YUTA OKKOTSU’S POWER OF FRIENDSHIP

So I’ve been writing analysis of every solo fight so far in the Culling Game arc, because for each of our four main participants (Yuji, Megumi, Yuta, Hakari) these fights are doing a good job of demonstrating the themes each character centers around, and challenging their ideologies. Yuji’s fight revolves around crime and punishment, because his main reason for fighting right now is his atonement for unleashing Sukuna in Shibuya, and he fights against a literal defense attorney. Megumi’s fight revolves around pushing his limits to be individually stronger, and also making the decision to kill for the first time because Megumi isn’t fighting to be a hero he just wants the power to save the select few he’s chosen to save including his sister. 

Then we get to Yuta’s fight, which is so different from the first two fights and sets out to illustrate what makes Yuta so different as a character from Yuji and Megumi. Yuji and Megumi care about saving other people yes, but they’re also staunch individualists, they’re main strategy is to acquire strength for themselves and go off fighting alone following their own ideals. Yuta, while being the strongest of the three is a collectivist, and a borderline codependent one at that. While Yuji and Megumi both use their powers for their own goals, Yuta only seems to do things for the sake of other people, he’s entering into the tournament in the first place to help Megumi with his sister, and also kill Geto alone for Gojo’s sake so he won’t be forced to kill his best friend again. He’s even confused by his opponents fighting for themselves rather than their loved ones, which is why he stops in the middle of a fight to ask his opponent if it’s really worth fighting and dying in the culling game when you might have people who care for you. 

1. Don’t You Have a Lover or Friends

So the main lesson Yuta Okkotsu learned in Jujutsu Kaisen Zero, is progressing from someone who wanted to die alone in his room so he would not hurt others anymore, to finding a reason to live in using his power to protect the people around him instead of being afraid of it. If Megumi and Yuji’s characters both revolve around two methods of saving people, Megumi who wants to pick and choose who he saves and Yuji who wants to save everyone he can, then Yuta’s character revolves around this idea of making connections to the people around him and finding strength from those connections. Ironically, of the three of them he’s the “power of nakama” Shonen protagonist guy. 

In his original series he progresses from wishing to die alone, to wishing to live on with the other people around him. He even uses the power he was once so scared to use he was okay dying alone in a locked up room, to fight against and even kill Geto for the sake of protecting others. However, as Geto points out right away and as further characters will continue to point out there’s a bit of a self-centered element to the way Yuta sees the world. “How selfish - but it’s self-affirmation.” Basically, Yuta wants to be surrounded by friends to get validation from other people. If he didn’t receive that validation it’s likely Yuta wouldn’t have the strength to go on. Of course the same is true for a lot of people as well, everyone wants validation from others, but it’s important to understand Yuta’s entire mindset is constructed around this concept, Yuta literally only sees the world through the lens of the relationships between people. 

When we’re reintroduced to him in Jujutsu Kaisen, right away we’re shown that his mindset has expanded since his fight with Geto. He personally doesn’t know Yuji, but because Yuji is important to his other classmates, Yuta will fight to defend him too. 

However,there are a couple of things that are off about this scene. One, Yuta misunderstands Yuji in a subtle way when he’s tryingto comfort him. As I said Yuta has a pretty self-centered view of the world, not that he’s selfish because he literally does everything he does for the sake of other people but rather he’s only capable of understanding his own mindset. He doesn’t really comprehend the way that Yuji thinks. He only understands Yuji is an importnat person through his way of seeing people through their relationships, “Yuji is important to people who are important to me, so I should treat him that way.” 

For context on how… weird… Yuta’s sense of empathy works. That line “you’re important to the people who are important to me” is a direct Hunter x Hunter reference. It’s something Neferpitou says when they’re attempting to heal Komugi for the sake of the king. 

To give a really, really brief meta of this scene. The king of the chimera ants create three newborn soldiers to act as his royal guard, who are all unconditionally loyal to him. They represent three developing stages of empathy. The first one fights, but doesn’t question his orders at all, and doesn’t really develop any attachment beyond that. The second one (the butterfly one) is so aware of their own feelings, that they actively crave the chimera ant king’s love and validation and they also get jealous and attempt to monopolize him. The third Neferpitou is the only one who has a developed enough sense of empathy to realize that even though they might not personally care for Komugi, Komugi is important to the king, and therefore someone to be protected if they also want to take care of the king’s emotions. 

