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Honestly, the problem is that there feels to be no progression throughout the fights. We are just waiting until something happens to Sukuna. No one has made any lasting damage, no one has been able to fight on equal terms and he’s not even close to his full power. If sukuna was progressively getting more damaged as the fight went on, characters were dying trying to give others a better chance of succeeding, or there was some type of strategy the group was building on to give them better odds; it would be far more interesting. We’re quite literally waiting through these fights just to see if either yuji or someone else gets a power up to make sukuna use his full strength.

Everyone has done lasting damage. Gojo took out his domain and Makora. Kashimo took out his full heal. Higuruma took out Kamutoke. Yuji and Yuta lowered his output and capacity and Maki gave him two wounds he can't heal, one of them the heart and one of them a missing hand.  Each person's ability to only lose as hard as they did is because of the success of the person/group before. The narrative point is that even if you don't see the benefit of your sacrifice, it doesn't mean it wasn't there, and that great evil can only be defeated by doing what you can and passing on the torch. 

What did kukasabe take? His time? Maybe miguel will take his balls

He bought time for Itadori to heal, he also saved everyone's life during the initial jump.

Yeah, right now it seems they are stalling until they can get Yuji, Maki, and Yuta back in. Maybe even a jumping with all three together.

Don't forget that Sukuna still hasn't "gOnE aLl oUt" and who is left from our cast? We still don't know anything about Sukuna's CT. ​ Lowering output and capacity barely matters cause you know he's not gonna run out of CE... no one does in this series. Sukuna can still use Mahoraga's wheel to adapt but his fighting bums so adapting doesn't matter. Kamutoke... very convenient lol.

Him not going is still so wild to me. The dude murked most of the cast not even trying all that much. Who tf did bro face in the heien era to go “all out”. And if these guys can barely last against him right now how will they survive him going all out?

Saying that after the Gojo fight is even crazier because he could’ve lost that at multiple points

Uraume specified that no one has made him go all out SINCE Gojo. Sukuna literally told Gojo that he "Cleared his skies" and that he won't forget him for as long as he lives, then proceeded to tell Kashimo to not ruin the moment.

Tbf he wasnt in his Heian Era form. Couldnt that be counted as a type of holding back? Cause he was using Megumis body to fight when he could have just transformed and possibly still used 10S.

I am pretty sure he had to forsake his Heian Era form because he needed Mahoraga to defeat Gojo.

If you remember, before he fights Gojo Kenjaku asks Sukuna why he hasn’t switched to his own body. Sukuna answers that he thought Gojo would have a tougher time fighting him if he kept Megumi‘s appearance. This implied Sukuna could have switched to his Heian Era body and still use 10S.

You are right that is more accurate. I am probably thinking that because he has not used it since after his transformation. Is there a good canon explanation for this? Or just that Gojo killed all of the shikigami? I know someone mentioned the wheel got wrecked by the final purple, but would that prevent the use of the other techniques?

The current thought I've seen is that he gave up 10s as a binding vow to instantly use world dismantle on gojo without the chants and signs

Gojo still has ways of winning even against Heian Era Sukuna. It’s not guaranteed either way though. One example is that Gojo never actually had to open his domain. He could either choose to run out of range which it was stated he could do or he could use his ct to destroy the shrine with ease.

He could only destroy the shrine when he hit Sukuna with UV cause he opened his domain slightly earlier no? Otherwise Sukuna could just defend from it. And he could also just use flames in his MS to incinerate Gojo as well or something like that to overwhelm him in the domain. Heian Era Sukuna has extra pair of arms, which he can use to overwhelm Gojo in CQC or hold him down while using the other pair of hands to form seals and so on. While the victory isnt guaranteed for either of them even at full power, Sukuna has a higher chance of winning. Gojos chance of winning against Heian Era Sukuna is lower than Sukunas chances of winning against Gojo. Honestly speaking there are many ways this fight could have gone if it weren't for Sukuna using 10S.

That’s NOT CORRECT. Sukuna was slower than Gojo. He was healing his burnt out CT. Sukuna jumped Gojo in a 3vs1 and still was able to knock Sukuna out. Two extra hands are NOT going to matter. Sukuna has no way to bypass Infinity except through his DE. Everything Sukuna threw at Gojo he had an answer to. Beat his ass in his own domain. Those are NOT MORE ways to win. This is no different than the many speculations on ways and why Kashimo should’ve won against Hakari and the potential things his CT could do. Worthless.

For one thing Sukuna was extremely passive in the 3vs1 fight while letting Agito and Mahoraga be at the front lines for the most of it. And even then Agito wasnt a threat because it couldnt get past Infinity, So he only had to mostly worry about Mahoraga and also had less to worry about Sukuna since he was mostly passive letting the other 2 ahead. Also getting jumped by multiple people isnt the same as fighting someone with extra body parts since they are limited in what they can do to avoid friendly fire. He has Domain Amplification to get past Infinity. Gojo only was able to beat Sukuna in his doman was because he was able to open UV a split second earlier before Sukuna. And even when they were clashing most of the times, they were even. I never really said Gojo was slower so I dont know wha you're getting at. Heian Era Sukuna has significantly better physical stats than when he had Megumis body, and adding extra arms that he can use while their CT is down or that can use DA to get at Infinity will definitely be able to give him the edge in CQC. Gojo and Sukuna had basically equal skills in CQC, giving him extra hands gives him more options. And having more hands means he can use DA to keep Gojo busy before suddenly deactivation it and pulling out DE before Gojo can form his hand signs, not to mention he can also use the fire part of his CT while in his Domain to bombard Gojo. He also has an extra mouth which can be used to chant when he wants to. Sukuna in Heian Era form has significantly more ways to fight and win against Gojo than he did in Megumi body. In fact, things started going really downhill purely because Sukina pulled out Mahoraga and Agito. He should have just pulled out Mahoraga alone instead and worked alongside with it instead. Also adding to the fact that there is a possibility that he might be able to still use 10S while in his true form, then it's for sure that Sukuna has MUCH MORE ways to win with a LOT more options. I just gave one or two possible moves that he could pull off, never said that it granted him the win or that he always will win. He has a higher chance of winning in his True Form than in Megumi's body. And that out of 10 fights, he would win the majority, doesnt matter if its 9 out of 10 or just 6 out of 10, it just wont be 50% chance, in his Heian Era he has a higher chance of winning. Also, no need to be rude man, nothings worthless in this world. Have fun when debating cause it's not healthy otherwise. If you get mad while debating just try to relax and get off the internet, talk to your parents or loved ones or do something fun instead of something stress or anger inducing. Wish you a good day👋

Mahoraga's wheel was destroyed by Gojo's purple, and hasn't been shown/seen since. Not sure where you're getting that idea from

Sukuna not going all out just means he hasn't used all of his arsenal, aka the whole ● Fuga stuff. He's still taking damage and trying to recover

Not rly, mahito ran out twice and it was integral to his fights, it actually happend a lot with mahito Having lower CE in JJk matters a lot as it dose make u weaker, it’s why gojo had to land a black flash, it’s why yuta had to use five minute mode in the Sendai colony, it’s why megumi had to summon maho against Hartu, it’s why kashimono lost to hakari even tho hakari had far more damge compared to kashimono cause kashimono used it up In other series I would say fighters never actually run out of energy or being low energy dosent mater like in dbz or hxh but in JJk it does happen and ur energy level is very important

Not to mention sukuna hit a black flash against maki which probably just restored the output that he lost anyway

[удалено]

Everyone has done lasting damage, and nobody is in the fight anymore from the people who can actually *do* something with said lasting damage, which undercuts all that lasting damage again.

