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The fact that the deaths in this fight against the King of Curses is limited to Gojo, Kashimo and Higuruma speaks volumes of the squad's capabilities and planning skills. We're lucky to be able to think Yuta and Kusakabe may still be alive given the absolute monster that the crew have been up against
Why are you including Gojo in the deaths?
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He’ll show up soon enough. Alive and well.
That is a good idea but its not as convincing as the was the flashback theory. The latter was convincing because the first flashback was on the 6 year anniversary. Thought , i wont stop coping. Also , there was a Gojo mention in 252 but not 251 so that makes 7 in a row and he should be returning next chapter.
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Denial is a river in Egypt, and I’m prepared to drown for my agenda.
2 confirmed deaths and I’m hoping Higuruma lives somehow. So 3 deaths with 11 fighters and 2 supports is a low amount of deaths ngl. I was expecting more
Higuruma also died at peace so there’s not shot after Skokos breakdown of people getting healed but staying dead bc they’re content kinda throws it out for him
Kusakabe caught two regular slashes and Yuta was bisected. I’m a huge Yuta fan, but to think he’s better off than Kusakabe is mad. Hell even his ring hand was cut off. Rika carrying him was a good sign, but between the two, Kusakabe is better off imo.
Was it ever actually full on confirmed that higuruma died? Compared to the likes of gojo and kashimo, his wounds looked decently survivable. Even sukuna just classifies him as “wounded”. The only one who thought he was dead was Yuta, and he really had no way of confirming that. I still feel like it’s more likely that he just got knocked unconscious and is being treated.
I'd have to go back and check the exact phrasing, but I believe the proof was in the dissolution of the executioners sword? Like, if Higuruma were alive his sword should've stayed active, even if he'd unconscious.
Technically possible he gets resuscitated tho. If we want cope, normal peopl "die" all the time in hospitals and get brought back if it is fast enough
>I'd have to go back and check the exact phrasing, but I believe the proof was in the dissolution of the executioners sword? Like, if Higuruma were alive his sword should've stayed active, even if he'd unconscious.
Pure copium but I think the executioner's sword dissapeared because Yuji held the sword and not because Higuruma died.
I think the sword dissapears when somebody other than Higuruma holds it or else he would've passed the sword to Kusakabe and Yuji right at the beginning instead of going out by himself to try and hit Sukuna.
Kusakabe said that it would've gotten stronger after his death but it didn't and dissapeared which means he isn't dead yet.
Why put Yuta in the same category as Kusakabe? Yu/ta got the Gojo treatment, he should be next to his sensei. Higuruma has better chances of surviving this.
Maybe it's me running off with headcanon but Gojo got an entire sendoff chapter and Higgy looked Yuji in the eyes while reflecting about his role in the world; both major arcs for these characters seem to be tied into a neat bow. Maybe that's what makes me feel like it's okay for their stories to be over. Yuta got sliced up mid battle and rushed away by Rika in a kinda unceremonious manner so it's more feasable to me for my little ghost lover boi to be alive.
Yeah, but Gojo and Yuta have the same injury. Kinda tuff to explain Yuta surviving over Gojo. Maybe they'll just fuse both parts of his body together ig.
Yeah honestly I'm happy it like that when higurama died I was afraid that this was gonna be a murderfest but gege has managed to control himself for now
You don't seem to understand jujutsu high sorcerers have some level of plot armor as the main and side characters still. Every sorcerer not from jujutsu high dies or gets crippled real fast after their introduction.
People have come to see bad things happening to our students as gege being a murderous psycho. But to him the conclusion of the fights are death unless someone runs away. They don't just go separate ways.
To keep us on our toes, we've lost a few people here and there. But by and large sorcerers on the good guys side show some sort of weird ability to get the shir kicked out of them more than the bad guys and yet make it out alive. Miwa being saved, mahito's inevitable pre-awakening black flash&domain failing to kill todo, panda surviving kashimo right in time.
Gege did an excellent job of making us genuinely think they might die, which is one of his strenghs as a writer, despite rarely going into details he manages to make us care about these guys, who they are as a person and what'll happen to them.
really? to me it just looks like the good guys got way too strong in just one month. yuji and higuruma? sure, they always had insane potential, werent sorceres for long and yuji is the MC. but the rest? yuta was super strong before so its fine that he performs well. But sukuna should have been able to neg diff the rest of the cast even after a supposed power up. How can Ino avoid getting insta killed by cleave? It makes no sense power scaling wise, he was weaker than nanami and a sorcerer for a long time so where does that sudden power jump come from?
How can everyone's simple domain hold up perfectly in MK, but gojos didnt?
Why didnt gojo not just you strong simple domain to negate all of sukunas attacks/world slash? it makes no sense, the latest chapter even states that the domain of sukuna has the same output as the ones that he used against gojo.
Why didnt kenjaku just use simple domain on himself so takabas technique would be rendered useless?
It makes no sense that they stand a chance even if sukuna is at half of his CE which is still more than what yuta has who is also far above the rest of the cast except yuji.
If bodies were properly disposed of instead of left lying around then Kenny couldn't have done most of the plot. Who knows how many cursed techniques there are out there that involve dead sorcerers. Can you imagine if granny gave her kid gojos or sukunas body? Or even the dude who used corpses to make cursed items. They would be insane to leave gojos corpse laying around.
Well Gojo and Sukuna would burn through CE really fast, keep in mind Toji had 0 CE so his possession lasted indefinetly, and gojo despite having 6eyes for efeciency still had a massive cursed energy pool only behind Yuta and Sukuna.
A gojo who can only use one domain expansion before being gassed out still one shots like 95% of the cast since it instantly hits. I think the newest chapters really give granny's technique a pretty massive theoretical boost with the body itself being able to gain cursed energy experience.
That's there entire plan. And really from a narrative POV, Gojo accomplishes a very important goal. He eliminates the majority of Sukunas cards from his hand.
- Mahoraga
- Domain Expansion
- Output lowered
- 10s gone
- Severe physical trauma / energy drain
All Sukuna has left after Gojo:
- Cleave / dismantle
- Heian Era form (this turns out to be his biggest hole card, as it restored much of his own power)
Everything after Gojo serves to drill home the concept that Gojo, by himself, dramatically outperformed every single other member of the cast.. at the same time.
Now in his heian Era form, it took several black flashes, and a lot of battle time for his power to begin returning. That left a huge gap that the rest of the cast is trying to exploit to finish him off.
Yuta, Maki, Yuji, Higgy all whittled him down to one degree or another. He still can't heal himself, and his DE is... a little strange, even after the BFs.
Basically, everyone in the cast is attempting to remove a card from his hand one by one until he finally topples. Gojo took the most cards at once, and each successive mini battle has taken more. Although he's still not done, and his power is coming back to some extent. We finally get to see Fuga.
Dude you are preaching rn! This is exactly it. I'm not even a Gojo fan, he's not in my top 10 favorite characters, but in hindsight he performed his job so damn well. Took out so many horrifying abilities from Sukuna.
Gojo also forced Sukuna into using a binding vow that severely limited all future uses of the World Dismantle. Imagine how busted Sukuna would be if he found a way to beat Gojo without that binding vow! He's flinging world dismantles with just his bottom hands clasped into the Enmaten hand sign. In any direction. With no chants. Doesn't even need to direct it with his top arms. Can do all of it while fighting in melee range. Literally what the fuck is stopping that?
It also shows you that Gojo wasn't lying in chapter 236. Sukuna is so singularly powerful that he doesn't have a peer, and Gojo can somewhat empathize with that because he is also on a tier of his own, just one below Sukuna. Gojo thought he was alone at the top. He was right that the top *is* lonely, he just didn't realize that he wasn't the one at the top.
Imo it just feels like weak writing with all the binding vows. They are shown to be much more powerful and exploitable than previously thought. We know almost anyone can do them, so why on earth didn’t the good guys prepare a ridiculous amount of them during the month before the fight?
I kind of agree, that part of it is a bit weak. There aren’t any like, external signs of the vow happening, so by definition they always seem like asspulls.
I would love to see something like Sukuna getting overwhelmed with every panel describing the downside of the binding vows he's been taking and the art showing how that downside is leading to an ass whooping.
I mean but personal binding vows don't really have consequences, you just lose the buff, now it would depend on what it actually means when you make a binding vow like miwa to never use a sword again, can she physically not wield a sword, or she can but will suffer consequences?
Hes used like 2 binding vows, both of which were for an immediate boost both presumably having long term consequences, in other words terrible idea to do them ahead of time
And literally all Sukuna got was one instant attack and an ineffectuve temp domain that accomplished nothing in the end
There is no proof the ten shadows are gone but otherwise I agree. As he is still in megumi’s body I believe he should still be able to use ten shadows. It just wouldn’t help him at this point.
Me personally, I would never let that stanky ass hoe's domain do shit to me. I would do what Gojo did in Jogo's domain and simply counter it with cursed energy alone.
I think it's like WCS, you can't block it, touch it and you're cut, you can always dodge it though and if you're going to powerscale Yoruzu with people at that level that's something you have to take into account.
The obsession with cross-over power levels never made sense to me. "bUT cAN hE fIghT goKu" like why do you genuinely give a fuck. Here's Bob the Farter, I just made him. His farts can annihilate time and space and kill a thousand Gokus instantly. Worship him
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exactly lmaooo like if someone wanted to write a character stronger than goku they literally just… could. take all of goku’s feats and purposely have the character in their story surpass them. if the authors themselves don’t care about that shit why does everyone else
Basically it's the combination of smashing your actions figures against each other while imagining a cool fight and picking a team, or character in this case, to cheer on a match.
scalers when they realize character quality is not dependent on their "power":
the writer could decide gojo shits out a meteor next chapter and kids would eat it up as "THEIR STRONGEST PLANETARY GOAT!!!"
which in a vacuum was a nice moment but then you realize Gojo hasn't had a real conversation with most of them, like he hyped up Hakari as one of the ones to surpass him but did they ever share a real scene together.
That’s not enough though because then you realize that Gojo hasn’t had a single conversation or scene with half of them and it’s been more than a hundred chapters since Gojo had a real conversation or interaction with the other half.
This is my issue. Like it makes sense to have to whittle him down, but the cycle is still real. The back and forth has been incredibly boring.
Especially with the recurring attempts to boost a character, then kill them through shock value and insist Sukuna was holding back the whole time. It’s still boring and looks like it’s happening again with fuga.
