I've been struggling to describe Mahoraga's placement and role in Jujutsu Kaisen because this shikigami is more than just a puppet of a character but that doesn't make Maho a fully realised character itself. It's a half-sentient weapon with enormous weight inside the story who doesn't possess free will but it feels like it does because it attacks it's own wielder during its first summoning. Sometimes it also feels like Maho has a (bloodthirsty, loves fighting and winning) personality but that can't be really true. Or could it?
And then in the sequel a guy more or less falls in love with Mahoraga, too, which muddies the waters of kind of character or plot device it is.
But it came to me recently: Mahoraga is basically the Avatar State; it occupies the same role as that.
Not Aang, not the other avatars; the Avatar State as this unbelievably powerful weapon with enormous weight in the story which has to be "tamed" to be controlled fully, otherwise it can harm the "wielder" and those around them.
But putting Mahoraga and the Avatar State side-by-side like that made it finally click for me on what Maho has been lacking as a character/plot element this entire time: meaningful connections to the other characters, plot and themes.
Aang, the Avatar State and the previous avatars are deeply connected. The Avatar State is one part of a whole. Megumi, Mahoraga and Sukuna are not meaningfully connected to each other. For Aang, the AS is an achievement that nonetheless reflected his fears back at him from time to time. For Megumi, Maho is nothing more than a promise for mutual destruction against an enemy. He doesn't achieve anything with Mahoraga, Maho isn't a point of fear or a reflection of his inner self to him, and the only time where he had character development in conjunction with Maho was when he decided not to use it.
Sukuna has more to do with Mahoraga, but him enjoying Maho's presence and happily fighting alongside it is the most that comes from that connection. And because Sukuna was possessing Megumi's body to use Maho, that connection is fraught with this sense of having "stolen" Mahoraga and so we're back to this shikigami being a weapon disguised as something that pretends to be a character.
And Megumi's and Sukuna's connection feels like something that has stopped half-way through, so Mahoraga and the Ten Shadows Technique as a whole can't bring anything new to their relationship and themes, either.
The AS doesn't try to be its own character while it's meaningfully connected to Aang and the story and themes. Mahoraga isn't meaningfully connected to Megumi and the story and themes, while failing to be its own character and no amount of heart eyes that Dabura makes at Maho will change that.
Of course, Megumi isn't the main protagonist like Aang, so this lack of depth for Mahoraga is understandable. But it does feel like Gege tried to make Maho a fully realised character which he kinda failed at. The lacking connections and character-centric themes could be remedied if Gege went for another JJK story with Megumi as the protagonist 👀
For Megumi, Maho is nothing more than a promise for mutual destruction against an enemy. He doesn't achieve anything with Mahoraga, Maho isn't a point of fear or a reflection of his inner self to him, and the only time where he had character development in conjunction with Maho was when he decided not to use it.
I do believe mahoraga through shibuya is quite reflective of meg's self-sacrificing tendencies, viewing himself as a tool, and his role as "potential man," the one who could surpass or attain the level of gojo satoru. to that degree I think maho was meant to mean something more personal, but over time the incredible hype and awe around mahoraga kinda made it's true narrative purpose muddier and muddier.
You're right. I was so engrossed in Shinjuku that it buried Yasohachi and Shibuya for me 😫
In the beginning, Mahoraga, the 10ST and his domain were a central part of Megumi's character. Maho was something like the ceiling and his legacy he needed to conquer and the fight Maho had against Sukuna could've been something with more weight for Megumi.
But somehow that fight didn't even register for Megumi and while we had a brief glimpse at the progression of Megumi's abilities against Reggie, all of that was snuffed out when Sukuna took over.
Body stolen, CT stolen, other central part of Megumi's character (Tsumiki) killed, and then Maho basically became Sukuna's pet while Megumi was never even close to taming it. I still wished that Gege would've developed Megumi's and Sukuna's relationship during this part of the story, that would've rounded up everything between them and especially for Megumi and his character.
have you read the leaks? i think it’s safe to say that gege does not care for megumi very much 😔
I have not read the leaks but I've seen the spoilers left and right :D
Without knowing the proper context with good translation, I'll postpone my judgement. But because I've said this a year ago when JJK ended and because I was right back then about a sequel (even if it took another form), I'll repeat what I've talked about a few times since then and after Modulo was announced:
Jujutsu Kaisen 2. With Megumi as the protagonist.
The mathematical modulo symbol ≡ is the younger brother of the kanji 三 meaning 3. Gege started writing Modulo with the humbled opinion that it could crash and burn in less than 10 chapters. The ending of JJK was so stressful for him, that the man didn't even draw his own sequel manga and only wrote a short story for it.
And he gave that short story a name that resembles the number 3. He didn't commit to it, but he delicately put ≡ out there in case this sequel would be successful. And if it were successful, the door for 2 would be open. (Reminder: JJK 0 - Yuta; JJK [1] - Yuji; ????; JJK ≡ - Maru)
With this in mind, I can see Megumi's absence in Modulo as a setup. Not that I see a potential plot being set up, but after the post canon shorts about Sukuna, Panda etc came out, I hadn't seen a plot for a sequel back then either. But Gege can create whatever he wants, which in this case meant aliens.
Here is to hoping for a good story. And Megumi (as a young man if a potential JJK 2 would take place in the year 2026 or 2027) would definitely give us a good story, and I think everyone knows that, especially Gege, especially with how JJK is super popular just like Modulo turned out to be.
Now that I've read the fan translation of the last chapter (it seemed a bit fishy in a few places) I can say that Gege kept Megumi's fate extremely vague. He's just absent. Just like he had been the entire time in Modulo.
That could mean death, but more importantly it means opportunity for Gege to do with Megumi whatever else he wants to do with him if he goes back to JJK.
I can't emphasise enough how much Modulo is the product of a man who suffered physically and mentally through the stress of weekly manga serialisation. He loves his work but was burned by the process, so he got help from another artist and created a short sequel extremely removed from the finished story of JJK, after reading a book about Afghanistan, without fanfare, and with the fear it could implode after a few chapters.
Modulo is a transition product. One where he tentatively puts out a finished and coherent work that ties up some loose ends of JJK, while also throwing new ideas and story opportunities into the mix. It's Gege's call now to decide what to do with it.
Apart from JJK 2 as a possible story in the past of Modulo like I explained above, Gege could also do a detour to a Sukuna-centric Heian story (which would be the safest option), or he could go into the future which this last chapter talked about (either sci-fi or apocalypse), or he'll stick with these characters and create Modulo Part 2 like he kinda implied with the last scene.
I'm sure we'll get an answer to that towards the end of the year.
wait where is it mentioned that he read a book about afganistan?
In one of Gege's author comments during Modulo sometime in the first month, he says that he read a certain book that started the story. I tried finding the comment but the fanscan sites don't have them. This is from Myamura's Twitter: The English title of the book is: Providence was with us.
"Nakamura was devoted to building canal projects, from the Kunar River in eastern Afghanistan and was credited with transforming the desert of Gamberi, on the outskirts of Jalalabad, into lush forest and productive wheat farmland."
Yep,Gege's modulo is definitely inspired by the life of Dr Nakamura.
Well,Yuji’s hand sign is Kṣitigarbha (Jizō),a bodhisattva who guides others to enlightenment,also known as a protector of aborted fetuses & dead children. Notably,Jizō has a mom so evil & sinful( Kenny)that she was punished in hell,& to save their mum they purposefully delay their enlightenment and stay in the cycle of rebirth to guide as many people soul as possible & had to perform many good deeds in life.
After last chapter and during my review, too I've been thinking about how Maki and Megumi reacted differently to their sisters' deaths. They went through similar things but their paths diverged significantly afterwards and there are a few reasons for that.
The first one that's often overlooked especially when Megumi's pain is compared to Yuji's in Shibuya, is that Megumi has been left completely alone with his suffering for 1 month, while Yuji had Nobara's presence with him to deal with Nanami's death and then he had Todo's help to deal with Nobara's death about 5 minutes after it happened.
