#i know gege is just plot focused so it is what it is but for me fujimoto is a better storyteller

[dyaz-stories]

reading the jujutsu kaisen manga and i've reached the moment where it's just not fun for me anymore. like i love the characters, but it feels like the story is set on inflincting the maximum amount of pain on them and i just? don't care for it? i don't know how to phrase it, but it just feels boring to me. it's essentially 'expect the worst and then watch it happen' and that's just not an interesting way of telling a story to me.

[kikuism]

one thing csm has over jjk is the introspective moments. like esp in part 2. we know everything asa feels and what denji is trying Not to feel. it just makes for a richer reading experience compared to jjk which from what i remember reading is just action action action

[kentuckyfriedmegumi]

my thoughts on chapter 270 and why it feels like a slap in the face to megumi's character

overall, i didn't HATE the chapter but there are so many elements in it that really had me jaded. i'm gonna yap and i can't guarantee that this will be a short post.

i've been saying ever since the series ending announcement came out that i would like to see a good, emotionally-driven conversation with the trio; specifically, between yuji and megumi. not because of itafushi or whatever, but because this final arc has been leading up to megumi's return and him and yuji being reunited. we get 266 and 268 and both of those are good for there relationship, but we should have gotten MORE.

opening up at tsumiki's grave was such a good opening for megumi. i've BEEN saying that his character deserves a good conclusion and a lot of people think that that's what 266 and 268 were, but i think that there should have been one more, final meg-centric focus for his story to really feel like it's ending. unfortunately, tsumiki's funeral is like one page and we immediately jump to CG side characters that i (frankly) do not care for.

we return to our trio characters with the megumi and hana scene which….. personal opinions and thoughts aside, i thought was fine???? like it just felt so out of place and like really a meghana joke… of all things?? i was never a fan of hana's character, which is sad bc i hesitate to say that she IS a character with the way that gege has written her to be a plot device. like what are her motivations? her ideas? her goals?? they are all megumi-centric and it just falls so flat. she likes the IDEA of megumi and she doesn't actually KNOW him, nor does she understand his life, his struggles, his beliefs, or his pain.

it's this very reason why i am SO GLAD that megumi rejects her and i am HOPING that gege doesn't shoehorn in a meghana or a itazawa relationship. not only does it feel cheap, but they don't actually KNOW each other. they've barely interacted, both girls just like yuji and megumi on a superficial level. if there was more time to develop them, have them together and interact, then i would be much less opposed, but at this point having them get together would just be throwing in a relationship for the sake of throwing in a relationship.

on a personal level though, i wrote a separate post on megumi's and yuji's parallels and i fully believe for that reason that they ARE soulmates, whether or not it's romantic, and they deserve a romantic interest that understands them on that kind of level.

anyway, back to it. the rest of the chapter is more setup for what's to come. it feels like there may be a jjk 2, or a spin off, or like an epilogue short series to come after the series ends. honestly, i'm not sure how i feel about that, and i will hold off until the last chapter before i state my final peace.

but overall, i think that this all could have been done sooner, i think that this chapter could have been 269, and i think that the characters should have been the focuse. the MAIN characters, not the random CG side cast that we haven't seen in like a year. this chapter was fine, just fine. was it bad? no. was it good? absolutely not. if i had to rate it, i would say it's like a 4… maybe a 5 out of 10. i think that this all COULD have been great, but with the time that we have left and with the way that series is going, i'm hesitant to say that this will be a good ending.

i really, really do not want any canon relationships in here for the sake of giving our main cast a love interest. please, gege, if you're going to do it, make it fucking meaningful.

yap over.

[hxhhasmysoul]

General Thoughts on Yuuta?

As few as humanly possible? I wish the fandom let me forget about this boy.

I’ve never found Yuuta interesting. Now, thanks to fandom I find him downright annoying. 

Yuuta has strong Shinji vibes at the beginning of Zero and while it’s realistic, there are people who are like that, I just find it boring. This is a very personal bias but as a person who has several concurrent mental issues, I have a strong dislike for characters and actual people who make their mental illness their whole personality. 

His arc in Zero also doesn’t excite me. He is super powerful from the start but can’t control it. Then he puts practically zero work into it an can control it.. He seems like a scrawny loser but starts to do gymnast shit with a sword really quickly. His CT is Copy, where he just copies the techniques of others and uses them in a more powerful way than they do, with no conditions or downsides.. When he needs to, he learns reverse curse technique and can apply it to others which we learn is super hard… 

Basically, everything he needs to know and be able to do, he is able to do in the moment he needs it… 

And Yuuta has no principles, not ideals. He is unfazed by Getou’s fascist speech. Yuuta fights Getou because Getou directly harms Yuuta’s only friends. It’s really sad because Getou actually is shown to have a vested interest in pursuing Yuuta, or more precisely Rika. I mean Getou’s plan and ideology are nonsense, but what fascist ideology is internally coherent anyway, it’s always reactionary drivel that focuses on targeting the weak instead of trying to get to the bottom of societal (in this case jujutsu society’s) problems. But Yuuta has no personal connection to Getou, no thematic one either. 

I think Gege really noticed what a weak protag Yuuta was because all of this is fixed in Yuuji whose ability to perform gymnastic feats is established in chapter one. Who also has principles and a personality more complex than: I’m depressed.  Same with Getou and his primitive plans are replaced with Mother, the perfect plotter, and their amazing multi-layered plans. The Gege added Sukuna, an emotionally constipated jujutsu and poetry nerd who can also forge a plan of his own. And Mahito, a creepy kid curse who thinks he can plot but alas adults were in the room, so no he can’t And Yuuji has a deep personal and thematic connection to all three of them, and likewise.

It really shows how much Gege grew and developed the world of JJK between Zero and the main series.

