#jjk ch 193

[psychewritesbs]

Chapters 191-194: Sakurajima Colony: Buck-buck! Some arcs are really just not that eggciting and that’s ok

Sort of happy JJK-Sunday? 

I must admit that while I loved Kin-chan vs. Kashi-chan because their dynamic was just absolutely fantastic, this little Naoya the Cursed Yarn Ball vs. Girl Boss Maki why is she wearing a little cape tho?! mini-arc has felt like a total drag.

I so have not been eggcited about this mini-arc one bit.

Pu-kyu, my new assistant, agrees 300%. 

But there’s a few things that have been on my mind that I wanted to write down because, let’s face it, I love to word vomit about irrelevant plot tangents.

Without further ado, here are 10 observations I’ve made over the last few chapters! There's absolutely no sign of intelligence beneath the cut...

1. FFS, why is Maki wearing a little cape?

I hate Maki’s little cape there I said it on main. It makes the Fashion Diva in me want to style her or something like that.

Gege, please. Can we please get rid of the little cape? Cardcaptor Sakura’s Tomoyo or Tokyo Babylon’s Hokuto need to make a cameo and style her up.

Hokuto would gladly put Maki into some Dolce since JJK has that collab with Dolce & Gabbana and all.

This Girl Boss androgynous look is hot and I love Maki playing into it. Even if it’s just a facade for a girl who had to act confident to thrive in a man’s world.

The little cape? NOT HOT.

Not me gatekeeping Maki bahaha

2. “Even cursed spirits feel pain”

In all seriousness tho. This has probably been the one thing that has really got my interest. I’ve already written about how I became a Cursed Spirit apologist thanks to the cockroach that Gege graced us with.

But I have to say that I’ve loved how Gege brought back the idea of a Cursed Spirits’ consciousness in these last few chapters.

I immediately noticed and loved that the Yarn Ball was totally Naoya-like in its interactions and speech.

Which I thought it was fascinating because if the body = the soul = the mind (ego personality)... then, not only is his form very fitting (a worm and... a Yarn Ball?), but there’s something about how a vessel (the body) can change to better reflect the mind/soul--Mahito’s specialty. 

I don’t know how to explain better just yet. I just love that an ego personality can have a different vessel and have continuity of existence even when the vessel looks different or the original vessel “died”.

It tells me a will (ego/mind/personality) has to be really, really strong to create a new vessel for itself in order to carry out its desires. In Naoya’s case, his will created a new vessel for the sake of avenging his pride after he was defeated by Maki the first time.

This all feels very Soul Eater in a sense...

But it’s not just this idea of a will creating a new vessel for itself, it’s the idea of a Cursed Spirit having a consciousness of it being alive to begin with.

Once you start messing with the idea of sentience, you are on another level.

Again, I brain rotted about this idea in the liveblog for chapter 175.

I just love this theme and idea because it set the stage for a rebellion against humans, the very creators and source of energy for Cursed Spirits.

In showing that even a Cursed Spirit feels pain, I also get this feeling that Gege is inviting his audience to sympathize with Cursed Spirits.

I also loved that around the time this particular chapter came out, Chainsaw Man 2 dropped its first chapter featuring a very similar motif.

I can’t quite put my finger on it just yet but I love that Fujimoto is playing with the same concept that Gege has introduced into JJK--as a living being with a consciousness of its own (created by collective human thought no less), a Cursed Spirit or Devil has every right to exist and thrive.

It’s a hell of a morally gray dilemma because Cursed Spirits and Devils alike cause havoc for humanity. But in the end, at least in JJK, the problem comes back to the fact that we created them through our own unconsciousness.

Unless you are a Jujutsu Sorcerer, then you channel your cursed energy into a Cursed Technique instead of unconsciously creating curses.

Which kind of reminded me that the crazy master plan in this whole thing is to bring back the Golden Age of Cursed Techniques...