Megumi went through a 3-part process (Tsumiki's first death, the Bath, Tsumiki's second death) to be completely submerged and suppressed by Sukuna where he only had help from his friends during the first part of it; the fight against Sukuna after he initially took over. (That's also the first time Megumi actively fought against Sukuna's control.)
There was no one by his side while he was bathed in pure CE and no one intervened to stop Tsumiki's second death or comfort/help him up afterwards. Gojo was the only person who came even close to be a postive influence to Megumi's suffering but he decided after a small squrimish with Sukuna to postpone his rescue for more than a month.
During all of this, Megumi was unable to act in any way. He was a prisoner. He could only take everything in and deal (or not deal) with his suffering on his own.
The second reason why Maki and Megumi have such diverging reactions is that Maki's way of life always centred herself first before Mai came in second place. Megumi on the other hand, centred Tsumiki (and Yuji) before himself. Yes, they both wanted to create a place where their sisters could live in peace and flourish.
But Maki wanted to become one of the strongest as a service for herself and her own ambitions, and as a positive side-effect of that she could help Mai afterwards. For this she abandoned Mai first.
Megumi though, wanted to become someone strong primarily to help and protect Tsumiki and people like her. Even in chapter 266, he talks about the mundane things in life he sees as his ultimate happiness but he's in the background providing those things to Tsumiki. When he imagines Yuji and Tsumiki shoulder on shoulder, he isn't in the picture at all. He only watches them from the back.
While Maki and Mai are hand in hand.
So when Tsumiki is ripped away from him, Megumi doesn't have his main drive to fall back on like Maki. He has nothing to fight for anymore because he didn't do things for himself, he did things for Tsumiki and that since he met Gojo for the first time.
What he also doesn't have is a last conversation with his sister. There was no heartfelt conversation with Tsumiki to right any problems they had growing up (even the fake conversations with Yorozu weren't deep in any way) and no last wish from Tsumiki that Megumi should follow like Mai's "destroy everything".
So it's really brilliant how Yuji recognizes all of this at least in some form and realizes where Megumi's pain truly lies. Maybe Yuji hadn't thought this far during the timeskip but right after he made contact with Megumi for the first time, he had to have known.
And Yuji acknowledges Megumi's feelings wholeheartedly and says yes, that is enough, you don't need to go on anymore. It's all right.
Yuji doesn't try to convince Megumi to fight on because they need to defeat Sukuna or how the end of the world is around the corner, he just fully accepts Megumi, his feelings and everything he has gone through. The only other thing that Yuji acknowledges in that moment are his own feelings and that's how he would truly miss Megumi.
It took 50+ chapters to come to this point and we're not even finished while Maki's journey was significantly shorter but we want things to be different like that. Reading Maki's and Mai's chapters was impactful but ch266 after waiting for such a long time is just so stunning and elevates the manga and the characters.
(On the part about last conversations with Tsumiki. Tsumiki's soul not only appeared in the story 100 chapters ago, she also actively intervened in Megumi's actions to stop him from killing Remy. This means that Megumi will have a last conversation with his sister. He just needs to be freed from Sukuna first.)
The problem is that he doesn't realise its potential. He thinks his domain is incomplete because a proper domain has to have properly closed barriers that compress space around it. If you don't go through this strict formula, then what you have is half a failure.
That's why Megumi goes out of his way to find compensation for his lack of barrier mastery. Of course in this case it was warranted, but that just goes back to how he doesn't understand the kind of power he has and how to use it.
To hammer it home: Megumi could've expanded his domain in the open street. He's capable of doing that, just like the King of Curses and a 1000 year body hopper. But unlike Sukuna and Kenjaku, he has no idea what to do with an open barrier domain; he still thinks its a mishap what he's producing there.
Just like in the beginning of the story, Megumi's mindset regarding these things is what holds him back. Who says he can't make that kind of domain expansion work for him in the open street? Sukuna annihilated Shibuya with it by using binding vows to expand his range because it was open. And who says Megumi can't create his sure-hit with that arrangement? You don't need a closed barrier for the sure-hit.
Of course in part, Megumi's problem is that he just doesn't know things like that are possible. From history he has no idea, and the strongest sorcerer he knows can't do something like that either. Megumi also has no idea what Sukuna did in Shibuya; these boys have not exchanged information on that in any way.
But as Sukuna said once (paraphrasing): You have to go all out and take everything. I'm sure if Megumi had the time, he would figure his power out.
After making comments about this scene under a few youtube videos and having to engage with people who vehemently and stubbornly deny that Megumi could possibly have an open barrier domain, I've come back with a few observations:
the part in the street where Megumi thinks of expanding his domain does not exist in the minds of many, many people
people confuse Megumi not being able to close his barrier, which is what he means about having an incomplete domain, with an inability to expand an open domain
Megumi can do one but not the other; his closed domain is incomplete, his open domain is complete except for the sure-hit but with the domain construct
people bring up the discussion between Maki and Kusakabe in Shinjuku, not realising that those two have outdated information on Megumi's proficiency in DEs
no one was there to see Megumi's better domain inside the gymnasium and he didn't talk with anyone about contemplating expanding his domain in the street before he was possessed
people use backwards logic to dismiss what literally happened in this episode; instead of taking what Megumi said here into their understanding of how domains and barriers work, they find some twisted logic that starts with "Megumi can't" and work their way into denial of facts from there
one person tried to tell me that Megumi can't use barriers at all
Just so you know, my insistence on Modulo being JJK 3 with JJK 2 not having been drawn yet, isn't just a fringe assumption from some nobody on the internet. The allusion of the modulo symbol to the kanji for 3 is obvious. The question is: what would JJK 2 be about?
Modulo didn't set up some grand conflict that happened in the last 70 years. Most of the characters from JJK died of old age, too, if they're even dead. Latte had a short answer to this Marshmellow ask:
Ui Ui's comment mentioned that from the main story to Mojuro, there was "mediocre, flimsy peace" continuing, so it doesn't seem like anything particularly noteworthy happened.
So if Gege decided to go for JJK 2, what would he even be writing about? Simple.
Megumi.
Gege made sure that we have nothing on Megumi from Modulo. Even his status of being alive or dead is ambiguous. This opens up possibilities for Gege to write whatever he wants with Megumi without restrictions or us knowing how his fate would turn out. The only concrete things we know of what happened in-between JJK and Modulo are that there was a long period of peace and that nearly no one died young. But:
Long period of peace can be the last 60 and not the full 68 years, giving us time right after Shinjuku where tumultuous things could've happened
we still have some characters where we don't actually know if they died old or not
the lack of death of known characters doesn't take away a story's stakes
Again, if JJK 2 is about Megumi, then we have all the elements for a gripping story with an unknown ending. But what exactly would JKK 2 be about in concrete terms? My guess:
Megumi dealing with the aftermath of Sukuna's possession and how he wants to live his life
Sukuna himself + a disaster curse as an antagonist
On my Megumi is able to expand an open barrier domain train, I've encountered a misconception from back when Megumi fought the Finger Bearer in the Yasohachi Bridge mission.
Some people think that Megumi's shadows on the ground are his domain. But that's only his amped up cursed technique. You can't have a domain that's flat on the ground. Megumi's incomplete domain hangs (invisibly) onto the barrier of the finger bearer's domain, so everything you see in this screenshot is part of Chimera Shadow Garden.
This is what Kusakabe talked about right before Gojo and Sukuna expanded their domains in the Shinjuku fight: Megumi used an existing structure, either walls or an already closed barrier, as his clutch to compensate for his inability to close barriers on his own.
This ability, hanging your domain onto something that isn't yours, is exceptional. And it isn't a stretch to think that Megumi's next step on his learning curve is expanding his domain without that clutch, which is exactly what he talked about in the street where there were no walls or barriers.
Let's not forget that Megumi doesn't know that open barrier domains are a thing, just like no other modern sorcerer until the end. He has no idea what Sukuna did in Shibuya, so whatever Megumi does with his domain, as long as it isn't the standard version, he'll always think of it as inferior. The only thing that's really missing for Megumi's OBD is the sure-hit because his inability to close his barrier has become a non-issue in this special case.
The next misconception/false belief I've uncovered is dismissing Megumi's ability to hang his domain onto an external structure. Yes, it's a measure to compensate for his lack of ability in a specific thing. But what he's doing there is itself an exceptional feat.
