I Don't Like how I Feel abt JJK S2
aka making sense of my very confused watch and thusly, my very confusing feelings
what i feel is JJK 2's biggest fault is a lack of a concrete voice, particularly in terms of tonal fluidity and character dynamics + characterization, which is what made JJK 1 so amazing to begin with. this really dampens the stakes, especially when, apart from mahito, the fight mechanics and raw physicality that JJK 1 & 0 so effortlessly captured seem to be absent. like yk you're fcking up when u have a shounen bro asking for less fight scenes.
i just feel as if, other than sotosugu, which geto is carrying on his hunching, scoliosis riddled back, i don't GET the dynamics. none of the characters made me care, they didn't connect with me beyond a superficial level, which is maybe a skill issue but ik its entirely possible when the show became #great-again and made me give 100% of a fawk about geto in TWO episodes. the tonal mastery on display there, the pacing, his sense of isolation, his deteriorating sense of self, its all conveyed so eloquently, like we are IN his head.
it also makes amanai's loss tangible, it gives us consequences and stakes and demonstrates the weight of that raw, human friendship.
it nuances geto in a way i felt was absent in the other characters and thusly made them feel flat and insignificant. — having written more now, i think what stands out to me is how filed down the characters feel, like i just realized yuuji doesn’t feel RIGHT anymore, like i’m missing a sort of energy he used to bring to the table which made his softer moments feel more authentic yet pronounced, and i think that’s what’s plagued the new characters as well, a lack of concrete ENERGY.
long post!!
and jjk doesn't really do that sort of thing, its strength USED to lie in the compelling nature of its dynamics and character relations, but now that that's suffered under the transition of authorial voice, i think they've struck GOLD with the introspective storytelling method.
part of what made JJK 1 & 0 so great is it felt as if its light beats were ALSO in service of either narrative, plot or progression of the dynamics and we got to invest in and learn more abt the respective characters through every tonal beat we were taken through, what they got serious abt, what triggered them, how they relate to others. but with the first 3 or so episodes of JJK 2, which are very little in retrospect, but GLARING in an episode by episode watch approach, especially when contrasted again JJK 0, or JJK 1 (which, while cringe at first cause i watched downloaded eps and i used to have a shameful penchant for dub so obviously the cringe was threatening to disengage me, plus a few odd shots which had me like damn, amateur hour — which btw i STILL feel/felt that way abt s2. despite the animation being so amazing that upon teasers first dropping I was pretty much assured that it would be a sensory delight no matter what, but gorgeous moving pictures does not a good show make it seems. like you are NOT sam levinson my dudes, you don’t convey the sheer SPECTACLE that makes that approach work —, but that feeling was dispelled within an episode and I was just as hyped as i’ve always felt upon JJK rewatches), it has a timeless quality to it, its very sure in its direction and its characters and how they interlink. plus the fights are great and often used to convey smth abt the characters or their relationships.
while s2 has me like… ok so what happened in the first 3 episodes? everything felt like filler, everything felt inconsequential, everything felt shallow.
and that’s in NO part bc of the new (sort of) cast of characters, i gaf abt JJK 0, like yuta wasn’t bbg but i loved watching him form relationships with the other characters (especially inumaki, yuta x inumaki otp you heard it here first. like at first i didn’t GET inumaki but upon a rewatch i started to catch onto his linguistic patterns and how soft of a character he REALLY is, like inumaki is so baby 🥺, and the two connecting over being edgy soft boys had me SEATED.
especially when yuta got over his preconceptions abt inumaki borne of the fact that he doesn’t communicate conventionally, and he had thusly fashioned a personality FOR inumaki that stemmed from him being different. but it didn’t feel so extreme that i felt undercurrents of discrimination, poor boy is just traumatized and views ppl who are cold to him as antagonistic, so i get it, especially bc his reactions were more on the softer comedic side. but he then realizes that dude is just the nicest guy ever and not being able to speak doesn’t mean you’re a scary or odd person), and while his whole thing with rika was kind of saccharine and had fbi ON speed dial, i came to really appreciate HOW he cursed rika and how her love for him was so pure, like it felt universal and unrestrained by any label and that’s smth beautiful to me cause things could’ve gone ban from seven deadly sins REAL fast and they subverted that.
