

my manager calling me “a breath of fresh air” in response to me squealing about a mahito funko pop i saw in the TREND section at my job <3

[mrhaitch]

Hello Mr. Haitch! You inadvertently recommended the Southern Reach series all the way back then… so of course, I bought the book Annihilation.

I’m only on page 61, but by page 9, I knew that this book was probably going to be my favorite for this year. The thing is, I probably would have devoured it all in one go if I didn’t stop to jot down notes and ideas every five pages. This book has already given me an existential crisis.

Can we have a book discussion?? There are just so many thought-provoking quotes. But for now I’ll only show one (from page 8):

I have quite a few thoughts about this line. First of all, this is what drives the biologist: it’s the reason why she’s in Area X and why she’s there to stay. And it also relates to her identity. There was this one line… I didn’t save it… where she admits to pretending to be a biologist. She’s simply someone in pursuit of knowledge. Or the “truth.” Some understanding of why things happen the way they do.

(The urge to connect the theme of pretending… but it should be saved for another time.)

If someone asked me why I like exploring character analysis, I’d say to learn more about the characters. But if they ask me why I want to learn more specifically, I don’t really have an answer to that. Like the book said, it’s a “self-immolating desire.” Curiosity is something that needs to be satiated.

Lastly, this quote made me wonder… does truth even exist? Is it just something that humans made up? Because everything is based on perception, with what we perceive with our senses which is where it becomes subjective. It’s the reason why the same event can have a different event from two different narratives. Like in JJK, the cycle of war between curses and humans, for example… hold on, I feel like this is an interesting opportunity to connect the idea of “truth” to Mahito. Because he’s kinda like “I know more than you, I know how things actually work” with the soul and body theory. Oh… well that’s just a tangential idea I have not developed yet, and I’d have to go back and take a closer look at his character. Anyways, I found this interesting because the “self-immolating desire” is what drives some people’s choices, decision-making, and purpose. And it brings up the question of whether in the long haul, it is a hopeless pursuit.

Ehh, I just came here today to prompt something maybe relatively interesting. You’ve already read the book, so this isn’t anything new to you of course. But I am in dire need of discussion or I might actually combust and never finish the book 🥲🥲

Curious to hear what you have to say,

formerly curious anon but not anon anymore

Amazing, people normally ignore my book recommendations as being too esoteric, and I am delighted to see someone else joining the freakish Vanderfamily.

You've hit on the core challenge the Biologist faces: she wants to be objective, to be impartial, but knows she can't be. She knows no one can be truly impartial or objective - to be sentient, to hold thoughts, feelings, opinions, to have experienced or learned anything is to see the world through a lens or a filter. We might be aware of the lens, its edges, or the way it distorts the light, but we cannot completely remove it.

To live, to exist, to be is to become a subject, an individual, a perspective.

What she's pushing against is Area X's unknowability. Its inherent alienness, its knack for altering and shifting depending on who is looking at it and how they're looking at it. It's a living, breathing manifestation of humanity's epistemic limits and it is horrifying. It is indifferent to us and that is the source of much of the series' psychic horror - that the thing which might destroy us doesn't even know we're there. Or if it does, we're a momentary blip on the radar that is easily forgotten.

It's a confrontation, a fundamental and necessary one from Vandermeer's perspective as the entirety of the Southern Reach series is an exploration of climate change and ecological collapse, and humanity's reaction to it. The government agency responsible for studying and controlling the thing has got nothing, no useful plans, no solid theories; not even metaphors to grasp Area X. They're just doing the same thing over and over again, hoping this time something will be different, this time they'll see, or hear something, or a switch will flick and all will be made clear.

The Biologist, then, is an argument towards acceptance. Accept where your limits are, what you do know and what you cannot know. Try to understand and appreciate things on their own terms, and see yourself in the context of the cosmic whole rather than in our modern notions of isolated individuality. Feelings of nihilism are part of this process, of shedding old meanings and old purposes but only so we can be free to find new meanings and new purposes that make space for the world.

There's a lot to unpack in this book and I am here for any discussion of any length on this series, because I love it with an intensity normally reserved for stars, nebula, and my wife.

Some of what I've talked about makes more sense if you can wrap your head around Timothy Morton's work on hyperobjects. It's pretty dense and borderline-mystical but I'm happy to expound on it at some point if you'd find that helpful.

