JJOCT7 R3E1 Jojolity

Judge Naruto (Logic)

While the flavor text speaks to the dark determination at the heart of his headspace, the clearest mechanical consequence of Grace’s resolve is at the end: a final rush and willingness to “take all of the hits while he faces her head on.” This is a cogent definition and reification of the Jojolity, but it doesn’t cohere with the earlier, measured approach to combat which focused on disarming and parrying. Put another way, this Jojolity thesis isn’t as integrated throughout the strategy.

The alternative is to read the rest of the strat as “resolve”, but then the lack of framing or unique mechanical decisions with respect to the jojolity raises the counterfactual question: would the strat have looked different with a different Jojolity? If the earlier mechanical play were the focus, then no—Grace’s play pattern is one they have used for each of their prior matches. There is a strong case to be made that this is “one standout instance without much else in terms of Jojolity,” but I can see some integration between the flavor text; enough to warrant a low [6].

Nat doesn’t have a singular play, but rather her overall strategy emphasizes her need to prove herself in honorable single combat; from maintaining pressure from Near Future, to narrowing the arena, to the final battle of inches, the entire strategy is built around forcing Grace into a slugfest and then using every minute advantage to overcome him. A solid [7] seems fair.

Judge Sasuke (Ceep)

Starting with Grace here, and I had a hard time seeing his version of Resolve. While he has the hard rushdown against Nat at the end, it doesn’t feel like the rest of the strategy really builds up to it consistently or clearly. The development really isn’t there in the opening two sections that I could see, and while the flavor text certainly exists as a positive mark for the Jojolity, I think that the rest is so thinly spread that I can’t give more than a 5/10 for Jojolity.

Moving onto Nat, and I think the Jojolity is fairly well developed and executed on. Insisting on a ‘fair’ fight by going directly up to Grace and popping off despite their advantages is a solid way of going about things. Nat still uses the trickery and surprise attacks she relies on as a ‘shinobi’, but now with a more micro focus it works well to sell that she seriously wants Grace to respect the scrappiness and determination she’s bringing to bear. Insisting on locking Grace and herself both down into a 1v1 is a genuinely cool visual; all in all this gets a 7/10 from me.

Judge Sakura (Alpha)

Show your resolve! I’ll show mine by finishing these before I go get my groceries~

After several minutes of deciding, I’ll present the evidence to the court as I see it.

On one side, we have Grizzly Pear, whose thesis relies on their ability to show their opponent that they can handle themself. On the other, we have Notable Ancient Disaster with a thesis based on overcoming Grizzly Pear as another obstacle- while both read similarly, they have different executions.

In the case of the former, Garden Party’s thesis is built in the way I’d expect a nine-to-five job to run. They’re here, they’re putting in the work, and they’re willing to come back to do it again tomorrow- at least, until the end. The pacing presented in the early sections is somewhat upended by the final play- taking all of the incoming attacks head-on- but it downshifts back into previous plays as an anti-closer, awkwardly tying a bow across the strategy.

In the case of the latter, Norway’s Alien Defense sets GP up as a wall, and forcefully builds every play around taking it down, and if not, scaling it to completely overcome it. There really isn’t a play out of place or a major snag in the writing to juxtapose that thought, showing good integration.

Now, with all that covered, I believe the court should give Ghibli Paramount a 5, and Noble Aristocrat’s Daughter a 7.