There’s a hint that Yuuta’s so powerful partially because of Rika’s love for him. She loves and she stayed with him after she died. “Love is the greatest curse”. So the arc goes that Yuuta is told that he can stop keeping Rika’s soul from crossing over, can break her curse by simply talking to her, releasing her. 

And this is where Gege in my opinion really made a serious mistake. The way this is set up, and later much more well developed in JJK proper, there should’ve been a cost to releasing Rika. There is a strong idea of balance and give and take to jujutsu. Gege had a perfect opportunity here to grant Yuuta space to grow by depowering him. Letting Yuuta lose some of his powers by letting go of Rika. But Yuuta just became more powerful for JJK proper… 

And that meant there was nowhere to go with Yuuta’s character. Yuuta was still unconnected to any of the major villains and barely to any of the important characters, only to Maki and Gojou, though he barely interacts with either in JJK proper. 

I and also other people have written before how Yuuta literally does nothing during the final showdown, how he only pauses the fight, prolongs it and distracts from the people who Sukuna actually connects with during the fight, ie Yuuji and Maki. Or how he wasn’t even necessary to kill Kenjaku.  

And Yuuta has no personal connection to either Kenjaku or Sukuna. He has a forced thematic connection to Sukuna when he takes over Gojou’s body, a pathetic attempt at becoming the strongest. And he has that connection for like five minutes in the story… 

If Yuuta never appeared in the JJK main story… it would’ve been almost the exact same story. Gege needed Yuuta for one moment, just after Shibuya to fake Yuuji’s death. And maybe even that could’ve been handled differently. Someone else could’ve fought in Sendai instead of him, there are other capable characters to fight in the Culling Games.

_________________

More posts on Yuuta by me and others. If I missed any good ones, please tell me and I will add them to the list.

[noturprobiem]

This is a part of a crossover fic I'm writing, a meeting between bingqiu

The fic will be mainly focused on hualian, but the idea is that Xie Lian, Shen Yuan and Lan Wangji are researchers and their men are supernatural entities

I will need a lot of time to finish the whole thing and this passage might change a bit, but I think it works on it's own right now. It's a bit spooky, too!

Report by: Shen Yuan

On: Entity A0518

I must start by asking you to not allow this information to leak. My report can not be seen by Shen Qingqiu, under any circumstances. If gege finds out, he will endanger himself or others in a misguided attempt to protect me, and there will be casualties. Thank you.

Several years ago I was forced to get rid of an entity, then known as F0518. It was a creature capable of creating illusions, but not trapping people inside. It used the form of a teenager and claimed to be fourteen years of age. However, it looked just like A0517, which gege spent years hunting and running from. They had some history I'm not aware of.

When the entity turned eighteen, gege became convinced that it was hiding its dangerous power and manipulating me to then use me in some nefarious plot. He had some odd ideas about its feelings for me which I won't repeat. He was going to destroy it, but I couldn't let him kill something that resembled a child so much. So I pretended to do it myself, wounding it, but making sure it can survive after a long healing process. I realize how irresponsible that was, but there is no use in disciplining me, as he found me already and will make sure that I know I made a mistake. 

Which I don't regret. He was a child.

Yesterday, I was going home late, and turned to a dark alley I know very well. I can avoid every obstacle there blindfolded, which is why I was very confused when I bumped into something. I thought it was a dog at first, but upon further inspection, it turned out to be a small child, standing in the middle of the road and crying. I crouched to ask him what happened, but the kid didn't answer, just grabbed my sleeve and started bawling. Children were always my weakness. I spent several minutes trying to calm him down. I tried sign language, but it didn't work, the kid just got scared that I was trying to shake his hand off my coat. So I scooped him up and left the alley, to at least get a good look at his face and check if he had anything to identify him by. As I walked, my heartbeat slowly gathered speed. The alley was too long. I knew it was supposed to end already, but blamed the fact that I now had a passenger for the tricks my mind played on me.

With a creeping suspicion, I turned left at the end of the alley, and I didn't know where I was anymore. I couldn't let the child feel that something went wrong, so I stubbornly kept going straight ahead. I've been through encounters like this before, they were usually just inconvenient, but not dangerous. The senior Luo Binghe made my paths to gege's house longer just to annoy him sometimes.

As you can guess, I was slowly realizing who caught me this time. It's been three years, after all. I didn't want to run, because it would scare the child, so when I saw the light, I just walked faster. I knew it was a trap, but hoped that I would at least be able to get the kid out before anything bad happened, and that could only be achieved by letting Luo Binghe have his way. He can't tolerate when things don't go as he wanted, and it might partially be my fault.

When I reached the light, the child turned his head to face me. There was something unnatural in the way he moved, in the speed and angle. He looked at me, unblinking, no expression on his face.

“Shizun,” he said. “I miss you.”

I dropped the child and made several steps back, but running was useless in the realm controlled by him. The child's body shifted, as if his bones were breaking and growing and rearranging under his skin. I took another step back, but tripped and fell. For some reason, Binghe put a blanket under me before I hit the ground.

He looked just like the senior one, standing in front of me. He was even taller than when I last saw him, which I didn't think was possible, dressed in several layers of a black old-fashioned hanfu, with long curly hair and a handsome face. Not sure if it's important. Entities aren't usually handsome, from my experience. 

The darkness around us turned into an interrogation room, which he sometimes used as a joke when I tried to ground him for something. Didn't expect this room to horrify me, but the gray walls made me feel trapped. The light was dirty and yellow, blinking from time to time, and it made my eyes hurt, the air was stuffed and dusty. The blanket stayed, though. I can't fully understand his actions, even now. 

“Aren't going to run? Good,” Binghe chuckled, leaning on the table. “Let's talk like adults, then.”

