#villain mothra

[user180316709]

@dacrackerz anthro version (villain mothra) also voice claims🧍‍♀️

[adm-starblitzsteel-4305]

Godzilla and Kong when Mothra shows up

[year2000electronics]

I CAVED AND MADE DESPICABLE ME OCS.

the tall one is maroon overkill, son of scarlet overkill! he usually goes by rooney, though. he works in the same mall that el macho did, running a haberdashery! (a hat store basically) he wants to distance himself from his parents' career choice of villainy, but they're very insistent that he follows in their footsteps. he just wants to sell hats :(

the short one is rooney's son and scarlet and herb's grandson, herbie overkill! he's a lot more sporty than his parents and grandparents, and he's margo's age

[qutibahalfarouqitheclonetrooper]

Godzilla: The Musical!

The Golden Destroyer (King Ghidorah/Grand King Ghidorah/#Ghidorah! Song/Rap)

(Toho/TohoVerse/Showa/Showa Era/MonsteVerse/Musical)

(Ghidorah The Three-Headed Monster, Rebirth of Mothra/Rebirth of Mothra III/Godzilla King of the Monsters/Godzilla VS Kong)

(💛)

(Villain Song/Villain Songs)

[answertolifeis42]

If Biollante makes it into Gigabash I will eat the furniture

[dm-digital-manus]

Godzilla plays League of Legends

With King Caesar (top), King Kong (jungle), Mothra (mid), Jet Jaguar (Adc). He is support.

[weirdgirl92]

One of the most amazing things about the Showa era Godzilla films, is how he gradually goes from villain, to antihero, to full blown hero between Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster and Terror of MechaGodzilla. Though, the thing that makes it even more amazing, that not enough people talk about, is that this character development for Godzilla might not have happened if Mothra hadn’t convinced him and Rodan to help her fight Ghidorah. Which means that Mothra was the yin to Godzilla’s yang since 1964. 🥹

[lilpuffyart]

Do Rodan and King Ghidorah exist in your Coffee Shop AU?

They do yeah!!

They work on a rival coffee shop that isn't even that close to Mothra's, but since Ghidorah's petty like that, he'll bother them and act like a cartoon villain to bother them lmao

Rodan used to be somewhat close to Mothra and Goji when they were younger, but they dont talk much anymore nowadays

[hrodvitnon]

can we talk spoilers? (if at least tag them so those who haven't seen it yet can block the tag)

anyway

DOUG STEALS KONG'S LUNCH LOL. He's even so smug about it when Kong relents and lets him have it.

Mothra is so much fluffier this time around! Love how when she breaks up Godzilla and Kong's fight she's almost SCOLDING Goji lol. "Goji! Stop bullying the poor monkey!" "S..sorry, dear..." Jia seems to be her main priestess now tho? Whatever happened to the twin scientists from KOTM? I hope they aren't entirely forgotten and replaced. Maybe they can return as Jia's guides.

Shimo is adorable. I'm glad she got a happy ending and some neck scratches from Kong. Big huggable lizard-horse-kitty.

Suko saves the day by retrieving Kong's axe? Huh. That lil kid pulled his weight a lot more than I'd expected to. Also love his mean streak at the start, he and Kong bickered a lot at first.

And of course, Skar King's very very karmic and brutal demise. I can only imagine the state of him (and Rio de Janeiro's streets) when those ice chunks finally thaw out. Good luck with the cleanup, Monarch.

Everyone make sure you filter "gxk spoilers" because I've been using that tag for everyone not looking to be spoiled!

I think Mothra suddenly becoming an Iwi protector is because supposedly there was going to be another Original MonsterVerse Monster called Phosphora or some-such, but it wasn't well received by test audiences or something so it got reworked into Mothra. I could be misremembering, but that's what I remember hearing. Which is funny, because if memory serves correctly the KOTM end credits hinted at Mothra having already laid an egg before the Boston battle, so... retcon?

I'm really glad Shimo survived the movie, I felt so bad for her being under Skar King's pain control and how she visibly resists him throughout. Even her roars sounded pained. It was really sweet seeing the look in her eyes when the surface world sky is being cleared up, like if she's the source of the last Ice Age then it's been literally thousands upon thousands of years since she's last seen a sky like ours. Hoping we see her again in another movie!