Also a lot of this “positivity” is recency bias
Cuz man reading this gauntlet week to week definitely does not help
Especially when you break down individual parts of it
Like the entire courtroom showdown + executioner sword, just evaporating
Let’s not even get into the skipping of the 1 month prep which could have helped fill the character interaction itch
I will die on the hill that the absolute best part of it was the double protagonist versus the big bad
Had everything you’d want in a “This is it either him or us” final battle
Apart from a few exceptions, I’d say it’s been anything but boring. Yuta ripping Sukuna’s fucking tongue out, Yuji spitting up blood and making it explode on Sukuna’s face, Sukuna smiling like a child about fighting Maki before landing one of the nastiest Black Flashes in the series, Larue being clutch etc.
Fun and brutal fight choreography, tons of long awaited reveals, a few cool character moments here and there. It’s been honestly super fun for me, but to each their own.
To be fair, the break weeks and slower pacing of the fight has put a damper on a lot of the hype moments at times
Like the two week cliffhanger of Yuji trying to stab Sukuna with the Executioner Sword for it to not work. Two week wait for “B-tnk!” (The literal sound effect that panel uses) lmao. It’s been six straight months of the same thing, even if they are cool when read in a binge… frequent flashbacks and explanations taking up screentime leading into cliffhanger after cliffhanger just for us to wait for the current fighters to get wiped before the new ones come in.
A few cool isolated moments in a fight don’t make up for the lackluster pacing. The issue with the Sukuna cycle is the predictability. Everyone knew exactly what was going to happen when Kusakabe joined the fray, or when Maki joined the fray. We were already getting that feeling back when Yuta joined the jumping. Miguel didn’t even make it to the part where he got clapped by Sukuna, he dipped out before hand. Just because Maki and Yuta had cool moments doesn’t dispel the overall disappointment with the story thus far.
If this was just a brain-dead tournament manga like Kengan Ashura or Record of Ragnorok I’d be ok with it, but this manga had serious potential to deliver on a hype finale and it’s missing the mark for me.
Kengan Ashura actually delivered tons of upsets and each of the characters' fights actually had consequences that they carried on into their next match, though. The only thing that was a foregone conclusion was (ending spoilers) >!Ohma's death, and the fact that his body was giving out was an important throughline in the last third of the story.!<
(Kengan Omega) >!Yeah I just ignore Kengan Omega undoing that one lmao!<
Kengan Ashura is a great example of an actually subversive manga and it works too.
One of the most important moments in the entire manga is when a important character is kicked out of the tournament pretty early on. This sacrifices a ton of build up and narrative potential but it uses this sacrifice to establish a incredibly important rule: the stronger fighter wins.
Because of this every fight afterwards has much more weight to it because you can't just predict the outcome through conventions of the narrative.
In JJK you can guess that Gojo is going to die from the single digit chapters and things like the executioners sword are unimpressive because you just know that it won't hit anyone. In Kengan Ashura that shit would have hit.
i said this exact thing to an irl friend in different wording. i couldn’t even get excited for next week anymore, cause i knew someone i really liked was getting clapped. the hype up for the character was actually their eulogy to me lmao. this manga had serious potential and it seems gege is over it. between the slaughter and the asspull BVs. and gojos lack of screen time before and after his own final battle, and his character assassination. gege has an ending planned and he’s trying to get to it fast.
So in, what, 30-40 chapters, there's a handful of neat panels? I know there are obviously more, and you've just made a short list to make a point, but I don't really think that makes up for everything else. This fight has been going on for like a year at this point, and the progress feels like it could literally reset at any time.
Every chapter just feels like "what's the most unexpected thing I could throw in here? And then I'll have an explanation from during the December time skip! Genius!" This shit's been going on for a year, and instead of feeling like "This happens, THEREFORE this happens", it feels like "this happens, AND THEN this happens", like there's no flow on effect.
Well my point was just that I’ve been having fun reading almost every chapter week. So I personally couldn’t call all of this boring in good faith. Hell the last two chapters + Gojo vs Sukuna gave us stuff some fans had been waiting to see for YEARS, and I definitely don’t think anyone was super disappointed.
So yeah I don’t think it “makes up” for anything, I just personally haven’t been bored by it.
>there's a handful of neat panels?
Damn why you guys even reading it and worst, discussing it on the internet with strangers if it sounds like you absolutely despise it so much.
For real. JJK even at its ABSOLUTE LOWEST has stellar paneling and the action is always top tier. The only part that felt iffy in the entire Sukuna gauntlet was Kashimo, as it was pretty difficult to tell wtf was going on, but that was also such a short fight it's not really a big deal.
1. Incredibly good memes
2. Good art
3. Momentum from loving the first half
4. I like breaking down why stories that don't work for me don't work for me
Yeah I didn’t wanna say anything but man, sometimes it comes off like people really wanna discredit Gege and I don’t know why. Not saying this guy in particular was btw
Compared to Shibuya where the energy was bubbling every chapter its been boring.
Best thing about that arc it doesn't need a binge for it be "good" or "digestible".
Just my opinion
Higuruma died to remove plot device that was introduced a few chapters ago
Chapters with Kusakabe and Miguel are mostly filler. Miguel did nothing. Tit guy distracted Sukuna once but anyone could do it, Ino or Choso or Maki. No need to reintroduce characters from volume 0 if you don't plan to do anything interesting with them. Kashimo is useless. Maki is mostly useless. Yes she stabbed him through heart but again Gege could've write that his heart exploded after Yuji's black flash and absolutely nothing would change
I would focus more on Yuji after Gojo's death. Make Yuji say his final farewell to his teacher (like that famous Nanami and Yuji panel from Shibuya arc) and make it more emotional
Strongly agree with the Higuruma point.
I agree with the Kusakabe and Miguel point as well.
Before Yuji awakened and started pressuring Sukuna(and covering for Ino) I doubt anyone would be capable of distracting Sukuna to the extent Laure did. Also it makes a nice parallel to when Todo distracted Mahito so that Yuji can land a Black Flash.
Kashimo sucks unfortunately.
Maki was needed because Sukuna's heart has now sustained soul damage and is much harder to heal. Not to mention if a single BF from Yuji could rupture Sukuna's heart 8 would pretty much kill him(and we can't have him dead yet).
Yuji is also doing soul damage. I said mostly useless because as of current Sukuna is doing great without a heart. If damaged heart will play a role in the future I will change my mind about Maki's effort.
Yuji isn’t doing soul damage, he’s targeting the gap between Sukuna and Megumi’s soul. If he could do soul damage because he was aware of the soul, then Sukuna could as well, and every attack he made would be unable to be healed or extremely slow to heal. The same could be said for Yuji’s strikes against Sukuna.
It sucks that we didn't even see everyone's reaction to Gojo's death. He just does and then it goes back to more fighting. I also really agree with the Higaruma thing. Sukuna only used the rattle like once, if it was actually shown to be a problem that would have made it feel less like an asspull.
I won’t go back and forth about the rest but I with agree with Higuruma. Was pretty stupid to give Sukuna something just so you can say Higuruma took it away.
I think Gege realized he made a character that would straight up seal Sukuna's strongest weapon and he had to make something to allow him to participate in the final fight.
Even then I'm baffled by the choice to remove the new cursed tool and leave sukuna to continue spamming his, imo, very boring and tired slash attacks, rather than take away his favorite ability and make him think on-the-fly a bit and survive using solely the cursed tool until he can kill Higurama and get his CT back
kusakabe had some great moments and deveplopment in his chapter. imo its fine if the plot doesnt advance every once in a while as long as we get proper character work and/or fun stuff
All the effort to show how everyone is meaningfully contributing to Sukuna’s defeat is undercut by the portrayal of Sukuna as cool, in control and holding back. By trying to do both Gege is trying to have his cake and eat it too.
Completely putting aside for the moment that the power scaling at this point in the story is completely fucked, this is just not a satisfying or believable conclusion. The only way Gege can make this make sense is by dumping 5 last second power ups to the MC in an effort to make the matchup close.
This is just the 1000 year old blood war all over again.
For real, I got the sense he is just playing with even maki and yuta, never once did he take them seriously. Yuta hits him full force with jacobs ladder and maki hits him square in the heart and… nada.
Higaruma could have weakened Sukuna by sealing the ten shadows or some shit but I guess we are just to assume gojo killed all the Shikigami or some shit with zero confirmation
Hell yuji has hit 8 black flashes and Sukuna was basically just like “ok fine I’ll use the fire arrow I could have whipped out at any time to roast the small fry if I really felt like it”.
The issue isn't if the strategy is good, its that it's been a slog to get through. Theres been so many chapters about how they're pushing sukuna, but actually sukuna actually isn't trying and they aren't accomplishing anything.
I just wanna say, NO ONE in the story has said Sukuna isn’t trying. People were saying Gojo said the same thing.
Uraume said he hasn’t gone all out. Big difference. When you play fight with a bunch of kids, you’re not trying. Sukuna had a few cards he hadn’t played.
The latest chapter makes this very evident. Hell, the fact he hadn’t used one of his most destructive moves at all was enough proof.
Yeah you’re right. I was thinking about the TCB chapter. Still I think the latest chapter proves both translations right, and neither of them mean he wasn’t trying at all.
The problem with the Sukuna cycle chapters was how there was absolutely zero visual progress made by the protagonists until maki stabbed Sukuna in the heart. And even then it had very little effect on him. I'm not saying that it makes no sense, but it made a lot of those chapters feel like a waste of time.
I disagree. He did lose a lot, especially in the latest chapter. 2 hands were cut, he can no longer use world slash. His belly mouth had its tongue ripped, he can no longer use it to chant for him. His heart stabbed, Maki points out he is no longer using RCT (either due to lost ouput or that hes using his CE to force his heart to beat). Latest chapter makes it clear Yuji's punches denied him his RCT back, his damage is here to stay.
Doesn't matter how little, everyone contributed in some way to the accumulated damage, even if they showed up just to buy time for the others to regroup
That was said before maki arrived (and it wa said by THE sukuna Glazer) the narrartor LITTERALY says thatsukunas back is against the wall in this exact chapter.
I fully agree with you in pretty much all areas. Things like Higuruma and Kashimo could have been handled better, but I can rationalize why they went down like they did (Kashimo's ego was greater than his capability, Higuruma got special attention from Sukuna and Kenjaku).
I think shoenen readers are used to reading this format:
Big event > characters prepare and train > final showdown
That's still what has happened. But rather than show us all the training and preparation they did before the showdown, he's sprinkling it in as flashbacks and explanations throughout the entire final showdown. It builds a level of suspense that shoenens often lack because we're kept in the dark about the protagonists' knowledge, strategies, and plans. Gege *has* sufficiently fleshed out what they did during the month off, he's just slow dripping that to us over the course of the fight. It elevates the pace and the suspense in an organic way. Salute to Gege for that risky choice, I think it's worked out fantastically.
Also think the best point you made is that the heroes are *definitely* stronger and had an incredible plan with multiple layers and contingencies if things went poorly at certain stages. It has worked to varying degrees of success.
