#jujutsu analysis

[exstasyplague]

UnPopular Jujutsu Kaisen Opinions (with arguments) PT 2

hi god. it's me again. :)

—manga spoilers!

☆ Sukuna is not stronger than Gojo

right.

i've noticed that both hardcore gojo fans and sukuna fans are delusional; almost on the same tier as the kpop stans that say their oppar is an angelic virgin who will marry them. they are willing to trash the character fighting against their favourite in a genuinely petty way 💀

in the manga it's said clearly that even back in the heian day, sukuna's presence didn't cause much uproar because times were rougher back then. the ones alive had a certain type of blood thirst so you were strong by default if you weren't dead. was sukuna the strongest back then and eventually made himself a name? yes.

gojo's birth caused a disbalance in the world.

let's not forget that. in shibuya, when he expanded his domain for 0.2 seconds, the people subjected to that received 6 months worth of information and had to be hospitalised for weeks.

(that's one of my favourite manga panels, btw. will get to that in a second)

let's do some maths.

a minute has 60 seconds. 60÷0.2= 300. 300x6months=1800. in a minute, you get 1800 months' worth of information. 1800÷12= 150. 150 years in a minute. 150÷6= 25. sukuna got information input worth 25 years of non-stop intense brain activity.

that's not only a face of brain damage. sukuna is shook by how powerful that shit was. mad props to him for enduring that. 👏

what's the point of this? to understand that gojo's power is terrifying. that shit hits you properly? it's over. it's not even instant death. it's absolute. no way, chance of recovery.

but sukuna is more well-versed in curse energy. he has a deeper understanding of it. that's his strongest skill— knowledge. gojo with his 6 Eyes can't sense people from a big distance well. sukuna could feel megumi hurting from kilometres away just because he dissected the theory of cursed energy that well, no innate technique. his use of RTC also shows that— it's one thing to get the hang of it, an entirely different one to understand it. sukuna could literally cure cancer if he wanted. (au! doctor sukuna? 🤭🤭 hanibal lecter way since he's a canon cannibal. that's how he became besties with uraume, they KNEW how to cook.)

but then you guys will be like: "ok plague, but doesn't that mean their power is equal since they both excel on their separate things?" no. LOL. knowledge can be attained— if gojo with his natural skills would have sukuna's knowledge... yeah. it would be over. but gojo is gojo and doesn't like putting in effort so he is balanced like that.

this fight is mastery vs innate talent among many other things. one of the main messages in jujutsu kaisen, especially in the plasma vessel arc, is that being powerful is sometimes not enough. and that's exactly gojo is so damn strong; he's the perfect one to prove that point. that's why he struggles against my fraudulent sweet prince. 😍

☆ Maki will never be Toji

never. lol.

people compare them, especially the ones in the jjk world because there are no other heavenly restricted people to draw a parallel between. toji's strength doesn't only come from the fact that he maxxed up his body. it's also his mentality and life philosophy— which maki will never be able to embody. giving up on everything. being all alone. giving up even on yourself and your pride, living to kill and killing to live. that's a certain desperation that's so powerful and strengthening it can not even be called desperation, just something rooting from a VERY similar place with it. toji was rejected by everything and he rejected everything around him. until he didn't and well... we know how that ended. 💀

her own principles will take her on a different path. this is not an opinion about power scaling or whatever, it's as simple as it sounds. SHE IS STRONG. BUT WILL EVOLVE DIFFERENTLY. maki is accepted by some people, by her friends. maki also has her sister; with whom she had a love-hate relationship wtv but in the end mai becomes her greatest motivation and unleash point. plus, maki became besties with that blood clan guy for whatever reason, i don't mind but that's more so to solidify my point. she was able to forge new connections and maintain her old ones.

+ all great villains/ op protags have some backstories. some curses wanted to become the real humans. some mfs were homeless. maki ain't broke enough for this toji shit bruh.