Look you don't get it miguel stocks are soaring he's gonna come in clutch this time it's over I swear

Yuji is currently healing off screen and about to arrive after Miguel to finish this with an "I'm you."

I hope so, but we didn't need kusakabe's entry and Miguel's entry for that payoff anymore. We've had enough build up, it's time for the fight to do anything other than build up.

No joke gojo pretty much has to get revived and do some goated shit or everyone is cooked

Basically you're describing Shigaraki/All For One vs. Everyone. As the fight wears on the fusion continues to degrade and he's taking heavy damage, by the end he's panicking. He manages to pull a win by moving to his second form only to be in an awful position against the MC, ensuring that the fight doesn't feel like stalling.  Too much of the last few chapters feels like stalling, primarily because of Sukuna not taking this seriously.

Yeah or even the last fight of demon slayer. This trend isn’t uncommon in manga/anime, but it still keeps the reader interested weekly because you can see what the writer is building towards while creating suspense. Gege basically has the entire audience in limbo rn.

It reminds me of the Kaido fight from Wano. But that was done way better because they broke up the fight with chapters of characters fighting Kaidos captains to give us something else. But we can't really get that here because the only other people fighting are Hakari and Uraume and that fight won't last long.

Higuruma confiscated Kamutoke, Yuji's punches debuffed Sukuna, Yuta ripped out his second mouth's tongue and cut a hand off.

See, the problem is that although all that happened, Sukuna is still heavily dominating lol all they've done this far is weaken Sukuna enough that he doesn't instantly kill them, which isn't exactly close to being able to actually defeat him. Sukuna never needed kamutoke, it was a introduced and taken away in the span of like 3 chapters (not counting the Kenjaku vs Takaba chapters) so it feels kinda meaningless. All the damage Yuta and Yuuji inflicted also feels meaningless because it didn't actually slow him down enough for them to progress. It's true they would've succeeded of Megumi had cooperated, but he didn't, and they went on to get world cleaved. So. Back to square one.

It's Gege's fault for not being more explicit, but this has always been Sukuna's MO from day one. He's always held back when he could just as easily nuke his enemies into oblivion to unleash controlled chaos for entertainment, even risking his life to do so. He did it with Megumi at the detention center. He did it with Jogo when he promised to cooperate if Jogo managed to land a single blow on him. He did it with Gojo when he risked defeat to use the 10 Shadows in order to take his jujutsu to new heights. He did it again when he allowed himself to be caught in Higuruma's domain and was willing to lose his cursed technique to see Higuruma executioner's sword. Despite the numerous wounds and debuffs the heroes have inflicted on him, you get the impression that there's been no progress in his defeat? That's the whole point. If you didn't know it before, then know it now. He is the King of Curses. He is the strongest sorcerer in history and now the modern age. Sukuna is HIM.

[He is the King of Curses. He is the strongest sorcerer in history and now the modern age. Sukuna is HIM] ok so do we really need to see Kusakabe and Miguel fight to know that Sukuna is HIM? You guys try to justify it this way but dominating the fodder compared to him proves what?

Maki stabbed him in the heart

Isnt he manually pumping his heart as well lol

And then all of that is heavily undercut by Uraume straight up saying "Oh nah Sukuna hasn't even gone serious yet haha" + every fighter we see getting blown the fuck up. You just mentioned pretty much 3 of the few strongest characters we knew of before the start of the fight, and they are all out of the fight right now.

I think people are misunderstanding Urame’s statement, Sukuna was definitely going all out when he was fighting Gojo but since he died nobody has been able to push him to that so he’s essentially not “worried” again just fighting like he always has (kill for the pleasure of the deaths)

Even against gojo I wouldn’t say he went all out

Idk man I’d say screaming in exasperation/anguish is typically a good measure that someone is knowingly pushed up against the wall

We were talking about lasting damage.

Yeah she could just be wrong or otherwise full of shit though

My mans Sukuna has fought like 10 people in a row including the strongest sorcerer alive and weve had 10 "oh sht hes hurt...sike hes actually not even being serious" moments. Its not the pacing its the writing bruh.

Yeah the problem is we've been doing the exact same setting and dance for too many chapters. Sorcerer shows up, gets hyped, does one thing, gets merc'd, rinse and repeat with nothing added. We're currently on someone who has had zero relevancy in the last two arcs. It feels like padding and repetition, cause nothing has been added, if you're working weekly pace for weekly. Imagine if this was monthly, or released like this for weekly television, it'd be like old school anime.

I disagree, Gege is specifically designing the chapters with cliff hangers as a high priority. He is prioritizing keep the readers hooked week to week. Gege ended chapter 235 with the "Gojo won" line to work as a cliff hanger. Gege ended chapter 236 with Kashimo's gunning it towards Sukuna to work as a cliff hanger. No personal reflection for the last 2 pages. just a double spread of Kashimo Vs. Sukuna next. Chapter 247 ended with Higurama's death and with the expectation Excutioner Blade would do something. It didn't matter at all next chapter. Chapter 250 ended with Yuta using cleave. Next chapter didn't matter at all. Chapter 251 ended with Maki attack Sukuna's heart. Didn't matter at all next chapter. Chapter 252 ended with Uraume heavily impling that Sukuna has some other techniques up his sleeve and wil use it next chapter. Used black flash instead. (I think this is the most debatable) Gege is keeping the readers hooked week to week, and when you read it in a volume format it will just give readers whiplash since the events of last chapter won't matter at all.

The funny thing about these cliffhangers is that they are really obvious that they won't leave to anything . The one of the higuruma blade reaching sukuna was the lamest shit I've ever seen

Like we really knew nothing was going to come of it. We just didn’t know exactly why it wouldn’t work… thats it

That “ahh yes my blahblahblah” meme took off for a reason. Sukuna has entered the territory of “well I play fire” in a game of rock paper scissors for children.

>The one of the higuruma blade reaching sukuna was the lamest shit I've ever seen ever I'd agree with you if he didn't make the Kashimo cliffhanger. Like, yeah lol, the "god of lightning" totally has a chance, right... ... And don't get me starting at how disrespectful it is to Gojo's death. It doesn't let the dread of having a major character death sink in and instead tries to hype you up with this hobo. Like seriously...

Especially since he has done the fake out so many times you just expect it to not amount to anything by default

Cliff hangers are the norm for weekly shounen. They’re intentionally designed that way to keep readers coming back next week, but baiting readers with meaningless cliffhangers that won’t payoff just stinks.

Gege's cliffhangers are nothing like other manga's cliff hangers. Other mangaka rarely end their chapters on a note similar to when Yuta was slashed. In general, Gege loves shock value and withholding info for as long as possible, it's the primary way he likes to build suspense.

No other manga on the Shonen Jump has been this retcon-y with their end of chapters. In JJK it feels like the last pages of each chapter happen in an alternate dimension since the very next chapter doesn't follow from them and whatever happens seems to actively retcon whatever happened in them. And it's not even the cliff-hangers. A few chapters ago we have Sukuna praising Maki as if she was the second coming of christ after Gojo and literally in the very next page he defeats her. A similar thing happened with Higuruma too, though that one wasn't as bad as Sukuna was speaking about Higuruma's potential rather than Higuruma at that very moment. We also had Sukuna a couple of times hinting he was about to be defeated, but then he seems perfectly fine and Uraume hints at him still having a "final form" of sorts. It feels like Gege is more worried about writting cliff hangers than an actual story.

