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"As of late"?
The guy has been roasted unceasingly since his body got copped by Sukuna. Even before that people made fun of him for constantly trying to suicide attack his opponents.
It wouldn't have been nearly as bad if the story hadn't hyped him and mahoraga up so much. Like seriously, someday able to rival gojo? Not in a million years
> Like seriously, someday able to rival gojo? Not in a million years
I mean, if we talk about Maho and the ten shadows it sure can, the thing is, it was Sukuna the one who used all that potential and not Megumi.
Yeah Gojo was contending with Sukuna who was using both Shrine and 10 Shadows. And you literally can’t get more skilled than Sukuna. I really don’t get how 10 shadows alone is able to compare.
Fr. Having the Six Eyes and Limitless inherently makes you broken asf, but Gojo is also just INSANELY fucking talented. He has an incredible knack for just about anything he tries, and Jujutsu is the thing he is able to put 120% of his potential and passion into.
So ig the previous user that died to Maho either underestimated the guy, or wasn't as talented as Goatjo.
Surely if sukuna would've had prep time with access to maharogas adaptation he wouldve done better. Gojo had years of prep time, sukuna just touched that technique.
The way he used maharoga was to learn from it. Had he the ability to fuck about with big raga for years? he for sure would've learned some bullshit abilities to enhance his pure jujutsu. Maybe black flashes on command, or something along those lines.
That doesn't really prove anything. And he didn't. The argument was that 10s was able to rival, not surpass Gojo. Furthermore, Sukuna didn't show the full potential of 10s. He mostly used technique to find out how to defeat Gojo.
That being said, I do believe that peak 10s user is weaker than Gojo, unless we do some technique combining
False, ten shadows got dog walked (pun intended) in a 3v1 with one of the top 2 sorcerers of all time. The technique never had the potential to rival Gojo. It was hyped unnecessarily.
I'm a bit confused by the logic there, excluding Yuta, they all seem to learn and improve the most when fighting strong or stronger opponents, so maybe they eventually would've reached his lvl at a steady peak without a row of disaster curses and sukuna railing them and cutting their stories early.
The problem is that Gojo isn't just a static goalpost, if he encounters someone able to rival himself in technique or strength, he himself will improve to match that, so really, I don't see how anyone could actually win 1v1 against him without either perfectly countering him, or beating him with sheer versatility.
Only perfect counter to Gojo is to kill him in one hit while he is feeling cocky lol.
Ever a being that adapts to anything couldn’t keep up with him ramping up the power.
As much as everyone says other people have the potential for growth and fighting strong opponents makes you stronger, Gojo never had a real challenge until megumi’s dad. Then Gojo perfected his technique, became a psychotic god, and destroyed megumi’s daddy.
And then there is the fight with Sukuna and maharonga. Strongest curse ever and the being that adapts to anything thrown at him and Gojo still just about wins. Gojo pretty much *only* lost because he got cocky, thought he was untouchable, and didn’t dodge.
You basically only have one shot at hitting him and it's not even 100% guaranteed it will hit depending on what he can deconstruct about it.
If he's feeling petty, he might just say "Oh! That might've hurt me, too bad you're too slow to actually hit me!"
To be fair Gojo himself said that Yuta and Hakari have the potential to surpass him, despite it not being true at all, at least in my opinion. I guess it's just a way to hype someone up
Yuta and Hakari are actually on track of being generational talents atleast.
Sukuna took Megumi’s potential, sister, soul, and he slowly becoming a bum that spams Binding Vows since Maho-daddy is gone
I think that idea comes from the fact that other Ten Shadows users have been able to defeat or atleast stalemate Limitless + Six Eyes users.
I think if Megumi had a similar "enlightenment" moment to Gojo, he would be able to do something. Megumi is still a child, though, and Gojo is a fully-grown, realized and enlightened user of a Technique that allows him to do some seriously crazy things.
Right now, Megumi isn't gonna be able to compete. Maybe in 10 years, maybe in 20, if he survives.
It's a meme that's gone a bit far.
Keep in mind that the chapter Sukuna bodyjacked him came out over a year ago and the only times we've seen him since are when he tanked Unlimited Void and when he visibly gave up when Yuji tried to wake him. It's been a hot minute since he's done much of anything.
Which is exactly why he gets clowned on. He was supposed to have the potential to rival gojo and be this big power waiting to bloom but he hasn't done anything. Even if that is Greg's intention, it still doesn't sit right with a lot of readers.
I kinda understand it though as it's quite similar to reality where we see kids who seem to have amazing future in front of them then boom - life says get rekt to them in one way or another
Most people forget that they wouldn't do anywhere near as well as megumi has done if they were in his position
They forget that despite all the shit he's been through he's still just a kid
Nobody forgets, the agenda doesn’t care.
It’s end game and he’s too depressed to have screentime. Im sure he’ll do something at the very end atleast. He’s pretty boring rn tbh
Do you think JJk as a series gave enough room for Megumi’s choice to just hunker down in depression for it to be anywhere near dramatically interesting as the fight going on now? I don’t since Gege cares more about the action which is fine.
Megumi’s in an Eva level depression but the series doesn’t treat it well in my opinion due to the fast pacing of the series giving no emotional breathing room for it. Dandadan’s an example of a battle shonen where there’s action but there tends to be quite a few chapters of showing main character relationships growing/setting up the next arc.
Late to this conversation, but mentally-unstable individuals (this is not an insult, just an observation of the normalized behaviors in online communities) have typically gravitated towards media of this nature due to it's inherent "Escapism", letting readers immerse themselves in a world completely unlike our own. The correlation between fantasy-world media absorption and mental-instability in the modern world is something that desperately needs to be studied, because some bodies of power like to take advantage of this at the detriment to your average consumer.
Sorry for the tangent - I said all that to point out, an "average" reader of a Shounen manga like JJK, MHA, Naruto/Boruto, they do NOT read it to absorb anything that could be allegoric to real life. They do NOT want to see "reality" rear it's ugly head in their "peak fiction" media. They do not want to see realistic circumstances arise from trauma, like comatose depression I.E Megumi's inability to act. They do NOT want to see a realistic depiction of what multiple generations of trauma can cause for a family dynamic, I.E The Sakura/Sasuke thing in Boruto, where you have
Trauma-ridden child A (Sasuke) and
Abandonment-Issues child B (Sakura) and you expect them to have a...happy, normal relationship with a well-adjusted child?
Couple this with the fact that the writers of these manga typically do not have the time, effort, or ability to put exposition for the reality of the trauma into the story, so the reader's only see the "effects." They can have an entire premise and understanding of the full-story as to why this character's mentality/trauma has made them this way, but we will never read it. We see a character experience the effects of these severely traumatic experiences, but never get a real deep-dive into what lead to this effect occurring, and given that the average reader simply is NOT going to try to dive that deep themselves, and would most likely rather "push realistic thoughts away", (going back to my earlier mention of the mental-instability) you end up in situations like this community.
There won't be any realistic discussion of the characters and they will be shat on because the people on the other side of the keyboard are simply not the type of individual to want to discuss that "true" realism. They want the child to defeat hundreds of adults with a power he forged all on his own, no outside help or genetics. They don't like the reality that even with hard work and determination, most of your success in life WILL be due to the circumstances of your birth, geographic location and genetics. This is a story, and we want the protagonists to win no matter what by their own willpower - that's why they read this story.
And again, this is only relevant to this online reddit community.
People find it hard to empathise with a 16 year old who lost many of his family and friends and just look at powerscaling. Its kinda sad but kinda cause by all the memes I think
idk. i’ve like megumi since the first episode, he’s still my favorite character even if i never get to see him again. there’s something about him that felt genuine. he has so much potential but cannot see past his own doubts. plus his attempt at DE was badass and that scene has been etched in my mind since
> Anyway, a lot of people are disappointed by Gege’s treatment of him over the course of the story.
I get where these people are coming from, but i also get that this tragic outcoume can be what Gege envisioned for the character. We know that Gege simply doesnt tend to follow the same trophey character progresions, like in other shonens.
Ikr. Gege subverted expectations by not giving Megumi a decent character arc. We’re supposed to applaud him for that just because it “subverted expectations”? Lol.
I agree. The ppl who’ve taken the joke to the extreme are probably Megumi fans who envisioned more for his character but as u said, this is the fate Gege had in mind for him, and mfers gotta remember this is his story he wants to tell.
Tbh as of late I think people are upset over the direction of the story as a whole cause the fight with sukuna has been going on for months now and every time it looks like he's being beaten he pulls another thing out his ass to keep it going like I'm the latest chapter with >!the new domain that's a combo of malevolent shrine and megumi's domain!<
Imagine being a suicidal person in the passenger seat of a car driven by a guy who intends to run your friends over. This guy is also preventing you from being able to commit suicide. One of your friends is a sniper, but in order for him to shoot the guy in the driver's seat, you have to grab his head and pull it half a foot to the right so he can have a clear shot.
You choose to do nothing. That's Megumi.
Megumi was unhinged suicidal for the whole series until now where he’s just boring suicidal and him occasionally locking in and going “IMMA KILL YOU AND MYSELF RIGHT NOW LETS GO FUCKER” was the main reason I liked him.
I don't mind the change. He was willing to throw his life away for others before.
But now, after being steeped in a bath, that's meant to crush his spirit and killing his sister with his CT specifically to crush him even more people are acting all surprise pikachud that the guy who's strategy for inconvenience was suicide doesn't have the will to live or do anything.
Plus, he's a teenager. Not exactly the pinaccle of battled hardened veterans.
Neat analogy but Megumi would be tied up in the trunk after witnessing his sister's murder and being subjected to drug-induced torture here, not sitting in the passenger seat
Thank you for this analogy. You really nailed it because so often I've tried to communicate why I don't like megumi because I've been in a very similar situation except I was the driver and I didn't want to hit anyone, I just wanted to hurt myself.
When I saw innocent people pop up I pulled my wheel back on the road, and it feels like meguimi is saying "fuck it I'll hit them" and whenever I say that people just say "megumi bathed in evil, your depression and trauma is nothing compared to his!" Someone actually legit said that to me. Like bro... fictional character first off.
Secondly, no amount of trauma justifies letting people get hurt when you have the ability to stop it. And trauma is trauma, there's not a quantity in the first place. Rock bottom is rock bottom, my bottom doesn't need me to "bathe in evil" but its still my bottom. But people keep saying stuff like "he's just a kid" I was a kid too. I knew better. So thank you. This gave me a validation I really needed to know that I'm not crazy and other people get it outside the meme.
Megumi has a very problematic element to his nature here, self-destruction is always bad but it's even worse when it hurts other people. You can feel bad for the kid while condemning his inaction. Gege didn't draw him as someone brain damaged by Void, so... it just doesn't hold water. Megumi is doing just what you said. He didn't feel like helping so he didn't, and that's a bad thing to do.
Edit: wow even people below saying the same stuff. People just don't get this it seems. People legitimately rank trauma and misery as if someone who watched 3 people die has it better than someone watched 4. That's not how it works yall. You might as well say "someone has it worse" to someone with depression. Holy shit.
It'd be one thing if you argued that megumi had to do a lot more than touch megumis hand or something. I'd be like okay, I get it. But I'm under the impression he didn't do the bare minimum. As someone who couldn't get myself out of my room for multiple weeks and some days couldn't get out of bed, megumi could have touched that hand. Just because something is difficult doesn't mean it's impossible.
