Fushiguro isn't sasuke.
Okay, with that out of the way, Quick question for you: what exactly happened between this
scene here, at the beginning of the story - and this scene here at the end of the anime's
first season? - the two sequences mirror each other pretty closely.
Both times the three first years are sent to investigate a seemingly average case without
the support of any other jujutsu sorcerer, both times nobora gets taken from the room
and both times it turns out that the curse they are facing is actually a special grade
that has consumed one of sukunas fingers.
And yet everything is different.
first of all all three of them, voluntarily enter the curses domain instead of suddenly
being trapped in it.
This time it is Itadori that goes after nobora, both of them have grown stronger and together
they take out the two special grades in a very impressive manner.
These two missions are clearly set up to show the growth of our protagonists here.
And while especially itadoris difference in power and mentality is clearly visible, the
most drastic character development in this scene is without any doubt that of Fushiguro,
who doesn't run away like last time, but stands his ground, lets loose and ultimately defeats
the very same special grade that had seemed unbeatable just a few weeks earlier, all with
a maniac grin on his face.
So, what happened here?
Who is Megumi?
Why does his role as the typical rival slash deuteragonist to Itadori work so much better
than in many other stories?
And why is he so important to both sukuna and gojo?
This is the story of Megumi Fushiguro.
On the surface, Fushiguro seems to be your typical rival character.
While Itadori appears to have a light mood, is extremely extroverted and runs mostly on
emotions and instinct, Megumi seems to be the classic contrast to that.
With dark spiky hair, a quiet and calculating personality, and having gown up an orphan
due to the harsh clan system of the jujutsu world, he seems to be the classic trope of
the cool and brooding rival.
the introversion to itadoris extroversion.
The dark to itadoris light.
Fushigoru isn't sasuke.
Because, just as Itadori subverts trope after trope of your typical shouen protagonist,
fushiguro is nothing like sasuke or bakugo.
His character actually comes a lot closer to some of Togashi's characters like Kurapika
or Hiei from YuYu Hakusho.
But as always, Akutami has taken a number of successful character tropes, merged them
and made a character that is much more complex and intriguing than the sum of its parts.
As you might already have realized without some dude analyzing anime on the internet
telling you so, the central theme of fushiguro's character is that of the shadow.
As we will discuss in a second, this of course goes for his personality and character arc,
but it also directly reflects in his actual jujutsu abilities.
Megumi is a user of the Ten Shadow Technique, a rare ability inherited by the powerful Zenin
family, that allows him to control up to ten Shikinami, a type of spirit, that can be tamed
and used by a sorcerer.
The real feat of his technique however are not necessarily the Shikinami himself, though
they are his main source of power, but the fact that Megumi is able to use shadows as
a medium.
He is able to summon his creatures directly from shadows and is even capable of storing
objects or even himself within them.
We actually see him figure this feature of his technique out in real time in this scene
here. - and this is not the only time that its sukuna
who inspires him to get stronger.
I think it's clear that sukuna is not interested in Megumi for his Shikinami, but for the powers
of his shadows, and so I am sure we will see fushiguro discover new features and applications
of this ability in the future.
On top of all this, instead of being too cool and calculating for getting his hands dirty,
Megumi actually likes to fight in close combat together with his shikigami, something else
that gets him respect from Sukuna, as these sorts of powers are usually used at range
in the jujutsu world.
But unlike his jujutsu where fushiguro is able to control shadows, in terms of his character,
he carries a deep darkness within himself that controls him.
And this Shows in a number of ways.
One of the first things that immeadietly become clear when we meet fushiguro, is that just
like Itadori, he has a weird tendency for self-sacrifice.
we know that fushiguro has a trump card up his sleeve that even was a threat to sukuna,
however that card would come at the cost of fushiguros own life.
And yet the number of times we see him almost using this last resort in the first season
of the manga alone is absolutely ridiculous.
Pretty much every enemy that manages to get fushiguro in a bit of a tight spot, he considers
a worthy target to blow himself up with. and this fact highlight two other negative traits
of his quite well.