This is also a pretty close parallel to the three stages of empathy development. 

• Cognitive empathy is being aware of the emotional state of another person.
• Emotional empathy is engaging with and sharing those emotions.
• Compassionate empathy involves taking action to support other people.

My point being that like, Yuta is a hugely empathic character yes, but he’s also being compared here to a frankenstein’s monster nonbinary cat who was born literally like a week ago and is just now developing a sense of empathy. If Gege is purposefully referencing Neferpitou here and drawing a line between the two characters, that means Yuta was probably in about stage two in Jujutsu Kaisen, Zero and is just now crossing the line into stage three. His empathy is still in the process of developing is all I’m saying, and we see signs of that throughout his fight. 

There are a couple of things Yuta are shown doing, that both Yuji and Megumi don’t do in their fights, primarily because they’re so focused on themselves. For example, Yuta is the only one who attempts to reach out and understand his opponents, asking them questions like why they are fighting. 

He’s also the only one of the three shown like, making an actual attempt to protect powerless people and innocents, even like having to give up Rika and fight significantly weakened against two strong opponents in order to protect a stadium of people who can’t fight for themselves. 

In comparison Megumi, bless his heart, almost takes out the powerless Remi for betraying him in his fight, even though she was for the most part just a scared girl trying to survive in a bad situation and panicking and the only thing that stopped Megumi from finishing her off was his connection to Tsumiki. 

Not only are Yuta’s priorities different from most of the other sorcerers, because he firmly values other people and his connections to other people over himself, he also really can’t comprehend why some of the ancient sorcerers are reincarnating and fighting in this battle thousands of years afterthey originally died if they don’t have any loved ones to fight for. Yuta’s entire mind is focused on protecting friends, but he also doesn’t understand how people who don’t have friends can even fight in the first place. 

This is shown throughout the fight for Yuta to be both a weakness and a strength. Yuta has things to protect, and things to fight for and because he’s trying to do both at once (protect himself, and also keep other people in the culling game safe) he’s stuck fighting on multiple fronts and is severely weakened by not having Rika around because she’s off protecting other people.

In contrast he’s also fighting against two people who have basically no reason to live, no people to protect, and therefore nothing to lose. They’re putting it all into the fight and risking it all. Yuta also, can’t understand either of them. He doesn’t udnerstand the pompadour guy who is only fighting for the selfish desire of living a satisfied life, and he can’t understand what it’s like to have absolutely no reason to exist like the lady who was once a vassal of the Fujiwara. 

 Yuta is also even cornered in the fight despite his good intentions, and forced to withdraw Rika from protecting people in the stadium, and put them at risk because otherwise he would lose the fight and die right there. All of this to say, while Yuta’s very idealistic and empathic, he also is working in a really harsh reality where people have to constantly compromise on their ideals, and most people don’t really have the strength to protect everyone around them. Even Yuta does not wield that kind of strength to protect everyone all on his own, because he’s forced to put other people at risk by recalling Rika just to survive.

He’s also not completely capable of empathizing with others as he wants to be even if he reaches out. When he tries to reach out to the girl, he’s basically called out for the fact that, someone as powerful as he was who hasn’t lived through her circumstances really can’t understand her. Even if he has good intentions. 

So, Yuta’s a pretty unique character in that he’s based on both the strengths and shortcomings of empathy. For one, Yuta’s cursed technique is copy (it’s implied he consumes people to copy their technique, as Rikka quite literally devours a piece of Uro’s arm and then he’s able to use her technique). He also is one of the few characters who makes attempts to reach out and understand their own opponents. He talks to Uro, and he also, has a moment of connection and clarity with pompadour guy. 

Their reasons for fighting are very different, Ishigori fights for his own sake, Yuta doesn’t actually care about fighting it’s a means to an end he just wants to keep his loved ones around him. However, when he battles against him, Yuta is such a big empathy sponge that even though he doesn’t understand him, in their final showdown he relates to him just a bit and wants to give Ishigori the full power battle he’s seeking. 

