u/Emotional-Access-542

no no no kashimo is actually the most protected character in the entire jjk fandom and i’m tired of everyone pretending he’s this unstoppable lightning god when literally every important fight he’s in ends with him getting humbled in increasingly embarrassing ways.

people really watched kashimo lose to hakari and somehow came away thinking “wow kashimo is terrifying.” HOW. the dude lost to a man whose entire battle strategy was gambling addiction and vibes. hakari was out there hitting jackpot after jackpot, laughing in his face, regenerating through everything, and kashimo STILL couldn’t secure the kill. and before people start crying “but hakari is immortal during jackpot” okay cool then maybe don’t spend the entire fight acting like you’re the apex predator if your win condition completely collapses the second someone survives longer than 4 minutes.

and i swear people rewrite the fight in their heads because they like kashimo’s aesthetic. they remember him looking cool and ignore the actual outcome. “he dominated the fight” no he DIDN’T. he had moments of advantage because his cursed energy trait is obnoxious as hell to deal with, but the second hakari adapted and started using his brain, it was wraps. kashimo literally got outplayed by WATER. this supposed ancient battle genius from the golden age got countered by middle school science fair logic. “electricity conducts through water” and suddenly the demon god of lightning is coughing up seawater.

and then people go “well he didn’t use his cursed technique.” YEAH BECAUSE HE CAN’T. i’m so tired of people acting like mba is just some normal transformation he can casually rely on. no, the move literally destroys his body. that’s not a standard ability, that’s a mutually assured destruction button. if your top-tier argument starts with “well if he sacrifices his entire existence first—” then you are ALREADY cooked.

without mba he’s not top 5. honestly without mba i don’t even think he’s top 10. people just assume he blitzes everybody because lightning = fast, but actual fights in jjk are way more nuanced than “my element is cooler than yours.” and unlike characters with broken kits or insane versatility, kashimo’s whole gameplan is basically “run forward aggressively and hope the lightning accumulation works before i get folded.”

which brings me to ryu, because i genuinely think ryu beats him and i don’t think it’s even some outrageous take.

ryu has absurd durability, absurd output, and actual sustained offense. the guy was out there trading blows with yuta and making him WORK for that win. granite blast alone is such a stupidly overwhelming attack that people underrate because it’s not flashy in the same way lightning bolts are. ryu doesn’t need complicated conditions, doesn’t need buildup, doesn’t need a one-time sacrificial transformation. he just hits insanely hard ALL THE TIME.

and i already know the counterargument. “kashimo’s lightning is sure-hit once the charge builds.” okay and what happens when ryu survives it. because unlike hakari, ryu isn’t just some reckless idiot face-tanking attacks for fun. he’s legitimately durable enough to take horrific damage and keep fighting. if kashimo can’t immediately end the fight, then suddenly he’s stuck in an extended battle against someone with higher sustained firepower and ridiculous endurance.

also can we PLEASE stop pretending kashimo is some unrivaled hand-to-hand monster. he’s good, obviously, but people talk about him like he’s out here moving like gojo on caffeine. half the reason his close combat is so dangerous is because touching him is inherently punishing due to his cursed energy trait. that’s an ability advantage, not proof he’s automatically the best martial artist in the series.

and the sukuna fight COMPLETELY destroyed the illusion for me. people hyped that confrontation for months like kashimo was finally about to prove why he was the strongest sorcerer of his era, and what actually happened? sukuna treated him like a side quest. bro showed up talking like a final boss and got turned into a philosophical discussion topic. sukuna looked more emotionally invested fighting literally anybody else.

and then the fandom acts like getting annihilated by sukuna somehow upscales him automatically. no. there’s a difference between “lost to sukuna after pushing him” and “got obliterated so fast the fandom had to start scaling his electromagnetic properties instead of the actual fight.”

that’s the thing with kashimo fans. they scale the THEORY of him. they scale the wikipedia article version of him. they scale “potentially electromagnetic phenomena” instead of the manga panels where he actually loses.

meanwhile ryu’s strengths are straightforward and tangible:

• insane cursed energy output
• ridiculous durability
• powerful ranged pressure
• no suicidal drawbacks
• consistently effective offense

kashimo’s strengths are always presented like:

• “okay so hypothetically”
• “if you calculate the charge buildup”
• “assuming mba”
• “if the opponent doesn’t know his ability”
• “if the fight goes exactly the way he wants”

like BRO.

and i’m sorry but aura scaling has done irreparable damage to this fandom. if kashimo looked like some random accountant named greg instead of a thunder demon with crazy eyes, people would rank him two tiers lower instantly. his entire reputation is carried by presentation. he talks cool, stands cool, and has lightning powers so people convince themselves he’s invincible despite the fact his actual record is basically:

• lose to hakari
• die to sukuna
• become a theoretical physics discussion afterward

meanwhile ryu’s out here built like a tank shelling entire city blocks with cursed energy lasers and somehow HE’S the underrated one?

i’m not buying the kashimo agenda anymore. the fandom took one cool old man with electricity powers and inflated him into this mythical top-tier demon when the series itself never actually treated him that way.

and what kills me is that kashimo fans always act like everyone ELSE is biased when they are genuinely operating on pure fanfiction half the time. they’ll look you dead in the eye and say “he was the strongest of his era” like that automatically means something when we know almost NOTHING about his era besides the fact everyone apparently spent their free time dying of tuberculosis at age 34. congratulations bro was farming rice field sorcerers with 2 techniques and no domain expansion. meanwhile modern sorcerers are out here surviving black flashes, domain spam, cursed spirit nukes, and literal reality-cutting slashes.

the way people talk about kashimo you’d think he walked through the culling games one-shotting everybody effortlessly, but his actual on-screen performance is basically:

• beat panda
• lose to hakari
• die to sukuna

THAT’S IT.

that is the holy trinity of kashimo feats everybody keeps trying to stretch into top 5 material.

and i’m sorry but beating panda is NOT the flex people think it is. every time someone brings that fight up like “look how brutal kashimo was” okay??? congratulations he beat a stuffed animal having an identity crisis. and even THEN people ignore the fact panda actually made him work harder than expected because they only remember the dramatic panels.

and another thing: kashimo fans are OBSESSED with speed scaling in a way that genuinely needs to be studied. every discussion turns into “well electromagnetic waves are technically—” STOP. STOP TURNING EVERY DEBATE INTO A COMMUNITY COLLEGE PHYSICS LECTURE. this is the same series where a comedian can warp reality because he thinks something is funny enough. gege is not sitting there calculating electron behavior frame by frame while drawing these fights.

people saw one explanation about electrical phenomena and started acting like kashimo transcends the manga itself. meanwhile the actual manga portrayal is just “really dangerous lightning guy.” that’s it. not “untouchable omnipotent god of speed.” if he was REALLY that absurdly fast and unstoppable then why was hakari still boxing with him for so long? why was sukuna treating him like warmup stretches?

and don’t even get me started on the “he forced sukuna to transform” argument because that one drives me insane. people present it like kashimo pushed sukuna to some unimaginable limit when in reality sukuna was already coming out of the gojo fight looking like he had fought through all nine circles of hell. bro had been hollow purple’d, domain-clashed, brain-fried, black flash’d, and generally tortured for like 15 chapters straight. kashimo essentially pulled up after the raid boss already had six health bars deleted and went “nah i’d win.”

then immediately died.

and the fandom STILL tried to spin it into a positive.

that’s when i realized aura scaling has completely consumed jjk discourse. because if another character had that exact sequence happen, people would clown them forever. imagine if ino pulled up after gojo died talking about “i’ve waited for this” and then got vaporized in five minutes. nobody would be calling him top 5 afterward. but because kashimo has lightning powers and speaks like an ancient warrior philosopher, people treat every loss like it secretly proves he’s stronger somehow.

and i swear nobody benefits more from “offscreen imagination scaling.” people are constantly talking about what kashimo COULD do instead of what he DID do. “well theoretically his cursed energy properties could bypass—” okay but DID they. “well mba probably allows him to—” yeah and then he DIED before showing half of it.

his fans basically built an entire character out of unfinished sentences and assumptions.