Many people try and fail to create their own domain. Even Reggie who is an incarnated sorcerer couldn't do it. Nanami couldn't, just like Todo. None of them managed to compensate that failure. It's only Megumi who did something like that.
Hanging your domain onto something that isn't yours is an achievement.
And it's also a step closer to an open barrier domain than a properly closed barrier is.
So of all the characters in Jujutsu Kaisen Megumi has turned out to be one of the most controversial and hotly debated characters. There's nothing the internet hates more than a boy with trauma, I guess. Jujutsu Kaisen is a controversial work in general so it's not surprising that the ending wasn't super well received by the fans, especially in the way it decided to conclude Megumi's character arc.
There are many people accusing Gege of giving Megumi no character development. Of Megumi just choosing to replace Tsumiki with Yuji. Lots of complaints about Megumi never finishing his domain expansion among other things. Of Megumi being nothing more than a damsel for Yuji to rescue in the end. I'm here to say I think Megumi does have a complete character arc even if it didn't end the way I would have liked, and under the cut I'll be giving my thoughts for Megumi's ending and JJK's ending in general.
I CAN ONLY SAVE THOSE WHO ARE PREPARED TO BE SAVED
If you were to ask me what the most important arc in Jujutsu Kaisen is, it would be Hidden Inventory. Hidden Inventroy covers the inciting incident which leads to all the conflicts in the main story, Riko's death, Geto's defection, Tengen's merger failing, and Gojo's decision to adopt Megumi.
However, it also shows us what motivates Gojo in the main series, mainly his desire to raise this generation of students into strong and intelligent allies because of his inability to save his closest friend when it most counted.
If the quote that summarizes the central theme of Jujutsu Kaisen Zero is "Love is the most twisted curse of them all."
Then I put forward that the quote that summarizes the theme of the main series is what Gojo said to Yaga post Geto's defection, "Being strong isn't enough, I can only save those who are prepared to be saved."
Just like Hidden Inventory is centered around Geto and Gojo's relationship in their youth, the main manga itself centers around Megumi and Itadori's relationship. The manga itself starts with their first meeting. Yuji devours the finger in order to try to help Megumi. Megumi requests Gojo help save Yuji from execution because he didn't want to see another good person die.
Megumi and Itadori are also a deliberate parallel to Geto and Gojo's friendship in the past. To begin with Gojo tried to nurture these relatoinships in his students so they COULD get along and enjoy their youths the way he remembers doing so with Geto in his three springtime of youth.
He not only encourages Megumi to selfishly try to save Yuji even though it is against the rules of sorcery and poses a risk to other people, he also encourages them to socialize at every opportunity.
The strong and intense friendship that Megumi and Yuji enjoy is not only a clear parallel to Geto and Gojo's special connection with one another, but also the fact that a strong reocurring motif in Megumi and Yuji's friendship is their strong desire to save each other. Which is a clear parallel to Gojo's inability to save Geto in the past.
As I said for a long time Yuji and Megumi were being set up as this generation's version of the "strongest duo" except they were going to be able to break the cycle. Whether it be by Megumi saving Yuji, or Yuji saving Megumi, they wouldn't be driven apart by the corruption in the Jujutsu World the way that Geto and Gojo were.
As I said the central question of Jujutsu Kaisen especially in regards to Megumi and Yuji's friendship is if it's possible to save someone who doesn't want to be saved. Which is why Megumi and Yuji both wanting to save each other is something that happens again and again at different parts of the manga. Whether it be the ending of Origin of Obedience where Megumi and Yuji are both unable to talk to each other because they want to try to protect the other from information that might harm them. Megumi hiding the fact that he knows resonance between the Sukuna fingers awakened the curses. Yuji hiding the fact that Megumi's decision to save Yuji has caused strong curses to awaken and kill other people.
Just as often as these two try to save each other, they fail. Megumi watches Yuji die early on when Yuji takes back control from Sukuna and decides to die without a heart.
Megumi spends the entirety of the culling games clinging to Yuji's side no matter how Yuji tries to push him away because he knows Sukuna has plans for him. However, Megumi is afraid to leave Yuji alone because he knows Yuji is in a dark place after the Shibuya massacre and that if he's left alone Yuji might just find some way to off himself in a heroic sacrifice to try to atone for the people lost at Shibuya.
Only for Megumi's insistence on clinging to Yuji to backfire because Sukuna ends up taking his body from him in a critical moment. When Sukuna takes his body their circumstances swap and Megumi is the one who's body is being used to kill people by Sukuna. When Megumi has to live with the guilt of Sukuna using his body to kill both his sister and his teacher, he's not able to live with it anymore.
Then their positions swap completely and it's Megumi who wants to die to atone for the guilt, and it's Yuji who doesn't want to let go of Megumi and will do anything to save Megumi from both Sukuna and the other sorcerers even if the right thing to do is just kill both him and Sukuna and letting him live means putting the whole rest of the world at risk.
As you can see not only is saving each other a common theme of Megumi and Yuji's relationship, but at different points of the story both of them are trying to save the other even when the other doesn't value their own life.
Gojo's relationship with Geto is defined by his inability to reach his friend in time, and how he was "left behind" in the end.
Gojo explicitly waited a year after learning about Megumi being sold to the Zen'in clan to do anything, and only decided to intervene after Geto's defection. Gojo's decision to mentor Megumi was inspired by Geto leaving. He even said "Don't get left behind."
His hope in taking in students like Megumi, Yuta and Yuji was twofold first that he'd be able to handpick and raise several strong students who would eventually replace the elders and reform the Jujutsu World. The second and more personal motivation is that he wanted these students to be able to support each other and be strong allies to one another so they wouldn't end up alone like Gojo did in his youth.
Gojo's intentions were good however, Gojo has a very flawed understanding of how people and relationships work. In Gojo's books "strong=good" and almost everything can be solved by strength. Notice just one chapter ago Gojo said that being strong wasn't enough, he can only save those who are prepared to be saved and yet one chapter later he tells Megumi that he needs to get strong otherwise he'll be left behind.
So, even when Gojo knows that being strong isn't enough and didn't make a difference with Geto, that's still the only real advice he can offer Megumi.
A big theme of Jujutsu Kaisen is the failures of the past generation affecting the present. A lot of people in trying to put Gojo on a pedestal fail to realize one of the central themes of this manga is GOJO WAS WRONG. The way Gojo went about doing several things wasn't the right way. Gojo wants the next generation to succeed him and do better than him, because Gojo himself knows that he was wrong and he's a part of the past generation.
I think a big part of the reason the conclusion to Megumi's character arc is poorly received is that Megumi didn't end his arc the way that Gojo set out for him.
Scenes like this led the audience to believe that Megumi's character arc was going to be completed by him learning to be more selfish and living up to the potential that Gojo saw in him. That we were going to get a completed domain expansion. That Megumi was going to become stronger than Gojo because the ten shadows was the only technique to ever beat a wielder of the limitless and the six eyes.
I understand wanting to see Megumi living for himself, and how cool it might be to see Megumi's complete domain expansion after Gege teased us with this twice but I have to ask this.
If Gojo was the strongest sorcerer in the world, and that still wasn't good enough to save Geto. Then how would Megumi reaching his full potential as a sorcerer in any way help Megumi avoid making the same mistakes that Gojo did?
HAVEN'T WE HAD ENOUGH OF GOJO SATORU
I think a lot of dissatisfaction in Megumi's character development comes from he didn't really follow the path that Gojo set out for him. He didn't unlock his full domain expansion, he didn't learn to live more selfishly. They say that Megumi simply choosing to live for Yuji isn't him learning to stand on his own two feet because he's just hinging his self worth on someone else the same way he did with Tsumiki.
However, I have to ask.
How exactly would Megumi becoming more like Gojo or more like Sukuna be any better?
A big recurring theme in Megumi's arc is his lack of agency, and how many different adult figures have tried to mould him to their own selfish ends.
In the same chapter where Megumi has the flashback where Gojo encourages him to become more selfish, Sukuna has his hands wrapped around Megumi's neck in the colored page. Sukuna was never actually trying to mentor Megumi.
