The landscape of Weekly Shounen Jump is changing and one of the series responsible for that change is Jujutsu Kaisen which is showing tremendous growth in popularity in it’s source and anime adaptation. Following the story of Itadori Yuji a once normal teen who becomes a voluntary cursed vessel after saving his friends and a classmate from a monster attack. Itadori learns to harness cursed energy while trying to control the cursed spirit Ryomen Sukuna who’s attached to him with the help of jujutsu sorcerers. 

Jujutsu Kaisen is a 2020 shounen anime series, it is produced by MAPAA, and licensed by Crunchyroll. It is currently streaming in English sub and dub on Crunchyroll. 

Editor’s Note: Near complete to complete spoilers for the first thirteen episodes of Jujutsu Kaisen may be present within this review.

Debuting in 2018 Jujutsu Kaisen became a fast growing series for Weekly Shounen Jump. As of February 2021 the series has sold over 30 million copies making it one of the quickest to become a best selling manga in just under two years. Itadori Yuji who’s naturally gifted in athletics is only interested in the occult and paranormal joining his school’s local club. When his friends are attacked by a curse he voluntarily becomes cursed himself to save them and is forced to join a secret organization of jujutsu sorcerers who rid the world of curses. 

THE GOOD: The series starts off with a flash forward proposing Itadori’s supposed death. Afterwards it’s his school life that takes the scene we immediately get introduced to the ideas of curses when classmate Megumi Fushiguro sees one out in a field. Itadori is relentlessly being pursued by the school’s coach for track due to his uncanny athleticism, but prefers to be in the Occult Club due to them allowing him to come and go as he pleases. He is challenged by the coach to a competition in which if he loses he’d be forced to join track. Itadori easily wins and Megumi takes note of his natural physical prowess. Itadori’s two friends from the Occult Club find an item covered in talisman and open it to find a demonic looking finger. Soon after curses begin to attack the school after hours and attack Itadori’s friends. Itadori’s grandfather dies and has him swear to live his life helping others. Megumi informs Itadori of the situation at school and teaches him about curses. He forbids Itadori from entering the school as he goes in alone to destroy the curse and attempt to save Itadori’s friends. Megumi struggles against the curse while contemplating if saving Itadori’s friends is a viable option. As they’re about to be devoured Itadori jumps through the window and saves them. Unable to kill the curse himself Itadori swallows the finger and becomes cursed by the spirit of Ryomen Sukuna; a legendary & dangerous curse that Megumi’s organization has been looking to kill. Ryomen easily kills the curse, but loses control of Itadori’s body who regained possession of it. Megumi’s teacher Satoru Gojo suddenly appears and is briefed on the situation. Satoru asks Itadori to allow Ryomen to possess him again and challenges him to a fight which he wins effortlessly before Itadori regains control again.  

Going back to the present Satoru explains that Itadori has been marked for death due to him being cursed by Ryomen. Itadori asks to wait until he eats all of Ryomen’s remaining fingers to which Satoru and his colleagues oblige. Itadori soon begins his training to become a jujutsu sorcerer after being transferred to Megumi’s school. Satoru takes Itadori & Megumi to meet Nobara Kugisaki a new jujutsu sorcerer transfer student from Japan’s countryside. Satoru task Nobara & Itadori with exorcising a curse that has a kid hostage. Nobara struggles to exorcise it when she and Itadori split up and the curse threatens the kid’s life. After Itadori interferes by punching through the wall Nobara is able to successfully kill it. Sometime later Satoru task the three student sorcerers with rescuing people from within a prison from a curse including the prisoners themselves. The prisoners end up dead and the curse is determined to be a special grade; an extremely powerful curse that mainly only pro sorcerers like Satoru can defeat. Itadori and Megumi are separated from Nobara and begin to argue about returning a prisoner’s corpse. Suddenly the curse appears stunning them. Realizing they can’t win Itadori has Megumi find Nobara so they can escape offering to be a distract until he can signal that the mission has been successful. Itadori fights the curse and gives control to Ryomen who proposes that he and the special grade curse work together. Upon noticing that the curse can’t understand his offer he kills it and demands that Itadori switches back. Ryomen is pleased to find that Itadori has lost control of his body seemingly for good and heads outside where he’s met with Megumi who’s shocked to see Ryomen. Ryomen tells Megumi that Itadori lost control and he removes his heart effectively killing him. Megumi fights Ryomen in an attempt to revive Itadori’s heart & life but is bested. Showcasing a glimpse of his potential Ryomen becomes invested in Megumi in his domain he & Itadori converse about their situation. Ryomen offers a pact with Itadori in which he’ll allow him use of his power for one minute as long as he has Ryomen in control for said minute. Itadori refuses so Ryomen challenges him to a death battle. Itadori regains control but “dies” as Megumi watches helplessly.

