Realest thing happening in this new chapter is Kashimo thirsting over true form Sukuna and dying right away, because I too would have done the same... relatable king
read somewhere "jujutsu kaisen is just a story of people desperately trying to make the world a better place for their loved ones and failing miserably" and oh boy do i fucking agree with this
Seeing people saying that Satoru doesn't actually care about Suguru and that the only reason Kenjaku caught him was bc he was surprised to see a person he killed alive is fucking wild, man
Like. Gojo's entire life revolves around Geto. The entire series happens because he loved Suguru too much to kill him, even though he knew he would have to do it eventually. The world literally went to shit because he wasn't over him
Geto Suguru's life would be completely unimportant to the story without Gojo Satoru, and Gojo Satoru's would be completely unimportant without Geto Suguru. They complement each other. They need each other
Two male betta fishes can't coexist. They will fight and one will die. They can't see each other â even if they're in different tanks, they won't be able to live. They'd eventually tire each other out, resulting in death. The only way for Satoru and Suguru's lives to be able to continue without the other would've been for them to never have met at all. And they can't be together. Not now, not ever again. Not while they're still alive. Not after everything that's happened
The entire story revolves around their relationship. Yuuji is a boy who ate a curse('s finger[s]), and Megumi is the prodigy who befriends him. Satoru is a prodigy, the strongest, and Suguru, the boy whose technique is eating curses, befriends him. The Jujutsu Kaisen story is all about parallels and they all connect to fucking Satosugu. It's all about them
The only reason Kenjaku's plan worked is because the body he used didn't belong to some random person Gojo killed, it worked because the body he used was Geto Suguru's, Gojo's one and only, his best friend. He must be thinking âThank god they're gayâ right now lmao
Gojo fucking hesitated. He hesitated multiple times when it came to Geto. He was supposed to kill him, yet he let him go. He has the Six Eyes, he could've easily tracked him down. He probably could tell if he was nearby (he can recognize Suguru from his scent) and just didn't go looking for him. And he could've so very easily escaped the trap that was set up for him, he was going to run away from it because we see him about to take that step but then Suguru's body shows up and says âYo, Satoru!â with Suguru's voice and Satoru freezes and hesitates
They weren't able to let go of each other even after years of being separated (like a decade). When they meet, Suguru still greets Satoru warmly
Suguru is pretty much Satoru's moral code. He was the only person Satoru took at least mildly seriously pre-Toji (and we know Satoru just didn't do serious back then). He actually took his words to heart. He was kind, of course (especially from Suguru's PoV, since he's the person that knows him most), and not a bad person, but he wasn't nice. Suguru was always the ânice(r) oneâ, the one who actually had a moral code, while Satoru was more of an asshole to literally everyone and everything (some more, some less), thinking he and Suguru were above everyone else
When Suguru finally snaps (which, honestly. Fair) and goes genocidal (not so fair), Satoru slowly starts to be somewhat nicer and starts applying Suguru's old moral code to his own being â their roles weren't exactly reversed, but now they're not together anymore, so they might as well be. And Suguru was shown for having faith in the school and its system while it was Satoru the one who absolutely abhorred the higher-ups and all kinds of authority, but then it ended up with Suguru being the one to leave and become a cult leader with the blood of hundreds on his hands while Satoru was the one that stayed behind in the same place of the people he despises so much
(Imagine someone saying something like âSometimes I doubt you even have a moral codeâ and Gojo answers with âOh, my best friend my one and only is pretty much my moral code. He went homicidal a while back but it's okay hahaâ â...Actually, that explains a few thingsâ)
Gojo doesn't have a god complex, but I wouldn't blame him if he did. I mean, he might as well be the closest thing to god human beings have ever seen. He used to put himself above everyone else, when he was a teenager. He thought that, the higher he was, the more he could do. And no one was better than him. But not Suguru. Back then, it wasn't âI'm the strongestâ it was âWe're the strongest and âWe're the bestâ and âWe're the ones that will beat youâ and âWe're the duoâ and it was all about âus, us, us, us, usâ instead of âme, me, me, meâ like people thought it was â they were a pair. They still are