I didn't have the energy for this. Walking this much wasn't very good for a chronically ill body like mine, and I was already tired after work. So I said:

“Just kill me and we can all move on."

He threw a chair at the wall, and it shattered into pieces.

“You were the one who tried to kill me!” He screamed.

Suddenly, the illusion was broken, and I was left standing in the middle of the alley, completely alone. Nothing odd happened since then.

If I disappear, I beg you to burn this paper before gege can find it and murder everyone involved.

[nyxi-pixie]

i love media that focuses more on character than plot and bsd does it so well. like every single character is so beautifully written and asgr treats all of them with such care. i know people complain about the death bait but i think its just. hes not going to kill characters unless that is what makes sense for their arc and their story has been told. its why odasaku is so fixated on not killing: because to him, a character is a real being and you cant be so loose with taking lives when you have full control of one.

even when characters die before youve really had a chance to get to know them properly (the flags, and bram now too, for example), asgr still does a rlly good job of establishing them quickly without leaving them one dimensional. they have a lot of life to them even with so little time to show it. contrast that to something like jjk where you could sit with a character for a while and still not feel like you have a good grasp on Who They Are, and. yikes.

I can emotionally attach to bsd characters who show up for a singular chapter of a backstory light novel. jjk gives a character a whole mini arc and theyre still just nothing to me bc gege, like a lot of writers atm, has characters as plot devices rather than people. and asgr does the opposite.

[quinnyundertow]

QUINNY HELLO!! Its me aleks @yuutito

I have been following both the time travel fic (when I catch you gege) and the asylum one since day one! But I’ve been really shy to make new moots so I haven’t made the effort to come and say hi >.<

But I want to pick your brain about the time travel fic hehe so here I am !!

- since JJK has ended, has your plans for the story changed at all? Like have any plot lines or your planned story been altered by the ending gege gave us?

- since we haven’t met yuuji or megumi or Nobara yet, I’m wondering.. will our MC stop Yuuji from eating the finger? You don’t have to answer but I’m so curious if you will loosely follow JJK storyline or if you will make sweeping changes… vague/nonspoiler answer is ok ^^

- I really like what you did with suguru’s character. I was actually shocked when we met him in the ryokan and he was like “why would I take Rika from Yuta?” I was like OH like we are ACTUALLY making a difference I was so happy 😭 but now I’m here wondering what will kenjaku do if the night parade never happens… I wonder if he’s still in kaoru’s body.. aaaa I have so many questions I’m so very excited you see..

- loosely speaking, I know it’s a reverse harem so MC will have lots of romantic interests, but does MC have romantic feelings for one person or all of them? Or is it more that she’s being swept away in the moment by all these guys? I want to root for an endgame couple (not naming any names, definitely not biased 😌) but I’m also having lots of fun watching MC romance them all!!

- I also really like what you did with Junpei. The eren jaeger hair is a LOOK I’m living for it truly… he looks so handsome in my mind…

Sorry if you’ve answered any of these before but I reread your whole fic last night and my mind is buzzing..

🥰 Ahhhh don’t feel shy about saying Hi I’m just a humble trash gremlin. I’m so glad you’ve continued to like the fics from so early on. 🥺 Thank you for the kind words and support!

These are some interesting questions! Let me see if I can give answers to them 🤭 Potential manga/anime spoilers below. I definitely got carried away responding.These are simply my opinions from watching/reading interviews and the source material.

- since JJK has ended, has your plans for the story changed at all? Like have any plot lines or your planned story been altered by the ending gege gave us?

For a little while I was pretty concerned about how the ending would affect the fic but to be honest almost all the tragedy we are focused around stopping is in the anime (Junpei, Haibara, Nanami, Suguru, Toji, Yuji’s Trauma, Childhood trauma for Gumi, Mechamaru, Tsumiki etc etc.). So no changes to the story line based off of the manga ending. That actually goes for all my fics. Phew.😅

- since we haven’t met yuuji or megumi or Nobara yet, I’m wondering.. will our MC stop Yuuji from eating the finger? You don’t have to answer but I’m so curious if you will loosely follow JJK storyline or if you will make sweeping changes… vague/nonspoiler answer is ok ^^

There will be sweeping changes while loosely following the storyline. 😅 MC will be doing her damndest to avoid Yuji chowing on the finger. That’s all I’ll say on that.

- I really like what you did with suguru’s character. I was actually shocked when we met him in the ryokan and he was like “why would I take Rika from Yuta?” I was like OH like we are ACTUALLY making a difference I was so happy 😭 but now I’m here wondering what will kenjaku do if the night parade never happens… I wonder if he’s still in kaoru’s body.. aaaa I have so many questions I’m so very excited you see..

I feel like I need to explain how I see Suguru’s character to respond to this. Suguru is such a fascinating character. Even if you think early intervention could have stopped his whole “Monkey” era. He has to have something innately inside him that is broken for him to be able to flip that hard (Nurture vs Nature argument). Yes he goes through extreme trauma but lots of people go through extreme trauma and don’t become racially charged serial killers.

In the show he goes from (arguably) Lawful Good to Chaotic Evil. In WICYG I want to explore Geto as a Chaotic Neutral.

Why didn’t Suguru even THINK of taking Rika from Yuta in WICYG? This stems from my analysis in his canon choices. Some of the decisions Geto makes in JJK 0 frankly don’t make sense if he wanted to achieve his goals of a non-sorcerer free world. Suguru is very intelligent and capable of understanding others deeply and in canon manipulating them.