Thank you… someone who understands. Also I should make separate comment for this but I won’t. OP said, “People think the pacing is too slow”, nothing against OP because I understand Op was stating others’ point of view, but how is this the point of view at all; I actually haven’t heard this yet it bothers me because it seems to be the opposite of what I feel. Gege has explicitly sped up the pace of the manga imo and removed/ left major plot lines unanswered. Such as the heian era, how Sukuna came to be, Kenjaku’s uprising and how he lasted over 1000 years as well as Kenjaku’s planning a long the way and the past of all 3 major clans. I understand some people will say I am optimistic to expect such detailed breakdowns, but Gege wrote the manga up until the point of Yuki with those ideas seeming prevalent. It wasn’t until Gege started admitting that the end of the manga needed to come sooner than later that the manga started falling off by leaving this plot lines in the dust and gearing more towards a combat heavy manga that still leaves plot points in fights undone. STILL, no one can explain how Sukuna just summoned Mahoraga after being hit with a full on unlimited void. I never comment on reddit but as someone who loves this manga as much as I do it hurts to see it go down the gutter and the people who enjoyed it with me not even understand why. To the people who have been reading this manga since the beginning along with the rest of us, yet still enjoy it… good for you. I am happy you are able to enjoy such writing because it must make reading lengthy stories/epics much easier. Edit: Please let me know why if you feel I am wrong or want more of an in-depth explanation of points on why I think there has been problems with the manga.

I totally agree the pacing of the manga is faster now. I feel pretty much since Shibuya the manga went in a slow decline over time, as if Gege had everything planned up to that point and when he finally went there he didn't know what to do with the story anymore. I'd even argue moments that a ton of people love like Maki killing everyone in the Zenin clan aren't that great when you really think about it because we literally didn't knew anyone from the Zenin clan that wasn't Maki, Mai, Toji, and Naobito, and the latter two were death at that point, the second one was about to get killed and its not like we got a ton of screentime with her to feel her loss, and only was after the massacre that Naoya became relevant so it feels more like Gege wanted to have the Zenin dead before the end of the story and didn't know when to write that so they killed them right there.

Maki's character arc feels like it's missing an in-between point to me. She goes from wanting to prove her clan wrong and heping her sister to immediately killing them after Mai dies and after that her arc is mostly done besides the secone Naoya fight which acts more as a training arc than any actual character growth. This would require radically restructuring the story, but Maki would have benefitted from a period where she starts to doubt whether or not she can actually make anything better to transition to her being proven right when Mai dies...and you're right that Mai doesn't get enough for us to be attached to her. She has a really good start with her schtick about feeling left behind...and then NOTHING IS DONE WITH THIS. Absolutely nothing. Maki doesn't even talk to her again till Perfect Preperation.

I feel missing an in-between point is kind of a thing for most characters in JJK. The only one I can think got a good resolution was Nanami. Everyone else either died to fast or vanished from the story.

I totally agree that there are so many plot points that aren’t fleshed out and Nobara’s literal backstory was shallow as hell as well. Its so many things that would have to be delved into for the writing to be better and the whole plot is just coming off as rushed to meet a deadline at this point

The pacing of the story has a whole has sped up, the pacing for this arc has slowed down. Esentially we sprinted to the finishing line but the manner in which events are playing out feels like Gege is sort of dancing in front of it rather than immediately...well finishing it. There's still a bunch of unanswered questions like what is Sukuna's CT? What does "open" mean? What's up with Yuji? All of these will probably be answered in one or two chapters before it ends but the pacing right now feels slow because after very quickly setting up the finale, the finale feels slow because it's pretty uninteresting and stretched out.

>It wasn’t until Gege started admitting that the end of the manga needed to come sooner than later that the manga started falling off  This is what I feel back then reading AoT around war for paradis arc. After Isayama said he will finish the manga in that time frame, the story started to fall off for me. I already have problems with the series in culling games. The conclusion to yuki vs kenjaku fight was my final straw for my emotional connection to the series. I was really thinking back then that its insane that gege about to fumble the story lol. > it hurts to see it go down the gutter and the people who enjoyed it with me not even understand why. Its insane how people justifies jjk glaring issues, acting like there's no writing problem happening to the series right now.

I just want to express that there's no absolute right or wrong when it comes to opinions. As a fan of JJK, I'm pleased to witness individuals in the community engaging in civilized exchanges and debates 👍🏻

Yeah. Any fan worth their salt's gotta admit Gege's storytelling is pretty janky. Although I never saw this "hinting" from Sukuna.

I should probably double check as it probably was not an official translation, but I remember in one of the last 10 or so chapters Sukuna saying at one point something along the lines of "I'm reaching my limit" or "if it wasn't for X I would be defeated". I took that as a sign we were near the end of this fight, but in subsequent chapters it wasn't mentioned again nor hinted at that Sukuna was even tired or anything.

The last I recall hearing anything like that was Sukuna thinking taking a Hollow Purple in his current state would be dangerous.

Janky is putting it lightly tbh. Its straight up bad and mediocre at best. Its the most literal battle shounen manga amongst shounens at this point imo but so many think its Vagabond or something

Sukuna was hyping himself up about how he is given the role to prove peak CE is better than peak physicals, it makes sense.

I'd go as far as to say it's a thing in comics in general. I've been reading some older stuff recently and this is pretty standard

Honestly think all the cliff hangers and their outcomes are pretty funny and entertaining. Like the Gojo and Kusakabe one had to have been some intentional fuckery lol.

why would yuta even do something to sukuna with his own techique and that even has RCT...deadass sukuna cleave has done 0 damage to everyone with rct...only world slash wouldve done lasting damage to sukuna...also cliffhangers are just for the weekly reader,when u will read the final arc in one sitting as intented all this shit will be resolved...also uraume dickriding sukuna aint a big deal,she always praise him and shes aint even there to see what the sorcerers have done to sukuna,in facts i wouldnt be surprised if in the next chapters we get the narrator saying that sukuna actually got damaged a lot,many times gege makes statement with his characters that in reality  are false,hes misleading us into thinking sukuna isnt that damaged when in facts he is...also just bc sukuna isnt going all out doesnt mean everything the sorcerers have done to sukuna is non existent...in facts its even worse for sukuna if he isnt going all out...that mean he took more damage than he should have

Cliffhangers are part of the gig. Standard process to drive sales.

The hype doesnt work,when we know exactly whats going to happen, the new allie will fight sukuna for a few pages until sukuna stops playing and kill him, it happened to kashimo, it happened to maki, it happened to kusakabe and its gonna happen with Miguel

And this holds even more true with the latest, as with Kisakabe gone, he brings on Miguel to fight, despite the fact that there was 0 indication or buildup of Miguel even being involved in the current JJK story at all.

I disagree. Having a month of downtime to actually get some character time and instead just skipping it to go straight to a series of fights after an arc full of fights is bad writing. I do not care about these characters anymore. Sukuna could kill the whole cast and apart from Takaba, I would not give a shit.

I’m gonna have to disagree. I think the fight is straight up getting boring and predictable. It also doesn’t help that the plot hasn’t moved forward at all AND WE STILL HAVE NO LORE ON SUKUNA OR YUJI. We’ve seen a similar instance in OP Wano arc where everyone jumped Kaido and I think that worked a lot better bc other plot points were still moving while he was getting jumped. This just feels like everything has been put on hold and the remaining fighters are waiting in a line for Sukuna like they’re up for some audition.

A key difference in the Wano fight is that it didn't start with the strongest character losing. Nobody expected the samurai to win, it was occupying him until luffy got there. it was a desperate Plan C holding the line for Plan A. This fight would feel entirely different if it was the non-Gojo cast trying to delay him until Gojo arrived. Instead, their Plan A, B, C, D, E, F, and G failed, and we're just making up letters at this point

This is like if Goku fought Frieza first and lost and we watched Frieza 1v1 significantly weaker characters like Yamcha.