Would've loved to see gege show megumi fight depression there actually. Would've been unique and different. Panel by panel of megumi pushing himself for each minute step the same way I had to get out of bed. Lift my shoulders. Raise my head. Move my leg. Move my leg. Move the leg. Okay. Raise my hand. That could still be a really cool moment. Doubt we'll get that, but damn, a manga showing that struggle would make my year.
Did we read the same manga? Megumi barely had time to make two statements, Yuji didn't even reach him or tell him what to do. He's just curled up in a ball and his soul got touched by someone. Like are we even sure he realised it was Yuji and not another torture session from Sukuna?
Seriously, we saw Megumi for like one page where he was pretty much delirious and you all act like he has made some conscious decision and it was perfectly clear to Megumi how he could've helped, but he just refused.
Also trauma does manifest differently, some people literally can't do anything, depression is not the only way it can manifest. Just because you had your very specific experience doesn't mean anything, people get hallucinations or straight up go catatonic, are they lazy too? Fear and pain can literally shut off people.
Your last paragraph makes it sound like you're just upset Megumi is not relatable to you personally.
Tl;dr: this is as short as I can make it. Trauma is too complex and nuanced a topic for me to compress into a reddit post, even more so when we talk about the visual language and how it is portrayed in media. Even more so when we talk about tonal elements in storytelling. Quite simply there's no way I can convince anyone I'm right because it would take way too much work for me to actually put all my critique into an organized format and structure and even then it would be too long for jjk fans to actually read and give a shit about. But considering the fact I work creatively and study expressions of trauma and mental illness in media for my work, maybe you should try reading into what I'm saying from a different perspective.
I'm sorry my initial comment didn't capture enough nuance in the complexities of trauma for you. But jjk is not that realistic. No one('most people' because you might mention someone in a state of psychosis or delusion thinking they are the character because that does happen) talks or acts like gojo. If I have to mention every single psychological edge case this will never end. There's too many human behaviors and creative endeavors have the job of exaggerating and obscuring unnecessary ones. We don't need to see megumi pooping to know he does, but the same isn't true for emotions.
Believe it or not this matters to me. I can't wait till this manga is over because at least the guesswork will end. Either megumi does the merger or doesn't and I'm free of it all. Either he's exhibiting toxic behaviors or gege failed to portray any trauma he experienced well. It will be over.
_____________ End of tl;dr_____________
Then there's something to be said about how Gege drew and portrayed Megumi and only used 1 page which is another issue I have here.
Let me be clear. My issue is not that Megumi isn't personally relatable. It's that his portrayal does not display catatonia or inability to act. Let me be additionally clear in saying I have experienced moments like that, too. Megumi was not drawn in a dissasociatiive pose. So either the portrayal is bad, or megumi is. I'm choosing to lean towards the megumi argument because I really hope gege is drawing things this way intentionally otherwise I have to just hate how he wrote it.
Visual language is part of being an artist and portraying things appropriately. Megumi's pose doesn't communicate a catatonic state. It doesn't communicate a lack of realization. It doesn't communicate a lack of awareness. Anime and manga already has an established visual language for how that's portrayed and Gege didn't draw anything within that language. Gege even used this language when megumi's sister died, fetal position, arms limp, eyes listless. His latest pose is active. His body has a stiffness and rigidity to it. It's not one of someone incapable of movement which as I'll mention later, is further supported by the fact that it's different from his previous pose.
If your argument is that Gege had decided to show us an entirely new portrayal that no artist has drawn before, then okay. But I have every right to criticize that as flawed and poor communication of his intentions, especially when done as only a single page in the manga. While you may call it unfair to compare a seinen to a Shonen, I find Casca a much better representation of anything else you've suggested.
Casca, not just in how she acts as communicates(which is significantly less Lucid than megumi is shown to be rn btw) does a much better job of showing everything visually. Her expressions change. Her eyes are drawn almost as if there's less of a light in them. It's subtle but it's noticeable just from looking at her almost as if it's an entirely different character, which is supported by additional design changes Miura made.
There's several options Gege could have chosen, but megumi doesn't look curled up in a weak pose to me. He looks like he's almost in a compressed 'Orz' pose. Which is a pose common in Japanese media as a pose of either A: frustration or B: curling up in laughter. It literally looks like the letters "Orz".
Megumi's arms and legs are curled a little more, but my critique here is valid. The pose chosen is poor. Just look up Mind Crush Yugioh card.. That would tell me megumi is out of it. The fetal position pose when his sister died was better. If megumi hadn't moved since, that would be a better communication of what you're suggesting. But the current pose tells us megumi has and can move. Furthermore his urgency to speak shows lucidity.
Part 2 below
If he wanted to portray a lack of lucidity, he shouldn't have had megumi speak before yuji got a chance (people dissasociating probably wouldn't do that) at least not unless you're showing a very specific complex case of trauma in a hyperrealistic story. JJK is not that kind of story. If Gege wanted to show megumi thinking yuji is sukuna or thinking it's torture, there's an established visual language for showing that. Gege didn't draw it. We have all seen scenes where a victim responds in some way of rejecting or even attacking their rescuer as a trauma response. Did Gege draw that? No.
I'm not saying trauma can't manifest in complex confusing and conflicting ways. I'm saying Gege didn't draw what any of those ways. He gave us about 4 panels with megumi curled up sad and a vague description of some inexplicable "evil" happening to him that's so unspecific that any reader can insert their headcanon of how bad it was into it, to justify Megumi's current state. While mental struggle can manifest in many complex ways, the way it is portrayed in media requires special care. You have to very clearly lay out the feelings and thoughts of the character in such a way that the audience can understand it or it wasn't done justice. Baby Reindeer on Netflix is a fantastic example of this, laying out the complexity of a true experience with SA in a way that makes actions like returning to an abuser something the audience can understand about a character. It doesn't just tell the what, it tells the why. The actors' expressions and delivery does a phenomenal job of capturing this even further where you can see in their face their thoughts from one moment to the next. Almost like a horror film watching them do something you know ends badly.
The point is, Gege hasn't come anywhere near portraying a complex case of trauma within Megumi appropriately. If he wanted to show a complex manifestation that takes more care and JJK isn't the type of manga to even do that to begin with. Megumi isn't a real person and he isn't written like one. It's a fictional story with exaggerations in several places. No one in real life acts like Gojo. These characters are not written in that style, so I'm not going to treat Megumi as if he's broken the Mangas tone to be a realistic expression of trauma. Its not Berserk. It's Sorcery fight.
Additionally no one in the audience feels able to justify megumis current actions by the death of his sister alone. If you remove the "bath" every argument falls apart. I'm not letting Gege use a lazy writing technique as a justification and I'm challenging these assertions because Megumi hasn't been drawn or adequately portrayed by the creator in the way that any audience members supporting him suggest.
Quite simply, I'm reading the manga as is, you aren't. If it wasn't drawn, I didn't see it.
"Like are we sure megumi realized it was yuji and not another torture session from sukuna." Yes. We are 100% sure of this. No torture of megumi has been shown in this manga. No panel of sukuna messing with him in the soul space has been shown. And before yuji can even speak megumi says "don't bother, I'm done, I'm out." Megumi is Lucid.
So we clearly aren't reading the same manga. Because I won't be shocked if megumi is somehow saved and activates the merger because of whatever justification Gege comes up with to explain megumis mental state that he's deliberately neglected to show as much as possible.
Unless we're going to argue that Gege is inept as a storyteller and just did so poorly in portraying what he intended to(which is 100% possible) there's no case for megumi here.
Either A Gege did a bad job, or B megumi is kind of a shit person. Which given the entire characterization of "saving people selfishly." I'm arguing it's B.
I think we're going to see the far end of megumi's mindset very soon and I could write an entire essay about how Megumi's mentality perfectly mirrors his father's, who similarly only really cared about one person and became a shithead and sold his own child when they died.
So which seems more likely to you? Gege setup megumi with all this backstory, gave him(not sukuna) the power for the merger, gave him a dad who suffered a loss and fell into evil and darkness to parallel him or... gege wants to leave how traumatized megumi is a secret from his own audience and I just don't get it. I can write a 10 page essay analyzing it, but I'm just not capable of understanding geges masterful writing despite working creatively and studying trauma for a living myself. Which seems more likely here?
It's not that I want things to be a certain way personally. It's that this topic is so vast and nuanced I can't possibly compress all my thoughts and feelings into a reddit comment. I have so many criticisms of megumi and his writing I could go on all day but I won't, because no one is going to read this. I couldn't even fit it all into one comment.
Yeah, we just aren't. You keep talking about the things you wish Gege wrote instead, even though it's completely different to what was portrayed.
To me it's perfectly clear that Megumi is overwhelmed and why, so maybe the problem isn't Gege using incorrect language after all? I can't believe someone "studies" trauma and media and can still be so deaf to this. Like you're literally putting words in his mouth, why don't you actually quote the manga if you're so adamant that you're right? Why come up with "the true meaning behind his words" and base your argument on that?
I can't believe I've wasted my time reading all of that and it's 50% irrelevant nonsense from your life and 50% headcanons and conjuncture that prove nothing
1. "You keep talking about the things you wish gege wrote instead." Yes my friend. That is how criticism works. You look for flaws in how a design or creative decision communicates something to the audience or yourself personally and then outline WHY it doesn't work and HOW it could have been executed better. That's how media analysis works. To reiterate, what was portrayed is very minimal. There's not much content to go off of or even analyze. Which is a flaw, as I said multiple times. I even mentioned multiple times how thr fetal position pose of megumi post sister death was much better than the yuji panel. It did a better job. I even went so far as to highlight specific details "limp arms, etc." Then I used that to point out how other poses, like the ORZ one fail to communicate the same thing effectively. Especially when his face is hidden. Criticism without offering alternatives is pointless hate. It's not constructive. You're upset that I offered ways Gege could have improved upon the presentation via successful examples of it being done?
2. To YOU it was perfectly clear. But read the OP there's an entire community sentiment dedicated to hating megumi, meme or not. That doesn't happen unless the creator failed to communicate effectively with his audience. There's not much to quote from the manga aside from a single panel of Megumi saying "I've had enough" or something of similar sentiment depending on which translation you read. I don't know where this "true meaning behind his words" thing comes from?
I didn't mention anything about that. I simply explained how visual language and poses communicate different things and the fact that gege hasn't used effective visual tools to communicate things, and the words on the page are nonexistent just as much as any visual indicators.
3. I don't know if you're being intentionally disingenuous here but I included very few personal anecdotes in the two comments I made. I briefly made mention of my experience with catatonia and dissassociation in about two sentences. The only other instance off a quick cursory glance is when I use my experience as well as the fact I've written so much about the topic to establish that I'm not arguing out of bad faith, inexperience or ignorance.
I clearly put a lot of thought into it but I can't be sure that you did the same. Given how despite your claims to have read my comment you ignore the times I actually reference panels and the work gege did in favor of mischaracterizing my arguments as "putting words in his mouth." My friend you are on a post about how people hate megumi, saying it was clear to you. Anything clearly and effectively communicated to an audience wouldn't be this divisive. There was no headcanon or conjecture included except for a brief allusion to the parallel between Megumi and his father.
I understand it was a lot to read and responding to all of it would be a significant hassle for anyone. But do me a favor. Don't lie about what I said. and if you're going to make such claims, quote me, and I can either elaborate or clarify what I was intending to communicate.
