The Complexity of Dark Determination

[Music] one of my favorite tropes in anime and manga is the serious stare that a main protagonist usually has in a serious moment you know the one the one that Goku has during the Namek Saga or the one during bleach or Naruto or one piece there's a lot of examples of it out there in the anime and manga sphere and yes even in JoJo's we do have it as well dark determination first appearing in part six Stone ocean in the very first chapter it has been a staple sense to convey many emotions a protagonist or side character is feeling in any given moment giving a massive clue to the audience that [ __ ] is about to go down the chapter Andor scene is about to get crazy because they have fire in their eyes but what is dark determination why is it so different from other scenes of anime protagonist staring down their antagonist in their story what makes dark determination special within JoJo's in its most popular and well-known showing with Johnny joar gyro describes Johnny's eyes of that of a killer Johnny is prepared to throw everything away even his Humanity in pursuit of his own goals even in previous and future showings of dark determination this trend still occurs Johnny has the eyes of a killer he is immersed in this pitch black will that is his own determination for his own selfish goals These Eyes insinuate the fact that when anybody gets them they're on a path seeking to achieve their goal and nothing and I mean literally nothing not even killing another person will stop them from achieving it this stare down this look is so powerful it even makes characters regress a little bit Johnny might have some character development throughout still ball run but every time he gets these eyes there's a moment where he just reverts back to his earlier self where he's just really selfish about his goals like in the beginning of Steel ball run but after that look disappears he transforms into something much better almost like he has to step backwards so he can step forwards to reach a even greater distance we see this with Ringo actually too as well and how he has to enter this killer state in a near life or death scenario within a duel to actually progress in the true man's world overall this is how you would explain dark determination at a surface level however it's a bit more nuan and a lot more complicated than that as there are multiple levels of dark determination and to be totally honest dark in the front of this word isn't really the right way to really describe what this actually is because Johnny is not the only person that uses this a handful of other JoJo characters use it as well and not in the same way as their goals and aspirations are much more different between each other a pretty big example of this and the first example of dark determination will be Jolene Kujo and her dark determination her dark determination appears in the first chapter of stone ocean where it activates because she wants to protect Hermes from the security guards of the prison contrasting the two you can clearly see there is levels to this on one side Jolene is a very selfish character trying to protect another her dark determination is very protective while on the other side of that Johnny's is um pretty evil I'll be honest losing your Humanity in the act of killing somebody is almost teetering on jojo villain level status why that is so important is because none of the JoJo villains have Humanity they have thrown that away for their own personal goals to achieve to something higher so when Johnny a main character is teetering on that edge it is playing a pretty significant part for their character development and the story in general that's why I like dark determination so much there is a variety here it's either protecting people or you're just straight up almost borderl evil or just straight up evil in some examples now to backtrack a little bit there is another example of a character being selfless while in dark determination and that would be josuke all the moments where his eyes light up with that fire it is always trying to protect yaso from something whether that be a rock human trying to kill her or wonder ofie trying to kill her anytime she is in danger his eyes light up with that fire and will be the first one in line to protect her the way that all of these dark determinations overlap is that they are willing to kill for something whether that be a more selfless act or a more selfish act it just depends on the character as dark determination is on a spectrum ranging from needing to kill to protect somebody to whatever the [ __ ] Kato did Jesus Christ man I'm not going to start off with that case first I'm going to talk about the middle here since I've already talked about the beginning the characters in the middle are much more gray while their needs and desires are much more based on Revenge and self-growth compared to characters at the beginning and the end of the spectrum I find them a lot more interesting due to them wanting revenge and or character growth with mamuk kurai and Gyro zily it makes dark determination have this factor of what is going to happen why do these characters have these motivations now it enters this ending path for some and entering path for others in the case of Ry his dark determination eventually leads to his death versus Wonder riew or in Gyro's case thanks to him defeating Ringo and killing him he now enters the true man's world and that pathway through the rest of steelball run dark determination from this angle is actually something that makes characters develop and grow and end their stories when it's needed rather than showing how a character wants to protect in that state with Jolene or joske while those are also very important moments I find the fact that when a character develops from it a lot more interesting and this is definitely the case for me with gyro as after his dark determination he becomes a much more interesting character seeing where he's going to go at after finding the true man's world dark determination at its best is when it shows character growth it is a tool that oroi uses to show the audience where a character is potentially going to go after dark determination or even during but in more extreme cases it just shows how [ __ ] up a character actually is and of course in the true dark determination category would be characters like weather report Johnny joar Ringle rodigan and Kato and the reason why these characters are here is just because well they're just messed up all of them either literally killing this state and are villains and are teetering on that edge being Johnny here when weather report got his memory disc back and showed dark determination for the first time he just start just started killing people willy-nilly and just wanted to kill his brother