meanwhile ryu is standing right there with some of the most straightforwardly impressive combat showings in the series and people barely talk about him because he doesn’t have the same edgy mythical aura. the dude was tanking hits from yuta and rika while firing granite blasts like artillery shells and somehow people still act like he’s just “that sendai guy.” if ryu had white hair and talked about loneliness every chapter this fandom would rank him above kenjaku by now.

and the funniest part is that ryu’s whole mentality actually works BETTER in jjk fights than kashimo’s. kashimo fights like someone addicted to proving a point. ryu fights like a guy who genuinely understands overwhelming force solves most problems. there’s a reason ryu consistently feels dangerous every second he’s onscreen. with kashimo there’s always this underlying sense that if his initial pressure doesn’t work, things start getting shaky REAL fast.

because once people survive the lightning gimmick, what’s left?
really good cqc.
high aggression.
strong cursed energy trait.

which is GOOD. that’s undeniably strong. but people treat it like it automatically places him in this untouchable upper echelon when jjk is full of characters with absurd hax, domains, versatility, and regeneration.

like are we seriously pretending he’s above characters with actual domain expansions just because he can punch hard with electricity? domain expansion is literally the pinnacle of jujutsu and kashimo’s answer to not having one is basically “trust me bro i’m built different.”

and YES i know the inevitable response is “he never needed a domain because he kills people before they can use one.” according to WHO??? the kashimo fan association?? because the strongest modern sorcerers are absolutely surviving long enough to expand domains against him. especially when hakari already proved you can weather his offense if you have enough endurance and adaptability.

that fight was supposed to elevate kashimo and somehow it did the exact opposite for me. because the more it went on, the more he started feeling like a character who relies heavily on momentum and intimidation. once someone isn’t scared of him anymore, suddenly he looks way less invincible.

hakari literally spent half the fight grinning at him like he was at an amusement park.

that should END the “kashimo is an unstoppable demon” narrative permanently.

and honestly i think THAT’S the root of the entire problem with kashimo discourse. people keep treating him like the manga promised us some transcendent monster when the actual story consistently shows someone who falls short the second he runs into genuinely elite opposition.

because look at the pattern:

• he overwhelms weaker opponents through sheer aggression and cursed energy traits
• he builds momentum fast
• he LOOKS dominant for stretches of fights
• and then eventually he runs into someone who can actually endure him and suddenly the cracks start showing everywhere

that’s literally what happened against hakari.

and the funniest part is how people selectively remember only the portions of the fight where kashimo had control. they remember the lightning bolts, the brutality, the damage, all the dramatic panels — but conveniently forget the ending where hakari literally outlasts him through adaptation and strategy. jjk fans will watch somebody LOSE and then somehow use the first half of the fight to argue they secretly won morally.

like no.
the entire point of jjk combat is adaptability.

it doesn’t matter if you start strong if your opponent figures you out and survives long enough to turn the fight around. and hakari did EXACTLY that. once he understood how kashimo operated, the entire “unstoppable lightning demon” image started falling apart. suddenly kashimo wasn’t this invincible apex predator anymore; he was a guy getting dragged into unfavorable situations because his opponent refused to die.

and that’s another thing nobody wants to admit: kashimo’s mentality actively hurts him in high-level fights.

he fights like someone obsessed with proving superiority immediately. he wants domination. he wants overwhelming victory. but against top-tier opponents, that mindset becomes a liability because jjk fights are rarely clean or straightforward. the strongest sorcerers adapt constantly, abuse matchups, manipulate terrain, hide information, use binding vows, exploit psychology, and weaponize every possible advantage.

kashimo’s answer to all of that is basically:
“i’ll kill them before it matters.”

which sounds intimidating until it DOESN’T work.

then what?

because once someone survives long enough to force adjustments out of him, he starts looking way less overwhelming than the fandom pretends he is. hakari proved that. sukuna proved that even harder.

and the sukuna fight honestly exposed the gap in the most brutal way possible. people spent months hyping that matchup like kashimo had been secretly waiting centuries to reveal why he was truly built different, and instead the entire fight felt like the manga itself telling readers:
“yeah this guy was never on THAT level.”

