Yuji Is Still the Main Character...Right?

is Yuji still the main character of jjk don't get me wrong Yuji is one of my favorite characters he's funny he has cool fights and he's contributed to a lot of jjk's popularity but as a manga reader I can't help feeling like he's kind of been sidelined between the anime all about Gojo right now and the manga all about Gojo it's kind of easy to forget that yuji's even the main character naturally it makes you wonder whether Yuji is really that good of a main character now while I would argue he is and I will explain why later in the video you can't get there without addressing the obvious problems the most obvious being that for the most part Yuji isn't really a driving force of the story by that I mean that Yuji is a mostly reactive character granted there is no one definitive standard for a good protagonist but one of the many common ways people talk about them is whether they're active or reactive to illustrate what I mean let's use one of the most common examples of this topic especially considering it's often compared to and has many parallels to jjk in Bleach people used to label ichugo as a bad protagonist because he is a reactive character whereas someone like Luffy goes out into the world and puts the events of the plot into action Ichigo often finds himself at the receiving end of the plot the plot happens to him rather than him actively driving the plot of course people change their perspective on this as the Thousand-Year blood War returned and it became cool to like bleach again but this was never a problem even when the plot happens to Ichigo he still drives the plot it is ultimately ichigo's decisions and actions that drive the story of bleach meanwhile this isn't always the case in jjk the story starts out with Yuji eating one of sukuna's fingers so in that sense it is ultimately a result of yuji's actions but for the most part when you are reading jjk it never really feels like Yuji is the one driving the plot after the first Arc you have the next Arc where yuji's team is assigned missions to exercise cursed Spirits in both missions Yuji is just doing what he's told he has moments where his personality stands out like when he tries to save people but he's not driving the plot especially towards the end when he's just training and Gojo is doing all of the fighting which is going to be a recurring theme so just keep that in mind we see things change for Yuji in the versus mahito Arc this is one of yuji's best arcs because it shows him going out of his way to help Jim pay and it's his actions that contribute to the tragic downfall of jumpei as well as the rise of mahito as a villain then we have the Goodwill event not a bad Arc for Yuji but in this Arc he's really just one of many players in this event and of course what happens when he gets one of the most important fights in this Arc he gets totally robbed by Gojo and that's pretty much the trend when it comes to Yuji he'll have the occasional Arc where he really shines but for the most part his big opportunities are usually overshadowed by other characters which isn't a bad thing per se as you can see with a character like Ichigo but the difference here is that whereas Ichigo is ultimately the one who resolves the plot Yuji rarely seems to be the one resolving anything in fact it's more often the case that someone else especially Gojo is doing that at best he's resolving the plot along with other characters who are just as important evidently it's hard to say that Yuji is the driving force of the story so then if he's not the one driving the plot one would wonder what else he could possibly offer as the main character thankfully he makes up for this by offering one of the most important character arcs in the story but before I explain why that is make sure to like the video if you're enjoying it so far it's the easiest way to support the channel and it helps spread the video to other viewers like you now I'm not going to say yuji's Arc is the single most important because you could argue the same is true for Mega me Maki or even toji but yuji's is one of the most important because it is so representative of jjk in the beginning Yuji is given a very clear setup before his grandfather passes he tells Yuji to help people before that he wasn't really doing anything with his natural strength he didn't have any desire to really use it which is partly why he didn't want to play sports so this changes when his grandfather passes and he's given the choice to join Jujutsu High suddenly he's motivated to use his talent to help people now of course this motivation evolves as Yuji goes on missions and he's forced to overcome one traumatic event after another one of the biggest ones being when he watches junpai turn into a curse Spirit he dies right in front of him and there's nothing Yuji can really do about it this contributes to the evolution of Yuji as a character as he goes from seeing himself as a hero to doubting that perspective more and more this reaches its peak in Shibuya when Yuji and mahito have their rematch at this point it should be clear that there will be spoilers going forward anyway Yuji and mahito have their rematch and like usual Yuji is forced to watch even more traumatic