[kikuism]

mariam time to turn the tables!!! fav jjk characters ??? fav moments from the manga? least favorite characters? thoughts on the manga vs anime !! 🤨

ok let's go!! this is going to be Long i'm sorry

wow it's been a minute since i was in my jjk phase .... i remember when it first dropped back in 2020 and completely losing my mind bc it looked So Good and i loved the traditional aesthetics in regards to the demons and domains and whatnot. it was such a new and exciting experience for me. i also loved yuuji. i also found gojo So intriguing during those first few eps, it's embarrassing but i really thought there was so much charm and allure with the blindfold but then when he took his blindfold off i was like HUH 🤔🤨🧐 all i could think off was that tiktok of people with blue eyes hfkshfh

ANYWAY. loved the series, was super into it, and then righttttt toward the every end i was suddenly like. so exhausted. couldn't summon that same passion for it in the slightest. it sounds weird but i think i ended up burning myself out with how much i was putting into it, making edits and even writing fic, and i just fell out of it all of a sudden.

a while later i decided to read the manga bc i didn't know how long we'd have to wait until S2. my mistake was reading ALL of it in one single sitting. this means that i remember very little from that binge and also moments that were supposed to be impactful just didn't hit the way they were meant to. i was really looking forward to the shibuya arc bc it's so infamous and i'd been hearing about it for so long, but it just didn't hit for me. but then again, i don't do well with reading shounen manga, i really can't make sense of what's happening on the page, it's just better with sound and color for me. so i came out of it feeling disappointed and wishing i'd just waited for the anime instead.

i think gege really got it with gojo and geto. their story is the most intriguing for me. gege has said he doesn't focus on character like he does on plot, but the character studies for gojo and esp geto are so fascinating. there's so much to unpack there. i like how young gojo used to pick on the weak and geto always reprimanded him for that, and now it's the opposite. and like you said, the fall from grace ... and the way gojo couldn't get rid of his body and that led to. all this.

live slug reaction

i'm looking forward to all the gojo and geto madness in s2 for sure!

another favorite moment that stood out to me was this one:

the panelling and the imagery is superb ... this is storytelling! and this was so satisfying too bc i'd been waiting for the Longest time for mahito to die. something about yuuji becoming so callous and quietly vicious also makes me sad.

another moment that stood out to me when sukuna refused to help junpei which led to his eventual death. that was so brutal and so cruel and that's the moment i realized sukuna and yuuji actually Weren't going to bond and become gradual partners like i expected them to at the start. sukuna is just pure evil. like, it was such an awful moment but it was so eye opening. i really wonder what sukuna’s end game is and why he's so interested in megumi in particular.....

OH! another moment i loved a lot was maki’s whole arc, actually. it was so good bc finally a female character in shounen has her own arc that actually advances and affects the plot?? we love to see it. i also loved how unapologetically angry she got to be and how she got to express it. i've never seen this in shounen before and i loved it.

i don't know if i have a favorite character in jjk, but the ones i feel strongly for are: yuuji (he has such a pure soul, and i think his juxtaposition with sukuna, who is pure evil, is so interesting and the way they slowly bleed into each other is so good), also i like how he parallels geto in a way

(cont'd) i also think gojo is quite an interesting character, everyone loves to clown on him but the fact remains that he's so traumatized from everything that's happened in his youth and i always feel like he's just so close to breaking down, he's been repressing it for so long but he's just going to snap soon. i love characters who hide everything under a veneer of apparent cheer and nonchalance but everything is actually so fucked behind the scenes. it's quite sad.

i adored megumi while watching the anime. i do love an emo boy it must be said ... also his demon dogs are cute. i loved how unfailingly loyal and devoted he is to yuuji. but lately i just. haven't been thinking of him as much. after so much time, he's kind of faded to the background while other characters have taken the front stage in my mind.

i like maki! i remember during the school tournament arc, i was head over heels for her, completely losing my mind. love how she's that powerful without a drop of cursed energy herself, the way she was just flattening everyone else. and then ofc, in her own arc after she goes on a rampage and all that, i really appreciated how she had her own time to shine.

