#so i finally FINALLY got to the bit where they unseal gojo

[yellowsubiesdance]

BRO this manga is INSANE

[gojosbf]

I started following you after 236 because your emotions and posts echoed my sentiments. I love your posts. They make me laugh, they make cry. But most importantly they make me feel like I am not insane to feel this way for something fictional.

I hate the fact that bringing any criticism towards Gege’s writing results in being called a Gojotard. You can like the entirety of something and still criticise certain aspects of it.

I am not condoning all the threats and hate directed towards Gege but fans are allowed to be mad at the direction this story is going. Yes it is Gege’s world but we can have complains about it. That doesn’t make us fake fans. That just shows how much we’ve loved what he has created and how it affects us when it is taken away.

I feel many fans are tiptoeing around it because there are two extremities now in the JJk fandom. One - that will defend anything Gege produces and the other who is so done with characters being killed off and not adding anything to the plot. Both these sides are equally loud and thus polarising this fandom. People were on the edge after how Yuki’s fight with Kenjaku was handled and I think 236 was the final blow that divided the fandom.

I came across one post yesterday where it highlights the huge power difference between good guys and the bad guys with just Sukuna’s power alone. This is minus all the power Sukuna gave up (we don’t know if he got them back after).

It contains spoilers for 237 - https://www.tumblr.com/sleep-deprivedracoon/729649802609082368/jjk-manga-leaks-heavy-spoilers-ahead-please-do

To me, it feels like Gege has written himself into a corner indeed with shattering the ceiling (Gojo’s power was considered the ceiling in JJK power scaling) with Sukuna’s abilities.

What do you think?

i am trying to piece all my thoughts together in this so pls don't mind if it gets too long or loses track a bit.

first of all thank you and we are in this together i feel you I am still trying to wrap my head around the recent leak, until and unless we have proper leaks i will remain in denial about megumi also it's so sad to see how after the massive shock and reaction we got last week we've just given up this week it has become a thing where we are just hoping gege doesn't kill another of our favs and atp this trick is getting too overused to be appreciated (also the reason why as you mentioned we have two extremist side of fandom). i get it. gojo's death and sealing got jjk trending yet again, publicity even if negative publicity is still garnering the intrigue of many more people, not to ignore we have equal amounts of, if not more gojo haters because he was too strong.

now coming back to the story line, yes we are allowed to criticize when there are obvious plot holes and it serves for no purpose other than shock factor. Gojo's death was massively poorly written because all this time gege kept implying that even if sukuna had all his fingers gojo was the strongest (which is why he had to use mahoraga) his plot was gojo and sukuna are AT par with each other which is why this was a big deal and why he had to be sealed so kenjaku could follow through his plans and when sukuna regained his powers gojo wouldn't be a hindrance. now compare that to 236, it says sukuna actually wasn't going all out and NOW sukuna is to reveal his true form. really? really?? when the strongest character you've ever created does not stand a chance against this demon we're supposed to believe that the rest can? his students who are yet to unleash their full strength, the only special grade is supposed to? i mean we can still hope on yuuta because he has rika, the queen of curses and sukuna being the king of curses (love kashimo but as they said he's probably not surviving) but that doesn't seem much of a hope (as much i wish it was).

now coming back to the topic of when was the last time the good guys had a proper win since shibuya? do we really remember it?? (ofc apart from maki and unsealing) the bad guys are still standing strong, we have yet to see atleast one of main villains to fall and when is this going to happen??? it's been over 2 years now just how long are we supposed to keep digesting as "not so shonen" writing? (even mahito's death was just kenjaku absorbing him). i mean yeah it keeps us on edge but you as the author have the responsibility to keep the readers addicted and going and by the looks of it the og fans are dropping it one by one, is it really worth it? is it gege?

ofc course i don't condone the death threats but cmon a frustrated reader watching their favourite characters losing all the time is allowed to express themselves, maybe gege has a plan to turn this around but right now people are allowed to be angry and pissed and confused and frustrated, it's only natural, they cannot just expect people to see evil winning all the time and be alright about it now can they? these people calling others a "gojotard" are here for fun and they understood the premise of the mcs always losing so they root for the overpowered villains and hence enjoy the manga and move along what they fail to understand is that some of us are not capable of switching sides, we are still rooting for trios, the initial sorcerers whom we got attached to and we are tired of seeing them constantly unhappy. you're allowed to complain!! criticism is valid!!!!

and i seriously hope gege has some trick up his sleeves or he's ready to lose a good chunk of his loyal fans because this isn't looking good. we wasted last six months for nothing really, unsealing gojo did not help with anything except a 13 chapter long fight. and the outcome? back to square one!!!! so what was the point of the whole unsealing arc and shinjuku fight? not to mention the lukewarm reaction to his death portrayal and barely a passable explanation. sukuna is very oped currently but i have two bets against him, angel and yuuta (remember when sukuna thought angel was a pain and he wanted to kill them because he thought they could get in way).