Holy shit, Suko's introduction scene got SO MUCH FUNNIER when he goes from "i'm baby" to biting Kong's finger to being used as a BLUDGEONING WEAPON BY KONG. Suko really chugged that character development juice.

I feel vindicated for not once underestimating Skar King, because he is the most vile MonsterVerse... uh, monster villain we've gotten so far. Ghidorah was a sadistic son of a bitch and Mechagodzilla was a crazy Titan Terminator On Blue Rock Steroids, but Skar King has the heads of fellow Kongs stuck on pikes (presumably to set an example for anyone looking to challenge him), when he mocks Kong's new tooth most of the apes and especially Suko seem to laugh along out of fear, he straight up KICKS an ape into lava, and has actual sex slaves holding babies in his throne room, and you just KNOW they don't consent to what he does to them. On top of him controlling Shimo with pain and his attempts on Suko's life - and considering the number of red/orange-furred babies in the throne room, we can surmise that Suko is one of his own children - Skar King may not have the spectacle or scale Ghidorah had, but my god did it feel good seeing him go down.

[iamblue15]

Calamity Kids VS Kaiju: Quotes Before Battle

Coraline VS Rodan (Monsterverse)

"If that overcooked turkey wants to squash that bug(Mothra), then he's gonna have squish this one first."

Dipper & Mabel VS Destoroyah

"Hey, you giant jerk demon! Guess who's here rain on your evil parade!" (Mabel)

"You think we're scared? Just give us what you got!" (Dipper)

"It's ON!" (Both)

Raz VS Spacegodzilla

"You're not the only one who has near-limitless psychic power that brings catastrophe wherever he goes. Well, except only I'M the one who's going to use these catastrophic powers to put YOUR reign of catastrophe to an end. So, uh...yeah, two can play that game. (Reminder: Work on better lines for when you're up against a villain who's as powerful as you are right now.)

Lili VS Biollante

"I'd really hate to kill a plant, but you've been through enough pain. So i'll try to make this quick."

Norman VS Hedorah

"I don't know what you are, but I can't let you get away with causing all this destruction! Not when I have the power to stop you."

Neil VS Leatherback

"You wanna mess with MY planet? Then you're in for the biggest knuckle sandwiches you've ever had in your life! You better be you're hungry!"

Wybie VS Mechagodzilla (Monsterverse)

"Well, this is gonna be the craziest, dumbest thing I've ever done."

[sepublic]

Back from Godzilla x Kong! Gotta say, I love how you have this dynamic of... Mothra is Lawful Good, Kong is Neutral Good, and Godzilla is Chaotic Good. Because sure, Godzilla is officially the arbiter of nature's balance, he's the one keeping things in check; But boy does he not care about what he needs to do to get it done. I like how the Monsterverse has made Godzilla into quite the anti-hero as well; It's a nice mix of both heroic and villainous depictions. He has no real love for humanity, even if he begrudgingly acknowledges its right and need to exist.

If Godzilla needs to get from Point A to B, it doesn't really matter to him too much if there's a fully-populated city he needs to stomp through, especially if he's on short time (Conversely, Mothra and Kong seem much more sensitive to that sort of thing, Mothra especially). It really does make Godzilla feel like a wild card that humanity just has to accept and deal with, and coexists with uneasily; You know, in theory, he has your back. But you're still rightfully terrified of Godzilla, and hell so are other titans. He's the scariest kaiju on the block for a reason, and I love how he's still a mean city-destroying menace while technically being a 'good' guy. Portraying Goji from Kong's perspective, where he's often an antagonist, was a good way to maintain that terror that was alleviated with King of the Monsters' depiction.

Also, I can't help but imagine how relieving it was for Jia to find more Iwi! Trapper makes a good point about how she ends up having a lot of weight on her shoulders with saving the world, but you know what? She ends up having so much other weight taken off knowing there are other Iwi alive and thriving. For years, Jia must've been saddled with the burden of keeping her entire culture alive, finding a way to somehow preserve it and keep it going; But now she can relax, she knows it'll live on with or without her, and that makes Jia's decision to stay with Andrews all the more natural because she's free from obligation.

