Anime Library

Thought I'd keep a record, just for fun!

Favorites:

Natsume Yujincho/Natsume's Book of Friends

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Akatsuki no Yona/Yona of the Dawn

Soul Eater

Fully/mostly watched and enjoyed:

Ushio and Tora - FAVORITE dynamic, really like Ushio, short enough that I could finish and enjoy the whole thing without too much effort. Would even enjoy some more!

Rising of the Shield Hero - I think I finished the first season, but I'm not sure if there's more. Fun!

Owari no Seraph/Seraph of the End - vampires! possession! drama!

Bleach - One of my first ever anime! Kind of fizzled out during the drudge of vs. Arrancar fights, but I'm excited for the new season. High nostalgia value, currently reading the manga.

Dororo - lovely and dramatic

Haiku! - very low stakes and lighthearted fun

Free - fun sports anime with fun character dynamics!

Satsuriku no Tenshi/Angels of Death - this is a weird one where the show itself is actually too far into the horror/gore for me to enjoy on its own but i read quiet like a fight and that propelled me through a good chunk of it. the amount of anime I've started because of good fic might be embarrassing if I cared.

Magi - the sexism was really over my threshold but in between that i had fun

K/K Project - kind of weird but i watched the whole thing in one night and cried. Suoh is one of my favorite character types and Kenjiro Tsuda is one of my favorite VAs.

Seven Deadly Sins - definitely not on my rec list given the sexism but the dude in red (Greed?) is My Kind of Character so i skipped through a lot of it.

Partly watched and enjoyed:

Isekai Izakaya - certain shows I really love, but instead of watching them all at once, I pull out an episode whenever I'm in the mood. I pull this one out whenever I want to chill and see delicious food.

Trigun - fun, more or less the same as above! More episodic type anime usually falls under this category for me.

Tanaka-kun is Always Listless - another chill one that's firmly on my likes list even thought I haven't seen much of it

Mob Psycho 100 - REALLY liked the first season, haven't really been able to get into the second for whatever reason.

Kimetsu no Yaiba/Demon Slayer - Liked the first season! It doesn't quite have that special spark that makes me love it, but the lead is precious. I might continue.

My Hero Acadamia - I watched like until? season three? and had some kind of allergic reaction that has rendered me spectacularly indifferent. I enjoyed it at the time, though?

One Punch Man - kind of brainless fun for when I want the exact same thing repeatedly but in a funny way

Kamisama Kiss - Tomoe scratches a particular character itch for me but I keep getting frustrated by shoujo romance tropes I hate

Golden Kamuy - I really enjoyed the first season! and maybe season two, I'm not sure? I would like to finish this one sometime.

Rurouni Kenshin - the characters are a+ but some older shows are A Lot. I might try the manga instead?

Inuyasha

Lupin III - I've seen some of the movies and enjoyed them, seen some of the shows and enjoyed them! an ongoing watch

Started, might continue?

Jujutsu Kaisen - Yet Another Shounen Show, not much to differentiate it from shows like Demon Slayer, MHA, etc. Is there a genre for long-running battle-focused powerup shounen shows?

Banana Fish

Yuri!!! on Ice

Noblesse

Gintama - weird. Might try again?

Ao no Exorcist - Started looking for the brother dynamic, got thrown off by the hostility.

Bungo Stray Dogs - for some reason I find this show confusing

Blood Blockade Battlefront - same as above. It's got the right chaos vibes but something's not clicking.

The Ancient Magus' Bride - I get bothered by shows where female characters are rendered permanently delicate by circumstance or tropes (one of the things I dislike in Yona) and when it's combined with romance it can squick me really easily. This kinda walked the line? Enough that I stuck with it, and it's absolutely beautiful.

