#but yeah this whole thing is just fujimoto's problem of not being able to really draw characters that look their age lol

[ladsofsorrow24]

i still find it hilarious that amongst all of the characters in part 1, the only one who is confirmed to be around denji's age is yoshida lmao

[mozzaroni]

ch 166 thoughts (spoilers ahead)

my thoughts aren't super coherent and i probably won't say too much anyways [I'M HALFWAY DONE WRITING AND LET ME JUST SAY I WAS WRONG. AS I USUALLY AM WHEN I CLAIM THINGS SUCH AS THIS] but bear with me here.

i see a lot of ppl posting about denji breaking down about how he always prioritizes sex and making bottom surgery/trans jokes out of it. while i love trans hcs, i rly think that claiming a scene like this solely has to do with denji being trans isn't in good taste.

denji has been shown to have a really complex relationship with sexuality in general, enough so that it's one of the main themes of the story. people tend to make jokes out of it and sure, while there are some parts of it that are ridiculous, it's a very real thing. denji struggles with hypersexuality, enough that he puts himself in situations he'd honestly rather not be in because he feels like sex is the only thing he can fall back on if nothing else. (now especially because his family is gone. notice how his sexual desire sort of deteriorated the longer he was living in the hayakawa residence? you know, the place and the people he could fall back on? the one that was violently torn from him? yeah, that one. yeah.) it's like an addiction, if not one entirely.

in this chapter, denji faces glaring consequences to his actions. (not extreme; glaring. obvious. ones that even denji's scrambled brain is able to process) it's almost ironic, considering how he's gotten himself in other situations of a similar nature to this one that had much more drastic consequences and were in much more dire circumstances, yet this situation, where he's not in any imminent danger (or at least not any more than usual), is the one that causes his resolve to crack.

i think that seeing the brothel physically in pieces made something click in denji's mind. the debris is a physical representation of the idea that sex isn't this big grand thing that will solve all of denji's problems and make it so he doesn't feel so awful like he does. it's just a bunch of wood and metal painted in fancy colors. i feel like throughout the whole story, since denji hasn't ever experienced sex (as far as we know), he has a very skewed idea of it; that it will make him feel this ultimate pleasure that will make all his problems seem minuscule in comparison. i don't think that denji ultimately wants sex persay; i think he just wants to feel good in a literal sense. i think he wants to be rid of the bad feelings he experiences that rise up from all the horrid things he's gone through and i think he wants to be able to feel satisfaction and happiness and good emotions like that. instead what he does, since he doesn't have access to it, is throw all those emotions in a blender and turn it on high, blending his own brain in the process and rendering his thinking skills inoperative. i think that considering he was brought up throughout most of his childhood surrounded by gruff, violent men and (mostly(?)) without a proper maternal figure, that he'd think whatever they use to cope (probably picked up from the things they talk about/the things he's heard in general) should work with him; something like sex.

denji's gone through a lot of character development, and it's all been coming to a head in these recent chapters. in this chapter, he's openly and outwardly recognizing that his "ultimate goal" for sex is getting in the way of his other priorities. we don't yet know if he wants to get rid of this desire or wants to keep it (represented/talked about via his genitals because denji doesn't have the mental capacity to think about it too hard and describe it in any other way), but if i know anything about this kinda stuff, i'm gonna assume it'll be a bit of both. letting go of something you've been clinging to for so long is not at all an easy thing to do, especially considering how frail of a mental state denji's right now.

uhh yeah. that's it. i'm excited to see where fujimoto goes with this eheeheeheeeee 😋