|
Win or lose, this fight can't end without Gojo forcing Sukuna to reveal his black box CT.
|
#
¿
Jun 15, 2023 05:40
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 13, 2024 19:05 |
|
|
It'd be naive to assume Gege's health/stress/workload issues only impacted the art of that one chapter and nothing else. JJK had always been a comparatively very tightly written story for the genre, with just the right pacing to let the reader soak in the mood and worldbuilding, and the Shibuya Arc deftly bundled its various plot threads together to set the stage for the next phase. By comparison the latter... I want to say two-thirds of the Culling Game Arc are overbriskly heading towards some sort of conclusion, hitting various plot beats the author is clearly invested in while compressing (or sometimes practically shoving aside) most of their setup. The setpieces we get are still very much a fantastic spectacle, but they're being only loosely tied together and that impacts the work's overall quality - to a greater extent than if their inclusion had perhaps bloated it, I feel. We of course can't get into the author's head to find out the motivations behind this noticeable change of pace/format, but between the aforementioned health concerns and with how Gege has consistently said for 2-3 years now that he wants the series to end this year, I don't think "he's burned out" is too unreasonable a guess.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 19, 2023 16:06
|
|
|
Nobara's brain exploded so I expect she's just not in there even if she's alive.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 4, 2023 04:23
|
|
|
I think the fact she really just went out made it more impactful. Similarly, most shounen wouldn't have the balls to just up and off Megumi's sister like that. The only issue is we're at a 3:1 gal/guy ratio on getting fridged for this arc.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 8, 2023 04:34
|
|
|
Gotta keep up the theme that it's not love and friendship but desperation, tragedy and often sheer selfishness what fuels power growth in this setting.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 9, 2023 20:14
|
|
|
Maki represents a known quantity threat to Sukuna thanks to the Split Soul Katana. What she needs is not some further last minute power up, but an opening.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 11, 2023 01:47
|
|
|
To be quite honest, I'm partial to JJK's pattern of bitter, meaningless deaths. People keep getting hung up on Tsukumo but when's the last time anyone in this series had a cool death that accomplished something? Mai...? Which has her affirming to herself that her entire life was hollow and she's tired of pointlessly suffering while being a ball and chain around Maki's ankle. Conspiratiorist fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Jul 17, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Jul 17, 2023 14:56
|
|
|
 It's beautiful.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 24, 2023 20:19
|
|
|
We the audience have known from the beginning that Sukuna has been holding onto potential trump cards, a notion that's even been diegeticaly remarked upon in the last couple chapters. Maybe he busts out a Heian-era cursed tool he's got stored up his rear end (or whatever the true nature of his CT is)? But that's a mutual KO if Gojo counters with Domain Expansion now that he's been so weakened and Mahoraga is gone. We've got to remember that, setting aside broader goals like stopping Kenjaku, this fight was a challenge to conclusively prove who is the strongest, with each party confident they could best the other in a direct contest of strength and cursed techniques. As far as Sukuna is concerned, if Gojo gains the upper hand on him then subsequently forcing a tie in desperation our out of spite is his loss and a critical hit to his ego, and probably messes with the method to fully assimilate into Megumi. With that in mind I'd be satisfied with any conclusion that isn't more 10 Shadows bullshit.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 8, 2023 18:32
|
|
|
He technically can, but like Sukuna said forcing it would probably kill him.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 9, 2023 00:29
|
|
|
Yeah, that'd be fun if the rest of the fight is an increasingly desperate Sukuna pulling out tricks he held in reserve while a trash-talking Gojo counters and/or explains how they work for the benefit of the backup team. In fact, rather than Sukuna suddenly revealing he had the ability to win the fight all along and he was holding back or didn't want to risk being empty-handed for the follow-up, both which runs counter to how he's consistently portrayed, it'd be fitting if what ultimately forces Gojo to tap out is that his remaining sure-win move if pressed would be another Purple, which might kill Sukuna outright and therefore also Megumi.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 13, 2023 00:59
|
|
|
I'm still pinning on Yuji's "Plot Armor" CT. Not even joking. It's happened a few too many times.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 20, 2023 23:47
|
|
|