I think in JJK 0 Geto was fucking exhausted by having to bare the weight of the world on his shoulders but felt totally pigeonholed into his choices and was past the point of no return. Geto knew what would goad Gojo into killing him. Targeting young children, attacking Gojo’s students, declaring a public war so Gojo couldn’t back out. Geto gave Gojo no choice but to kill him. Maybe he wasn’t fully cognizant of making that decision but I think he did. Geto could have easily killed Yuta and Stolen Rika when Toge and Yuta encounter Geto at the abandoned mall. He didn’t do it because he didn’t want to.

The WICYG Geto can’t even fathom murdering a young sorcerer with potential just to become more powerful himself. We will get more into these choices as Suguru’s story progresses!

- loosely speaking, I know it’s a reverse harem so MC will have lots of romantic interests, but does MC have romantic feelings for one person or all of them? Or is it more that she’s being swept away in the moment by all these guys? I want to root for an endgame couple (not naming any names, definitely not biased 😌) but I’m also having lots of fun watching MC romance them all!!

Reader x all is the ending. I’ve thought about it a lot. This was the first thing I needed to establish before starting the story. How to have a believable happy harem ending. Trust in me 🙏

- I also really like what you did with Junpei. The eren jaeger hair is a LOOK I’m living for it truly… he looks so handsome in my mind…

I needed him to have a hairdo with his forehead exposed because it’s a visible sign of readers success in Jupei’s story so far. He was never bullied to the point of cigarettes being put out on his face. Go reader! Also Man buns 🙌 Now I need to pay someone to draw him like that hehe I’m glad you approve.

Thank you for all the questions and kind words and sorry for the rambling. I enjoyed responding ❤️

[iveb33nthe4rcher]

Yuji itadori: What makes a good protagonist?

Today is yuji itadori's birthday (aka my personal favorite and, in my opinion, one of the best new gen anime mcs) and i just wanted to come on here real quick to talk about his character.

Yuji, in my opinion, is the perfect example of how experiences can change your personality. At the start of jjk we see yuji as this cheerful, kind of naive teenager who has a positive look on life, right? By the end of s2, some of these traits are still there, but not all. The events that happened in shibuya obviously took their toll on yuji, and you can see that he's lost his "happy" demeanor and has matured a lot while learning about the jujutsu world and its brutalities. He also stops trying to humanize sukuna and recognizes what kind of cruel monster is inside him. He is very obviously not the same person he was at the start of jjk and i really love how gege wrote that.

Next i want to talk about his role in the story. Obviously, since he's the protagonist, there's bound to be a lot of plot points involving him, but jjk goes a different way. While there is a lot of scenes, fights, or anything else involving yuji (obviously), the entire focus doesn't remain on him. Every character gets their own spotlight at some point as we learn more about them, and i personally believe this is very important when writing media. Because you cannot have the entire story focusing on one character or it'll all fall flat.

Lastly, because it's late, i want to bring up yuji himself. Yuji is a character who's in a pretty dark situation right now: At this point, the entire world is against him. And it's a little funny to think that, the one responsible for all this in the first place is none other than yuji. Everything that happened with sukuna and him becoming his vessel happened because of swallowing sukuna's finger, which he swallowed to PROTECT HIS FRIENDS, knowing damn well there'd be some sort of big consequence coming with it. He had no knowledge of the jujutsu world at all and he still decided to swallow the finger.

His character from the shibuya arc and forward makes me so sad for some reason, because at the end of the day, he is just a former happy kid whose life turned upside down and lost almost everything in THREE MONTHS, yet he still refuses to stop fighting. He has lost so many loved ones in front of him. He has died TWICE. Yet he doesn't give up yet. He knows he has to save people, and that is what he is going to do.

I just think that yuji itadori is amazing.

[naeldeus]

jjk 251

Megumi is a background character to his own tragedy

Chapter 251 dropped, and a certain character is not coming out unscathed. Our cast is trying to seperate Sukuna and Megumi, and after a few tries, Yuuji finally reaches Megumi. But Megumi denies Yuuji's help, having lost the will to live, allowing Sukuna to launch a counter-attack once more. For this, Megumi is called a bum and slandered all over the internet. Yuuji and Megumi's suffering is pitted against each other by the fandom. Part of it is memes, sure, but it's clearly more than that.

Realistically, Megumi and Yuuji are going through very similar events. Megumi lost his sister and teacher while under Sukuna's possession. Yuuji lost his friend, his mentor right in front of him in the span of minutes. Sukuna killed an untold amount of people in their bodies. Both went fetal after it happened. So why is the response so contrasting?

Yuuji's trauma in Shibuya is front, right, and center. His relationships were developed on-page, the reader is just as shocked by the loss of his loved ones, we're grieving right along with him.

Meanwhile, the events Megumi goes through aren't given the same care. Ever since he got fed the Finger Special, at no point does the narrative slow down so the reader can digest what's happening. Megumi's plot and struggles gets glossed over, skipped, or is a complete tonal disconnect to what's actually happening.

Tsumiki wakes up: the only on-page interaction is Megumi telling Tsumiki to go back to sleep, even though she woke up from a nearly two-year coma. She doesn't show up the entire Culling Games arc even though Megumi's participation was to save his sister

Tsumiki turns out to be an incarnated sorcerer: Megumi's reaction to his sister being dead and possessed is practically non-existent because Sukuna takes over Megumi right after

Tsumiki gets killed by Megumi's own technique: This is the worst one, imho. Yorozu is completely in control during this fight, we learn nothing about Tsumiki. There is almost no acknowledgment on how horrifying this situation really is. The narrative focuses more on Sukuna trying to kill Yorozu, creating this disconnect where Tsumiki is seemingly already dead but she has to die again for Megumi's angst. Does it really matter that Tsumiki's body needs to be killed by the 10 Shadows? Isn't the fact that Megumi will forever remember her dying by his own hand not enough? There is accidental pseudo-incest in this arc and it's completely unacknowledged. The tone is just all over the place.