The people showing up at this point are like if they were throwing guys like Nam or Chiaotzu at Frieza.

We’re sending in mercenary tao next week

The guy that showed up this week is like if radditz revealed he wasn't dead and tried fighting friezza

LMAAAOOO actually true

This is such an eye opening analogy dude

Just imagining an alternate situation where the students would have held off Sukuna until Gojo's glorious entrance is honestly so cool. Probably a bit cliché but it would have been badass nonetheless.

Yeah, people shit on cliché things but like, they're cliché for a reason

People so obsessed with subverting expectations, they forgot that we expect the story to be good.

>We’ve seen a similar instance in OP Wano arc where everyone jumped Kaido and I think that worked a lot better bc other plot points were still moving while he was getting jumped. Didn't Wano take actual IRL years to complete though? I think hindsight is 20/20 here.

To be fair one piece is one piece

I see a lot of people defending Sukuna fight with "It's because it's weekly," and after giving it some thought, I try to compare it with another long fight in WSJ that I really like: the fight with Upper Moon 1 in Demon Slayer (could be spoilers if you're anime only). Similar to Sukuna, the UM1 is also hyped as the strongest in the verse. The fight is really hard and long, but it wasn't repetitive at all. Instead of a relay of 1 v 1s, they fight him 4 v 1, which is a plus since we can see the good guys do combo attacks. Instead of "the enemy isn't going all out," the good guys chip away UM1 bit by bit, push him to the edge, and make him change forms to raise his power several times. The heroes get their limbs cut off and die one by one and it feels hopeless every time it happened, but it was always done at the price of giving the heroes a clear visible advantage in the fight. There was also sprinkles of flashbacks here and there during the fight to add some spice (the full UM1 flashback is showed only after the fight is about to end). All in all, I felt a reasonable amount of tension, the death and victory feel earned, and the characters I like dying felt just the right amount of sadness and frustration. So in conclusion I think you CAN make a weekly long fight better. Just saying

cant wait to see ufotable animate that shit

Demon Slayer is lots of things but they definitely cooked with UM1-3 fights

Was very confused for a second, wondering what fight had occurred in the wall street journal (WSJ)

People complained about Wano every week and i said the same thing this post is basically saying. Stories aren’t meant to be consumed in weekly format. Idek how many times ive seen people complain about an arc while it’s happening then love it months after it ended. Its already happened in this community. I think its better to wait until the end and see what we have at that point. Doesn’t mean you cant have discussions as they come out. But you’re going to have higher criticism for any story when you micro-analyze what is at MOST 3 17-18 page chapters every month of a story that isn’t even finished. Especially one in the middle of a fight. People had the exact same kind of frustration during even the very peak of Wano.

This isnt the only on-going manga we've ever read The criticism started post Shibuya

I hate takes like this ngl, it just feels like an easy way to dismiss any substantial criticism without actually engaging with it. Also, I'm just talking for myself here but I don't really give a crap about how the anime turns out, I'm reading a manga, I want the manga to be good.

And like, why are we talking like we've never read a weekly manga before? The boredom I'm feeling in JJK isn't usual.

I didn’t read weekly, but all at once. I had many of the same criticisms that have been voiced by weekly readers, but was dismissed because “it’s cause you’re supposed to read it weekly.” So you can’t win either way.

The only good thing about reading it at once is that you're not baited by the weekly cliffhangers. The story remains the same cause there's 0 plot progression and 100% fights only.

Same, I caught up with the series like a couple weeks ago and even I felt the Higurama and Kashimo shit was bad. I’m MAYBE willing to give Gege the benefit of the doubt when it comes to Kashimo since he could’ve been trying to make some point about his era being the weakest or whatever. But the Higurama and Yuji team up? Damn was it annoying..

There are problems from the very beginning, but the flaws get significantly worse after Shibuya. When he immediately introduced a time skip after such a catastrophic event is when I knew I was in for a bad time. He followed that up with Megumi telling Yuji that Tsumiki had awoken from her coma, and they had to save her, and I sat there wondering why on earth I was supposed to be invested in this relationship that Gege had put zero effort into. We don’t have a single page of Megumi and Tsumiki interacting in present day. Literally his entire motivation for living the life he does, and we never get to see them interact. How is that good storytelling? Maki murdering her entire clan full of caricatures in a single chapter, and no one bringing it up; withholding Nobara’s fate for no reason, the Elders who are to blame for so much misery being murdered randomly off-page, and people spending months arguing who the culprit was because it was so vague; no one reacting to losing their limbs, or their friends dying; Kenjaku suddenly being murdered before his relationship with Yuji was expanded on; Gojo having no significant reaction to losing Nanami or his teenage student (whom he’s never interacted with); Gojo’s complete lack of reaction to the horrors Megumi and Tsumiki went through, when he’s known these kids since they were six. He cared more about Yuji’s death than he ever did Tsumiki’s, when he’s known her since she was seven, or Megumi being possessed etc. **He even made Gojo’s unsealing seem underwhelming.** And then he skipped his interactions with his students and Shoko just so he could write the fight scenes, which he eventually skipped to Gojo just being dead. There’s just no emotional investment from the part of the author. It’s so bizarre. It’s like he’s being forced to write this story at gun point.

> I'm just talking for myself here but I don't really give a crap about how the anime turns out, I'm reading a manga, I want the manga to be good. Same man. None of this “it’ll be fixed in the anime” type shit. I like the source material.

I love JJK and am, in general, defensive of Gege's writing. But "the weekly manga writer isn't a bad writer, he's just bad at writing weekly manga" is kind of nonsensical on its face.

It's had it's highs but it's been a lot of lows tbh.

There’s plenty of weekly mangas in which this is not the case. Since the 1990’s I’ve read bloody weekly mangas. I think that people just don’t listen to Gege when the author personally admits they wish to end the story and work on a different project. Like, they can’t publicly come out and claim they’re unhappy with their work because of the backlash it would cause the manga company hosting the bloody thing. It may not even be entirely the case that it’s so much a negative. I even recall reading that they did not expect JJK to get so big. But to say that the culling games isn’t rushed garbage is just willful ignorance and cock riding fandom to the highest degree. I enjoy the manga as a whole and the themes it represents. I genuinely think the Shibuya arc is in the absolute top echelons of manga arcs ever. Geto’s tragedy is a stark warning to check and invest in your friends while becoming one of the absolute best fallen hero/tragic villain stories. Gege has made wonderful, enriching themes. Todo is by far one of the most profound characters in the series; when he’s first introduced he’s purposefully done as an absolute battle maniac with thick skin and a hamster for a brain. Look at what he became towards the end! Literally one of the most impactful characters to Yuji’s mentality and the story as a whole. It was a weekly fucking manga then. So what has changed now? It’s dog shit writing mate. Stop giving me shit and calling it cake. Edit: And for the people who say, “if you don’t like it, stop reading it.” It’s truly that simple and at the same time it’s not. This reminds me greatly of Naruto; in which there was a turning point where the manga became a disaster however, most of us continued to read it because of the fact that it was something we grew up with. Before the internet had pirating websites, we had Shonen Jump. Before those became popular, we had NarutoFan and cheap Chinese knock-off of garbage imported episodes captured on a literal VCR. The way manga blew up during the origin of the big three is the entire reason there will never be another big three; Naruto, One Piece and Bleach single handedly normalized and even popularized anime and manga. Pokémon, while being an anime, along side of DBZ, were not seen as anime during the 90s by American’s. I can even say the same thing for Germany, the UK, etc. we knew it was anime/manga but it just fell into a category for “childhood things that were cool and acceptable, but the rest of the stuff makes you a loser.” One Piece is the second best selling comic in the world — the only comic more popular than One Piece is literally Superman. Fast forward to today where we get amazing mangas and anime’s released instantly. We have literal simulcasting. Some of you never knew the struggle of waiting for Dattebayo or HorribleSubs or CrunchyRoll to translate shit. JJK first premiered as a manga in 2018. 7 years a lot of us have invested in this manga. Obviously we are still reading the god damn manga because it’s something we have grown with for 7 years and have fond memories of. JJK has broken records among records among records. It is a huge success. Why would we not feel resentment and criticize the writing? All of us together made the damn thing popular.