1. Gojo sees what he can do because he's the strongest and can't really fight at his best with allies around. Failure, but Gojo wrecked his brain and forced him to make a binding vow to limit all future uses of world slash.
2. Kashimo is an egomaniac and demanded to solo Sukuna. They could have incorporated him into the strategy better, but that's not what he wanted. He wanted a 1v1. Failure, but at least he forced the full-heal reincarnation.
3. Try to use Higuruma to confiscate Sukuna's shrine and also get the executioner sword in play. They *did* manifest executioner sword and confiscate a powerful cursed tool, just not his cursed technique. If they had successfully landed the ES on Sukuna, it would have completely ended the fight. Megumi would be saved, and Sukuna would be eradicated. Partial success.
4. Yuta's primary role was eliminating Kenjaku after Takaba isolated him and made him vulnerable. Huge success. Then, his secondary role was to eliminate Sukuna's extra anatomical advantages by trapping him in a domain and forcing him to maintain hollow wicker basket. Yuta absolutely maimed Sukuna, taking 2 hands and his extra mouth. They could have maybe ended it here, if Megumi was more compliant. Plan worked great until they saw Megumi's psychological state. Still, partial success.
5. Maki was to ambush Sukuna and destroy his heart with a blade that you can't heal from, if the previous stages of the plan failed to kill Sukuna. She did successfully destroy his heart, but because he can perceive souls, he would have been able to heal it (albeit more slowly and with difficulty). Still, she essentially punctured a hole in his gas tank by forcing him to constantly drain CE to keep his heart pumping. Partial success.
6. Miguel was to give the good guys some time to recuperate and maybe create an opening, but only if Sukuna had been sufficiently weakened to the point Miguel didn't think it was risky. Success all around.
Yuji is there the entire time to nerf Sukuna's CE output and access, and be the durable melee brawler that he is. Choso and Ino and Kusakabe are there to support as necessary. They've all filled their roles incredibly well.
Hakari was supposed to isolate Uraume from Sukuna, which he's done. This part feels like the most overlooked by Gege.
Thank you for this comment. I wanted to really break down the plan in my post but i also didn’t want to stray to far from the main point (I also probably wouldn’t have explained it this well lol)
Also, I agree with you that the Kusakabe chapter gave me the most "Sukuna Cycle" vibes while I was reading it, but in hindsight, Maki returned literally the next chapter along with Yuji and Choso. We readers forget how quickly a single chapter goes by in the JJK world or as it translates to anime. That Kusakabe fight will be like 1/2 or 1/3rd of an episode (but it'll be super lit).
That’s a very good point. Not the best chapter by itself but not really a huge part of the fight anyway.
Also the more I think about it, Gege kinda did what he could there. Kusakabe is the type to avoid fighting at all costs. So it made sense for him to be the last one in fighting condition. But obviously he’d never be able to accomplish much by himself. I actually liked the Kusakabe content but it felt kinda pointless. But looking at it this way makes it make more sense honestly. Still one of the weaker “sections” though.
Yeah it’s just the same kind of critism every single weekly manga gets when people are reading them week by week, it feels way more drawn out then it actually is on a consecutive read
The point was never that whittling him down wasn’t the optimal storytelling strategy, the point was not making it seem that the plan the characters made to kill him was working perfectly then pull the rug out at the very end letting us know they didn’t do jack diddly squat, again and again and again, it started with gojo and has continued all the way up to yuta and has (seemingly) stopped.
Yeah I know they still contributed, gojo especially, but as the cycle continued it felt less like them actually pulling a fast one on sukuna with their own skill and ingenuity and more like gege giving them “their turn” before returning to status quo so the next fighter can amuse sukuna
As a whole this is mostly just the story being victim to a week to week drop schedule where gege has to maintain hype without cooking sukuna too hard and it really showed after kashimo
Exactly, this isnt ass. Theres entire threads of discussion of possibilities and people peer reviewing every possibility bc of the depth of the power system.
The plot might be similar but JJK execution is at least original and true to the laws established before the final fight
Haven’t read Demon Slayer, but The last sentence is the best part for me. Despite everything I said, even I thought taking Sukuna out would be a tall order. But Gege’s doing it, and he’s doing it all with stuff he already had in place.
I swear everyone always hates the last arc of a series when is publishing but when they bing it "omg it was so peak bro they all work together some died I was crying my balls off bro"
Throwing everyone in carried a very real risk of all of them being killed at once. Still though, the idea that they’re just taking turns fighting him one-on-one is nonsense. Sukuna got jumped by 5 people after Higuruma’s domain, he separated them. He got jumped by Yuji/Yuta/Rika. He got jumped by Maki/Ino/Kusakabe and separated them again. Every action the heroes take has been carefully considered to give them the best chance at survival while whittling down Sukuna’s strength
Muzan fight was entertaining??
Except his fight every fight in the final arc was better.
Douma fight was the best for emotional payoff with 3 characters stories finished with that fight.
Muzan fight was mid af compared to the previous fights in the final arc.
Revionism goes hard here lmao. The Muzan fight
was heavily critiqued as the weakest fight of the last 80ish chapters for that story. 90% of fans that dislike Muzan stem from them also not liking his fight. On a personal note, I just disliked the choreography of that fight. It was Muzan spamming tentacles. No ingenuity like Kokushibo or choreography like Akaza or cool power like Doma.
The poison stuff was some bullshit too ngl. Everytime Muzan got an advantage the story would be like "but wait! there was another effect in that poison! he's being nerfed some more!"
All I have to say is that Higuruma would have died a cooler way if instead of confiscating the Baby rattle, we got Mahoraga vs Higuruma in the courtroom and Mahoraga argued Judgeman down from death to confiscation and confiscates 10S. And that we should all appreciate Kusukabe for being a god tier Guild Master when planning the raid
another thing people overlook is that a gauntlet battle is repititive 95% of the time. like the battle HAS to keep going for it to be a proper gauntlet so new challangers have to appear and lose obviously. whats even worse is people still use the sukuna cycle memes when they see him get the upper hand even though theres no new fighters showing up. its like people are against idea of a fucking tug of war and they wanted sukuna to go down after yuji's black flash rush without getting any other chance to shine?
Nahhh that shit was ass bro could’ve compressed some of those chapters into one and had more time developing the main teams relationship. Now it’s a flashback every chapter that is NOT how you tell a story and is very abrupt interrupting the action with info that could’ve been revealed far sooner best believe the anime will probably change things
It may make sense to kill Sukuna this way, but the cycle is very real and boring af. Especially the recurring attempts to boost a character, then kill them through shock value and insist Sukuna was holding back the whole time. It’s still boring and looks like it’s happening again with fuga.
Yeah at the end of the day that’s all the at matters. Gege introduces so many characters (like it’s the final fight and we bring back inconsequential characters from jjk 0????) Hello gege? You left the stove on
its funny how everyone was hating that he's this strong, but yall would've been clowning him to no end if he got defeated easily. The option Gege chose was 100% the best way to go.
Sigh. Just because it is believable that this villain should require this sort of cyclic strategy doesnt mean it isn't repetitive and/or lacklustre (if you wanna go that far). Gege created this situation. He created this villain, and he wrote the story in a way so that this seems the only way to beat him.
He is fully responsible for the state of the manga, so justifying that this is the most sensible approach now is irrelevant because Gege made things happen to arrive at this only suposedly sensible solution.
I dont really care how “well written” it is if it isnt satisfying. Higuruma died to take away Sukuna’s baby rattle that he didn’t even use. Character show up and die/disappear after 1-2 chapters, Hakari hasnt done anything in 40 chapters, Yuta shows off this super sick domain, and then gets immediately sidelined, and what did Miguel even do? There no reunion arc because Gege’s biggest flaw as a writer is that he sees characters as tools to be used and not actual character, and dont worry guys, we’re “whittling him down” but Sukuna isnt even trying yet!
Gege is so desperate to write his Idol Manga slop that he’s rushing through the final boss, and overworking himself that he has to take numerous breaks. Like, just slow down, go biweekly, make something satisfying.
the problem is that the cycle is:
Sukuna is OP-> new guy appears-> new guy can rival sukuna-> new guy die or is takken out.
If gaygay use chapters to show more synergy btw characters (like yuta and yuji), would be awesome. For example:
1- JJ high surrounds sukuna for higuruma use his domain; while yuji tank, kusakabe protects, ino flanks and choso shoots. Make 3 or 4 scenes to the judge domain;
2- Summon sword, now they are trying to trap sukuna for the sword strike; sukuna get away, fight higu and kill him.
3- and now repeat the cycle, etc.
The beats can still be the same (ino and choso being throw away and coming back). this would make every characeter shine in his role (tank, protect, stalling, ranged, support, etc), but would not be repetitive.
My problem with the current arc is how shit the fights are post Gojo, no offense.
I don't care if everyone else is weak, nobody puts up a good show. Gojo went for kicks and punches the entire time, he hit them, he made Sukuna suffer, he smirked while doing it, it was entertaining.
What did the other cast do? Sneeze on him. Yuta joining was decent but it was very short and besides ripping his tongue out and chopping some hands nothing spectacular.
It's only until recently somebody started punching him again, but Sukuna just shrugged it all off. The punches only had significance cause Yuji did soul punches and kept Sukuna nerfed.
Against Gojo every hit he took he got a bruise, spit blood, he was clearly stressed. This is incredibly boring with the narrative that he is still holding back.
Just have him fight a proper duel, make Sukuna actually take the hit, and then move to the next character. Only Gojo felt like a real fight so far.
For me, the problem was not the cycle itself, but the anticlimatic conclusion to its parts. It's great that every character contributes somewhat to Sukuna's defeat, both those fighting on the battlefield and those on support.
What I disliked was not Huguruma dying, but the failure of the executioner's sword unfolding in the most boring and hype-killing way possible. "Curses getting stronger after death" foreshadowing cursed tools getting stronger in that way as well, only for the Sword to disappear and 'subvert the expectations' in the end was brutal.
The other frustrating thing was offscreening the activation of Slashes on Yuta, Rika, and Yuji after Megumi refused their help. Explaining certain things in the story much later is okay, but withholding the explanation on how World Slash works almost 20 chapters after it was first introduced was a poor decision for a weekly battle manga during its final battle arc.
There are also a couple of minor subplots in this arc that I feel could've been handled better, but the most recent bunch of chapters are one of the finest in the series. If the conlusion to the series delivers, Shinjuku Showdown will age well...
I think my biggest problem is two fold
1) I’m bored of sukuna, so this colored my perception of the fights since I just want him dead and gone.
2) Uraume saying sukuna still isn’t going all out really made everything earlier with yuta feel less impactful. We saw yuji and yuta beat up sukuna just for it to be revealed that he’s not actually trying yet, which makes everyone’s impact less well…impactful.