He only had an interest in Megumi because his ten shadows techniques was a way to bypass Gojo's infinity. Henever actually cared about Megumi reaching his full potential. He was grooming Megumi in the long term so he could snatch his body and turn him into a weapon against Gojo Satoru. The same way that Gojo only decided to take Megumi in and mentor him in the first place because his technique meant he had great potential as a sorcerer and a future ally in Gojo's crusade against the elders.
Megumi's life is defined by every adult in his life trying to mould him or use him selfishly for his own gains. His father sold him to the Zen'in clan for gambling money and abandoned him. Gojo only was interested in a strong ally against the elders. Sukuna is just one in a long line of people who are trying to shape Megumi into something he's not for their own selfish desires.
Ngl, the fushiguro girlies are kinda onto something with their characterization of Sukuna’s possession as the physical embodiment of his lifelong struggle for self determination and autonomy and how others have always pupeteered his fate for their own devices and he’s thusly never put himself first ─ his selfishness functioning ultimately as platitudes which still center others and his consideration for them. [SOURCE]
So if all of Megumi's various abusers have tried to make Megumi into something he's not and robbed him of his agency in the process, then is the best ending for Megumi really to become more selfish like Gojo or Sukuna?
If Megumi ended his character arc by using a complete domain expansion, and reaching Gojo's level of power wouldn't that be validating the way Gojo stole Megumi's entire childhood from him in order to make him a strong sorcerer. Wouldn't it look like the narrative was going, yeah, it was wrong for Gojo to groom Megumi like that, but look how strong it made him!
We already have a version of Megumi who learned to live only for himself, someone who broke the chains of fate and became entirely free.
Toji shows us a version of Megumi who lived up to his full potential as a sorcerer, became someone strong enough to threaten Satoru Gojo, and who put himself above everyone else and... Toji's fucking miserable.
Toji is the bad ending of Megumi. He's strong but that's all he is. The narration refers to him as a puppet of carnage, only living to fight the strongest around. In fact, Toji dies BECAUSE he wanted to feel validated as the strongest. The decision to say and fight against Gojo when Gojo unlocks reverse cursed technique leads to his death. Being the strongest and his desire to be validated as someone strong is nothing more than a curse for Toji and what allows him to escape the cycle is not strength, but rather seeing that his son has succesfully escaped the abuse of the Zen'in clan.
So having Megumi live up to his full potential as a sorcerer, or living selfishly the way that Gojo or Sukuna wanted him to wouldn't really be breaking the cycle, because it'd be Megumi acting the way his abusers wanted him to act. If anything it' be Gojo's long term grooming of Megumi finally succeeding.
I understand that Megumi fighting back on Sukuna from within with one use of ten shadows to create a puddle underneath Sukuna's feet isn't the most dramatic way to signal his journey of self-realization, but sometimes the flashy, dramatic, and satisfying thing isn't always the right thing.
if the central relationship of the series is Megumi and Yuji, and the central question of that relationship was "is it possible to save someone who doesn't want to be saved-" then resolving both Megumi and Yuji's character arcs requires answering that question. That's the most important part. How are we going to break the cycle and have Megumi and Yuji save each other in a way that Geto and Gojo weren't be able to.
Yes, I understand wanting Megumi to be his own person and stand on his own two feet, but before he's a person Megumi is a fictional character. Megumi and Yuji are characters intentionally designed to be each other's other half. The same way that Geto is designed to be the other half of Gojo. They both represent a yin / yang pair. They both represent the shadow and the light, the sun and the moon.
People also talk about wanting Gojo to learn to be his own person outside of Geto, but that's also missing the point. Gojo isn't a person to begin with he's a character designed to be the other half of Geto. All of those parallels that exist between them, both of them getting their bodies stolen from them, both of them becoming monsters (geto slaughtering the village, Gojo slaughtering the elders), both of them dying on the same day. Those are intentional, because they're fictional characters meant to represent the concept of yin and yang and balance. Gojo cannot exist without Geto, Geto's body causes Gojo to get boxed, Gojo dies within a year of killing Geto, because they're meant to represent the taoist concept of BALANCE in a manga that's about BALANCE. Gojo cannot achieve balance with the character that symbolizes his yin. Whereas, Megumi's way of achieving balance is to find a way to make things work with his other half Yuji in a way that Geto and Gojo failed to.
As someone who used to be the biggest Megumi Corruption Arc truther, I've come around in my thinking and I can at least understand why Gege didn't go that direction. Megumi learning to be selfish like Gojo would be changing too much of Megumi's inner nature, because as much as Megumi pretends to be selfish as an excuse he still is someone who wants to help people.
There's nothing wrong with Megumi wanting to help people, or wanting to be a team player. It was Megumi deciding to hinge his entire self worth on just his ability to help one person. It's why he couldn't go on when Tsumiki died, not just because he was grieving his sister, but because he decided to make protecting his sister his entire reason to live and genuinely saw no other reason to keep on living.
A lot of people say that Megumi is just deciding to make Yuji into an emotional crutch the same way he once did with Tsumiki, however, I don't think these lines of dialogue really indicate that.
"The world is full of people besides myself. Once more I think I'll live for others."
To begin with, Megumi says that the world is filled with lots of people. Megumi didn't want to go on because he didn't think he'd ever love someone as much as he loved his sister. That there was nothing in the world worth living for if his sister was gone.
However, now Megumi is acknowledging that there are more people in the world than just Tsumiki. That he might come to love them the same way that he loved her. That he shouldn't give up on life just because he lost one person, no matter how important that person was.
Megumi's words run contrary to the idea that he's just going to use Yuji as his next living emotional crutch, because he says the world is full of people. There's more people than just him, there's more people than just Yuji, as long as Megumi makes the choice to continue living then he can go out into the world and meet them.
Jujutsu Kaisen is a very individualist manga, and I understand we also exist in an individualist society so we want to see Megumi stand on his own two feet and live for himself, but I don't think Megumi deciding he'll live for others is a bad thing. This is just a few chapters after Yuji said that what makes life meaningful is the memories you leave behind with other people. Which is the exact same sentiment.
Yuji is able to break free from the cog mindset when he realizes that all the people he connected to in his life gave his life meaning, even if they died tragically, even if he only knew them for a short time. Choso's final words are "Thank you for being my little brother" and that connection was incredibly important even though they only knew each other for about a month. Yuji's life became meaningful because he went out into the world and made all these important connections.
Now Megumi is doing the same thing. He's resolved that even though his sister is dead the world is full of people he can connect with. That he can come to love other people the same way that he did. That his life is still worth living because he can find new people to love. Is Megumi deciding he can try to live for the other people in his life and his connection to those people even after the loss of his sister made him feel like his life is worthless and he'll never love anybody that way again, really that different from Yuji deciding that the people he made connections too gave his life value?
Jujutsu Kaisen lifts from other manga, this is pretty common knowledge. Killua and Shinji Ikari are probably the two biggest inspirations for Megumi and both are two very passive characters who are entirely reactive. They don't decide, they don't act, they react to the decisions of people around him.
Killua's ultimate moment of character development isn't beating his abusive big brother, or his abusive parents in a physical fight after getting a power up. Killua's greatest moment of character development is accepting Nanika as a part of Alluka. Something he was too afraid to do because it would mean that his family would continue to try to exploit Alluka for her wish granting abilities.
Killua finishes his arc with the resolution to protect both Alluka and Nanika from the rest of his family. Considering that Killua has been centering his entire self worth around his usefulness to Gon by this point you could call it Killua is just replacing Alluka with Gon as a crutch if you were cynical. Or you could just say that Killua, like Megumi is someone who lives for their loved ones and finds value in the bonds he makes with other people.
Shinji Ikari spends the entire 26 episode run of Neon Genesis Evangelion not making a single decision, and his final moment of character development isn't really that much character development. He simply makes the decision to reject instrumentality and try again. To go back to the real world and try to be a person in the world again, because as long as you're alive there's still a chance to be happy.