oh you mentioned choso! his design is immaculate ... i once took a quiz that was like which jjk character are you and i got choso and it was like 'you're an eldest daughter' hgkshfjfj SPOT ON and also choso is an eldest daughter in my heart, he looks the way i feel.

but also i think it's brilliant how he calls yuuji brother, and i thought it was a cute little throwaway thing but it ACTUALLY MAKES SENSE NOW so that was a brilliant way to foreshadow

but now i have to mention a character that i thought i was going to love but i just....didn't really end up feeling that much for: yuuta. i was Ready to love him with my whole heart but it just ended up being a lukewarm feeling in the end. a timid anxious boy who finds people to care for and to protect and who grows stronger for it....i should have been all in. but his character just ended up a little flat for me. he wasn't as fleshed out as i would have liked him to be, but i know gege doesn't really focus on character as much, so that's probably why. i didn't feel an emotional connection to yuuta and his story just didn't really strike a chord with me, even though i do think his bond with rika is sweet and i love how he wears their engagement ring from when they were kids (stellar character design element!!) i just wish on the whole his story had been a little meatier, so i could have sunk my teeth in fully. unfortunately i just felt like it was a bit lacking for my taste.

for characters i don't like: well i hate mahito for obvious reasons hgkdhfhf so glad he's dead, good riddance. and that's it for characters i really felt strongly repelled by. also wait mechamaru was so boring im sorry hgjdhf

but what i do want to talk about is nobara....i think she's just okay. when people were praising her character for being so unlike a girl in a shounen series, i was like...hm. she's cool, sure, but where's her arc, what's her story, what does she want to do? there wasn't a focus on her the way there was for yuuji and megumi. i wanted something for nobara the way maki had her own arc. i really wanted to get a Feel for nobara's character but unfortunately i never got that, so she never really stood out to me. i keep wondering why gege just didn't do anything with her when he gave maki this whole entire arc that had actual consequences for the story as a whole. and with nobara's current fate, it's like.....i just feel like gege has no idea what to do with her and it's sad. like at least confirm if she's alive or not?? at this point it's just schrodinger's nobara tbh.

another thing i wish the manga had was more downtime for the characters in between these major plots. it would be a much needed break and give a sense of pacing and a chance to build character, but then again, gege doesn't focus on character so it makes sense why we don't have moments like these.

also....the explanations hgkshfjf that's why i stopped reading the manga altogether. i could not wrap my head around the culling game, there was so much text and i just gave up. i don't know what's happening in the manga anymore.

as for the manga vs the anime, i think mappa did an absolutely incredible job! it looks AMAZING and the fight scenes are amazing and such a treat, and so is the soundtrack. it was literally love at first sight for me, from the very first moment i watched the op in the first episode i was completely smitten. it honestly elevates the manga and makes for such an enjoyable experience. very excited for s2 even though i also feel so bad for these poor animators, i know mappa is treating them like garbage ....

okay last thought: i do Not understand the toji thirst. man looks like some kind of beefy rat....but maybe that's the appeal?? idk. but i am excited to see his fight with gojo!

[empty-dream]

Yuuji is actually my most favorite JJK character and also one of my fav shonen protagonists. (Long babbling. Huge manga spoiler)

I think one of the charming points in JJK is that there is nothing actually new regarding plot points or characterizations, but they are slightly tweaked and played in an interesting way here and there. I could name a lot, but for starters, let’s begin with Yuuji himself.

Yuuji is basically your everyday shonen protagonist: Not straight-up pretty, kind-hearted, super friendly, has a specific girl type, rather dumb but genius at the physical stuff, usually rowdy, kinda underdog, and whose history is deliberately never talked about until faaaar later. But something about him and the nature of the series makes him rather different compared to other series��� main characters. First off, his goal. The stereotypical goals of popular shonen protagonists are usually to be the best at what they do, to eradicate whatever evil they face, or both. Sometimes the ambition may have underlying motifs such as wanting to be acknowledged or not being lonely, sometimes it does not. Yuuji, however, does not have that kind of wish.

His grandpa tells him to help people so he won't die alone before passing away. Borrowed ideal or not, for Yuuji that's already a solid goal. The goal itself is soon questioned as early as chapter 3 by Principal Yaga, and from there on the quest of helping people gets even more complicated. And since Yuuji's got noose on his neck, the goal becomes his stool to stay sane and move forward.