sukuna barely treated him like a real obstacle. there was no sense of desperation, no major turning point, no feeling that kashimo fundamentally threatened him. the entire encounter read like a man indulging another fighter’s ego before putting him down.

and somehow people came OUT of that saying kashimo was validated.

i genuinely do not understand it.

if anything, the fight confirmed exactly what his critics had been saying the whole time:
without mba he’s not competing with the highest tier,
and with mba he literally destroys himself for temporary power that still isn’t enough.

that is not a broken character.
that is a character with a giant built-in ceiling.

and i swear nobody else gets this much benefit of the doubt from the fandom. if another character had:

• no domain
• a suicidal trump card
• a major loss to hakari
• and an instant death against sukuna

people would NEVER stop clowning them.

but with kashimo there’s always another excuse.
“well if the matchup was different”
“well if he used mba earlier”
“well if sukuna was weaker”
“well if the opponent didn’t know his ability”
“well if—”

BROTHER EVERY CHARACTER LOOKS BETTER IF YOU START REMOVING THEIR LOSSES THROUGH HYPOTHETICALS.

and that’s why the ryu comparison annoys me so much, because ryu’s strengths are actually concrete and repeatable. there’s no mystery box around him. no “potentially.” no hidden theoretical scaling branch. the manga shows you exactly what he is:
a ridiculously durable heavy hitter with overwhelming output and relentless ranged pressure.

simple.
effective.
consistent.

he doesn’t need fans writing essays about electromagnetic theory to justify his placement.

and honestly, ryu’s fighting style translates way better into prolonged high-level combat than people admit. everybody gets hypnotized by burst damage and forgets that sustained offense matters massively in jjk. if you can continuously pressure opponents with absurd output while tanking damage in return, you are automatically dangerous against almost anybody.

that’s why ryu pushed yuta so hard.
that’s why his presence in sendai felt overwhelming.
that’s why his attacks actually felt like battlefield-changing threats instead of conditional burst setups.

meanwhile kashimo discussions always revolve around ideal circumstances:
“if he builds charge”
“if he lands enough hits”
“if mba is active”
“if the opponent can’t counter”
“if the fight stays close range”

at some point people need to realize that constantly requiring perfect conditions is NOT evidence of superiority.

and honestly? the more i think about it, the more kashimo feels like a character whose reputation was permanently inflated by anticipation. people spent so long imagining what he MIGHT do that they never fully adjusted once the manga actually showed his limits.

because the reality is:
he wasn’t the final challenger to sukuna.
he wasn’t the hidden strongest.
he wasn’t secretly above the established top tiers.

he was a strong battle maniac who spent his life searching for overwhelming strength and ultimately died the same way he lived:
running headfirst into opponents beyond him and losing.

and the more you actually sit down and compare kashimo to the upper tier of jjk characters, the more ridiculous the “top 5” claims start sounding.

because okay, let’s go down the list honestly.

gojo? obviously not.
sukuna? obviously not.
kenjaku? absolutely not.
yuta? i genuinely don’t see how kashimo consistently wins that matchup at all.
yorozu? probably beats him too honestly.
yuji CURRENTLY? people are gonna get mad but there’s a real argument there now.
and then you still have characters like maki, toji, and yuki floating around depending on interpretation.

that is already WAY too many characters for someone who supposedly sits comfortably in top 5 discussions.

and the yuta matchup especially exposes how weird kashimo scaling gets. people always reduce the fight to “lightning blitz gg” while completely ignoring that yuta is basically built to survive chaotic matchups. absurd cursed energy reserves, rct, insane adaptability, rika, copied techniques, domain expansion, ranged pressure, close combat skill — the dude is literally a walking toolbox.

meanwhile kashimo’s entire gameplan is hyper-aggression and burst damage.

and i’m sorry but against someone like yuta, that is NOT enough to guarantee victory. if anything, yuta feels like a nightmare matchup for him specifically because the longer the fight goes, the more options yuta has available. kashimo thrives when fights stay straightforward and momentum-based. yuta turns fights into increasingly complicated problem-solving contests.

