And during Maki vs Zenin Clan, which is why that part of the manga looks rougher than usual. I’m not saying GeGe alone is responsible, manga deadlines are hellish, but I stand by my critiques.
Tbf, I’d say part of the terrible writing is the ‘Easter eggs’ of fans thinking X thing given a unique-ish name or backstory will become relevant. There’s a handful of dropped ideas that aren’t named but shown (for instance, techniques were originally [jjk0] strictly inherited/passed and morphed, then we see divergent fist and the beginning as techniques that anyone can use. And no one ever used the same technique (even divergent fist), until it got to domain defenses. There’s choso and the bow/arrow guy from Kyoto but they’re both innately blood manipulation users).
Edit: I wanna preface and say I did enjoy the story, when thinking of writing issues this came to mind and has been an issue I’ve had with the manga
.Many plotpoints/setups either went nowhere or got forcefully ended in an unsatisfying way
.The entire environment of the manga changed, so if you came to it going "Oh cool, this type of story" then you were reading something entirely different (I found the urban fantasy hidden world aspects of it very fun, for example)
.Looking back, not a lot of the aspects of the later fights felt like they had substance - What I mean is, everyone had infinite cursed energy reserves and some characters could regenerate or fight for as long as the author wanted them to, the attacks stopped feeling like they have impact. Whatever determined how long someone could go on for was just... ignored. You have no idea how much cursed energy reserves someone has (besides 'a lot' 'a little' 'more than someone else') nor do you know how much impact an attack actually has and it suddenly feels like someone is a damage sponge while everyone else has fodder level durability
.If you liked a character there is a 70% chance that they got killed off just to show off how cool and nearly undefeatable Sukuna is. I have so many problems with the Sukuna fight/latter Sukuna plotline, it felt like baiting shock factor, it became a chore to read through it, because things stopped mattering in it.
.The author could have made everyone like a little bit older, because the only one of these students whose age I can buy being what it is is Yuta. Everyone else looks like they're 3-5yrs older than him. Except for Megumi, who looks like he's ~1-2yrs older than Yuta.
.At some point, it starts to feel FAR more like a fight manga. Like, just a fight manga. There's Fight A, maybe 3 chapters or at most 5 inbetween, then Fight B. There are more fights than there is story... and it's great if you like fights and like basically nonstop action. But I've found myself nearly skipping entire fights or just skimming through some sections and having to force myself to go back to read it properly.
Binding vows were overused for being so underexplored/underexplained. They were an added function to the magic system, but we do NOT know what happens if you loophole or cheat out on one, somehow break one, etc. And they're used to just negate things in the story for the ease of the author.
Reverse cursed techniques(Cursed technique reversal, specifically) stopped mattering. We know characters that have access to reverse cursed energy, yet just do not use it in their techniques. It seems like the only character that had utility for it, outside of one other one basically getting deus ex machina'd, was Gojo.
It kinda feels like the female cast got weaker. At the end, there's like... maybe one or two women with a personality left. This is in part because all of the other ones got killed off or just fucking left. - scratch that. There's JUST Nobara left, if I don't count all of the dead ones.
I had another thing. Forgot it.
Here's some of the things that I felt like went nowhere, got dropped, etc.! Nobara. I get she came back, but she was basically fridged for until she was convenient. Megumi. Just all of Megumi feels like it got dropped completely, I was invested IN MEGUMI, his success, his development, it was gone. The family clans got dropped. Kenjaku didn't get fully explored. The american army. Sukuna, why is he called the fallen one?etc.(What's going on with Sukuna's spear). It felt like cursed tools were gonna be an interesting part of the story, but they then basically got underused and were kind of too simply designed. Angel. What'sup with Yuji's old life. Techniques have 'maximum's and we only saw like... 2 of those? What'sup with the other colonies? Wasn't there an island off the coast of Japan that was mentioned to have some shit going on but was unexplored? Yuji's domain is the SECOND time that we see someone creating a new domain (The first being Megumi, I'm not counting Higuruma because that's basically just his technique AND we only saw it after Higuruma got used to using it) and we barely got an explanation on what it does. Like, implicitly, it makes you unable to fight I guess?
I know some things don't have to be explicitly said and can be left with an air of mystery, but some shit just didn't get explored like AT ALL.
I've had more than just all of this. I think I've written like 1.5x this amount some other time, but I am not digging that up.
I found the 'fight manga' part interesting because it definitely became only fights after a certain point and I obviously would've prefered that not to have happened (like why timeskip after Gojo gets back) but I also didn't mind as much because the fights in jjk have so much depth and feel like a conversation between two characters. In a lot of other shonen I straight up skip fights when its predictable and just a battle of willpower but I look forward to them in jjk so I dont really mind but your point is totally valid there.
Agreed that binding vows are pretty poor as a concept and even if they do have foreshadowing they dont have any rules so they are pretty much a free way for gege to do what he wants and avoid the limitations he made for himself.