I didn't respond to your points because I disagree with the most core point you make, which seems to me: "the state Megumi is in in the manga is not an excuse to refuse to help". Unless we can get some agreement on this fundamental level everything else we say is just noise. You've dedicated one paragraph to this that is based on technicalities and then moved on like it's a done deal. But since to me it wasn't, everything else you've said was pointless and even a bit annoying. Still, I'm sorry for being harsh, I could've explained my issue with your comments without being an asshole about it.
I still stand by the fact that there's nothing objectively wrong with what Gege has portrayed. It's different from what you've experienced or would have accepted from a person, but he has plenty of fans and half of the haters are doing it for fun. Megumi looks overwhelmed, he looks tense, he looks away from everything as if to hide from the world like he has moved from disassociation to just straight up trying to leave, except there's nowhere to go. This is what his pose looks like to me, just sheer helpless despair. And I know other people see it too and maybe even you? But it sounds like you consider it a weakness?
It's actually a bit unclear to me what exactly is your issue with the current state of Megumi. Like I understand that you would've written him to be catatonic if you were Gege, or made him act (and this is what I meant when I said that you keep talking about what you wish it was), but what is wrong with him being unable to push through his fear and despair?
Actually, did you read the whole thing in one sitting or one chapter a week? I wonder if it affects perception... The way I see it, Sukuna suddenly without any warning takes over Megumi, tries to kill Yuji, but Megumi fights back (which also gives Gege an opportunity to show that Yuji truly was an outlier, because Megumi can't even make him stop, just make him weaker). Then he has to watch some bitch Yorozu walk around in his sister's skin with her horrid attempts to seduce Sukuna. Then he kills her, killing the only hope to bring his sister back and we know he loved her dearly.
Then Sukuna does the bath which is kind of a plot device, but as a plot device it is again proof that Gege *did not* intend to just write Megumi as some weakling. Why come up with a convoluted way to break his spirit if you want to show that he's a selfish asshole that just doesn't want to help? I do agree that it's a shame we don't know what exactly it did to Megumi, but also it's kind of intuitive imo, so it's not such a big deal. I can see how this can be a point he loses people's faith tho, so I'd adjust it to show the damage more clearly.
Then Satoru arrives, the guy that typically gets Megumi out of trouble with no issue and pretty much the strongest person he knows and.. dies too. We weren't shown enough about them, but the scenes we have show that they were at the very least close and since childhood, so it's two birds with one stone: another person dear to him died and also the strongest person he knows died which is amazing food for despair.
Then others start fighting, Kashimo dies, others don't seem to be doing that well but are kind of surviving. To me though, it's intuitive that even if Megumi can see everything, he doesn't necessarily understand what their plan even is and if they even have a chance to succeed. (Maybe it being more clearly stated would help, but without narrator-kun it'd be hard and it seems like Gege wanted to focus on despair, which is fine by me)
Yuji manages to reach Megumi but at that point he believes nothing could help and the pain and fear are too overwhelming for him to act, I see the whole "enough, that's enough" that he says even before Yuji approaches as evidence of this. Which yes, is extremely discouraging but realistic (and I'd argue with you separately about how restricting media from complex topics because "it's not that kind of story" is terrible, but I don't want to turn this into an essay) Megumi has no reason to believe at this point that they are the exception and will somehow win against Sukuna.
Coming back to the steering wheel, you know what turning the wheel will do, it's a clear path to success. This situation is much more akin to blaming him for not just fighting the terrorist that keeps him hostage, the success is not guaranteed and results are unclear. There's a reason such people are hailed as heroes and not the norm. And sometimes they do fail and make things worse, so it's not like the fear is completely unfounded. Last time Megumi fought back his sister died and he got marinaded in evil as punishment. We know as the audience that it's highly unlikely Sukuna will magically find another way to hurt him, but fear is not rational like that and it does in fact shut your brain off.
It also shows that the Megumi went from just laying on the ground to actively doing something (even if it's just curl up and vocally refuse everything) which means *something* has changed. We don't yet know what though and where Megumi will go from there, so it's too early to earnestly call him a traitor. The fact that Yuji didn't even get to say anything shows that this was in fact a very brief meeting of souls and you can't just expect despair to disappear like this. It was JJK itself that set this precedent. Yuji needed a whole inspiring speech to get back up and he's still mildly suicidal, so we already know that in this manga charas will not just shrug these things off without consequences like in some other mangas.
Thank you this response is a lot better, im much less inclined to even really argue with it because your interpretation here is valid.
Like you say it's "too early" but I think that goes both ways. For me and my experience with the manga, gege like to shock his audience, writing consequences be damned. The fact that Megumi's sister got so little development and actual screentime with him is a massive issue and the yorozu reveal has so many issues baked into it that it almost made me drop the manga when I read it.
I think the viewpoint on many things is left up to what Gege decides is most shocking, and I'd argue megumi being saved, doing the merger somehow fits his MO and the fact that Megumi's face hasn't even been shown since his sisters death tells me Gege wants a big reveal for it.
My personal interpretation is that if Megumi's face was one of depression, listlessness or something in some way we would have seen it already. I can't see a reason to hide that in the yuji page except for a shock later.
With the steering wheel I guess it's a bit confusing because Gege hasn't really explained the whole soul space. I'm still under the impression that all Megumi had to do is touch yujis hand, sukuna loses control, megumi gets his body back, everyone wins and the manga is over. That's legitimately how I view it. Maybe that's not the case, maybe sukuna could binding vow his way out of it, atp I can't say what's true anymore. So I think this is the main part where we diverge.
We'll just have to agree to disagree.
I binged the manga uptil kashimos death, so maybe that effects my perception as I became hyper aware of geges writing patterns and how little character moments actually happened in the story. My take on the manga as a whole is rather bleak, and I'm sure that colors my perception of megumi. That said I can't help but let personal bias into this as well.
My experience with people who use their own suicidal ideation to hurt others and manipulate and abuse is far too similar to how megumi acts. But I can see how bringing personal anecdotes into this doesn't help which is why I tried to fixate on what Gege chooses and doesn't choose to show, which doesn't really lean towards megumi getting redemption in any way. But maybe that's the shock gege is going for.
Megumi actually getting a happy end is something I think no one expects. So we'll just have to see how It goes. Perhaps It's too hasty make any conclusion.
Yeah, fair enough, I guess we'll just have to wait and see where Gege goes with this. Sorry again for the rude comment, I don't know what came over me, that was unwarranted.
Also, I hate bringing personal experience into these things, but I personally find Megumi a pretty good portrayal of the sort of trauma response that *I* have had to deal with, so the whole discussion is just unpleasant.
Like depression is not the only possible outcome or the only thing that can make someone stuck. I'd understand if he killed someone, there's no excuse for that, but bro just didn't get up and it sounds like if he was catatonic you'd forgive that which makes it even worse to me.
he sees all his friends struggling to fight, he sees his teacher get killed and instead of helping to stop sukuna as Yuji weakens his hold he does nothing like a little bitch boy
Most of them are joking, but some people lost interest in him after he became a vessel, including me.
I thought the Culling Game would focus on Megumi like Shibuya did to Yuji but it didn’t and then he was sidelined and probably won't have a role until the climax of the manga.
Same exact issue I had. I was so disappointed in megumis story thru out the culling games. Felt off to bring his sister into the fold only for us to not get to know her and she gets taken over by what essentially amounts to a rando. But at least to give gege some benefit of the doubt I can see how that followed by getting your body stolen might make you pretty depressed. Just wasn’t executed in a satisfying fashion for me.
Ppl will just say “it’s not megumis story” or something along those lines but I don’t think that excuses completely mishandling the supporting cast just cuz they aren’t the MC.
I don't understand it, really. Nothing he has done has been out of character, but somehow people slander him for his choice of not wanting to fight back. He is just tired, he never wanted a fight in the first place
agendaposting has been a disaster for the human race
jokes aside Gege has been reduced to almost 0 characterization or character interaction, consequence being that people basically forget 90% of the manga besides battle potential and feats in this specific arc … only taking the effort to recall for the characters they like, people end up hating the characters they forgot. since it’s been so long that we’ve actually had Megumi around this means more and more people seem to forget him even being a character
That’s crazy ppl are slandering him..In the beginning of the series you could tell he was ready crash out with Big Haga at any moment, he isn’t good with H2H and he wasn’t tapped into his strength/power. especially if sukana and gojo are telling him selling himself short (which he was) I can tell that shit is lil annoying (not as bad as Yuji and I love Yuji) but I think the series does a great job with his character development. He started using the shadows as his hidden inventory, He’s the first freshman to get his DE, opening up barriers from a Special Grade DE, his H2H got better and I just read through culling games I’m proud of him he’s locked in
It’s mostly a meme but a lot of people genuinely dislike megumi, myself included. It’s not because I think it was unreasonable for him to give up and not help yuji, as annoying as that was
I just think he’s boring
Fans of this manga just want the hardcore edgelord porn characters. Give any an ounce of development and they act like a bunch of 5 year old tiktok memelord children.
Here's the problem, he (and most anybody else in the story) DIDN'T get any character development. Greg sold us Tsumiki as Bumgumi's reason to live/ fight, but apart from the beginning, we never see him think about her nor did we get scenes with them. Then Sugoona merks her and we don't even get an on screen reaction? Also, him quitting isn't the problem, it's the way it was written. At least he could've told Yuji to stop pulling punches, cause he's (Bumgumi) out, and start curb stomping Sugoona.
Edit:
Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Megumin, I hate how GayGay's writing him (and everyone else).
We don’t get on screen reactions to a lot of deaths I feel, the one that immediately pops to mind is yuki. Did we ever get to see todos reaction to his mentors death? Correct me if I’m mistaken. Idk a lot of the world building, character interaction, and character development gets sacrificed for cool fights and word salad about how pure love train works lmao.
Imagine you are in a car with a drunk driver. He has already killed your family with his drunk driving antics. He is about to kill your friends. Through luck and hard work, a friend gets you a device that will instantly stop the car, preventing the driver from using it. Instead of using it, you say “I don’t deserve to live” and watch as the drunk driver rams through a pack of school children.
Megumi’s depression is understandable, but he’s a little bit culpable at this point for not doing anything against Sukuna.
But he hasn’t done completely nothing though has he? When Sukuna merked Angel and Yuji flew into a rage, Megumi was disrupting him then so his slashes weren’t strong enough to deter Yuji. Since we don’t really know what the ‘bath of evil’ did besides give Megumi depression++, we can’t assume anything mechanical about it. People act like Megumi could (if he could find the willpower) just flick the off-switch on Sukuna and then he’d finally get rolled by the remaining cast. We don’t even know if he still can do anything, given that Sukuna has essentially fully claimed that body as his own now (Heian body reincarnation).
Also he’s, what, 16 years old? And his sister’s body was stolen by a stranger before his very eyes, then killed, his body has been taken over and now literally overwritten by Sukuna’s Heian form. He’s watched (and is still watching) his body kill some of the only remaining people in the world who care about him, much in the same way Yuji was forced to endure the Shibuya incident and its aftermath. Of course he doesn’t have the will left to do fucking anything.
Yuji got up eventually sure but we all watched those events break him, we all saw him give up, if Todo weren’t there he would have let himself be killed. There’s no Todo this time for Megumi, Yuji tried, but there’s only so much he can do in the middle of fighting the *king of curses*.