You know, seeing Monarch successfully augment Kong with cybernetics... I'd love to see the Monsterverse tackle Gigan soon, because with how technology has become so much more advanced since the first film in 2014, it feels plausible that some would see the success of Kong with the gauntlet and think; Hey, let's bring back that project full-force! Maybe they find Gigan, originally flesh and blood, deeply injured and torn apart after fighting Godzilla. Initially he's on life-support with artificial organs, but at some point investors decide, let's just reprogram him into a cybernetic attack dog to defend humanity with!

Alas, Gigan breaks free of his programming; And he ends up going on a killing spree. Because while other antagonists like Ghidorah or Skar King are ambitious warlords, Gigan is a pettier sadist, a bully who likes to hurt and torture. He kills for sport, and that's literally all he's going to do once he gets his upgrades, doing it all for no other reason than fun.

Of course, another part of me would really like to see Gigan still associated with aliens, too; Monsterverse has clearly become modern Showa, we've basically got magic now! And I like that, the weirder and more fantastical, the better. There's an underground civilization that uses ancient technology bordering on magic, the Iwi of the Hollow Earth are like the Monsterverse's Seatopians. So it seems a natural evolution to introduce a more one-to-one counterpart to Seatopia in another film, another group of Hollow Earth humans who want to destroy those on the surface, and worship Megalon's power to tunnel through the earth itself. And if you have Megalon, you should have Gigan, and if you have Gigan, you may as well throw in aliens, not just in the sense that they're from space like Ghidorah, but I mean like. Actual UFOs and the like.

[year2000electronics]

CAVED... MADE A TROLLS OC... WHATEVER... her name is shimmer! shes a disgraced pop star who lost her singing voice so she wants to invent Troll Autotune to get it back. kinda like a dark mirror to velvet and veneer where they want to steal talent because they didnt work hard but she had talent and worked too hard

[graspingremlinhands]

So @milk-powrit asked me to draft why I didn't like GxK, to which I decide to oblige.

DISCLAIMER: Those are my personal opinions; of a fan of Monsterverse since 2014 and a nobody with any competence in analyzing media, save some common sense and maybe rudimentals??

Also I already hugely disliked Godzilla vs Kong so my discontent had a part in how I enjoyed the movie.

To conclude English is not my first langauge and even in my langauge, debate is not one of my strenght.

Spoilers alert; so skip or I kindly suggest to block the tag: Godzilla x Kong spoiler.

Let's start with the first thing: I don't enjoy how the tone of the movie shifted so drastically from Kotm to GvsK.

In this post, a youtube user explained better than me why the shifting tone felt like a downgrade. If in Godzilla (2014) Godzilla was introduced by hearing his foot stomping on the ground. It was heavy, massive, it reverbered on the glass of the airport. It felt natural, realistic. How a creature that BIG would move in the real world.

As the user said Realistic =/= Seriousness. Godzilla can be goofy. But Monsterverse!Goji was estabilished in a setting, that was the real world.

In both GvsK and in GxK Godzilla does not feels natural. Was necessary for Godzilla to evolve, to be more nimble, when already in GvsK was already moving in a way unnatural?

Or pulling the 0 gravity fight? What purpose had the evolution, if in the end it was not even necessary. Had really improved his fighting skills? They were the same, on earth and in the hollow earth.

2 reason: I've seen around posts about how media litteracy has gone bad; in some ways about people can no longer sospend their belief and calls anything a plot-hole.

But I think that one thing is suspending the belief but another is the director of the movie making the plot moving from point A to point B without telling the audience how.

For example: Suspension of belief: They had the Beast Glove ready to use, because Monarch was already working on it ✅

But why Jia is the chosen one of the day? How the Iwi in hollow earth knew of Skull island? How the shard to control Shimo works? Why Godzilla would respond to the distress call of the people who fought against him? Why Mothra has a connection to the iwi, in particular. Since in Kong: skull island there's no reference to her? How Jia flew back on Earth with Mothra, without dying for the gravitational pull?.

Not everything has to be the viewer's guess that's what I'm saying.

3 point: Shimo and Skar King are as much wasted potential as it was MechaGodzilla was in GvsK.

Skar is menacing yes, has the ability and dexterity of a formidable foe. He's vile and disgusting, oppressing his clan (let's call it that) and he's even an abusive father. All of these things: but as a villain he's really that dangerous?