Megumi like Killua, never really changes. It's in Megumi and Killua's nature to be a protector / a nurturer. They want to take care of the loved ones in their lives. Megumi and Shinji both have an arc where it takes the entire anime / manga to take the very first step. Their arc is there to depict how hard it can be to take that first step on the journey to change when you're as traumatized as someone like Shinji or Megumi.
Megumi's arc especially is about him making his very first decision in the whole manga. As I said the central question of Megumi and Yuji's relationship is can you save someone who doesn't want to be saved and Yuji eventually finds you that you can't.
Yuji's greatest moment of character development and empathy for Fushiguro is realizing he can't force savlation on Fushiguro if Megumi doesn't want it. He can't force Megumi to live. He can't just tell Megumi to be stronger.
In doing so Yuji does something that no one has ever done to Megumi in his life, and offered him a choice. Gojo expected Megumi to be as strong as him and saw him as a mini-gojo never once taking his opinion into the matter. As I said above Gojo sees being strong as the soliution to all of life's problems. His adivce to Megumi was don't be weak, otherwise you'll be left behind.
Yuji allows Megumi to be weak. He says that Megumi doesn't have to be strong and suck it all up. The metaphor of Yuji and his grandfather works well to show how Yuji truly understood Megumi in a way Gojo never did. Gojo expected Megumi to be as strong as him. Gojo encouraged Megumi to grow up into another Gojo. Gojo failed to understand Megumi in many ways because he wasn't Gojo, and enjoy Jujutsu and being a sorcerer the way that Gojo did.
Yuji relates the story of his grandfather rejecting chemo treatment. At the time he didn't understand why his father would refuse the treatment just because it was painful, because Yuji being young would have been very easily able to handle the pain. However, after Yuji went through trauma and started dealing with suicidal ideation in the aftermath of Shibuya he understood why some people wouldn't want to keep fighting.
Yuji knows what it's like to be weak and want to give up so he doesn't want to force Megumi to be strong. Gojo projected himself onto Megumi and expected Megumi to always be strong and to love Jujutsu like he did, and didn't understand the ways Megumi was different than him. Yuji on the other hand accepted Megumi for who he was with those words, even though Megumi was weak and didn't want to continue living Yuji didn't crticize him he accepted that Megumi was different from him. He accepted the fact he didn't really understand Megumi's pain. He validated Megumi's pain and didn't try to dismiss it.
This parallel to Gojo and Megumi's first meeting is so important, because Gojo showed up in that child's life only to exploit him. While Yuji gave Megumi a choice. Even if it meant that Yuji would be lonely and heartbroken, he still gave Megumi a choice on whether or not he wanted to live.
In the end Yuji gave Megumi a choice, and Megumi made that choice to keep living. Just like Shinji, Megumi's entire character arc was just leading him up to taking the first step on his journey. Just like Shinji, Megumi's entire arc is defined by his choices being taken away from him but the very first choice he makes is his most important one: the choice to live.
So yes, a Megumi corruption arc would have been really cool but I think the answer of "You can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved, but you can still love them" is a beautiful one.
Maki and Mai, as identical twins (also called maternal and monozygotic twins), share their cursed technique and cursed energy. As Mai says here, they share even more than that, as Maki's ambitions in life would always fail because Mai doesn't desire the same thing.
When you look at the picture of them from before they were born, we can see that Mai and Maki not only share the same placenta, as is normal with identical twins, but also the same amniotic sack, which isn't. Monoamniotic twins only happen in 1-2% of maternal twin pregnancies.
This is symbolic because we're not only told that Maki and Mai are "the same person" but we're also shown it with a picture where those two, not even during their pregnancy, are ever separated.
This is reinforced later again when Mai hands Maki a feather in their dream world, which then turns into the Split Soul Katana.
In the first and fourth panel, Maki is holding the feather and the sword (you can see a little bit of Maki's burns on her wirst in the fourth panel). In the real world though, it's Mai who is holding the sword in that position. While Maki is shown holding it with her right hand, Mai is holding it in her left.
They're one being. (Taking Sukuna and Weisuke into consideration here, they still have two souls though.)
What does this mean for their CT and CE?
Being considered as one sorcerer by jujutsu (btw, I would've loved to have the original Japanese panels; the unofficial english translation seems a bit fishy here and there) means they share their CE 50:50, which makes Mai have only enough energy to (comfortably!) create one bullet per day. Maki's 50% share is reduced to normal humans levels of CE by Heavenly Restriction.
How they share their CT isn't talked about further because Maki can't access her part of it. Maybe their technique could've ended up split as well, eg. by giving Mai one application and Maki another. Construction only has one application as far as we know, so imagine if Nobara had an identical twin and one could use Resonance and the other Hairpin.
When Mai dies, she makes the concious decision to take her part of their CT and CE with her, artificially reducing Maki's CE to zero and perfecting her HR in the process. It's not said outright, but Mai most likely did this with the expectation of making Maki into the next Toji. Not only does she copy Toji's sword (the SSK), she would also have knowm that the Zenin feared Toji the most.
What would've happened if she didn't take her CT and CE? Maki would've gotten all of it just for it to be reduced back to normal human levels. Maki was physically weaker than Yuji, so if we assume for a moment that Yuji also has HR but with the starting point of a normal sorcerer, than Maki most likely would've gained similar physical strength to Yuji.
But Yuji is no Toji and Maki doesn't have sorcerer-levels CE infused inside of her through an ancient King. What Mai did was the best outcome for her.
But what would've happened if Maki died instead of Mai? Mai would've gained access to 100% of her CE, and in case her CT was also restricted, 100% on that as well. But in Mai's case that wouldn't have amounted to much. She never wanted to become a sorcerer, and her strengths in battle don't lie in jujutsu but in human shooting weapons. If she had trained her body in CE reinforcement and efficiancy like Todo and Mei Mei, then an increase in CE would've empowered her immensely. But that wasn't the case.
If Maki had died in that pit, than Mai would've just died there with her, without ever taking erevenge on the Zenin.
(Thanks to @lolitamermaid123 for talking with me about this.)
Dissecting the name of all domain expansions that we have seen in the series.
Gojo Satoru : 無量空処 (Muryoukuusho)
Gojo's domain has the most straightforward name out of all.
無量 (muryou) means immeasurable
空処 (kuusho) means an open empty space, void
Ryomen Sukuna : 伏魔御厨子 (Fukuma mizushi)
伏魔 (fukuma), most likely comes from 伏魔殿 (fukuma-den), which means a palace where demons lurk.
御厨子 (mizushi) have several possible meanings;
first, it means the tools to enshrine Buddha statue
second, it maybe comes from 御厨子所 (mizushi-dokoro) which is a place in the temple used to prepare meals for the emperor, festival, or as offering
third, it is a word to say 厨子 (zushi) (meaning kitchen) in honored form, as 御 (mi-) can mean prefix "honorable"
Jogo : 蓋棺鉄囲山 (Gaikan tecchisen)
蓋棺 (gaikan) means to put the lid of the casket of a person who has died.
鉄囲山 (tecchizen) comes from the sacred mountain legend originated in India, which also shared by Buddhism and Hinduism. It is said that in the heart of the world, there's a sacred mountain named Mount Sumeru (also called Meru or 須弥山 ; shumisen). Mount Sumeru is surrounded by nine mountains and eight oceans. One of the outermost mountains is made of iron and called 鉄囲山 (tecchizen).
Mahito : 自閉円頓裹 (Jihei endonka)
自閉 (jihei) means a state where someone withdraws into their self and reject or ignore any stimulus from the outside world.
円頓 (endon) is a Buddhist term from Tendai sect which means to be prepared for everything and reach enlightenment immediately.
裹 (ka) means to wrap or conceal. It can also mean (tsutsumu, kugutsu) a basket or bag made from weaving bamboo or straw.
Fushiguro Megumi : 嵌合暗翳庭 (Kangou an'eitei)
嵌合 (kangou) means fitting, for example to say in a machine where various parts fit together.
暗翳 (an'ei) means dark shadow.
庭 (tei, niwa) means garden or courtyard.
Dagon : 蕩蘊平線 (Tau'un heisen)
蕩 (tau) means to spread abundantly or to wash away.
蘊 (un) means aggregate, pile, or heap. Also skandha in Buddhism (any of five attributes that constitute a sentient being).