3. Heian, the Golden Age of Cursed Techniques

So, let’s remember that the Culling Game is one massive shit show to bring about the evolution of human kind honestly I don't even know at this point, I thought it was more about Hakari’s abs at one point.

I’m stumped because as bored as I am with this battle, I feel like Gege is still dropping important details.

Cursed Spirits are basically a non-factor in a world where humans gain a deeper understanding of their Cursed Energy and use it more productively.

After all, the whole purpose of these concurrent battles taking place is to help sorcerers and non-sorcerers deepen their understanding of cursed energy.

We already suspect that Kenny is going to do something about the colonies that have reached a point where only the strongest sorcerers remain. The question is what?

This is an interesting can of worms because Cursed Technique seems to be intimately tied to the user’s personality (mind) in a symbolic or literal way.

Also, let’s not forget everybody’s favorite Daddy Sukuna, chaos himself, is a prodigy when it comes to Cursed Energy manipulation through Cursed Technique. 

So what is going to happen?!

Idk I’m rambling at this point.

Honestly, this is why this mini-arc is driving me nuts’o. 

There’s so many amazing, unanswered questions about the plot and instead we get a Maki vs. Naoya the Yarn Ball battle do over.

A cat vs. Naoya the Yarn Ball would have been far more entertaining.

4. Not all arcs are created equal

Bahaha, I feel really bitchy saying that and yet I want to honor how I feel about JJK right now. 

Right now, as much as I love JJK, this particular mini-arc/battle is not easy to get through.

But I’ve been watching anime for a very loooooong time and I’ve been reading a lot of manga recently and something has become very clear to me because of it...

Yeah this mini-arc isn’t my favorite in JJK but it’s just an arc. Every manga I have read lately has arcs that are a drag to get through. It’s just how it is.

Some arcs are eggciting af, others aren’t.

No manga is perfect.

5. Mangaka and the pressure to create in order to feed a capitalist system

Manga is truly a treasure to mankind--they are beautifully told stories about the reality of being human.

Mangaka take on that privilege of sharing those stories with an audience. 

Telling these stories requires courage. In telling these stories, mangaka are putting themselves out there, they are baring the inner-universe within their heart and soul for all to see.

The characters they create are reflections of inner-selves exploring the world of their imagination.

I am a huge believer in having a consistent habit of creation. If you are a writer, you write; if you are a painter, you paint.

But sometimes, creativity doesn’t quite work like that. Sometimes creativity needs to marinate an idea to bring it to fruition. After all, despite capitalism’s focus on hustle culture, creativity is not linear. 

All that to say that I have all the more respect for mangaka because they work under strict and constricting schedules that are not necessarily conducive to shipping the best creative work.

I’ve read many a manga that probably could have used more time to develop and expand on its themes. Shingeki no Kiojin is the latest example as I did not like the ending very much and felt like Isayama could have done a much better job given how much of a detailed writer he proved to be.

But that’s just my personal opinion and I know it is not shared by everyone.

In other words... 

I am looking forward to JJK getting exciting again and hope that Gege is able to ship his best creative work despite his schedule.

Beware of Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan), x/1999, Akatsuki no Yona and Tokyo Babylon panel spoilers below.

6. Recycling panels or panel parallels?

One of my favorite things in the world is catching panel parallels in manga by different authors... like Shingeki no Kyojin and x/1999 below:

Akatsuki no Yona and Tokyo Babylon:

Sometimes there are manga parallels used by the same authors but in different manga titles of theirs like in CLAMP’s xxxHolic and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle.

Or, in this case, even within a single manga by a single author:

These 2 panels of Megumi and Maki aren’t exactly the same, but I couldn’t help but notice them and I wondered whether Gege was just recycling panels or whether he is making a bigger statement paralleling Megumi and Maki’s growth as they learn to value themselves.

In particular Megumi learned there was a vast difference between risking his life to win and throwing away his life to win.

