*Sighs*

*redownloads twitter to scrounge around for english 253 translations*

Literally ITCHINNNGGGG for this chapter like I feel so jittery

Is this addiction?!? Should I seek help??

D GRAY MAN CH 252 SPOILERS [poll]

4 days to go y’all if u wanna reblog so we can reach as many dgm fans as possible that would be 🤌

Im dying to see which theory is the leading one rn bc i truly have NO IDEA what could happen next in this absolute madhouse wild ride of a manga!!

Now that Gege akutami has openly referenced Katsura Hoshino (author of my all time favorite manga D gray man) in Jujutsu kaisen (my current manga hyperfixation), I feel like I’m seeing some parallels between jjk and dgm. There’s some blatantly obvious ones, but also some really subtle and interesting ones as well!

To start off, you can definitely draw some comparisons between Yuuji and Allen as mcs (and maybe even yuuta a little bit). The friendly, unassuming main character who takes a while to show their true depths is a character design I find really interesting. With Allen, he gradually reveals his true personality, which is at odds with his self-presentation when he first meets people; he’s polite and friendly and kind to people he doesn’t know, but as the reader gradually learns, he’s also intensely stubborn (to the point of obsession), will cheat others when he deems it necessary, and can be a little bit of a brat (I love him). Outwardly, Yuuji has a similar friendly/outgoing nature, although he shows himself to be a frightening opponent to those who threaten his friends—yuuta even more so, arguably. I’m curious to see what more is revealed about yuuji’s past and character as the story develops! Another similarity between Allen and Yuuji is the ‘doomed to be possessed by a separate entity that lives inside them’ thing, which is an excellent segway to my next point:

The whole “everyone who works in this secret organization is doomed to die young and painfully in the name of an intangible greater good” definitely jumps out as a parallel. The shady, secretive, and definitely corrupt nature of the individuals leading the Black Order and jujutsu society both is interesting; I’d argue that the Zen’in clan’s behavior is similar to the Chan and Epstein families in the black order, although JJK explores that a little more than dgm does. In any case, Maki and Kansa definitely have the same vibe going on when they’re introduced, although I suspect where we saw Kanda opening up over the course of the series, maki will instead close off; her character development will almost be the inverse of Kanda’s, although that’s just a prediction.

I don’t in ANY way mean to accuse Gege akutami of plagiarizing or reproducing Hoshino’s work, both series are super unique and have very different trajectories, and I’m excited to see where they’ll both go! I just thought it was cool to think about how dgm might have inspired some of jjk’s features. It’s not a comparison I ever would have drawn on my own without the prompt in the most recent jjk chapter, but there are actually so many parallels when I think about it, and I LOVE the idea of my favorite manga authors getting inspo from my other favorite manga authors!! Makes me feel like I’m in on a secret :)

OP I think you hit the nail on the head with the "doomed to die young for a greater nebulous good at the command of a corrupt leadership in a hidden organization/society" comparison. I think Gege was inspired by that tragic air that is everywhere in D. Gray-man and decided to use it to explore his own themes. Doomed protagonists et al. I really haven't encountered yet a Shonen with the same atmosphere of unavoidable tragedy (at least not one that stayed in my brain this way) (mochizun doesn't count, bc it's not baked on the system in the same way, I feel).

The way the monster within has an agency and is his own character with an agenda in both Neah and Sukuna cases, compared to other Shonen manga is also something both mangakas do well. Also the stigmata-like scar around the head with kenjaku when they take over someone's body, VS the stigmata when the Noah memories awaken and takes over, that's a wink there. I mean the aesthetic fucks anyways but it's funny it's there with similar contexts of possession.

Psss. You know who Yuuta reminds me of? Not Allen, but Lenalee. The whole I'm just here fighting because my loved ones are here and I couldn't give less of a fuck over the ideology of the baddies energy they both give. Lenalee gets the damsel in distress treatment sometimes, but when she goes all out is because of the same reasons Yuuta does, and she can get as crazy as the rest of the DGM cast. But honestly, there's lot sof charas with a motivation like that, and their backstories and characters are unique to themselves so it could be a coincidence, that both authors thought of the same.

I think it's pretty amazing that Gege is fan of Hoshino, but it's not surprising in hindsight. You can see how he could have been inspired by D. Gray-man, and how he made his own thing in Jujutsu Kaisen.

PD. I loved how you got to the Maki-Kanda inverse chara development. Feels very true XD you could say that Gege treatment of romance (or lack thereof) (let's say love in general) in jjk also finds itself in the tragedy that follows in dgm. ambiguous queer charas et all.