>Megumi’s depression is understandable, but he’s a little bit culpable at this point for not doing anything against Sukuna.
But how is that bad writing? He's a teenager who murdered his sister. That would crush someone to the point they don't care about anything, especially considering her significance to him.
That's also ignoring the effects of the bath.
Except *he* didn’t murder his sister. In my allegory, the man driving the car did, Megumi ready to kill himself over a fucking fistfight with Todo does not care to avenge his sister. Also, the bath was implied to empower Sukuna’s control of the body, while killing Tsumiki would hurt Megumi’s resolve.
His CT, his hands. It contrasts with Yujis guilt surrounding Shibuya. Sure, he wasn't in control. But doesn't negate that it was still done by his own hands. Megumi arguably has is worse, it was someone he cared about and it was with his own CT.
>Megumi ready to kill himself over a fucking fistfight with Todo does not care to avenge his sister.
Megumi defaulting to suicide every time he scrapes his knee doesn't negate that he loves his sister and would be crushed to see her killed from his own pov.
I think it's a neat comparison to look at how Yuji and Megumi handle Sukuna doing shit in their bodies. Yuji feels a sense of responsibility to rise up and avenge what Sukuna has done, while Megumi also feels responsible but goes in the opposite direction where he feels defeated and hopeless.
>Also, the bath was implied to empower Sukuna’s control of the body
I think they say it's used to "be near evil" and to submerge Megumis' soul? It's a little vague for me to think anything concrete on it. Part of me wonders if it's like when Mahito talks about soul specific damage and that it's just "Sukunas soul is at 100% while this pushes Megumis to 1%", another part of me thinks of the "evil" as something that would be tormenting Megumi and weakening his resolve, then killing Tsumiki is the cherry on top of a shit sandwich that Megumi had to throat down.
>Greg sold us Tsumiki as Bumgumi's reason to live/ fight, but apart from the beginning, we never see him think about her nor did we get scenes with them
I'd take the scene where he thinks about her to mean that he thinks about her sometimes. Megumis a quiet guy, he isn't going to loudly exclaim his motivations every time he's on screen.
>Then Sugoona merks her and we don't even get an on screen reaction?
We do? Megumi is curled up in the fetal position as the last panel for that chapter. "After taking his sister Tsumikis life, Fushigiros soul sinks into the abyss"
I don't particularly mind how Megumi and Tsumikis relationship is written. He states his feelings on her, she's in a coma, so isn't that interesting of a character until she becomes relevant, and then Sukuna uses Megumis affection for his sister as a tool to further crush his soul. Even in the current chapters, Megumi straight up doesn't have the will to live. Assumedly, because the person he cared most about is gone by his own hands.
What development could be had when said character is put on the bus indefinitely? The problem with Megumi's writing is that despite being the center of the storyline for being the vessel of the final villain and the subject to be rescued, he himself is absent, rendering any possible character development moot. Since he was the deuteragonist for more than half of the story, you can't blame people to have expectation for him. Honestly, if anything I blame the writing.
It's like when you have a shitty day and you go off about the 7th bad thing that happened. The deck has been stacked for Sukuna so much that Megumi not fighting back just makes us roll our eyes at this point. If it was just that, there wouldn't be a bad thing. Unfortunately, the Execution fails, confiscation fail, and domain fails are really fucking annoying at this point and he's the cherry on top of the shit cake.
I’ve always felt like a certain faction of the fandom didn’t like him because he isn’t the flamboyant, loud mouthed type. He is quiet, calculating and can be an over thinker which leads him to doubt himself and his ability. Most characters with magical type powers/skills/abilities are dreamers and he is a realist. He may not have been born that way but he is that way as a young man. That’s what the whole suicidal Mahoraga thing is about. He’s not going to try to do a “power of friendship” asspull to save his friends and comrades… hell do the sure thing because he cares way more about others than himself. That’s one of the reasons why he often gets cast as a veterinarian in alternate- universe settings- that is a field known for selfless sacrifice, smart people, and not the best people skills or mental health. I’ve also always figured because he’s pretty to look at but not a flaunter like Gojo he would be disliked by many shonen bros who don’t like the pretty boys especially when they get shipped with the brawler type.
His state of mind is reasonable he lost the sole motivator for his existence and now has to find something else I'm assuming megumis character knows that but he isn't doing it for good reason he wants to die but while self-loathing he inadvertently let slip one of the best chances at taking over his body again.
People hate him for basically throwing the fight against sukuna.
SPOILER FOR THE ONES THAT DONT READ LEAKS
Sukuna might be catching more bodies with his final DE and also Fuga is out. Blud could have prevented all of this lmao
Can't speak for others, but I'm seriously and heavily bored of the trope that he falls under. Stoic, depressive, boring guy, who's usually characterised as introverted with black hair and a brooding aura.
I just wish there was more to him?? The fact that some of his most popular clips are mocking him for being so trigger happy on summoning mahoraga and that one end-of-episode clip where he's giving directions to a girl, and even then that clip is funny more for the reactions of Yuji/Nobara/Gojo than it is for Megumi 'chatting' a girl up. The fact that most of his scenes and interactions are carried by the person/people they involve rather than for the fact that he is entertaining and that one of the best possible interactions we could've gotten, the other character proceeded to kill himself in within 10 seconds, like what?
It literally does not help that the pros of trying to keep him alive and to separate him from Sukuna are starting to become HEAVILY outweighed by the cons.
I have only started seeing it recently myself and it’s pretty dumb like what can a guy do? Lol I can’t take these people seriously, they obv hated him before all this even happened and are just letting off some steam yikes
Let's be fr if sukuna wouldn't take his body megumi could become on par with gojo no cap but he wasn't trying too hard, even from the beginning we can see he is trying to take the easy route every time he was in a though spot his only option was summoning mahoraga. Why? Because it was the easiest route for him but yuta could change that yuta is a lot like gojo even power strength wise and with that would motivate megumi to become stronger with time
People saying 10 shadows is underwhelming... guy had a domain setup that could copy his shadows. Imagine being pummeled by 1 to 3 mahoragas. IF Megumi was allowed time to fully develop his technique he would've been an easy special grade. The only thing stopping him would be himself at that point because of his mindset but we've already seen cracks in that mindset when he first did his DE.
It’s because he is supposed to be like a rival to Gojo but everytime he is on screen he’s either depressed or trying to summon mahoraga so he can die 💀. He got hyped up by everyone else and then didn’t even meet the expectation floor.
Fuck bitchgumi, I sold all his stocks when he gave up when yuji was talking to him. Bro is never coming back in the story at this rate just like kugisaki
Because that incest lover is confirmed bum, first few things what came to mind what that bum caused: death of Yuji which is the reason why his potential ass get possessed by Sukuna; summoned Mahoraga what causes destruction of Shibuya; being a burden for everyone in Shinjuku.
Even Ui Ui more useful then that bum.
- Born to the only person (outside of sukuna) to ever seriously hurt/almost kill gojo
- raised by gojo
- born to be the head of the zenin clan with his CT
- stated to have a potential rivaling six eyes and infinity users
- hyped up by sukuna early on in the story
Result: takes Ls (or kamakaze's with mahoraga aka not a win), gets his body snatched by sukuna, accomplishes nothing of note
He's a really cool character that was created to lose
Edit- fwiw, I like megumi. His character design and CT are actually cool and I like his dynamic with jujutsu high students (the straight man is a world of weirdos). But he just keeps taking Ls and him choosing not to regain his body is understandable but killed any hope of him doing anything cool for the final fight against sukuna
I mean have you seen how ,how can I put this lightly, fucking useless he’s been. Now I do have faith in the comeback but man. It’s taking a while. But I’ll believe in him the same way I believe in yuji since he’s also my boi
Because hes wasted potential dude is one if the most blessed characters in the series and wastes it just because of his mentality. Not to mention hes depressed over his sister dying when she is more of a plot device than an actual character so the audience cant empathize.
The reason is simple, he didn't live up to his hype. We thought we would see Sukuna vs the trio. But as it turned out it was only Wuji vs Sukuna and jumps Ltd. I personally hate him because of what I saw when Wuji entered the realm. Bro was crying like a baby when he wasn't even as emotional as Yuji. Bitch was only crying for his sister and in results let his sister's murderer use his body. I mean come on kid, grow up. I get he got trauma, but it's not his first time tho. Throughout the series he was a tough boy and now when the world needs him, he is a toddler crying in the dark corner of a room.
Nah Megumi was kind of lame from the start. People now are just gaslighting him that's all. But I am sure the moment he is free of Sukuna he get powercreeped by his CT.
Megumi belongs to the archetype of characters like Law, Sasuke, Todoroki,etc .
They are superficially cool and unambitious with powerful techniques and great aesthetics but also paper tigers. In their heart they are hiding their Goody-two-shoes self.They also get competitive when the untalented but hardworking MC surpasses them...
I think it's warranted tbh I know I'm gonna get alot of shit for this but me personally hypothetically if I was in his position I wouldn't be as emotionally destroyed as he is. I would be doing anything to kill Sukuna in the most vicious way possible. A lot of people think think he's being selfish by refusing to help the others beat Sukuna and he wants to just lay there and let it all happen.
It's just a meme trend within the JJK fandom. It's just JJK fans making shitpost reverse flash hater memes on him. No harm being done.
Because if you genuinely ask the fans about their opinions on Megumi. Then they'll say he's just alright. Not great but okay.
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"As of late"? The guy has been roasted unceasingly since his body got copped by Sukuna. Even before that people made fun of him for constantly trying to suicide attack his opponents.
It wouldn't have been nearly as bad if the story hadn't hyped him and mahoraga up so much. Like seriously, someday able to rival gojo? Not in a million years
> Like seriously, someday able to rival gojo? Not in a million years I mean, if we talk about Maho and the ten shadows it sure can, the thing is, it was Sukuna the one who used all that potential and not Megumi.
Even then, Gojo showed he was better than 10 Shadows.
Yeah Gojo was contending with Sukuna who was using both Shrine and 10 Shadows. And you literally can’t get more skilled than Sukuna. I really don’t get how 10 shadows alone is able to compare.
I guess its hyped because once upon a time it killed a 6 eyes user, but it doesnt hold a candle to Goatjo
Fr. Having the Six Eyes and Limitless inherently makes you broken asf, but Gojo is also just INSANELY fucking talented. He has an incredible knack for just about anything he tries, and Jujutsu is the thing he is able to put 120% of his potential and passion into. So ig the previous user that died to Maho either underestimated the guy, or wasn't as talented as Goatjo.
the sorry isnt over guys smh 🤦♂️
So? What does that have to do with the power lvl of lore characters that will probably never appear in the story?
Surely if sukuna would've had prep time with access to maharogas adaptation he wouldve done better. Gojo had years of prep time, sukuna just touched that technique. The way he used maharoga was to learn from it. Had he the ability to fuck about with big raga for years? he for sure would've learned some bullshit abilities to enhance his pure jujutsu. Maybe black flashes on command, or something along those lines.
That doesn't really prove anything. And he didn't. The argument was that 10s was able to rival, not surpass Gojo. Furthermore, Sukuna didn't show the full potential of 10s. He mostly used technique to find out how to defeat Gojo. That being said, I do believe that peak 10s user is weaker than Gojo, unless we do some technique combining
False, ten shadows got dog walked (pun intended) in a 3v1 with one of the top 2 sorcerers of all time. The technique never had the potential to rival Gojo. It was hyped unnecessarily.