We know people thought and still think of Gojo as a weapon. As something that must be controlled, because on the moment he decides he doesn't want to be around them anymore, he could just straight up kill then without any effort (but getting rid of people in positions of power only gets other people in positions of power and it'll be a neverending story, and Gojo knows this so he's trying to do his best to fix it all through the younger generation, by letting them live). And we also know that Suguru is one of the very few people who did not believe that at all
Like their personalities and characters and stories and literally everything, their names complement each other. Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru are such similar names, I get them mixed up all the time (the amount of times I've called them âGojo Suguruâ and âGeto Satoruâ is embarassing. Also, âSaturuâ. âGotoâ. âGejoâ. Ugh). Both of their last names start with a G, end with an O and have 4 letters. Both of their given names start with an S, end with an U and have 6 letters. They complement each other. They need each other
The only times we've seen Gojo with an expression of actual pure, raw emotion is when it's about Geto. When he finds out about what Geto did, when he realizes how thin and wrong Geto looks, when he sees him again for what we assume to be the first time in years, when he dies, when a thing wearing his corpse and using his voice greets him (âYo, Satoru!â oh my god)
Suguru was able to fight back when in Kenjaku's control after Satoru said his name. Kenjaku himself says that had never happened before
And you don't even have to see them as romantic. You don't have to ship them if you don't want to. But you can't deny that they care about each other more than they will ever care about anyone else
Something that has been driving me insane about the credits are these sections with the fish so please bear with me whilst I do a mini deep dive (hehe) into fish discourse because YO, we need to talk about these fish!
Notice how at the beginning of the credits we actually have two white fish swimming along beside one another; one with bright turquoise eyes and the other with black.
A little while later the fish begin to circle each other and a droplet falls into the water between them. As the disturbance ripples out from the center, one of the fish dives deeper into the water and changes its colour to black; symbolizing Geto's change and descent into darkness
Then we have this heartbreakingly beautiful moment with Gojo and Geto:
I cannot stop thinking about how long Gojo watches the black fish for as it swims across the screen, whereas Geto's eyes are lowered the moment the white fish appears and he closes them as it swims past.
Gojo cannot bear to tear his eyes away, whilst Geto cannot bear to look
Throughout the credits, Gojo and Geto have been making their way towards each other through the pouring rain (or mostly sitting and waiting in Geto's case). At the end, they meet each other under a bridge and as they walk away together we see the fish a final time, swimming together again in a puddle formed by the heavy rain.
Geto walks on the left in the light, as the white fish swims close to his head, almost invisible in the brightness of the light. Whilst Gojo walks on the right in the shadow with the black fish swimming further away but still close by.
The fish speed after the two men before disappearing completely under the water just before the camera pans up and we watch as Gojo pulls Geto in for a hug as they walk away, before he's playfully shoved away by Geto.
There's a lot going on the credits (+ opening) that is absolutely killing me but man, these fish?! Breathtaking.
riko amanai's death also being the literal and proverbial death of satoru and suguru's innocence. there's no need to explain this but god. like. there goes their promise to keep her safe if she chooses to not merge. there goes their youth, that brief stop they spent in okinawa. their purpose, to save non-sorcerers, their moral beliefs, gone with riko. there goes their assurance, the camaraderie that they know they're the strongest. because how can they be the strongest when they cannot preserve one child's wish to live on? who's only here because she's somehow pushed to have a pivotal role in preserving society's balance, just like them? what's the point in preserving society if they cannot even save one.
"strongest" is a farce when they're not strong enough to keep their promise, to keep each other safe, alive, and a girl who just wants to life a normal life, all of them robbed of their youth.