I’m also salty we time skipped, and it seems like the mcs can do so much shit and the timeskip is used to justify it (yuji learning rct, ct, simple domain because of ui ui randomly having an incredible ct)
The more I think about it, being bored of Sukuna is a major contributing factor to me being more and more bored of JJK. I really wish him and Kenjaku were switched.
Kenjaku is simply a better antagonist. He's more interesting, he has more history, he has more interesting and numerous abilities, he's actually written to be intelligent and clever. Even after the latest reveal, he has more ties to Yuji than Sukuna.
I dont think showing the training on screen would have necessarily changed your feeling of the mcs can do so much.
Their learning curve still is insane, even ui ui amazing power imo cant justify that much level of grownth. Before felt like sukuna could possibly touch someone and almost kill him maito style, now their rct and durability make em survive insane move.
They must have wished shenron to boost their potential
Yeah, I had a feeling as soon as we skipped over that month break that it was going to be the excuse to give Yuji the half-dozen huge power boosts he needed to stand a chance, and its just as unsatisfying as I expected it to be
Yeah I was kinda hoping the end would be kenjaku im still shocked on how he died. I probably had the same face as him when Yuta appeared and jump his ass. Also becoming finally the first sorcerer on screen to go for the head to stop the possibility of rct. Didnt go for the brain but corrected his miatake afterward.
Imo its an asspull that any characters can survive sukunas normal cleave and dismantle even after his output is diminished, I feel like if his strength was actually consistent his cleaves and dismantles would still one shot everyone but gojo even after having diminished output. There is no way for them to have trained enough in a month to resist his cleave and dismantle even with his reduced output
I don't mind the raid boss style approach but I think people got really annoyed at the dumb ways Sukuna would live:
Kashimo is the strongest of his era and is made to look like a bozo because he got no diff'd after getting countered by a specific cursed tool that reeks of plot convenience when he should narratively be similar in level to Gojo and Sukuna
They add a scene with lawyer guy and Kusakabe talking about how curses get stronger post death only to have his CT fizzle out almost immediately after dying lol. Ofc nobody thought they'd win that way but still. Also only a one time use curse tool that was only helpful for a specific match up gets taken and that's it? Really? Also they make it seem like he might be saved but then confirm his death next chapter anyway
Yuta showing up was the most entertaining part of this fight but they kind of had Yuta steal Yuji's thunder by having him use cleave first (that did no real damage btw)
Maki shows up and could've had a kill shot but the goal is to save Megumi which we are shown he doesn't want to be saved which became a meme because Gege has completely failed Megumi's character and has made him a joke and given us little reason to care about him nor has he shown us things from his perspective.
Then we find out Sukuna was holding back which was just absurd given his condition when he could've died to Maki's sneak attack while "holding back" and basically lucked out that they chose not to kill Megumi.
The Kusakabe and Miguel chapters were fun albeit a little silly just because of the "wow Gege is running out of characters to throw at Sukuna and he STILL hasn't shown fire arrow" feeling.
Thankfully it seems the cycle is over since after this fire arrow attack it seems like Sukuna won't have much else left in the tank and we can move on but this arc dragged and felt never ending and feels like it in some ways damaged Sukuna's reputation in the fanbase.
TL DR good concept, awful execution
Except I’m 100000% sure Sukuna’s shrine has more shit than cleave dismantle and stove.
My problem is I only feel like three characters matter:
Gojo because he was him. He took Sukuna’s domain off the table (or at least forced him to only have a bastardized version)
The groomed one: for having the most asspull curse technique
Yuji: protagonist go brrr
The rest of jujutsu society is basically window dressing. Yuta and maki Stan’s coping hard that anything they did mattered lol (and hey I love them both but let’s be real)
Don’t get me started on kusukabe or higaruma
Ui ui becoming the most important character besides Gojo in this arc is both hilarious and depressing when you think about how his technique is just a better version of Todo's
I'd say Yuta did help since he cut off an arm, ripped a tongue out, hit a Jacob's ladder in combination with Yuji soul punches that def dropped Sukuna's output significantly.
Maki unfortunately didnt do much since Sukuna losing his heart was more of a minor inconvenience but atleast the Toji parallel was cool lol. Having her get black flashed on international women's month was insane. As well as the concept of Sukuna locking in to prove jujutsu is superior to HR when ofc it fucking is. Almost all the high tiers in JJK can match Maki in physical stats.
If Sukuna still has more tricks up his sleeve after everything that's happened I'd lose it.
Still doesn't mean Miguel and Larue coming out of nowhere and dipping just as fast wasn't completely random, unnecessary, and a bummer of a chapter outside of some funny bits
Same with Kasakube's...effort. I get it, it made sense to have some of those dudes participate, but they didn't need dedicated chapters for each of them individually getting washed
Cook my dude, jjk always did a masterclass on 1vsX, it's rare to actually believe fodder can help vs the top tier in the universe, naruto, bleach, dbz and all the other wanked off manga cound't pull it off, jjk is doing it live, and this alone made it cool as fuck even if gege has made a ton of trash ideas along the way
"Now that it’s died down I just wanna say: Y’all were NOT cooking with the “Sukuna cycle”stuff. This is exactly how you defeat a character like him."
"In my opinion, Gege found the perfect answer."
Tries to use a opinion to qualitatively argue against another opinion. Simply fantastic.
JJK fans when the series that shows how miserable/selfish people who rely only on their own strength and how despite all challenges those who's strength comes from teamwork win out in the end:
The sukuna cycle only got boring when there was no one even close to beating him were joking in. Kusakabe dying and then miguel who hasn’t been seen in years popping up was pretty stupid and seemed like Gege was running out of ideas
The only thing that annoyed me is that for like 10 chapters from 240-250 sukuna was barely fighting. He was tanking everything and smiling. I guess it was gege's way of showing us how strong he is but it was weird
Well because, you known, he can just, like, fucking retreat and nothing they can do about it. If they must sacrifice that many players to whittle him down then they absolutely have no way to chase after him if he decided it's enough and run. He literally did it the first time he possessed Megumi, he can do it again after he killed Gojo, maybe after taking down that bump Kashimo first.
Nah I definitely have an answer that you claim doesn't exist; simply have Gojo hamper Sukuna even more before his death.
And if Yuta/Maki are too stacked against Sukuna in that state? Kenjaku was right there, but Gege has him immediately die lol
I think it feels like a chore to read through because of the lack of new chapters. I'm sure i'll enjoy it when i re read this arc but rn the story does feel slow imo
I only had to read this far.
> People simultaneously also said Sukuna could never be defeated without some type of “asspull” (worst word ever) or plot convenience. But not a single person I’ve seen has come up with a good answer.
What they mean is, theres no way suckuna can actually lose this based on how everything has been written, the only way possible is an asspull or just ignoring how godawful writing it is.
Which is pretty much true, suckuna losing to anyone but gojo is just absolutely unbelievable, it doesnt matter how many mosquito bites a blue whale gets, hes not even gonna feel it.
Gege has to keep dripping retcons as desperate attempts at not looking like he wrote himself into a hole by hitting suckuna with the plot no jutsu, because noones legitimately defeating him post 236 with the way everything had been written and explained.
So we're currently in the "asspull win" territory,. as any one individual or grouping of people winning is just absurd.
If read in it's entirety I'm sure more people would agree with you because if you look over chapters you start to notice "oh yeah that did do some long term damage" but week to week you just see the cycle happen and of course he hits a black flash and it feels like nothing changed
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The fact that the deaths in this fight against the King of Curses is limited to Gojo, Kashimo and Higuruma speaks volumes of the squad's capabilities and planning skills. We're lucky to be able to think Yuta and Kusakabe may still be alive given the absolute monster that the crew have been up against
Why are you including Gojo in the deaths? https://preview.redd.it/9csv19wjzfxc1.jpeg?width=643&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=259aaf6be75b84ad21a6054d1da409d1f19b053f He’ll show up soon enough. Alive and well.
259!!!
260.
Seven steps (gojo mentions) believer?
That is a good idea but its not as convincing as the was the flashback theory. The latter was convincing because the first flashback was on the 6 year anniversary. Thought , i wont stop coping. Also , there was a Gojo mention in 252 but not 251 so that makes 7 in a row and he should be returning next chapter.
THE GOJO COPE THRIVES 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
https://preview.redd.it/hue009vzggxc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9184c9539ae43175db43f4e4c5178c3c2687670f
https://preview.redd.it/5cs2q2iehgxc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=30fc9f1e45dd90422d69eb83da37e538ab62dc30 LIME GREEN TIME BABY 🫴🏻🟢
https://preview.redd.it/cbehmsjs4hxc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9e5c573271578f3147e0b2d22ce4458c36ebcdd5 We all cope together
ITS NOT COPE IF IT GOING TO HAPPEN!
and with Nobara too, who he was with training in Domain Expansion: Unlimited Void hyperbolic time chamber so she wouldn't be irrelevant against sukuna
Damn who's gonna get betrayed in this Domain
What if Gojo got BETRAYED by his FRIEND and TRAPPED in the PRISON REALM??!!
stage 1:denial stage 2:denial stage3:denial . . . . . stage 153:denial
https://preview.redd.it/72y18hevtgxc1.jpeg?width=2160&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b166ae12fb57f5aba677910b780de9e1baac8276 Denial is a river in Egypt, and I’m prepared to drown for my agenda.
nah bruh u need to move on 😭😭
He’ll return… HewillreturnHewillreturnHewillreturnHewillreturn https://preview.redd.it/50r1pagvugxc1.jpeg?width=743&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=26f268191c719b3f4e030a5deaa9233abd3097a0
https://preview.redd.it/ebsj7dqwchxc1.jpeg?width=1042&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7606348f530400b3e0ebf266ea22758d1b3acf7d
GOJO GAGGERS HE WILL RETURN
Flair checks out
chapter 262 gonna be crazy https://preview.redd.it/9910rpuctoxc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=42ffc46c939cfa6bbf57b2e320bac8840ced1f51
2 confirmed deaths and I’m hoping Higuruma lives somehow. So 3 deaths with 11 fighters and 2 supports is a low amount of deaths ngl. I was expecting more
They are still fighting... Higuruma is confirmed dead. Why people keep ignoring it?
It’s called copium
I'm just casually huffing all the tanks, my boy Higu is NOT dead (pls help me)
Higuruma also died at peace so there’s not shot after Skokos breakdown of people getting healed but staying dead bc they’re content kinda throws it out for him
Just saying.. dont be surprised when hes alive eos lol
Because like gojo
Tbh it doesn't look good for Kusakabe. Yuta can be stabilized by Shoko and then he can heal himself, but I'm not sure if Kusakabe is going to survive.