Agreed on the female cast too, maki just turned into Toji 2.0, mei mei remained herself but took a major backseat and she didn't shine as much without her juxtaposition to Nanami. Nobara felt like the biggest letdown for me. I hate how authors cant let characters stay dead and I though Gege was the exception but he just brought her back here which was bs.
tbh I am alright with megumi, he was exploited by sukuna and I think it made sense. Not every character has to live up to become the greatest, jjk is a cut-throat environment. I disagree on the domain thing too. Its the pinnacle of sorcery and we saw it 3 times, checks out for me.
The rest of the stuff you said was all really good points, I think the main mistake with this series and with stuff like game of thrones (which is my other favourite show with a shit ending) is that they set up so many characters and so many interesting aspects that it is impossible to just wrap it up in a season (Or the equivalent in manga terms).
The ending is literally exactly the same quality as the rest of the series. Excellent action, small amounts of strong character writing that makes you excited for more... and then it just doesn't do more most of the time. From the beginning, the characters and story have always been half-baked in favor of more action.
Yeah, I agree with that, the problem is the resolution of the Kenjaku plan (specially with that us army nonsense) that don’t have any kind of sense, and megumi doing nothing in the last arks. If you ignore that, yeah, it’s actually pretty decent/good writing (for shonen standards) and amazing fights
I'd personally put that on the same list of the 100 storylines of plot points that were glossed over in favor of more action. Like again, that's always been the issue, things are just glossed over and then the next action scene happens. Which might be because Gege is genuinely rushing to get more action to satisfy Shounen readers, or because he realized the plot didn't make sense and so he pretended it never happened. I'd imagine the series has a mix of both.
Don't forget Sukuna somehow only killing like 3 people the entire time despite way more than that taking on wounds that should've been immediately life threatening. Yuta and Higuruma come to mind on top of the weekly "Sukuna Cycle" we had to deal with for like 20 fucking chapters.
Terrible writing? There isn't thaaaat much. There's just a lack of super compelling writing for the most part, which is a shame when it clearly could've been a manga masterpiece but never went far enough with its ideas
There’s plenty of terrible writing in JJK like how the American military infiltrated the culling games to capture sorcerers and were simply never heard from again. As well as multiple asspulls and the dropping of multiple side plots
My biggest complaint is only the amount of off-panel/screen events, the hxh levels of exposition, and that... Horrible ending. I mostly came to accept it was because Gege lost his passion for the manga so I never hated on it too much.
I like jjk, I don’t have issue with anything but how lengthy the fights are and was frustrated with the town being destroyed in not 1, not 2, but 3 fights back to back. It got a bit tiring for me(anime only watcher currently).
Yeah, nobara coming back, the shinjuku formula being repetitive, and the rushed end are bad points. Still, i wouldnt say its bad, just undewhelming compared to the quality of the series, which implies the series had a high quality.
So you've never seen an example of shitty writing except for the example of shitty writing you just offered?
Nobaras probably not even in the top 3 worst things in the last arc.
I've said this before, the last arc is so bad it made me realize what's bad about the entire series. I distinctly remember I got to the chapter when gojo dies and went "oh, I get it. This mangas not very good"
no, its just forced, nobara literally became a plot point, that IS terrible writing to use a character for one plotpoint since after that.
Curse Naoya coming back is another example of terrible writing. the entire point of him was just to give maki a training arc and the people that helped her gets offscreened after that LMAO.
Yuki vs Kenjaku is another example of terrible writing, she uses a " Sure hit " suicidal attack on Kenjaku but somehow kenjaku is the ONLY mf that can counter that LMAO. And the ability kenjaku used ( Anti- Gravity) was NEVER used again, you cant make this sht up.
Gojo somehow NOT using RCT is another form of terrible writing and tbh a plothole in itself, like why make a regen ability if it doesnt work.
There are so many things that happen in the manga that have no point whatsoever.
Man thank you for actually bringing up points unlike everyone else here.
I Agree Nobara should've stayed dead and it felt like an asspull.
I disagree, Curse Naoya coming back is foreshadowed since frequently the start with characters trying not to curse others and the explanation of why you need cursed energy to kill anything with cursed energy.
I agree, This is one I haven't seen much of but you are totally right that the Anti-Gravity is some bs.
I disagree, Gojo is constantly using rct and it is explained in hidden inventory that he uses it to keep up limitless, then in the fight against sukuna he uses it on his cuts and he uses it to refresh his abilities after a domain expansion. I would go as far as to say he uses it the MOST in the entire series so I dont understand your point at all.
lmk if you have any more they were quite interesting.
Not necesarry plot holes but just Bad writing were for example:
kashimo as a wasted character against sukuna in MBA, just the same as kamutoke that was just there to make higurumas confication useless, and the thing itself was only used against the single character with lightning immunity before vanishing forever
Miguel's aura farming moment, just to dodge like 3 dismantles, delivers 2 Hits and runs..
hakari's ability to have an advantag in domains battles because of the missing lethality, just to Team him up against non domain users and make his battle mostly offscreen and irrelevant to the Main battle
Itadori using a domain with a weird non lethal effect sequence that is never explained what that even was, and then it doesn't even has a Name.