but i also don’t feel that its coincidence that i felt more engaged by preestablished characters and their dynamics (the main trio and their reintroduction into the story). they have a shorthand, a familiarity that gojosquad lacked, and i’ve come to realize as i write that that’s intrinsic to always being the highest in the room (wink wink), but if that’s the case then that needs to be tangibly demonstrated, give small tells that despite wanting or trying to, gojo lacks the capacity for intimate human bonds outside of one guy, he’s a product of jujutsu society, which will always distance him from conventionality and attachments. give it significance and intention within the story bc without it being written in, it makes the show feel tonally disjointed and unrefined.
give us personal moments between sugusoto, shorthands or glances or shifts in tone or whatever that capture the duration and depth of their bond, show us them caring abt each other in a way only two untouchable people can, how their eyes always find each other first, how even when with others gojo is always watching geto, like i need moments™ (it doesn’t have to be showboating and glamorized depictions of interactions ALL the time, the quiet moments matter too). like don’t get me wrong i FAWKED with the aquarium scene but i think its telling how long it took me to recall it bc it was ONE moment, yk. like i want to FEEL how despite the loss or uncertainty of those around them they always have each other. THAT’S what’s missing. meggy and yu to the uji had that with their sukuna fight and megumi pledging to protect those he cares abt, in fact meggy came in swinging bc you had a strong sense of who he was and that he cared from day 1. i need their priorities and drives established, i need to know WHO they are. like yes the: who are you and what do you want scene from JJK 0 was ham-fisted and made retrieving my eyeballs from where they’d lodged into the back of my skull quite difficult, but stuff like that is needed and CAN be done tactfully. like i feel this season is all abt subtlety and undercurrents so that when the sheer shitshow that is obviously going to burst forth comes about we’re #shook but its called balance, and its initially what made JJK so great.
and with 1/3rd of the characters i still feel have a strong presence (mahito, gojo, todo – u will ALWAYS be famous… and mei mei) allegedly, supposedly, apparently being taken out of the narrative which is TOTALLY something i am having a well-adjusted and normal reaction to, i am FINE! shut up shut up shut up HGRLSOPFHUJWVOBEFBUQUUI!!!?!? ARGGHHH! NBHQYIJHVQJH!!!!?!!! BANGS TABLE BITES WALLS SEETHES IN A VERY UNAFFECTED MANNER ROLLS AROUND THRASHING AND SWEATING fine i am, fine yes yes. FINE!
well, its made me very apprehensive abt how JJK could progress. bc while i think the reintroduction into modern day was done well, i also acknowledge the slippery slope of its shortcomings, and how eliminating such MAJOR players and flavors in the JJKverse can leave a void too wide to be filled. if they can’t keep up the character dynamics and characterizations they have now the show, to me, is doomed, plain and simple.
bc on one hand you have the great mechamaru mahito fight, which actually works MORE bc it wasn’t afraid to be a little camp and tropey and FUN, but then you have yuuji fighting that bug and its like ???? or the toji gojo fight where istg, no limbs touched, not one, no kicks, no weight, no fight mechanics, just hella blur and faith in the lord. like i should not have to wait until the end of the fight to see some IMPACT, some goɾe, some injury, some STAKES.
with the absolute feral levels i get at the intro song (their best one and one of the best i’ve seen in anime tbh, in terms of visuals, aesthetics, music, it just- it makes me SO VIOL3NT, I LOVE IT HBWEVFHWJEFWKF) i want to see these obvious pools of potential realized, i don’t want or even like JJK when its good, i like JJK bc at its core its GREAT, and if they play their cards right we could be looking at one of the best animes of, dare i say all time.
like the villains feel foreboding, they feel ALIVE, they carry weight and i want that for the mains too. so far i’m happy with their handling of the main trio, with the episode dedicated to yuuji’s old crush being genuinely emotional, paced proficiently and ACTUALLY funny, like i’m not saying that the first 3 eps weren’t funny in their own way, but it wasn’t GIVING jujutsu kaisen, at its inception it wasn’t giving JJK with the way the season felt more like a thriller at first, but it was done so well that i wasn’t mad at it, then the levity and relationships came in and were just so underwhelming man. it was literally like being hit by a train tbh.
anyway, i’ve belaboured the point, all i have to say before talking abt the fɑscist in the room is that i was PHYSICALLLY and PERSONALLY pained by the diminishment of the fight scenes. ooooo going from todo yuuji, yuta geto, sukuna megumi, even gojo v that black dude (sorry idk his name and also justice for him that sht was a hate crime fr fr) honestly all the fights in the tournament between the jujutsu schools, to what we got in s2, that hurt me and me specifically and it is only grace from some celestial force that has kept me from doing smth drastic and unethical in retaliation.