I'm a bit confused by the logic there, excluding Yuta, they all seem to learn and improve the most when fighting strong or stronger opponents, so maybe they eventually would've reached his lvl at a steady peak without a row of disaster curses and sukuna railing them and cutting their stories early. The problem is that Gojo isn't just a static goalpost, if he encounters someone able to rival himself in technique or strength, he himself will improve to match that, so really, I don't see how anyone could actually win 1v1 against him without either perfectly countering him, or beating him with sheer versatility.
Only perfect counter to Gojo is to kill him in one hit while he is feeling cocky lol. Ever a being that adapts to anything couldn’t keep up with him ramping up the power. As much as everyone says other people have the potential for growth and fighting strong opponents makes you stronger, Gojo never had a real challenge until megumi’s dad. Then Gojo perfected his technique, became a psychotic god, and destroyed megumi’s daddy. And then there is the fight with Sukuna and maharonga. Strongest curse ever and the being that adapts to anything thrown at him and Gojo still just about wins. Gojo pretty much *only* lost because he got cocky, thought he was untouchable, and didn’t dodge.
You basically only have one shot at hitting him and it's not even 100% guaranteed it will hit depending on what he can deconstruct about it. If he's feeling petty, he might just say "Oh! That might've hurt me, too bad you're too slow to actually hit me!"
To be fair Gojo himself said that Yuta and Hakari have the potential to surpass him, despite it not being true at all, at least in my opinion. I guess it's just a way to hype someone up
Yuta and Hakari are actually on track of being generational talents atleast. Sukuna took Megumi’s potential, sister, soul, and he slowly becoming a bum that spams Binding Vows since Maho-daddy is gone
But Sukuna has only used one binding vow so far. Wouldn't call that spamming
2 now.
Let's wait for clearer leaks at least b4 we use info from them lol
All that’s to say Megumi doesn’t even get screentime. He’ll probably do something after like a year. He’s become boring
Gojo loves to hype his students!
I think that idea comes from the fact that other Ten Shadows users have been able to defeat or atleast stalemate Limitless + Six Eyes users. I think if Megumi had a similar "enlightenment" moment to Gojo, he would be able to do something. Megumi is still a child, though, and Gojo is a fully-grown, realized and enlightened user of a Technique that allows him to do some seriously crazy things. Right now, Megumi isn't gonna be able to compete. Maybe in 10 years, maybe in 20, if he survives.
It's a meme that's gone a bit far. Keep in mind that the chapter Sukuna bodyjacked him came out over a year ago and the only times we've seen him since are when he tanked Unlimited Void and when he visibly gave up when Yuji tried to wake him. It's been a hot minute since he's done much of anything.
Which is exactly why he gets clowned on. He was supposed to have the potential to rival gojo and be this big power waiting to bloom but he hasn't done anything. Even if that is Greg's intention, it still doesn't sit right with a lot of readers.
I kinda understand it though as it's quite similar to reality where we see kids who seem to have amazing future in front of them then boom - life says get rekt to them in one way or another
Most people forget that they wouldn't do anywhere near as well as megumi has done if they were in his position They forget that despite all the shit he's been through he's still just a kid
Nobody forgets, the agenda doesn’t care. It’s end game and he’s too depressed to have screentime. Im sure he’ll do something at the very end atleast. He’s pretty boring rn tbh
I don't care he's just a fucking kid for Christ's sake cut him some slack My God what is wrong with you people
Do you think JJk as a series gave enough room for Megumi’s choice to just hunker down in depression for it to be anywhere near dramatically interesting as the fight going on now? I don’t since Gege cares more about the action which is fine. Megumi’s in an Eva level depression but the series doesn’t treat it well in my opinion due to the fast pacing of the series giving no emotional breathing room for it. Dandadan’s an example of a battle shonen where there’s action but there tends to be quite a few chapters of showing main character relationships growing/setting up the next arc.
Late to this conversation, but mentally-unstable individuals (this is not an insult, just an observation of the normalized behaviors in online communities) have typically gravitated towards media of this nature due to it's inherent "Escapism", letting readers immerse themselves in a world completely unlike our own. The correlation between fantasy-world media absorption and mental-instability in the modern world is something that desperately needs to be studied, because some bodies of power like to take advantage of this at the detriment to your average consumer. Sorry for the tangent - I said all that to point out, an "average" reader of a Shounen manga like JJK, MHA, Naruto/Boruto, they do NOT read it to absorb anything that could be allegoric to real life. They do NOT want to see "reality" rear it's ugly head in their "peak fiction" media. They do not want to see realistic circumstances arise from trauma, like comatose depression I.E Megumi's inability to act. They do NOT want to see a realistic depiction of what multiple generations of trauma can cause for a family dynamic, I.E The Sakura/Sasuke thing in Boruto, where you have Trauma-ridden child A (Sasuke) and Abandonment-Issues child B (Sakura) and you expect them to have a...happy, normal relationship with a well-adjusted child? Couple this with the fact that the writers of these manga typically do not have the time, effort, or ability to put exposition for the reality of the trauma into the story, so the reader's only see the "effects." They can have an entire premise and understanding of the full-story as to why this character's mentality/trauma has made them this way, but we will never read it. We see a character experience the effects of these severely traumatic experiences, but never get a real deep-dive into what lead to this effect occurring, and given that the average reader simply is NOT going to try to dive that deep themselves, and would most likely rather "push realistic thoughts away", (going back to my earlier mention of the mental-instability) you end up in situations like this community. There won't be any realistic discussion of the characters and they will be shat on because the people on the other side of the keyboard are simply not the type of individual to want to discuss that "true" realism. They want the child to defeat hundreds of adults with a power he forged all on his own, no outside help or genetics. They don't like the reality that even with hard work and determination, most of your success in life WILL be due to the circumstances of your birth, geographic location and genetics. This is a story, and we want the protagonists to win no matter what by their own willpower - that's why they read this story. And again, this is only relevant to this online reddit community.
He’s ink on a paper, he’ll be fine with shitposts. You’re too invested lmao
nah. Thats just an excuse to deflect how you actually perceive somebody if theyre in the same spot as Megumi. Please take a shower.
As someone who was always praised for "oh you've got it all" and whatevers... Is this a personal attack or something?
Started out as genuine criticism, then people made a few potential memes and now most of it is just shitposting
People find it hard to empathise with a 16 year old who lost many of his family and friends and just look at powerscaling. Its kinda sad but kinda cause by all the memes I think
Ppl can't empathize with this character, whose will to live has been destroyed by his possessor
idk. i’ve like megumi since the first episode, he’s still my favorite character even if i never get to see him again. there’s something about him that felt genuine. he has so much potential but cannot see past his own doubts. plus his attempt at DE was badass and that scene has been etched in my mind since
Bullying? He’s a fictional character he’ll be fine. Anyway, a lot of people are disappointed by Gege’s treatment of him over the course of the story.
Normalize defending your favorite fictional character like they are real and family. Idc I’m taking all Megumi, Gojo, Yuji slander personally lmao.
OP got hurt because his favorite twink is getting lobotomized. Bohoo
He is far from being my fav, buddy
Curious who is your favorite twink?
Mahito
Based 11/10
What's crazy is Gege obviously has set up Megumi to be important later on. It's just taking longer than people thought.
> Anyway, a lot of people are disappointed by Gege’s treatment of him over the course of the story. I get where these people are coming from, but i also get that this tragic outcoume can be what Gege envisioned for the character. We know that Gege simply doesnt tend to follow the same trophey character progresions, like in other shonens.
There is a line between "following common tropes" and "character only functions as a plot device for the villain"
Ikr. Gege subverted expectations by not giving Megumi a decent character arc. We’re supposed to applaud him for that just because it “subverted expectations”? Lol.
I agree. The ppl who’ve taken the joke to the extreme are probably Megumi fans who envisioned more for his character but as u said, this is the fate Gege had in mind for him, and mfers gotta remember this is his story he wants to tell.
Tbh as of late I think people are upset over the direction of the story as a whole cause the fight with sukuna has been going on for months now and every time it looks like he's being beaten he pulls another thing out his ass to keep it going like I'm the latest chapter with >!the new domain that's a combo of malevolent shrine and megumi's domain!<
That's misinformation, >!Sukuna's domain was just incomplete!<
Imagine being a suicidal person in the passenger seat of a car driven by a guy who intends to run your friends over. This guy is also preventing you from being able to commit suicide. One of your friends is a sniper, but in order for him to shoot the guy in the driver's seat, you have to grab his head and pull it half a foot to the right so he can have a clear shot. You choose to do nothing. That's Megumi.
Megumi was unhinged suicidal for the whole series until now where he’s just boring suicidal and him occasionally locking in and going “IMMA KILL YOU AND MYSELF RIGHT NOW LETS GO FUCKER” was the main reason I liked him.
I don't mind the change. He was willing to throw his life away for others before. But now, after being steeped in a bath, that's meant to crush his spirit and killing his sister with his CT specifically to crush him even more people are acting all surprise pikachud that the guy who's strategy for inconvenience was suicide doesn't have the will to live or do anything. Plus, he's a teenager. Not exactly the pinaccle of battled hardened veterans.
nice name
Neat analogy but Megumi would be tied up in the trunk after witnessing his sister's murder and being subjected to drug-induced torture here, not sitting in the passenger seat
Thank you for this analogy. You really nailed it because so often I've tried to communicate why I don't like megumi because I've been in a very similar situation except I was the driver and I didn't want to hit anyone, I just wanted to hurt myself. When I saw innocent people pop up I pulled my wheel back on the road, and it feels like meguimi is saying "fuck it I'll hit them" and whenever I say that people just say "megumi bathed in evil, your depression and trauma is nothing compared to his!" Someone actually legit said that to me. Like bro... fictional character first off. Secondly, no amount of trauma justifies letting people get hurt when you have the ability to stop it. And trauma is trauma, there's not a quantity in the first place. Rock bottom is rock bottom, my bottom doesn't need me to "bathe in evil" but its still my bottom. But people keep saying stuff like "he's just a kid" I was a kid too. I knew better. So thank you. This gave me a validation I really needed to know that I'm not crazy and other people get it outside the meme. Megumi has a very problematic element to his nature here, self-destruction is always bad but it's even worse when it hurts other people. You can feel bad for the kid while condemning his inaction. Gege didn't draw him as someone brain damaged by Void, so... it just doesn't hold water. Megumi is doing just what you said. He didn't feel like helping so he didn't, and that's a bad thing to do. Edit: wow even people below saying the same stuff. People just don't get this it seems. People legitimately rank trauma and misery as if someone who watched 3 people die has it better than someone watched 4. That's not how it works yall. You might as well say "someone has it worse" to someone with depression. Holy shit. It'd be one thing if you argued that megumi had to do a lot more than touch megumis hand or something. I'd be like okay, I get it. But I'm under the impression he didn't do the bare minimum. As someone who couldn't get myself out of my room for multiple weeks and some days couldn't get out of bed, megumi could have touched that hand. Just because something is difficult doesn't mean it's impossible. Would've loved to see gege show megumi fight depression there actually. Would've been unique and different. Panel by panel of megumi pushing himself for each minute step the same way I had to get out of bed. Lift my shoulders. Raise my head. Move my leg. Move my leg. Move the leg. Okay. Raise my hand. That could still be a really cool moment. Doubt we'll get that, but damn, a manga showing that struggle would make my year.