and anybody in his way he's just straight up evil and of course in the case of Ringo his was a bit more complex as he needed to fight somebody with that killing intent to progress in the true man's world while it's still kind of [ __ ] up it still has a bit of meaning behind it so that's why he's in this category to be honest I don't really think I can truly dive into Ringo proper in this video because his whole thing involves the true man's world him as a character and how it affects all of Steel ball run so I just have to briefly go over it the reason why he needs it is because without that fight that fight between two people at their highest climax will not be able to let him progress further within the true man's world that's why he needs Johnny and Gyro and almost in a really weird way in a symbiotic way Johnny and Gyro need him without dark determination they will not progress this is why it's so good and why I've said it previous in this video Dark determination is a tool to be used to progress these characters that's why that stair down is so important which leads me into a character that I think represents dark determination even better than Johnny does on a writing level that being Kato and I know this might be a bit of a hot take but I genuinely do believe this while Johnny joar is a character with dark determination teetering on that edge of truly becoming bad but never actually showing great character development and just being an overall amazing character Kato higashikata is a person that fully delves into it head first while being at the end of the spectrum and being one of the darkest characters she for some reason has all the traits of the whole Spectrum she is protective and wants to care for her son Jin and see him succeed how she fits in the gray category is that she wants to do this pretty selfishly as anybody who gets in her way will have to face her wrath and the reason why she ends up in the darkest part of this spectrum is because well when [ __ ] turn sideways she goes head first in she goes to prison because of this she snuffs out the light of a young one's eyes to protect her son and make sure he succeeds in life she has the protective nature of dark determination the nature of wanting to develop as a person in the completely wrong way and wants other people to develop around it and will full send that she is a perfect example of what dark determination is I honestly really like Kato now as a person she's a terrible person but in terms of dark determination great I've already talked about Johnny in the beginning of the video but I honestly don't think he's the worst here I actually honestly truly do believe that Kato is worse than him I honestly think that Ringo is worse than him I actually think even weather is worse than him while Johnny has his moments I don't think he is the true definition of dark determination even though he shows it a lot so that leads into something I want to talk about I need to get something off my chest here the catchall term for dark determination the title of it dark determination is kind of silly for all of these characters like I've been saying I have been presenting this as a spectrum but I honestly don't think all these characters are dark determined while all these characters have the singular relating fact that they will kill for a selfless or a selfish goal once you start comparing them they really shouldn't be in the same category for example Jolene and Kato Jolene is a character who wants protect she is a Joe star she is loving she is caring she represents the joar lineage all Joe stars are good people no matter how you look at it even Johnny however when you look at Kato she is a terrible human being straight up there's there's like even though she's trying to protect her son and making him achieve something in the future she's a terrible person just straight up but I'm not going to I'm not going to sugarcoat it she's just evil trash human being so when you put these two characters in the same category I hope you're seeing my problem here I genuinely don't believe certain characters should be in this category of dark I more or see Jolene and jokke in a protective determination kind of category where they'll kill to protect but they're not doing it out of militi we're going to throw away their Humanity there's no way Jolene or juk are going to throw away their Humanity it's just not going to happen and now characters in the middle I would consider firy they have passion they want to pursue in life and that makes them determined so characters like Ry and Gyro maybe a little bit of Johnny in there too but of course the characters that kill and that are literally insane and are villains do definitely belong in the dark category as they do truly fit what dark means because dark in Japanese is Criminal these guys are evil that's what they're supposed to be representing here so characters at the beginning or that are in the middle really shouldn't be in this category of dark at least personally coming from Me overall my gripes aside I truly do love dark determination for what it is it shows characters who want to protect and love to truly show that to the other characters and the audience it sometimes shows how characters are driven for Revenge or wanting to change over the course of the story very slowly of course and in other cases just straight up show how messed up a character truly is as they are evil and truly wanting to lose their Humanity for a much different goal than our main characters this is why I feel like dark determination is one of the best things in anime and manga it's one of the best features and to be honest it's one of the best in the medium in general due to the fact there's so many different types and so many different flavors and how deep we can actually get I just love it a lot I hope I shown you that it's just not some yeah the character is not really angry and going to kill somebody it's a lot more meaningful than that than at the surface level you got to look a little bit deeper at your stuff to understand what it's truly happening well with that being said like comment share subscribe follow me on Twitter stay hydren see you the next one ladies and [Music] gentlemen

Channel: METAs

Views: 53,250

Keywords: METAs, META, Anime, Manga, Review, discussion, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, JJBA, JoJo, JoJo's, Stone Ocean, Jolyne Kujo, Araki, Hirohiko Araki, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Anime, steel ball run, jojo, jojo part 7, steel ball run anime, Dark Determination explained, Dark Determination, josuke, johnny joestar, katto, weather report, gyro, mamezuku rai, jojolion, dragon ball z, one piece, bleach

Id: crmKicw-byo

Length: 11min 51sec (711 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 27 2023