平線 (heisen) means horizon
This chapter confirmed one more time what I thought. That Gojou was kinda delusional about his fight with Sukuna.
He shows the same attitude towards dying as Sukuna had in his fight against Yorozu.
The difference is that Sukuna knows Yorozu and her powers, he has an idea as to how to handle her. More than that, he’s there specifically to test out on her some ideas he has for the Ten Shadows Technique. Sukuna’s arrogance makes him an asshole, not a fool.
Gojou, on the other hand, knows that a person with Megumi’s technique is capable of killing someone with Gojou’s technique. And apart from knowing a bit about Cleave, Dismantle and Malevolent Shrine, he can’t estimate the extent of Sukuna’s own powers. And as the fight between them shows he went into it without any plan, he was just winging it.
And again we are shown that he didn’t participate in any planning efforts with the rest of them. He was so certain about his idea to go in first and handle it alone. And so dismissive about their worry.
And everyone else seemed to have considered that he was being delusional because they made actual plans for the plans.
I didn’t think I could dislike Yuuta more but after chapter 261, I actually do.
So let’s look at Yuuta’s absolutely inane plan here. There are two conditions to it:
1. Gojou dies, despite having an overpowered combination of abilities that he’d honed for years.
2. Yuuta is on the brink of death despite his overpowered status due to being so “naturally gifted” and “blessed” by an extra powerful lineage on both sides.
And the way they both attack Sukuna is just targeting him with raw power, typical jujutsu moves despite Sukuna being a fucking expert on that, not trying to get to the bottom of what makes Sukuna tick.
So Yuuta’s idea is, well if they both fail in those attempts, he could combine his ability with Gojou’s and try again. Because surely the third time's the charm. Well, the definition of stupidity and so on, I guess.
Now let’s compare this to how Yuuji approaches the fight. The plan he made with Higuruma had very reasonable grounds, and was based on analysing techniques. It didn’t pan out because they didn’t know Higuruma’s technique well enough, but it wasn’t based on “let’s wing it”. And the rest of the plan is based on attacking Sukuna’s soul directly using Yuuji’s power’s and Mai’s legacy wielded by Maki. The plan is to separate Megumi’s soul from Sukuna’s and reach Megumi, save him. And it’s been working.
And neither Gojou’s approach, nor Yuuta’s, even considers Megumi in all of this. I’m not sure Megumi is paying any attention to the fight anymore, but if he is, I’m not sure seeing what Yuuta did is making him want to fight to come out. It could honestly go both ways, and if Megumi feels even slightly guilty about Gojou’s death (even though he shouldn’t but psychology just isn’t that simple), seeing Gojou’s corpse used like that might make his guilt worse.
Gojou always bought into the individualistic strength based approach to jujutsu, the foundation that upheld the corrupt system he participated in. And he indoctrinated Yuuta into that completely. Yuuta still kinda cares about Gojou, but Gojou doesn't even consider what Yuuta's plan would mean for Yuuta.
If you compare it to the conversation Higuruma and Yuuji had, both characters who unsettle Sukuna due to their humanity, it really shows how little threat Gojou and Yuuta've been to Sukuna.
Seeing this contrast, makes the martyrdom complex Gojou and Yuuta display in this chapter really sickening to me, so unwarranted but the fandom is just lapping it all up thoughtlessly.
Gojou by wanting to go on the murder spree alone to protect the kids he had failed to protect before and who he would fail to protect again by taking on Sukuna alone.
Yuuta by wanting to take over the mantle of Gojou, regardless of what the objective reality is, regardless whether there is even a need for that. The fight with Sukuna, once Yuuji got involved, actually started to go somewhere, actual progress was being made. And Yuuta’s like, well in need to butt in on that.
I just hope it won’t give Sukuna a chance to recover. It’s a technique and domain he knows, a type of jujutsu combat he’s very well versed in. Fighting Yuuji and Maki made him face opponents he had to figure out, and had him deal with attacks he wasn't used to. But this, this is his bread and butter. I really hope I’m wrong and this will just be a distraction.
There'd be no point in announcing the end but then making a sequel series, that doesn't typically happen with manga afaik (people bring up shippuden but that was just an anime continuing the manga's story)
I see that like this: a better Bleach.
After Aizen's defeat, Tite Kubo decided to make a genre change for his manga including cutting half the main and most secondary characters out, changes that did not go over well with the readers until he went back to the battle shonen genre and all the old characters for his last arc.
Bleach and Kubo are the main inspirations for Gege and JJK and I like to think that Gege would've learned from those structural problems Kubo suffered from while writing his story. So what would a formal cut off in the manga accomplish?
Making genre, theme and character changes easy and digestible
A change of main protagonist from Yuji (whose arc is finished) to Megumi (whose arc has been on hold, or is only in the midway point) would be acceptable
JJK is already a manga that is a 2-Part story with JJK 0. That prequel also had different themes and a different protagonist
A cut off would also give Gege, you know, free time to make a vacation and to get inspired, while a normal continuous story wouldn't give him that.
A story ending creates hype. A finished story can also reach a new audience.
Also let's not forget money and fame as a reason to continue a story
(Btw, JJK's story is not like Demon Slayer's. In DS there was nothing more to tell at the end, it's a far simpler story than JJK. So wanting more JJK makes sense with all the setup that exists in the story.)
When One Piece reached its midpoint with a timeskip, Eiichiro Oda went on a month long hiatus. And pre and post timeskip One Piece does have structural changes in its story telling that some people don't like so much. Still the story is neatly cut into those parts. They're just not named officially as Part 1 and Part 2.
Other manga like Chainsaw Man and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure are also in Parts but I don't know about them to make a comparison.
Do you believe that JJk part 2 would be made? The author seems to make it clear with the pacing, that the story is concluding in this series.
What other plot points could be addressed thoughtfully and with adequate pacing, if the trio's comeback, antagonist death, and main heros power escalation in the final arc, did not get the pacing it deserved?
It'll mostly likely wrap up in the next two chapters, with the last one serving as an Epilogue.
Thanks for this question! I'm going to cheat a little by copy/pasting a previous post of mine about everything that's still open ended in JJK, most likely will not get a proper conclusion in the last 3 chapters, and could serve as the groundwork for a potential JJK 2.
First, though, your questions seems a little misaligned. JJK is going to end in three chapters and there is no pacing issue there. Maybe it's a bad word choice or you've seen others talk about it like that, but chapter 271 is going to be a rounded end for the story that, in my opinion (08.09.2024), will lead into a JJK Part 2 because of these:
The Culling Games have not Ended
They still go on because players like Yuji and Hakari are still alive
We didn't even come close to the Merger
We have so much setup including pregnant Sukuna who left baby Tengen (probably) with Megumi now.
When as a writer you introduce world ending stakes, you better deliver on them even if only for the good guys to win against them.
Those stakes were never even reached though
The foreign invasion of Japan was introduced but then forgotten about
There are now militaries in Japan who abduct sorcerers for resources, giving Gege vast storytelling potential for the future
But Gojo could've dealt with them off screen and Yuta might continue to protect Japan in his stead now. This plot thread can be dealt with in the last 3 chapters but you would still ask: Why was it here at all?
Remy survived
Remy was the girl who tricked Megumi and who Megumi wanted to kill afterwards. Tsumiki's soul intervened on Remy's behalf and saved her, just for Remy to be abducted later. She's one of those characters Gege could've killed but instead we have a scenario where Megumi is poised to save her now while also getting into contact with Tsumiki's soul that hasn't happened yet
Tengen, the Star Plasma Vessel and the Six Eyes are connected by Fate
Multiple SPVs can exist simultaniously but not the 6E. After Gojo's death this minor detail mentioned by Tengen became obsolete for the story.
But then Yuta took over Gojo's body and now the 6E are back for this particular fate to happen again especially with Tengen's life in the strange state it is
Gege had come up with the story of the 3 Kugisaki women at the beginning of the manga
But instead of discarding it at the end of it, becasue it had no relevance or plot attention at all, Gege decided to open that thread and let it hang there, promising things to come like the bastard that he is with regards to the Kugisaki family.