For Maki, I love that she’s so certain that in the next five minutes she will be as good as new. That’s the nature of her newfound powers. 

But above all, I found it interesting that Kamo tells Maki they “can’t afford to lose her at this stage”.

Right now Kamo has a majorly huge death flag.

7. When Gege makes you care about characters you didn’t know you cared about, does that mean he’s about to kill them? 

I swear JJK characters have super heroic deaths and that’s why they hurt like hell.

The whole sequence with Maki and Kamo actually reminds me of Nanami’s death because of the setup leading to it and the Megumi/Maki panel parallels I shared above. In other words, Nanami realized how valuable Megumi was to the battle and stepped in to protect him the way Kamo is doing the same.

Perhaps that’s what the panel parallels are trying to say here.

Another heroic death example I cannot not mention is...

Kokichi ;-; ...

Gege is so good at creating this feeling of--”man this character is so cool and I admire their mindset and can relate to them on an emotional level and I love that aaaaaaaand... now they’re dead.” 

Gege is just not afraid to kill or hide any of his characters.

And now... we have Kamo trying to get self-sacrificial and heroic. 

It’s sad to me that he spent so much time and effort in being the perfect heir and doing things as the perfect heir should do them so that he could live up to the title and make a place for his mother in the clan.

But now his mother has moved on with her life (as is implied in the latest chapter) and he’s no longer the head of the clan.

The things he had identified his sense of self with have vanished.

And so now, he sees no value in himself other than in sacrificing himself for his comrades.

But... I have to be honest that Kamo’s line regarding his decision to sacrifice himself felt predictable to me.

So perhaps this could be a red herring? We did get two new players thrown into the mix who are going to complicate things further.

Whatever the case, Gege has made me care about Kamo because he’s made him incredibly relatable in a couple of pages max.

Gege truly does have a talent for characterization.

8. Chapters 135 and 136

Um, hello? I need a re-read of the last few chapters of the Shibuya Incident. So much is paying off in the current arc but in a way that feels like Gege has been world-building. 

In particular, chapter 64 marked the end of Gege world-building the first stage of JJK. He then proceeded to undo everything he had done by tearing it down throughout the Shibuya Incident.

He then gave us a ton of exposition during the last chapters in the Shibuya Incident, and it feels to me like he’s using the Culling Game to show and expand upon some of the plot points that he introduced during those chapters.

9. Incest in JJK

Did Gege just imply that Mai and Naoya...???

Right, so we start the chapter with a nice little philosophical spill by the Yarn Ball.

Something about learning an ability and it becoming second nature. Yadda-yadda-yadda.

But then...

To which Naoya responds...

Uh.

...

Ways to interpret this interaction:

Naoya just wants to say something hurtful to Maki (this was my initial interpretation)

Naoya just wants to say something really REALLY hurtful to Maki and so he chose to reveal the thing that would hurt the most--Naoya did “adult things” with Mai (this was my interpretation after wondering what being an adult had to do with Mai... and then it hit me lol)

Is this innuendo surprising considering Megumi was Mai’s first crush?

Not to mention everybody’s favorite JJK siblings with questionable morals, Mei Mei and Ui Ui.

Anyways. Not sure whether Gege meant to use innuendo in that interaction, but he sure loves his incest trope lol.

10. BONUS

Ok there really is no #10. I just wanted to end on an even number.

Again, if you’ve made it this far in this ramble, thank you. I always notice the same people liking what I write and I am very grateful that you read my rambles.

Please do stop and say hi if you are up for it. I love talking to others in fandom!

Until next time!

Happy JJK-Sunday!

[vulcanette]

jjk 193

[idyllicbby]

OH BITCH DONT PISS ME OFF

[ly0nstea]

Spoilers for JJK ch. 193 tw rape

DKD NAOYA RAPE MAI??

[idyllicbby]

queenie

[idyllicbby]

this is funny 😭😭

[idyllicbby]

no fr. he has some really good reflexes