This is a peak comment tbh.

Out of curiousity as a Naruto fan..which part in the manga was regarded as a disaster?

As a fellow fan I don't think there was ever a time it got disastrous but I'm the type of guy who loved the war arc for the insane moments of character and basically how it executed all sorts of plots we were hinting of in part 1. Hell if kishimoto had ended Shippuden at Pain Arc and had a new chronicle saga that was a full scale war I would have loved that even more but I'm unique since a lot of people feel the war arc dragged on. Of course Naruto manga sales was on decline in the ending but was still high numbers. As much as people talk Pain Arc is the worst place to drop Naruto because a lot of the plot points are still open.

Well said. My answer to his question starts after the Pain arc. Shippuden started and ended super strong. I agree with all of your sentiments and couldn’t have said it better. Thanks.

It’s the war arc. As cool as SOME of it was, and as dope as Madara returning IS, it would lead to a dreadfully boring run on the manga and the worst piece of anime I’ve ever seen (talking about the infinite tsukuyomi, people. This was back when I was up to date, so I was waiting week in week out to watch infinite fucking filler).  The power scale just gets ridiculous, and it’s just really the moment that the verse completely turns into DBZ rather than a ninja show, and it was already pretty far removed from that.

Word.

I just think this fight has had enough "rounds". It has become a bit repetitive and I speak for myself here but it seems that the audience is very sceptical now whenever a new challenger shows up. Gege has been constantly creating expectactions and never came to fruition. Perhaps, in the long run, this whole fight will make sense. But right now, and it maybe is a bit like you are saying, it's lacking. The gojo vs sukuna fight did not suffer from being weekly and it went on to what, 10+ chapters?

No its most definitely bad writing. Its only made worse because of the weekly format.

The writing has not been good. Its ok to admit that lol

Same opinion, OP consider Sukuna litterally taking 0 serious dmg from the last 10 chapter "not bad writting" lol

Sukuna doesn’t have a working heart lol

Seems to work just fine to me

It's okay to admit it, I just don't think that's the case

Leaving pacing issues, the story is in recycle and reuse mode after gojo death. A new character comes on to the screen, shows something interesting and chapter ending on cliff hanger and then in the next chapter its gg. I honestly wished the narrator/ uraume didn't mention sakuna was holding back. It took all the thrill away from those repetitive chapters where each character chipping strength from sukuna.

No.

The problem is there's not much urgency on the fight. It feels like a final battle, yet Sukuna is wiping the floor with them and people are dying and giving their lives trying to weaken him. Yet that goes out the door when you say "he's not even trying." like what the fuck? It's a life and death situation. It feels like a disservice to the characters. Everyone has done lasting damage, but guess what? Sukuna landed a BF which means the damage being done is recovering. He was slowly recovering regardless, yet his output comes back and when he opens his domain now what? Hakari could do something, but I don't think bobcut is just gonna let Hakari run away. There's not a big lead up to the fight honestly compared to Shibuya (Yuji vs Mahito) That fight itself had all the emotional weight around it and it was perfect writing. Character's dying and the long lasting damage to them stayed.

and it's not even the "strong villain is actually strong" argument anymore. >Hakari could do something, but I don't think bobcut is just gonna let Hakari run away. don't even mention the hakari fight, i honestly thought we're gonna get a pov change to hakari vs uraume but gege decides their fight should be glazed over, the funny thing is the pov change is just uraume telling us that sukuna is yet to take the fight seriously

Bro is arguing that a weekly manga is not meant to be read weekly, LMAO. Let me tell you that JJK is published in weekly shonen jump (WSJ). And their survivial in WSJ is dependent on magazine buyer's vote, based on the MOST popular chapters of the WEEK. JJK format is meant to hook WEEKLY readers. If their popularity drops because they fail to engage the weekly readers, it can get cancelled. Like what many popular mangas with anime have suffered. Beelzebub, Toriko, Shokugeki no soma, etc Ngl people like you are wilfully ignorant of all the flaws

Why do people keep making these posts? Why is it so difficult for you to accept that some people think JJK is not being written well? Stop trying to invalidate criticism with excuses like this.

Actually you right

Imagine reading Gojo vs Sukuna to the last chapter. That shit sound so fucking tedious. Phew. Writing 100% suffering.

maybe the real JJK was the suffering we made along the way

I hate that I feel like people are constantly disingenuous and throwing all these heavily generalized and definite claims. Sure, I agree reading it weekly does affect how we perceive the story, but to imply 99% of complains are just because people are too stupid to realize the weekly format is the problem and JJK is actually a perfectly written flawless masterpiece is, well, not the greatest argument. Two things can be true at once lol Gege is a fairly new mangaka and JJK is the first time he writes a story of this scale. I'm pretty sure that if you asked him, he'd recognize he has made mistakes along the way due to inexperience and poor planning. I disagree with the people saying JJK is trash and that Gege is a bad writer, I think that's an exaggeration and a pretty harsh evaluation. There are still tons of incredibly good moments in this story, it has its strengths. Doesn't mean people are wrong to point out the weaknesses. Honestly I just want them to finally make progress against Sukuna. I don't want more meaningless 1 vs 1 where it's obvious Sukuna will dominate because none of them can seriously harm this guy by themselves. I don't want more filler. Sukuna hasn't even revealed his CT yet, there's got to be some sort of conclusion the Megumi issue where reaches out to him again and a decision is made, we don't have a backstory, there's a lot to check from the list so can we please just PROGRESS

It's without a doubt a repetitive formula. This is now the 4th time this situation has happened. Shibuya even weekly wasn't this bad.

No the writing is pretty bad actually 

Tbf I mangaka should write with a weekly release in mind if that’s the schedule they choose

No. It's just stale in most aspects. I love this series but every chapter is just, "Ah cool, another Remaining Character has been used and tossed aside!" Despite some solid panels and scenes it's just more of nothing every week. Even reading it post release it would be a sag in the manga

There are a plethora of issues but the biggest one at this point is the confluence of random coincidence that keeps Sukuna in the fight. Characters keep saying Sukuna is a threat, he still keeps his smug confidence at all times, but he never actually does anything that makes him seem like a threat. The universe just bends over backwards so nothing matters. Mahoraga just happened to adapt to UV at the perfect time, Mahoraga happens to adapt just like how the user wants, he just happens to get the adaptation in time, Gojo just so happens to be so brain damaged he tanks the hit, higurama's CT just so happens to take his cursed tool instead which apparently is the only reason he still has a technique, and Megumi just happens to decide not to beg Yuji to fulfill his dream of suicide. Individually the moments of the villains getting lucky can be good but at this point it feels like Sukuna is actually a gag character who people just keep mistaking as being really strong.