anyways, what i feel could’ve capitalized on JJK 2’s strengths from the get go is centring get o (wink wink) and creating more tonal contrast or whiplash / a sense of bubbling foreboding which erupts at the climax of the season half’s finale, it would make everything sm more pronounced and eerie and meaningful, just generally imbuing more nuance into their portrayal could’ve made it LEAGUES better but then geto would have lost all mobile functionality of his spine bc he would’ve crashed under the weight of the show long before he crashed under the weight of his own mind. bro CARRIED.
to the point where he’s such a caricature of a fashie character now and i STILL have immense love for him, he’s like lightside eren jeager — if voldy and eren had a baby it would be geto (and part of the reason why geto works where eren doesn’t is bc they make a point to villainize him and verbalize how fashie his rhetoric is, which HURTS bc i am black and hearing him call humans monkeys has me like i can’t keep defending my maga bf like this, why is my taste in men so flagellatory???!! STAND 👏🏿UP 👏🏿! — only those of a certain hue are allowed to laugh @ that joke i am in ur walls) and while i wished they nuanced him more and factored in how he cared abt amanai into his descent, i also appreciate that that intimacy i was talking abt prior popped up. geto became who he thought he was supposed to be to carry out smth so incongruous to his former ideology and identity, he feels like a caricature bc he IS a caricature, but once the mask slips the softness and purity of his core personality is revealed and its ONLY for gojo, like JEQFBJHBFJQEJ
i don’t even ship sugusoto (like that). they’re both just so great that by brute force i intellectually recognize the excellence of their dynamic, like it just doesn’t make SENSE to not give sugusoto their tens bc of how intertwined within each other they are. like sorry, did not give a singular FAWK abt them before (when i had no familiarity with their material/dynamic) and now they have me crying out of sheer respect no one’s doing it like them.
and what makes empathizing with a character like geto so natural, and produces such a well crafted character in general is his NUANCE, i feel like, similar to eren jeager, you can’t find him endearing or sympathetic in any capacity without first giving significance to, not only the nature of his moral decline, but the inherent complexities of his character. liking geto without acknowledging that he touts rɑce science and plans to genocıde ppl he sees as biologically inferior is a YIKES, you can’t ignore that shite without seeming like a member of a third subsect yourself idk, like its not insignificant, and woobifying an active fɑscıst is existential horror if i’ve ever seen it.
its why aot falls flat for many but JJK excels in that department, bc geto is condemned and for good reason, HOWEVER, i think there was a way we could’ve muddled even the lens through which he’s condemned / the immensity of empathy we feel for him, and that’s bringing amanai into his ideological realignment.
amanai was the source of his moral turn and it feels like a missed opportunity to not have her be more core to its after effects, like HER dyıng is what gets geto so why wouldn’t the weight of her legacy and the purity of her character weigh on him more. the star platinum followers were human yes, but so was amanai, and having geto hyperfocus on one part of the equation when the other is arguably just as significant is a HUGE missed opportunity to say the least. like given his new outlook how does geto FEEL abt someone like amanai now, has he condemned her, and if so, why didn’t we see that more explicitly? like i feel its pretty inevitable that he has, since he sights human weakness and the sacrifice of jujutsu sorcerers for humans as his point of contention, which stems from him being unable to exercise justice against the religious group, but ALSO parallels gojo seemingly dyıng for amanai, someone who put them all in harms way through her ineptitude and the [to geto in retrospect, ultimately] false debt they felt towards her. like at first he idolizes THAT aspect of human innocence but as he sees its consequences does it not make sense that his turn would come from explicitly writing off its source?