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress

Erased

PERSONA5 the Animation

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing - high on my to-watch list

Started and noped out:

REBORN! - this is one of those weird ones where I actually Really like the fic (xanxus my boy) but i Could Not get into the anime

DARLING in the FRANXX - Too Many Butts

No Game No Life - Yikes(TM)

Goblin Slayer - Yikes(TM)

Started and got bored:

The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat - Not bad, I'm just not particularly interested in the kind of isekai that's all about the lead being overpowered

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime - I lasted a lot longer watching this one, but see above! It was fun and lighthearted though, I might continue when I'm in the mood.

Sword Art Online - less bored and more baffled? I really liked the firsttttt....two? seasons? but then they kept jumping settings and I got frustrated.

Black Clover - eventually the shounen shows start to blur together and the first few episodes felt like Just More Shounen so I dropped it.

Rokka -Braves of the Six Flowers-

Fate/Zero - or at least one of the fate/ shows

Currently watching (I tend to rotate between shows):

Sabikui Bisco - LOVING it, I really like Bisco as a character

Cowboy Bepop - exactly as good as promised

Mushishi - I think this'll be another show on the chillout list. It's gorgeous and just slightly creepy in a fun way.

One Piece - I made it to fishman island, I think, and lost my stamina 😅 Thinking about picking it up again, though!

Attack on Titan - more brutal than my usual fare, but sometimes I'm just in the mood for something horrifying.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

To watch:

Way of the Househusband

Berserker, maybe?

Fire Force - It's the Soul Eater guy, I gotta try it

Kill la Kill - the amount of Sexy Outfits is A Lot but it's got that neon chaos that I adored in Promare

Gurren Lagann - same as above!

💗🌸 The Forger Family 🌸💗

shallot is the perfect descriptor and get him out of my sight plz

unrelated but here’s a determined luffy for all ur determination needs

Baron omatsuri (which i have yet to finish) really stands out to me tho bc it starts with that somewhat ominous message, just the sound of the waves with no music, and then it’s luffy, unmoving and silent, on the figurehead, and then we have a long bit of scene where it’s alternating only between two static shots - a very wide shot and the intro shot for each character, which is kinda staged more as a picture with a characterizing background than as a real indication of what they were doing, and each character is added to the wide shot but we don’t see them move, they just appear, and the dialogue is moving somewhat independently of the camera. Then Zoro calls for Luffy and it switches to luffy and stays there while nami reads, no cutting back and forth, and then we switch to a shot of luffy’s smile and segue into the ghibli-esque credits that i love a lot but are a pretty severe turn from the first series of shots.

Warning: this post contains spoilers - read only if you're on par with chapter 220

By now, it's obvious how the juxtaposition of Soul and Body in context and the manner in which they relate to one another, permeate the JJK universe.

It's a recurring theme that concept that, in my opinion, is finding its culmination with our favourite King of Curses.

This is Sukuna, or rather, what remains of his embalmed and dessicated self:

The empty shell of his body remains intact, most probably indestructible and awaiting resurrection, hence why it's been preserved for over 1000 years within cavernous depths under Tengen's potent Hida Holy mountain purification barrier.

I first hypothesised that Sukuna had resorted to an ancient practice of self-preservation, known as “Sokushinbutsu”, when this cover art was revealed roughly 3 years ago:

(If anyone's interested, I've utilised this theory in my JJK fanfic here)

Notice how in both the depictions of Sukuna display his characteristic 4 eyes, one set horizontal and the other vertical!

Body and Cursed Objects

Although they are conceptually different, the body and soul are somewhat related - and theoretically, the body is able to exist disjointly from the soul. The only exception to this, or perhaps extension, is Toji Fushiguro, who was able to over-write someone else's soul, allowing for his volition to manifest and suppress the host he was summoned into.

Interestingly enough, ancient sorcerers didn't possess the knowledge of how to incarnate, which is why they accepted Kenjaku's offer:

Kenjaku marked hundreds of non-sorcerers and made them consume cursed items in preparation for the Culling Game.

These cursed items were the remains of the sorcerers Kenjaku had made a millennium-old pact with. At the conclusion of the Shibuya Incident, Kenjaku cast Idle Transfiguration from a distance and strengthened the people he had designated as vessels.

