Jujutsu Kaisen <Sorcery Fight>

[Shadow5YA]

I never said anything about Yuji winning either, only that he won't get so easily murdered.

[Tactics]

Since Gege will timed it with anime, I expected:

-> Yuji vs. Choso in anime -> Choso join the fray in manga;
-> Toji vs. Megumi in anime -> Megumi state confirmation / soul swap in manga
-> Jogo vs. Sukuna in anime -> Sukuna CT reveal in manga;

If it goes like that, high chance Higuruma will die after sealing Cleave and Dismantle with Judge Man.
Positive side, we might see Todo and Nobara again; drawback is Yuta and Maki delayed until anime reach Yuta 'cameo' and Kenjaku plan reveal.

[Mad Pierrot]

I wonder if Choso can do something considering he already got defeated by Kenjaku and Yuta like nothing.

[Shadow5YA]

Originally Posted by Endscape

Not to mention Yuji's entire behavioural principle is completely opposed to Sukuna's and we've seen what happens to other characters like that (Gojo, Geto, Yuki, etc)

This might be coping, but there's a chance that Gojo won't stay dead.

Wasn't the reason why Kenjaku sealed Gojo because the last time he tried to kill the last Six Eyes holder, another one showed up in their place? Either the same thing will happen again, or Gojo will be revived.

It's not the first time Gojo died either, and his brain is still intact like when Toji killed him.

Originally Posted by Endscape

If anyone will beat Sukuna, it's resurrected Megumi.

This I find hard to believe. Sukuna has already beaten Mahoraga before.

[Tactics]

Originally Posted by Mad Pierrot

I wonder if Choso can do something considering he already got defeated by Kenjaku and Yuta like nothing.

He managed to do well against Kenjaku (Geto) without DE.

Still, Uraume is there; his fight against Yuji stressed how enemy capable of lowering temperature is bad match-up for him.

Originally Posted by Shadow5YA

This might be coping, but there's a chance that Gojo won't stay dead.

Wasn't the reason why Kenjaku sealed Gojo because the last time he tried to kill the last Six Eyes holder, another one showed up in their place? Either the same thing will happen again, or Gojo will be revived.

It's not the first time Gojo died either, and his brain is still intact like when Toji killed him.

Six Eyes owner destined to protect Tengen and Star Plasma Vessel as mechanics of Tengen preservation.
As long Tengen preserved, Star Plasma Vessel and Six Eyes owner will keep returning on another individual as soon they died.

Toji broke that rules as soon he killed Riko due to his Heavenly Restriction made him anomaly for curse energy flow that allow such mechanics works.
So Six Eyes owner and Star Plasma Vessel now not necessarily need to exist on same time again unless someone on Tengen level established new barrier with same rules.
Yuki and Kenjaku aware of it, thus Yuki angry when she heard Tengen is fully aware Gojo and Riko will refuse as Shibuya Incident (rise of disaster curse) and Culling Game (Kenjaku can erect barrier with quality similar to Tengen's, both implying Tengen influence grew weaker) can be avoided if Tengen a bit more proactive.

Kenjaku decided to seal Gojo is him being careful as Tengen still alive.
Now Tengen is gone, you can see he doesn't care if Sukuna eventually kill Gojo, compare to when he told disaster curse that killing Gojo is not a wise move.

Gojo returns requires him to chose "Go North" like Buddha and we saw the chapter title is "Go South".
Unless Gege sent someone to airport capable of making Gojo change his mind, he will stay there, I guess.

[Tactics]

May he regain his spirit:
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/int...hapter/.203320

Spoiler for 239:

Focus shifted to woman with black sclera on goth-loli attire, Not!Uro.

She's running away from something, muttering Kenjaku being ridiculous as he revisit every barrier to kill all the remaining sorcerers.
Suddenly she caught by a jellyfish curse, Kenjaku revealed himself, saying by current development their only purpose is to die so he can continue to next step of his plan; further explained how he put surveillance curse on each barrier so he can pinpoint how many and who are people remains. Reggie partner (who still alive) come out from behind, saying Kenjaku is weirdo for such lengthy talk with himself, alone (the woman is dead).

Kenjaku expressed it can be helped because his friend became fewer as time passed, after all, his standard for a "friend" is someone on same skill level as him and capable to amuse him; he almost feel bad doing this because that means a lot of interesting sorcerers have to die (again) for his plan. Reggie partner told him he got enough with long-haired weirdo. Kenjaku continue to explain he decided not to went straight on the rest of Jujutsu High because awakenend Maki, Yuta's high CE pool with RCT mastery, together with Ui Ui teleportation CT might made odds not in his favor even after confirming Gojo death.

Fight between two begin, with Kenjaku explain the reason why he's doing all of this is no more than "Don't you think it interesting?"
Reggie partner pissed off by it and tell him to just look at shape of his own sh*t every morning rather than causing all this madness.

