Jujutsu Kaisen

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I gave this series a very high rating and probably one of the best new series, there with chainsaw man. First off, who would like this series?

The series are for those who love hard magic systems, good world building and are willing to wait for stories to pick up. That's as spoiler free as I can give you. I would say the first few chapters of the series are very generic and is not as interesting as chainsawman. But it picks up, alot.

Escalations mainly occured in chapter 14, as we deeper look into power systems. chapter 40ish, with great chemistry between characters, and then chapter ... 70ish as we learn more about the things that went about. Additionally, the side story Tokyo Metropolitan Magic Technical School is also a good read and helps you understand the world more.

The world seems not yet vastly explored, we've only seen two schools so far and have not seen the head of different jujutsu families yet. We are not yet exposed to many potential story lines, and neither do we completely grasp the magic system (whcih definitely has hard rules) yet. Read it now, and enjoy the ride.

For those who are always on the lookout for the next big hit from Shonen Jump, they've probably been hearing about Jujutsu Kaisen, due to it selling fairly well for its early volumes and making it alive out of its first year of publishing, managing to avoid the early cancelation that kills most Jump series in half a year. But is it any good?

Story: 6.
Honestly nothing you havnt seen before. The setup feels as though its a bit cobbled together from other popular series, featuring a society dedicated to getting rid of evil spirits (Bleach), a school of talented young combatants (Boku no Hero), along ... with some generous dashes of Yu Yu Hakusho. The lack of originality is unfortunate, but the story does better when dealing with character to character interactions. It also has a good long term conflict between main character Yuuji and the demon that possesses him Sukuno, but for now, the series feels lacking in direction. It also has a very fast start, which I am always put off by in Shonen (people feel like they need to rush to exciting parts in order to avoid cancelation, but it reallyy just makes everything mean less when it happens so fast).

Art: 6.
Probably dest described as functional. You can always tell whats happening, but its just not that eye-catching or impressive. I think in a series that relies on feeling stylish, the mediocre art really hurts it. Its also damaged by running at the same time as some Jump series with much better art (Boku no Hero, Dr Stone, etc). The art is probably at its best when drawing freaky monsters This is the first serialization of the artist, so hopefully it gets better with time.

Character: 5.
Pretty glaringly a big weakness of the series. The cast is a bit smaller than most Jump series, but no one is really that interesting. Yuuji is likable, Gorou is cool, but the author has'nt done enough to really make me emotionally invest in either of them, despite them having the most screen time of any characters. The other characters are even more 2D. Mahito the villain is alright, Getou seems like he could get better over time.

Enjoyment: 6.
It was'nt bad, but it wasnt very good either. I'm honestly a little surprised it made it out of the first year, since it certainly is nowhere near the quality of the other popular long running series in Jump. There is some potential on display, but the early chapters are just not that impressive.

Overall: 6
I'm happy I read it, since I suspect it might get better over time, but the current run is mediocre.

This manga is Shounen Jump's newest supernatural story promise, after great names like Yuu Yuu Hakusho, Shaman King and Bleach you would expect that JJK would be on pair with those great stories, newsflash: it isn't.

The story starts of okay, the author seems to be holding a bit info though, he could have shared more about the world as the arcs were passing, however, on the current arc, Shibuya Incident the author starts vomiting information on you, worldbuilding, characters (their names and faces), techniques, it is just too much, it is even worst when it tries to explain how a technique works and it makes ... you feel even more confused. On the other hand, since the beginning of the story is too slow, the protagonist progression is too fast, we are shown a ranking where either sorcerers or curses are placed, you would expect that our protagonist would be of a low grade, technically he is, but he progressed so fast that he already feels too strong and to countermeasure this the author already made entry-level enemies too strong.

Character-wise they have okay personality, same old from the shounen genre, but I personally found their names hard to remember and their faces look the same to me, sometimes I rely on their hairstyles to know who is who, but when they say a name my mind becomes blank.

The art style is alright, crude and rough, the "sketchy" details makes the roughness of the art. As I said before, drawing the characters' faces don't seem to be the author strongest suit.

I started off enjoying this manga, but the current arc and the decision to pour too much information now for worldbuilding seems like a bad idea. It is rushed writting, thus bad writting, ideas are all over the place, too much info, some things mentioned once only to be remembered months later and the author expects us to be with the material fresh on our minds.

