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Do you know the hidden meaning behind Hanami being the embodiment of nature?
So, the unquestionable highlight of the first season of Jujutsu Kaisen, my favorite Anime
of the year so far, is the battle between the special grade curse Hanami and several
of the strongest sorcerer students during the invasion of Tokyo Jujutsu High.
Not only do we get some of the most stunning fighting animation I have seen in a while,
but the arc is filled with important moments of character development and growth across
the board.
But I think that in the excitement over this spectacular display of collaboration, effort
and determination by Itadori and co, the secret hero of this scene's success got ignored by
most fans.
Which is a shame, because when you take the moment to think about it, Hanami is so much
more than just another curse.
I'm gonna go so far and say that you probably didn't even realize all the symbolism united
in her character, the message akutami is sending by having the kids literally fight Mother
Nature and the fact that Hanami is more good guy than bad guy.
Oh yeah, and let's be honest, her character design and powers are just the most pleasing
mix of creepy, elegant and badass.
This is the character analysis of Hanami, the spirit of nature.
-
Number one, to get it out of the way, I am gonna call Hanami a her for reasons you'll
understand in a bit.
I don't get why this is even a thing, but people seem to be really obsessed with whether
this armored beast made of cursed energy is a guy or a girl.
It's not like curses generally have offspring or anything.
- Well that's awkward.
... Moving on!
The first time I saw Hanami, I immediately thought that this is one of the most badass
character designs I have seen in a while...because I mean!
The muscular white body the hidden arm, the helmet like head with the teeth exposed and
finally the branches for eyes, I was absolutely blown away by the design here.
And on top of that it was speaking in this eerie tongue, with a female voice by the way,
that gave it that vibe of something ancient and mystical.
Even without knowing anything about this curse, it radiated danger.
By the way, did you know that if you reverse what Hanami is saying you actually understand
what she's saying?
- Wut!?
Now the next time Hanami shoed up, I was completely startled to see her approaching Gojo, the
strongest being alive, without being noticed, use the by far most beautiful cursed technique
in the story that drains away ones will to fight, - divert Gojo's attention by attacking
Itadori and actually being able to escape with Jogo, who otherwise would have fallen
into the sorcerers hands.
I love the writing of this scene, because we get so much power-scaling and set-up.
As soon as Jogo is introduced, despite his power, he loses against Gojo, who fully demonstrates
his power.
However, that same loss is used as an opportunity to show how intelligent Hanami's way of thinking
and fighting is.
And even more than that, it shows us that these curses actually care for one another.
Hanami doesn't have to save Jogo, but she does so anyway.
- Keep this scene in mind, because it is really important to what Hanami is all about.
So at this point, Hanami was probably the most intriguing curse for me that I wanted
to see more of.
As I explained in his video, Mahito's perfectly written evil just creeps you out every time
we see him, which made me really tense and anxious every time we saw him fight.
His cruelty and childish attire make him a wonderful horror element, but his scenes are
meant to upset and not please.
Hanami on the other hand I knew I wanted to see in action.
Her character promised an immensely enjoyable and engaging fight, based on power and ability.
And oh boy did the story deliver.
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Let's get back to the best Anime fight in 2021.
-
The battle during the exchange event, both animation and plot wise, was some of the best
I have seen in anime to this point.
Finally, I saw Hanami fully express her personality and powers, that did not disappoint.
Using a variety of nature based attacks, ranging from cursed buds that suck out cursed energy,
over floating wooden balls that allow her to attack and levitate, to the manifestation
fo enormous roots, that she can summon and erase from reality, the special grade curse
was able to take on six of the school's most elite jujutsu students, rendering the majority
of them unable to fight after encountering him.
The plan I think, was pretty damn good.
Use Hanami's unique abilities to hide her presence to sneak into the arena and cause
chaos, distracting everyone enough to allow Mahito to steal Sukuna'S fingers and the cursed
wombs.
Given her wide range attacks and sturdiness, Hanami was the perfect candidate to buy time.
Once again, it took Gojo to make her retreat, badly wounded from his attack, that I'm gonna
show here, just because it's my favorite scene of the first season.