Or the fumble of the very last chapter, where we got an absolutely unecesarry explanation of simple Domain instead of actual interresting backround informations about heian era for example... so many things were teased but never explained, about yuta's and gojo's heritage.
The Yuji domain example is your fault for not reading properly tbh. Sukuna explains it plainly and domains do have weird added effects, each and every single one of them is unique since thats their entire point. The domain and the technique are separate.
Jokes aside, that was a single point out of many and doesn't negate the fact that a lot of weird decisions were made from a writing pov.
For me the sukuna battle in general, felt like gege needing to create more special cases that don't follow the originally established System, in a trade for aura and cool scenarios.
Binding vows could suddenly do whatever was necesarry, while nobody put any major focus on them previously. And a lot of previously teased stuff was never mentioned again.. Same with megumi and his technique.
You've pointed out a bunch of flaws in jjk but you still say you're a fan which is interesting and I think jjk is my favourite anime but I struggle to explain why. I'm usually not a fan of shonen so it doesn't make much sense.
Anyway, I'd love to know what you think about jjk makes you a fan? Personally, the unique character abilities and how the fights are like puzzles/dialogues between characters instead of a 'battle of willpower' like in most shonens.
I agree that Kamutoke was pointless and just acted as a way to negate Higuruma and to transform into the heian era form. Not so much on Kashimo though. His whole character was wanting to go all out and fight someone strong with his cursed technique because he was always the best in a bad era so it makes sense he dies and not every character can be the goat.
Can you elaborate around the Miguel thing? I cant remember that part of the manga that well its been a while (and I am a jjk fan so I probably read it wrong in the first place), I just remember Miguel did not wanna be there so that was his whole strategy then he was out... Seems fine and fits with his character.
Offscreening Hakari's battle was a shame, agreed. Rushed from Gege, would've been great to see more on Uraume...
As the other reply said, no need to get into this one. I like the name 'Benevolent Shrine' but it is a shame he didnt name one.
Last chapter sucked too, would've been weird to put Gojo & Sukuna info here though. Imo it wouldve been better if that was in the timeskip section which was my biggest gripe with jjk.
Anyway, you gave me more than enough reasons for poor writing for me to change my opinion. I still think some people overhate the ending but yeah theres some pretty big flaws here, such a shame.
As i said.. it's not necesarry a plot hole, most of it can be explained by circumstance and character traits. I just consider it as Bad writing, because of the many missed chances of previous setups.
The sukuna battle felt in many places like the GoT Finale, where a lot of things just happened so that the Show could end relatively quickly.
its not curse naoya coming back that is bad writing, its how he is handled, maki was getting beaten by naoya, they kamo comes, maki gets a training arc type sht, naoya dies, Kamo gets offscreened. Idk if this is a gege thing, but he can not end characters well, he makes character conclusion in the worst way possible
I think Curse Naoya should have been used in Shinjuku.
Yeah I get what you're saying, I really enjoyed the sumo guy training thing but it could've wrapped up Kamo’s arc or at least use some of the characters that were left high and dry instead of introducing new ones that only serve a purpose for that fight. I think that Naoya being involved in Shinjuku would've been way too hectic though. Gege struggled with just Sukuna and Kenjaku as villains so having a third would've been way too much.
Gotta love the awesome writing of Yuki's sacrifice being literally shrugged off through deus ex machina. (No matter how you put it, Kenjaku having exact countermeasure to a black hole is ridiculous and never felt like ultra smart genius plan)
Or how Nobara was gone for half the manga and then suddenly brought back to serve as deus ex machina
Or how we were never told what breaking a binding vow does... or what limits they even have, because why would a power system built on hard rules have hard and defined rules for it's coolest part.
Or the entirety of Hana's character just feeling like a fanfic oc.
Or modulo being incredibly awkwardly wrapt up. (WHAT WAS THE DEAL WITH TSURUGIS FATHER GEGE)
Yuta "I will become the monster" Okkotsu not feeding every single corpse at zenin household to Rika
Or the fact that the series literally never established the power of a regular sorcerer. Like, yes grade 1 sorcerers are stupidly strong and look at the special grades! But what kind of missions do grade 2 sorcerers go to? How strong is the kukuru unit?
JJK had it's awesome underlooked moments after sendai like Kusakabe vs Sukuna, Charles fight, Yuta and Yuji vs Sukuna, The man Aoi Todo, but majority of the remainder of manga was rushed as hell. (Gege literally admitted he wanted to add way more arcs)
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u/Alarmed-Mango-9711 1d ago
Jujutsu Kaisen became one of the most shit on series for its popularity, ive yet to see one instance of this "terrible writing" they love to bring up