Forum - View topicHow Jujutsu Kaisen Lies to You
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tintor2
 Posts: 2168 |
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It's a shame Amanai's arc was so short especially considering they created an entire opening sequence for it. Still, it's a shame they didn't use Nanami in it while the other ally Geto and Gojo had was so generic I barely remember her name. Nanami also feels like lost potential too considering how he is being wasted in season 2.
I would say Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle's second half is one of the first deconstructions I've ever seen. It's like if a different writer replaced Ohkawa to give the reader a darker experience. It's like if Kingdom Hearts became a T rated game but with blood. spoiler[ Where do we start? The hero Syaoran is revealed to be an artificial human created by the big guy of the story, Fei Wang, who has been doing nothing in the story. However, the second Syaoran is revealed to be a clone, Fei Wang takes control of the kid and makes him remove Fai's eye, leaving him nearly dead just to use magic like. Then Syaoran just leaves and we meet the original Syaoran who has troubles getting adapted. The comedy completely disappeared from the manga and the action scenes become far more violent.] I've seen many people refer to Evangelion as deconstruction but I wonder if Tomino's works from the late 70s and 80s also count. Same with Devilman being deconstruction of the superhero genre. I'm pretty sure everybody agrees that the meme "Built different" is a decontruction of hotheaded hero who outdoes everybody thanks to his fighting spirit. |
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John Thacker
Posts: 1009 |
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That means that you haven't seen Ga Rei Zero, which had an extensive amount of leaks and official production artwork that was entirely rug pulled by the end of the first episode. |
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Minos_Kurumada
Posts: 1192 |
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Quite franckly, no, the series never does something like that to me.
Those deaths were "I don't care about this character enough to make any prediction", thus, it never had any chance to trick me to begin with. That being said, if I cared I would have guessed their deaths, JJK its a horror series with B quality influences, as a crappy B movie horror films fan, I know what characters are going to die and those are the less developed or the stupid. When I saw the series stopped developing everybody I was like "Everybody can die right now, so I don't care about anybody". Thus, funny enough, they surviving would have tricked me. Anyways, the King of deconstruction Manga its and will always be Medaka Box, the whole plot its about explaining shounen archetypes and going against them or with them to make a joke or a point. |
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Gnarth
Posts: 175 |
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No, Jujutsu Kaisen is not a deconstruction of shounen at all, in fact it embraces and plays most shounen tropes straight. It's just slightly on the darker side of it. Please don't compare it to Evangelion, it feels so wrong.
I've never once considered the eventuality of Junpei surviving and being okay, his story is not exactly original and that was the only possible outcome. Gloomy guy gets ostracized and bullied, his rancor grows so much he basically makes a pact with the devil, he tries to take revenge but ultimately pays the biggest price. And Yuji needed a reality check. Riko's death did catch me a bit by surprise though, partly because the scene and episode are great, but partly because I felt it was a bit of a waste. Don't get me wrong, I loved the flashback arc and it's currently my favourite, but I think its story and characters deserved more than five episodes. The central conflict, Riko, Geto, even Gojo and Toji were so interesting and compelling they could've filled an entire season. A thematic exploration of sacrifice for the greater good, if it's worth it and whether anyone can ask for it beats any explosive spectacle in my book. |
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Kirki
Posts: 296 |
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Dear Lord in sweet Heaven. Are you sure about that? Are you sure about that? That being said, JJK does indeed subvert some tropes, but keeps others in order not to get the audience too alienated. It is a WSJ series after all. Can't stray too far from the lot, AoT style, but it can stray enough to differentiate itself from the heap and stay memorable. The anime team definitely helps in elevating the source material which sometimes can be too messy. All in all, it's a good time, and possibly the hottest anime series trending right now. (Yes, other potentialy better shows are currently airing, but I don't think any have acquired JJK's fame and popularity as of yet.) |
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Rodem
Posts: 29 |
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Just by the first paragraph I can tell the author has not engaged with Japanese media beyond the most mainstream series….
(Not constructive criticism I know….) |
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mayonakama
Posts: 62 |
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Junpei’s death did catch me a bit by surprise. I remember skipping a few chapters and just landing on where Mahito kills Junpei, and thinking “What? He’s dead?? Damn…” But in retrospect, for me it was a toss-up between him dying and him joining the dark side; from the moment we met him, I didn’t see any happy end for Junpei.
Riko’s death was a given. She was either going to die or be consumed by Tengen (basically die). Of course I knew from reading the manga that she was going to die, but when I saw that scene in the anime with the music playing I laughed a little. The music worked to make her confession more poignant, but I’m curious to know, who actually believed she’d make it out alive? A character is doomed the moment you dangle a little hope in front of them; it’s a predictable, emotional, and effective twist. |
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Wyvern
 Posts: 1603 |
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Good analysis, I actually never noticed that tear Yuji had in the first OP. But using the intro that way was an effective way to replicate the title page fakeout. Junpei had all the classic signs of a character who joins the main cast after being sort of a bad guy for a while. So I was not expecting him to end up that way. JJK has a goo eye for tropes, and to be fair it is sometimes too reliant on them, but other times it twists them in very clever ways.
Okay, so? People are allowed to enjoy popular things. Someone's insight does not automatically become better if they watch forgotten obscurities. |
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Minos_Kurumada
Posts: 1192 |
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Huuummm... can somebody tell which trope do JJK suberts?
I have been thinking for a while and I can't name a sole one, if anything, the series's appeal comes from being the perfect generic jack of all trades anime, it does nothing particular bad but it also doesn't excel at anything. |
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mayonakama
Posts: 62 |
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Maybe the flashback = death trope? I don’t know if this is actually a trope; I just remember a lot of people predicting that Nanami would die in Mahito’s Domain Expansion and being surprised when he didn’t. |
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Minos_Kurumada
Posts: 1192 |
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I quite frankly don't believe in the "flashback = death" thingy, I think I have seen more characters powering-up after the flashback than dying. It is truth, though, that writers who are bad at character writing use it as a last minute effort to make a character (usually a villain) relatable right before his dead (the prime example I can think its that spider in KnY). That last minute effort IS a trope. |
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MrPuzzles
Posts: 152 |
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If Scott Pilgrim is anything to go by, some fans don't like being lied to, no matter how much it enhances the narrative.
Can you imagine anime watchers of today keeping up with something like Madoka, Clannad, Neo Ranga, or even simpler affairs like Gankutsuou? Pretty soon, even a simple twist will be heretical. Goodbye murder mysteries. |
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tintor2
Posts: 2168 |
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The amount of deaths seem to go from "expectations subverted" to "no, Your characters are just epic failures"
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Sekaro
Posts: 395 |
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I think the inner demon trope has been subverted in this series rather well. Most other shonen series has the MC slowly overcome their inner demon & actually tame them to their advantage but in JJK, we see time & time again that Itadori gets royally screwed almost everytime Sukuna shows up instead of being a last second helping hand. From the direction the series is going, it honestly doesn't look like we'll see Itadori taming Sukuna anytime soon. I remember seeing people's reactions to the end of the Itadori vs Choso fight, thinking Sukuna will end up saving him at the last min but instead he was saved by some other plot convenience. |
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 6358 |
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No it’s not anything to go by. For as much as a specific fandom has been complaining about SPTO lying to them (which it didn’t do). It’s not even the worst example of a an IP stringing along an audience and then yelling PSYCHE. |
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