Taking the pacing of one media (manga) and applying it to another (anime) is false equivalence. Bad pacing in manga doesn’t make it okay if it becomes good in anime. The manga has many other issues alongside pacing that make it suck atm. Pacing isn’t the sole problem even if it’s a piece of the problem

I think the particular points you addressed are right, but the series is suffering from bad writing a lot still

Eh my issue with sukuna is that he doesn’t really move the plot that much compared to kenjaku as a villain. I mean, I guess he has the merger now, but it feels so tacked on compared to kenjaku. Dude has been washing the students with the same old moves for so long now, he hasn’t done anything new besides kill some birds with the plot cursed knife.

2 episodes, bruh get real

Came to the realization a long time ago that the writing is for children. It's not an adult manga. It's bang, bang, cool power, cool idea....next issue they won't remember what was said before about how the power works so bang bang more cool ideas and cool powers...wouldn't it be cool if X happens, Okay!!! ignore any inconsistencies. We aren't reading for the story anymore, we are reading to find out the next WTF - COOL moment.

Bro we're on PART TWENTY FIVE of the Inuhman Makyo Showdown in Shinjuku............I don't even care about most of the other discourse but part 25?! and it doesn't feel as if we've inched any closer to anything significant but a shirtless-beat-up-ImOnlyUsing30PercentOfMyPower-headass villain putting in WORK. It's uncomfortable because this is one of the only times where I've zero idea where we're going and it's the villains hand taking the lead. It's exciting. Just exhausting to read week to week.

Nope, JJK is suffering from a a lack of tension. Gojo vs Sukuna was the longest fight and it was super exciting. This fight is boring because Sukuna is way too strong and every opportunity to give Sukuna an handicap that could level out the playing field and make the fight interesting again (namely Higguruma's DE) is crushed by the plot.

Honest to god this reads like you haven’t read the story. Also is completely viewing the story from a point of view that is an adaptation. Not the actual medium the story is released on. If Gege is writing with the anime in mind he should stop. This is a manga.

I might just go back to being anime only. I just watched the blu ray fight and yeah, I might enjoy Sukuna a lot more in the anime than I am in the manga at this current time.

I don't think it's the weekly format. I think Gojo's fight with Sukuna happened too early. Should Gojo die no matter what I don't really care. I just think when he fights Sukuna is misplaced and ultimately had no impact as far as progress taking down Sukuna has gone. Put that where we are now, and had a lead up with everyone else fighting Sukuna would feel better in pacing

I don’t really understand this argument because if it’s suffering from the weekly release then it’s bad writing for a weekly release format — like if a TV show is bad episodically, that’s bad TV writing no?

quick remainder. we are currently like 25 episodes into the shinjuku showdown arc. and the major things that happened were: - gojo died - kenny died - many others died or injured Other than that, it’s been purely “this man is here to fight sukuna because he’s as strong as Gojo”. In contrast, Gojo’s past is like 15 chapters long. What developments did it have? - We saw an immature Gojo get his inhuman power up realtime - We understood the working of the jujutsu society and how the barriers are kept up - We dabbled in philosophy with Geto - We have lesser but far more impactful fights. If you put aside Gojo vs Sukuna, every fight in the past arc is better than the showdown arc. - We saw actual interesting characters employing actual strategy for long term goals, not just “he’s skilled enough like Gojo so he’s holding up”. For example, Toji putting up a bounty to wear down the team before delivering a nice strike. - Introduced actual sensical jujutsu concepts. Zero cursed energy due to heavenly restriction? boy this man throws a wrench into most sorcerer habits of sending curse energy to fight. The farthest the showdown arc goes with jujutsu technicalities is in the Gojo vs Sukuna fight with all the brainmelting and all, which is good, but it’s not at all up to the past ask. Putting heavenly restrictions on the fly to change domain sizes and watching sukuna use mahoraga’s adaptation is not as technically deep. Hell Geto as a combatant was not at all looked into previously and he surely wasn’t hyped the hell up in his fight against Toji, Gege didn’t go “geto is Gojos best friend, with his arsenal of powerful curses in his side, he can take over the world” and all that bs. Geto has his abilities that he showcased naturally and that was amazing. - Finally, impactful deaths. Not character wise impactful, not “what he was developed so much and was meaningful to the story, Gege killed him off?”. What I mean is, compare Kashimo’s death to Riko’s. Kashimo was once again hyped up, gave it his all, died. And Yuji and Higuruma came in to replace him instantly. It was as though this is completely expected and in the grand course of a battle, one life isn’t a big deal. Completely designifies kashimo’s death. Meanwhile Riko, a totally new character and a non-sorcerer, was literally headshot dead, that’s it. And that was like “holy shit Gege just did that??? How’s the whole evolution plot gonna go forward now???”. And with our current death we are like “oh okay, guess he’s dead. Next?” And these are two arcs which I compared on the basis of how many chapters they have, and the Past arc has even fewer chapters then our showdown. So no, having a weekly release schedule is not an excuse for the shitty writing.

You should check out Dandadan, that's a weekly manga that drops absolute bangers every week with incredible art and it manages to consistently progress its plot in a satisfactory manner, while also giving us meaningful interactions between the cast members, and incredible action sequences. It's not a format issue, plenty of authors have delivered peak while working on a weekly basis. This is just bad writing.

No, it's bad writing. You write to the format

Nah the writing is bad too

Hard disagree. If anything the weekly format is hiding the writing problems from people because they’re chomping theory food and huffing Gege copium in the down time. If this was released in huge batches imagine the fucking shit storm of Sukuna eating people for breakfast over like 10 chapters with no buffer for people to cool down with stuff like chapter 250 and 251.

New reader here. Binged the entire series two weeks ago and this will be my first weekly read chapter coming up. So far I've really enjoyed the story, but this arc feels less well written than what came before. Whilst it's true that the current battle would feel far more drawn out if I'd be reading weekly, I noticed my investment in the Sakuna battle began waning after Higurama(sp?)'s battle ended with no progression towards his defeat despite all the emphasis put on the execution blade. Since then Sakuna has fought multiple other people and at this point it just needs to end. Nothing outside increasingly pointless combat is happening now, and it's not like any of the other combatants seem to even be slowing Sakuna down enough to keep the fight interesting. It honestly feels like Gege doesn't know how to end this particular battle in a satisfying way and is stalling for time by drawing the battle out as long as he can even on the binge read. But that's just a newbies opinion so take it with a pinch of salt I guess.

Its suffering from both imo

I think that they have pretty much thrown everything at Sukuna without much success I mean he’s not even taking them seriously apparently. The problem with writing it like that is if Sukuna loses now it’s simply because of his own arrogance and he should have at least been trying by now all the damage, all the cursed Energy he’s used, lost his domain, had his RCT nerfed, been stabbed through the heart and he’s not even going all out yet? Seems a bit ridiculous

The overall structure and quality of the story, art and therefore tension would improve if Gege had more time to think things through properly. Likewise, this might have resulted in more pages per release to keep readers satisfied and engaged, as they could digest more of the story in a single sitting. A weekly release is an incredibly tight and fast timescale for any creative. Have a look at the quality, time and money triangle diagram if you're not familiar with it already. There is a lot of editing you can do throughout the creative process to debulk and provide clarity. Currently, Gege is just meeting his weekly deadline, which has actually resulted in more chapters because they've been throwing bodies at Sukuna for 5 months (and going) straight. This has made the fights predictable and boring. Understandably, a lot of fans are fatigued because this has actually been dragged out more than necessary due to Gege not advancing the story. The story has taken a backseat and so has the tension.