OR even more powerfully, being plagued by knowing that good humans exist but valuing people like gojo, who he sees as the real unprotected and collateral of society, more than he values amanai. like in canon he’s so tired of fighting for ppl who underappreciate and can manifest such heinous forms of evil but it would’ve been an elevation to add him being tired of fighting for a shred of goodness that ever since he’s only seen its dark side, he comes to realize is gone anyway, so WHY is he still fighting? the mental fracture that brings and his conveyance of guilt and buried pain could be SO good cause deep down geto could ultimately agree with gojo that human life is precious, but that he can’t stop himself from HATING that, resenting that he can’t see himself or anyone else around him as precious too.
like oooooh would’ve made him best character of all time i fear. like caricature geto serves a purpose, but ANGSTY geto, the ppl were NOT ready! but regardless, i am MORE than happy with the geto we got. More than. i cant even fully articulate the depths i feel geto has and what we could’ve gotten out of him, like bro is the gift that KEEPS ON giving!
anyways, that’s it from me i think. overall i think JJK needs to realize that what made s1 so iconic isn’t bombastic shots or glamorous aesthetics, its all these masterfully conveyed moving parts coming together to create smth better than the sum of its parts. it’s the nitty gritty of character dynamics and characterization and meaningful fights and the mundanities of friendship, it’s the quiet moments which make the big moments so loud! it’s the dialectical nature of the show.
i WANT to trust JJK S2 to stick the landing, the gold is THERE, they just need to dig. and if a hyperfixation of mine goes to shite, well we can all pretend it was a fever dream and continue reading metas on the manga or smth, idk 🤷🏿♂️ will continue biting my nails till the very end.
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Hi, I know this is sort of out of the blue but I really like how you write/ view these characters, and I was wondering what you think Dennis Finds His Pride would look like if they made it an episode?
hey!! this got long so uh. sorry abt that. tw for discussion of csa
i think my ideal dfhp ep….wouldn’t b focused on his sexuality. i’m surprising myself by typing that but it’s true. the whole message of finds his pride - mac finally, truly seeing himself for who he really is - i want that for dennis, but i want to see it explored through a different lens. dennis definitely has a turbulent relationship w his sexuality but i think ultimately that’s not what’s holding him back.
like…….ok i’m figuring this all out as i go, bear with me: mac was hurting bc he was closeted?? but i think maybe dennis is the other way around. he’s closeted bc he’s hurting. and the source of that hurt is the fact that he hasn’t accepted that he was assaulted. he’s been living in denial for decades and his issues have snowballed accordingly.
dennis will stay stuck in place until he starts to heal from what happened to him. the way sexual assault can warp u and ur understanding of urself is so fucking insidious - i don’t think dennis knows who he is at all. he’s aware of that, on some level (“i have this giant, gaping hole inside of me. and i’m always trying to fill it with something”) but rather than try to heal it, he tries to fill it in.
the trouble with that approach is that, naturally, nothing is going to fit. not sex, not a persona, not a relationship - none of those things can heal trauma. i think dennis started to realise that at the end of s12. s12 dennis…….like his mental state is the clearest it’s ever been, he’s calm, he’s letting himself feel things again. he realises that the hole is still there. he tricked himself into thinking it was gone, and it wasn’t. that scares the shit out of him so he bolts. who the fuck knows what went down in nd, but i think it would be ooc for dennis to put all his cards on the table at once. i think he’s far more likely to tell everyone the same lie than he is to tell them all the same truth, if that makes sense. s13 is a rly strong example of that behaviour, bc s13 dennis literally feels like he’s playing a caricature of himself. it’s like he wrote down a “things ppl expect of me” list, got the personality traits all wrong bc of his self esteem issues, then performed them dialled up to 11. it feels like he’s emulating the person he believes the gang sees him as.
ig the groundwork for my ideal dfhp episode would be dennis acknowledging what he went thru at 14. i think that would open so many doors for him, ik i sound corny but i’m being 100% honest - dennis coming out, dennis being more like the easygoing loves-his-friends idiot he was in the early seasons, dennis having big feelings again - all of those things could happen feasibly in canon, i think, but he’d have to accept himself first. he’d have to.
honestly idk what it would look like. it would have to have the same kind of reverence that mfhp had. he’d need to be honest. there would need to be a fuckton of nuance - dennis is deeply entrenched in the cycle of abuse, and that’s a difficult line to walk but i think sunny could do it. i want them to do it bc nobody’s ever rly done it before, and i think dennis is the perfect character for it. idk if it was intentional (i like to hope it was) but to me one way of reading dennis is as a commentary on the cycle of abuse, the aftermath of csa, what can happen when abused kids slip through the cracks and are forced to grow up without therapy or support. i could scream abt this for hours but this post is long enough as it is so i’m gonna leave it there.
one last thing before i shut up: i wouldnt want him to feel fixed all at once in one episode. mfhp felt like mac pushing through all the anguish and hurt and finally starting the healing process - i want dennis to ‘start’ something. he doesn’t have to figure it out all at once. i literally just want him to open the door and say to himself, “this is what happened to me and it is still hurting.” even admitting that would b a strong start. i don’t want him to be redeemed so much as i want him to self destruct less - dennis being stupid and chaotic and terrible is integral to his character, yk? but i think an exploration of why dennis is the way he is, and showing him acknowledging his trauma…….yeah. i want that
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sabubu91 replied to your post “BEETHES/KANAE IS THE BEST KANAE SHIP??? HES LITERALLY IN LOVE WITH HER...”