So compared to previous supernatural stories Shounen Jump had release, JJK is a huge let down because it has bad writing, rushed worldbuilding and indistinguishable character's art.

Hokuto no Ken II, Post-Varia Katekyo Hitman Reborn and Post-Arima Makibao make for a better read than Jujutsu post-Shibuya, creating the king of all "this manga should have ended ages ago," truly a feat to be remembered.

It's hard to believe the same author that did Mahito and Junpei spent 2 years having the characters explain their powers in (non-chronological order sometimes) in a slugfest of "actually I'm behind you now" "actually two weeks ago I made a pact that whenever someone is behind me, I get to be behind them now, so I'm behind you now." If Gege is asked their favorite character, they'll probably ... answer with a domain, as the characters completely were overshadowed by what powers they had and how they could use it.

A case study in what can go wrong with battle shonen about silly magical powers when the writer cares more about powers than characters and story.

I'm pretty sick while writing this so please forgive this nonsensical review.

This might be a strong take to start off with but I feel like Gege Akutami owes to give half of the credit for JJK to Kubo Tite, Masashi Kishimoto, and Studio Mappa as it feels like its strong start was owed largely to them and it felt like he had no idea what he was doing after Shibuya.

Now, onto the actual review portions. I, like many others, was introduced to JJK through the anime adaptation and there was a lot to love at the start. Although many of the elements of the ... series were very reminiscent of series like Bleach, YuYu Hakusho, and Naruto, the execution of these tropes and characters were fresh and it felt like JJK had figured out the formula for modern Shonen. Unfortunately, this did not remain the standard, because the story eventually became bogged down by subplots that never were resolved, characters who never paid off to anything, and the pacing and questionable story decisions in the second half of the series were actively were a detriment to my enjoyment of the series.

Without spoiling things too much: there are a number of characters that die suddenly after either being present or hyped up for large portions of the story. A certain important character is hyped up, but immediately loses their first onscreen battle due to their opponent somehow having the perfect counter to their powers despite never alluding to that. However, the more infamous of these events in the story is chapter 236, where a fan favorite character seems to be winning a fight, but then proceeds to get absolutely hoed off screen just because it generates shock value. I would not even have been mad at the result, but there was no explanation for why it was done the way it was. Normally, the rule of storytelling is "show, don't tell", but for some reason the author loves to "don't show, and only tell 20 chapters later". He built up characters as being arrogant and confident on screen for hundreds of chapters, but then flashed back to them being very vulnerable off screen only after they die. This leads to the "fraud" syndrome that is running rampant in the fandom, and also feels a bit like character assassination after the fact.

Other issues included walls of text, powers not really making that much sense (even for a Shonen series), oh and also killing off half the cast in Shibuya. Although there are interesting characters afterwards, the fact that JJK has such a strong start actually worked against it in the long run since I felt no incentive to become attached to any of the characters afterwards and this was compounded by the lack of payoff for any of the characters in the end.

Apologies again for the rambling, but the tldr of it is that the first half of JJK is good, but the latter half felt like the weirdest mix of decisions that were only focused on shocking the viewer with obviously very little thought put into the story consequences. It makes me sad how frustrated I became with this series in the latter half of it, and although I feel that it was an objectively bad ending to the series, it almost feels like a mercy killing and I'm glad I don't have to blow up my friends phones about how frustrating JJK is anymore.

First, one must consider that it's a weekly published shounen manga with its stereotypical flaws and pitfalls, and readers should expect that they exists here as well.

Considering that, Jujutsu Kaisen is overall a very engaging story, with great characters, great consistent themes and a fun power system.

The characters are very engaging with good narratives and arcs. But most of all, I love how so many characters parallel, mirror and contrast each other, giving each other more depth and showcasing the circle of violence, isolation and negativity that the new gen has to break.

The themes are very consistent throughout with good conclusions and are very enjoyable, ... like connection and love vs isolation, or perseverence through dark times vs getting lost in the past.