i agree with t user sleepdeprivedracoon hakari has to win, there's no way gege is planning to kill him because then the manga is done for and i do not care what others say we are allowed to grieve, complain and make memes and jokes out of this hopeless situation we are currently in because that's literally how this manga is going so others who are so aggressively defending gege need to understand the criticism is valid and these reactions are valid and they need to get off their high horse. the not so shounen excuse is really not that convincing and we are allowed to be frustrated and angry it's a natural human reaction damn it. till then keep reading and remember life gets better but jjk doesn't (surpise us this halloween gege pls)

[state-of-divinity]

why i'm content with gojo's end - my theory for the jjk manga post-chapter 236

like many, i found the events of jjk chapter 236 to be so gut-wrenching and jarring that I couldn't even find myself able to accept it. my initial shock and grief over gojo's untimely demise definitely colored my perception of the chapter and led to far more scrutiny than i'd given probably any other chapter in the manga thus far. upon further reflection, I came to determine that my issue was not with anything in the chapter itself, but that it seemed to lack appropriate context. why was gojo so accepting of his death? why was he only talking about sukuna and not his students? how could he believe he had died with no regrets? it felt like something was missing, some crucial piece of information. and the more I thought about it, the more I reflected on the story as a whole, as it has been presented to us chapter by chapter. and now, I have a personal theory as to what is "missing," and why we might still see more of gojo yet.

i believe, at some point (in hopefully the near future), we will get a flashback to the time period between when gojo was unsealed (Nov 19) and when he went to fight sukuna (Dec 24). my theory is that gojo spent that time getting his affairs in order and preparing his students to follow in his footsteps when he perished, which I believe also included providing them with some sort of "trump card" they could use in the worst-case scenario.

i do believe gojo is dead, full-stop. i don't think he's coming back. but I think his "final moments" are a bit more grand and sentimental than what was shown to us in 236. we don't know exactly what gojo was doing/thinking in the prison realm, but i'd like to imagine he spent a significant portion reflecting on his identity and geto's infamous question: "are you the strongest because you're satoru gojo, or are you satoru gojo because you're the strongest?" and I imagine, after falling for kenjaku's trap, gojo had a "come to jesus" moment with himself and decided he was going to give up the title of "the strongest" when he got out (probably after burying geto's body). of course, his plans are interrupted when sukuna (now in megumi's body) stops him. i think gojo sees this as an opportunity: not only does he get to fight sukuna and measure their strengths, but he gets to go out "with a bang," so to speak. imo, gojo chose the Christmas eve date for their fight not so he could align kenjaku's death with geto's, but to align his own death with geto's and give himself time to prepare for that inevitability. winning was likely always a possibility in gojo's mind, but I think he was willing and ready to accept his fate, so long as he could prepare his allies for what would come next.

we, the audience, are given very few glimpses of what occurred in the month preceding the fight. the first thing we learn, ironically, is that uraume was unable to locate sukuna's last finger, which sukuna believes is in gojo's possession. this is never confirmed; however, it's likely to be true. gojo obviously never intended for itadori to be executed, so it would make sense for him to hide it until the moment he needed it. so where is it? we don't know for sure, but why would gege mention it otherwise? we also see gojo with shoko and ijichi reflecting on nanami's death, which is when ino arrives. shoko says he looks like he has something to say, but it is never revealed what that is. some have speculated he came to tell them about toji's resurrection, which is possible, and might be a speculative theory for those who believe gojo could come back. then we see itadori and kusakabe sparring, where (it appears) itadori is in kusakabe's body and vice versa. this is also never explained or brought up again. then we see yuta and inumaki talking, where yuta tells inumaki he'll be "putting him to work," with no further context. we also know gojo spoke with gakuganji about yaga's death and his "secret" technique which created panda. within the span of only two chapters, we are given all this information, and then we immediately jump into the fight.

i've seen many complaints about the writing in 236, but it feels rather disingenuous to label it as "lazy." throughout all of jjk's manga, it is so painfully obvious how much thought gege is putting into his story. if you read the notes after each chapter, you quickly realize how much time and effort he spends on every little detail, every little panel, even the specific words the characters use. some of it may be lost in translation, but even with fan translations, I find gege's writing to be extremely purposeful and intentional. i remember the shock of seeing sukuna finally chanting "enchain" in chapter 212 after making the binding vow with itadori all the way back in chapter 11. it took two hundred chapters before we saw this detail come to fruition. which also means that, since the beginning, gege has always been planning for sukuna to take over megumi's body (which I think most of us already guessed, in fairness). still, I would argue that this illustrates the kind of scale and plotting gege is doing with the narrative structure of his story. it's fair, I think, to criticize the execution, but I hesitate to call it "lazy."