I've always really loved how Geto's trauma has been portrayed. His weight loss is a small detail that I love even though it's sad and besides that his messy, unruly hair (even in scenes where he had his hair tied in a bun it still looked unkempt) and the way he didn't even wear his uniform properly anymore... :( These little details make his story so sad; he didn't have the motivation anymore to do even the simplest of things. This is something that is very important to show when you're portraying depression and trauma in media and Gege (and Mappa) did it perfectly.
For anime onlys this episode was really important. All they know about Geto is from the movie where he was an antagonist and it's important for them to know what exactly happened that made Geto become like that.
Geto was empathetic, kind, caring, and loving. But he's the one who suffered the most from being a jujutsu sorcerer. First of all, his cursed technique is the hardest both mentally and physically. It's literally described as âthe taste of a cursed spirit no one knows... Like swallowing whole a cloth that was used to wipe up vomitâ. Consuming people's negative emotions daily? It's understandable why Geto felt so shitty after doing it.
But after seeing people cheering at Riko's death, seeing his friends die protecting non-sorcerers, seeing a whole village of more than a hundred residents call on for the death of two little girls, it's very understandable why Geto just snapped. He undertook so much burden and pain, so much suffering and hardship, and all it resulted in was humans mistreating sorcerer's in such a horrible way.
That's when this quote comes: âit's just that in a world like this, I couldn't laugh from the bottom of my heartâ. He couldn't live in a world where he and other jujutsu sorcerers were treated in such a way. And that's how he started away from his ideals.
I really hope I don't have to see anime onlys blindly hate on him anymore now that his full story and trauma is in front of them.
Gojo Satoru: or, how the eyes are the windows into the soul.
everyone and their mothers have talked about the kfc breakup scene to hell and back, we've gotten a dozen and more think pieces about the episode on twitter and tumblr and wherever else, but I really needed to add my two cents because it's been on my mind ever since I watched the episode.
something fun I've noticed about mappa's adaption of jjk is the way they animate gojo's techniqueâspecifically in relation to his eyes.
in season one, gojo's eyes were always animated very... otherworldly.
they're always glowing and sparkling in this weird, uncanny way, which is kind of the point: gojo is the six eyes, after all, and considering the anime's animated and colored medium compared to the original manga's black and white, paneled format, it's a good way to adapt and demonstrate gojo's powers in the way the manga cannot. it also serves to visually separate gojo from the rest of the characters; as the strongest, he is different from the rest.
however, when season two's teasers were first released, there's a particularly interesting detail...
... his actually normal looking eyes.
and, yeah! that makes sense. as much as gojo and geto's high school selves love to tout around the title of "the strongest", it's undeniable that compared to his twenty-eight year old self, this gojo is much weaker, incapable of holding up his technique indefinitely, and incapable of using red, hollow purple, his domain expansion, and reverse curse technique: all of which his adult self are using passively.
so, i had personally figured that these were the eyes of an unawakened gojo. that once he mastered reverse curse technique, his eyes would start to glow like his adult self. however... that was not the case! as we can see...
... they still glow! but only when he was using his technique. once he puts it down...
... the glowing fades as well.
especially in these last few screenshots, mappa establishes the difference between "invulnerable" ( untouchable, literally, with his infinity technique up ) gojo and "vulnerable" ( infinity down, so things can now touch him ) gojo, both literally and mentally. ( let's put a pin in that. ) after geto's reassurance gojo physically lets down his defences of his technique, and thinks that that they're safe... leading to toji taking advantage of that naĂŻvetĂŠ, and the rest is history.
it's important to note both, as it puts his adult self into a new context: we know that after coming back from the dead, gojo's mastery of reverse curse technique allows him to use his infinity indefinitely without frying his brain.
it's funny, because this parallels his way of coping, as we see here:
curse technique reversal: red. the opposite to blue's attract, it instead repels.
after going through the traumatic events of hidden inventory, gojo... feels nothing. he pushes away these feelings, numbing himself to them instead.
he activates his infinity...
... and becomes untouchable. or, in other words...