Lily Catts posted:I'm still not sure what actually happened, because it really does feel like they skipped a chapter. Sukuna finally reveals how Mahoraga works, which he himself had inklings about but didn't fully understand until he saw it in action: it's an entity that reverse-engineers Cursed Techniques and not only develops but, if given the opportunity, refines methods to overcome them. This process is fundamentally time-based, accelerated by Mahoraga experiencing the CT in question repeated times but once it begins it keeps going and doesn't stop at merely achieving a basic solution - Mahoraga had already adapted to resist Limitless when Sukuna first pulled him out, but kept pushing him forward so it'd find a method to fully overcome the technique. Turns out what Sukuna wanted out of the shikigami wasn't for it to win the fight for him, but to develop a counter to Limitless that he could imitate. This happened when Mahoraga replicated Cleave and used it to attack Gojo. What happened after the Purple is Gojo thought, as did everyone else, that he had the fight in his pocket with Mahoraga gone, and with his guard down Sukuna sucker-punched him with his own Limitless-bypassing Cleave. Nothing was skipped because there was really nothing to skip - it happened in an instant, just as we've seen Sukuna's overpowered techniques kill so many others before Gojo. In fact, the way this was structured is just as Jogo's death scene was back in Shibuya.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 21, 2023 06:59
|
|
|
I wanted Gojo to do a practical demonstration of "win even if you die" as Megumi remembered being told in the flashback when he first uses Domain Expansion, but if this is it I'm satisfied, too.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 21, 2023 15:32
|
|
|
Brought To You By posted:Saying he couldn't beat the guy if that guy didn't have the sole justification for this chapter doesn't make sense. No mahoraga, no enhanced Cleave, Gojo probably wins. It's because Gojo was humbled. He recognizes Sukuna as the superior sorcerer that with this entire fight, in which Gojo was giving his all while Sukuna still held strength and abilities in reserve, turning out to be a brilliant setup for the winning move that got him. And with that in consideration, he's thinking that if Sukuna hadn't access to Mahoraga he'd have figured out a different strategy to use. Remember this is the 5th time we've seen Gojo faced with a novel method to overcome Limitless, so from his perspective as the loser it'd be the height of hubris to think 10 Shadows was all that stood between him and a sure victory.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 22, 2023 00:50
|
|
|
Doctor Teeth posted:died with eyes open. he dead dead Not the first time.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 22, 2023 01:46
|
|
|
I'm satisfied. I'd previously mentioned here what I specifically didn't want was neither more 10 Shadows bs nor "I could've won at any time; I was just holding back", and this reversal landed impeccably between the two buckets.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 24, 2023 19:37
|
|
|
Oxxidation posted:if gege really does like emulating togashi then this could feasibly go down like what happened to yomi in yu yu hakusho - super-powerful villain beats the hero but gets murked by the weaker follow-up combatant We don't know what Yuji's CT is, we don't know what effect consuming the other Death Paintings might've had (other than at some point Gege mentioned he would ordinarily gain the power of Cursed Objects he ate if it wasn't for Sukuna inside him) which seems to be what he's been up to, we don't know what Kenjaku is up to either and he might try to nab Sukuna and/or Gojo (since we've been shown he can keep CTs from previous host bodies), as previously mentioned Kashimo's CT is an unknown, Maki was able to blindside Sukuna once already and she's got the yet unusued Split Soul Katana while Sukuna lost his Domain Expansion sure hit AoE, etc. One other thing is that, while it might have just been one more thing Gojo was wrong about, he always kept talking up Yuta while villains were dismissive of his capabilities, and we still don't know how he got Rikka back or the true extent of his potential.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 24, 2023 19:57
|
|
|
Blaze Dragon posted:I'm very confused, like this chapter was meant to come next week and Shonen Jump accidentally skipped this week's. I actually had to go check if I missed one but no, it just randomly skipped from a situation to the exact opposite with no explanation. Gojo was bisected by Sukuna's newly improved CT while gloating. The chapter begins with him reflecting over his life as a style choice by the author to convey how sudden and complete this reversal was. Sukuna explains how he developed the method to bypass Limitless, and depicting the attack itself isn't truly necessary as it evidently played out just like the dozens of times we've previously seen him cut down targets with Cleave - it's an instant and deadly technique against anyone without proper defenses up.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 25, 2023 04:31
|
|
|
Maybe there can't be two Sukunas so Yuji just straight absorbs its power/CT.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 30, 2023 16:18
|
|
|
No Wave posted:Maybe thats the story's intention. But it doesnt fit with Gojo's character to me. He's like the least miserable person alive. He defied the entire JJK power structure. Characters constantly tell us that Gojo wasnt committed to anything when he always did what he thought was right. He constantly talks about how selfish he is but loved the students more than anyone. He dreamed too big thinking he could beat Sukuna AND save Megumi (or earlier thinking he could minimize casualties in Shibuya). And he acts like his 1v1 with Sukuna was selfish but #2 even tells us that anyone else would just get in the way. Gojo was always half-hearted in everything he did. He upended Jujutsu society but he could've always gone further and completely tear down the existing hierarchy that opposed him and his ideals - a thought he freely expressed many times but couldn't bring himself to follow through despite having the capability. Despite his superficial fixation on his students he was also a terrible teacher, downright callous in his expectations out of them, and in his heart he only saw them as a sort of substitute for the work he couldn't bring himself to finish. What the story diegetically presents us ie with Yuta is that his students wholeheartedly believed in him right to the end, whereas neither himself nor the conjured spirits of his dead peers share that kind of enthusiasm and openly chastise his way of life, and the grotesquely enlightened being that is Sukuna acknowledges how close he managed to get to his level but in the end found himself shackled by a meaningless question of self-identity. I agree with the reading that Gojo stagnated by trying to live his life post Hidden Inventory pantomiming something he wasn't: the old Geto.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 6, 2023 01:32