He was introduced as this terrible tyrant, a danger to the world. And he wasn't even trying to go on Earth; he went up by accident basically. Because the Iwi had to play with gravity. Or should I believe him, forcing his subordinate moving rocks was to build a staircase to the upside?

And Shimo, sweet girl. She looks so horrible. Her white scales don't blend in for anything. Like she was photoshopped last minute. Her powers do damage I see. But her being presented as one or The first Titan do actually mean something to the plot, to the character? Or a simple red-herring to made her more interesting than she actually is?

Because at the end of the day SHE IS A PET!!

"Oh Kong now has found a mate, so cute". My brothers on earth, she goes on four, is used as a mount the all time and she kept panting the whole time. That's a pet, the old dog you have to force inside when it snows.

It was pretty disappointing.

Last but not least the reason I personally dislike Wingard take on the Monsterverse, which is the point you could probably throw away all my arguments, compelling or not because it's really a ME issue, who don't think no one'd agree and I don't blame anybody for it.

I HATE HOW WINGARD DECIDED TO PORTRAY GODZILLA.

I don't hold nothing over him for having Kong as his favorite. That's personal taste, I respect it.

But when it comes to at the expense of the other protagonist, it rubs me so in the wrong way.

On this point I don't know if I want to discuss it further, but boy I do have to complain on this topic.

To summarize I'm mad Godzilla doesn't get to have the same introspection and grace is allowed to Kong, knowing he can to (if you read the Dominion comic. But since they are only distributed in the US not many does. OR should care about it. Cause I'm first a supporter of the idea that if a media is not capable to give all the informations in like the Movie, you the audience should not have to pay for more. So basically the Novelitation are cool but also a scam)

That's all I had to say about it.

Hoping any of this uphere is comprehensible. If in the end I only sound like a rambling idiot I accept it. This movie is too stupid to be too mad about it.

I'll just ignore it

[averageartistamber]

Heavy Spoilers for Godzilla X Kong under the image

Birb.

Text reads:

Rodan, the Fire Demon

Height 70 meters, Wingspan 150 meters and Weight 16,000 metric tons.

Okay, so as I said yesterday, I ended up having a pretty good time with Godzilla X Kong. It's very Showa in it's tone, complete with all sorts of goofy stuff. Probably the funniest movie in the Monsterverse so far.

First of all, the pacing's pretty fast and quite a lot happens. Like, we get a lot of Kong stuff, he's pretty much the protagonist and the main plot revolves around him looking for and finding others of his kind, then noticing that they're in a bit of trouble, and well, doing something about it.

The Humans were rather enjoyable this time round. I think over time Legendary's just gotten way better at writing their human characters. New human Trapper is pretty awesome, beimng this Steve Irwinny crazy-awesome guy, and I think Bernie's come out much more likeable. Less of the paranoid conspiracy nut and more of a guy who just really wants to see the Hollow Earth.

I really like how Jia's story ended up coming full circle, with her almost confirming that psychic powers are a thing in Godzilla again. Then she gets to find other members of the Iwi people in Hollow Earth, and kinda becomes like a Mothra priestess? I wonder if they'll be anywhere further she goes in the future, but if not it's a really cool ending for the character.

Suko ended up being a suprisingly engaging character, starting out pretty antagonistic at first, but gradually warming up to Kong as the story continues. His character, particularly his perpetual nervousness, starts making so much more sense when you're shown what his home is like. He ends up being an MVP in the final fight too, which is kinda awesome.

Speaking of which, the introduction of Scar King is absolutely fantastic. Like, everything about the scene with the miners/slaves up to actually seeing the guy himself tells you we're dealing with a proper bastard. And Kong ain't gonna stand for any of that crap.

I didn't care much for Scar King before the movie...Now I kinda wish they didn't kill him off so soon. Dude's very much a love-to-hate kind of character with a neat fighting style, and he probably could have worked as a recurring villain (maybe slinking off back to Hollow Earth to find new ancient evils to awaken and weaponize, which would be an easy way for a few old monsters to be brought back. Gigan and Megalon, perhaps?).

Then for new characters we have Shimo. And while we don't get much of her (especially not when she's allowed to act of her own volition), what we do have is neat. She's definitely gonna be a fan favourite for the Monsterverse Original creatures. It's kinda funny how I think many people were expecting this (literally) cold-hearted villain/lackey, but instead we got a mild-natured woobie.