☆ Kashimo is overhyped

🤓

"when kashimo wipes out his SUPER SEKRET CURSED TECHNIQUE—" bro. shut. the. fucx. up. my man can wipe out his d1ck and all it's gonna get him is an honorary spot on rule 34.

he's has an unhinged mentality but that doesn't mean he is a goat. his only purpose in life (reason why kenjaku tapped that ass a bit) is to duel sukuna. very cool. but come on bro. YOU KNOW he is gonna have max 1-2 cool badass moments before he goes like "lul, xd. guess my life nice. bye bye minna-san☺️. the true jujutsu kaisen is the friends we made along the way."

DON'T GET ME WRONG.

if he actually does something cool and badass that will influence the plot beyond adding few cold ass panels, GGs. but there is literally no reason for all the WILD dick buffing this man is getting as of now. no basis.

you know he low-key shitting his pants watching that fight going on— would it be totally in character for him to get excited and hop in for the lols just to see how much damage/influence he'd have? yeah. but that's only because of his ambition. kthx

☆ Nanami has one of the best mentalities

i don't know and i don't care if this is popular/ unpopular.

NANAMI. THE. GOAT.

in a shonen world filled with adults that push all the responsibility on children while they fucx off to party, he is refreshingly aware of the importance his position as an adult holds. (itachi, kakashi, sasuke and naruto could've really used a nanami. you didn't hear that from me though.)

even if in the beginning he didn't really like yuji and only viewed him as sukuna's vessel, a mistake for the jujutsu world, his mentality was: "you are a kid. my priority as an adult is to make sure you are safe." (not exact quotes. when tumblr lets me post more than 10 pics i'll spam you with manga panels, i promise.)

then, he grew fonder of him etc.

"even if you are a sorcerer, you are still a kid. you shouldn't be the one to blame yourself for x event. that's the the business of adults."

in the first light novel, even gojo told nanami that he is the type to be able to save a child's heart from the poison the jujutsu world has to offer. gojo says something among the lines of "for grown ups, the poisons this world has to offer are many and we learn how to deal with them. but for a soul as enthusiastic (as yuji's and many others' teens) one poison like is enough to mess them up for life. exactly because you are the type of sorcerer to know that i'm asking you to look after yuji, even if once, as the individual he is, not sukuna's vessel."

as he was dying, a death filled with doubts and frustrations towards everything— he still thought about yuji's sake. he didn't want to become a curse to him. he could've said "well, i won't see his misery anw so i can put all this sh1t pissing me off on him". (would've been me fr, my self control 0)

that is peak adulting. peak. peak. peak.

RIP. you were one of the best, nanamin 🙏

another proof that you don't need to be mad powerful to be great and impactful.

☆ Interfering in the fight between Gojo and Sukuna would be dumb

small jjk history lesson with your favourite sensei~! ✨

who is this individual? 🤔

haruta shigemo!! 🎉

haruta shigemo was recruited to help the bad scawwyy villains to help with their plans!! yayy. all clear so far. gr8. he is not as strong as a grade 1 sorcerer but his innate technique is luck so he is super duper useful in battles!! (very cool, i know ^^)

now, let's see what happened with haruta shigemo once he faced sukuna (who was busy exorcising mahoraga).

it's fuck1ng OVER man. i've just explained how powerful gojo is and he is striking sukuna with the intent to kill. also let's not forget: sukuna himself is very fuck1ng strong. those two want to rip eachother's throats out. gojo doesn't really care so much about megumi's safety and that's a very sensible smart choice since anything is better than letting him be as he is.