Megumi takes the damage of 5 Domain Expansions: Is he brain dead? Was his soul damaged? Is he fine? What are birds? We just don't know

Gojo, Megumi's guardian, gets killed while possessed: Megumi and Gojo's relationship is a hotly debated topic amongst fans. Is Gojo Megumi's father figure? Are they even close? Did Gojo hold back from trying to kill Megumi or did he think Megumi was a lost cause? Is Megumi even aware of what's going on?

And the ultimate kicker to all of this: Megumi has shown up for a handful of panels for most of the events described. His story is absolutely horrifying and would cripple any man, but it's all off-screened or shrouded in vagueness.

But to large parts of the fandom none of that matters. If Megumi's friends put aside all their pain, why can't Megumi? Setting aside that Yuuji very definitely did not when it was him, I believe this is a direct consequence of the lack of character work. For months now, character after character dies, and no one reacts to it. Gojo, the biggest hope to most of the current cast, died and the story moves on to the next contender in the same chapter he kicks it. They all just jump into the fight like they're swapping party members in an RPG. It's no wonder Megumi gets disrespected for being the one guy who breaks down to the shit he goes through like a real human being. Why should the fandom care when the story itself does the same thing?

There's a lot of parellels Gege could have drawn between Yuuji and Megumi, and while that might still happen, the way Megumi has been treated as a plot device makes the entire experience incredibly unsatisfying.

[sapphic-agent]

I know this probably sounds egotistical and arrogant and perhaps hypocritical because I am a believer that fans shouldn’t dictate how a story should be made, it should be up to the writer and author of the story how it is written.

But after the hurricane of shit that we’ve gotten to where Bakugou is just now being forced down our throats and the story and focused being ripped Izuku and instead bequeathed to this overrated dick, I don’t care anymore.

I say we should petition that, after MHA has initially died down in popularity, we get new writers to reboot the show to where the main focus is on IZUKU, he gets treated the respect he deserves, and Bakugou isn’t the glorified asshole that gets shoved in our faces and told again and again he went through significant “ChArAcTeR dEvElOpMeNt”. Because I am so goddamn sick and disappointed in Horikoshi right now.

Absolutely! When Isayama was getting all the hate when he ended the AOT manga, I was one of his firm defenders. Even though Gege has broken my heart quite a few times in JJK, I still respect their decisions. I absolutely loved how Shirai ended The Promised Neverland manga even though a lot of people didn't. I'm all for writers making doing what they want for their own stories because usually I can understand why they made the decision. Even if it's one I disagree with, I can comprehend why they took that particular course because it usually makes sense in one way or another.

But what Horikoshi did to MHA is appalling.

He reworked an entire series to focus around one character (who was not the main character and wasn't even originally set up to be the deuteragonist). It was bad enough that Bakugou's development wasn't that good anyway, but why did all the other characters have to suffer? Why did Izuku's character have to suffer in his own series?

Not to mention the plot. There were so many aspects to the world Horikoshi created that could have been explored. This was a story about people not being born equal and had so many facets of this society it could have expanded on: quirkless people, mutation quirks, weak quirks, villainous quirks, exploitation of young female students (Kendo and Yaoyorozu), quirk marriages, child assassins (Hawks and Lady Nagant), corrupt government, etc. But nah, let's focus on and pander to the rich privileged brat who was born at the top of society with a powerful quirk and was literally quirkist.

Not to mention, the story literally forgot Izuku was quirkless. All that time he spent miserable and everything he went through (even outside of Bakugou) just down the drain. He never mentions it and hardly even thinks about it. It just... Doesn't matter. A vital aspect to his character gone just like that. Because if we acknowledged it that would just make Bakugou look bad.

Izuku deserved better as a main character. Izuku's real friends deserved to be the ones at his side, not Bakugou who only just started to not be a dick. I'm sick. And when I'm not sick, I'm tired.

I vote that a ton of fanfiction writers work on rewriting MHA together. Because if they release an official manga that treat their precious Kacchan (barf) as anything less than a martyr, there will be riots

[pitroig]

A Few Kind Words About Gege Akutami, the Fate of Gojo Satoru, and the Redemption within the Fandom.

Now that Jujutsu Kaisen has come to an end, everyone seems to have their own opinions about the final chapters and the progression of the manga over its last arcs. There’s a general consensus that there are obvious plot holes, unresolved matters, some rushed and out-of-character interactions, and overall dissatisfaction with how the story was wrapped up. Many have already broken these points down better than I could, both here and on X, so I won’t try to add anything to that conversation.

In fact, I’m here to say something a little more controversial.

I don't think, at all, that Gege Akutami is a bad writer. I think the issue is something else: Gege Akutami thinks he’s much smarter than he actually is.

Up until the Shibuya Incident or even Itadori’s Extermination Arc, we were reading an incredibly well-written manga. Loose ends tied up neatly, references intertwined, and the narrative structure was solid. So we know Gege can write well. Those chapters had excellent world-building and storytelling. However, Gege is too obsessed with proving he's the smartest in the room. He's too focused on his dark physics theories about cursed techniques, his pseudo-Buddhist references, and when the time came for the Culling Games, he created a ridiculously complex game, convinced he’d have time to develop everything in his head.

But he couldn’t. And he failed. I don’t just think that only the grueling manga publication system in Japan impacted his mental health—it's just incredibly hard to maintain a vision and quality in something as long and complex as what he was proposing. From the Culling Games onward, he relies on after-the-fact explanations to patch up plot holes. Time skips are used to jump over gaps, and he makes the same mistake he did with Gojo: creating a character who can seemingly fix everything—Shoko. We never really get an explanation of how Shoko’s cursed technique works, its limits, or expansions. Why Nobara, yes; why Gojo, no. How does it work, does it get exhausted, where does it come from, how long does it take to work? You can't measure cursed technique input so precisely, then skip over basic rules like medical limitations, and you can’t always rely on a deus ex machina to fix narrative messes when you’re overwhelmed.