Of course it has flaws. There are some pacing/sequencing issues, some set ups and plot points are dropped, some ass puls or a lack of foreshadowing for certain events exist, and the ending is very rushed. Because it's rushed the last 5 chaptes have a weird pacing and often seem more like cliffnotes which makes it lackluster, but it ties off the themes in a satisfying manner. (Many of those same issues can be found in other weekly published shounen manga. As I said: expected flaws).

But still, despite it's flaws overall it's a fun and enjoyable manga.

I barely read two chapters of this manga and let me tell you, is the most boring, basics shonnen that I´ve ever read.

The art is bad, the enemies are bland, the plot goes nowhere, is like Naruto mixed with Bleach, mixed with Demon Slayer.

The main characters are extremely shallow, the only one that is good is Gojo.

The story is basics and bizarre at the same time.

It doesn´t help the stuff that happens later on, you know, Itadori parents and such, is so ridiculous.

But I guess for teenagers that have never opened a manga in their entire life, I can understand the ... appeal. At least it has "strong female" characters.

Jujutsu kaisen is the best modern day example of how any manga with a good premise and beginning can still fail if the author has no long term plan or storytelling skills. Each step the author takes is a misstep that leaves you annoyed and even though the story came in swinging, the author has dutifully shot himself in the foot with every step he takes, until he was left unable to move in any direction at all. Jujutsu kaisen as of the culling game arc has eliminated every single path forward, and is doomed to end in a pathetic and lame finale.

at its ... core, jujutsu kaisen is painfully average. The characters are meh, the magic system is meh, the world is meh, the fights are meh, and that would all be fine if the plot and character writing was meh as well, but that's not the case. The characters are flat cardboard cutouts that cant hold a personality, and the plot is so filled with holes and exposition chapters that I eventually started to ignore it because it was unreadable. It is lame in the worst way possible, it is boring. Even though there is action going on all the time, it's still bad because the character interactions are boring, the art choreography is boring, the art in general is boring, and nothing badass happens. I have read to the current chapter, and I feel like the whole thing is a waste of time, even thought the beginning was promising. It just goes nowhere. I usually don't regret reading manga, even bad or mediocre manga, but I definitely regret reading this because of the wasted potential.

That is the fatal flaw of jujutsu kaisen. The first time I dropped this manga was midway through shubuya incident, because I was bored out of my mind by the lame fights. Something was just not hitting. This is the only reason shonen exists, everyone is here for the hype fights, and jujutsu kaisen can not deliver. I think this is because the author does not understand how to raise stakes or conjure badass moments. I picked up this manga for one reason only. Someone told me about maki's badass moment and I was intrigued, but the chapter that was clearly intended to be a major hype moment fell completely flat. The fight was straight up bad, and the stakes didnt elevate it at all. I was completely emotionless during the whole thing, and nothing clicked. I have heard constantly about how jujutsu kaisen sets the standard for fights and I literally do not understand what they are talking about. The fights are lame and dumb, almost every single well rated battle manga blows this trash out of the water. Look at something like sakamoto days, even though the fights are more dispersed the quality is just so so much better.

Everything about jujutsu kaisen is paper thin derivative garbage. This probably would have flew 10 years ago but manga like chainsaw man jigokuraku, dandadan, sakamoto days, and even kaiju #8 show that the old standard is not passable anymore. There are so many more options for shonen manga, current or past era. Read something else.

I decided to write a review on jujutsu kaisen mainly Because of the potential I see in it and what has been shown to us readers till date. Most people say that they get a early "HunterXHunter" Vibe from reading this, but to me I felt elements from HunterXHunter,Bleach and fullmetal alchemist being combined and put in this one series. Some might consider this a stretch but you will have to read the manga to understand what I'am saying.

Story 7

The story starts of not cliche as most shounen this era do, But as we go on we start to see the impact of the early ... occurrence has on the main Character "Yuji Itadori". The story is still very young and limited mainly due to the manga having 50 chapters as of now. The powers used I the story is nothing new but the way it's being used is quite amazing.

Art 8

The Art is fantastic But sometimes following it can be a bit confusing.

Character 7

The Main Character already has his goal set and The Characters that have been showed so far all seem to be likable and the villains aren't aimlessly being evil for the sake of it, The villains in this story have a reason for being that way and they have some physiological twist to them.

Enjoyment 8

I enjoy reading this manga soo much and I always see my self coming back to re read the whole thing again.