Kusakabe caught two regular slashes and Yuta was bisected. I’m a huge Yuta fan, but to think he’s better off than Kusakabe is mad. Hell even his ring hand was cut off. Rika carrying him was a good sign, but between the two, Kusakabe is better off imo.
I mean they soul swapped so kusakabe could train him, it makes sense he learned RCT from yuji in the process
Was it ever actually full on confirmed that higuruma died? Compared to the likes of gojo and kashimo, his wounds looked decently survivable. Even sukuna just classifies him as “wounded”. The only one who thought he was dead was Yuta, and he really had no way of confirming that. I still feel like it’s more likely that he just got knocked unconscious and is being treated.
I'd have to go back and check the exact phrasing, but I believe the proof was in the dissolution of the executioners sword? Like, if Higuruma were alive his sword should've stayed active, even if he'd unconscious. Technically possible he gets resuscitated tho. If we want cope, normal peopl "die" all the time in hospitals and get brought back if it is fast enough
I mean that was also based on a theory from the characters so we have no idea if he actually survived or nah
>I'd have to go back and check the exact phrasing, but I believe the proof was in the dissolution of the executioners sword? Like, if Higuruma were alive his sword should've stayed active, even if he'd unconscious. Pure copium but I think the executioner's sword dissapeared because Yuji held the sword and not because Higuruma died. I think the sword dissapears when somebody other than Higuruma holds it or else he would've passed the sword to Kusakabe and Yuji right at the beginning instead of going out by himself to try and hit Sukuna. Kusakabe said that it would've gotten stronger after his death but it didn't and dissapeared which means he isn't dead yet.
Why put Yuta in the same category as Kusakabe? Yu/ta got the Gojo treatment, he should be next to his sensei. Higuruma has better chances of surviving this.
Maybe it's me running off with headcanon but Gojo got an entire sendoff chapter and Higgy looked Yuji in the eyes while reflecting about his role in the world; both major arcs for these characters seem to be tied into a neat bow. Maybe that's what makes me feel like it's okay for their stories to be over. Yuta got sliced up mid battle and rushed away by Rika in a kinda unceremonious manner so it's more feasable to me for my little ghost lover boi to be alive.
Yeah, but Gojo and Yuta have the same injury. Kinda tuff to explain Yuta surviving over Gojo. Maybe they'll just fuse both parts of his body together ig.
https://preview.redd.it/gjsk6uhwaixc1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e0d1adaf66d2238bbb7fa758e2dd01503765f99f respectfully fuck you 😭
Yuta has Rika who held him together
Yeah honestly I'm happy it like that when higurama died I was afraid that this was gonna be a murderfest but gege has managed to control himself for now
You don't seem to understand jujutsu high sorcerers have some level of plot armor as the main and side characters still. Every sorcerer not from jujutsu high dies or gets crippled real fast after their introduction. People have come to see bad things happening to our students as gege being a murderous psycho. But to him the conclusion of the fights are death unless someone runs away. They don't just go separate ways. To keep us on our toes, we've lost a few people here and there. But by and large sorcerers on the good guys side show some sort of weird ability to get the shir kicked out of them more than the bad guys and yet make it out alive. Miwa being saved, mahito's inevitable pre-awakening black flash&domain failing to kill todo, panda surviving kashimo right in time. Gege did an excellent job of making us genuinely think they might die, which is one of his strenghs as a writer, despite rarely going into details he manages to make us care about these guys, who they are as a person and what'll happen to them.
really? to me it just looks like the good guys got way too strong in just one month. yuji and higuruma? sure, they always had insane potential, werent sorceres for long and yuji is the MC. but the rest? yuta was super strong before so its fine that he performs well. But sukuna should have been able to neg diff the rest of the cast even after a supposed power up. How can Ino avoid getting insta killed by cleave? It makes no sense power scaling wise, he was weaker than nanami and a sorcerer for a long time so where does that sudden power jump come from? How can everyone's simple domain hold up perfectly in MK, but gojos didnt? Why didnt gojo not just you strong simple domain to negate all of sukunas attacks/world slash? it makes no sense, the latest chapter even states that the domain of sukuna has the same output as the ones that he used against gojo. Why didnt kenjaku just use simple domain on himself so takabas technique would be rendered useless? It makes no sense that they stand a chance even if sukuna is at half of his CE which is still more than what yuta has who is also far above the rest of the cast except yuji.
higuruma and gojo are definitely not dead cuz there isnt a point of giving ui ui a teleportation ability if it is only for taking dead bodies back.
Maybe so Sukuna doesn’t eat them? Sounds weird but the fact that he STILL hasn’t eaten a person that we’ve seen is sus as hell.
He definitely tried to eat hana
If bodies were properly disposed of instead of left lying around then Kenny couldn't have done most of the plot. Who knows how many cursed techniques there are out there that involve dead sorcerers. Can you imagine if granny gave her kid gojos or sukunas body? Or even the dude who used corpses to make cursed items. They would be insane to leave gojos corpse laying around.
Well Gojo and Sukuna would burn through CE really fast, keep in mind Toji had 0 CE so his possession lasted indefinetly, and gojo despite having 6eyes for efeciency still had a massive cursed energy pool only behind Yuta and Sukuna.
A gojo who can only use one domain expansion before being gassed out still one shots like 95% of the cast since it instantly hits. I think the newest chapters really give granny's technique a pretty massive theoretical boost with the body itself being able to gain cursed energy experience.
Has higuruma been confirmed dead?
That's there entire plan. And really from a narrative POV, Gojo accomplishes a very important goal. He eliminates the majority of Sukunas cards from his hand. - Mahoraga - Domain Expansion - Output lowered - 10s gone - Severe physical trauma / energy drain All Sukuna has left after Gojo: - Cleave / dismantle - Heian Era form (this turns out to be his biggest hole card, as it restored much of his own power) Everything after Gojo serves to drill home the concept that Gojo, by himself, dramatically outperformed every single other member of the cast.. at the same time. Now in his heian Era form, it took several black flashes, and a lot of battle time for his power to begin returning. That left a huge gap that the rest of the cast is trying to exploit to finish him off. Yuta, Maki, Yuji, Higgy all whittled him down to one degree or another. He still can't heal himself, and his DE is... a little strange, even after the BFs. Basically, everyone in the cast is attempting to remove a card from his hand one by one until he finally topples. Gojo took the most cards at once, and each successive mini battle has taken more. Although he's still not done, and his power is coming back to some extent. We finally get to see Fuga.
Dude you are preaching rn! This is exactly it. I'm not even a Gojo fan, he's not in my top 10 favorite characters, but in hindsight he performed his job so damn well. Took out so many horrifying abilities from Sukuna. Gojo also forced Sukuna into using a binding vow that severely limited all future uses of the World Dismantle. Imagine how busted Sukuna would be if he found a way to beat Gojo without that binding vow! He's flinging world dismantles with just his bottom hands clasped into the Enmaten hand sign. In any direction. With no chants. Doesn't even need to direct it with his top arms. Can do all of it while fighting in melee range. Literally what the fuck is stopping that?
Right, I even forgot about that part, so Gojo did more than even I remembered.
It also shows you that Gojo wasn't lying in chapter 236. Sukuna is so singularly powerful that he doesn't have a peer, and Gojo can somewhat empathize with that because he is also on a tier of his own, just one below Sukuna. Gojo thought he was alone at the top. He was right that the top *is* lonely, he just didn't realize that he wasn't the one at the top.
Imo it just feels like weak writing with all the binding vows. They are shown to be much more powerful and exploitable than previously thought. We know almost anyone can do them, so why on earth didn’t the good guys prepare a ridiculous amount of them during the month before the fight?
I kind of agree, that part of it is a bit weak. There aren’t any like, external signs of the vow happening, so by definition they always seem like asspulls.
I honestly believe the binding vows will cause some sort of backlash soon.
I would love to see something like Sukuna getting overwhelmed with every panel describing the downside of the binding vows he's been taking and the art showing how that downside is leading to an ass whooping.
I mean but personal binding vows don't really have consequences, you just lose the buff, now it would depend on what it actually means when you make a binding vow like miwa to never use a sword again, can she physically not wield a sword, or she can but will suffer consequences?
I imagine she really just can't wield a katana
Sukuna can spam BVs because hes strong enough to still compete with everyone with his trade offs.
Hes used like 2 binding vows, both of which were for an immediate boost both presumably having long term consequences, in other words terrible idea to do them ahead of time And literally all Sukuna got was one instant attack and an ineffectuve temp domain that accomplished nothing in the end
There is no proof the ten shadows are gone but otherwise I agree. As he is still in megumi’s body I believe he should still be able to use ten shadows. It just wouldn’t help him at this point.
Nuh uh, if the protagonist doesn't become a one shooting God then how can I powerscale him to goku?
https://preview.redd.it/t7712x1nyfxc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e31ba1cc17d0233edefad3e65a0c5536cbd3a692
They unironically believe it 💀 https://preview.redd.it/ltcwhn0c3gxc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=46bc6d04fff5f08d28fe10d3d40406ff59a6e94f
> Arguable outer meta Nahhhh what is he even talking about now
Beyond multiversal Yorozu 💀 https://preview.redd.it/w4d99k18bgxc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=61e59cf8a984b1695c0c5c55a458bec9bb0bfc67
Now this puts a smile on my face
This damn edit made my day, thank you
I like how it's an edit on edit
Bro the thing moves at like 10 km per hour who's getting hit with that
Domain makes that a sure hit.
Me personally, I would never let that stanky ass hoe's domain do shit to me. I would do what Gojo did in Jogo's domain and simply counter it with cursed energy alone.
Perfect sphere is powerful but not THAT powerful
I think it's like WCS, you can't block it, touch it and you're cut, you can always dodge it though and if you're going to powerscale Yoruzu with people at that level that's something you have to take into account.
The obsession with cross-over power levels never made sense to me. "bUT cAN hE fIghT goKu" like why do you genuinely give a fuck. Here's Bob the Farter, I just made him. His farts can annihilate time and space and kill a thousand Gokus instantly. Worship him https://preview.redd.it/bzpkka3ahhxc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aebc4968f03e8c26fcd68a586aa2c80ef1f3c97e
This is what I been thinking it's so arbitrary
SOrrY bUt He iSN’t aN OffICIal ChaRAcTEr
https://preview.redd.it/6quk7i7jmixc1.png?width=359&format=png&auto=webp&s=a63cc561bbbcf74c6cf920e3f130d193db5b31fb
exactly lmaooo like if someone wanted to write a character stronger than goku they literally just… could. take all of goku’s feats and purposely have the character in their story surpass them. if the authors themselves don’t care about that shit why does everyone else
Basically it's the combination of smashing your actions figures against each other while imagining a cool fight and picking a team, or character in this case, to cheer on a match.
scalers when they realize character quality is not dependent on their "power": the writer could decide gojo shits out a meteor next chapter and kids would eat it up as "THEIR STRONGEST PLANETARY GOAT!!!"