I really hope Shimo gets to be in a comic or a future movie, she's got a lot of potential now that she's free.

Godzilla is here too, being the angry jerk we all know and love. Honestly though, I feel like the "Godzilla needs to power up" thing is probably gonna end up being more foreshadowing for a future movie, since I dunno if he really needed to power-up to fight a balding orangutan who wields the power of slavery (you could argue Shimo was the real threat, she almost got him in the anti-gravity fight if it wasn't for Mothra).

I wish the whole team up thing lasted a little bit longer, but it was hella fun what we got. Hope this opens up the possibility of Godzilla fighting alongside his allies more often.

Rip Tiamat she did nothing wrong.

Oh yeah, and Mothra. Her involvement in the plot is very short, but sweet, telling Godzilla to cut it out for five minutes then helping out in the first half of the final fight. It's nice to see her again. Now we just need Rodan to make a comeback.

Lastly, the fights in this movie are an absolute delight to watch, especially the hilarious pyramid fight (that's like, peak Showa antics) and both parts of the final fight.

The first half with the zero-gravity is one of the most fun and unique ideas for a kaiju fight, getting even better when the humans get to help out (by first activating the gravity, then Trapper fires a Chekov's Gun with these bird things that produce and electrical field to drive off Scar King's minions).

The second half on the surface is pure catharsis, seeing Scar King finally get his comeuppance thanks to some quick thinking (and a bit of luck) from Kong and Suko, freeing Shimo so she can put her abuser (again quite literally) on ice, ending his reign of terror for good. I really love that trope where an abuser is ultimately finished off by their victims.

Overall, Godzilla X Kong is peak cinema. I love the Monsterverse, and although the wilder tone isn't for everyone, I had a great time, and would recommend. There's a ton of interesting possibities for the future too, with Kong's ....New Empire and all.

[aliensupersyn]

Part 2; Sukuna and Gojo vs Shinzō Abe: Gege's De(con)struction of Japanese Bureaucracy

Art by me

Manga spoilers below!

Overall thesis for this project: Godzilla and Mothra create the cultural context of creatives using powerful monsters (or kaiju) to disrupt Japanese bureaucracy and society, usually to make some larger criticism.

Gege Akutami probably celebrated the assassination of Shinzō Abe as a dream come true. Gege overtly criticizes the bureaucratic powers that Abe specifically aided in restoring within Japanese politics. The powerful bureaucrats, after being accused of irresponsibly handling Japan's funds, and throwing the nation into an economic crisis, regained their political standing thanks to Abe. Yet, the damage has been done, and many different mangaka portray Japanese bureaucrats as antagonists who must be challenged or killed.

Sukuna unleashes an attack that disrupts Japanese society and throws the powers-that-be off balance, challenging the modern status quo that he once dominated in the Heian era. Gojo goes even further and eliminates that status quo, seeing it as the only possible answer to ensuring his students' safety from their political power. Yet, how did the once reverent bureaucratic powers gain such a tarnished reputation that titles like Bleach, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Tokyo Ghoul, and One Piece all depict them as antagonists at the very least, and defeated villains at the worst. Below, I discuss the history that perhaps informs an action like Gojo murdering the Higher-Ups, and explore Shinzō Abe's role within that context.

The bureaucracy emerged as a major power center in the Meiji era (1868–1912) (Shimizu 2013). Bureaucratic autonomy was reinforced during the period of military mobilization and war in the 1930s and 1940s, and further institutionalized in the early postwar years. Many political leaders were purged during the Occupation (1945–1952), while most bureaucrats were not, and this enabled the bureaucracy to entrench its power. (Vogel 103)