|
|
|
Valentin posted:I just don't think "being the strongest" or "the strongest is lonely" or "love and being the strongest" are interesting or even particularly coherent concepts as gege writes about them, so the fact that this is apparently what really really interests him as we near the end is underwhelming I think there's some missing the forest for the trees going on. JJK has been about self-realization - in whatever form this might take - from day one, and most of the introduced incarnated sorcerers were extremely powerful individuals during their own time who nevertheless found themselves looking for greater strength and/or meaning, and in Gojo's case he had been cursed with the question of what strength means for his identity posed to him by Geto at the end of Hidden Inventory. The way Sukuna addresses these notions is not because he's just some aloof rear end in a top hat, but to showcase just how it is that he achieved enlightenment. He tells them that if they were looking to find some kind of kindred spirit in him as a way to parse their own feelings then they were on the wrong track, and only projecting their own anxieties, because you cannot reach your ideal self by comparing yourself (conforming) to others. This is all also to help refine where the needle lands for JJK in regards to the power of bonds and friendship, a concept that is extremely prevalent in the genre but which this series is consistently dismissive of (but for one arguably two cases) within its internal philosophy.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 6, 2023 19:15
|
|
|
Only sane way to interpret the way Choso told Yuji that their siblings would live on as part of him.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 7, 2023 01:08
|
|
|
Brought To You By posted:Regarding the latest chapter So did Sukuna have to chant to use his empowered Dismantle against Gojo? No.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 7, 2023 22:26
|
|
|
She could still come back because of juju magic bullshit as anything can ultimately be finagled into reality, but we saw her head pop like a balloon, her character arc was closed, and at this point she's been gone from the story longer than she was ever in it, so the only reason I even occasionally contemplate her existence is from interaction with internet fans with poor reading comprehension.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 8, 2023 18:06
|
|
|
Fabricated posted:None of that stuff could hit Gojo through the infinite however. He could have 10 mouths but without a trick to bypass infinite that isn't domain amplification (which requires turning your innate technique off) it doesn't work. The big problem with fighting Gojo is simply being able to hit him at all and after Malevolent Shrine collapsed he had nothing that worked outside of Mahoraga. I feel like Sukuna is going to pull out half a dozen new tricks that could've conceivably overwhelmed Gojo when paired with Domain Amplification or exploiting gaps after a Domain Expansion battle, and you're going to keep insisting it was all thanks to Mahoraga and Gege is just trying to write himself out of a corner.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 8, 2023 22:36
|
|
|
So much emphasis is made ITT and other spaces on Yuji being the protagonist and how it's a flaw that the manga neglects him, and I'm sitting here scratching my head because JJK is clearly an ensemble cast story.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 9, 2023 16:58
|
|
|
I genuinely forgot Nobara existed until I saw her in the new anime season. It's been over 2 years since her last appearance, and she never had much screen time nor was she ever important to the plot. Conspiratiorist fucked around with this message at 20:52 on Oct 12, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Oct 12, 2023 20:48
|
|
|
ImpAtom posted:... what? IIRC they only teamed up once when she was introduced and again vs the death paintings. Since she got introduced a bit later and then Yuji died until the interschool tournament their relationship didn't leave much of an impression. Electric Phantasm posted:See also: Todo hosed up Todo is just gone when he's a genuine powerhouse even without his CT. Conspiratiorist fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Oct 12, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Oct 12, 2023 21:11
|
|
|
yum posted:I can understand why some people are upset, but I was down for the ride ever since Gege showed us that this powerful super special evil force sealed inside the protagonist was not going to slowly be won over by the power of friendship. The story was setup to follow traditional shonen tropes and Gege decided to hard fork at every intersection. I like JJK for its love of suffering/edginess because it’s not like Bleach or Naruto. The times you expect the good guys to win and they just eat poo poo instead - I love it. Same. Even the nonsense that is Culling Game, inarguably wonky pacing aside, I appreciate because it was clearly taking a piss at shounen tournament/death game plotlines - the villain only set it up as a distraction and way to gather cursed energy while he worked his actual plans.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 12, 2023 22:58
|
|
|