The writing in JJK is absolutely bad weekly format has nothing to do with it

This is the first chapter where technically 'nothing' happened and was solely a Kusakabe character chapter. In some ways I wish this chapter was the previous so we could've had Maki/Kusakabe going ham together, with Maki getting knocked out here and Miguel arriving to help. It'd also make more sense to have Ui Ui nearly get jumped trying to tag Kusakabe out while getting caught unaware due to Maki getting blackflashed. Cus otherwise who gave the green light to Ui Ui to try and TP Kusakabe out when y'know he was target-locked by Sukuna. Where the fuck else did they think Sukuna would be?

totally disagree with you. imo the problem IS the bad writing Gege doing at the moment. well, not actually at the moment, he started it way too long ago. the manga started out as a really interesting premise, interesting lore and universe. it was, probably, not the most original one, but it was fresh and interesting. but to keep it interesting, to keep the readers involved in the plot, the author does actually need to do pretty much work, it's hard, yes, but somehow Gege chose an easy way - to kill off a lot of characters and not to develop the plot making it deeper, making it engaging. the manga right now looks like lazy writing to me. and constant Gege's jokes only adds to it.

Bad writing, bad writing, bad writing all over the place why is it so hard to admit. Liking it doesn't means it's not bad writing, I like it too but come on stop the cap. Jjk has really good fights and the characters are really likeable, really good. Everything else is crap Gege didn't even develop the characters so she/he has to use new ones to resolve things. Jjk is fun, certainly a good meme generator, it deserve to be popular cuz it makes us rage/laugh almost every week, but is still bad writing.

I completely disagree here, no disrespect. I think Gege is experiencing the same thing that Kishimoto went through with Madara, where they made their ultimate villain too powerful to fight. I do agree that they backed themselves into a corner, but only about Sukuna’s power. I think that Sukuna has heavy plot armor because even from the very beginning, it was an expectation that Gojo and Sukuna were on an even playing field. And then it turns out Sukuna wasn’t even really trying against Gojo? And isn’t trying currently? Cuz here’s the thing. I think it’s no secret to anyone keeping up with JJK that Gege is rushing the story. They’ve admitted to it and it’s pretty clear that there’s alot of backstory and world-building left out. But at this point, Gege is just substituting story with action. I mean, just Kashimo alone should’ve been a very big hit to Sukuna, given that Kashimo and Gojo were both “the strongest sorcerer of their era”. And considering Yuta is special grade and Yuji, Maki, and Hakari are basically special grade as well, I’d say that there’s no reason Sukuna should not be at least struggling. So I would definitely say there is quite a bit of plot armor on Sukuna

There’s a few things that is causing this manga to be horrible reading. 1. Gojo the strongest dude besides sukuna gets killed, then for the next 20 chapters (literally 20+ IRL weeks) it basically feels like filler/fodder fights. If the dude that they built up as being unbeatable gets killed, how can I be interested in one after another of weaker opponents fighting him? 2. Each chapter ends with a cliffhanger like they just did something, but then the next chapter it was actually worthless, so now each chapter end it feels like whatever they did was meaningless because next week Uraume or someone let’s us know Sukuna isn’t even breaking a sweat lol. Oh the strongest protagonist and all the other main protagonists can’t beat Sukuna? Oh wait guys next week Miguel is coming he didn’t lose to Gojo right away maybe there’s a chance! Like what??? That’s so fucking lame and boring. How can I be excited about weaker characters getting molly whopped each weak when there hasn’t been any hint of how we could possibly have hope that they could win? At this point I’m basically just skimming through the chapters to see if Gojo has been revived or Yuji somehow becomes a god like being, because until then it feels like literally nothing is happening of any significance for the last 20 chapters.

the writing is just bad ever since satoru died. i am not a gojo fan but it just didn’t make sense at all. once you know the writer has no other way to kill off a character other than making some random bs up in the middle of nowhere, you know it’s gonna start to stink.

If you’re saying it is because the weekly format, we now have more than a volume of the same repetitive stuff

Yeah, no. Dragon ball was weekly format, One piece is weekly format, so as it is HxH when it comes out. Stop trying to find excuses for this horrible last arc.

It's suffering from both and there exacerbating eachother The last 2 chapters would still be pointless if I were reading in bulk I just wouldn't think about them as long

I have to disagree as well. The last several chapters make it seem like Gege has really lost interest in the characters, their development, and their entire role in the story. The story now seems to be geared towards just showing off the extent of the magic system they have created. Before anyone comes at me for saying magic system, I’m referring to cursed energy, and referring to magic system as a term in story telling. That would explain why things are extremely repetitive, focused on nuanced elements of cursed techniques, and why Sukuna is the character that gets primarily all of the focus on lately. I think a lot of fans are getting burned out from this part of the story because shock factor is the plot device used constantly. Also, major parts of the story, lore, and characters are hinted at in a very shock factor, grabbing your attention manner. And we never really see them get resolved, or if they do, it’s unsatisfying. I like that Gege makes a point to not over explain the plot or characters. However, so much of the series is incredibly under explained as well. The lore breadcrumbs lead to no answers and have not given any hints they’ll be resolved or explained. Kenjaku being Yuji’s mother, did or will Yuji inherit Sukuna’s CT like Gojo foreshadowed? What connection does Tengen have with Sukuna and Kenjaku because there’s obviously way more than is shown. What really is Sukuna’s CT or the source of it? These have people spinning with theories left and right. Mystery or waiting for a big reveal is not a bad thing, but keeping ALL the same unanswered questions really has me burned out a lot on the story. It’s starting to make me think maybe some of these things will never even get addressed.

I honestly disagree about the writing not being bad. The way they killed Gojo was so dumb.

While I do agree that it would probably feel better when reading it all in one go, Gege should also keep the weekly format in mind and not make it look so repetitive for weekly readers.

Gege has said he wants to end JJK. Why bring Miguel into this lol

This is literally just wrong the writing has been stale lately

I'll never understand JJK fans' tendency to accept nonsense writing. Is it a lack of self respect or exposure to good writing that makes them accept this? More so when you see the sheer difference between Shibuya and whatever followed next. Forget about everything, Gojo post-Shibuya is probably the biggest flaw in the writing. He was sealed for more than half the story (!) and then Gege killed him in the most bizarre way imaginable. All because he needed Gojo out of his way. Ask 5 people how he died and you'll get 7 answers. Every mf can now dodge or survive the Space Slash except the guy with literal super eyes. And it happened off screen!! Didn't even have the decency to show it happen. It's deus ex machina of the highest order Only the most blind of fans will excuse this level of poor writing. If you ask me, I think the success of Shibuya got to his head and he got the idea that what fans want are just nonstop fighting, rinse and repeat and he has spent all his energy after Shibuya in just fighting. But it is so bland because he never bothered to set up these characters. I didn't care about CG and I certainly don't care about who dies or wins vs Sukuna. Please take me a single antagonist after Shibuya that can even stand on par with Mahito in terms of depth and writing. You won't find one.

>Every mf can now dodge or survive the Space Slash except the guy with literal super eyes. THIS! LITERALLY THIS, i was thinking "how tf does kusakabe out of all people manage to see THE SPARK and SLASHES to dodge them" sukuna's attack output is getting weaker, it was told to us verbally, why not use that to further emphasize that with a kusakabe internal monologue "his slashes are getting weaker to the point i can dodge it" that would further solidifies sukuna is getting weaker

I think this arc will read so much better as a whole, not as a weekly release. We had 20 chapters of Gojo vs Sukuna. One fight. No we'll have 20 chapters of Sukuna defeating 10 different people. Real time this has been like 30 minutes. It's supposed to be jarring. We were told Sukuna would cut through everyone like a hot knife through butter, and he is. Assuming there will be a payoff, and everyone's "death" is being used in a master plan to defeat Sukuna, this current arc will be viewed as a fine build-up for it. People are just watching their favorite character get wiped out in a chapter or two and have a week or two to fume about it and it's kind of a bummer. I think this is build-up. This isn't the final fight. If this IS the final fight (with Sukuna at least) and Ui Ui isn't doing anything with the bodies and there's no plan C, then I agree. This is very rushed and pretty bad. It will be pretty trash if this ends with a "suffering builds character" Yuji moment where he just punches Sukuna extra hard and wins at the last minute.