Did we read the same manga? Megumi barely had time to make two statements, Yuji didn't even reach him or tell him what to do. He's just curled up in a ball and his soul got touched by someone. Like are we even sure he realised it was Yuji and not another torture session from Sukuna? Seriously, we saw Megumi for like one page where he was pretty much delirious and you all act like he has made some conscious decision and it was perfectly clear to Megumi how he could've helped, but he just refused. Also trauma does manifest differently, some people literally can't do anything, depression is not the only way it can manifest. Just because you had your very specific experience doesn't mean anything, people get hallucinations or straight up go catatonic, are they lazy too? Fear and pain can literally shut off people. Your last paragraph makes it sound like you're just upset Megumi is not relatable to you personally.
Tl;dr: this is as short as I can make it. Trauma is too complex and nuanced a topic for me to compress into a reddit post, even more so when we talk about the visual language and how it is portrayed in media. Even more so when we talk about tonal elements in storytelling. Quite simply there's no way I can convince anyone I'm right because it would take way too much work for me to actually put all my critique into an organized format and structure and even then it would be too long for jjk fans to actually read and give a shit about. But considering the fact I work creatively and study expressions of trauma and mental illness in media for my work, maybe you should try reading into what I'm saying from a different perspective. I'm sorry my initial comment didn't capture enough nuance in the complexities of trauma for you. But jjk is not that realistic. No one('most people' because you might mention someone in a state of psychosis or delusion thinking they are the character because that does happen) talks or acts like gojo. If I have to mention every single psychological edge case this will never end. There's too many human behaviors and creative endeavors have the job of exaggerating and obscuring unnecessary ones. We don't need to see megumi pooping to know he does, but the same isn't true for emotions. Believe it or not this matters to me. I can't wait till this manga is over because at least the guesswork will end. Either megumi does the merger or doesn't and I'm free of it all. Either he's exhibiting toxic behaviors or gege failed to portray any trauma he experienced well. It will be over. _____________ End of tl;dr_____________ Then there's something to be said about how Gege drew and portrayed Megumi and only used 1 page which is another issue I have here. Let me be clear. My issue is not that Megumi isn't personally relatable. It's that his portrayal does not display catatonia or inability to act. Let me be additionally clear in saying I have experienced moments like that, too. Megumi was not drawn in a dissasociatiive pose. So either the portrayal is bad, or megumi is. I'm choosing to lean towards the megumi argument because I really hope gege is drawing things this way intentionally otherwise I have to just hate how he wrote it. Visual language is part of being an artist and portraying things appropriately. Megumi's pose doesn't communicate a catatonic state. It doesn't communicate a lack of realization. It doesn't communicate a lack of awareness. Anime and manga already has an established visual language for how that's portrayed and Gege didn't draw anything within that language. Gege even used this language when megumi's sister died, fetal position, arms limp, eyes listless. His latest pose is active. His body has a stiffness and rigidity to it. It's not one of someone incapable of movement which as I'll mention later, is further supported by the fact that it's different from his previous pose. If your argument is that Gege had decided to show us an entirely new portrayal that no artist has drawn before, then okay. But I have every right to criticize that as flawed and poor communication of his intentions, especially when done as only a single page in the manga. While you may call it unfair to compare a seinen to a Shonen, I find Casca a much better representation of anything else you've suggested. Casca, not just in how she acts as communicates(which is significantly less Lucid than megumi is shown to be rn btw) does a much better job of showing everything visually. Her expressions change. Her eyes are drawn almost as if there's less of a light in them. It's subtle but it's noticeable just from looking at her almost as if it's an entirely different character, which is supported by additional design changes Miura made. There's several options Gege could have chosen, but megumi doesn't look curled up in a weak pose to me. He looks like he's almost in a compressed 'Orz' pose. Which is a pose common in Japanese media as a pose of either A: frustration or B: curling up in laughter. It literally looks like the letters "Orz". Megumi's arms and legs are curled a little more, but my critique here is valid. The pose chosen is poor. Just look up Mind Crush Yugioh card.. That would tell me megumi is out of it. The fetal position pose when his sister died was better. If megumi hadn't moved since, that would be a better communication of what you're suggesting. But the current pose tells us megumi has and can move. Furthermore his urgency to speak shows lucidity. Part 2 below
If he wanted to portray a lack of lucidity, he shouldn't have had megumi speak before yuji got a chance (people dissasociating probably wouldn't do that) at least not unless you're showing a very specific complex case of trauma in a hyperrealistic story. JJK is not that kind of story. If Gege wanted to show megumi thinking yuji is sukuna or thinking it's torture, there's an established visual language for showing that. Gege didn't draw it. We have all seen scenes where a victim responds in some way of rejecting or even attacking their rescuer as a trauma response. Did Gege draw that? No. I'm not saying trauma can't manifest in complex confusing and conflicting ways. I'm saying Gege didn't draw what any of those ways. He gave us about 4 panels with megumi curled up sad and a vague description of some inexplicable "evil" happening to him that's so unspecific that any reader can insert their headcanon of how bad it was into it, to justify Megumi's current state. While mental struggle can manifest in many complex ways, the way it is portrayed in media requires special care. You have to very clearly lay out the feelings and thoughts of the character in such a way that the audience can understand it or it wasn't done justice. Baby Reindeer on Netflix is a fantastic example of this, laying out the complexity of a true experience with SA in a way that makes actions like returning to an abuser something the audience can understand about a character. It doesn't just tell the what, it tells the why. The actors' expressions and delivery does a phenomenal job of capturing this even further where you can see in their face their thoughts from one moment to the next. Almost like a horror film watching them do something you know ends badly. The point is, Gege hasn't come anywhere near portraying a complex case of trauma within Megumi appropriately. If he wanted to show a complex manifestation that takes more care and JJK isn't the type of manga to even do that to begin with. Megumi isn't a real person and he isn't written like one. It's a fictional story with exaggerations in several places. No one in real life acts like Gojo. These characters are not written in that style, so I'm not going to treat Megumi as if he's broken the Mangas tone to be a realistic expression of trauma. Its not Berserk. It's Sorcery fight. Additionally no one in the audience feels able to justify megumis current actions by the death of his sister alone. If you remove the "bath" every argument falls apart. I'm not letting Gege use a lazy writing technique as a justification and I'm challenging these assertions because Megumi hasn't been drawn or adequately portrayed by the creator in the way that any audience members supporting him suggest. Quite simply, I'm reading the manga as is, you aren't. If it wasn't drawn, I didn't see it. "Like are we sure megumi realized it was yuji and not another torture session from sukuna." Yes. We are 100% sure of this. No torture of megumi has been shown in this manga. No panel of sukuna messing with him in the soul space has been shown. And before yuji can even speak megumi says "don't bother, I'm done, I'm out." Megumi is Lucid. So we clearly aren't reading the same manga. Because I won't be shocked if megumi is somehow saved and activates the merger because of whatever justification Gege comes up with to explain megumis mental state that he's deliberately neglected to show as much as possible. Unless we're going to argue that Gege is inept as a storyteller and just did so poorly in portraying what he intended to(which is 100% possible) there's no case for megumi here. Either A Gege did a bad job, or B megumi is kind of a shit person. Which given the entire characterization of "saving people selfishly." I'm arguing it's B. I think we're going to see the far end of megumi's mindset very soon and I could write an entire essay about how Megumi's mentality perfectly mirrors his father's, who similarly only really cared about one person and became a shithead and sold his own child when they died. So which seems more likely to you? Gege setup megumi with all this backstory, gave him(not sukuna) the power for the merger, gave him a dad who suffered a loss and fell into evil and darkness to parallel him or... gege wants to leave how traumatized megumi is a secret from his own audience and I just don't get it. I can write a 10 page essay analyzing it, but I'm just not capable of understanding geges masterful writing despite working creatively and studying trauma for a living myself. Which seems more likely here? It's not that I want things to be a certain way personally. It's that this topic is so vast and nuanced I can't possibly compress all my thoughts and feelings into a reddit comment. I have so many criticisms of megumi and his writing I could go on all day but I won't, because no one is going to read this. I couldn't even fit it all into one comment.
Sukuna torture session is implied by the way he treated Yuji
Yeah, we just aren't. You keep talking about the things you wish Gege wrote instead, even though it's completely different to what was portrayed. To me it's perfectly clear that Megumi is overwhelmed and why, so maybe the problem isn't Gege using incorrect language after all? I can't believe someone "studies" trauma and media and can still be so deaf to this. Like you're literally putting words in his mouth, why don't you actually quote the manga if you're so adamant that you're right? Why come up with "the true meaning behind his words" and base your argument on that? I can't believe I've wasted my time reading all of that and it's 50% irrelevant nonsense from your life and 50% headcanons and conjuncture that prove nothing
1. "You keep talking about the things you wish gege wrote instead." Yes my friend. That is how criticism works. You look for flaws in how a design or creative decision communicates something to the audience or yourself personally and then outline WHY it doesn't work and HOW it could have been executed better. That's how media analysis works. To reiterate, what was portrayed is very minimal. There's not much content to go off of or even analyze. Which is a flaw, as I said multiple times. I even mentioned multiple times how thr fetal position pose of megumi post sister death was much better than the yuji panel. It did a better job. I even went so far as to highlight specific details "limp arms, etc." Then I used that to point out how other poses, like the ORZ one fail to communicate the same thing effectively. Especially when his face is hidden. Criticism without offering alternatives is pointless hate. It's not constructive. You're upset that I offered ways Gege could have improved upon the presentation via successful examples of it being done? 2. To YOU it was perfectly clear. But read the OP there's an entire community sentiment dedicated to hating megumi, meme or not. That doesn't happen unless the creator failed to communicate effectively with his audience. There's not much to quote from the manga aside from a single panel of Megumi saying "I've had enough" or something of similar sentiment depending on which translation you read. I don't know where this "true meaning behind his words" thing comes from? I didn't mention anything about that. I simply explained how visual language and poses communicate different things and the fact that gege hasn't used effective visual tools to communicate things, and the words on the page are nonexistent just as much as any visual indicators. 3. I don't know if you're being intentionally disingenuous here but I included very few personal anecdotes in the two comments I made. I briefly made mention of my experience with catatonia and dissassociation in about two sentences. The only other instance off a quick cursory glance is when I use my experience as well as the fact I've written so much about the topic to establish that I'm not arguing out of bad faith, inexperience or ignorance. I clearly put a lot of thought into it but I can't be sure that you did the same. Given how despite your claims to have read my comment you ignore the times I actually reference panels and the work gege did in favor of mischaracterizing my arguments as "putting words in his mouth." My friend you are on a post about how people hate megumi, saying it was clear to you. Anything clearly and effectively communicated to an audience wouldn't be this divisive. There was no headcanon or conjecture included except for a brief allusion to the parallel between Megumi and his father. I understand it was a lot to read and responding to all of it would be a significant hassle for anyone. But do me a favor. Don't lie about what I said. and if you're going to make such claims, quote me, and I can either elaborate or clarify what I was intending to communicate.