It’s not a lack of skill on Gege's part. It’s hubris.

But I said I’d be kind. So, onto part two: Gojo.

Gojo Satoru:

I’ve ranted before about Gojo Satoru’s fate—how introducing him, keeping him locked away, then giving him a completely anticlimactic liberation just to kill him off feels like a massive waste. I stand by that, but I also have to admit part of that perspective is my inner Gojo fan expressing frustration. The truth is, after the last chapter, I finally understood the deeper meaning of his character, though it left me heartbroken.

I can’t shake the idea that Gojo knew, more or less, while training before facing Sukuna, that he would die in that battle. He writes his farewell letters, establishes what to do with his body, and dies in peace, satisfied. I once wrote that both Gojo and Nanami lived on borrowed time. Their development and lives froze sometime between Riko Amanai’s death and Geto’s betrayal. It’s them people talk about when they say their youth was stolen: from that moment on, everything was an escape towards a future that only made sense with death.

I really can’t hate such a tragic twist to his character.

Okay, that was gentler but definitely sadder. Let’s wrap this up with something more positive.

Smile, you're free now.

If you’ve followed a series for years, it’s normal to feel a little empty when it ends. It’s happened to all of us. It will happen to you again in the future, don’t worry. Being a fan is something that’s in your blood, so you’ll find something else to latch onto. But if you still feel like Jujutsu Kaisen is a huge part of your life, don’t worry—you’ve got the fandom.

Sure, the JJK fandom is a little toxic, but it’s also the best gift Gege gave us. Now, without the pressure of canon, you can play however you like to fill in those unanswered gaps. You can write theories, read that fanfiction about your favorite ship, draw that scene you’re sure happened, jump into that forum to explain your stance on a character, write your own fix-it, commission a comic, rewatch the series, or even decide your favorite character isn’t your favorite anymore. You’re now free to enjoy the series at your own pace because the author has set you free from the path they were carving out.

Someone might come along and tell you that what you're saying is impossible because of “canon.” Nonsense. The JJK fandom, like almost every fandom, will be fleeting for some and rock solid for others. Do what makes you happy. Enjoy the upcoming anime. Expand the world-building. Play with everything like it’s made of clay.

And if someone gives you a hard time, think about this: Gege had a raw diamond, and he chose to smash it rather than shape it. Now, it’s your turn to take a piece and make a ring that fits your finger just right.

[kikuism]

again this all goes back to something i've complained about jjk forever now but the way gege does not focus on the emotional aftermath of major events is a detriment to me and i know he's plot focused not character focused but this chapter was the downtime for them to reflect on what's happened and who they've lost and what to do now going forward but no. surely with two chapters of the manga left you'd expect to see some emotional ramifications for everything that's happened? but we're just going to act like gojo's death meant nothing. as if he didn't do everything he could for his students to ensure they had the best chance possible against sukuna, and the way he's been a constant, supportive presence for them throughout. and isn't jjk all about breaking cycles so why did gojo die seeing himself as nothing more than 'a living creature' and it's not contested at all ('you can make a flower bloom but can't ask it to understand you'). it's not even that i want him to come back but at the very least they should remember him as Gojo and not The Strongest and that would provide some nice closure to his arc. paralleling that 'who is gojo satoru? .... the strongest' bit from way back. not only did none of that happen in fact we're blaming him for not killing yuuji like okay. sure. till the end he was just a tool in their eyes. not even asking for his students to look back (fondly! i wish) on their sensei that'd be too much to ask i just expected Something from megumi of all people at least. a little teehee at a silly note is not the kind of catharsis i was hoping for. im not asking for much from gege just that he stick to the themes he's been building up this whole time

[neonscandal]

jjk having queer-coded villains seems to be an intentional choice. what are your thoughts on this

Anon comin in hot today! I feel like this doesn't really need a spoiler warning though it does detail info about characters yet to be animated so read at your own risk.

To be honest, I wouldn't even say that it's coding, JJK has an assortment of characters with varied identities from our protagonists to our antagonists which includes:

Megumi - a lot of fans interpret his non-gendered answer to what his type is, focusing instead on personality, to mean that he's pansexual.

Mahito - genderless ✨ and/or physically lacking reproductive organs that would typically define gender binary

Tengen - presumably assigned female at birth, has since transcended gender or is more non-binary

Kenjaku - another character who's just.. lived so long that they're just kind of gender fluid? Though, considering their history, intersex may be more appropriate? We know that, as Noritoshi Kamo, he mixed his blood with what would become the cursed womb paintings but she actually consummated with Jin for some extra razzle dazzle

Uraume - canonically they/them

Kirara - assigned male at birth (though I believe canonically referred to as they/them) with an androgynous gender expression

Please note: I don't consider myself an expert on the matter as gender identity, expression and sexual orientation exist on spectrums. Subsequently, if you think any of the above characters belong elsewhere based on canon or headcanon, I get it. If, based on canon, I'm outright incorrect, feel free to drop a comment and I'll edit accordingly.

With the distribution of the above in mind, I don't think it's unilaterally something focused just among the antagonists. Though, ironically, some of my color coding is also debatable at this point, I suppose. I think the more interesting observation is that, with enough time, such labels aren't as binding or lack the need for definition. Like, Tengen has all the time in the world to be whatever they want to be and they simply become. In fact, unrelated but kinda related, you see a similar idea in Hell's Paradise with the mercurial gender fluidity of the Tensens, too. Honestly, that's another show to watch with a curious lens.