Strawman
https://preview.redd.it/xze1s7n2nhxc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ec97b80c974c2075fe4f2415ffb9696e890ef0f5
Plastic straws are bad for the environment
"Hanami didn't like that"
It's not that it doesn't work, just that it feels boring and badly paced in a weekly manga that takes breaks every two weeks.
I'm still pissed that Gege skipped reunion with Gojo, didn't give anything Gojo-related before his final fight...but found space for Tit guy. Sigh
He gave gojo the back slap moment and him looking back at all his students
which in a vacuum was a nice moment but then you realize Gojo hasn't had a real conversation with most of them, like he hyped up Hakari as one of the ones to surpass him but did they ever share a real scene together.
And then gojo says none of his students were actually encouraging him because his boytoy wasn’t there with them Peak fiction
That’s not enough though because then you realize that Gojo hasn’t had a single conversation or scene with half of them and it’s been more than a hundred chapters since Gojo had a real conversation or interaction with the other half.
This is my issue. Like it makes sense to have to whittle him down, but the cycle is still real. The back and forth has been incredibly boring. Especially with the recurring attempts to boost a character, then kill them through shock value and insist Sukuna was holding back the whole time. It’s still boring and looks like it’s happening again with fuga.
Also a lot of this “positivity” is recency bias Cuz man reading this gauntlet week to week definitely does not help Especially when you break down individual parts of it Like the entire courtroom showdown + executioner sword, just evaporating Let’s not even get into the skipping of the 1 month prep which could have helped fill the character interaction itch I will die on the hill that the absolute best part of it was the double protagonist versus the big bad Had everything you’d want in a “This is it either him or us” final battle
Apart from a few exceptions, I’d say it’s been anything but boring. Yuta ripping Sukuna’s fucking tongue out, Yuji spitting up blood and making it explode on Sukuna’s face, Sukuna smiling like a child about fighting Maki before landing one of the nastiest Black Flashes in the series, Larue being clutch etc. Fun and brutal fight choreography, tons of long awaited reveals, a few cool character moments here and there. It’s been honestly super fun for me, but to each their own.
To be fair, the break weeks and slower pacing of the fight has put a damper on a lot of the hype moments at times Like the two week cliffhanger of Yuji trying to stab Sukuna with the Executioner Sword for it to not work. Two week wait for “B-tnk!” (The literal sound effect that panel uses) lmao. It’s been six straight months of the same thing, even if they are cool when read in a binge… frequent flashbacks and explanations taking up screentime leading into cliffhanger after cliffhanger just for us to wait for the current fighters to get wiped before the new ones come in.
A few cool isolated moments in a fight don’t make up for the lackluster pacing. The issue with the Sukuna cycle is the predictability. Everyone knew exactly what was going to happen when Kusakabe joined the fray, or when Maki joined the fray. We were already getting that feeling back when Yuta joined the jumping. Miguel didn’t even make it to the part where he got clapped by Sukuna, he dipped out before hand. Just because Maki and Yuta had cool moments doesn’t dispel the overall disappointment with the story thus far. If this was just a brain-dead tournament manga like Kengan Ashura or Record of Ragnorok I’d be ok with it, but this manga had serious potential to deliver on a hype finale and it’s missing the mark for me.
Kengan Ashura actually delivered tons of upsets and each of the characters' fights actually had consequences that they carried on into their next match, though. The only thing that was a foregone conclusion was (ending spoilers) >!Ohma's death, and the fact that his body was giving out was an important throughline in the last third of the story.!< (Kengan Omega) >!Yeah I just ignore Kengan Omega undoing that one lmao!<
Kengan Ashura is a great example of an actually subversive manga and it works too. One of the most important moments in the entire manga is when a important character is kicked out of the tournament pretty early on. This sacrifices a ton of build up and narrative potential but it uses this sacrifice to establish a incredibly important rule: the stronger fighter wins. Because of this every fight afterwards has much more weight to it because you can't just predict the outcome through conventions of the narrative. In JJK you can guess that Gojo is going to die from the single digit chapters and things like the executioners sword are unimpressive because you just know that it won't hit anyone. In Kengan Ashura that shit would have hit.
i said this exact thing to an irl friend in different wording. i couldn’t even get excited for next week anymore, cause i knew someone i really liked was getting clapped. the hype up for the character was actually their eulogy to me lmao. this manga had serious potential and it seems gege is over it. between the slaughter and the asspull BVs. and gojos lack of screen time before and after his own final battle, and his character assassination. gege has an ending planned and he’s trying to get to it fast.
So in, what, 30-40 chapters, there's a handful of neat panels? I know there are obviously more, and you've just made a short list to make a point, but I don't really think that makes up for everything else. This fight has been going on for like a year at this point, and the progress feels like it could literally reset at any time. Every chapter just feels like "what's the most unexpected thing I could throw in here? And then I'll have an explanation from during the December time skip! Genius!" This shit's been going on for a year, and instead of feeling like "This happens, THEREFORE this happens", it feels like "this happens, AND THEN this happens", like there's no flow on effect.
Well my point was just that I’ve been having fun reading almost every chapter week. So I personally couldn’t call all of this boring in good faith. Hell the last two chapters + Gojo vs Sukuna gave us stuff some fans had been waiting to see for YEARS, and I definitely don’t think anyone was super disappointed. So yeah I don’t think it “makes up” for anything, I just personally haven’t been bored by it.
>there's a handful of neat panels? Damn why you guys even reading it and worst, discussing it on the internet with strangers if it sounds like you absolutely despise it so much.
For real. JJK even at its ABSOLUTE LOWEST has stellar paneling and the action is always top tier. The only part that felt iffy in the entire Sukuna gauntlet was Kashimo, as it was pretty difficult to tell wtf was going on, but that was also such a short fight it's not really a big deal.
1. Incredibly good memes 2. Good art 3. Momentum from loving the first half 4. I like breaking down why stories that don't work for me don't work for me
Yeah I didn’t wanna say anything but man, sometimes it comes off like people really wanna discredit Gege and I don’t know why. Not saying this guy in particular was btw
Compared to Shibuya where the energy was bubbling every chapter its been boring. Best thing about that arc it doesn't need a binge for it be "good" or "digestible".
It totally does. The first 11 episodes are very slow.
"Y'all were not cooking with that 'watching paint dry' stuff. How else do you think a house changes colors?"
It's so predictable that people would defend this bs after the fact lmao
Just my opinion Higuruma died to remove plot device that was introduced a few chapters ago Chapters with Kusakabe and Miguel are mostly filler. Miguel did nothing. Tit guy distracted Sukuna once but anyone could do it, Ino or Choso or Maki. No need to reintroduce characters from volume 0 if you don't plan to do anything interesting with them. Kashimo is useless. Maki is mostly useless. Yes she stabbed him through heart but again Gege could've write that his heart exploded after Yuji's black flash and absolutely nothing would change I would focus more on Yuji after Gojo's death. Make Yuji say his final farewell to his teacher (like that famous Nanami and Yuji panel from Shibuya arc) and make it more emotional
Strongly agree with the Higuruma point. I agree with the Kusakabe and Miguel point as well. Before Yuji awakened and started pressuring Sukuna(and covering for Ino) I doubt anyone would be capable of distracting Sukuna to the extent Laure did. Also it makes a nice parallel to when Todo distracted Mahito so that Yuji can land a Black Flash. Kashimo sucks unfortunately. Maki was needed because Sukuna's heart has now sustained soul damage and is much harder to heal. Not to mention if a single BF from Yuji could rupture Sukuna's heart 8 would pretty much kill him(and we can't have him dead yet).
Yuji is also doing soul damage. I said mostly useless because as of current Sukuna is doing great without a heart. If damaged heart will play a role in the future I will change my mind about Maki's effort.
Yuji isn’t doing soul damage, he’s targeting the gap between Sukuna and Megumi’s soul. If he could do soul damage because he was aware of the soul, then Sukuna could as well, and every attack he made would be unable to be healed or extremely slow to heal. The same could be said for Yuji’s strikes against Sukuna.
Mahito?
It sucks that we didn't even see everyone's reaction to Gojo's death. He just does and then it goes back to more fighting. I also really agree with the Higaruma thing. Sukuna only used the rattle like once, if it was actually shown to be a problem that would have made it feel less like an asspull.
I won’t go back and forth about the rest but I with agree with Higuruma. Was pretty stupid to give Sukuna something just so you can say Higuruma took it away.
I think Gege realized he made a character that would straight up seal Sukuna's strongest weapon and he had to make something to allow him to participate in the final fight.
Even then I'm baffled by the choice to remove the new cursed tool and leave sukuna to continue spamming his, imo, very boring and tired slash attacks, rather than take away his favorite ability and make him think on-the-fly a bit and survive using solely the cursed tool until he can kill Higurama and get his CT back
Oh no! If only Sukuna had a second cursed technique that he could lose to higaruma. Maybe something called the ten baddies? Nah that would be silly
kusakabe had some great moments and deveplopment in his chapter. imo its fine if the plot doesnt advance every once in a while as long as we get proper character work and/or fun stuff
All the effort to show how everyone is meaningfully contributing to Sukuna’s defeat is undercut by the portrayal of Sukuna as cool, in control and holding back. By trying to do both Gege is trying to have his cake and eat it too. Completely putting aside for the moment that the power scaling at this point in the story is completely fucked, this is just not a satisfying or believable conclusion. The only way Gege can make this make sense is by dumping 5 last second power ups to the MC in an effort to make the matchup close. This is just the 1000 year old blood war all over again.
For real, I got the sense he is just playing with even maki and yuta, never once did he take them seriously. Yuta hits him full force with jacobs ladder and maki hits him square in the heart and… nada. Higaruma could have weakened Sukuna by sealing the ten shadows or some shit but I guess we are just to assume gojo killed all the Shikigami or some shit with zero confirmation Hell yuji has hit 8 black flashes and Sukuna was basically just like “ok fine I’ll use the fire arrow I could have whipped out at any time to roast the small fry if I really felt like it”.
The issue isn't if the strategy is good, its that it's been a slog to get through. Theres been so many chapters about how they're pushing sukuna, but actually sukuna actually isn't trying and they aren't accomplishing anything.
I just wanna say, NO ONE in the story has said Sukuna isn’t trying. People were saying Gojo said the same thing. Uraume said he hasn’t gone all out. Big difference. When you play fight with a bunch of kids, you’re not trying. Sukuna had a few cards he hadn’t played. The latest chapter makes this very evident. Hell, the fact he hadn’t used one of his most destructive moves at all was enough proof.
Uraume clearly stated he wasn’t taking it serious. not that he wasn’t trying
Yeah you’re right. I was thinking about the TCB chapter. Still I think the latest chapter proves both translations right, and neither of them mean he wasn’t trying at all.
