Mahito for the ask thing since you did Kenny uwu
🫡 I love the Creature so I'm more than happy to yap about it!
1. Favorite Thing About Them:
It's hard not to say everything, so I'll divide this into design points and character points.
The design is among my favorites in JJK, if not THE favorite. I love the patchwork look, and the downturned eyes on a character that's meant to be unsettling is like crack to me. The thong stitches Back around 2022-23, I actually had my hair dyed the lakeshore blue color that Mahito has. This character gives me the most insane "gender envy" for lack of better term. If I could choose to look like any character ever, I would pick Mahito (I don't like to use the word kin, but that's the closest I can get to describing how I feel about Mahito).
Character wise, I love the juxtaposition between Mahito's innate curiosity about humans and it's disgust towards them. Many aspects of the character have this sort of duality going on in different ways (if you've read the light novel chapter centered on Mahito, shoutout). The entire angle of Mahito being a sponge for knowledge regarding jujustu, much like a child and being very frivolous in nature while simultaneously being extremely intelligent and capable of so much depth (and unapologetic sadism AND masochism) beneath that veneer makes the entire character for me. Mahito's capacity for growth is what makes the character such a threat. There's also a kind of irony in the fact that the curse born from human hatred is arguably the most human curse.
That being said, I also can't deny that Kenjaku's role in essentially grooming Mahito only adds to my love for both characters, especially given how they both have this theme of curiosity around them.
The relationship between the disaster curses is worth mentioning here, too. Dagon's speech in Shibuya illustrates it rather well.
2. Least Favorite Thing About Them:
Can confidently say nothing. Mahito is a solid, effective villain. That's why so many people hate it, yet they often unfortunately fail to realize that the character drawing that strong of a reaction out of them proves the impact of Mahito's role.
3. Favorite Line:
I don't have timestamps for Mahito's quotes, apologies. Serious answers: "The most disgusting thing about humans is that there's so many of them." This is said in Shibuya, around the sealing scene I believe. This one is just painfully, blatantly true, especially when you remember that the majority of the world's issues around environmental issues, overconsumption, and scarcity of resources is because humans are severely overpopulated as a species. It's also easy to connect this to the values of the other disaster curses as well.
"You are me." The entire speech Mahito gives Yuji here. I need not expand on it, I feel it's one of the most popular quotes in the series.
"I knew that. After all, I was born of humans." Spoken right before Kenjaku vores it. One of the most perplexing lines in the series, along with the entirety of Kenny and Mahito's relationship. Assuming Mahito truly knew Kenjaku's intent, especially considering the ability to read the soul, this raises the question of why did Mahito stay and continue to be involved in the plan? There's many, many different takes on this, but I like to think Mahito's curiosity played the biggest role, alongside the fact that both sides had a common enemy despite different end goals and both were certainly aware of being used by the other to some degree. I can also see both these personalities enjoying the manipulative chess match of it all, though Mahito never stood a chance.
Silly answers:
"Hey! What did you do that for? Ugh, there aren't any spares. Why'd you have to break that one?" When Choso breaks the gamepiece at the end of season 1 after learning his brothers have been killed. In the ENG dub here, Mahito sounds like Shaggy and I cannot unhear it. (I have watched JJK in both sub and dub over a dozen times each, we don't do wars over that here)
Also "Give me your clothes." "No." From after the fight with Nanami.
"I CAN HEAR YOU JUST FINE WITHOUT YOU YELLING, ITADORI YUJI!"
4. BROTP:
Jogo, Hanami, Dagon. Any of them. Mahito may bicker with Jogo, but it feels a lot like a kid picking fun at a parent or elderly figure. It's very sweet.
5. OTP:
KenHito. Duh. I elaborated on this a bit in the Kenny post, and I think it's very clear given my words above. Groom that curse, Kenneth. There's also something to Mahito being able to shapeshift and Kenjaku having a history of dabbling in curse x human sexual experimentation (I have my own thoughts about how the Death Paintings were actually made, but I digress). The picture paints itself, doesn't it? You also have a character who craves novelty and new experiences often at the expense of others, and a character who can heal and change on demand. I know the pieces fit. Freaks.