and i already know someone’s gonna go “well kashimo can kill him before domain.” based on WHAT. jjk fans say “before domain” like domains take twelve business days to activate. high-level sorcerers are not just standing there waiting politely while kashimo charges up lightning hits.

and don’t even get me started on kenjaku because that matchup is borderline disrespectful to kashimo. kenjaku is exactly the kind of fighter that exposes straightforward combat monsters. absurd intelligence, countless cursed techniques, domain expansion, centuries of experience, insane versatility, barrier mastery — kashimo would be trying to force a direct slugfest while kenjaku is already ten steps ahead manipulating the entire battlefield.

people forget jjk isn’t purely about raw combat stats. strategy matters MASSIVELY. information matters. adaptability matters. and kashimo honestly feels comparatively limited once you start putting him next to characters whose kits are absurdly layered.

like genuinely what is he doing against yorozu’s perfect sphere if she gets domain off first? what’s the answer there besides “hopefully he kills her before she uses it,” which is basically the answer kashimo fans give for EVERYTHING.

that’s the hidden weakness of his scaling.
his fans rely on hypothetical early-fight dominance because his long-game options are nowhere near as impressive as the actual elite-tier characters.

and honestly i think current yuji might straight up beat him now and people are NOT ready for that conversation.

because current yuji is basically engineered to survive monsters. absurd physicals, insane endurance, black flash consistency, shrine techniques, soul damage interactions, ridiculous pain tolerance, rapid growth during combat — yuji at this point feels terrifying specifically because he keeps functioning through things that should end fights.

which is EXACTLY the type of opponent kashimo struggles with most.

hakari already showed us what happens when someone refuses to collapse under the pressure immediately. now imagine that same dynamic except the opponent also hits like a truck and keeps evolving mid-fight.

and before people scream “lightning one-shots,” okay maybe.
or maybe yuji tanks enough to keep fighting like he’s done repeatedly against characters trying significantly harder to kill him than kashimo ever did.

because another thing nobody acknowledges is that kashimo’s actual kill record against relevant top fighters is… kind of nonexistent.

people TALK about him like he’s this unstoppable executioner but who has he actually put down at the highest level? because the strongest opponents he fought both survived him long enough to either beat him or obliterate him.

that matters.

and then there’s maki and toji, which people get weirdly defensive about too. i’m not saying they definitely win every time, but acting like kashimo automatically folds heavenly restriction users is insane. those two are basically built to terrorize straightforward fighters. absurd speed, absurd physicality, insane senses, weapon mastery, battlefield awareness — they thrive in chaotic close-range combat.

and unlike normal sorcerers, they don’t operate within standard cursed energy expectations, which already makes matchups against them weird and unpredictable.

plus let’s be honest: if toji had kashimo’s exact feats, nobody would be calling him top 5 off that resume alone. the standards change completely depending on the character.

and yuki is another one where i genuinely don’t understand the confidence from kashimo fans. star rage is absolutely disgusting. one clean hit from her can completely alter the fight instantly. she has rct, insane destructive force, domain expansion implications, garuda support — but again, the answer always becomes:
“well kashimo kills her before that.”

EVERY SINGLE TIME.

that’s how you know the agenda is shaky. because when every matchup argument boils down to “he wins before the other character can use their abilities,” you are basically admitting his matchup spread becomes way worse in extended fights.

which is funny because jjk top tiers are SPECIFICALLY the characters most capable of surviving early pressure and adapting.

and that’s really what separates the true monsters from characters like kashimo. gojo, sukuna, kenjaku, yuta — these people can completely reshape the flow of combat itself. they have layers upon layers of options. they can fight reactively, proactively, strategically, unpredictably.

kashimo fights like a spear.
extremely dangerous in one direction.
but still fundamentally linear compared to the absolute highest tier fighters.

and another thing that drives me insane is how people talk about kashimo like he exists outside the normal rules of jjk matchups. every other character gets their weaknesses dissected constantly, but the second you point out a flaw in kashimo’s kit everybody suddenly starts acting like matchup discussions themselves are unfair.

