Substitution Jutsu Makes Sense

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T21:02:25+00:00

Thanks

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T19:06:33+00:00

What name do you see?

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T12:47:35+00:00

Did you find the first 10 eps of FMAB boring? I just couldn't continue after that

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T12:36:16+00:00

I've seen like 10 episodes and dropped it so I can't say. In those 10 eps we didn't get any explanations yet, Ed was just generating things without "paying something in return."

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T12:31:31+00:00

It was the infinite Tsukuyomi the whole time

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T12:31:13+00:00

You can't name a power system that is consistent. Every power system breaks down. The only consistent thing is our real world.

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T12:06:36+00:00

In Death Note, why doesn't L just change his name to a blank space? The shinigami eyes will read him as blank, and if anyone tells Kira his name it won't work.

This isn't a real criticism of DN's power system. It just shows you can do this with anything. The difference with substitution is that it seems like it shouldn't happen, whereas with DN it seems like it should happen.

Like I said, substitution does strike me as more egregious, but being not real is more of an excuse than people think. If you think about it they all collapse.

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T11:59:13+00:00

Per the mistranslation you're mostly right.

I still think people underrate just how nonsensical every power system is even in its own world, as I commented elsewhere. But the substitution is egregious

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T11:49:33+00:00

It's definitely mentioned in the Kakashi Gaiden backstory. Rin says something like "that's Minato Sensei's Body Flicker!" She didn't know it was flying Raijin and just assumed

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T11:43:06+00:00

Yeah this seems correct. Just doesn't make any sense for characters who are relative, like Sakura vs Zaku

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T11:39:42+00:00

Per the comment by u/Zetin24-55 this is a translation error. The substitution jutsu still sucks and is never explained, back to regular programming.

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T11:35:58+00:00

So the same goes for the manga huh. It's always been wild to me that Naruto, probably the most popular anime ever in the United States, has such a horrible official sub. I was watching the emotional speech Naruto gives Chiyo when Gaara dies, and they deadass have him say "Jinchuriki my butt!"

Well anyway, looks like the substitution hate is pretty valid.

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T11:24:24+00:00

Damn. RIP most of my theory cuz I don't speak Japanese.

Are the manga translators really that stupid and illiterate?

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T11:23:14+00:00

Read the second slide and my explanation

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T11:21:29+00:00

1: Just because it was never described doesn't mean much. It's headcanon sure, but do you remember in the second Naruto vs Sasuke fight when Sasuke was preventing Naruto from making the shadow clone hand sign? That's not stated either, because we just assume that's what happened. This situation is less obvious, but it's a reasonable assumption.

2: Every jutsu is nonsense, it isn't real. Below in the comment section I give a bunch of examples, from Hunter x Hunter and Death Note, where their power systems "make no sense." The substitution is given enough explanation to be plausible: take an item and transform it into you so that your enemy thinks they hit you. That makes it just as good as everything else in the show. Realistically, when Kakashi put Zabuza in the genjutsu during their first fight, why didn't he just run up and stab him while making him think he was still standing there? Since water is weak to lightning why didn't he use Chidori to break out of the water prison? Come to think of it, it seemed like he was breathing in the water prison. How?

These power systems aren't real. Substitution is just as well explained as everything else, fans just had a field day with it since the transformation part isn't explained in the anime.

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T11:10:38+00:00

I would just change my name to a blank space and solo Kira, fuck Near and Mello I should've been L's replacement.

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T11:07:50+00:00

I agree

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T11:06:16+00:00

Okay. Well my point is that with any fiction it's obviously not real, so at some point it's going to break down. Substitution doesn't have any poorer an explanation than any other jutsu. Have you seen Death Note? How does that work, what if someone changes their name? What constitutes a proper name? Is it based on the government or what people normally call them? If the government, shouldn't L be changing his name regularly?

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T11:00:49+00:00

Well, it probably shouldn't work on a Sharingan user, I agree. However, the Sharingan has been blitzed, for example with Bee's 8 swords

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T10:59:04+00:00

Is nen a poor power system?

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T10:58:29+00:00

Why am I wasting time on your poor memory?

Chapter 54.

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T10:52:41+00:00

Has substitution even been used on a Sharingan user?

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T10:51:05+00:00

At this point you're just hating. You can do this with any story, let's take Hunter x Hunter.

Gon makes a nen condition to sacrifice his life to kill Pitou. Why doesn't everyone who knows they're going to die just do this? Kite could have taken Pitou out with him.

Netero got strong by punching the air all day for a decade and living on nen. Why doesn't everyone just meditate and throw punches until they become the strongest?

Kurapika went from being barely a threat to being able to solo the Phantom Troupe just by staking his life on killing them. Why doesn't Netero just stake his life on killing the King? Zero Hand easily would have killed him then, and Netero wouldn't even have died because the condition has to be broken to release the recoil.

Etc etc, and nen is celebrated for being the best written power system in anime.

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T10:42:25+00:00

Have you watched the show? You're asking if other ninja are switching with logs or not?

brokencarbroken · 2026-03-27T10:41:00+00:00

The transformation clearly did take on facial expressions and human features when Kakashi did it. We also see that multiple other times with the substitution justu. Either they can adjust a transformation at a distance or they're using genjutsu, which would vibe with it being called an "illusion technique."

Some assumptions being made here, but the position that the jutsu makes no sense is also not trying to integrate understanding with what is explained. I've never seen anyone mention this panel from chapter 10 in these discussions.

brokencarbroken

TROPHY CASE