Yuta’s also a character who is very unique to the Jujutsu World at large, because he values other people so much he goes against the grain of the heavy individualist mindset  For one, he spares opponents who may be a threat to him later. Ichigori even comments he’s not someone who could ever become as strong as Satoru Gojo or Sukuna, because he still takes into account the feelings and wills of other people instead of ignoring them entirely and focusing on himself. 

Yuta is also, running contrary to where a lot of other character’s arcs are going. For example, Gojo was only able to become the strongest after abandoning his earlthy attachments to people like Geto and focusing on fighting entirely alone, at which point he became the pillar of jujutsu society. Even Maki reaches her potential, not out of cooperation with her sister, but after the death of her sister makes her let go of everything. In both Gojo and Maki’s mindsets, the people they were tethered too, the people who humanized them, were also holding them back from reaching their full potential for their physical strength so they let go and chose power over that connection 

Yuta makes the opposite choice from almost all other characters in this pattern. Instead of choosing to become a singularly strong person, he keeps choosing again and again to hold onto the attachment of his comrades. And as I said, there are limits to Yuta’s empathic mindset. He doesn’t have the pure aggression of someone like Sukuna. He also can’t understand people like Uro who aren’t blessed and therefore “have nothing”. Yuta is only able to fight the way he does, because he’s naturally gifted with an extremely strong curse technique, and he also is surrounded by good friends. 

Yuta even comments he might have killed both of the people he was fighting against, if his comrade hadn’t made it possible to transfer points without killing them in time. However, it’s because Yuta chooses to fight with those people instead of fighting alone, that makes him so much different from others sorcerers, even if it means he’s also more vulnerable. Maki destroyed her humanity and threw away her human heart when she lost Mai, whereas Yuta fights to keep his, even though that’s the more difficult path to walk as a sorcerer because everything in the world of sorcerers encourages you to destroy any vulernability you might have and fight alone. 

Of course I wonder where this great conflict of Yuta’s that is set up is going next. As I previously established, he is basically the opposite of Maki. 

I wonder if the reason Miwa showed up at the end of his fight is to tell him the news of what happened to Maki, as Maki showed up with Mai’s body in front of Momo and asked her to bury it, it’s understandable Miwa might know what’s happening. Either way, Yuta is definitely a character who is going to be continually challenged on his ideals, because fighting for togetherness and cooperation is basically fighting against the extremely individualist mindset of jujutsu society as a whole. There may even be a clash between Maki and Yuta in our future, because their ideals are so different, the way that Geto and Gojo despite being each other’s closest friends and closest thing to an equal eventually had to clash because their ideals became so different. 

Bearing it all for the World to Witness - Takako Uro

Character analysis on Uro, the culling game player I am the most interested in thus far. *DISCLAIMER*This is MY personal meta on Uro. You can feel free to agree or disagree, nothing I feel is necessarily FACT. Anywho, enjoy! 

Who is Takako Uro

Takako Uro is one of the newest characters introduced in the Culling Game arc of Jujutsu Kaisen and is probably one of if not my favorite new character introduced. We meet her in the highly volatile Sendai Colony, where she is one of the 4 strongest players there. Unfortunately for her and her peers/rivals Yuta Okkotsu entered the colony with the intention of taking everyone down and obtaining 400 points. What made Uro stand out to me, was not only her appearance (which is obviously there to make you pay attention - more on this later) but just the boldness of her character dialogue and body language. I love a female character who has confidence, skill and isn’t being tomboy written so that she feels relatable to males. Uro is clearly a female character who embodies the realism of powerful women who have resentment toward the world they were born into. 

Uro embodies this in many ways, and I basically highlight these throughout this meta in each section. From her technique to the nuance behind her backstory, Uro (to me) is one of Gege’s best written one-off characters without getting a backstory focused chapter like Higaruma. I also find it very interesting that Gege decided to introduce a character that had connection to the Fujiwara and the Michizane clans. Kinda off topic, but I think this was Gege setting up for deeper dive into the past, and Uro was the first stepping stone to that, hence her final conversation with Yuta. 

