What Are Jujutsu Kaisen's Themes? Season 2

0:00 Intro
0:17 Gojo’s Past
1:32 Shibuya Incident
2:30 Outro
Video about Gojo and Geto: • Jujutsu Kaisen: Is Ove...
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[@ConstantinDOSSOU-vy1zo]

The fight against Mahito is clear. Yuji always fights because he though he needs a reason to do this and deserves to life but it was always his weakness and the reason where he could give up. He needed to accept he never needed a reason and killed curse because ut was his nature.
Two themes and representants : Yuji thinking the fights against curse needs a reason while Mahito said it is just a war without true justice.
Exteriorisation: Todo expalined than the jujutsu sorcercers doesn't try to find a meaning i' their actions and Yuji accepts to fight against the curse only by emotion even if his actions haven't a visible effect.

[@YumesukeSutashika]

2:02

[@ConstantinDOSSOU-vy1zo]

​@@YumesukeSutashika I litteraly explained what " I am you" means. It is all the message of Shibuya and also the theme of Gojo vs Geto. Geto like Yuji always acted by pure reason and logic. In the end, Geto became crazy because of this. It is only when Yuji accepted his actions haven't need a reason than he can fight even if he doesn't know if he deserves to live.

[@YumesukeSutashika]

@@ConstantinDOSSOU-vy1zo And I literally explained it in the video that I mentioned at that timestamp. I also explained how its a character arc, but not a theme.

[@Jojo-rx8ug]

3:16 I agree but let me play devil's advocate and see if I find any or come up with any using your theme grading rubric.
The *main message* of JJK according to Gege is "that no one holds the ultimate truth. The "good guys" as well as the "bad guys". Some seek to kill the hero out pure selfishness, but others are led to this decision by logical reasoning. If no one is really right then no is one is wrong either. Each character is guided by his own ethics." I'll try to connect some fights back to the main message.
Mechamaru vs Mahito: *Main theme is are humans the only life worth caring about?* Mechamaru has been denied his humanity and has been living in solitude. His separation from others caused a strain on his relationships. He if often distant and quiet with others, and is called out as not being a human by panda stating "We should get along, especially since we're both cursed corpses" ( Ch 37, p 19). *Pro-theme is all life has value*. Mechamaru's peers are representing this theme, while Mechamaru is somewhere in-between the anti and pro theme. When panda states that Mechamaru responds telling panda that both of them walking freely in the sun "pisses me off" ( Ch 38, p 15). Mechamaru's goal is to overcome his heavenly restriction to ditch his puppet body and get a healthy body, he hates being associated with panda. Mechamaru doesn't see the value in non-humans (panda and himself) and would do anything to gain back his humanity. He stated he would even betray the sorcerer world for his goal ( Ch 38, p 14). *Anti-theme is not all life has value only cursed spirits are valuable. Mahito represents this and believes in this anti theme and pursues it until his death. The series has shown that curses have the capacity to love and care about each other even curses like Mahito has pride to call the disaster curses his "friends" ( Ch 20, p 19). *Action* Mechamaru dies trying to gain his humanity/value without realizing how much his peers already valued him and fails to see that even as a cursed puppet he was still human.
Yuji vs Ko-guy: *Main theme is which is stronger brains vs brawn?* Ko-guy is a curse with a higher intelligence the the average curse and now thinks he above humans. *Pro-Theme is brains is not enough to help you survive in the cursed world* Itadori is fast enough and stronger to overpower Ko-guy and doesn't need to any tactics to win and tells Ko-guy to "stop looking down on humans" (Chapter 86, p17). *Anti-theme is brains is all it takes to survive in the cursed world* Ko-guy states "Those who aren't smart die" ( Ch 86, p 18). *Action* Itadori overpowers Ko-guy even though ko-guy is a much more tactical fighter supporting the pro-theme.
Gojo vs the curses: *Main theme is which cooperation vs non-cooperation* Gojo is the strongest sorcery in the series and has the power to kill all the disaster curses. *Pro-Theme is being cooperative* The curses and other sorcerers are representing the pro-theme here with them doing the opposite of the anti-theme which is to team up. Itadori wanted to provide backup insisting that "There has to be something we can do. We can go as back-up (Ch 83, p 14). *Anti-theme is being non-cooperative* Gojo is representing this theme. He is the strongest and thinks that enough to handle all situations in Shibuya. I couldn't find any quotes from Gojo (-edit Rereading this chapter the higher-ups in jujutsu high actually request him to work alone, but it's in his character to do whatever he wants so his actions show his agrees with their plan, but this doesn't make much sense anyway. How could Gojo use any curse technique , or his domain in Shibuya during Halloween? He would inevitably cause serious damage like he did when saving Utahime from that cursed mansion). *Action* because the higher ups (-edit and Gojo) decided to go through this plan it costed them losing Gojo for most of the events in the manga and many bystanders dying in the train station.