Megumi & Nobara mourn Itadori as they meet the second years Maki, Panda, and Toge. They reveal that an event involving the sister school in Kyoto will be held and has an impact on Megumi & Nobara’s future as sorcerers and they soon begin training. Itadori now living undergoes further training with Satoru in secret as the leaders of the organization are attempting to murder him. A man named Getou converses with sentient curses in a restaurant who are looking to reverse the status of humans and curses. Getou informs them that in order to succeed they’ll have to kill Satoru & convince Ryomen Sukuna to join them. Excited by the possibilities one of the curses Jougo kills everyone in the restaurant and attacks Satoru later that night. During their battle Satoru gets Itadori involved as a teaching moment. Satoru effortlessly defeats Jougo when he removes his blindfold revealing his true power destroying his body & only leaving his head which is still living. Jougo is saved by another curse working with Getou. During training Megumi & Nobara meet the rival second years from Kyoto one of which being Maki’s twin sister Mai & Toudou who challenges them to a spare, before it gets too bad Maki and the others stop it. A young man named Yoshino Junpei witnesses his school bullies being killed by Mahito another curse working with Getou. Junpei asks Mahito if he can train him which the latter obliges. Junpei’s bullying is explored through flashbacks as he bonds with Mahito. Itadori meets Nanami Kento; a former salaryman turned sorcerer who has history with Satoru. Junpei encounters Itadori who’s been asked to monitor him in case he becomes an enemy. They bond over movies Itadori had to watch as part of his training. Junpei’s mother invites Itadori to dinner who accepts. She is killed by a curse attracted to one of Ryomen’s fingers that was placed in Junpei’s home by Mahito. Mahito manipulates Junpei into believing the lead bully cursed him and his mother & Junpei finishes Mahito’s curse energy training.

Kento finds Mahito’s base in the sewers and fights him. Mahito has Kento on the ropes, but in reality Kento was holding back to stay in line with his routine schedule. Kento defeats Mahito releasing a curse technique and crushes him under rubble and realizing how dangerous he is he plans to exorcise him immediately upon their next meeting. Getou & Mahito seal the school with a curse barrier around Junpei’s school putting everyone but a teacher he hated and the lead bully to sleep. Junpei now with curse powers attacks the bully, but is stopped by Itadori against Kento & assistant supervisor Ijichi’s wishes. Itadori fights Junpei trying to get him to see reason and refuting Junpei’s own reasons for revenge. Itadori allows Junpei to attack him which causes him to return to his old self in regret. Mahito who was watching the fight reveals the truth about Junpei’s mother and berates him before turning him into a curse forcing him to fight Itadori again. Itadori refuses to fight back as Junpei struggles to hold on to his sense of self. Junpei soon dies as Mahito laughs enraging Itadori who thinks about the life Junpei could have had if they met earlier. Itadori states that he’s willing to throw away everything he’s become as a person to kill Mahito. Initially, Mahito is winning against him but Itadori’s rage and curse energy increases his already unnatural human strength giving him an edge. Itadori’s attacks also unintentionally effects the very shape of Mahito’s soul surprising him. Itadori’s will to kill Mahito gives him advantages in battle forcing Mahito to take it seriously. Kento arrives as back up for Itadori and the two surprise Mahito who is nearly defeated before trapping Kento in his domain. As Mahito attempts to kill Kento, Itadori breaks in stunning them both. Mahito angers Ryomen for touching his soul and he strikes him with a powerful attack. Realizing he can’t win Mahito runs away as Itadori once again swears to kill him. The teacher Junpei hates acknowledges the torture he suffered and condemns the lead bully stating they both must atone for killing Junpei’s heart. Itadori returns to the school promising to never lose again.

So with all the hype surrounding it I ultimately decided to give Jujutsu Kaisen a try out of curiosity. There’s some things I like about it mainly small in detail. For example, I love the martial arts based combat combined with energy based attacks. While that’s nothing new in shounen anime Jujutsu Kaisen from what I’ve seen kind of makes it a point to have actually martial arts in the combat for the most part. The energy based attacks aren’t even all that flashy compared to a Dragon Ball or Naruto. If you’re familiar with MAPAA they use some 3DCG here blended with the 2D. It’s not as much as in Attack on Titan season four which is good if that’s something that’ll bother you, but I really dig how good MAPPA is at blending the two styles together every time I see them do it in their work it’s nearly flawless. And I’ve mentioned in the past how I actually hated the 2D/3DCG thing. It often comes off as a cheap budget saver tactic. In regards to the characters on the surface they at times feel like one note shounen good guys. But when they really get fleshed out they’re actually a little complex who just so happen to be surrounded mostly by assholes. It’s like a reverse Always Sunny where the leads are assholes surrounded by good people who they poison & corrupt if they get anywhere near their daily lives. Nobara and Satoru are often used for comedic effect in addition to Itadori who’s the good-hearted dimwit; a shounen trope of course. However, in the Mahito arc things take a bit of a turn. It’s interesting seeing someone otherwise portrayed as caring willing to throw away his identity for the sake of revenge and even acknowledging & accepting that fact. Nobara is obsessed with living in Tokyo because she wants to be reunited with someone who was close to her that was shunned from her hometown. Megumi is interested in testing his own limits and Satoru is trying to rid the corruption going on from within the sorcerer school. The side characters have some intrigue to them two with the lore behind Maki & Mai’s beef, the sentient curses trying to increase the status quo for the curses, etc. 

THE BAD: I’m really enjoying Jujutsu Kaisen but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t feel like the anime isn’t being toned down a bit. Like there are several scenes that make you think it’s partly in the horror genre, but they don’t go all the way with it. It often seems as though the show is being toned down as if they’re trying to aim it at kids for broadcast TV which was fairly popular in the late 90s-mid 2000s. Shows like One Piece, Dragon Ball, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Naruto were effected by this. Maybe I’m just so desensitized to horror that I’m expecting something that’s not there?

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Jujutsu Kaisen is a great shounen series that showcases it’s potential in near complete display. At the same time there are instances where it feels like the anime it’s unintentionally holding itself back by often backing off a bit on some of the more horrific scenes. The series can always get darker in tone with age like most shounen do, but considering its story it is a bit puzzling as to way it would hold itself back from a darker tone unless it was trying to aim itself to a younger audience. Otaku Dome gives Jujutsu Kaisen an 80 out of 100.