He admits that he is prone to be lonely. It's not some grand ambition. Yes, he’s the only one who can do it - become both Sukuna’s host and Jujutsu sorcerer - , and yes, if he doesn’t do it people will die. But at the core he moves because of the plain fear, of being alone and of guilt when he's all that's left. And this is established even before he swallows Sukuna's finger and gets pulled in jujutsu world, when he is still just a normal person. Those feelings, in fact, are why he ends up doing it and kickstarting the entire story.

So in a way you can speculate that while he obviously does think helping people is right and good, it's not that he finds helping people in itself as his #1 goal. Rather, it is a means to achieve his true goal: Not being alone in his death. His end goal is the way of which he will die, or in short, his death. I don't think the majority of people that age, or any age in fact, would answer that as their goal. The contrast of his sunny-dumb disposition and his rather sad wish really catches my eyes.

And the entire thing also becomes really interesting when Yuuji, who values people over everything, has to face Mahito, who disregards people as things. Then at the end of their fight in Shibuya, it is where Yuuji turning truly chilling. (It’s my favorite scene and panels btw, that’s stone cold. After Junpei, Nanami, Nobara and the countless humans that Mahito has cruelly transfigured and toyed with, there is no more reason or doubt needed. Yuuji accepts that what he’s doing is probably meaningless now. But whatever, killing Mahito is already as given as eating when hungry. Second factor is the relationship between the host and the demonic thing inside. In many typical shonen stories, the relationship tends to be bearable or even amicable in the end. Yuuji and Sukuna's, however, is played horrifically realistic. As mentioned, Yuuji is your generic naive guy. And Sukuna, the demon inside him, is an ancient, all-powerful, manipulative, ruthless demonic king. It’s made clear that Sukuna does not give a shit about Yuuji and will seize any and every opportunity to gain control and bring forth catastrophes. I knew that compared to more standard monster-inside-you in shonen manga, their case is bad. But holy shit it is THAT bad. Every time Sukuna fights, he enjoys causing destructions. Especially in Shibuya arc, where the fights are played painfully realistic with all the normal bystanders getting killed here and there and the whole district razed. I was like "God what will happen if Yuuji wakes up and sees this? He's not gonna be able to live with himself after this."

Which is exactly what happens. And get this, Sukuna specifically wants Yuuji to see the ruins, knowing full well his host would fall into despair. Earlier, Yuuji said he’d feel guilty for people whom Sukuna killed if he hadn’t been there to save them instead. Look at what happens. I cried when Yuuji just curled up all alone and wished for himself and himself only to die. This, when all he wants is to not die alone.

Third is the ‘memories that do not exist.’ Very sexy of Akutami to display Todo having made-up memories of him and Yuuji being brothers as a gag, then make it happen again with Choso but this time revealing it as a real issue: That those are literally made-up memories, implanted by something related to Yuuji, if not it being his own power. Yuuji, a not very brainy but very physically-inclined fighter, a cheerful guy who wishes to die surrounded by beloved ones, has something to do with inserting himself on people's memories. This is like if Naruto has the power of Bleach's Tsukishima. There is something very intriguing, and imo a bit disturbing, about that mixture. Fourth, by the way, why does Sukuna look like Yuuji, extra appendages notwithstanding? Is it simply because that's his host's face, or does his own face actually look like that by default? If it's the latter, doesn't that mean there is something deeper about their relation? Why is Yuuji of all people able to host Sukuna? And remember when Yuuji's grandpa wants to talk about Yuuji's parents before he dies? Who and where are his parents, anyway? How did they give birth to a guy who is so physically gifted he can actually run like a car without magic? And in the first place why does Yuuji's grandpa die alone? Who really are the Itadoris? Akutami-sensei opEN UP I HAVE QUESTIONS. Tl;Dr So yeah, it's not that Yuuji's so inherently different from other shonen protagonists, or he stands out like a sore thumb. It's just that the few existing differences do make him somewhat off compared to everyone else. And the more I think about it, the more I have questions about Yuuji, because as of this writing (Shibuya arc aftermath, Okkotsu appointed as Yuuji’s executioner), not much is known about him. But in contrast to the looming mysteries and the gloomy wish, the guy himself is naturally a cheerful, goofy and a very good person. The juxtaposition is just ... *chef kiss while crying*