Electric Phantasm posted:It really just boils down to, if you're gonna have a character no-sell a black hole you better have a good rear end explanation and JJK did not. Kenjaku's CT is literally gravity manipulation.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 13, 2023 17:10
|
|
|
Watching Shibuya with my anime-only buddies: "First all-girls team up in the series and they need to get rescued from the no-name twink by a big strong man." "Yuji and Fushiguro wouldn't need rescuing from this guy." "It's okay; the author is a woman so it's not sexist." "Is... Gege Akutami a woman?" "She is, isn't she? Otherwise, oh no laughs." Nobara deflects the hand blade and dude tells her to 'read the room' "Don't interrupt the scene; men are talking." "This isn't really selling me on Nobara being 'the third protagonist' if that's what they were going for." "It's just Yuji and Fushiguro." "No, the third protagonist is Gojo laughs." "Oh my god - he just told her to go back to the kitchen!" I'm starting to realize why my impressions of Nobara's place in the story seemingly differs from those of the internet fanbase.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 15, 2023 18:07
|
|
|
I had to put my best poker face on. But to be fair, Fushiguro's move was to go for the Mahogara double KO. ZenMasterBullshit posted:I mean if you're gonna remember things that's cheating My anime-only buddies can't remember what they don't know.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 15, 2023 18:28
|
|
|
Oh, alright. Misunderstood what you were trying to say.Oh Snapple! posted:Good lord that seems miserable Didn't help we'd just tried the first UNDEAD UNLUCK episode, so violence against women was fresh on our minds. Conspiratiorist fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Oct 15, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Oct 15, 2023 18:35
|
|
|
Fair Bear Maiden posted:Outside of Angel's ability to cancel cursed techniques, I'm not sure what the Heian sorcerers had that would have challenged Gojo any more than current-day sorcerers. They've been pretty hyped-up, but ultimately the modern-day sorcerers have proven superior over the incarnated ones. And the dude who fought Sukuna as an incarnated sorcerer wasn't even from the Heian era. Precisely that, cursed tools and abilities/techniques like Domain Amplification, or forcing Domain Battles where Limitless would be cancelled out and it's down to grit, and this is without getting into the existence of CTs that like Sukuna's could potentially be adapted to bypass the working principles of Limitless. Note how Miguel, a sorcerer without a cursed technique or any remarkable qualities besides excellent jujutsu combat basics, kept Gojo busy for the entirety of the Night Parade incident on his own with the aid of a CT-disrupting cursed tool, and even managed to give him the slip (through Six Eyes) once he'd exhausted his weapon and chose to withdraw. Though he retracted it in the end, Sukuna calling Gojo mediocre during their fight was an indictment on his fundamental skill as a sorcerer - relying on the energy efficiency granted by Six Eyes to abuse the raw offensive/defensive power of Limitless wasn't impressive to a sorcerer who reached "the truth" of jujutsu through self-improvement. Gojo on the other hand was born literally blessed by Fate, and without the need or ambition to reach greater heights ended up stagnating. Conspiratiorist fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Oct 17, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Oct 17, 2023 20:16
|
|
|
I'm not so sure on Sukuna nakedly hating Yuji. Rather, even when it's frustrating, he seems genuinely pleased when Yuji presses on past what he deemed his (physical or mental) breaking point. Holding Uraume back from finishing him off certainly felt like "throwing him a bone." I can't tell if this is because Sukuna sees some kind of potential in him, or if he's simply glad he can keep sipping on that particular flavor of suffering a little longer, but there's an attachment at work here that I see as more nuanced than visceral disagreement.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 17, 2023 20:34
|
|
|
i changed my mind lets go back to talking about leaks
|
|
#
¿
Oct 18, 2023 18:34
|
|
|
Mahito was used up by Maximum Uzumaki to create the Culling Game. He's gone for good.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 19, 2023 18:25
|
|
|
Shinjobi posted:We still don't have a solid explanation for how that happened yet, right? We can kind of piece it together for Choso. The Death Paintings existed for 150 years in a vaguely aware, half-alive state, connected to each other and presumably their parents (inc. Kenjaku while he inhabited Noritoshi Kamo) via their shared Blood technique. They didn't truly become "people" until incarnated, at which point they processed the experiences of their embryonic life using the information from their host brains as context. This is how, even though newly born, they were not only fully functional but also possessed a genuine sibling bond and a hatred for Kamo, as they *knew* how much he'd made their mother suffer even though they had just been specimens in a jar at the time. Given his entire life until incarnated was something like a dream, it makes a twisted sort of sense that the shock of realizing his connection to Yuji caused Choso to start rewiring new memories in to fit with that idealized notion of family he'd conjured up as the basis for his sibling bond. And it hosed him up good on top of the guilt of almost killing his own brother. For Todo, Gege said that was just Todo being Todo.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 20, 2023 18:04
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 13, 2024 19:05 |
|
|
TheHan posted:megumi can just do that guess why he never smiles
|
|
#
¿
Oct 23, 2023 19:06
|
|