"but— plague 🙄, if he is close to geting backshots then ofc people should help!! they should go against the 2 shikigamis!!! they should've stepped in from the moment gojo's nose bled."

the ONLY instance where it would be ok for someone to step in is when Gojo is literally laying on the ground DEAD or in a state similar with the thing he had with toji. (hopefully it won't happen, my majestic king gotta see another day 😔 👑)

NEVER FORGET.

haruta shigemo 🙏

☆ Side characters are meant to be side characters

crazy.

like sure bro. i cope too. IT'S FINE TO COPE. as long as you know you're coping.

but people get dead ass pissed off at gege because they "haven't seen todo in 10 years. haven't seen utahime in 1000 wet dreams. haven't seen gakuganji at the retirement home in 306 days."

i wonder why. wow. maybe it's because they are the supporting cast. stop. take a break. it's hard for everybody. i miss some characters too. but the focus on the story simply is not on them.

let me know what other copium I should debate 😘

[linkspooky]

Gojo and Mahito

Nanami and Gojo share several parallels as pointed out by Nanami in Chapter 22 of Jujutsu Kaisen. A connection between the two of them that’s developed to the point where we see Mahito steal a technique from Gojo (domain expansion activation for only a few microseconds) in the latest chapter. More on the parallels of Gojo and Mahito, because for both of them there’s more than meets the eye. 

1. Children with Too Much Power

Mahito parallels Gojo, but more specifically I believe he has the most in common with teenage Gojo we see in Hidden inventory. Especially on two key points. Both of them had immense strength that they hadn’t quite figured out yet.

Teenage Gojo, who was still figuring out the infinity and could not yet quite make the universe bend at the snap of his finger tips. In his introductory arc when Mahito was fighting Nanami, he was like a child figuring out how to use his body for the first time. 

Everything he does in that arc is out of a childish sense of curiosity. He gets to close to Junpei, to observe what will happen from prolonged interaction with a human. He toys around a long time with fighting Nanami because he’s still figuring out how his curse technique works. 

Unlike the other curses who seem to already exist knowing what they are, or have existed for years already long enough to figure themselves out, Mahito is actively learning about himself when he fights Nanami. 

Just like Gojo, being pushed to the brink of death by an incredibly powerful enemy, only seems to make Mahito bounce back stronger. Mahito and Gojo parallel each other in their comparison to Nanami. Simply put, Nanami is the most mature character in the series, he’s the role model for a normal, decent adult. 

While Gojo will drag children to battlefields, or take big bets with their lives, Nanami acts much more responsibility, with respect to the fact that Yuji is a child whose emotional well being he’s nurturing. 

Nanami is introduced to us as the opposite of Gojo, someone mature while Gojo is immature. He even says that he doesn’t respect him in the least bit. Gojo’s powerful, but he’s not grown up. Nanami even explains this quite logically, people don’t grow up by fighting bad guys, or getting stronger. People grow up by accumulating experiences. 

Gojo and Mahito are all powerful in ways that Nanami will never be, while at the same time they act like children. Especially teenage Gojo, but even adult Gojo doesn’t really like to get along well with other people, and decides everything based on his own emtoions and perspective. In other words both Gojo and Mahito have a tendency to be egocentric. 

Egocentric. 

thinking only of oneself, without regard for the feelings or desires of others; self-centered. 

2. The World Through Their Eyes

Mahito and Gojo are characters who appear childish and frivolous on the surface, but if you plunge their depths they have a deeper understanding of themselves and their desires than most ofther characters in the series. They might not get other people, but that’s not their priority either. In classic Jungian symbolism, shallow water belies greater depths. 

Gojo and Mahito are both extremely well thought characters, capable of immense amounts of self reflection. (Probably too much self reflection in Gojo’s case, he just loves looking at himself in the mirror a little too much how vain.) It not only shows in how much of themselves they have figured out but also their jujutsu. I think it’s safe to say that there is some resemblance between the infinity, and Mahito’s idle transifguration. Their Jujutsu makes them both privvy to the world that no one else can see. It’s unknown what Gojo can see with the six eyes exactly, but considering the limitless. 

You can infer that he’s capable of seeing much greater sensory perception than the normal person. Mahito doesn’t have the six eyes, but because his jujutsu is about altering the form of the soul, he has the unique ability to see the shape of the soul inside of the body.