All that to say, I think the varied representation is more interesting due to the conversation around the mangaka's own identity. Gege Akutami's anonymity has been shielded by their pen name but, also, I don't believe they have confirmed pronouns. While people argue that they went to an all boys' school previously, they also, during a stint as an assistant on another manga, unveiled themselves with a femme presenting avatar. Seemingly to avoid being defined by visual perception (or to pre-emptively avoid recognition by devastated fans..), they appeared in a video interview dressed as Mechamaru. Couple that with the fact that there is a notable lack of romantic pairings within the story, especially those that would be typical of a shonen story. Arguably, that could leave a lot of Aro and/or Ace characters that I'm too obtuse to have picked up on. In fact, one could interpret Akutami's previous comments about Gojo accordingly.

Subsequently, I don't think the intention is to vilify queerness just because some of the antagonists fit the bill. I think, if anything, there's just representation that isn't necessarily cultivated around "othering" queer characters or using their diversity as a plot line, if that makes any sense? Which isn't just concentrated on the "bad guys". For the most part, these are just subtle realities of the characters... okay, Kenjaku's identity can definitely be charged to the plot though. 👀 Seemingly contrary to what I just said about diversity as a plot device, I'm now having mixed feelings specifically with Kenjaku because their identity does inform the plot but also intrinsically brings nuance to them as a character. The more I think about it, this diversity is actually what humanizes them which, connotatively, still seems like a positive thing. Hm. Maybe I'm a hypocrite? Not sure but I'm curious as to your thoughts so feel free to leave them below 👇🏾

[takosan]

Spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen, Bleach.

The other day I saw someone post that Jujutsu Kaisen was a better manga before it became mainstream and Gege felt pressured by fans to write in a certain way and the story went awry after becoming mainstream. (Can’t find the post now so paraphrasing here but it was basically about the ending which has left many people disappointed.) I’ve been thinking over the post and I don’t know if I agree. For one, most artists want their work to reach more people. Not only does that mean commercial success, more income, future opportunities, etc but also it means you created something which resonates with so many people. If you become mainstream and then feel pressured by your fan base, that is something you have to resolve as an artist internally, by holding true to your vision. This is not to say that fans are always right or kind or generous (I mean here we are reading leaks…) but to blame fans for the writing in the manga doesn’t seem right. So where did it go wrong?

This is my take on it and of course feel free to disagree.

Personally I think Gege kind of set up his own problems and they were foundational and early in the manga. This right here:

In Gogo, we had a character who was canonically the strongest in the world. Undefeated. Yes, his students have potential but Gojo’s techniques were unrivaled. This by itself was not the issue. There are lots of manga with overpowered teachers/leaders. I just watched Bleach, and the head captain Genryusai Yamamoto is the OP character. In Hunter x Hunter, it is the chairman, Netero. Both of them are defeated and killed by a foe who is introduced as the gravest threat, etc etc. The issue is the suspension of disbelief that fans are expected to perform. How is this little tot of a protagonist going to defeat an antagonist who could defeat the strongest good guy in that world? This is also why I will always get on my soapbox for Hunter x Hunter and Togashi’s writing. Gon never fights Meruem (because he would be swatted aside like a fly) and his fight with catperson (whose name I have forgotten) has horrific consequences. Togashi’s solution was not to give his protagonist a training regimen at Planet Fitness for three weeks. The ant king’s death is so much more realistic. Netero’s means of killing the ant king are underhanded because he acknowledges that they were NOT on the same power level and even his technique was no match at the end of the day. Also other powerful characters who could have taken on the ant king are not introduced until later. The writing and plot development was brilliant, believable, and had us weeping for EVERYONE. Togashi wrote an ethical dilemma about whether the ant king’s murder was justified into that fight.

Bleach is probably a better comparison to JJK because it is also setting up Ichigo to fight Yhwach who has defeated all the canonically strong characters (the head caption, royal guards). No doubt he is going to get new forms, new swords, and fifty chapters where he nearly dies three times. (At the end of it, we will want the fight to end and Ichigo to win because we can’t bear to read another chapter 😂) The difference between the two though, and this is where Gege compounds his mistake, is writing Gojo as a fully fledged character in his own right with plenty of screentime. You end up with people rooting for the supposedly secondary character rather than your protagonist. We might overlook Kubo killing the head captain - he barely appeared in the story, didn’t have much of a personality when he did appear, and was not written as an attractive, interesting, compelling character. He was just a placeholder for what Soul Society represented. It might not be the best writing but we can forgive it. Because the manga focuses us on Ichigo and other characters who we are invested in. Kenpachi v Unohana was rich. Kyoraku inviting Haschwalth to tea was comedy. Mayuri as some mad scientist perversion of a sunflower was dazzling …and puzzling. The same is not true for JJK. Gege wrote BOTH Gojo and Yuji into the spotlight, AND routinely disappeared characters (Nobara?) until they randomly showed up again. As the reader you end up asking where characters are offscreen because there isn’t a satisfactory answer. I don’t think I understood the culling games. The pacing in the ending chapters has been very off. I don’t know if fans can be blamed for this. Personally speaking, the last stroke of brilliance in the plot for me was Gege boxing Gojo (because it makes Gojo so heartrendingly human, to pause at the sight of the one he cares, whom he killed). After that it felt like the plot didn’t know what to do with Gojo.

Also just want to say that I do feel for Gege. I can’t imagine carrying the burden of such high expectations. I am sure the pressure was high, and I think we already know that mangaka are so overworked. It’s something Togashi has talked about when he explains why HxH has been so slow. It can’t be easy to keep churning out issues. And I do wonder about editorial oversight because Gege couldn’t be solely responsible for some of these problems. I don’t support writers being hated on. We can feel disappointed and not like how a story played out, but at the end of the day the writers are human too and also have feelings. At the end of the day we have to give credit to Gege for creating this interesting story world and for giving us characters who entertained us and drew us in.