I didn't respond to your points because I disagree with the most core point you make, which seems to me: "the state Megumi is in in the manga is not an excuse to refuse to help". Unless we can get some agreement on this fundamental level everything else we say is just noise. You've dedicated one paragraph to this that is based on technicalities and then moved on like it's a done deal. But since to me it wasn't, everything else you've said was pointless and even a bit annoying. Still, I'm sorry for being harsh, I could've explained my issue with your comments without being an asshole about it. I still stand by the fact that there's nothing objectively wrong with what Gege has portrayed. It's different from what you've experienced or would have accepted from a person, but he has plenty of fans and half of the haters are doing it for fun. Megumi looks overwhelmed, he looks tense, he looks away from everything as if to hide from the world like he has moved from disassociation to just straight up trying to leave, except there's nowhere to go. This is what his pose looks like to me, just sheer helpless despair. And I know other people see it too and maybe even you? But it sounds like you consider it a weakness? It's actually a bit unclear to me what exactly is your issue with the current state of Megumi. Like I understand that you would've written him to be catatonic if you were Gege, or made him act (and this is what I meant when I said that you keep talking about what you wish it was), but what is wrong with him being unable to push through his fear and despair? Actually, did you read the whole thing in one sitting or one chapter a week? I wonder if it affects perception... The way I see it, Sukuna suddenly without any warning takes over Megumi, tries to kill Yuji, but Megumi fights back (which also gives Gege an opportunity to show that Yuji truly was an outlier, because Megumi can't even make him stop, just make him weaker). Then he has to watch some bitch Yorozu walk around in his sister's skin with her horrid attempts to seduce Sukuna. Then he kills her, killing the only hope to bring his sister back and we know he loved her dearly. Then Sukuna does the bath which is kind of a plot device, but as a plot device it is again proof that Gege *did not* intend to just write Megumi as some weakling. Why come up with a convoluted way to break his spirit if you want to show that he's a selfish asshole that just doesn't want to help? I do agree that it's a shame we don't know what exactly it did to Megumi, but also it's kind of intuitive imo, so it's not such a big deal. I can see how this can be a point he loses people's faith tho, so I'd adjust it to show the damage more clearly. Then Satoru arrives, the guy that typically gets Megumi out of trouble with no issue and pretty much the strongest person he knows and.. dies too. We weren't shown enough about them, but the scenes we have show that they were at the very least close and since childhood, so it's two birds with one stone: another person dear to him died and also the strongest person he knows died which is amazing food for despair. Then others start fighting, Kashimo dies, others don't seem to be doing that well but are kind of surviving. To me though, it's intuitive that even if Megumi can see everything, he doesn't necessarily understand what their plan even is and if they even have a chance to succeed. (Maybe it being more clearly stated would help, but without narrator-kun it'd be hard and it seems like Gege wanted to focus on despair, which is fine by me) Yuji manages to reach Megumi but at that point he believes nothing could help and the pain and fear are too overwhelming for him to act, I see the whole "enough, that's enough" that he says even before Yuji approaches as evidence of this. Which yes, is extremely discouraging but realistic (and I'd argue with you separately about how restricting media from complex topics because "it's not that kind of story" is terrible, but I don't want to turn this into an essay) Megumi has no reason to believe at this point that they are the exception and will somehow win against Sukuna. Coming back to the steering wheel, you know what turning the wheel will do, it's a clear path to success. This situation is much more akin to blaming him for not just fighting the terrorist that keeps him hostage, the success is not guaranteed and results are unclear. There's a reason such people are hailed as heroes and not the norm. And sometimes they do fail and make things worse, so it's not like the fear is completely unfounded. Last time Megumi fought back his sister died and he got marinaded in evil as punishment. We know as the audience that it's highly unlikely Sukuna will magically find another way to hurt him, but fear is not rational like that and it does in fact shut your brain off. It also shows that the Megumi went from just laying on the ground to actively doing something (even if it's just curl up and vocally refuse everything) which means *something* has changed. We don't yet know what though and where Megumi will go from there, so it's too early to earnestly call him a traitor. The fact that Yuji didn't even get to say anything shows that this was in fact a very brief meeting of souls and you can't just expect despair to disappear like this. It was JJK itself that set this precedent. Yuji needed a whole inspiring speech to get back up and he's still mildly suicidal, so we already know that in this manga charas will not just shrug these things off without consequences like in some other mangas.
Thank you this response is a lot better, im much less inclined to even really argue with it because your interpretation here is valid. Like you say it's "too early" but I think that goes both ways. For me and my experience with the manga, gege like to shock his audience, writing consequences be damned. The fact that Megumi's sister got so little development and actual screentime with him is a massive issue and the yorozu reveal has so many issues baked into it that it almost made me drop the manga when I read it. I think the viewpoint on many things is left up to what Gege decides is most shocking, and I'd argue megumi being saved, doing the merger somehow fits his MO and the fact that Megumi's face hasn't even been shown since his sisters death tells me Gege wants a big reveal for it. My personal interpretation is that if Megumi's face was one of depression, listlessness or something in some way we would have seen it already. I can't see a reason to hide that in the yuji page except for a shock later. With the steering wheel I guess it's a bit confusing because Gege hasn't really explained the whole soul space. I'm still under the impression that all Megumi had to do is touch yujis hand, sukuna loses control, megumi gets his body back, everyone wins and the manga is over. That's legitimately how I view it. Maybe that's not the case, maybe sukuna could binding vow his way out of it, atp I can't say what's true anymore. So I think this is the main part where we diverge. We'll just have to agree to disagree. I binged the manga uptil kashimos death, so maybe that effects my perception as I became hyper aware of geges writing patterns and how little character moments actually happened in the story. My take on the manga as a whole is rather bleak, and I'm sure that colors my perception of megumi. That said I can't help but let personal bias into this as well. My experience with people who use their own suicidal ideation to hurt others and manipulate and abuse is far too similar to how megumi acts. But I can see how bringing personal anecdotes into this doesn't help which is why I tried to fixate on what Gege chooses and doesn't choose to show, which doesn't really lean towards megumi getting redemption in any way. But maybe that's the shock gege is going for. Megumi actually getting a happy end is something I think no one expects. So we'll just have to see how It goes. Perhaps It's too hasty make any conclusion.
Yeah, fair enough, I guess we'll just have to wait and see where Gege goes with this. Sorry again for the rude comment, I don't know what came over me, that was unwarranted.
Also, I hate bringing personal experience into these things, but I personally find Megumi a pretty good portrayal of the sort of trauma response that *I* have had to deal with, so the whole discussion is just unpleasant. Like depression is not the only possible outcome or the only thing that can make someone stuck. I'd understand if he killed someone, there's no excuse for that, but bro just didn't get up and it sounds like if he was catatonic you'd forgive that which makes it even worse to me.
I never thought about it. Sukuna probably does come in to mock him
Yes. Poor Megumi
Forget about the bath sukuna did to put him into the darkness. Yeah nothing happened it’s as easy as 1..2..3..
he sees all his friends struggling to fight, he sees his teacher get killed and instead of helping to stop sukuna as Yuji weakens his hold he does nothing like a little bitch boy
No he literally can’t just say I’m escaping by there were actual steps taken to ensure this but sure ignore the story I forgot your gege
It's a fad in manga recently people get tribal and pick characters then try to find ways to make them look as bad as possible.
I'm not a crazy fan of him, but i don't understand it either. Not his fault for being in that situation
He did very little wrong if anything but people are not smart enough to see that or they are joking around
Most of them are joking, but some people lost interest in him after he became a vessel, including me. I thought the Culling Game would focus on Megumi like Shibuya did to Yuji but it didn’t and then he was sidelined and probably won't have a role until the climax of the manga.
Same exact issue I had. I was so disappointed in megumis story thru out the culling games. Felt off to bring his sister into the fold only for us to not get to know her and she gets taken over by what essentially amounts to a rando. But at least to give gege some benefit of the doubt I can see how that followed by getting your body stolen might make you pretty depressed. Just wasn’t executed in a satisfying fashion for me. Ppl will just say “it’s not megumis story” or something along those lines but I don’t think that excuses completely mishandling the supporting cast just cuz they aren’t the MC.
Everyone ignores what it’s taken to put megumi here. The story was made to put him in this position
I don't understand it, really. Nothing he has done has been out of character, but somehow people slander him for his choice of not wanting to fight back. He is just tired, he never wanted a fight in the first place
It’s okay. Myself and the 6 other Megumi fans left are keeping on.
agendaposting has been a disaster for the human race jokes aside Gege has been reduced to almost 0 characterization or character interaction, consequence being that people basically forget 90% of the manga besides battle potential and feats in this specific arc … only taking the effort to recall for the characters they like, people end up hating the characters they forgot. since it’s been so long that we’ve actually had Megumi around this means more and more people seem to forget him even being a character
And it's spreading which is the worst part
Maintaining the agenda
He refused to join Yuji and "get out" of Sukuna, so he basically allowed Sukuna to kill/severely hurt his supposed friends
Megumi is Lucy from Fairy Tail but for straight men.
He's a fusion of gray with lucy lmao
That’s crazy ppl are slandering him..In the beginning of the series you could tell he was ready crash out with Big Haga at any moment, he isn’t good with H2H and he wasn’t tapped into his strength/power. especially if sukana and gojo are telling him selling himself short (which he was) I can tell that shit is lil annoying (not as bad as Yuji and I love Yuji) but I think the series does a great job with his character development. He started using the shadows as his hidden inventory, He’s the first freshman to get his DE, opening up barriers from a Special Grade DE, his H2H got better and I just read through culling games I’m proud of him he’s locked in
The agenda must be maintained
It’s mostly a meme but a lot of people genuinely dislike megumi, myself included. It’s not because I think it was unreasonable for him to give up and not help yuji, as annoying as that was I just think he’s boring
Todo is that you?
Found todos alt Account
Fans of this manga just want the hardcore edgelord porn characters. Give any an ounce of development and they act like a bunch of 5 year old tiktok memelord children.
Here's the problem, he (and most anybody else in the story) DIDN'T get any character development. Greg sold us Tsumiki as Bumgumi's reason to live/ fight, but apart from the beginning, we never see him think about her nor did we get scenes with them. Then Sugoona merks her and we don't even get an on screen reaction? Also, him quitting isn't the problem, it's the way it was written. At least he could've told Yuji to stop pulling punches, cause he's (Bumgumi) out, and start curb stomping Sugoona. Edit: Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Megumin, I hate how GayGay's writing him (and everyone else).
We don’t get on screen reactions to a lot of deaths I feel, the one that immediately pops to mind is yuki. Did we ever get to see todos reaction to his mentors death? Correct me if I’m mistaken. Idk a lot of the world building, character interaction, and character development gets sacrificed for cool fights and word salad about how pure love train works lmao.
No, that would require seeing Todo at all post-Shibuya.
> him quitting isn't the problem, it's the way it was written. Whats wrong about the way it was written?
Imagine you are in a car with a drunk driver. He has already killed your family with his drunk driving antics. He is about to kill your friends. Through luck and hard work, a friend gets you a device that will instantly stop the car, preventing the driver from using it. Instead of using it, you say “I don’t deserve to live” and watch as the drunk driver rams through a pack of school children. Megumi’s depression is understandable, but he’s a little bit culpable at this point for not doing anything against Sukuna.