Takaba suddenly arrived, Kenjaku think he must be crazy coming here without any monitoring from Jujutsu High; as far modern sorcerers created by Culling Game, anyone except Higuruma is considered low tier to him. Kenjaku use attack that he believes will one shot Takaba ... but Takaba manage to come out clean, zero injury, confusing Kenjaku.

Takaba proceed by saying, the most exciting thing in this world is to see an entertainer take over the show.

[Kanon]

Spoiler for 239:

It was to be expected but it sucks we cut away to Kenjaku right when the big showndown between Yuji and Sukuna was about to happen.

[Mad Pierrot]

So in the end who is the final villain? We don't know much about Kenjaku but he was the one who caused more chaos in the main plot when compared with Sukuna

[Tactics]

I'm inclined to believe Final Boss will be 'something' created through merger with Tengen as we haven't see details of binding vow between Sukuna and Kenjaku.
Kenjaku idea is merging Tengen with entire CE in Japan, that means he need to backstab Sukuna sooner or later.

Narrative-wise, I think I get direction Gege headed to after talked about this with my friend just before.

At glance it looks like Sukuna and Kenjaku are overpowered villains, but if we saw the theme it kind of oversimplified them.
Sukuna and Kenjaku stance in story are being prime example of what an enlightened sorcerer is; unlike Disaster Curse that belong to Evil alignment, Sukuna and Kenjaku are Neutral as we recently see they expressed having no attachment to state of world, only desire (hedonism for Sukuna, morbid curiosity for Kenjaku) strong enough to overwhelm others.

Mahito kind of set precedent to this when he said he believed ideology is what shaped CT.
In a way you could say barrier-less DE represent ideology so strong you can impose it to real world instead of secluded area, which explained why Gojo's DE is not barrier-less despite his extreme strength. Gojo is strong but his sense of self is nowhere near Sukuna and Kenjaku, as we saw he clings to his teenager days and other people opinions about him (Geto, Nanami) rather than define himself who is he.

Right now we're at "being selfish is good", not "selflessness can prevail" yet unless Takaba prove otherwise.
Of course this also means Gojo is the only character so close to upgrade through enlightenment (choose North) until Yuji and Yuta get their morale boost.

[Shadow5YA]

To be fair, I was curious what Kenjaku was up to and whether he was going to sneak attack the main cast anyway.

[Endscape]

Originally Posted by Shadow5YA

To be fair, I was curious what Kenjaku was up to and whether he was going to sneak attack the main cast anyway.

I was actually worried about Kenjaku taking this opportunity to steal Gojo's body for himself so I'm glad that's not happening. Hazenoki brought up Kenny talking to himself again, which is a Geto habit so I wonder if that's a connection.

This Takaba fight is pretty interesting since Takaba is the joker even Kenjaku never expected to appear and could not predict which ties in to what he said to Tsukumo before.

[Tactics]

Kenjaku cannot ditch Geto body until merger.

The match up for those two so far quite interesting if you look further.

Sukuna tend to fight enemies that felt insecure about their strength.
Jogo can't believe he's strong enough to change things (he can't even imagine won against people above Yuji level), Yorozu desperately seek for an original, super unique strong CT, Gojo feared of became more distant from others if he became even stronger while Kashimo questioning what's good coming from 'the strongest' title.

Kenjaku OTOH tend to fight enemies that question his interest.
Choso and Yuki deal with morality behind his action, followed by his fixation toward CE to the point he dismiss case like Toji and Maki instead of value them as another possibility. So do with Hazenoki and Takaba. Hazenoki question morals behind his actions, followed by confronting one of potentially broken CT which he considered low tier. Takaba also add interesting point that entertainers, or comedian to be more precise for Takaba, exist but Kenjaku doesn't seem to find it entertaining compare to his grand plan as someone who play soap bubble, soccer and mahjong with Disaster Curse.

[Ka-el]

Originally Posted by Tactics

Since Gege will timed it with anime, I expected:

-> Yuji vs. Choso in anime -> Choso join the fray in manga;
-> Toji vs. Megumi in anime -> Megumi state confirmation / soul swap in manga
-> Jogo vs. Sukuna in anime -> Sukuna CT reveal in manga;

If it goes like that, high chance Higuruma will die after sealing Cleave and Dismantle with Judge Man.
Positive side, we might see Todo and Nobara again; drawback is Yuta and Maki delayed until anime reach Yuta 'cameo' and Kenjaku plan reveal.

About Nobara, she is most likely dead as when Itadori asked Megumi about her he simply looked down and Yuji closed his fists with frustration and sadness, also when he said he feared Hana could have replaced Nobara it's quite obvious that he is talking like she is actually dead.

When it comes to Todo, he is unfortunately useless by now because he will never get back his hand (Mahito changed the shape of his soul, so even if his hand gets "healed" it would be transfigured as Mahito chose to) so unless he finds a new way to get his technique back, like a new hand or a binding vow to allow him to perform it with one hand only, he can't do much but just fighting with one hand and his cursed energy.

