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psychewritesbs · 2 years

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Chapter 198: Sakurajima Colony—JJK is about enlightened Buddhist Monks?; no JJK is about sexy shirtless men; Unpopular opinion: two wrongs don’t make a right; So is she going to kick Naoya’s ass after all?

Happy JJK-Sunday!

Am I the only one who had lost track of the chapter number?

Anyways... the art in this chapter was beautiful! My favorite panels below the cut.

JJK is about enlightened Buddhist Monks?

I’m really curious about the hand mudra Naoya is doing. I’m curious about its meaning... especially given the text in the panel:

Naoya’s persistence finally blooms

The actual name of his domain expansion sounds so symbolic too.

Also love the pupil behind Naoya. I’m not sure it means anything in the grander scheme of things, but, not only does it look artistically appealing, I also love the idea that there’s an all-seeing-eye in Naoya’s domain. There’s something so creepy and sinister about it.

Gege knows his cosmic horror!

Which kind of reminds me that when I first read this chapter the first thing that came to mind is that jjk feels like a story/metaphor about Buddhist Monks using their psychic powers to exorcise curses, and some of them achieve “enlightenment”--they transcend their ego minds.

Considering Heian saw the rise of two esoteric branches of Buddhism--Shingon and Tendai, I have to wonder which clans belonged to which school. I can’t help but wonder about the implications of men in positions of power utilizing their psychic abilities to control the masses.

No, JJK is about sexy shirtless men

Bahaha.

Anyways.

Beautiful panel! It was one of my favorites in the chapter. I love that Gege wants to drive home that Naoya is/was good-looking despite his rotten core. I also love that he morphed from that ugly cursed spirit shape into his human self at will.

It goes back to the idea that he bloomed like a pretty little flower.

Which reminds me... is it possible to consider a problematic character to be interesting AND to know that he is, indeed, problematic?

Is it?

Ah, I hate the word problematic. It’s so short-sighted and it throws the baby out with the bathwater.

I’ll figure a better word to use next time.

Unpopular opinion: two wrongs don’t make a right

I get it.

I really do.

Mai and Maki had a fucked up upbringing. They were seen as nothing more than slaves.

Not to mention that the Zenin clan was the epitome of fucked-up-family-and-interpersonal-dynamics.com because of #the patriarchy.

But... unpopular opinion af: Two wrongs don’t make a right.

Maki destroying and murdering everyone in the Zenin clan was not a victory, it was a tragedy.

I get the whole idea behind bringing down the patriarchy and it certainly makes a lot of sense but...

To me, the whole thing looks like it is a power up girl-boss moment, but in reality I have to wonder if it was more about Mai dragging Maki and the whole Zenin clan down with her.

Can I just say that the way I personally interpret the panel above is that Mai looked “evil” (for lack of a better word)?

That smug look on her face is so... self-affirming? Like she got exactly what she wanted from Maki.

And in order to understand why this panel felt “wrong” to me, I took a little trip down memory lane. More specifically chapters 42 and 149.

As per usual, Gege is able to deliver just the right amount of details to bring a character to life.

In Mai’s case, we learn that she’s weak-minded and has always resented Maki’s strength (more specifically her mental strength).

But I think the most important detail about Mai is that she is the kind of person who drags others down with her.

Since she is weak-minded, instead of seeking to grow to better herself (growth mindset), she seeks to bring others down to her level to feel better about herself.

Mai is truly the definition of a mean girl.

And I have to admit that I love Maki’s answer to Mai:

In chapter 149 Mai tells Best Dad of the Year contender, Ougi (I think that’s her dad’s name), about her virtuous nature just as he is about to throw his daughters into a pit full of cursed spirits.

So yeah, this girl clearly isn’t interested in anyone’s well-being but her own.

Considering Maki’s personality is such a stark contrast to Mai’s, I wonder if this is part of the curse of being born a twin in the jjk-scheme of things.

And that’s how we end up in that pit full of cursed spirits...

And how Mai, fully aware of the curse that it is to be born a twin, sacrifices herself “for Maki’s sake”.

But is it really for Maki’s sake?

Or because she knows that the only way to drag everyone down with her is by having Maki avenge her since she’s weak and Maki is strong?

The problem is that in asking Maki to destroy everything, she’s also inadvertently dragging Maki down with her.

Maki who only wanted to create a safe space for Mai in the Zenin clan went and destroyed everything because Mai left her with these last words--a curse?

And Maki obliges...

I know I am in the minority interpreting the events in this way, but this doesn’t make me happy for Maki and I have to wonder whether she feels the weight of the burden of what she did--she basically killed innocent women and children for Mai’s sake.

EDIT: OK, after re-reading the appropriate panel, I am not sure that I can say with confidence that she killed “innocent” women and children. What I can say is that she killed upwards of 36 people that day. Gender and age are unconfirmed.

I know she wanted to create a safe space for Mai, but was this really the best way to go about it?

And all because Mai was a mean girl who couldn’t stand the thought of being left behind. Mai wanted nothing but to drag everyone down with her into the hell of her own creation.

Which is interesting given the innuendo about Naoya and Mai doing adult things together... like... you know... their taxes.

I think it’s safe to assume that she was abused and that she was at a disadvantage in the dynamic with Naoya for multiple reasons, one of them being her gender and another her age. But Mai is such a toxic character that I would not be surprised to learn that she found some sort of twisted satisfaction in a toxic dynamic with a man like Naoya.

The parallels to Toji are also very interesting because even though Toji too was heartbroken and was abused by the Zenin, Toji chose not to destroy the clan even though he could have done it.

Two wrongs don’t make a right.

Two wrongs don’t make a right is an interesting trope that is actually present as a theme in a lot of anime and manga. From Gundam to Attack on Titan, the trope usually finds a resolution somewhere in the middle, so I am curious to see how Gege will unravel this storyline.

So is she going to kick Naoya’s ass after all?

Another panel I loved!

Also, I know her hair is short because it was burned but... right now she has the same hairstyle as Mai. Symbolic much?

Ah! Anyways...

Credit where it’s due: @justafrenchlondoner is the one who’s been feeding me ideas about Maki’s tragedy. She’s also my voice of reason when I want to get annoyed because it feels predictable that Maki is going to defeat Naoya again.

If anyone read this, thank you for reading and happy JJK-Sunday!

#jjk ch 198 #god I love jujutsu kaisen

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