So all we know for a fact about Uro is that she was a head assassin for the Fujiwara clan, was betrayed by them and now has a heavy hatred for their kin. She probably was happy to see the future being a time period where those bloodlines aren’t as prominent which is why she was so ticked off to run into Yuta being so boldly powerful in modern times. It is this layer upon layer for her character that I’ll delve into which makes her a gem to me. I do hope you understand where I’m coming from as I ramble and rant about this wonderful woman and how perfect her character is so far.

Surface Manipulation

Uro’s technique is one of my favorites in the series due to its versatility and creativity of a technique. What really gets me is how this technique can be seen as a play on Uro only seeing things on the surface, not looking truly deeper into things. Of course this is something that leans more on the head canon side of the analysis, but its worth exploring. The idea is that Uro only saw things for what they seemed, and she was manipulated because of that. This leans into a section later about Uro’s past and how I think her life came to an end, so consider this a planted seed that’ll get watered as you continue reading. 

Otherwise, I think its important to her characterization to highlight her being introduced as a character that could control “the sky”. Instantly I think about the saying “the sky is the limit”, and for the world of jujutsu the sky is NOT the limit; if we were to put a “Ceiling” of some sort I would say the Heavens themselves, and of course Uro’s surface manipulation isn’t effecting the heavens. The Sky is literally her limit, being the maximum application of her technique, letting her fly, use it to block attacks, return blasts back to senders and more. Its a very powerful technique, not as strong as Gojo’s limitless of course but its almost like a subclass version of it. Anyway, I just find her ability to be a way gege is characterizing her without giving away too much of her back story or personality. 

Past as one who hasn’t achieved

I think its very bold of Gege to consistently bring up the sexism in the jujutsu world throughout the eras. We got a whole character arc around Maki and Mai’s treatment by the Zenin clan, but that wasn’t where Gege decided to end the discussion. Uro was a surprise to see, as she clearly and boldly embodies a woman who gave up her own potential as an individual for what she believed was a “greater good”. This was her own words in fact. The idea of fighting for the sake of others is sick to her because of what she experienced in her first life. Uro doesn’t play a riddle game with Yuta or try to confuse him in their fight. She fight him straight up, wanting to crush him head on, butt naked bearing it all for everyone to witness. Thats because she wants to prove herself to everyone and herself. She took Kenjaku’s offer in order to come back and “become someone”. 

I’m always so impressed how much Gege has picked up from Togashi in terms of writing nuance and giving just enough information to make certain information “obvious assumptions”. Gege doesn’t have to tell us outright every detail of what happened to Uro, just use Uro’s word choices, body language and thoughts to guide the reader to the obvious assumption. For Uro it was her treatment by the Fujiwara clan, but not just that specifically the man who tricked her into getting executed for the sake of his kin. This is layers onto Uro wanting to “become someone” - she was the lead of a masterclass assassin group that was known to be the shadows themselves, not even having a last name! Her anger burns so strong because she was given a name, told to fight for others and then was used as a scapegoat, not to mention that Gege hints that Uro’s anger stems from a lovers quarrel. 

So when you put the pieces together it seems like Uro was involved with this Fujiwara Representative sexually but in secret, of course she actually fell in love with him but his love (seemingly) was not genuine and he used her. With that context in mind, when you look back Uro definitely comes off as a woman full of scorn, but Uro isn’t a fool nor is she mercilessly vindictive. She didn’t go around killing non-sorcerers just to remind herself that she is powerful. She went after other sorcerers, people who could fight back against her - all in order to “become someone” for “her own sake” (more on this later), it just really resonates with me that becoming someone to her is truly just her expressing herself in the spotlight, another play on her floating in the sky naked for everyone to see. 

It is clear that since she was a woman with skill and power as an Assassin it was clear to “That Man” (unnamed, status unknown) of the Fujiwara Clan to keep Uro in the shadows not only physically but mentally as well. Her understanding of her role in life was to be on the sidelines, unnoticed, and living for others. Her group of assassins were not even allowed to bear names, yet we know Uro by name - so does that mean she continued with the name given to her by “That Man” or is this a name she gave herself? These are questions I would like answered.