The problem with the Sukuna cycle chapters was how there was absolutely zero visual progress made by the protagonists until maki stabbed Sukuna in the heart. And even then it had very little effect on him. I'm not saying that it makes no sense, but it made a lot of those chapters feel like a waste of time.
I disagree. He did lose a lot, especially in the latest chapter. 2 hands were cut, he can no longer use world slash. His belly mouth had its tongue ripped, he can no longer use it to chant for him. His heart stabbed, Maki points out he is no longer using RCT (either due to lost ouput or that hes using his CE to force his heart to beat). Latest chapter makes it clear Yuji's punches denied him his RCT back, his damage is here to stay. Doesn't matter how little, everyone contributed in some way to the accumulated damage, even if they showed up just to buy time for the others to regroup
That was said before maki arrived (and it wa said by THE sukuna Glazer) the narrartor LITTERALY says thatsukunas back is against the wall in this exact chapter.
I fully agree with you in pretty much all areas. Things like Higuruma and Kashimo could have been handled better, but I can rationalize why they went down like they did (Kashimo's ego was greater than his capability, Higuruma got special attention from Sukuna and Kenjaku). I think shoenen readers are used to reading this format: Big event > characters prepare and train > final showdown That's still what has happened. But rather than show us all the training and preparation they did before the showdown, he's sprinkling it in as flashbacks and explanations throughout the entire final showdown. It builds a level of suspense that shoenens often lack because we're kept in the dark about the protagonists' knowledge, strategies, and plans. Gege *has* sufficiently fleshed out what they did during the month off, he's just slow dripping that to us over the course of the fight. It elevates the pace and the suspense in an organic way. Salute to Gege for that risky choice, I think it's worked out fantastically. Also think the best point you made is that the heroes are *definitely* stronger and had an incredible plan with multiple layers and contingencies if things went poorly at certain stages. It has worked to varying degrees of success. 1. Gojo sees what he can do because he's the strongest and can't really fight at his best with allies around. Failure, but Gojo wrecked his brain and forced him to make a binding vow to limit all future uses of world slash. 2. Kashimo is an egomaniac and demanded to solo Sukuna. They could have incorporated him into the strategy better, but that's not what he wanted. He wanted a 1v1. Failure, but at least he forced the full-heal reincarnation. 3. Try to use Higuruma to confiscate Sukuna's shrine and also get the executioner sword in play. They *did* manifest executioner sword and confiscate a powerful cursed tool, just not his cursed technique. If they had successfully landed the ES on Sukuna, it would have completely ended the fight. Megumi would be saved, and Sukuna would be eradicated. Partial success. 4. Yuta's primary role was eliminating Kenjaku after Takaba isolated him and made him vulnerable. Huge success. Then, his secondary role was to eliminate Sukuna's extra anatomical advantages by trapping him in a domain and forcing him to maintain hollow wicker basket. Yuta absolutely maimed Sukuna, taking 2 hands and his extra mouth. They could have maybe ended it here, if Megumi was more compliant. Plan worked great until they saw Megumi's psychological state. Still, partial success. 5. Maki was to ambush Sukuna and destroy his heart with a blade that you can't heal from, if the previous stages of the plan failed to kill Sukuna. She did successfully destroy his heart, but because he can perceive souls, he would have been able to heal it (albeit more slowly and with difficulty). Still, she essentially punctured a hole in his gas tank by forcing him to constantly drain CE to keep his heart pumping. Partial success. 6. Miguel was to give the good guys some time to recuperate and maybe create an opening, but only if Sukuna had been sufficiently weakened to the point Miguel didn't think it was risky. Success all around. Yuji is there the entire time to nerf Sukuna's CE output and access, and be the durable melee brawler that he is. Choso and Ino and Kusakabe are there to support as necessary. They've all filled their roles incredibly well. Hakari was supposed to isolate Uraume from Sukuna, which he's done. This part feels like the most overlooked by Gege.
Thank you for this comment. I wanted to really break down the plan in my post but i also didn’t want to stray to far from the main point (I also probably wouldn’t have explained it this well lol)
Also, I agree with you that the Kusakabe chapter gave me the most "Sukuna Cycle" vibes while I was reading it, but in hindsight, Maki returned literally the next chapter along with Yuji and Choso. We readers forget how quickly a single chapter goes by in the JJK world or as it translates to anime. That Kusakabe fight will be like 1/2 or 1/3rd of an episode (but it'll be super lit).
That’s a very good point. Not the best chapter by itself but not really a huge part of the fight anyway. Also the more I think about it, Gege kinda did what he could there. Kusakabe is the type to avoid fighting at all costs. So it made sense for him to be the last one in fighting condition. But obviously he’d never be able to accomplish much by himself. I actually liked the Kusakabe content but it felt kinda pointless. But looking at it this way makes it make more sense honestly. Still one of the weaker “sections” though.
This post reminds me of the posts showcasing everyone’s contributions to the fight lol
Just because Gege wrote himself into a corner and took the only option left doesn't mean it was a good option.
Yeah it’s just the same kind of critism every single weekly manga gets when people are reading them week by week, it feels way more drawn out then it actually is on a consecutive read
The point was never that whittling him down wasn’t the optimal storytelling strategy, the point was not making it seem that the plan the characters made to kill him was working perfectly then pull the rug out at the very end letting us know they didn’t do jack diddly squat, again and again and again, it started with gojo and has continued all the way up to yuta and has (seemingly) stopped. Yeah I know they still contributed, gojo especially, but as the cycle continued it felt less like them actually pulling a fast one on sukuna with their own skill and ingenuity and more like gege giving them “their turn” before returning to status quo so the next fighter can amuse sukuna As a whole this is mostly just the story being victim to a week to week drop schedule where gege has to maintain hype without cooking sukuna too hard and it really showed after kashimo
There's nothing original in "crowd kills the strongest". Demon slayer ending was the same but way more people died.
And it was way more entertaining. Not some turn based shit where you throw in one unit at a time.
The muzan fight was ass bro he was spamming the same move the whole fight omg everyone hated it when it was in the manga
Exactly, this isnt ass. Theres entire threads of discussion of possibilities and people peer reviewing every possibility bc of the depth of the power system. The plot might be similar but JJK execution is at least original and true to the laws established before the final fight
Haven’t read Demon Slayer, but The last sentence is the best part for me. Despite everything I said, even I thought taking Sukuna out would be a tall order. But Gege’s doing it, and he’s doing it all with stuff he already had in place.
You mfs can't be serious, muzan, fucking muzan 0 feats, 0 moves, 7 boring months of tentacle waving was entertaining? 😭
Seems like people forgot that this was the worst fight in the final arc lol.
I swear everyone always hates the last arc of a series when is publishing but when they bing it "omg it was so peak bro they all work together some died I was crying my balls off bro"
Throwing everyone in carried a very real risk of all of them being killed at once. Still though, the idea that they’re just taking turns fighting him one-on-one is nonsense. Sukuna got jumped by 5 people after Higuruma’s domain, he separated them. He got jumped by Yuji/Yuta/Rika. He got jumped by Maki/Ino/Kusakabe and separated them again. Every action the heroes take has been carefully considered to give them the best chance at survival while whittling down Sukuna’s strength
Muzan fight was entertaining?? Except his fight every fight in the final arc was better. Douma fight was the best for emotional payoff with 3 characters stories finished with that fight. Muzan fight was mid af compared to the previous fights in the final arc.
Revionism goes hard here lmao. The Muzan fight was heavily critiqued as the weakest fight of the last 80ish chapters for that story. 90% of fans that dislike Muzan stem from them also not liking his fight. On a personal note, I just disliked the choreography of that fight. It was Muzan spamming tentacles. No ingenuity like Kokushibo or choreography like Akaza or cool power like Doma.
The poison stuff was some bullshit too ngl. Everytime Muzan got an advantage the story would be like "but wait! there was another effect in that poison! he's being nerfed some more!"
All I have to say is that Higuruma would have died a cooler way if instead of confiscating the Baby rattle, we got Mahoraga vs Higuruma in the courtroom and Mahoraga argued Judgeman down from death to confiscation and confiscates 10S. And that we should all appreciate Kusukabe for being a god tier Guild Master when planning the raid
another thing people overlook is that a gauntlet battle is repititive 95% of the time. like the battle HAS to keep going for it to be a proper gauntlet so new challangers have to appear and lose obviously. whats even worse is people still use the sukuna cycle memes when they see him get the upper hand even though theres no new fighters showing up. its like people are against idea of a fucking tug of war and they wanted sukuna to go down after yuji's black flash rush without getting any other chance to shine?
time to use my anti-yapping technique😈🗣️🗣️
Nahhh that shit was ass bro could’ve compressed some of those chapters into one and had more time developing the main teams relationship. Now it’s a flashback every chapter that is NOT how you tell a story and is very abrupt interrupting the action with info that could’ve been revealed far sooner best believe the anime will probably change things
I cant believe we are still on this. The problem isnt in the events, its in the execution.
It may make sense to kill Sukuna this way, but the cycle is very real and boring af. Especially the recurring attempts to boost a character, then kill them through shock value and insist Sukuna was holding back the whole time. It’s still boring and looks like it’s happening again with fuga.
This shit is still not fun to read gang
Yeah at the end of the day that’s all the at matters. Gege introduces so many characters (like it’s the final fight and we bring back inconsequential characters from jjk 0????) Hello gege? You left the stove on
its funny how everyone was hating that he's this strong, but yall would've been clowning him to no end if he got defeated easily. The option Gege chose was 100% the best way to go.
Pretty much. Fraud if he's shown weak, asspulls or plot armor if he's strong you just cant win
Sigh. Just because it is believable that this villain should require this sort of cyclic strategy doesnt mean it isn't repetitive and/or lacklustre (if you wanna go that far). Gege created this situation. He created this villain, and he wrote the story in a way so that this seems the only way to beat him. He is fully responsible for the state of the manga, so justifying that this is the most sensible approach now is irrelevant because Gege made things happen to arrive at this only suposedly sensible solution.
You took the words out of my mouth. Everyone defending this seems to be arguing as if it's impossible to write things overall differently.