About Kenjaku, considering the timing I guess that Yuta and Maki will go after him. Let's think about it, Yuta talked about backing up Gojo and going on the battle field to deal with Sukuna several times in the previous chapters, he was ready to go when Gojo died, same for Maki, but they didn't go there. Considering that Takaba appearing before Kenjaku should have happened while Kashimo was fighting Sukuna, I suspect that somehow thanks to him they find where Kenjaku is and maybe thanks to his strange technique he will manage to allow Yuta and Maki to get past Kenjaku surveillance system to catch him by surprise.

I have this idea because they are the best combination to fight Kenjaku since Maki can easily deal with any cursed spirit he summons, and second because of Yuta's own cursed technique. If he manages to copy Geto's technique, he could use it to stop Tengen from merging by manipulating him as well.

[Shadow5YA]

Originally Posted by Tactics

Kenjaku cannot ditch Geto body until merger.

The match up for those two so far quite interesting if you look further.

Sukuna tend to fight enemies that felt insecure about their strength.
Jogo can't believe he's strong enough to change things (he can't even imagine won against people above Yuji level), Yorozu desperately seek for an original, super unique strong CT, Gojo feared of became more distant from others if he became even stronger while Kashimo questioning what's good coming from 'the strongest' title.

Sukuna also fought Mahoraga, who doesn't have anything resembling self-esteem. I think you're just trying to create a narrative that the original author never intended.

Remember when people thought Yuji vs Sukuna was intentionally coinciding with Yuji vs Choso in the the anime, only for the manga to show Kenjaku this week instead?

[Tactics]

Originally Posted by Shadow5YA

Sukuna also fought Mahoraga, who doesn't have anything resembling self-esteem. I think you're just trying to create a narrative that the original author never intended.

Pretty sure I wrote "Tend".

Mahoraga is a shikigami, neither Curse Spirit (negative emotion manifested) or Human. You wanted flashback of insecurities for it? The summoner kind of into suicide move, so there's that, I guess?

Besides, Sukuna always consider himself as enlightened ones while we saw in latest chapter Kenjaku ego is big too.
Not to mention the series is running with decent amount of Buddhist references; if you know better of writer intention, I'd like to hear it.

Action is action, but let's not forget Yuji need morale boost from Todo to be able to stand up and confront Mahito ideals.
If author is consistent with that, then chance to defeat Sukuna and Kenjaku will never present without Yuji and Yuta able to deal with their respective opponent ideals.

[Endscape]

Originally Posted by Shadow5YA

Sukuna also fought Mahoraga, who doesn't have anything resembling self-esteem. I think you're just trying to create a narrative that the original author never intended.

Mahoraga doesn't even have a sense of self at all, much less self esteem.

The narrative that Gege is creating is pretty clear when you look at all of Sukuna's enemies thus far and how the story treats Sukuna and his ideology.

[Mad Pierrot]

Originally Posted by Tactics

If author is consistent with that, then chance to defeat Sukuna and Kenjaku will never present without Yuji and Yuta able to deal with their respective opponent ideals.

I think there lies the problem I find. Yuji barely got a break after the Shibuya to focus on something else. I mean, I don't remember Yuji ever developing a big technique to defeat Curses on his own since Mahito's defeat resulted on a team up between Yuji and Todo if I recall.

Same with Yuta didn't actually that much of a screentime in the main series. I mean, Gojo did hint that Yuta could get to his own level when he met Kenjaku but Akutami seems to be refusing to show Yuta at his full potential considering the small fight he had in the Culling Games. Whatever Yuta did in India didn't have too many explanation even in the movie but at least has potential to reveal something about him.

[Tactics]

That's one of my problem with Culling Games arc as well.

We're jumping through one action to another but we hardly see Yuji developing something new, at least new mindset.

Yuta is better on this part IMO because we knew:
1) He use curse tools to compensate new Rika lower output; 2) He raided Zenin inventory with Maki for Culling Games; 3) He have DE so the gap possibly not that far, similar to Gojo (barrier) vs. Sukuna (open); 4) He trained in Africa with Miguel who adept with curse tools and once capable to hold Gojo. So it will be an even fight unless Kenjaku vs. Takaba reveal something new that change the odds.

Possible binding vow aside, there's also Maki that immune to DE. If she help Yuta, they're good.

We did get some hints: Soul Swap (Kusakabe), Death Painting (his Piccolo arm and "I will eat anything to defeat Sukuna") and Sukuna CE as Gojo predicted before (cut on Megumi-Sukuna finger), but lack of training arc made it difficult to believe Yuji will be able to compete with this confident cannibal who once hailed as evil god, natural disaster.

[Mad Pierrot]

The only time I saw Yuta with the potential to surpass Sukuna was when he stabbed Yuji which appeared to scare the guy inside.

[Endscape]

Kenjaku already jossed that idea. Yuta had the potential to reach Gojo and Sukuna levels, but when he let go of the original Rika that went away.