“Become Someone” for “Your Own Sake”

The core to the conflict between Uro and Yuta was not only the misunderstanding with Yuta’s bloodline, but also Yuta’s ignorance and lack of genuine sympathy for Uro’s situation. Yuta himself points out that Uro had 70 points so her focus was clearly only other players, but he still belittled her choices of coming back and fighting in the Culling Game for her “own sake”. So does that mean Yuta wouldn’t look down on someone who came back for the sake of another? Not only that, Uro’s life was taken from her.. she had regrets due to being manipulated by the world around her, so she chose to return from the underworld and move toward a second life. I honestly sided with her when she got angry with Yuta, because it was clear she had more to her situation than met the eye. 

Thats not to say that Uro was some perfect girl who was just mistreated, she was a killer - a trained assassin for the Fujiwara clan & at the time was seemingly very proud of it. What I am saying is that Uro may have accepted her death had she not felt like she was wrongly done by the ones she worked for, and that experience may have also opened her eyes to how manipulated she was. I don’t think Uro is a bad person at heart, this was proven to me when she gave Yuta those final words of advise, even though he knew the two them couldn’t necessarily come to an understanding. The truth is, Uro is simply still bitter about her life prior, and her fight to become someone for her own sake has lead her on a path filled with unknowns in a new era still coming face to face with her past regrets just in new appearances. 

To become someone for her own sake is Uro coming into the true understanding to transcend in the world of jujutsu. As she said, the sorcerers and cursed spirits that have transcended are those with an unshakable ego, that has no regard for anyone but themselves. Thats the path that Uro is going for, she refuses to go back to fighting for someone else’s sake, because she wants to accomplish something. Once again going back to her being nude in public, this adds to the idea of Uro ignoring the stigmas that come with being a woman, leaving her bare skin out symbolizing her putting her full self out there into the world now, no longer living in shadow and embracing herself to go beyond what she believed she was before. 

The thing about Yuta being the main force in her way that is poetic, is the cycle of karma coming to remind her that she hasn’t truly moved on, and someone challenging that makes her instantly revert to her primal anger toward the Fujiwara. Its realistic, faulty and perfect for a character who we know has come back for a second chance at life. That also exposes that Uro hasn’t truly harnessed and understood that anger she has. She hasn’t properly converted that negative emotion into focus to become more powerful, but she had the right idea. It reminds me of when Sukuna told Jogo that he should have burned everything at his desire without worry in order to surpass Gojo. Uro has to truly move on, not necessarily forgive if she’s going to truly reach that next level. 

Now I wonder what will Uro accomplish in this second life? Will she actually achieve a second life after the culling game or is this all just another part of Kenjaku’s plan and lives will be sacrificed? I think no matter what Uro is fighting now her own place in this new modern world. 

What’s Next? (Conclusion)

Sorry for ranting on about Uro and probably repeating the same thing over and over lol, but I really wanted to share my thoughts on her! I tried to be concise, and point out the things I found interesting about her character but I am mostly interested in what’s next. Gege seems to be setting up these side characters for something important later, and I’m very unsure what they are. I personally hope to see more of Uro, whether it be through flashbacks per Kenjaku or us seeing what she has going on later down the line when all the pieces on the board start to move.

Tell me in the comments below what you think about Uro! (Be nice!!)

Jujutsu Kaisen Chapter 181 Analysis - Blessings, Calamities, & Manga

Comprehensive analysis for Jujutsu Kaisen Chapter 181. Enjoy!

 P.S - There is a new thing I’m doing called “Analysis Extras” where I will quickly mention other things in the chapter that didn’t need an individual section but didn’t fit the others. 

Limits & Calamities w/ Blessings

First & foremost I loved Uro’s words to Yuta about reaching his limit. Gege takes this moment to not only give us a cool in chapter drawing confirming Sukuna’s original form, but also doubling down on the concept that the core to becoming the strongest as a sorcerer is the ego, the sense of self above all. I find it really interesting that Uro says she has seen it herself, and she specifically names “curses, cursed spirits and strong fighters”. To me she’s saying that she has experienced the golden age of cursed techniques or at east been around in a time comparable to it.

