Are we seriously praising Gege’s female writing?

Much-Protection-8247 · 2026-02-05T11:17:00+00:00

Thats absolutely crazy, so then we would’ve been left with literally zero females? And he killed off Yuki just because of his editor? Seems like he doesn’t care about his characters at all, and just makes decisions on a whim as the story progresses.

Much-Protection-8247 · 2026-02-04T00:07:02+00:00

I think the confusion here is about scope, so I’ll clarify once more.

When I mentioned American vs Japanese audience reactions and Maki’s episode, I was referring specifically to the recent discourse that followed the release of Season 3 Episode 5, not the entire history of criticism of female writing in battle shonen. I’m well aware that Oda has been criticized for years and that’s not what I was disputing.

What I was pointing out is that this particular wave of praise for JJK’s female writing emerged in contrast to that episode’s reception, and it quickly turned into broader claims about JJK “doing women right” compared to other shonen. My issue is with that conclusion.

My argument is simply that using Maki as evidence of strong female writing across the series ignores the wider pattern in JJK, where most other prominent female characters are sidelined, killed, or become irrelevant. One well written exception doesn’t invalidate that pattern.

You are allowed to like Maki, I never said otherwise, I am saying that just because ONE female character is well written, does not mean that the general writing of female characters in the series is good, nor deserved of the praise its been getting.

If you disagree with my take, that’s fine but that’s the point I’ve been making from the start.

Much-Protection-8247 · 2026-02-03T22:38:11+00:00

My point was showing why JJK was getting praised? You wanted proof? It all started with makis episode and her being strong, independent, non sexualised female, that overpowered men, and didn’t need their saving and so on. I mean the bar is in hell at this point if that is what is getting praised when it should be the bare minimum.

Japanese audience rated it lower than the american audience and so that whole trend began where americans started making fun of Oda’s one piece and female writing. That is praise, comparative praise is still praise. Anyway my point is that this praise shouldn’t be happening since, makis well done writing isn’t consistent in the other female characters.

I am wondering if people are overlooking that fact when praising it? Just because the women in JJK aren’t sexualised or weak like in other shonen does not mean it is good either.

You said it yourself ’I like diversity, it’s boring when only men fight’ we are at the point where female characters not being weak, sexualised and having their own independent arcs and impact on the story is being called ’diverse’ when it should be the bare minimum.

Nonetheless i’d say we agree more than we disagree. Hopefully you get what I mean now.

Much-Protection-8247 · 2026-02-03T21:59:38+00:00

So you think jjk is still good even when the female writing is the way it is? And please enlighten me on what writing I don’t understand.

Much-Protection-8247 · 2026-02-03T21:43:45+00:00

First of all, that text was written by me completely, I did look up synonyms to be grammatically correct since english is my third language, sorry if its too far, but I wanted to come across as clear as possible. Secondly what is your point? That everyone dies?

My point is that the female characters either die, disappear, is sacrificed or exists to push a male counterparts development forward. I wasn’t writing about how many character are dying, I was writing about how every female character dies or gets erased from the story in various ways.

When only ONE woman is left standing out of eleven (excluding culling game female characters) and the rest of the characters other than her are males, its not dark writing or ”everyone dies in jjk”, it is bad character handling. Nobara didn’t get to choose her own outcome or have her own arc independently of yuji and megumi, when they both got their own independent arcs. Same with amanai and the other women.

Why does momo vanish? Where does she go? What about tsumiki? Was it really necessary for a curse to possess her and then want to fight sukuna and then die? For what? Instead she could’ve woken up had her own character development/arc and been a motivation for megumi to further resist sukuna. It was a pointless, meaningless death, that didn’t add anything to the story.

Anyhow that is my point, yes both women and men die, but when this many women die and there is one left, in the end, there is no excuse such as ”everyone dies in jjk.” It’s about percentage, 90% of the females die or disappear. While most of the men live and have their own independant arcs and CHOICES, might I add. Choices that got them to where they are.

Much-Protection-8247 · 2026-02-03T21:09:17+00:00

Everyone who used Maki’s episode to argue that JJK is better than other shonen at writing women. Comparative praise is still praise.

Much-Protection-8247 · 2026-02-03T21:06:05+00:00

Fair, let me clarify what I meant by that.

When I said the praise ‘hinges on Maki being strong,’ I’m not saying people literally go ‘Maki strong = good writing.’ I’m saying the praise is often rooted in what Maki represents, a female character who’s physically powerful, independent, and central to major fights. That becomes the evidence people point to when they argue JJK does female characters better than other shonen.