Mahito can see through people’s bodies, and see down to their souls. However, his perceptiveness has caused him to give up on the idea that people have any individuality at all, that they have “hearts” you know like, thoughts and feelings and stuff. Which is why all humans are pretty much interchangable to him. Mahito can’t see life separate as him from having any particular value. 

Both of their cursed techniques create distance between themselves and others. Though in opposite ways. Gojo’s cursed technique is based around the idea that nothing can reach him, because it will always slow down in the infinite space between them. Mahito is able to completely change the shape of whatever he wants with one touch. 

However, at the same time this resembles how they both interact with other people. Mahito sees people as nothing more than toys to play with and experiment in developing his jujutsu technique on. He even is literally pictured in an official color illustration as destroying Junpei, Nobara, and Nanami as torn up dolls. They were just toys that he got bored with and threw away. 

Gojo can sometimes even share this tendency, not to mercilessly kill and slaughter of course not, but to be so far away from other people, and too busy perceiving the infinity that he can’t get caught up in ordinary lives. Remember, Mahito, Jogo and Hanami’s plan was to shake up Gojo with the sheer amount of people he would have to save in Shibuya, and it just... didn’t work. 

Gojo just isn’t that shaken up by the people he can’t save. He’s not Geto. He’s not Yuji. Of course he cares enough to try and minimize the damage, he could have just used unlimited domain to end the situation at the cost of everybody gathered, but he made a decision to try to balance between everybody’s lives, protecting his own, and exorcising the curses. 

Mahito and Gojo are both extremely distant from other people, but because of that they have a unique understanding of themlseves. Mahito’s domain expansion is called “Self Embodiment of Perfection.” When Gojo figures out reverse Jutsushiki he quotes the budha when he reached enlightenment. 

They are extremely isolated characters who have others plumbed the depths of themselves. Gojo’s goal is to be the best version of himself he can be, to push himself into being the strongest. Their individual will is so strong they want to impose it on the world around them. Gojo wants to reset the jujutsu world, Mahito wants a world of curses. 

They both encourage the other people around them to also think deeper about themselves, and how to evaluate themselves. Gojo tells Mahito to stop repressing himself for the sake of others. To try to be stronger individually instead of more of a team player. Instead of judging those around you, look inwardly. 

Mahito is furious that Yuji doesn’t evaluate himself, doesn’t think deeply about his own motivations. That’s what he criticizes Yuji for constantly, he doesn’t think for himself, he runs blindly into fights. Mahito calls their fight a clash of truth. Yuji has to know his own self, and know his belifs and know why his beliefs are better than Mahito’s if he wants to face him. 

Mahito and Gojo are both always looking inside of themselves, and that’s why their depths go much further than their seemingly shallow surface. If I were to make one last comparison between the two of them, I would say that the reason Mahito imitates Gojo is because his end goal is to become enlightened. What Mahito wants, is to be true to his nature, the truest embodiment of a curse in the series. He wants to reach an enlightenment like Gojo has where he has himself, his role in the world, completely and totally figured out. Where he embodies his own idealized sense of perfection. 

Which is why he imitates Gojo, the strongest. Though his is the opposite path, like a reflection of a mirror. If Gojo uses his power to be the model, the embodiment of a jujutsu sorcerer who exorcises curses to save human lives, then Mahito chooses to be the embodiment of a curse that plagues humans.

Mahito and Gojo both see through things, they can see what everybody else can’t, however they differ in how they use those perceptions. Gojo tethers himself to responsibility to other people, because he finds meaning in doing that, he thinks there’s a point in protecting and nurturing the weak because eventually he’ll be able to find strong comrades. Mahito however, believes in the opposite of camraderie. He can see through other people, so he acts like they’re not even there. Gojo is a character who while his tendency is to try do everything on his own, is currently waiting rescue from the strong comrades he focused so hard into training. While Mahito will most likely end up alone. 