... invulnerable. ( physically and emotionally. )
at the beginning of episode five, we don't get very many close shots of gojo's eyes, but he is in the middle of demonstrating his new grasp of infinity; in contrast to geto's spiral, the main focus of the episode and premature death as a whole, we get shots of gojo's back, his gaze obstructed by his spectacles, his face obscured entirely...
... or simply just far away.
to be fair, this all is in geto's point of view, and is used specifically to higlight the canyon that's opened up between the two, but the visual language is the same. gojo is untouchable.
well. up until...
though it's hard to see the state of his eyes with his spectacles in the way. but this is very quickly remedied just a few minutes later.
... his eyes are not glowing.
infinity is not activiated. his technique is down. gojo satoru is vulnerable. literally, in the sense that his technique is not in use, because he is dealing with a friend and not an enemy user, and mentally, because he is angry and upset and horrified and in shock in a way he was not with amanai's death.
as we know, gojo is not one to react emotionally. when kuroi was kidnapped, he did not worry: simply thought of another solution. when toji ambushed them, he did not panic: simply asked geto to complete the mission as he stayed behind to fight him off.
however, with geto's defection...
he yells, makes himself bleed.
when amanai died, he'd said he felt nothing. he'd floated in the air, weightless, marveling at the beauty of the world above and around him.
with geto's defection...
while nakamura's voice acting and the incredible animated character acting was more than enough to get his anguish across, using the tells of gojo's technique as well was the icing on the cake.
the eyes are the windows to the soul, after all, and in this moment, intentionally or not, his were blown wide open as his world crumpled apart.
The people who both watch and read JJK and still think Gojo and Geto's relationship is not implied to be romantic baffle me.
I just had a chat with one of them and pointed out how I love friendships and queerplatonic relationships but satosugu is very much implied to be romantic, pointed out the whole theme of "love as a curse" in jjk 0 and the parallel that exists between Riko & Yuta and satosugu. How gojo killed geto in the most romantic date of the Japanese calendar, how geto asked gojo to curse him a little bit. Then their whole high school relationship where Gege talked about it being Gojo's first and last warm/blue spring. How it is pointed out that even though sashisu were super close friends Gojo and Geto's bond was just different. The whole Gojo saying he would never mistakes Geto's residual cursed energy. Him being distracted by Geto at shibuya, Geto being his only weakness, the whole six eyes telling him he's Geto but his soul knowing otherwise, and then Gojo telling Kenjaku that they'll have a rematch the 24th of December and Kenjaku calling it romantic.
That and that one song Gege assigned Gojo that I can't remember the name of but it was about heartbreak and the opening 2 having lyrics that are confirmed to be Gojo's pov.
I don't know what more they need.
"you guys can't just let friends be friends, always have to romantisice friendship" it is already romantisiced, I don't need to do shit.
between riza screaming in anguish as she fills lust with bullets because she thinks lust killed roy, roy carving a transmutation circle into the back of his hand so he can use his flames to save riza, the complete ruthlessness with which he fucking incinerates lust but as soon as riza comes over to check on him he asks in the softest fucking voice ever if sheâs alright guys iâm having so many emotions right now
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood gets praised pretty often for being one of the only shonen anime with actually good female characters, and I really wanted to talk about what that means to me personally. In general, I think the concept of âwell-writtenâ or âstrongâ female characters often gets watered down to meaning just âa woman who is good at fightingâ or âa woman who doesnât show many emotions or feminine traitsâ. So, I want to evaluate my personal definition of a âstrong female characterâ using FMAB ladies as examples. Letâs begin!
Winry Rockbell
I wanted to start off by talking a bit about Winry! Something I love about Winry is that in the FMAB universe sheâs just a normal girl. Well, as normal as a prodigy mechanic can be. Right off the bat, I absolutely love that this teenage girl is considered one of the best mechanics (which is typically considered a male dominated profession) in the whole show. That already is a subversion of gender roles that just feels pretty neat.