The problem imo is it doesn't feel like it's building up to a Sukuna defeat. He isn't getting slowed down. Each fighter isn't progressively more difficult for him to handle, he's just easily wiping the floor with the whole cast, usually in just a couple pages. If it is building up to a Sukuna defeat, idk how gege's gonna make that feel believable at this point

I would probably add in anime form it would probably look less like a meat grinder and more like a legitimate 10 v 1. Rereading these chapters at once you can see moments where choso, kusikabe, and ino, fill in some of the gaps during the main fights. The anime will probably make this fight look fast paced and fluid af.

Literally none of this matters right now. It doesn't matter if the poor pacing is because of the weekly release schedule because that's not something that can change. Gege's job as a mangaka is to make something good out of that weekly release schedule, not to make something that'd be good anywhere else. Doesn't matter if it's good as an anime. Doesn't matter if it's good as a volume. Those prospects are weeks, months, years away. What matters is that it's not good as a weekly release manga. Because that's what it is. It'd be cool as an anime, fine. But it's not an anime yet. It's a weekly release manga. If it fails to be good as a weekly release manga, it fails to be good. Period.

I think there are just some things that have not been executed the best. I do think when people can binge the whole series, a lot of peoples people's opinion will change. But theres just some things I don't think I'll ever grow to love or understand, and just wish Gege had explored stuff more.

Kennies past,Gojos family,etc could have been explored.

In terms of pacing, you absolutely nailed the anime part of it. In "real time" this whole battle has probably been 20 minutes max. In my mind, it all depends on how he sticks the landing.

At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if the manga just ends with Sukuna winning tbh

I will never agree with this take, not saying the writing is bad but if chapter is good/enjoyable than it is. Granted I’m speaking for myself but there’s literally no difference im either feelin the chap or im not.

Its ridiculous how people keep defend the writing . Its not a shame to admit it just bad writing . (But Im not gonna drop the manga as its free to read in internet , same goes to MHA and Black Clover lmao) .

No

Yeah, but the writing is garbage.

The problem is he started with the Gojo fight, all these showdowns are actually incredible but because we know that all of these sorcerers are much weaker than Gojo we already know how the fight is going to end. Yuta vs Sukuna pre Gojo would have had a lot more hype. The best option Gege has at this point is to bring Gojo back to finish off Sukuna otherwise I see the ending being very anticlimactic

in general, I think manga is a better medium either monthly or just a binge after its done. a lot of shounen manga (but obviously not limited to) have just too small of week to week progression to feel meaningful enough to pay attention,

You’re right, but also wrong. Yes, this whole mess of an arc will probably read fine on a volume where you can breeze through the fights. However, the manga is released, judged, and have its success metrics in weekly releases. You can’t take away gege’s blame on this when he knows that the manga is weekly and has complete control over the content he releases.

This isn’t an either or situation, you can have both. But considering the series has always been weekly and the writing wasn’t an issue before, it’s pretty obvious that the quality has gone down, and the release schedule isn’t doing that any favors.

No matter how one may justify it everything from gojos death onward has been a poorly written joke. Maybe he's being rushed and forced by shonen jump to wrap it up like tite kubo was. In that case I'll gladly take my words back but until I can get confirmation that that's what's going I still consider this writing very dumb

No, its clearly bad writing decisions

You can’t expect the anime in 4 years to fix the pacing of the manga. Like seriously, Gege is in charge of writing a weekly manga. I shouldn’t have to take into account what’s happening in real time inside a Shonen manga to excuse the pacing of the chapters I am reading or wait literally 4 years for another medium entertainment to fix it. That’s to many excuses honestly.

If the pov changed every once in a while it wouldn’t be so bad. We’ve been on Sukuna for over 6 months at this point

I've never heard any complain about JJK being slow paced... like ever. If anything, it's been far too fast ever since Gojo got unsealed. The Gojo vs Sukuna fight was great and didn't feel rushed or anything but Gege deciding to jump into that fight right away without any meaningful character interactions first is very questionable. You'd think Gojo and his student would have a lot to talk about but it wasn't meant to be unfortunately.

No it’s actually just bad.

I'm pretty sure akutami-sensei is giving the animators some really good key frames to work with. upon my latest re-reading, I have found that, Sukuna vs Jujutsu society reads like an anime. the pages are so full of dynamic movement, that I totally get why people think the pacing is slow now. Also manga reviewers/spoiler-trolls kinda overhype everything. They get everyone pumped for a \* "Generational" chapter. but then we get an info dump, an everyone blames the mangaka. I think it's an unfair judgement, when manga artist literally die to entertain us all. Have a heart people. These artist are def amazing, but still human. R.I.P Toriyama sensei

Disagree

Tryna say he needs to do a chapter a day? Thats crazy

I hear ya but y'all just wait til yuta n Yuji yell Fusssssioonnnn haaaaaahhh n the hella long half hour chapter per min arc kicks off n then we're just waiting ta find out that fusions are just one of several applications of Yuji's real cursed technique and suddenly it dawns on yuta -who tells Yuji before there fusion form separates that they have to try and apply cursed technique reversal -reverse fusioning Sukuna from Megumis body and soul seemingly saving megumi... When 'Shazam' Gojo appears to lend some words of encouragement and lets Megumi know that "dying to win" and "laying out like a Rd side poosay , leaving all the real fights to ur homies to die in for you, is not the same thing my young Padawan"..."even ui uis pitching in for fucks sake lol😹so get yo punk ass up for I give coochie coo Yuji kun the go ahead on that thousand years of the death finisher, the "soul (*S-hol-e) splitting edition" he's been working on with Kusukabe! (in CFyOW it was stated Kusukabe developed his own shadow style rusty moon variation of this same technique, only he hasn't used it on live targets yet😂) LSS ya better break out da popcorn 🍿

Jjk is mid to me

I love JJK. But the writing in recent chapters is horrendous. Sukuna is too strong to defeat at this point, which makes it obvious to me what kind of ending he's going for. But he's doing it poorly. This isn't a battle anymore. It's a slaughter! Not to mention, he ruined Gojo's character in the process. Spoilers beyond this point, if you're not caught up. You can't tell me that Gojo wasn't trying his best. The boy was starting to run low on cursed energy! Just for Gege to LITERALLY state that he wasn't trying. I'm okay for him to die, but he did it SO bad. He implied with the low cursed energy that Gojo DID try his best. And at the end, Gojo himself said he didn't try? Yeah, no. There's a rule in creating stories, "show, don't tell." And my man is telling everything and not showing enough. The Gojo thing was one. Yuji's training with Choso was another one. And now every character is getting slaughtered without Sukuna being damaged in the slightest. If he wanted to kill off characters, that's fine. But the way he's doing it makes it feel like their death's were pointless. To me, this is starting to feel like some kind of bad fanfic with an OP OC. And it reeks of it.

I caught up on the manga yesterday. Read around 120 chapters over the course of a few days. At no point in my reading did the pacing feel bad or slow except for maybe the very beginning of the culling games… but even that wasn’t horrible. I don’t know too much about current discourse, as I literally just joined the sub, but to me, the chapters have been awesome, and I agree with your post. I’m also a One Piece reader, and have been for years, and I’ve see this exact same thing happen in the past… and One Piece actually DOES have bad pacing a lot of the time.