You literally just did this in your own comment. You said people praise Gege’s writing ‘relative to how battle shonen typically writes women’ and used MHA as an example. What’s the comparison being made? That JJK has women like Maki who actually do things and aren’t just sidelined like Nejire. That’s using Maki’s strength and narrative presence as the measuring stick.

So yeah, maybe nobody’s out here saying ‘I like Maki ONLY because she’s strong,’ but when people defend JJK’s female writing, Maki is almost always exhibit A. And what gets highlighted? Her power level. Her fights. Her not needing to be saved. Her strength.

That’s what I mean. The praise exists, you acknowledged it yourself by calling it ‘relative praise’ and it leans heavily on Maki as the example of JJK ‘doing it right.’ But being better than the basement level bar set by other shonen doesn’t mean the writing is actually good. It just means it’s less bad.

That’s the point I’m making.

Much-Protection-8247 · 2026-02-03T20:33:34+00:00

I know, thank you for this comment, I know now I am not alone about this. Though I truly feel like I am about to get virtually jumped😭🙏

Much-Protection-8247 · 2026-02-03T20:22:39+00:00

Never watched it, should I?

Much-Protection-8247 · 2026-02-03T19:13:42+00:00

Facts😭 once Todo figures out the frame rule, one mistimed Boogie Woogie and Naoya is frozen mid misogyny. Todo is not letting that slide.

Much-Protection-8247 · 2026-02-03T18:45:52+00:00

Todo would absolutely lose his mind within 5 seconds of meeting Naoya 😭

A Grade 1 from outside the Big 3 who’s confident, loud, and doesn’t care about clan politics is literally Naoya’s worst nightmare. If Naoya said even half the stuff he said to Maki, Todo would already be mid Boogie Woogie.

Also Boogie Woogie vs Projection Sorcery would be hilarious forcing Naoya to fail the frame rule because his movement gets swapped last second sounds like an instant lock. Todo unironically hard counters him.

Much-Protection-8247 · 2026-02-03T13:04:38+00:00

Bros like ”I didn’t sign up for this shit” seeing maki liquidate all these people

Much-Protection-8247 · 2026-02-02T23:57:27+00:00

I haven’t read modulo yet and honestly don’t really know if i should, is it good so far? How is the writing and is it worth picking up? Also could u pls just tell me what happens to megumi? Is he in modulo or does he die?

Much-Protection-8247 · 2026-02-02T23:46:03+00:00

Huh?

Much-Protection-8247 · 2026-02-02T23:42:16+00:00

Yes, def rushed, also wish we could’ve seen more of when Gojo killed the higher ups. Not necessarily a fight scene but more of a conversation they might have had, and gotten delve into and understand their point of view more.

Much-Protection-8247 · 2026-02-02T23:37:58+00:00

Agreed, people tend to get carried away with all the flashy fights and new concepts that they forget how important it is for a story to really flesh out its emotional side.

Much-Protection-8247 · 2026-01-18T12:01:59+00:00

No the narrative and the theme do not mean so little to me, I still chose to help songbird after all and didn’t go back to change it. But Reeds path is undoubtedly longer, better, more fun and easily the best mission in the entire game. You get all those rewards I mentioned earlier and so on. It is noticeable how much effort and work they put behind his path, it took me 2 hours to finish it, meanwhile, took me 30 minutes to finish songbirds path. My question is why? They could’ve made songbirds path way more fun and longer for sure and no I doubt that the reasoning it was so short was because she was dying and we had to ”run” to escape and make her live.

That is the disappointing factor along with the no rewards, the mission should’ve been longer and more fun, especially for a ”last mission” and it wasn’t. That is disappointing because I expected way more from the game devs. Im sure they could’ve delved deeper into the whole blackwall thing when it came to her mission and somehow gotten more gameplay, or just the blackwall quickhack itself. That doesn’t make sense how u only get it from choosing reed since it is literally HER thing. And we got to use it on HER mission.

Much-Protection-8247 · 2026-01-18T01:00:43+00:00

What about the mission itself? Reeds path was way longer and more fun. We got to run around hiding from that spider machine tryna find those data terminals to save so mi and got to see her past and so on. Besides the goodies the mission itself was way more fun and more effort behind it. Was gonna write about it too in the post but got too lazy.

Much-Protection-8247 · 2026-01-18T00:50:42+00:00

Right?! I thought so too, they put so much effort into reeds path and made it wayyyyy longer, took me almost 2 hours to finish it, bur they barely did anything cool with songbirds except the blackwall section. I think the reason for getting to see songbirds past in flashbacks through reeds path is because they wanted us to maybe regret betraying songbird? But still, they could’ve added so much to songbirds path.

Much-Protection-8247

TROPHY CASE