“well if he gets close it’s over.”
okay.
and if he DOESN’T?

because jjk is full of characters specifically designed to make close-range domination difficult.

uro is a perfect example. i almost NEVER see people talk honestly about that matchup because it completely ruins the fantasy of kashimo just sprinting at people and exploding them instantly. sky manipulation is unbelievably annoying for someone like him to deal with. distorted space, redirected attacks, altered trajectories — kashimo’s entire aggressive rhythm gets disrupted immediately. and unlike hakari, uro isn’t standing there willingly eating punches to the face for fun. she actively forces opponents into awkward engagements.

but every conversation about it becomes:
“well kashimo is faster.”

that is not a real argument anymore.
jjk fans think speed solves literally every interaction.

if speed was all that mattered, naoya would’ve become god emperor of the universe.

and speaking of naoya, people also MASSIVELY underrate how dangerous projection sorcery is against straightforward fighters. curse naoya especially becomes a nightmare for someone like kashimo because now the fight is dictated by movement patterns and frame rules instead of pure pressure. but again, kashimo fans just default to “lightning gg” as if every character politely stands still waiting to get electrocuted.

that’s the biggest issue with his fanbase honestly:
they simplify every matchup in his favor while making every matchup against him infinitely complicated.

against other characters:
“kashimo blitzes.”
“kashimo one-shots.”
“kashimo overwhelms.”

against kashimo:
“well you have to consider the environmental factors, cursed energy interaction, charge accumulation speed, opponent knowledge, battle conditions, psychological state, electromagnetic application—”

BROTHER WHY DOES THIS MAN REQUIRE DLC PATCH NOTES TO EXPLAIN EVERY FIGHT.

and then there’s the domain issue, which people dance around constantly because deep down everybody knows it’s a gigantic problem. jjk repeatedly hammers home that domain expansion is the pinnacle of jujutsu combat. it is THE defining advantage at the highest level. and kashimo’s response to this entire system mechanic is basically:
“nah i’ll just punch harder.”

i’m sorry but that’s not convincing against actual elite sorcerers.

especially because domains aren’t just “big attacks.” they force scenarios. they alter rules. they create guaranteed pressure. and against somebody whose entire fighting style depends on maintaining momentum manually, that becomes a huge issue.

people love saying “he kills them before they domain” because they KNOW the second a proper domain comes out, discussions get ugly fast.

imagine kashimo trapped in yuta’s domain while dealing with copied techniques.
imagine him inside yorozu’s.
imagine him dealing with mahito’s if soul interaction applies properly.
imagine kenjaku layering cursed spirits and barrier techniques everywhere.

the answer from fans is always some variation of:
“well he wouldn’t let it happen.”

that is not analysis.
that is prayer.

and honestly, mahito is another matchup people avoid because it’s uncomfortable for the agenda. i know everybody hates discussing soul interactions because they get messy, but if we’re being serious, what exactly is kashimo doing against someone who fundamentally attacks the soul itself while reshaping their body constantly? because unlike hakari, mahito actually BENEFITS from prolonged chaotic close-range combat.

and before somebody says “he speed blitzes mahito,” yuji specifically countered mahito because of soul interaction mechanics. not because he simply punched harder than everybody else. jjk consistently emphasizes compatibility and technique interaction over simplistic “stronger = wins” logic, but whenever kashimo enters the conversation suddenly people start scaling like it’s dragon ball again.

and honestly? i think part of the reason the fandom got so attached to him is because he represents a very simple kind of strength. direct violence. direct pressure. direct aggression. it’s easy to visualize. easy to hype up. easier than explaining barrier techniques or conceptual cursed abilities.

but simple does not automatically mean superior.

there’s a reason the actual highest-tier fighters in jjk are monsters specifically because of how many layers they operate on simultaneously.

gojo isn’t broken just because he hits hard.
sukuna isn’t terrifying just because of raw power.
kenjaku isn’t dangerous because of physical stats.
yuta isn’t top tier because he punches good.

they dominate because they have depth.
multiple win conditions.
adaptability.
battlefield control.
versatility.

kashimo’s entire philosophy is basically:
“run at opponent harder than before.”