The first is, that he lacks self esteem and is extremely insecure about his own abilities.
While both gojo and sukuna clearly know that Megumi is capable of so much more, we are
talking special grade jujutsu here, Megumi himself, whenever he is challenged, tends
to just give himself up for the rest.
this makes him different from Yuji, who also likes to sacrifice himself, but only as a
last resort, after having thrown in everything, having lost limbs and riddled with wounds.
that is actually the entire point of the baseball match against the Kyoto students.
The secenes where gojo comments on him and itadori going for the homerun and Megumi sacrificing
himself for the team, are pretty straightforward metaphors for their general mindset.
The second thing megumis kamikaze attempts lay open however, go even a bit deeper.
Not only does he not believe in himself, he has absolutely no sense of self worth.
The underlying reason for this this, is fushiguro's childhood.
When he and his step sister were abandoned by his father, leaving both of them orphans,
it left a deep scar on his heart.
As a result, and frankly quite understandably, he has developed severe abandonment issues,
that make him very cautious about forming new relationships.
And yet, once these relationships are formed, he would do anything for the people he holds
dear.
Gojo plays a very interesting role here.
While we know that he technically took Megumi in and saved him from being sold to the Zenin
family, it doesn't seem like he ever played the role of a parent for fushiguro.
The relationship between them is much deeper than that of teacher and student, but not
deep enough to call it family, at least as far as we know.
And as we see from the small flashback we get, Gojo, especially in his younger years
was terrible with people.
Gojo didn’t really adopt Megumi, he scouted him as a future potential student.
He helped him because he saw that potential in him to become one of the strong allies
in the future.
His apparent lack of empathy probably just enforced megumis sene of being worthless.
Which is tragic, because Gojo clearly cares for Megumi, but was never able to show it
in a way that gave Megumi self esteem.
Instead gojo tries to push Megumi to get better with the only thing he knows, strength.
And so, even though it was a big step for gojo's character to take him in, it was not
the best one for Megumi.
Interestingly enough however, this has manifested in probably the best case scenario for Fushiguro.
Instead of hating and blaming everyone for his childhood like sasuke or trying to proof
himself or get attention from others, he has developed a truly selfless desire to save
and help those who in his eyes deserve it.
Even at the cost of his own life.
In an ironic twist then, while Itadori tries to be the ultimate selfless person for selfish
reasons, you can check my analysis on him for more on that, fushiguro due to his lack
of self-worth simply wants to be useful to others and thus is the truly altruistic one
of the two.
-
This unique dynamic becomes pretty clear in his encounter with Kamo during the exchange
event.
Kamo claims that both of them are the same.
And on the surface that may actually be true.
They are both dark haired, quiet, introverts.
They were both born outsiders.
Their parents were both people that the clan looked down on.
The Zenin and Kamo family respectively only willing To take them in because they were
born with a strong cursed technique.
They’re both strategists, who act like they’re logical, but tend to be swayed by emotions
instead.
They’re both trying to protect someone, Megumi his sister, and Kamo his mother and
both only became jujutsu sorcerers to protect these people.
So why does Megumi reject this statement by Kamo so strictly.
After all the poor guy simply wants to be understood.
The reason here is a moral one, that gives us a lot of insight into Fushiguros character.
Kamo basically argues, that as members of the big clans, they are expected to think
in terms of what is best for the family and society as a whole.
there is no room to view itadori from a personal perspective.
Sukuna is a threat and thus itadori must be eliminated for the good of all.
kamo uses this utilitarian argument and his duty to his family to justify a morally questionable
decision that he personally does not agree with.
To find acceptance within the family and within the jujutsu world, the rules must be obeyed.
Fushiguro however, despite on the surface also appearing to be someone who acts rationally
and values rules and laws, actually is a lot more like his teacher and evaluates decision
of his personal impression and gut feeling.
We see this play out pretty nicely in the very first two episodes, where Megumi even
cites the official jujutsu regulations, threatening to exorcise itadori.