While the U.S. forced Japanese government reform in the late 1940s, the bureaucrats emerged mostly unscathed. The different ministries mostly maintained their ranks throughout the years by choosing their officials from a small, conservative pool of candidates from the top schools in Japan. Gege directly references the elitist, conservative selection pool with his establishment of the three great houses and the Jujutsu High School campuses in Tokyo and Kyoto. The Zenin, Gojo, and Kamo houses act as politicians who reinforce the will of Headquarters, Jujutsu Kaisen's bureaucrats. The great families possess hidden or bloodline techniques that they keep to themselves; they inhibit and promote certain techniques depending on tradition; they withhold the right to purge their ranks of undesirables; and they often meddle with the Tokyo and Kyoto schools to push their agendas. The great families and the Higher-Ups in Headquarters notably prefer traditional sorcery techniques, which partly led to Kinji Hakari and Maki Zenin forsaking jujutsu society. Headquarters, who appoints grades to sorcerers, would never acknowledge their unique strength, and therefore neither would ever prosper within a jujutsu society maintained by the bureaucrats. Only those who meet the conservative criteria pushed by the Higher-Ups can prosper in jujutsu society. Therefore, Headquarters' conservative nature often conflicts with the main cast throughout the story.

Gege uses Maki Zenin's story arc to demonstrate some of the irrational extremes the great houses go through to maintain Headquarters' conservative ideals regarding jujutsu sorcery. Maki could have been a powerful asset to the Zenin, but their conservative nature and narrow perspectives were the death of them. Gege uses both Maki and Gojo to slaughter the political powers in JJK. While the story addresses Maki and Gojo's actions as extreme and monstrous, it shouldn't go unnoticed that Gege thrives on depicting the death of those debilitating government structures. Despite Toji Zenin having the power to wipe them out, his family still never truly respected his strength because he did not have a cursed technique. The Zenin could easily be blamed for Toji choosing to become a skilled assassin who targets sorcerers. Toji's family inspired his hatred for sorcerers, which led to nothing good for anyone. The Zenin think because Maki was born a woman, she could never reach the heights of Toji, which lulls them into a false sense of security. One might argue that the Zenin used Maki to take out their bottled frustrations for Toji. Despite her talent with weapons, and acknowledgement from Satoru, the Zenin regularly appealed to Headquarters to inhibit her graded promotions.

Gege consistently depicts Headquarters' debilitating laws as irrational measures, and twice it ends in a bloody mess. Gege's references and depictions of Japanese bureaucrats' conservative nature likely comes from a sudden decline in public opinion and power; this loss of the control that was once so carefully maintained includes powerful reforms enacted by Shinzō Abe's first and second administrations. There's a trail of events that leads to Gege's hostile characterization of Japanese ministries. The bureaucrats were once hailed as saviors of the Japanese economy, a force that led them into the luxurious "bubble" era in the late 1980s. Though, when that bubble popped just as soon as it emerged, and Japan as a nation went broke until the late 90s, the bureaucrats lost the trust of the public and government (Vogel 107). In this weakened state, they were now finally vulnerable to reform.

Prime Ministers Junichirō Koizumi (2001–2006); Shinzō Abe (2006–2007); and Yasuo Fukuda (2007–2008) all proposed extreme reforms to the bureaucrats. Though, by time Fukuda took power, his administration was literally locking ministers out of meetings (Vogel 109). The escalating feud between the bureaucrats and Fukuda's administration led to the DPJ "gaining a reputation for incompetence, as they failed to develop a coherent economic strategy; floundered in international diplomacy, especially US-Japan relations; and took blame. . . . for policy failures in responding to the March 2011 triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown" (Vogel 109). Because the bureaucratic ministries held the power to draft and revise legislation, barring them out of politics quite literally led to disaster. I won't get into the specifics of the bureaucrats' power, but Fukuda belittling their presence within the government led to Abe's unexpected return.

Once he returned in 2012, Abe ushered in an entirely new age for Japanese bureaucracy. In some ways, he limited the ministries' powers, but he also created the new cabinet bureaucrats. The new elite class of bureaucrats would dominate his second administration as Abe's most trusted advisors. As the cabinet bureaucrats rose in power after Abe established new and "special “headquarters” (honbu) and “offices” (shitsu) to coordinate major policy initiatives," their public perception continued to dwindle (Vogel 109). In modern Japan, bureaucrats retain only a fraction of their old power, but Vogel points out that for many citizens, that's still much more than they deserve:

The public image of bureaucrats has dropped considerably since its heyday. The share of people who reported that they trust bureaucrats declined from 44 percent in 1994 to 22 percent in 2002, while the share who stated that they do not trust bureaucrats rose from 51 percent to 74 percent (Tsukishima 2006, 286). Meanwhile, many university graduates no longer view the civil service as an attractive career. The number of applicants for civil servant positions dropped from a high of 330,686 in 1995 to 130,090 in 2018, while applicants for the Level 1 (“career”) positions declined from 41,433 to 22,559 (National Personnel Authority 2019b). (111)