[exstasyplague]

My analysis/view on SatoSugu ☆

Some disclaimers: I am a fanfic author and I do personally ship the two yet I will try to keep my thoughts as objective as possible for the sake of this post. I will include my perosnal points of view as well but 'll keep them separated from the "canon facts." Contains manga spoilers.

Are they gay?

This is a funny question yet it's the best way to start in my opinion. Short answer: they don't fit inside a label. I think the best word to describe their bond is intimate. Emotionally, it's at a place in the middle of love and appreciation and I don't think this balance is constant, sometimes it might have leaned more to one side, sometimes more to another. From an emotional point of view, they could very well be in a platonic situation.

The physical aspect is not a detrimental side for either of them in regards to one another. What makes their connection so special is the fact that it happened before Gojo Satoru became officially the strongest, before he was burdened with so many things. However, he was never free. The beginning of his very existence caused a deep disturbance within the Jujutsu world. For Satoru there was never a childhood, there was never a normal life, only a path of emptiness.

Gege is good at making his characters. Especially the villains/ good guys parallels. Just how Yuji came to the realization that he is Mahito and Mahito is him, the same parallel is drawn between Gojo and Sukuna, only Sukuna is what Gojo would've been without Geto. Both the strongest sorcerers, the difference is that Satoru got surrounded by love and his mentality evolved from "the weak ones are pathetic, I don't want to look after them" to "I will push everybody up along with me through teaching and have pupils even stronger than me, allies."

Back in highschool, Gojo was young and somewhat arrogant. His power was like a blanket for him; despite not understanding Geto's philosophical things and not agreeing with them, Gojo also, unintentionally, gave a meaning to the things happening to him "I am the strongest."

Even in the current ongoing fight (Sukuna vs Goatjo), the panels sometimes speak about love, but not in the way we would normally think; it's about the feelings of the strongest, different from the perception of average folks like us. Nurture vs Destruction.

Gojo had the power of being evil without any repercussions. Being the strongest, nothing could hurt him. He always showed his compassion towards Riko through small gestures, such as staying more at the beach, teasing her etc. Him wanting to go on a killing rampage under the pretext of 'not feeling anything' was Gojo's way of showing his disgust at the fact that hundreds of people were celebrating the death of an innocent girl. Being the strongest didn't matter. She was dead.His conviction shattered. However, he had so much trust in Geto's morality and mentality that he followed his advice. That is the kind of person he was for him. Even in Jjk 0, Suguru said that he didn't think Satoru would have any trust left for him— he did.

The only one who could understand him, speak with him, treat him like a human. His one and only. Gojo liked the fact that they were the strongest together because he also had someone to lean on.

In the manga, Naoya, the head of a powerful branch of the Zen'in clan talks about Toji. He said that as a child, he expected him to be a miserable man since he had 0 cursed energy yet when he saw how powerful and proud he was he got scared of him. He mentions that the only one being able to understand Toji was Gojo.

Only... Gojo is stronger. Toji couldn't understand him, he called him a monster. He got drowned in petty feelings characteristic to what Sukuna would call weakness and got himself killed.

Gege also mentioned in an interview that he wanted to give his characters abilities similar to Bankai (Gege legit started making manga because of Bleach, what a God) Bankai is a reflection of the soul in Bleach projected onto the swords of the Shinigami. Same with Domain Expansions in JJK. Gojo's literally repels everybody around him, it's called Infinite Void and it shows the way in which he looks at the world and views himself. Untouchable. Out of reach. An overflow of information.

Even if Bleach is a pretty stereotypical Shonen creation (don't get me wrong, I love it but the plot is pretty basic) when the protag. Ichigo was fighting against the main big powerful villain, Aizen, he said that he could feel Aizen's sword wavering with loneliness. This very concept applies to the powerful peaks of Jujutsu Kaisen. The path of power is lonely. Kenjaku himself said that Gojo is truly in his element when he is fighting on his own, the ones around him can become a liability really quickly. This of course, when it's about fights where he has to put in some efforts. That's why nobody is interfering with his Sukuna duel.