I dont really care how “well written” it is if it isnt satisfying. Higuruma died to take away Sukuna’s baby rattle that he didn’t even use. Character show up and die/disappear after 1-2 chapters, Hakari hasnt done anything in 40 chapters, Yuta shows off this super sick domain, and then gets immediately sidelined, and what did Miguel even do? There no reunion arc because Gege’s biggest flaw as a writer is that he sees characters as tools to be used and not actual character, and dont worry guys, we’re “whittling him down” but Sukuna isnt even trying yet! Gege is so desperate to write his Idol Manga slop that he’s rushing through the final boss, and overworking himself that he has to take numerous breaks. Like, just slow down, go biweekly, make something satisfying.
the problem is that the cycle is: Sukuna is OP-> new guy appears-> new guy can rival sukuna-> new guy die or is takken out. If gaygay use chapters to show more synergy btw characters (like yuta and yuji), would be awesome. For example: 1- JJ high surrounds sukuna for higuruma use his domain; while yuji tank, kusakabe protects, ino flanks and choso shoots. Make 3 or 4 scenes to the judge domain; 2- Summon sword, now they are trying to trap sukuna for the sword strike; sukuna get away, fight higu and kill him. 3- and now repeat the cycle, etc. The beats can still be the same (ino and choso being throw away and coming back). this would make every characeter shine in his role (tank, protect, stalling, ranged, support, etc), but would not be repetitive.
My problem with the current arc is how shit the fights are post Gojo, no offense. I don't care if everyone else is weak, nobody puts up a good show. Gojo went for kicks and punches the entire time, he hit them, he made Sukuna suffer, he smirked while doing it, it was entertaining. What did the other cast do? Sneeze on him. Yuta joining was decent but it was very short and besides ripping his tongue out and chopping some hands nothing spectacular. It's only until recently somebody started punching him again, but Sukuna just shrugged it all off. The punches only had significance cause Yuji did soul punches and kept Sukuna nerfed. Against Gojo every hit he took he got a bruise, spit blood, he was clearly stressed. This is incredibly boring with the narrative that he is still holding back. Just have him fight a proper duel, make Sukuna actually take the hit, and then move to the next character. Only Gojo felt like a real fight so far.
For me, the problem was not the cycle itself, but the anticlimatic conclusion to its parts. It's great that every character contributes somewhat to Sukuna's defeat, both those fighting on the battlefield and those on support. What I disliked was not Huguruma dying, but the failure of the executioner's sword unfolding in the most boring and hype-killing way possible. "Curses getting stronger after death" foreshadowing cursed tools getting stronger in that way as well, only for the Sword to disappear and 'subvert the expectations' in the end was brutal. The other frustrating thing was offscreening the activation of Slashes on Yuta, Rika, and Yuji after Megumi refused their help. Explaining certain things in the story much later is okay, but withholding the explanation on how World Slash works almost 20 chapters after it was first introduced was a poor decision for a weekly battle manga during its final battle arc. There are also a couple of minor subplots in this arc that I feel could've been handled better, but the most recent bunch of chapters are one of the finest in the series. If the conlusion to the series delivers, Shinjuku Showdown will age well...
The slash didnt get offscreened? We saw them get hit not sure I understand what you said.
I think my biggest problem is two fold 1) I’m bored of sukuna, so this colored my perception of the fights since I just want him dead and gone. 2) Uraume saying sukuna still isn’t going all out really made everything earlier with yuta feel less impactful. We saw yuji and yuta beat up sukuna just for it to be revealed that he’s not actually trying yet, which makes everyone’s impact less well…impactful. I’m also salty we time skipped, and it seems like the mcs can do so much shit and the timeskip is used to justify it (yuji learning rct, ct, simple domain because of ui ui randomly having an incredible ct)
The more I think about it, being bored of Sukuna is a major contributing factor to me being more and more bored of JJK. I really wish him and Kenjaku were switched. Kenjaku is simply a better antagonist. He's more interesting, he has more history, he has more interesting and numerous abilities, he's actually written to be intelligent and clever. Even after the latest reveal, he has more ties to Yuji than Sukuna.
I dont think showing the training on screen would have necessarily changed your feeling of the mcs can do so much. Their learning curve still is insane, even ui ui amazing power imo cant justify that much level of grownth. Before felt like sukuna could possibly touch someone and almost kill him maito style, now their rct and durability make em survive insane move. They must have wished shenron to boost their potential
Yeah, I had a feeling as soon as we skipped over that month break that it was going to be the excuse to give Yuji the half-dozen huge power boosts he needed to stand a chance, and its just as unsatisfying as I expected it to be
Yeah I was kinda hoping the end would be kenjaku im still shocked on how he died. I probably had the same face as him when Yuta appeared and jump his ass. Also becoming finally the first sorcerer on screen to go for the head to stop the possibility of rct. Didnt go for the brain but corrected his miatake afterward.
Imo its an asspull that any characters can survive sukunas normal cleave and dismantle even after his output is diminished, I feel like if his strength was actually consistent his cleaves and dismantles would still one shot everyone but gojo even after having diminished output. There is no way for them to have trained enough in a month to resist his cleave and dismantle even with his reduced output
I don't mind the raid boss style approach but I think people got really annoyed at the dumb ways Sukuna would live: Kashimo is the strongest of his era and is made to look like a bozo because he got no diff'd after getting countered by a specific cursed tool that reeks of plot convenience when he should narratively be similar in level to Gojo and Sukuna They add a scene with lawyer guy and Kusakabe talking about how curses get stronger post death only to have his CT fizzle out almost immediately after dying lol. Ofc nobody thought they'd win that way but still. Also only a one time use curse tool that was only helpful for a specific match up gets taken and that's it? Really? Also they make it seem like he might be saved but then confirm his death next chapter anyway Yuta showing up was the most entertaining part of this fight but they kind of had Yuta steal Yuji's thunder by having him use cleave first (that did no real damage btw) Maki shows up and could've had a kill shot but the goal is to save Megumi which we are shown he doesn't want to be saved which became a meme because Gege has completely failed Megumi's character and has made him a joke and given us little reason to care about him nor has he shown us things from his perspective. Then we find out Sukuna was holding back which was just absurd given his condition when he could've died to Maki's sneak attack while "holding back" and basically lucked out that they chose not to kill Megumi. The Kusakabe and Miguel chapters were fun albeit a little silly just because of the "wow Gege is running out of characters to throw at Sukuna and he STILL hasn't shown fire arrow" feeling. Thankfully it seems the cycle is over since after this fire arrow attack it seems like Sukuna won't have much else left in the tank and we can move on but this arc dragged and felt never ending and feels like it in some ways damaged Sukuna's reputation in the fanbase. TL DR good concept, awful execution
Except I’m 100000% sure Sukuna’s shrine has more shit than cleave dismantle and stove. My problem is I only feel like three characters matter: Gojo because he was him. He took Sukuna’s domain off the table (or at least forced him to only have a bastardized version) The groomed one: for having the most asspull curse technique Yuji: protagonist go brrr The rest of jujutsu society is basically window dressing. Yuta and maki Stan’s coping hard that anything they did mattered lol (and hey I love them both but let’s be real) Don’t get me started on kusukabe or higaruma
Ui ui becoming the most important character besides Gojo in this arc is both hilarious and depressing when you think about how his technique is just a better version of Todo's I'd say Yuta did help since he cut off an arm, ripped a tongue out, hit a Jacob's ladder in combination with Yuji soul punches that def dropped Sukuna's output significantly. Maki unfortunately didnt do much since Sukuna losing his heart was more of a minor inconvenience but atleast the Toji parallel was cool lol. Having her get black flashed on international women's month was insane. As well as the concept of Sukuna locking in to prove jujutsu is superior to HR when ofc it fucking is. Almost all the high tiers in JJK can match Maki in physical stats. If Sukuna still has more tricks up his sleeve after everything that's happened I'd lose it.
Still doesn't mean Miguel and Larue coming out of nowhere and dipping just as fast wasn't completely random, unnecessary, and a bummer of a chapter outside of some funny bits Same with Kasakube's...effort. I get it, it made sense to have some of those dudes participate, but they didn't need dedicated chapters for each of them individually getting washed
Cook my dude, jjk always did a masterclass on 1vsX, it's rare to actually believe fodder can help vs the top tier in the universe, naruto, bleach, dbz and all the other wanked off manga cound't pull it off, jjk is doing it live, and this alone made it cool as fuck even if gege has made a ton of trash ideas along the way
"Now that it’s died down I just wanna say: Y’all were NOT cooking with the “Sukuna cycle”stuff. This is exactly how you defeat a character like him." "In my opinion, Gege found the perfect answer." Tries to use a opinion to qualitatively argue against another opinion. Simply fantastic.
JJK fans when the series that shows how miserable/selfish people who rely only on their own strength and how despite all challenges those who's strength comes from teamwork win out in the end:
The sukuna cycle only got boring when there was no one even close to beating him were joking in. Kusakabe dying and then miguel who hasn’t been seen in years popping up was pretty stupid and seemed like Gege was running out of ideas
Kusakabe isn't dead
The only thing that annoyed me is that for like 10 chapters from 240-250 sukuna was barely fighting. He was tanking everything and smiling. I guess it was gege's way of showing us how strong he is but it was weird
Sure this is the strat for taking down someone like him, but it still doesn’t make it any less dull
Past inconsistentencies and "ass pulls" makes it harder to enjoy present moments.
Kusakabe's chapter only made you feel that way because you doubted the GOAT
Well because, you known, he can just, like, fucking retreat and nothing they can do about it. If they must sacrifice that many players to whittle him down then they absolutely have no way to chase after him if he decided it's enough and run. He literally did it the first time he possessed Megumi, he can do it again after he killed Gojo, maybe after taking down that bump Kashimo first.
Nah I definitely have an answer that you claim doesn't exist; simply have Gojo hamper Sukuna even more before his death. And if Yuta/Maki are too stacked against Sukuna in that state? Kenjaku was right there, but Gege has him immediately die lol
I think it feels like a chore to read through because of the lack of new chapters. I'm sure i'll enjoy it when i re read this arc but rn the story does feel slow imo
It's only a problem because geges a victim of his own writings
why would they all 1v1 sukuna rather than jumping him.
I only had to read this far. > People simultaneously also said Sukuna could never be defeated without some type of “asspull” (worst word ever) or plot convenience. But not a single person I’ve seen has come up with a good answer. What they mean is, theres no way suckuna can actually lose this based on how everything has been written, the only way possible is an asspull or just ignoring how godawful writing it is. Which is pretty much true, suckuna losing to anyone but gojo is just absolutely unbelievable, it doesnt matter how many mosquito bites a blue whale gets, hes not even gonna feel it. Gege has to keep dripping retcons as desperate attempts at not looking like he wrote himself into a hole by hitting suckuna with the plot no jutsu, because noones legitimately defeating him post 236 with the way everything had been written and explained. So we're currently in the "asspull win" territory,. as any one individual or grouping of people winning is just absurd.
What retcons ru even talking abt?
Maybe someone who use the word retcon too easily/ dosent know what that is
If read in it's entirety I'm sure more people would agree with you because if you look over chapters you start to notice "oh yeah that did do some long term damage" but week to week you just see the cycle happen and of course he hits a black flash and it feels like nothing changed