And yet he had already decided all along, that he wanted to let him live, based on his
personal feelings.
And yet, while Kamo's morality is very faulty at best, Megumi's is based on a wrong assumption
just the same.
Similarly to Gon in hunter x hunter, fushiguro has a very simplified view of human morality.
He unconsciously divides people into either good or bad, black or white, worth saving
or not worth saving, all based on his personal impression of them.
Itadori and his sister are good people no matter what they do.
The prisoner Yuji wanted to save, was a bad guy.
And it's not really hard to see, why he thinks that way.
He's a teenager, that was abandoned by both parents, doesn’t really know how to survive
in the world but he has to pretend that he does because no one else is there to take
care of him.
Add onto that the fact that he was sort of forced into becoming a jujutsu sorcerer first
by his dad selling him, then by Gojo only intervening on the premise that he come to
work with him instead.
Plus, his inability to help his sister in her condition.
And since he actually is an incredibly kind and caring person at heart, this simplified
way of looking at people helps him protect himself from people leaving him again.
As a result, he tells Itadori, that he might end up saving people who will kill someone
in the future.
The irony of course is that this goes for fushiguro himself as well.
Saving Itadori has definitely lead to more death and suffering and the same might be
true for other people he sees as good as well.
He and Yuji actually have a very similar approach to the question, what does it mean to live
a good life worth living.
Both think the answer is saving people.
However, while Yuji thinks about this in terms of quantity, saving as many people as possible,
Fushiguro looks at it in terms of quality, who do I thin is worth saving.
And yet, despite this difference in perspective and despite the apparent Naruto-sasuke dynamic
between them, the relationship between itadori and fushiguro is not only a major twist on
the shonen trope, but actually the most postive aspect of the story.
Megumi and Yuji aren't rivals, they are partners.
They support each other and keep the other from falling apart under their respective
darkness.
Yes, they have contrasting personalities, and still they are the closest to each other
and understand each other the best, mostly because they have the same fixation on saving
people.
The only argument between them is right at the start of the story, due to their different
ideas on saving people but then never again.
And even then, they respect each others moral views.
After itadoris death he even hands the prisoners name tag to his mother, to honor his friends
legacy.
They push each other to grow, without ever seeing the other person as a threat.
And in direct contrast to the sasukes and bakugos of the world, instead of refusing
to acknowledge his partner, Fushiguro is the one that always readily gives validation to
Itadori and defends him.
Protecting the other is always a major drive for both of them alike, whenever they are
together.
The contrast between them, is a sort of ying and yang, as both of them complete each other
and are pretty much two sides of the same coin.
In a way their relationship is represented really nicely, by fushiguros black and white
wolf.
Just like Yuji, the white wolf dies during the cursed womb arc.
And yet, it's powers and strengths merge with the black wolf, making him stronger overall.
And similarly, Yuji and Megumi increasingly take on traits from each other as the story
progresses.
At the beginning, Megumi is cold, dispassionate, and entirely selective with his sympathies.
Yuji in contrast is warm, friendly, and willing to sympathize with almost anybody.
And yet over time, Megumi takes on more of Yujis emotional, confident and extroverted
self, while Itadori gets a grip on his emotions, becomes more calculating and is able to make
harder decisions.
In a world that has mostly provided nothing but pain and hardship for them, both make
each other better and stronger people.
And this brings us aaaall the way back to the initial question.
What happened between these two scenes with the special curses.
The answer is: Fushiguro has become amore like Itadori, and finally has the capability
to not only believe in himself, but also be more emotional and let them become a strength,
- Todo - or as Megumi puts it very thematically fitting, finally being able to spit out his
shadow.
This unusual rival relationship is one of the main reasons why jujutsu Kaiser works,
and why it feels so unique and yet familiar compared to other shounen stories.
Another really important relationship is that between Yuji and and the sorcerer who's appeal
is maybe only topped by Gojo's.
So I suggest you watch Nanami's video right here.
Thanks for watching.
Peace!