 (I also would like to mention that Uro has given the second most interesting information out of the culling game players we’ve met, the first I’d say being Reggie with Kenjaku’s “bomb”, and she isn’t dead..)

Aside from all that, the concept of Yuta reaching his limit is very possible in that regard, and it will take him to really understand that if he fights with true power he can become even more, but Yuta isn’t someone who sees meaning in fighting usually, so I believe he does have a natural limit to how inclined he feels to become more powerful. Gojo for example, wanted to be the strongest after already being so powerful. He was arrogant, and he kept that attitude even if he had different intentions at heart, and now it feels like that was his way of keeping his strength as a Sorcerer where it needed to be to continue being Gojo Satoru. It’s just nice seeing this stuff brought up again, especially for Yuta who was said to be only second to Gojo.

The last part of this section is of course pertaining to Yuta’s blessings. His comrades, the people that he is fighting with to beat Kenjaku’s plans are those blessings, hence why he calls himself blessed. It’s so oxymoronic to me, the idea of being “blessed” while being a jujutsu sorcerer. Seeing the darkest side of the world, fighting the very essence of negative energy in the world, where can there be blessing in that? I could dive into this in so many ways from etymology & christian origins of the word bless/blessing, but that would be way too much for this analysis. 

Really, this word here is simply being used in the sense of the positives that help lead a life of bliss, and those are Yuta’s friends. In a world where they are facing the very evils of the world, the things they must hold onto to be able to survive is each other, while giving each other the space to grow and hold their own. Its such a challenge perspective, giving rise to multiple emotions from sadness to guilt, to joy in sacrifice. I find it beautiful, and stunning how these things hold these characters together throughout their tribulations.

Who is Charles Bernard?

Ok so Charles is a very loaded character for me to talk about (lol). The thing about Charles is that I am still trying to discern how much of his character is Gege critiquing the manga industryvscritiquing fansvscritiquing othermangaka. I say this because I get a very sarcastic vibe from the Charles encounter with the editor at Shuiesha. Also there just was so much about the encounter that felt like both people involved where in the wrong. 

While Charles definitely has some points regarding art realism, Charles just doesn’t have a good personality to me, he just comes off like a big entitled douche, and thats ok. I love it and can’t wait to see more of it. I especially like that he’s searching for the meaning behind being a Mangaka, and also since Hakari is the one he encountered, I find the entire situation hilarious. 

But why/how the hell did they end up in the a Ferris wheel together? I get wanting to see the scenery but together? I feel like I’m missing something lol. 

I think Charles is going to be very interesting to follow. I won’t say much about him in this analysis, but as we get more on him I’ll be dissecting him more and more. His obsession with manga and how its created plus his own personal idealism of it will be cool to see play out in a fight against Hakari.

I will say I entirely agree with Hakari’s feelings about not reading a manga because of its gloomy vibe. Sometimes I don’t want to experience those things, and I find it very interesting that Gege is bringing that perspective even its its very slight. Charles wanted a reason to hate Hakari, and our guy gave it (lol). 

I can only wonder how all of this is going to unfold. But we’ll see..

Analysis Extras

1.Miwa?! What is going with her?! She could be here because she is looking for a way to get involved with getting back at Kenjaku?! I honestly am not sure what Gege is doing here but I am so excited to see her and honestly if she goes off I am going to lose my MIND. Hope she does well, I’m begging Gege has her and Yuta team up and he gives her a cursed Katana. That would be awesome.

2.WHERE IS PANDA??!?!?! I love panda very much and I hope to see him do well here in the Culling Games. I partially hope that he meets up with Maki somehow here, but if not I do hope he fights Kashimo. Even if he died, I know it would be an amazing fight and moment with Panda, and I’m a sucker for that stuff. We’ll see!

3.Gege giving Yuta 200 points because he likes him is very very hilarious. (He technically has 197 but gege said “eh round it” and admitted it lol)

4.Uro’s Lover?? I’ll be talking about this more when I do my Uro character analysis, but the theory that the man she got the last name from was the man she loved and was secretly involved with…