Ino vs Ogami: Nothing.
Yuji and Megumi vs Awasaka: I can't come up with anything for this for now, but I can relate to the cooperation vs non-cooperation theme. Megumi with his ten shadows and Yuji using the wire technique Maki taught him were able to easily overpower awasaka. (Personally I don't think fights like these need themes of their own. They can be used as repetition to drive further a larger theme in the story).
Mei Mei vs Ebina: Nothing. This fight was used to show off what little what know of Mei Mei based off the past arc.
Nanami and Nobara vs Shigemo:
Yuji vs Choso: *Main theme is maintaining a duty*
Mei Mei vs Smallpox Diety: Nothing.
Sorcerers vs Dagon: I'll try to get to this tomorrow
Megumi vs Toji: I'll try to get to this tomorrow
Sukuna vs Jogo: I'll try to get to this tomorrow
Sukuna vs Mahoraga: I'll try to get to this tomorrow
Yuji and co vs Mahito: *Main theme is do sorcerers actions have better reasoning behind them than curses?* I just watched your "I Am You" video and you bring up good points. Here is a counter point Yuji has killed curses that act very human and curses that are evil. Mahito has killed good and bad people, but more good people that bad people. Yuji killed his own brothers without realizing it purely out of survival. He even felt bad about killing them and questioned whether he was doing the right thing. I'll be using this fact to justify this theme. (Also I won't be quoting directly this time I'll just bring up points in the story that support the pro-theme and dismiss the anti-theme). *Pro-theme is sorcerers don't have better reasoning than curses.* The person representing this theme is Mahito and his friends. For curses like them killing is in their nature and they can't help it because it's like hunger to them. For example Dagon was a cursed womb and needed to eat people for him to grow. Choso and his brothers were just listening to their father Kenjaku and were told to kill innocents, they were also aware they are curses, and that the sorcerer society will never accept them and would kill them on sight. Like I said ealier even curses like Mahito shows some humanity by caring about his disaster curses and seeing pride in their friendship. For curses like Hanami they were born from the fear of earth and now seeks revenge on humans for mistreating earth. *Anti-theme is sorcerers do have better reasoning than curses* The person representing this theme is Itadori. He believes all curses are only evil and want to harm humans which he sees as a the better group of people. As he goes in the story he struggles with this accepting idea by killing curses that crying, naively thinking Sukuna will turn a new leaf, etc. When he eventually meets Mahito in Shibuya he begins to see himself no different from Mahito. *Action* While Itadori is beating on Mahito, Mahito sees Itadori as a wolf and himself as a rabbit. A wolf murdering a rabbit is not a evil act, just a natural act. Neither are the wolf and rabbit wrong, it's just one species has such a great advantage over another that we as people are going to feel sorry for the defenseless rabbit. (This makes me think why isn't there a something like a vegan curse. It would have more sense to have a animal curse seeking revenge on humanity that has the intelligence of a human and can speak like a human to talk Itadori into this way of thinking)
Everyone vs Kenjaku: I got nothing. This was fight was just used to transition the story further.
I think Gege tries to make the good guys here morally grey while also presenting their actions as good.
2:20 "A theme is supposed to be a message a way you should live your life" I somewhat disagree with this point, I don't think all themes need message saying how to live life. JJK main theme according to gege can't really provide ways you should live your life. Another example I could give of a theme not giving instructions how to life is Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu". One of the main theme's in this novel is insignificance of humanity. Human's can't fight or do anything against godly cosmic threats, besides giving up and dying. Stories like JJK don't really fit into your grading rubric.

