There’s a common criticism of Modulo that I’ve been stewing over, in regards to how it makes the actions of the original series characters feel pointless, and how Jujutsu Society has remained the same. And I feel like it’s A) Important to recognise this is a tragedy, and also B) understand that what’s happening in Modulo is very reflective of real history, and how humans tend to behave. I’d argue without a doubt that this is intentional writing, because Gege has, in my opinion, shown an exceptional understanding of religious conflicts and how complex they are, as well as the number of ways our biases can present, and how they impact our decision making, especially in the writing of Modulo.
At the start of Modulo, we do see improvements in how Jujutsu Society functions. To compare it to real life, you’ll often see people of the older generation commenting on how ‘fragile’ those of the younger generations are, particularly on regards to how we are about our mental health, and how therapy is more of a common resource nowadays. It’s, to simplify it, a good change! We’ve come a long way in terms of mental health. But others, especially older folk, might see it differently, and view it as us getting weaker. As it being a problem. Even though it was their generation that helped pave the way for these changes.
We also see this in JJK, it’s half the point of the Culling Games, showing the difference between the past and the present, if modern sorcerers are weaker now because society has changed and grown. And Is it better to be stronger individually but suffer, or is it better to rely on others and be stronger together?
Modulo continues this dichotomy between the past and the present. Sorcerers are viewed as weaker than the past generation, just like the sorcerers of JJK were viewed as weaker in comparison to the Heian era. Younger sorcerers are, at first glance, in less danger of death, because there are more precautions in place. It seems like society has learned, and that the actions of our previous characters, like Maki and Yuta for example, did change things! It wasn’t all meaningless!
However, the problem with this, is exactly what some people have pointed out. The cracks of the older generation still linger. There’s still a heavy emphasis on strength, and later down the line, we see the same mistakes of the adults’ problems being placed upon the younger generation repeated.
I don’t see this as a criticism though.
JJK and Modulo have always had elements of the tragedy genre in them, and something being tragic doesn’t equate to it being bad writing?
To go back to one of my original points, about how it reflects real history.
To simplify it the best I can, most of the characters we knew from the original JJK are dead. The ones who fought for the change, who tried to remake Jujutsu Society to be better than it was before, are gone. The ones who lived through the Culling Games, save for a few, are gone.
And, unfortunately , a lot of the newer generation are, if unintentionally, repeating those past mistakes, as I said, putting the problems of adults onto children, sending a child to die. There’s a lot of newer sorcerers that idolise the past, and the strongest of sorcerers.
That’s why Yuji’s characters important. He lived through that past generation and has to see the newer one repeat exactly what had been done before. But he can’t intervene, because doing so would further those ideas of the past — he is similar to Gojo, a strong, individual sorcerer that people become far too reliant on. He’s no longer a person, but an idea.
If he intervened, it wouldn’t fix the cracks showing. It would only be a temporary fix.
It’s the same with Gojo — it’s why he was content to die! He didn’t want the new generation of sorcerers to rely on him, he wanted them to pave their own way.
Mino confronting Yuji reflects this! He understands making Yuka fight is wrong, and he really does care about her, but he puts the blame on Yuji instead, that he somehow should have intervened and fixed everything for them. Such is the burden of the strongest, I suppose.
The point is, we as humans often fall back on old ways, idolise them, and forget why our predecessors fought for the change they did.
Modulo I think handles these very complicated ideas well!
This isn’t even getting into the Simurians either, which, the handling of that conflict is also very well done. You’d be surprised at how the unwillingness to communicate and biases can completely tear something apart. If the story is making you feel ‘it’s such an easy fix, if they had just done this’, then I believe that’s point, because Gege is using fiction and aliens to parallel real conflicts happening in the world, and if humans just did all the right things, then we wouldn’t have these conflicts at all.
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