Megumi's incomplete Domain
This is basic story telling especially in battle shonen: when you show the audience an incomplete ability, then by the end that ability has to be mastered barring a tragic end to the character.
Gege could throw us a curve ball about his domain with the last chapters but with Sukuna defeated now all tension of him accomplishing it is out.
But if this is Megumi's midpoint of his character arc and development, then everything regarding him, his domain and even his relationship with Sukuna can come to a proper end in JJK2
Sukuna's and Megumi's relationship and interactions were lacking in the end
But with Gege deliberately leaving behind 1 Finger, the option of Sukuna coming back as a curse, the remains of his first body most likely being permanent parts of Megumi, and not to forget the psycological and physical scars that Megumi has from him now, the potential for deep future interactions is there.
Sukuna's story has only been told to us from the perspectives of others
Sure, that does not have to change. Gege can leave it like that and he could or could not give us a Sukuna flashback in the last 3 chapters.
But he can go further than that and delve into that villain from more angles outside of mainly the narrator's and Yuji's.
He could eg go into the difference between Sukuna's relatiosnhip with Yuji and his relationship with Megumi to dive deeper into his personality
Kenjaku/Kaori, Jin and Yuji - none of that is resolved in any way
Just like how Kenjaku's true motives for creating the perfect vessel, who was in the end the perfect cage for Sukuna, was never explained.
So, yeah, I think JJK 2 is a real possibility with everything that hasn't been done and talked about, which was why I titled my original post with all of these points: "Gege kills off unneeded characters, why didn't he kill this?".
And I can see multiple reasons for why he would go the hard cut with the middle point of the series.
It's easier to structure narratively
he can make genre, theme and protagonist changes
he can get a break that can be longer than just a few weeks
it creates hype for the ending
keeping the story going makes him and his characters a cultural icon and him and SJ rich
also we would have a JJK 0, JJK 1 and now JJK 2, which would be funny
Sukuna and Megumi finally come face to face and talk with each other but as far as emotional connections and resolutions between them are concerned there isn't much and I will have to say that in that point Gege fumbled the story telling.
He should've put the spotlight on Sukuna and Megumi at multiple points in the story after the possession but he chose to put Megumi to the side which makes his appearance here at this moment less impactfull
But more on that later...
What's really interesting about Sukuna in these first two pages, is him appearing calm and collected in his first panel but then his game is up and we see that through Megumi talking to him
It's really good imagery. Sukuna the shapeless monster that devours everything but then gets reduced to nothing inside the domain between him and Megumi.
I'm certain that Megumi's new will to live actively pushed Sukuna into that state where Yuji was able to punch those two apart.
Again for emphasis:
Megumi pushing Sukuna away is visualized by his words shrinking Sukuna's black soul. If Megumi had completely lost his will to live instead of wanting to fight on for Yuji, Sukuna would've most likely eaten and sank Megumi's soul completely into darkness at that point, leaving Yuji's last soul punch without effect.
Without Megumi fighting back, Yuji wouldn't have been able to separate Sukuna from Megumi's body.
The double page spread was breathtaking and invoked the horror part of this story again.
Sukuna's... remaining form lying on the ground, first looking forward to Megumi and then looking up at Yuji... So striking
Yuji then still talking to Sukuna because he wants to save him after he realized that they had similar beginnings but Sukuna didn't have a grandpa to help turns this moment quite sad
Sukuna backstory when??
And finally Sukuna calls Yuji by his full name while he rejects his offer again, fading into nothing. But he says that he should'n't be underestimated because he's a curse and I made an entire post once about Sukuna ascending into one.
Right now though we have a huge question that needs to be answered: from what did Sukuna die right now? Because when the answer isn't from a CE attack, then he will return as a proper curse.
Uraume meanwhile dies in panels that are strategically placed to not completely answer the question of her (their) gender.
Megumi wakes up and he's scarred. Those scars are not from the battles though. The ones over his right side are from Sukuna's mask and the one under his left eye is from his second eye. Symbolism.
Those are physical representations of the torture he went through under Sukuna's presence and the mark he left on him. Only the torture that was shown... has less impact than I had hoped. Gojo's attack on Megumi e.g. left him suffering UV effect for 1700 years and that's not a factor in any of this apparently.
Megumi has the physical scars but the story behind it is lacking because we didn't see Sukuna and Megumi interacting.
Megumi and Yuji just go back to how things were and that leaves the emotional impact hanging again. Yes, we can explain their psyches on that but in storytelling some things are just more impactfull than others.
Nobara and Yuji wanting to prank Megumi was peak and the last letters from Gojo were also funny but again the emotions surrounding that were a little funky imo
Look at the three they're all scarred now.
Something else I would probably criticize Gege's story structure for is that Nobara's scars have barely any relation to Mahito and that Megumi's scars have no impact from his underdeveloped relationship with Sukuna.
Yuji carries the emotional and structural beats of the manga and that's okay, he's the protagonist after all but that makes the scars on the others look more like paint... Again, in my opinion.
The last panels are about Yuta and whatever he has going on with Gojo's body. We'll see in the last three chapters...
And that brings me to a point I can't stop thinking about.
Is this the actual end of JJK, or is there a Part 2?
Because there are so many different plot points left, things that could easily make an entire 200 chapter story arc. And then comes Gege and adds another new plot in the point of Nobara's mother to the mix.
We have not seen Megumi's completed domain expansion.
There are things missing in the story that deserve their own post and some complaints I have might actually be dismissed when the manga in a new Part continues. And with every new chapter that gets released until we come to the end that gets more and more likely...
Couldn’t fit all my thoughts in a comment, so I figured I’d reblog this.
I’m so mixed. I really hope there’s a part 2, and I feel like if there is all my concerns are assuaged. Gege is not an idiot, and I’m 100% certain that he realizes how lacking these chapters are after how brilliantly he has developed things over the course of the manga. The thing I’m questioning is whether or not he is laughing at us because we don’t know there’s a sequel or if he’s angry that either his health is not up to the task or he is being interferes with by editorial.
As for the chapter, I think Megumi may have some effects of Sukuna’s possession that we don’t exactly know about in full yet. He was able to deduce Sukuna’s worries about his finger, and also knew of the process to turn yourself into a cursed object and that the connection, soul-wise, would not be strong enough. Megumi has always been a bit of an intellectual genius, but this suggests to me that he did at the least glean some of Sukuna’s memories. There’s also that joke line by Nobara about being promoted to special grade, which could be about how Sukuna’s possession changed his body like it did Yuji, and Megumi was directly possessed and with a greater amount of Sukuna’s power than Yuji was. Shrine, mastery of techniques, RCT, vast reserves, etc.
Megumi’s character has also still not advanced at all. If anything he has just regressed back to what he was before the bath, and I can’t imagine Gege does not realize this with those two lines from Megumi. Instead of living for Tsumiki, he’s now living for Yuji. We also haven’t gotten what exactly that thing was with Tsumiki in his shadow when he was trying to murder that girl.
I also really really really disliked Sukuna’s end. I think the ending itself with him going out with a whimper, and cursing Yuji to the end not giving up on his ideals is perfect, but I just don’t really feel strongly about resonance plus black flash being the one to get him. I also thought it was ridiculous that divergent fist caught him off guard, that reeked of editor interference to me personally.
And yes!!! Where is chimera shadow garden!!!
I can’t imagine the last three chapters are slice of life or whatever, that isn’t Gege’s style.
There has to be something more, and I think Sukuna’s final words hint at that, as well as Uraume’s. Because she is literally right. If Yuji wasn’t the perfect counter to incarnations, Sukuna would have killed them 20 chapters ago. We didn’t even get another “Cursed Womb Must Die” chapter. Gege so perfectly set up the final confrontation as Yuji and Megumi vs Sukuna, and I am praying that is what happens somewhere in a potential part 2. Megumi’s character especially needs that, as right now he has not really advanced through the trauma Sukuna, Toji, the Zen’ins, Jujutsu Society, and yes even Gojo put him through, he has just put a Yuji sized bandage over it
I think this is a conversation that fandom needs to have in general.
