Opening visuals are gonna need to be updated then if it's that short.
Rodimus: Self-sacrifice, Magnus— It's cheap. It's a cheap way out. I need to live so I can make amends.Having watched the first episode of Season 2 and being refreshed on what happened... good lord, I forgot just how genuinely horrible the world of Jujutsu Kaisen is.
- Countless individuals, including three grade school kids, all died at the hands of the mansion curse, and yet none of the Sorcerers, not even the more empathetic Utahime, bat an eye at how many people have died.
- Even if it's only once every 500 years, they're still grooming these "Star Plasma Vessels" into pretty much being human sacrifices for Tengen so she can keep the barrier's strength up, and are content doing this rather than just getting rid of Tengen and looking for alternative means of strengthening the barriers, all while acknowledging the vessels like Riko are pretty much being fed to Tengen. And then you have people trying to kill her for no fault of her own, just for the crime of existing.
- Geto and Gojo are the "good guys" in all this, but then you remember who exactly they are.
- Geto is the closest to being a legitimate "good person" at the time of this arc due to his morals, and was willing to ignore orders and protect Riko if she truly wanted to live, but ends up being madden into misanthropy after the shit he had to see, losing Riko and seeing the ungrateful bastards he was "protecting" willing to kill two kids for being sorcerers, and ends up becoming a nigh-genocidal maniac before being killed by Gojo. And even before then, his "morals" are warped, as rather than simply believing "the strong should protect the weak", he believes "the weak should be kept ignorant while the strong are held down so as to not inconvenience the weak", and despite his words, Gojo was right in that he was more just trying to make himself feel better over his own innate sense of superiority, which he stops bothering to deny after he snaps.
- Gojo meanwhile is practically a high-functioning sociopath, and while he clearly is trying to follow the belief Geto once had in the present day and has grown to demonstrate empathy for others after losing Riko and Geto, here he's shown at his most natural behavior, and he really ends up reminding me of Osamu Dazai: not a man mistaken for a monster, but a monster trying to be a man. He's more successful than Dazai in that he's clearly trying, no longer considers himself Above Good and Evil, and has to be pushed to the brink before he goes full on psycho like during Shibuya, but as his current fight with Sukuna demonstrates, the monster still lies beneath, ready to be unleashed on whatever hapless fool that earns his ire.
- And of course is the fact that, at the end of the day, these two and Shoko were still kids when this all happened. All this unimaginable power, this endless pressure and duty, fostered onto kids, in a line of work where it's acknowledged you have to already be somewhat crazy to be in it. That the ones maintaining The Masquerade and "protecting" people are, at the end of the day, a bunch of actually psychotic teenagers constantly putting their lives on the line, and becoming more and more unhinged with each mission they survive.
I think I can say that if I got isekai'd into this world, I'd find the nearest gun and open wide.
Edited by RebelFalcon on Jul 7th 2023 at 6:35:10 AM
Rodimus: Self-sacrifice, Magnus— It's cheap. It's a cheap way out. I need to live so I can make amends.Why would they want to get rid of Tengen he's purely an ally, and the Plasma Vessels are volunteers.
@Rebel Falcon Huh, Gojo and Dazai do have a lot of similarities between them, though I'd disagree about Dazai not trying. Also, no need to eat lead, you could just leave Japan.
It's not really volunteering when you've been raised since birth as a sacrifice.
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Riko wasn't a volunteer, she was made to be the Plasma Star Vessel after it was discovered she was compatible, and pretty much went along with it because she thought she was already alone and her life had no worth otherwise. After actually going to school, making friends, and meeting Geto and Gojo though, she wanted to actually live, hence Geto's entire offer of screwing the assignment and taking her with him on the run, since they were gonna force her even if she no longer wanted to.
And getting rid of Tengen is honestly the better option because she's more trouble than she's worth. She's a literal parasite that assimilates others to continue surviving, and if one absorption is thrown off, she turns into more a Cursed Spirit than a human, and as Geto elaborated to Gojo, is just as easily a potential threat to mankind. It's why that cult wanted Riko dead, so that the merger wouldn't happen and Tengen would usher in a new world order due to "ascending". And considering the lengths taken to protect Riko only for her to still get killed by Toji, and the fact that half of the reason Kenjaku is as big a threat as he is now is because Tengen is still alive, Tengen being left alive just invites more trouble than necessary. Had Tengen never been allowed to reach this state in the first place, Kenjaku's insane plans would likely never have gotten off the ground. Especially when the only thing Tengen being alive is useful for is... keeping the barriers at the schools up and serving as a template for other barriers. Something which is only useful for maintaining The Masquerade.
As for Dazai, I say "not trying" because he regularly acts Above Good and Evil, openly collaborated with the Dead Apple fiasco, and is shown to be willing to do anything if it's in his own interest. Hell, the Beast sidestory made a point of stating that the Dazai in that Alternate Universe was nigh-identical to main timeline Dazai as a result of "No Longer Human" stopping the book from rewriting his memories and letting his access the memories of all Dazai's, and that Dazai did a lot of horrific things to Atsushi, Kyoka, and Gin in that timeline in the name of making sure Odasaku lived.
Edited by RebelFalcon on Jul 8th 2023 at 3:16:41 PM
Rodimus: Self-sacrifice, Magnus— It's cheap. It's a cheap way out. I need to live so I can make amends.
Tengen was entirely fine with Riko refusing the merger even if she hadn't died. There were other vessels, but Tengen decided to let things just take their course after that, but made moves to make sure they would keep their mind, and not be a threat. Also Tengen can't be killed immortality and all of that.
Also getting rid of Tengen seems like a bad idea as it means that all of Japan's sorcerers will get weaker and have to relearn barrier techniques from scratch.
Edited by Envyus on Jul 8th 2023 at 11:13:13 AM
That nosebleed does not bode well.
Rodimus: Self-sacrifice, Magnus— It's cheap. It's a cheap way out. I need to live so I can make amends.Okay so if I'm reading this right, the implication is that Sukuna is doing the same thing he did in the Yorozu battle. He's holding off on summoning Mahoraga because of the possibility it will be destroyed before it adapts to the opponent's technique, so he's using the Wheel on himself so it will adapt to Limitless and he can summon a Mahoraga that is already immune to it from the start.
Kirara praising Hakari was cute.
Edited by Moth13 on Jul 9th 2023 at 1:09:21 PM
...we should probably make an anime only thread.
Well, hopefully the "Gojo and Sukuna do something previously thought impossible with D Es, peanut gallery reacts, repeat" phase of the fight is over at least.
Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.I feel like this manga can't win. If the fights have no commentary, people complain that they're difficult to follow and understand. If they have commentary, it's distracting. I actually agree that the walls of text are kind of annoying, but I can understand why an editor or something may have pushed for them to be added.
There is no war in Ba Sing Se.Really, this whole situation is a no-win situation from a meta-standpoint.
- If Gojo wins, you get accusations that all the build up for Sukuna was pointless when he's been one of the driving elements of the entire series.
- If Sukuna wins, you end up killing off the most popular character in the series and risk alienating all the people who stayed just for Gojo.
- If the match is inconclusive, you get people saying this entire part was a waste of time.

Even if Gojo’s domain ends up landing there’s no way it’ll be the end of this.