He immediately followed up by releasing the seals on the cursed items.

This was similar to Sukuna's relationship with Yuji in that it caused a thousand evil sorcerers to reawaken in new bodies that were all meticulously chosen by the one casting the curse.

Sukuna is the sole exception, having found a way to preserve his soul outside of his body - or at least, his body as a whole:

So how did he do it? This is where it gets interesting:

Sokoshinbutsu

The symbolism in Jujutsu Kaisen is insane, Buddhist lore is nested in practically every aspect of the saga, from the naming of individual Domain Expansion to the depiction of hand seals to the characters themselves, who are imbued with the mythos of Buddhism.

And as the parallels are abundant and permeate the JJK universe, Sukuna too is a parable of certain divinatory figures.

I'm sure anyone can see the startling similarities between this relic and Sukuna's perfectly preserved shell, the attire is near identical!

This is a mummified monk, what remains of a man who practiced Shokoshinbutsu.

Numerous sokushinbutsu, or mummified remains of ascetics who adhered to a hard regimen of self-discipline to maintain their bodies in death, may be found in the Dewa mountains in Yamagata Prefecture. An authority on folk religions lifts the curtain on these enigmatic "living Buddhas."

The esoteric teachings of Shingon founder Koukai (774–835 : note that the Heian Period spans from 794 to 1185!) had an impact on the macabre custom's development.

Koukai, also known as Kobo Daishi, preached that by arduous effort, anybody might become a Buddha "in the body"—without aspire to Buddhahood after rebirth—in the current life.

This idea is known as sokushin jōbutsu.

Gege is absolutely brilliant, thematically this ancient practice ties in perfectly! There's a reference to living beyond death, divinity achieved through the body, and furthermore the profusion of mummies is linked to the worship of Mounts which have become sacred sites in Japan!

Here's a fascinating excerpt:

The most distinguished of the sennichi yamagomori involved the ascetic committing to being buried alive. In a rite called dochū nyūjō, an issei gyōnin would be placed in a specially constructed subterranean cell to continue his meditations for three years and three months, transforming at death into a sokushinbutsu.

Though this practice is considered more folklore than historical fact, it would be brilliant if Sukuna had sought out death on his own accord (and I think that's the case) within a subterranean cell, after delving into obscure occult practices in order to fracture his soul into 20 distinct slivers and channel them into his fingers that become cursed objects.

The hand seal used by Domain expansion users is shirushi (印) or mudra of various bodhisattvas. In normal practice, these seals are performed while chanting the mantra for respective Bodhisattva.

1. Jougo, Domain: Coffin of Iron Mountain (蓋棺鉄囲山 / gaikan tecchizen); seal is associated with Daikokuten.

Also known as Mahakala, or "the Great Black one", or "the Great Time", Daikokuten is originated from Shiva in Hinduism, who plays role as the destroyer of all things as per his connection to "time" (kala), whose aspects later adopted by Buddhism. In Japan, Daikokuten is one of the seven lucky gods (七福神 / shichifukujin) associated with food and wealth.

2. Gojou Satoru, Domain: Unlimited Void (無量空処 / muryoukuusho); seal is associated with Taishakuten or Sakra

Sakra means "powerful" or "mighty", and is originated from Indra. Taishakuten is often depicted as a pair with Brahma (or Bonten) as the greatest protector deities (dharmapala) of Buddhism. As Indra governs other devas in heaven, Taishakuten is also depicted to govern other 32 gods in heaven and served by the Four Heavenly Kings (四天王 / shitennou).

gojo is copying toji - the manga itself even draws attention to it and while its trying to play it iff as a joke i dont think it is

i think gojo deliberately chose to dress like toji

the only person who was able to defeat him, who was able to make him feel weak - and thus the one gojo subjectivelly sees as stronger than himelf

he is emulating toji to feel stronger

do you have any idea how crazy this makes me feel - toji made him feel powerless and now that hes in a similiar situation - the cube, sukuna, kenjaku, all the rest of the shit - he's returning back to this first experience and taking back that power