But going back to the fact that sheâs a ânormal girlâ, Winry is not a fighter, and that is okay. She is a humble resident of Resembool and has no business getting into gun fights or alchemic battles the way Ed, Al, and the adult military officers do. And this aspect of her character leads to the very emotional scene where Ed tells Winry her hands are made for healing people, not hurting them. If Winry were the only female character in the show and she was told she shouldnât fight people, that might be a problem. But fortunately, she is not! Which is a great transition into our next character.
Riza Hawkeye
Riza, an incredible skilled marksman and sniper (another skill that could be considered traditionally âmasculineâ) is pretty stoic for the majority of the show, but when she shows emotion, she shows emotion. When the person she loves is in danger, she does not put on a brave front, she full on sobs and screams and reacts appropriately, which is great. She is proof that you do not need to suppress your emotions to be strong and competent.
(Also, her relationship with Mustang is a whole other thing Iâd love to praise, but that really deserves its own post)
General Olivier Mira Armstrong
At first glance, the hardened and ruthless General Armstrong seems like she would fit neatly into the âstrong women donât show emotionâ stereotype, but I want to talk about why I think she rises above that.
Yes General Armstrong is a badass, but her main thing is that loyalty and trust are essential for leadership, and that having a strong bond with her subordinates gives her a huge advantage over other military officials. The reason why the Briggs soldiers are a cohesive, trustworthy group is because they know that Armstrong has their back and genuinely cares about them. Compared to other higher up officers we see in the show who have subordinates who full on hate them or distrust them, itâs clear that Armstrong is the most efficient at leading due to her genuine care.
Later on in the show, Armstrong also has a moment where she acknowledges that resting after being hurt is the smart thing to do, rather than pushing through your injuries to try and seem strong. I really loved that Armstrong in particular was the one to make that statement.
May Chang
Something I really love about May is that she is very âfeminineâ in a lot of ways. She is cute, she is very bubbly and positive, she isnât afraid to cry or to fangirl over the Elric brothers. However, she is also one of the most skilled fighters in the show, and is incredibly humble about it as well. I think May is one of the best examples in the show of not having to forego your femininity to be a badass.
Teacher/Izumi Curtis
Though it is used as a recurring joke (especially when she mentions it after using incredible feats of alchemy) the fact that Izumi self identifies as a housewife is what I like the most about her. Itâs not used as an insult, she is a housewife; she takes care of the house while her husband runs their business. But her being a housewife is not a bad thing, thatâs literally just what she wants to do and thereâs nothing wrong with that. Women donât have to completely brush aside traditionally feminine roles to be really cool and strong.
In conclusion, imo what makes the girls of FMAB âgoodâ or âstrongâ is that 1. they are their own people who have their own goals outside of the main charactersâ lives, 2. they are able to fight and defend themselves if they so desire to, and 3. they can have feminine traits that have nothing to do with their ability to fight or achieve their goals. Also, the fact that there are so many of them. When discussing any kind of representation, having more than just one person with the trait youâd like to represent is the way to go.
Anyway, Iâd like to hear your thoughts! this is obviously just my personal opinion, as Iâm using my own cultural concepts of femininity and womanhood as a basis here. So if you have anything to add from a different perspective Iâd love to hear it.
When Riza Hawkeye said âIâll follow you into hell if you ask me toâ, and when Roy Mustang said âI canât afford to lose youâ, and when Riza said âI joined the Military because there is someone I have to protectâ, and when Roy asked âLieutenant, can you still fight?â and when Riza said âsomeone told me to never give up no matter what and once was all I neededâ, and when he told Al âthank you for looking after my subordinateâ and when Riza said, âyou understood my signalâ and Roy replied âwe have been together long enoughâ, and when Riza fired bullet after bullet after Lust told her she killed Roy, and when Roy said âI have done it again, Iâve hurt you, how foolish can one man be?â and when at the final battle, Roy fought against Father, relying on Riza at his back, asking, âdid I hit him?â and adjusting his flames and transmutations according to her directions because he may be without his sight and aim but he trusts her with his life and with his alchemy.
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