[@Jojo-rx8ug]

You don't have to read from here this just some of my thoughts on your theme grading chart.
I feel like your thematic chart may have some problems. First is the anti and pro theme quotes. In a visual media quotes are not always necessary. I understand quotes can be used to get a point across easily, but other visual media's like silent films from the past didn't have this ability to always use text. Some of the most influential films that defined common themes in their genres. Second thing is I feel this chart is somewhat limiting. When writing a story the author may not realize all the themes and messages they are inputting into the story. A author's personal beliefs and life experiences are second nature to them and will reflect in their writing. Top give a example is LOTR author Tolkien not realizing he was writing Catholic themes and imagery in this story. He only realized this when he was revising the story and then added onto those themes. If the author has trouble picking up on their subconscious themes in their writing, how could the average reader. The third thing is not all theme's end in action. Some themes are left open for the audience to decide. Some writers provide equal amount of justification for both the "anti" and "pro" theme and let people pick and choose which to support (This is common in lots of philosophy books). The last thing is since you're mostly grading anime and manga you should add a visual grading to the themes. Most manga and anime try to add visuals to support their themes. I'm not talking about just fights, they can use color, shading, shapes, and symbolism to add evidence for themes.

[@YumesukeSutashika]

I applaud your effort. Just like how most people agree that there is an objective way to measure a character without asking the author directly, I believe there is an objective way to measure a theme without asking the author. My goal is to extract meaning from the story, not place my own interpretation on it. This is why quotes are so important. If quotes weren’t a necessity in my rubric, then anyone could place any theme they wanted on fights without having proof. I could say several Naruto fights are “Hard Work vs talent” or “Teamwork vs working alone” or “Being a good person vs Being a bad person.” It would work for a lot of fights, but because I made quotes necessary, I can’t impose my will onto the story. I have to actually look for proof in the text.
Most of your examples don’t have quotes within the frame of the battle and rely on you trying to impose a theme onto the fight. Yuji vs Ko Guy is a respectable attempt, but Yuji doesn’t have a solid quote and it’s not like Yuji just tanked his attacks. He properly countered both of Ko Guy’s tricks. Both sides were using brains and brawn. An easy parallel (that might have a stronger case w/o quotes) would be me arguing that Shikamaru vs Temari is “brains vs brawn” despite there being no quotes to support that. Just because one side uses brains and the other uses brawns doesn’t mean that they’re clashing ideologically. I could say Sasuke vs Yoroi, Naruto vs Kiba, and Naruto vs Neji are “brains vs brawn.”
Gojo vs the curses was a good attempt too, but it also doesn’t have strong enough quotes. You have a Yuji quote, but there is no anti theme quote. Furthermore, I think the point of his loss is not that “Gojo should’ve worked with others” but “The villains took advantage of Gojo having to work alone.” Chapter 84, pg 13-14. “Do you know when Gojo is in his element? It's when he’s alone. It doesn't matter who the sorcerer is. Anyone who fights alongside him just gets in the way. So let’s use the even more inferior non sorcerers to restrict his movement.” Gojo was just outsmarted. I don’t think there was anything thematic/ideological.
As for Cthullu, “humanity is insignificant” is a way to live life, in context and out of context. If I believe this theme, I can justify murder out of context. Finally, I don’t think arguing that JJK doesn’t fit my system makes sense since my system extracted multiple themes from season 1. JJK just stopped executing themes.

[@rajaryan-fe1oy]

@@YumesukeSutashika I want to give my opinion on your thematic writing philosophy since it goes so hard against my own I'm not sure if I'm not living in a story right now. You said Gojo VS the curses doesn't have any themes since they're not explicitly stated, and therefore only being drawn by interpretation, in my opinion that's not only not a bad thing, but quite wonderful, you are taking a huge subjective element out of the story and replacing it by a rulebook metric that heavily restricts the way stories should be written, not every story needs some showman for a moral arguement and have them make their sides clear before every conflict to get a point acress, in Gojo VS the curses, it is stated that Gojo likes to fight alone because no matter who it is, will always get in the way of him, this one line not only characterizes Gojo's massive flaw, but also ties into a number of conflicts the story has subtly hinted at but not specified, like when he says to Megumi to not get left behind in the HI arc, and him stating to Ijichi in episode 6 that he wants to train reliable allies, there's definitely a story here, one which I'd rather not go into the details of for both of our times' sakes, but you are free to interpret if you want, and even if it's not being stated, an immersed viewer doesn't see something and think to himself what the author must've thought while writing this, they think what this could mean for the greater world as a whole, your method restricts not only the way themes are presented, but also plot and character development and everything related to them. Another thing about the Gojo fight, I don't think anyone seeing the curses working together and succeeding wouldn't have gotten the point of the benifits of teamwork for dealing with someone who's stronger than you, a story can potentially follow your theme structure and end in a single page with just being, two guys announce their ideals, throw two punches and one of them wins, the end, but another story can never quote their themes, tell a story where the characters stick to their characterization, tell a story and get multiple themes across, some of which maybe not even being intentional by the author, the latter in my opinon being a much more meaningful experience.

[@Jojo-rx8ug]

Did you go to school for writing or did you form your grading rubric from reading/watching writing guides and books?

[@YumesukeSutashika]

I read 3 books and watched several videos

[@Jojo-rx8ug]

​@@YumesukeSutashikaah ok thats what im doing to learn how to write stories too ✍🏿

[@be7622]

cook teacher cook

[@JustanotherArtist.]

Im gonna be honest, i preffer shibuya, the parallels, the character development, the meaning, i think shibuya is an little better than gojo's flash back, and being for real, is there a problem with it? No, because some people will say that "jjk shibuya is trash" others will say "jjk shibuya is peak" and other things like "past of gojo was better" but there will always be people with a contraditionary opnion, and with plausível arguments, so its just my opnion that i think shibuya is better than gojo's past

[@YumesukeSutashika]

I also like Shibuya better than Gojo's Past. That doesn't change the fact that it has no themes.

[@Kanyes-alt]

He’s cooking jjk🤣

[@YumesukeSutashika]

I'm just being objective. If you look at my season 1 video, there are a lot of themes.

[@ConstantinDOSSOU-vy1zo]

Sukuna vs jogo no theme really ? Gojo and Mahito had a debat about sacrifice themselves for their cause. Sukuna answered this than Mahito was right and Jogo admitted he wasn't enough selfish and greed.
Megumi vs Toji doesn't need a theme . It is the fight to show Toji's regret

[@YumesukeSutashika]

3:17

[@Ultra247]

What happens-I am going to kill curse spirits indiscriminately(I am already doing that and been doing that)
What fans think- OMG Yuji has changed so much frfr. He is the struggler archetype on the highest level
Truly the new dbz fans

[@Kanyes-alt]

So funny

[@kennyulysse2163]

🍿🥤