Vogel ensures that modern Japanese bureaucrats still maintain strong political power, especially over industry, despite the many reforms they've suffered through the years. The discrepancy between bureaucrats holding onto power despite their poor public perception takes interesting personifications in manga. Below, I examine both Jujutsu Kaisen and Bleach's similar depictions of Japanese bureaucrats in action. Both Gege and Kubo Tite present bureaucratic forces as conservative powers that inhibit growth and the futures of young cast members.

Bleach uses similar visual metaphors of faceless bureaucrats giving orders that challenge the now shaky leadership of the pressured society. In both titles, the bureaucrats reappear after the defeat of the leading force of power in their respective verses. After Genryusai's death and Gojo's sealing, the bureaucrats intervene, often prioritizing their own self-preservation. Doing so, they attempt to enforce laws that hinder the main cast. Bleach depicts Central 46 as cowards who argue against Shinsui's suggestion for Kenpachi to finally evolve and truly inherit his title. In JJK, the Higher-Ups order Yuji's death and declare Gojo a traitor who must not be unsealed.

Both Gege and Kubo Tite characterize the faceless bureaucratic powers-that-be as greedy and controlling forces that will readily inhibit growth if it poses any hypothetical challenge to the status quo; that system being one that allows the jujutsu Higher-Ups and Central 46 to make the rules with little restriction. In JJK 0, the Higher-Ups readily criminalize and attempt to expunge Yuta for Rika being too powerful for them to control. The fact that Gege began with a negative depiction of Japanese bureaucracy before JJK proper existed stresses his honest dislike for that particular sector of government.

Gege provides a straightforward description of the power balance. Interestingly enough, the bureaucratic sorcerers still exist within the whole of the Japanese government. The reason why the Jujutsu Inspector General never appears may be because he resides elsewhere, as a cabinet bureaucrat, the elite position created by Abe; though, take that wth a grain of salt. The Jujutsu Inspector General may also be a reference to the now abolished role of Inspectorate General of Military Training. Both Headquarters (呪術 総監部, Jujutsu Sōkanbu) and (教育総監部, Kyōiku sōkanbu) were bureaucratic powers that performed miliary (sorcery) training and withheld a broad domain of power.

While all the Higher-Ups may not have been a monolith, the conservative faction dominated Headquarters. In the beginning, Gege depicts Headquarters as a corrupt power that manipulates the system and purposely sets Yuji up to die on a botched mission. They discreetly wield power over which sorcerers live and die. Kenjaku gaining control of Headquarters not only erases Kamo's political power that could have been used to aid the cast, but also reinforces Gege's depiction of bureaucrats as an antagonistic force.

Gege demonstrates overt criticism against Japanese bureaucracy in his depiction of them as antagonists that ultimately need to be slaughtered in order to ensure the future of the young cast. The ministries went through a unique journey that included them avoiding American-sanctioned government reforms, introducing an economic boom and crash to the Japanese economy, fighting with Prime Ministers to stay in power, and finally being saved by the infamous Shinzō Abe. Bureaucrats may maintain power, but Gege demonstrates why many Japanese people believe that to be an issue, not a solution to Japan's problems.

Notes:

The manga Noragami depicts the bubble era's sudden end as the God of Poverty, Kofuku's fault. She partied too hard and created an economic crash. As punishment, Ebisu put her under house arrest.

I thought this part would be a focus on Sukuna, but I realized that I really had a lot of foundation to lay before I get there. I had to teach myself a little about Japanese bureaucracy so that I could properly examine it. Thankfully, I found a great source by a clear writer.

Introduction - Part 1

Sources:

The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Bureaucracy, written by Steven K. Vogel, chapter 6 of The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Politics.

Memorandum Regarding Sorcerer Duties, written by Gege Akutami, pages posted here.

[kaijudirector]

//Webweaving - King Ghidorah

Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) // Rebirth of Mothra III (1998) // Godzilla: The Planet Eater (2019) // King Lear // Job 41: 19-21 // Luke 6:5-8 // Luke 10:18

Another one, this time for my all time favorite villain and character in fiction.