and once somebody survives that initial storm, the gap between him and the true top tiers becomes REALLY noticeable.

that’s why the hakari fight is so important no matter how hard fans try to downplay it. because hakari exposed the exact blueprint for dealing with kashimo:
survive.
adapt.
drag the fight out.
force him into uncomfortable situations.
break his momentum.

and suddenly the terrifying lightning monster starts looking way more mortal.

people hate admitting this because they want him to be this unstoppable ancient demon, but hakari fundamentally disproved the myth. not through overwhelming strength, but through endurance and adaptability. he weathered the pressure long enough for kashimo’s limitations to surface naturally.

and honestly? that fight aged WORSE for kashimo over time, not better.

because the more the series emphasized strategy, domains, versatility, and adaptability among top tiers, the more obvious it became that kashimo’s toolkit is comparatively narrow. dangerous? yes. oppressive in direct combat? yes. but there’s a ceiling there that people refuse to acknowledge.

and what kills me is the way people use mba in debates like it magically erases every weakness.

“mba kashimo beats—”
NO.
STOP.

the move literally kills him.

that drawback matters.
that is not a cosmetic downside.

imagine if every powerscaling discussion about might guy ignored the fact that the eighth gate kills him afterward. people would rightfully call that dishonest. but with kashimo, fans treat self-destruction like a fun little footnote instead of a catastrophic limitation.

and the funniest part is that even AFTER using mba, he STILL didn’t justify the insane hype people built around him. that’s the part everybody conveniently skips over. if mba kashimo had genuinely pushed sukuna to extremes, maybe the propaganda would make more sense.

but that’s not what happened.

instead we got a fight that basically served as narrative confirmation that kashimo had spent centuries chasing a level of strength he could never actually reach.

which is GOOD storytelling, by the way.
it works perfectly for his character arc.
his obsession with proving himself through battle ends with him realizing there are heights he fundamentally cannot attain.

but powerscalers saw that and somehow interpreted it as:
“secretly top 3.”

like WHAT manga are people reading.

and honestly the “strongest of his era” title might be one of the most overrated statements in the entire fandom. eras matter. context matters. the strength of opposition matters. if anything, modern jjk sorcery is absurdly stacked compared to most periods we hear about.

being the strongest in your era does not automatically mean you transcend everyone else forever. especially when your documented achievements against actual modern top tiers are:

• losing to hakari
• dying to sukuna

and i swear people treat “ancient sorcerer” like it automatically grants +50 power levels. half these old-era sorcerers showed up in the culling games and immediately got folded by teenagers with emotional problems.

meanwhile current yuji is out here chaining black flashes like he’s trying to break a world record, yuta has enough cursed energy to power a small country, maki became a walking natural disaster, and higuruma learned domain amplification in like twelve minutes.

but somehow kashimo is still the chosen one because lightning.

and don’t even get me started on the “battle iq” discussions because those are pure comedy at this point. every intelligent thing kashimo does gets treated like proof he’s some tactical genius while every mistake gets ignored entirely.

the same man who:

• refused to use his trump card against hakari
• got baited into unfavorable terrain
• charged directly at sukuna
• centered his entire existence around fighting stronger opponents until dying

is somehow presented as this flawless combat mastermind.

meanwhile characters like todo literally reinvent the structure of fights mid-battle through raw tactical brilliance and somehow get less intellectual hype than “electricity man punches aggressively.”

and i think the biggest proof that the fandom overrates kashimo is this:
people spend more time arguing about what he COULD hypothetically do than what he ACTUALLY accomplished.

that almost never happens with genuinely undeniable top tiers.

nobody needs forty paragraphs of electromagnetic theory to explain why gojo is terrifying.
nobody needs speculative essays to justify sukuna.
nobody needs “if conditions are perfect” arguments for kenjaku.

their dominance is obvious from the manga itself.

with kashimo, the agenda survives almost entirely through extrapolation, assumptions, and vibes.

how do you go from blitzing yuji/choso and ragdolling maki to getting tagged by fucking kamo?

yea hes a bigger target but come on now. kamo?

remember they shat on kashimo for the same thing