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michimaroon · 2 years ago

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I’m curious on how close you think the Kyoto students are to each other , since you mentioned before how they are more closely knitted than the Tokyo students.

I can definitely see Miwa, Momo, and Mai having a close relationship. Definitely more closer than the main trio in Tokyo (Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara), heck Megumi and Nobara forgot which type of girl he like lol.

But as for all the Kyoto students being closer to each other? Hmm. I suppose they do tend to work as a team (for the most part, *looks at Todo*). And they do all adore Utahime, according to Gege.

I’m just curious on other hints/reasons you think the Kyoto students are more closer to each other than the Tokyo students.

The Kyoto Bond, as you might call it is all based around this idea that in the Jujutsu Sorcerer world that even if you try to be friendly with your classmates or coworkers there’s always a distance because if you become too close to someone it will hurt all the more when they die. However, every single Kyoto Student expresses the desire to be closer to their classmates throughout the manga. All of them have arcs revolving around how they want to be closer to the people around them, they value their personal relationships over becoming strong as sorcerers. If you listen to the Tokyo Students in comparison, they can be friendly too, but at the same time, their motto is always “Be strong, Be Strong, Be Strong.”

The ending of the Origin of Obedience arc does a good job of illustrating one of the primary flaws of the Tokyo Kids when they try to work in groups. Despite the fact that Nobara and Yuji succesfully took down an enemy together, and the whole arc is about the freshman trio working together, at the end they both decide to keep secrets from each other instead of being honest.

They all tend to try to fight on their own rather than showing weakness in front of their friends, or even asking for help. Megumi wants to keep a secret from Yuji in order to protect him, Yuji wants to keep a secret from Megumi in order to protect him, they can’t just talk things out between the two of them like friends would and because of that they keep secrets. The Tokyo Students still care of course, but it’s that individualism that gets in the way of forming deeper friendship.

The Kyoto students are all making much more of an effort to grow closer to each other and the people around them, there’s evidence if you analyze all of their individual mini-arcs.

Mechamaru is the most obvious about this, he genuinely values everyone in the class so much, he both makes a deal with Mahito because he believes he has to gain a non-disabled body to actually be close to them, and he also prepares a lot of backup plans in order to keep the Kyoto students away from Shibuya.

He also makes his entire goal to protect not only his comrades around him, but specifically Miwa. His desire isn’t to get stronger, in fact he admits himself that he is weak, his only desire was to be by her side and everything he fought for was for that reason. In fact, Mechamaru was an incredibly powerful sorcerer with an extreme amount of cursed energy, his weakness comes from the fact that he was unable to trust and confer in the others around him, he attempted to do everything on his own.

For Mai it’s a little more complicated because she was essentially fridged for Maki’s arc, but once again Mai reflects Mechamaru’s desire to grow closer to the people around her. Mai’s entire resentment of Maki revolves around the fact that they used to be close, and Maki pulled away when they were younger.

For Mai, staying together is more important than personal pride.

Mai also presents herself as the more selfish and hateful sibling, but if you analyze Mai’s actions, she actually puts Maki above herself. First she doesn’t hate Maki, she admires her to the point of putting herself down in comparison to Maki. She is probably the only person in the Zenin Clan who actually sees Maki for who she really is, strong and determined.

Mai also knew that she could get harmed or possibly killed if she returned to the Zenins sake, and she went anyway.

As dumb as the whole “Twins are the same person and have the same cursed energy” thing is, (No I will never stop complaining about it) it also shows that Maki was going about things the wrong way by trying to become strong all on her own instead of working with Mai. Mai had the right of it when she said they should have stayed together, and if they had they could have averted Mai’s tragic end. Mai valuing her sister over herself, sacrifices herself to help unlock Maki’s potential. Maki would never have unlocked her true strength without Mai. Mai does everything once again, out of her desire to grow closer and protect her sister that’s her strength, whereas Maki’s weakness was pushing her sister away and trying to do everything on her own because she wanted to avoid that vulnerability, mirroring Mechamaru’s mistake.

Momo gets the least amount of screentime, but Momo is someone who devotes herself to being a good senpai to Miwa and Mai. It’s mentioned in a side story that Mai, Momo, and Miwa are unusually close for their differences in ages.

Mai, Miwa and Momo are in a crepe shop near the Hachijou exit of Kyoto station. “What a mess of an event. I wonder if we could have stayed in Tokyo for longer,” says Mai. “Can’t be helped, what with the Curse users and the Curses attacking and there being casualties,” Miwa says as she takes a photo of the heart-shaped latte art on her coffee. She always takes photos but they have no idea where she uploads them. “But that was too fast. I wanted to at least go shopping.” “Yeah, I also wanted to see Marche...” Compared to the Tokyo school where the students usually hang out by grade, the Kyoto girls hang out a lot. If it were a normal school, the separation of second and third years would be greater but since there are so few students at the Jujutsu schools and even fewer women, it matters less. That this is a more conservative environment than the Tokyo school has also compounded the situation.