Anyway this post has become long. I haven’t watched Naruto (which I’ve heard praised for its writing too) so curious how that show handles OP characters who are not the protagonist.

PS - Mayuri. What even is this 😂😂😂😂

[hxhhasmysoul]

JJK is over? if so, final throughts?

It is over. There was no announcement of continuation as far as I know.

I think my overall rating for it is B.

It has some A and A+ arcs, some B arcs and the last arc is very uneven, mostly D or C with some A moments. The ending is kinda the same.

That doesn't change the fact that i love it deeply and am very attached to a lot of its characters and that is not likely to change anytime soon, it's my second fandom ever and I've never moved on from my first.

I think Gege Akutami is actually a good writer and has potential to be even better if they won't get bitter after JJK and kinda do a proper analysis of what they managed to do well and what not so well.

It's really clear Gege didn't manage to wrangle the plot in the end, didn't manage to explore all their ideas be it for health reasons or because the ideas crystalised too late and well there's no easy editing previous chapters in a weekly published manga...

I don't know how many one shots they've published before the JJK main series, but JJK is their first long form work. It makes a lot of sense that they stumbled in it. People don't fucking get shit right on first try.

I'm sure that JJK's sudden popularity has taken a toll. Especially sudden popularity with people who are not really the audience for a manga where part of the enjoyment comes from trying to dissect the lore and the power system. Or that has concurrent plots it focuses on... like that has anything that requires focus, that might require you to reread the chapter to actually get it, that requires you to keep track of what came before. There are a lot of people who do not enjoy stuff like that. Which is okay... but the JJK fandom is over saturated with them. Also with fucking bigots of all stripes. Or leftists who think that since JJK is not the most left leaning and enlightened work in the world that means the writer deserves death threats and there's nothing worthwhile about the work.

Gege did not stick the landing but that not a big deal tbh, it gave me trauma and brain worms really early on. If it hadn't done that, then yeah the ending would've mattered more. I was also ready for the ending being meh for a while now. There was a turning point when it was clear Gege's passion for JJK dwindled, at least for some parts of it because even in the last part there are moments which Gege really nailed.

Like @/cursedvibes once said that parts of the last arc felt ghost written. The ending kinda feels like that too. Like someone put something together for Gege from Gege's note but kinda missing the themes set up earlier. So like either that or Gege was just sprinting to the finish line, chucking everything away to just run faster.

So like yeah, JJK is a solid B for me. I'm curious to see more from Gege.

[cursedvibes]

"Don't interfere with Gojo's fight, you'll only be a burden" 🤡 anyways I think we all agree this was a terrible fight with a terribly executed ending. It feels like bad writing, with Gege unsealing Gojo and not knowing what to do with him having a bunch of characters waiting to progress and be developed. Just unnecessary, like what did the fight accomplish? Gojo straight up forgetting about Megumi and being like "oh nvm, i was never gonna win anywyay" just feels OOC.

One of the most anticipated fights in the whole manga and it was kinda trash. I hope the plot moves along now. Like you said, I want to see the students fighting Sukuna and Kenjaku, also give me the parent Kenjaku reveal moment with Yuji, Gege, and some KenJin flashbacks. Perhaps add in a little "Jin is actually alive". As compensation.

Also waiting on that Sukuna/Yuji fight. Please Gege let that one be good.

I don't know if it's because Gege lost passion for the story, but there would've been dozens of better options on how to do the fight besides "students sit on their ass and watch the live stream of their teacher's death". F in chat, guys! No, don't interfere, that would be too interesting and feel way too natural.

I really don't want to be this harsh, but everything since Gojo's unsealing has just been very questionable writing decisions. I like the Culling Game actually, I enjoyed it more than Shibuya, even when we were focusing on characters I didn't care as much about. It didn't have the constant threat of death I expected, but it was still good and I especially liked all the new lore and character exploration. Execution of Yuki's death was meh and there could've been done more with the fight, but it still moved me. Tsumiki turning out to be a piece of cardboard was my first real disappointment, but I could've looked past that if her and Yorozu's death would've been executed better. And after that it was just kinda...bad.

Angel agrees to unseal Gojo without explanation despite refusing to do that earlier. Backdoor has no drawbacks, Gojo is just out now. He's kinda weird post-Prison Realm and definitely different from before with changed priorities, but we don't get anything concrete about him or his time in containment that would give more depth to this. He just feels kinda detached. And then one month timeskip. I still remember when people said we would get flashbacks during the fight to explain what the characters were up to. But nope, nothing. Who knows if the main characters have an actual plan, Gojo definitely doesn't seem prepared. We get vague hints at Gojo using his time in the Prison Realm to adjust his domain, but we don't hear his perspective on that (would've been too interesting), we are just told about how he must feel by other characters. It's such basic things that could have made this fight more engaging and moving, but we barely get anything. On top of that it is stretched over 14 chapters and 4 months for no reason. Just make it hit harder from the beginning and shorten it that way. Kenjaku and Yuki were powerhouses and they didn't need this much time. Also the constant Gojover teasers got old very fast.

However, Gojo did manage to strip Sukuna off his domain and Mahoraga, so that will make things a little bit easier for the others. Sukuna can't just vaporize everyone with Malevolent Shrine anymore.

With the Kenjaku vs Gojo fight not happening, I am more confident though that we will get more focus on Kenjaku & Yuuji and explore their relationship and past. Feels like there will be more time dedicated to them, although that also depends on how Yuuji vs Sukuna goes. I am very excited for what's to come either way.