I also don't mind NanaHito, but I'm VERY particular about it. Nanami is a bit bland on his own, and I like to see Mahito corrupt him and bring out the worst in him while twisting his humanity against him.
6. NOTP:
Mahipei? Mahito x Junpei. It's fine, I just don't personally enjoy Junpei as a character outside of his function in the plot and don't care to read much about him.
7. Random Headcanons:
We all know Mahito has rabbit symbolism, I eat that shit up. No notes. I love assigning this character prey animal traits and features.
I refer to Mahito with it/its pronouns when I write the character, but I use they/them/he/him/she/her pretty exchangably, too. It depends on the context, the AU, who I'm talking to, the audience, etc. It/its just feels the most true to the entire curse thing. Don't read too deeply into this if you know me personally.
Mahito is a brat. Is this even a headcanon if it's true?
I love the take that Mahito likes cats. In the light novel, there's a bit that describes how it follows a cat around the city as a means of direction. I love it.
I know it's fairly common, but my favorite no curses AU angles for Mahito are body modification artist AUs/any sort of morbid art/humanities take. Philosophy is also an obvious choice.
Because Mahito is a curse, and isn't human, I don't think it's right to apply human morals and philosophy to it. This also seems obvious and borderline canon to me. Mahito speaks on it different times.
Sexuality and pleasure are odd for this character. I don't think Mahito has an interest in sex, but can still feel pleasure without it being tied to sexual stimulation and reproduction, especially given that Akutami has stated Mahito has no genitals (but Choso does lmfao). Mahito's first Domain Expansion reads to me as a combination of masochistic feelings (that aid its growth) and also feels purposely written to happen after Mahito is in a state of euphoria. The entire scene feels like Mahito is experiencing an orgasm while having the shit beat out of itself. This is why I HC Mahito as both a non-sexual sadist and masochist.
Because of that, Mahito is also very clearly a thrill seeker. The type to push their own body and do insane things just to see what happens, which again fits perfectly with Kenjaku's brand of sadistic curiosity and arguably a need for control.
8. Unpopular Opinions:
Mahito is not minor coded. If you think this, you probably don't belong on my blog. Shoo shoo, now. To begin with, canonically speaking, again, Mahito is not human and human concepts do not apply to the character. Following this, Mahito's soul also reincarnates in a cycle, which obviously ties into the many Buddhist derivatives within JJK. This is explicitly stated and seen; read Modulo. Physically speaking, Mahito's body also looks like that of an adult.
I also don't agree that Mahito is dirty or smells bad. The "sewer" we see us stated in the light novel chapter to be part of a water filtration/purification plant. I'm also not sure Mahito sweats. Regardless, again, not biologically human.
9. Songs I Associate With Them:
Halloweenie IV Innards - Ashnikko; if you know the lyrics to this, it's incredibly obvious. The energy is there too.
Wake the Dead - Alice Cooper; the lyrics for this aren't as waterproof as I'd like, but an argument can be made. It feels a bit more aggressive than I'd like, but the part that says: "send me a redhead, send me a brunette, send a blonde to me; when I unwind, I'm colorblind, they're all the same to me" could be taken in the way that Mahito doesn't discriminate when killing humans. Insert the speech it gives Yuji in Shibuya.
SPECIALZ - King Gnu; An obvious pick, but the artist said that they wrote the song with Mahito in mind, and that Mahito is their favorite JJK character. If you read the lyrics, it checks out. This song applies to both Mahito and Kenjaku in that way. Something about Mahito being "one of Kenjaku's special grades" (thus, you are my special) is just. Shhdhd. Yes.
10. Favorite Pictures:
Anime:
Manga:
(I painted a jacket to have the You Are Me panel on the back)
Official Art/PhanPara:
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