GOD BLS... SHOW ME THE META I LOVE HEARING ABOUT THESE TWO
OJSNGLBSKDFJLSDKJ AFTER WATCHING THIS MOST RECENT EP I WAS IN... PHYSICAL PAIN
1) ok flashback to s01e19 aka the ep where kanae and beethoven coupled off: Beethoven was so scared hjsdlgsndkfj KANAE FOUND HIM HIDING UNDER THE SINK BLUSHING MADLY AND SHE GOES ‘Do u have a fever???’ like a good normal friend AND HE FLIPS OUT “DON’T LOOK AT ME” AND SLAMS THE DOOR hhhh
2) Beethoven is already blushing when he catches her hand to save her from falling (even tho if u “die” dont you escape the muzik anyways? Evidenced by Sousuke chasing Bada, he fell and he was fine, maybe they didnt know that and thought sosuke was dead or something tho
3) b...beethoven.... she says “you’re pretty manly today” he literally short-circuits he turns highlighter pink and then they immediately escape muzik
4) Interestingly enough none of the other couples showed effects outside of the muzik world? Chopin and schubert didnt have any romantic moments, there was nothing w lizst and sousuke, implying the feelings created within muzik didn’t last in the real world, but even after they escaped beethoven was Shookt.... He was frozen and clutching kanae’s hands (and kanae was blushing hehe) and even when mozart talked to him directly he didnt snap out of it until kanae mentioned music
5) The source of the muzik (clakla) had already left by the time kanae and beethes paired off. Take that how u will
6) OK THIS MOST RECENT EP! s02E07 I WAS HOPING FOR SOME KANABEET which is a stupid sounding pairing name but i cant think of a better one .... Beetkana..kanaeet... Hjsdlnskdjf
7) ok. i. In the beginning when everyone’s turning down kanae’s hand in marriage (poor kanae) all the others give normal reasons (motz is a hoe, sousuke is her best friend, schubert is gay for beethes, chopin loves nothing except his computer games) but beethes says straight up “you rejected me once my broken heart wont heal so soon” which. i dont even know what to say . he literally said it out loud matter of fact.... it was kinda hysterical but on the other hand hes fucking in love with her
8) DURING THE HOUSE MAZE GAME! side note motz’s speech was actually really sweet but that’s beside the point, when she’s rejecting sousuke Beethoven triggers his muzik? I can’t remember how much control beethoven has over it, but muzik has historically been triggered by strong emotion... take that as you will... and beethes is the first to pull it out. Schubert can apparently activate his on command (?) by saying “life is beautiful” (and ok last ep Wataru fuckign destroyed him with the cultural appropriation thing that was fantastic) and motz seems to join in just to have fun, lizst because she’s moved by what she percieves to be everyones love for kanae (but really it’s just that. she bribed all of them... hsdjglsndlkfj) but beethes’ motivation is.. up in the air.
9) ESPECIALLY BC OF WHAT HE SAYS WHEN HE STARTS USING IT... “if my thoughts and feelings won’t reach you, i’ll deliver them directly to you! come to grips with my passion, young one!” ofc i don’t know the original japanese or the possible linguistic nuances that could be in here that lead my interpretations to be completely wrong but a) BEETHES IS THE ONLY ONE WHO MAKES MENTION OF FEELINGS SPECIFICALLY (chopin says “make me happy” which.... is probablyr referring to his high speed internet.. hsjdglsdkfj although he said it in a really cute way) motz was... completely sidetracked from an otherwise sweet proposal by boobs (jsdjglsndkfnlskd) sousuke just said “we should get married”, poor schubert didn’t even get a chance, but beethes pulled out his muzik and literally talked abt his passion i hate him
10) hsdjglbskdjflskdjf i need to rewatch cloid bc i fuckign... Love kanabeet... i love them.. What the fuck ?
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