the intentional withholding of information seems like the biggest hint that whatever happened in that month is what will allow our heroes to ultimately win. i doubt gojo spent that month just training - after all, he's already the strongest, it would be a bit overkill at that point. instead, I think he spent that time gathering every trump card he could and dividing them among his students. he might have departed some wisdom or general advice, or he might have spent some of that time training them personally. perhaps he was finally able to see how much they'd grown in his absence. regardless, it is my belief that gojo was prepared to lose the battle to win the war, to use his final moments fighting sukuna as an opportunity to understand and be understood in turn, and to finally rid himself of his title as "the strongest." in the context of 236, I understand why gojo's final thoughts are mainly about his fight and sukuna. i believe he had already taken care of everything else he intended to handle, leaving him to enter his fight with no regrets holding him back.

i'm sure he acted as though he would win so as not to worry his friends and students. but I think he also left them with everything they will need to fight sukuna and kenjaku. i don't believe gojo set out on a selfish quest to compare himself against sukuna with the possibility of abandoning his allies with no hope. sure, gojo enjoyed the fight, as is in line with his character. but I think he was able to accept his death so easily because he was able to carry out his dream of raising strong and clever allies who would carry on in his place.

and look, i have my own complaints about jjk. it's not perfect. but I like this chapter, and I don't think it ruins gojo's character. i don't think we've seen the last of him yet, and I hope that whatever big reveals gege is planning will bring us some measure of peace and satisfaction.

[greatteachergojou]

JJK chapter 144 thoughts/review/analysis

Lots of thoughts...

- I LOVE YUTA. He’s an absolute badass but also still the same old cinnamon roll. Truly a senpai deserving of Megumi’s respect. I love how he looks after his all his classmates and kouhais. Look at my cinnamon roll.

- Yuji is back on his feet again. GOOD. My boy always finds strength to get back on his feet.

- Yuji’s request to Yuta to kill him if Sukuna takes over again has me worrying... (also, Yuta accepting his request so casually😅 It’s cool tho that both Yuji and Yuta have so much faith in his abilities. And ma man Yuta is still so humble.)

- They’ve got so much to deal with rn. The culling game, retrieving the prison realm, finding a way to unseal Gojo, the Brain in general... and Tengen - we don’t know where he stands...

- But I’m looking forward to the students working together again. Especially since Yuta is finally back. We lost Gojo but at least we have Yuta and Tsukumo on our side. Things don’t look too dark.

- Tsukumo not vibing with the higher ups either, I see 😂 Good, good.

- Yuji asking about Nobara’s condition while they were in the middle of discussing their plan on what to do next just goes to show how much it’s weigthing on him...

- Ok now, EVERYONE PLS CALM DOWN. I’m sure Nobara is alive - for now at least. We don’t know what her status was (or how much Yuji knew about her status) before Yuji left but she surely was alive/not dead yet at that time. Megumi would have said she died if that was the case. There’s no reason to hold this kind of fact from Yuji. It just doesn’t make sense to withhold this kind of irreversible information from him. It wouldn’t spare him from anything if she’s really already dead. It’d just unnecessarily keep him in a state of pointless hope. I think it’s really just that she’s still in critical condition. There’s no real change in her condition so he didn’t say anything. Also, I trust that Gege is a good enough writer to not play us with fake hope just to come back dozens of chapters later to be like “oh, btw she actually already died”. And I mean, Nobara is one of the main three characters. It’s too early for her to go (even for a ruthless series like JJK).

^ Yuji’s reaction to that looks quite devastating nonetheless. But I think the reaction would be much bigger if she was dead. Him tightening his fist and saying “I get it“ (or “I see/understand“ in the other TL) points to a lot of tension but also to him still holding on to the little bit of hope he has been holding on to. It was a sad expression at first but then he tightens his fist and the last panel to this shows a change of his expression from sad/devasted to one with a glimpse of... determination?(- he doesn’t look as shaken as before is what I mean). And just his overall demeanor after that doesn’t imply that he just learned of Nobara’s death. I’m sure she’ll survive and be as badass as ever and with cool eyepatch or something. Girls with battlescars FTW!

- Listen Gege, you didn’t have to go that far to change Maki’s hairstyle...

- So I take it that Maki is pretty much all good now? I was a little worried because the expression in her eye doesn’t show the same energy/detemination as before (or is it just me?). Also, to hell with the Zenin clan ppl. Maki on deathbed? Haha. She’s ready to kick you guys’ asses anytime.

^ Yuta rushing to Maki’s side all concerned is really cute

^ I’m so happy for you, Choso. And sorry that you (and your burst of happiness) got ignored by everyone right after and Yuji also just turned around and went ahead with his bro Megumi lol.

^ Damn, those bloodstains gave me major chills.

^ “That’s when everything began to get distorted” - I feel like there’s much more to it then we think...

- And what’s up with Tsukumo? Why’d she get rejected? What does Tengen not interfering with the outside world have to do with the Six Eyes? (Did he not interfere because Gojo was powerful enough to take care of things outside or is there some other history between them?)

^ We finally get to meet Tengen and THIS IS HOW HE LOOKS LIKE??? JJK character face reveals tend to have me 🤣 Tengen-sama... I always pictured him like some sorta old, wrinkled but badass looking gramps or some other creature. Definitely anything but this xD (Just like how I never expected Gojo to look prettier than any shojo protagonist lol)