there’s a lot of talk about how all the characters in JJK are so complex, and while part of me agrees, I also like. don’t 100% agree either?
this isn’t a dig at Akutami’s writing btw, it’s more so that I don’t feel like complex isn’t exactly the right word. when I hear complex, and what I see people describe complex, it seems like it’s referring to a character having a million different layers and having to read into all this subtext, yada yada yada. they’re compelling, obviously, but they’re stuck in their own world of fiction still. It’s not that they’re relatable, more so that they’re interesting to pick apart.
I’m just mulling over this because the thing I’ve found about the characters of JJK is not that they’re incredibly complex, it’s that they’re very, achingly human. from the kid who wears his heart on his sleeve to the strongest sorcerer in the world, they’re people. Akutami writes them as real people, real people with conflicting morals, real people who fall from grace, real people who go through grief in surprisingly normal and understandable way… even characters like Kenjaku suddenly feel so very human with a singular line.
[id: it’s two panels of Kenjaku from the JJK manga speaking to Sasaki. “Oh yeah,” speech reads from him, “I almost forgot to tell you. Thank you… for getting along with my son. /end id]
and what’s most interesting about it is none of this is ever done to make these characters sympathetic. They’re not randomly juxtaposed to atrocious acts they’ve committed in order to make the reader sympathize with them, they come across naturally, even with Akutami’s fast-paced writing. When Kenjaku mentions that Itadori is their son, it’s not meant to make us suddenly like them, but rather, to add another layer of depth to the story and remind us that yes, while Kenjaku is a despicable human who’s lived centuries, they still are human.
and we get things like Gojo’s past arc, which once again, add another layer of depth to the story instead of just being tossed in to suddenly make us sympathetic to the villain. we see Gojo and Geto’s friendship, and then we get to Shibuya and it makes sense why Kenjaku was holding onto Geto’s body. And even then, when Gojo seems untouchable for so long during his fight with the curses, suddenly Geto’s there and he’s painfully human once again.
[id: it’s the panel from the JJK manga where Kenjaku, in Geto’s body, reveals himself to Gojo. Gojo looks horrified whereas Kenjaku is smiling. “Yo! Satoru!” text reads from him. /end id]
In the end, this is all to say what I personally think makes Akutami’s characters interesting isn’t that they have a million layers to dig through in order to understand them. it’s the fact that even in a world where you have characters who are seemingly untouchable, characters who could probably be compared to gods, characters who are young with hearts of gold, characters who are losing themselves.. they all act like you’d expect someone to act. They have strengths. They have flaws. They’re human.
I dunno, I just really like that.