deaths at one point mahito calls out Yuji for acting like a hero claiming that humans and cursed Spirits are no different then as Yuji gains the advantage in the fight he says that mahito is right he claims that he isn't a hero that fights with meaning his role is simply to fight cursed Spirits plain and simple we which is Illustrated in the next panel where their fight is parallel to a wolf hunting its prey this is why yuji's character Arc is so representative of jjk the sorcerers are not heroes in fact a lot of them are genuinely garbage people the more you get into jjk the more you see that the sorcerers are just the opposing Force to curse Spirits they're more like cleaners than they are heroes and nobody helps us to see that better than Yuji so in that sense he is an incredible main character even though he's not the most active character he is the best example of jjk and what it's about and yet while Yuji is one of the most important characters to jjk in this regard he still feels like one of its least important characters akutami has admitted that they made Gojo too strong and while I disagree that this makes Gojo a bad character you can't help but agree that jjk kinda turns into the Gojo show pretty quickly Gojo is the one to fight sukuna when he takes over Yuji but we'll give him that one Gojo is the one to fight Joe logo when Yuji is training funny enough it's when Yuji finally gets involved that jogo is able to slip away when Gojo steps out of the plot this is when Yuji is really able to shine as the main character then in Goodwill Yuji gets a solid final fight but that fight and Arc are ultimately resolved by Gojo Yuji shines somewhat in the next Arc is non-existent in Gojo's past then we get to Shibuya The Arc where the whole point is to seal Gojo an arc where Yuji grows as a character but he is one of many players ironically Shibuya is a great point for Yuji as the main character because as soon as Gojo is taken out of the story he's able to evolve as a character and take on more of the spotlight in the arc following Shibuya Yuji is forced to answer for his actions and has to work with the other characters to form a team that can win the culling games then in the colon games Yuji is one of the many players but there are moments where he continues to grow and then Gojo shows up and now all of this is gone and jjk has become the Gojo show once again as soon as sukuna switches over to Megami and Gojo returns now the story is All About these two and Yuji is just another character on the sidelines we're in the middle of one of the most important fights in the story and its main character is literally on the sidelines just like good luck man it makes it hard to invest in anything Yuji is doing because you know that it's just gonna get handed to Gojo and it makes you wonder if there's even a place for him in the current story now to that I have two responses first and foremost it's obviously still early to be calling the end of jjk this fight isn't over yet so it's a bit early to claim that Gojo is resolving everything on his own for all we know Gojo is gonna lose in fact all of the signs right now suggest that Gojo will lose in one way or another so there's the fact that Gojo won't be winning this as easily as he usually does meaning there will still be plot points left for Yuji to resolve following this fight secondly even if this isn't the case Yuji has still more or less fulfilled his role as the main character of jjk Yuji is our Gateway into the world of jjk not only does he represent the morally gray characters of this world but he also allows us to project ourselves into it he doesn't have the same lineage as the zening clan or the satoro clan he doesn't have any special abilities other than his raw power at the end of the day he's a regular Meathead who has launched into this world against his will so he functions as the perfect Gateway into this world of Jujutsu sorcery is he the most important character not at all but he's a great character with a lot of growth who despite sharing the same stage as Gojo serves his role as a solid main character but maybe you disagree maybe you think Yuji is actually a bad main character what do you think of his role in jjk share your thoughts and see what everyone else has to say down in the comments I'll pick my favorite and share it as comment of the week on my community Tab and if you'd like another jjk discussion this one then make sure to check out my recent video on Gojo in that video I explain why Gojo is a fan favorite of jjk you can find that video in the playlist linked right here until then thank you for watching and I hope to hear from you soon foreign

Channel: Shonen Ouji

Views: 104,076

Keywords: jujutsu kaisen, jjk, jujutsu kaisen season 2, yuji, itadori yuji, jujutsu kaisen main character, jujutsu kaisen protagonist, is yuji a good main character, yuji analysis, yuji is still the main character right, shonen ouji, jujutsu kaisen season 2 op, jujutsu kaisen season 2 review, jujutsu kaisen season 2 reaction, jujutsu kaisen manga, jujutsu kaisen ending, gojo vs sukuna, jujutsu kaisen final arc, broken ronin, chainsaw man

Id: 54Dz46Qztjc

Length: 9min 22sec (562 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 15 2023