- You can be sure that Gojo was pissed that this curse manage to escape him twice already.
What I found awesome here was that, while the curses were successful in their mission,
this battle allowed many of the top students to really shine, especially Todo and Itadori.
Itadori growing immensely in his use and control of cursed energy.
And Todo, as you hopefully remember from his video, has an idealogical clash here with
Hanami.
Because Todo, while acknowledging the fleetingness of things and the importance of being once
with nature, also believes in the ability of humans to go against this and leave a lasting
impact on the world.
The reason Hanami is such a wonderful opponent for Todo and his eternal love for his new
besto friendo Yuji, is that Hanami is the embodiment of nature itself, which you think
might be trivial, but given the importance of nature in the story, what I found is that
Akutami has actually given Hanami a very unique position in the story in terms of Jujutsu
Kaisen's main take away message.
- mahito explains where they com form -
As Mahito explains here, Jogo, Hanami and Dogon are curses born from humans fear of
nature, the earth, the sea and the forest.
And yet to me it seems like Hanami, takes a bit of a special role within the curses,
as the embodiment of living things.
Mahito and Jogo want to destroy human dominance in order to live out freely in the world as
they please and rule.
They see themselves as the true humans and as the superior race.
Hanami shares that view, but has a different desire.
As a dark twist on Mother Nature,- that's why I say her, see I promised it would make
sense.
As I was was saying, as Mother Nature, Hanami seems to not only be born from humans fear
of nature, but also of nature's wrath towards humans.
Based on all her dialogues, to me it seemed pretty obvious that Akutami writes Hanami
as a physical representation of nature fighting back against all what we as a species have
done to out planet, to all the living things around us.
But isn't Hanami one of the bad guys?
Gojo actually describes Hanami's presence as almost spirit like, and I think her life
based abilities support the idea, that she is a mix between curse and spirit.
Yes, she clearly has traits of a curse, her wish to destroy humanity, her ability to suck
life from the living things around her and encouraged by Mahito, she even starts embracing
her curse nature a bit more during the fight with Todo and Yuji.
And yet on the other side of things, I'm not sure about you, but to me it never feels like
Hanami was about to kill...pretty much anyone.
The first words she speaks who Fushiguro, Kamo and Inumaki is calling them children,
as a mother would.
- Hanami, who must be very ancient indeed, until now clearly has wished to coexist with
humanity and has come to a breaking point.
Humanity is no longer bearable to nature.
However her wish is to protect, not to hurt humans.
Her name Hanami literally means cherry blossom viewing in Japan, an activity associated with
celebrating the beauty and fleetingness of nature.
And wish getting shit-faced.
But you get my point.
Up to this fight, she purposefully has covered up her left arm, that contrary to the pure
white of the rest of her body is dark black and has a much more curse-like vibe, as it
is the source of her ability to drain nature itself.
To me it looks like she clearly doesn't like to associate herself with her curse powers.
Also right here, she clearly could have seriously injured or even killed Fushiguro, but chose
to only aim for the small little phone in his hand to prevent the students form contacting
Gojo.
Hanami's only weakness on her steelyard body, are the two branches growing where eyes should
be.
These branches, symbolizing nature and its softness, are her only weakness, once again
showing the mix between spirit and curse.
I mean Jogo doesn't have a weakness like this, he has a volcano on his head.
-
And when I thought about it in the context of the story, Hanami doesn't even properly
qualify as a villain.
Without saying that she is justified in her actions, which I don't think she is, she still
has a more peaceful and noble approach to life than many of the sorceres do.
And when you think about it don't you find it interesting that the three most evil guys
in the story so far, Sukuna, Mahito and Geto are the most human ones?
Hanami, Jogo and Cuthulu are pretty much exploited for feeling emotions just as or maybe even
stronger than humans.
-
That is the hidden meaning behind Hanami's character.
In the end even the curses only serve to highlight how much we as humans can suck.
I believe that Akutami's message with Jujutsu Kaisen is 1, finding out what it means to
live a good live; 2, exploring the depth of human morality and 3, he wants you to watch
this video next.