When you encounter something that makes you uncomfortable while you’re playing a video game, reading something on AO3, browsing Twitter, or scrolling through Tumblr, you have the power to remove yourself. You can stop reading, you can hit the back button, you can block/mute, you can turn the device off entirely.
“Consent” has a very specific meaning. When you’re consuming a piece of media that a creator has posted on their own personal account, you are in their space. That is a one-sided interaction. They’re not at all involved, they can’t reach through the screen to hit the back button for you. They’re not “violating your consent” or “pushing your boundaries”, because you are the one in control.
We need to stop acting like creators are 100% responsible for the mental well-being of every person who could possibly encounter their work, and instead start taking responsibility for our own online experiences.
[A twitter thread reading, "One thing that really bothers me about the Boyfriend Dungeon discourse is the criticism that players "didn't consent to" content in the game, and the way that language is being applied here.
In this usage, "consent" usually refers to boundaries around acts of physical or emotional intimacy, the violation of which is frequently assault, harassment, or abuse. It's serious and it means something specific.
Encountering something you don't like or even something triggering in media is not a violation of "consent." It's a frankly gross bastardization of language to act as if that's the case.
If we're going to look at consuming media through this lens of "consent," then… you consented when you started playing and you can revoke that consent at any time by turning it off?? Why would you act as if you've been violated here? It's gross!
I'm glad the content warning is being updated, but also, you couldn't possibly cover every bit of potentially triggering content. It would be an infinite list. Get some friends who warn you aout your triggers in stuff ahead of time and stop talking about this like it's abuse"]
Ao3 is actually massively culturally important and very very good at being what it is. I’m so serious when I say that ao3 needs to be protected as the anti censorship, by fans for fans, nonprofit, volunteer run, expertly designed archival site that it is. You don’t have to read or like fanfiction to understand that on principle, ao3 is a site that should be defended.
Dude with all due respect ao3 was literally created because other fanfiction sites kept deleting and censoring stories with rape, noncon/dubcon, incest, etc porn as well as LGBT ship fics. The site does have a required ratings and warnings systems and tags so that you can exclude works that have themes or content within them that you don’t want to see.
If you don’t like what the site is showing you, you are using it improperly.
The above tagger has subjects they dislike; they need to learn to navigate around them so they don’t need to interact. That’s why tagging is so important: allowing the work to be found or avoided as needed.
The problem with ‘a little censorship’ is…endless. You want to control what other people are doing: how do you not see how that’s fucked to begin with?
You want to remove the ‘gross’ or the ‘inappropriate’ subjects, like that isn’t wholly subjective. Incest bothers you? Don’t read incest.
I can’t typically do fics with cheating, but I am not about to go tell the folks who write it that they can’t, purely to make me feel better. My eldest hates unhappy endings, they don’t get to dig up sad ending fics and yell at the author. My middle kid likes a different ship than I do in pretty much all of our common media. I don’t get to tell him he can’t read it anymore.
Fancy, emotionally charged buzzwords don’t change the fact that yeah, all of those are the same concept. You don’t like it, someone else is writing it, others are reading it, and that bothers you. That’s on you, my dear.
You will never have the right to tell someone else they cannot read or write it purely because you dislike it.
Learn to block, learn to filter, learn to accept that the real world has people who like things you do not.
This is the donut/diet argument all over again: you can’t have or dislike donuts, so you want to make sure no one else can have it either. Hard no, my friend. You have control only over yourself, and you need to remember that.
‘But those are bad things, I’m trying to get rid of the bad things only!’ No. They make you uncomfortable. There is a difference. Just as there is difference between reality and fiction. Just like what you think is bad may not, and probably will not, line up with someone else.
Fiction is not promoting rape, incest, whatever else. Kids aren’t going to go out and recreate things they’ve read for shits and giggles anymore than playing grand theft auto is going to make them join the fucking mafia or whatever it is. Sims players don’t suddenly rip their clothes off and drown in the pool, reading about Vash banging his brother a la Flowers in the Attic is hardly going to make someone knock on their actual brother’s door, etc etc etc ad nauseum.
More importantly: there is no end to ‘a little censorship’. Someone else gets to decide what I’m allowed to read and write, and the organizations with that aim have proven over and over and o v e r to be insane. Anything remotely queer is banned for being Bad or Sexualized (because these people have learned that PROTECT THE KIDS is the easiest way to rally the ignorant masses into believing that the rainbow is somehow preying on children… and thus need to be Controlled…)
You don’t want incest, you don’t want no con, someone else doesn’t want any form of kink, a third busybody can’t stand that boys kiss boys, a fourth can’t handle trans characters, another carves out the ace spectrum, yet more go after the stories exploring gender dynamics in the ABO verse.
That’s not even getting into politics, where it turns into now no one can post stories that explore changes in government, that are anti war, that are hopepunk and show all the ways society could be better. Or, on the opposite spectrum, things akin to the anarchist’s cookbook: how to make weaponry to forcibly make things change.
Oh, can’t have books that talk about different religions, either. Can’t have books that let girls know they should be treated equally, that they can do whatever they please, that they’re more than a walking baby factory. can’t have stories with magic, that’ll lead to evil thoughts. Can’t have stories with explicitly consensual anything, gotta keep the population pure and filled with shame about their desires. (There is a reason so many romance novels have a bit of unsavory shenanigans: the thrill of being wanted so overwhelmingly in a world where feeling that want means you are Not a Good Girl)
We’re living this, right now, again.
This is why knowing your history is so important.
Look at books have that been banned, burned. I’m going to oversimplify but: Picture books (and tango makes 3) because two male penguins adopted a baby, and we can’t let our kids know that’s acceptable, never mind that I, a child of a lesbian, literally bawled my eyes out upon finding that book in my twenties. I would read it every day to my own toddlers, because look! They’re like Awa and Gramma! 1984, because the entire point is how burning books is Bad. Animal Farm, the new government is just as bad as the old and we the people deserve better. Gone With the Wind, for being about the American south and not only making it seem like maybe slavery is kinda meh but also hinting at a woman having a sexuality. The scandal. Harry Potter. Not because JK turned out to be transphobic trash, but because it’ll turn kids into satanists, y’know, because of all the magic. A thing that is totally real and possible to recreate. Are you there god, it’s me, Margaret. Because it talked about menstrual cycles.
As an American, seeing headlines where kids are banned from the library because of policies like this is terrifying. Kids in Florida have zero books in the classroom. They have to be screened to be considered ‘appropriate’. And that means whitewashed, bland, and unchallenging of the norms the neo nazis are pushing. Can’t have anything about the struggles of the non white populace, can’t have anything at all about the queers, can’t have anything that paints the south in a bad light.
There is a bill currently attempting to pass into law, KOSA: kids online safety act. Under the guise of ‘protect the kids’ the government here is literally attempting to sanitize and censor the entire internet, for everyone. AO3 will be on the list of places they’re going to try and nuke. Yeah, even your cute vanilla super straight happy ever afters. All in the name of making sure imaginary little Johnny doesn’t think kissing boys, wearing pink, becoming friends with the Mexican kid down the street, or opposing genocide is acceptable behavior.
Censorship is not about protecting you, me, the mythical children, or anyone at all. It never has been.
Censorship is purely about control.
Censorship is about controlling your awareness, your intelligence, your ability to realize you are living in the worst timeline, and your ability to organize and fight back. Censorship is division. Censorship is deliberate cruelty meant to cripple you and make you malleable.
After all, you’ve given up your ability to explore new ideas, to think outside the box they’ve put you in. You are tamed, declawed, and too stupid to notice now. Don’t worry your pretty little blonde haired and blue eyed head about it now, Julie, the government will tell you want you need to know. Oh, what happened to your neighbor? Sweetie, what neighbor? No one was ever there. Repeat after me, no one was ever there.
AO3 is protecting my ability to read and write whatever the fuck I want, while giving me the search capabilities to NOT run into shit I dislike. AO3 is giving my teens a safe place to read and explore their own sexualities and interests, to engage in uncomfortable situations in a controlled way. AO3 is giving my teens a place to practice being human.
Censorship is always the bad guy.
AO3 is a fucking godsend, a pillar of creativity and freedom of engagement, and should be revered as such.