Satoru started being truly alone after Suguru left.

Another waver of his conviction. But this time, not only about not being strong enough. He didn't do enough. Ever since Gojo unlocked his techniques and became powerful, he wasn't allowed to be human anymore. He had to do mission after mission, take over the missions unfinished by others, he was expected to do everything and be the saviour of the Jujutsu World. With Suguru, he was human. Yet, just as Suguru said 'it was a busy summer'. No more space for one another.

Geto was also strong. A special grade. He too became lonely.

For Sugru, having a meaning was fundamental. His cursed technique was a constant reminder of how awful non-sorceres are. He would eat their malice, who tasted like a cloth wiped in puke and shit and whereas he understood Satoru, nobody understood him. He himself said that nobody has any idea just how bad curses taste.

When Itadori was eating Sukuna's fingers in the beginning, he would choke, cough complain a lot. Geto had over 2000 curses. He had exorcised and ingested again and again and again. The only humanity around him was Satoru, his best friend. And that got taken away by the Jujutsu world and he remained alone with his own despair. He went on his own path, feeling useless and misunderstood, still viewing Satoru as a friend but also as a term of comparison. He got left without meaning and so he forged himself a new one. He became really similar to Sukuna, with no regard for the ones beneath him, the monkeys. But also, ironically enough, Suguru stopped being the strongest. He viewed himself as weak. He doomed himself. He wanted to feel necessary— he was desperate. He thought he was saving the Jujutsu world.

They were probably meant for tragedy. And that's the sad part. Satoru would've outgrown him regardless but maybe Suguru wouldn't have chosen such a radical path. Toji's existence, an anomaly, broke the flow of their fate. (approx quote from manga) That's why he is more relevant to the story than people believe. Sure, he is sexy as fuck but Toji is literally the beginning and the end of an era, he is everything.

Gojo's second waver pushed him to become a teacher. He had grown and chose a smart path, preserving the youths, the future; no more mass murder. Suguru remained stagnant with his hatred and eventually died. For him, I'd say his life stoped the moment Riko died. His potential as a sorcerer came to a plateau. Everything came to an end so it was only a matter of time before his body died as well.

Back on Gojo's humanity. The funny thing is that this point was proven by the readers of the manga themselves, lol. When Satoru got sealed, he got shat on hardcore. Like, you can't imagine. Reddit and Discord servers were eating his ass up worse than they do now with Sukuna for using Mahoraga. Gojo got blamed for Nanami and Kugisaki (rip my angels, still praying for Nobara), he got blamed for Sukuna taking over Megumi and probably he blames himself too— what "mistake" did he make? Showing humanity when being met with the corpse of his best friend, his only catalyst, his only balance, the only one to ever make him feel normal and give him his Blue Spring, the most beautiful moments of his life. And Kenjaku knew that Suguru's corpse was the only thing to make Satoru waver. In the manga it's clearly stated that despite more than one minute having passed in his mind, physically he stood still for 6 seconds. Even his most regretfull, sorrowful crisis lasted him an inhumane amount of time.

And Gojo too, was the only thing that caused the remaints of Suguru's soul to attempt strangling Kenjaku. (which he admits has never happened before. and suguru is dead— gojo literally triggered the residues of his soul). That's what I mean by intimate.

Even if the concept of soul is often spoken about, their souls are connected. That's how much they mean for eachother.

Perosnally I find this relationship to be perfectly beautiful as it is, without any flaunt of erotica needed, kudos to Gege. I still enjoy writing angst and smut based on their dynamic tho XD. And I don't agree with the ones calling them straight and being so eager to deny them or resume this deep connection to just friends. Like sure, they are not gay-gay but they are... linked. More than friends, more than family. Gege themself said so when speaking about them. I think it's a very clear statement.

If you like the way I think and view characters, check my fics, lol. Much love <33 exstasyplague on A03.