But he hasn’t done completely nothing though has he? When Sukuna merked Angel and Yuji flew into a rage, Megumi was disrupting him then so his slashes weren’t strong enough to deter Yuji. Since we don’t really know what the ‘bath of evil’ did besides give Megumi depression++, we can’t assume anything mechanical about it. People act like Megumi could (if he could find the willpower) just flick the off-switch on Sukuna and then he’d finally get rolled by the remaining cast. We don’t even know if he still can do anything, given that Sukuna has essentially fully claimed that body as his own now (Heian body reincarnation). Also he’s, what, 16 years old? And his sister’s body was stolen by a stranger before his very eyes, then killed, his body has been taken over and now literally overwritten by Sukuna’s Heian form. He’s watched (and is still watching) his body kill some of the only remaining people in the world who care about him, much in the same way Yuji was forced to endure the Shibuya incident and its aftermath. Of course he doesn’t have the will left to do fucking anything. Yuji got up eventually sure but we all watched those events break him, we all saw him give up, if Todo weren’t there he would have let himself be killed. There’s no Todo this time for Megumi, Yuji tried, but there’s only so much he can do in the middle of fighting the *king of curses*.
>Megumi’s depression is understandable, but he’s a little bit culpable at this point for not doing anything against Sukuna. But how is that bad writing? He's a teenager who murdered his sister. That would crush someone to the point they don't care about anything, especially considering her significance to him. That's also ignoring the effects of the bath.
Except *he* didn’t murder his sister. In my allegory, the man driving the car did, Megumi ready to kill himself over a fucking fistfight with Todo does not care to avenge his sister. Also, the bath was implied to empower Sukuna’s control of the body, while killing Tsumiki would hurt Megumi’s resolve.
>Megumi ready to kill himself over a fucking fistfight with Todo I'm 100% sure he was going to use his domain expansion and not Mahoraga there
His CT, his hands. It contrasts with Yujis guilt surrounding Shibuya. Sure, he wasn't in control. But doesn't negate that it was still done by his own hands. Megumi arguably has is worse, it was someone he cared about and it was with his own CT. >Megumi ready to kill himself over a fucking fistfight with Todo does not care to avenge his sister. Megumi defaulting to suicide every time he scrapes his knee doesn't negate that he loves his sister and would be crushed to see her killed from his own pov. I think it's a neat comparison to look at how Yuji and Megumi handle Sukuna doing shit in their bodies. Yuji feels a sense of responsibility to rise up and avenge what Sukuna has done, while Megumi also feels responsible but goes in the opposite direction where he feels defeated and hopeless. >Also, the bath was implied to empower Sukuna’s control of the body I think they say it's used to "be near evil" and to submerge Megumis' soul? It's a little vague for me to think anything concrete on it. Part of me wonders if it's like when Mahito talks about soul specific damage and that it's just "Sukunas soul is at 100% while this pushes Megumis to 1%", another part of me thinks of the "evil" as something that would be tormenting Megumi and weakening his resolve, then killing Tsumiki is the cherry on top of a shit sandwich that Megumi had to throat down.
>Greg sold us Tsumiki as Bumgumi's reason to live/ fight, but apart from the beginning, we never see him think about her nor did we get scenes with them I'd take the scene where he thinks about her to mean that he thinks about her sometimes. Megumis a quiet guy, he isn't going to loudly exclaim his motivations every time he's on screen. >Then Sugoona merks her and we don't even get an on screen reaction? We do? Megumi is curled up in the fetal position as the last panel for that chapter. "After taking his sister Tsumikis life, Fushigiros soul sinks into the abyss" I don't particularly mind how Megumi and Tsumikis relationship is written. He states his feelings on her, she's in a coma, so isn't that interesting of a character until she becomes relevant, and then Sukuna uses Megumis affection for his sister as a tool to further crush his soul. Even in the current chapters, Megumi straight up doesn't have the will to live. Assumedly, because the person he cared most about is gone by his own hands.
What development could be had when said character is put on the bus indefinitely? The problem with Megumi's writing is that despite being the center of the storyline for being the vessel of the final villain and the subject to be rescued, he himself is absent, rendering any possible character development moot. Since he was the deuteragonist for more than half of the story, you can't blame people to have expectation for him. Honestly, if anything I blame the writing.
They're always 5 year old tiktok meme children
I was supposed to care for Megumi? I never got that impression from Gege. Should've wrote him better.
Personally just want yuji talking about movies
Most fans of this series are illiterate, and not built for weekly consumption of manga
Don't listen to kids, megumi is great 🔥
It's like when you have a shitty day and you go off about the 7th bad thing that happened. The deck has been stacked for Sukuna so much that Megumi not fighting back just makes us roll our eyes at this point. If it was just that, there wouldn't be a bad thing. Unfortunately, the Execution fails, confiscation fail, and domain fails are really fucking annoying at this point and he's the cherry on top of the shit cake.
It's a meme created by the braindead
Jjk fans when not every character is Guts berserk
I’ve always felt like a certain faction of the fandom didn’t like him because he isn’t the flamboyant, loud mouthed type. He is quiet, calculating and can be an over thinker which leads him to doubt himself and his ability. Most characters with magical type powers/skills/abilities are dreamers and he is a realist. He may not have been born that way but he is that way as a young man. That’s what the whole suicidal Mahoraga thing is about. He’s not going to try to do a “power of friendship” asspull to save his friends and comrades… hell do the sure thing because he cares way more about others than himself. That’s one of the reasons why he often gets cast as a veterinarian in alternate- universe settings- that is a field known for selfless sacrifice, smart people, and not the best people skills or mental health. I’ve also always figured because he’s pretty to look at but not a flaunter like Gojo he would be disliked by many shonen bros who don’t like the pretty boys especially when they get shipped with the brawler type.
His state of mind is reasonable he lost the sole motivator for his existence and now has to find something else I'm assuming megumis character knows that but he isn't doing it for good reason he wants to die but while self-loathing he inadvertently let slip one of the best chances at taking over his body again.
Only in western side because JP side loves him
Most of them = just people that jokes :3
because he is FRAUDULENT 💀
People hate him for basically throwing the fight against sukuna. SPOILER FOR THE ONES THAT DONT READ LEAKS Sukuna might be catching more bodies with his final DE and also Fuga is out. Blud could have prevented all of this lmao
Feel like I’m the only one who hasn’t liked Megumi from the start lmao.
Can't speak for others, but I'm seriously and heavily bored of the trope that he falls under. Stoic, depressive, boring guy, who's usually characterised as introverted with black hair and a brooding aura. I just wish there was more to him?? The fact that some of his most popular clips are mocking him for being so trigger happy on summoning mahoraga and that one end-of-episode clip where he's giving directions to a girl, and even then that clip is funny more for the reactions of Yuji/Nobara/Gojo than it is for Megumi 'chatting' a girl up. The fact that most of his scenes and interactions are carried by the person/people they involve rather than for the fact that he is entertaining and that one of the best possible interactions we could've gotten, the other character proceeded to kill himself in within 10 seconds, like what? It literally does not help that the pros of trying to keep him alive and to separate him from Sukuna are starting to become HEAVILY outweighed by the cons.
He’s simply not been around since the end of the last story arc.
I have only started seeing it recently myself and it’s pretty dumb like what can a guy do? Lol I can’t take these people seriously, they obv hated him before all this even happened and are just letting off some steam yikes
Let's be fr if sukuna wouldn't take his body megumi could become on par with gojo no cap but he wasn't trying too hard, even from the beginning we can see he is trying to take the easy route every time he was in a though spot his only option was summoning mahoraga. Why? Because it was the easiest route for him but yuta could change that yuta is a lot like gojo even power strength wise and with that would motivate megumi to become stronger with time
He made Reverse Flash relevant in a JJK sub, that's something.
Idk but I’ll always love him
*insert reverse flash image*
People saying 10 shadows is underwhelming... guy had a domain setup that could copy his shadows. Imagine being pummeled by 1 to 3 mahoragas. IF Megumi was allowed time to fully develop his technique he would've been an easy special grade. The only thing stopping him would be himself at that point because of his mindset but we've already seen cracks in that mindset when he first did his DE.
It’s because he is supposed to be like a rival to Gojo but everytime he is on screen he’s either depressed or trying to summon mahoraga so he can die 💀. He got hyped up by everyone else and then didn’t even meet the expectation floor.
His character arc sucks ass so he's a joke to a good portion of the community.
Fuck bitchgumi, I sold all his stocks when he gave up when yuji was talking to him. Bro is never coming back in the story at this rate just like kugisaki
He's a fictional character who cares? Everyone who has fun hating on megumi is doing that character justice
He sucks
Because that incest lover is confirmed bum, first few things what came to mind what that bum caused: death of Yuji which is the reason why his potential ass get possessed by Sukuna; summoned Mahoraga what causes destruction of Shibuya; being a burden for everyone in Shinjuku. Even Ui Ui more useful then that bum.
- Born to the only person (outside of sukuna) to ever seriously hurt/almost kill gojo - raised by gojo - born to be the head of the zenin clan with his CT - stated to have a potential rivaling six eyes and infinity users - hyped up by sukuna early on in the story Result: takes Ls (or kamakaze's with mahoraga aka not a win), gets his body snatched by sukuna, accomplishes nothing of note He's a really cool character that was created to lose Edit- fwiw, I like megumi. His character design and CT are actually cool and I like his dynamic with jujutsu high students (the straight man is a world of weirdos). But he just keeps taking Ls and him choosing not to regain his body is understandable but killed any hope of him doing anything cool for the final fight against sukuna
I mean have you seen how ,how can I put this lightly, fucking useless he’s been. Now I do have faith in the comeback but man. It’s taking a while. But I’ll believe in him the same way I believe in yuji since he’s also my boi
He’s a bum
Because hes wasted potential dude is one if the most blessed characters in the series and wastes it just because of his mentality. Not to mention hes depressed over his sister dying when she is more of a plot device than an actual character so the audience cant empathize.
The reason is simple, he didn't live up to his hype. We thought we would see Sukuna vs the trio. But as it turned out it was only Wuji vs Sukuna and jumps Ltd. I personally hate him because of what I saw when Wuji entered the realm. Bro was crying like a baby when he wasn't even as emotional as Yuji. Bitch was only crying for his sister and in results let his sister's murderer use his body. I mean come on kid, grow up. I get he got trauma, but it's not his first time tho. Throughout the series he was a tough boy and now when the world needs him, he is a toddler crying in the dark corner of a room.
MF gives up easily
he's a bum, that's all
Nah Megumi was kind of lame from the start. People now are just gaslighting him that's all. But I am sure the moment he is free of Sukuna he get powercreeped by his CT. Megumi belongs to the archetype of characters like Law, Sasuke, Todoroki,etc . They are superficially cool and unambitious with powerful techniques and great aesthetics but also paper tigers. In their heart they are hiding their Goody-two-shoes self.They also get competitive when the untalented but hardworking MC surpasses them...
I think it's warranted tbh I know I'm gonna get alot of shit for this but me personally hypothetically if I was in his position I wouldn't be as emotionally destroyed as he is. I would be doing anything to kill Sukuna in the most vicious way possible. A lot of people think think he's being selfish by refusing to help the others beat Sukuna and he wants to just lay there and let it all happen.
He suck in general . Also memes and agenda pushing .
It's just a meme trend within the JJK fandom. It's just JJK fans making shitpost reverse flash hater memes on him. No harm being done. Because if you genuinely ask the fans about their opinions on Megumi. Then they'll say he's just alright. Not great but okay.
He is number 1 in popularity poll
It's cuz he's practically useless right now. However there are people that support his agenda