Momo is overprotective of Mai, moreso than her own sister. She tries to explain to Nobara the pressures that women face in the Jujutsu World. She is the one who discouraged Mai from going back to the Zenin, and it’s also Momo who buries body or at least is left with it while Maki goes off to do something else I guess... It’s also implied that Momo is someone Mai confides in considering Momo knows a lot about the pressures that Mai faces in the clan.

Miwa is also someone who does things mainly for the sake of other people rather than herself, in the first place she is only a Jujutsu Sorcerer in the first place to support her younger brothers.

“Useless Miwa” is also the only student with the strength to actually be honest about her feelings for Mechamaru and is the one who tried the hardest to connect with him. Wheras Mechamaru’s weakness comes from the fact he believed he couldn’t connect or protect her without fixing his body first and then went off on his own to try to protect her from a distance. His weakness comes from pushing other people away not embracing the group.

For the Kyoto kids, their strength is when they are able to be emotionally vulnerable in front of each other and desire to get close despite how hard it is in the Jujutsu World, whereas their weakness is when they try to go off on their own and fight to protect others, to keep secrets from their own friend, when they can’t rely on the group because they don’t want to show that vulnerability.

Miwa may call herself useless but she’s clearly the first person to ever reach Mechamaru, considering he fell in love with her. Mai and Momo are attached to her. Miwa also has no cursed technique whatsoever she’s only a simple domain user, and yet she puts everything she has into fighting despite being one of the weaker students.

Of course, Miwa’s sword always breaks repeatedly when she is facing much stronger foes, but Miwa has the bravery to fight with her all despite knowing how weak she is. Emotionally, she is very strong because she shows vulnerability while at the same time still trying to be strong in his own way.

Kamo is also someone who appears like a staunchy traditionalist at first, but he also puts the whole group and his connections with other people over himself. For instance, Kamo attmempts to connect with and show sympathy for Megumi’s position in regards to the Zenin clan, when Megumi doesn’t really care. Kamo early on expresses worry for the fact that the Zenin clan puts a lot of expectations on Mai. Kamo makes his goal primiarly about someone else, helping his mother find a place in the clan after she was abused by them and then thrown out.

This is pretty selfless of him too, especially since his mother after giving him up just moved on and made a new family and didn’t really bother to make contact with him or tell him it was okay for him to come home and she wanted him to be a part of her life. Apparently Kamo’s just supposed to... figure that out on his own even though she’s the adult and he’s the child.

Kamo also coordinates with the group and helps them, putting their needs above his own. When the students might become the enemies of Jujutsu Society for trying to remove the seal around Gojo’s prison, Kamo went to beg to the Kamo clan to change their mind for the sake of everyone else.

When he couldn’t help them that way, he still joined the fight himself and gave everything to try to help the group. When they’re cornered by Naoya, Kamo makes the decision that would be best for the group, because Maki is stronger than him she needs to live to the end of this fight.

Kamo is once again like a lot of the Kyoto kids, extremely honest about his desire to be needed by people and be a part of the group. His greatst goal is to be a help to his comrades. He prioritizes the group too much, to the point where it’s almost self sacrificial but at the same time he liked all the other Kyoto kids puts a priority on being together rather than acting seperately. In fact they all come close to dying when they try to act seperately, Mechamaru, Mai, Kamo all give their lives away a little bit too easily because they undervalue themselves.

Finally Todo, is the best team fighter of the entire group. I have discussed Todo in other metas, but to summarize here, everything Yuji does is team oriented. Todo’s cursed technique literally sounds simple and yet he uses it so effectively in a team fight it’s what allows him and Yuji to take on a special grade cursed spirit together. Todo’s at the top of his game when he’s not fighting alone.

Todo’s also extremely perceptive when it comes to other people, he ferrets out all the flaws in Yuji’s technique, he even can udnerstand when Yuji’s trauma towards Mahito is interrupting the flow of his cursed energy. At two points when Yuji stalls first because of Mahito making him too angry, and second because of trauma from Shibuya, Nanami, and Nobara’s successive deaths Todo is the only one who can get him going again both times.

Simply put, Yuji did not win the fight against Mahito, Yuji and Todo did. It’s Todo who calls for Yuji to think about everyone together, all of his allies as Jujutsu Sorcerers and think of what’s best for the group as a way to keep going.

Todo’s speech to Yuji also mirrors what Miwa said to Mechamaru in a way. No matter what, you are going to lose people, and the more you care about someone the more it’s going to hurt when you lose them. Yet, Todo answers a potential solution to that problem.

You can’t let the fear of loss, or even your grief when you do lose them defile their memories. The people who you have lost however, wouldn’t want you to beat yourself up, or spend forever mourning them because the same way you loved them, they loved you. Todo provides an answer as to why Jujutsu Sorcerers grow closer to each other and fight together even in a world fraught by constant loss and death and it’s because it’s those feelings are what give people the motivation to fight.

Yuji is able to keep going when all he wants to do is give up, because of his desire to carry on the feelings of both Nanami and Nobara with him in his memory. It hurts to lose people, but also we are capable of moving on when we lose people, because of the memories we made in life and the feelings we shared with them remain with us. And that is why the Kyoto Students and their bond with each other is important to the story.

#jjk

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