Overall 8

Am giving it and 8 with soo little information on it?? Yes, This Manga is going to be amazing and there's no doubt in my mind that it wont be. Check It Out and Enjoy

I have too many issues with this manga to sit here and list them all, so here's the simple version.

The story is super boring. At this point in the story (chapter 250), the good guys have been fighting the bad guy for what feels like an eternity. If the bad guy wins, he's basically free to take over the world. That's pretty much the story.

The fighting is too complicated and convoluted to keep track of, and it takes forever to explain. It seems like at least one character uses some new technique or ability each chapter that takes at least half the chapter to explain. ... It's just not fun to read, or watch for that matter.

There are way too many characters. New characters get introduced left and right, and old characters get left behind with barely an explanation as to why. This means that there is basically zero character development for the vast majority of characters. Not that there's much room for development when the story has just devolved into a never ending fight.

And that's it! Just a quick side note, I did enjoy this manga up until the end of the Shibuya arc. After that, it just went downhill fast and hasn't stopped since.

I have an active dislike for shounen genre buuut JJK was something I begrudgingly admitted it was very good initially...that was until the end of Shibuya incident arc. It turned gigabad with the PubG hunger games type Tournament Arc that I can't recommend it anymore.

Without spoiling, the greatest issue by far is Gege's need to revive a character Archetype after the first instances of the archetypes get good opinions from crowd. The result is the "revivals" make new "characters" with 1:1 motivation and make for extrachromosomal plotholes. There's the Tojo type revived twice, Geto type revived once, NobaraxMegumin type revived once just to name the ... main few. It's expected when Gege claims he consulted a sTrInG theory physicist to rebrand the typical chi/mana/yokai fantasy mechanic to the convolutedcolorclusterfk of a system of cUrSes.

The motivations for the tournament arc was dubious. The antagonist sets whatever rules and the protagonist team decides to participate in it instead of focusing on reversing what happened on the Shibuya Arc. But the dumb rules are not all set by the antagonists though. The more one gets to know how "magic" works in the JJK world, the less it makes sense as to why fights have to be like old turn based Final Fantasy-esque. For example, someone "dies" but not really because the battle is not over and the equivalent of a "revive potion" can be applied by team member to resurrect him before the battle ends. Like what??

Somewhere in middle of Shibuya Arc itself, the author seems to have wanted to cash in on the endless carnage trope that titles like CSM, Dandadan etc do. The change is reminiscent of when Yu Yu Hakusho deviated from a proper story into doing tournament arcs because DBZ popularized it. I can't like this anymore because how videogamey it has become, similar to how isekais quantifies experience, whether cyber or fantasy.

The plot hasn't felt like it has moved in the last 3years. If one considers Shabooya arc's intention to enable development of supporting characters, that fix has only created more holes, more complications and more plot armor. It feels so much fillery-ish especially with new characters out of nowhere, going nowhere; that I hope JJK doesn't embrace DBZ, Naruto, Bleach and One Piece's footsteps to become a long running series. The fact how the story has often changed course abruptly tells me that the author never planned far ahead on how to close the story, which could only mean JJK will get stretched and milked down the line.

Despite its promising start, “Jujutsu Kaisen” ultimately looses its footing in the latter half of the series and is plagued with being rushed for the sake of ending it. It never fully delves into full on horror and tends to have convoluted explanations on characters special moves during fights.

The art isn’t the best of quality and unfortunately suffers from feeling rushed in the later chapters much like the story. Characters faces begin to look exactly the same and fight scenes melt into what can only be described as a rorschach test. Every couple of chapters the reader may be treated to a pleasant panel of ... a cool fighting pose or a truly horrific depiction of a monster but they’re far, few, and in between.

The story started off simple: Yuji must consume all of Sukana’s fingers while Gojo finds a way to either save or destroy Yuji in the process. At least that’s how it originally seemed. Over time the story introduces so many characters with individual stories that it eventually loses track of the main character and what the goal even was. Some storylines are either never resolved or completely rushed over by explaining it in one speech bubble. Yuji was even absent for SEVERAL chapters. He’s the main character and the reader is never given any info about his whereabouts till he randomly shows up again.

As far as characters go, they’re likable… or marketable may be a better fitting term. Each character fits a particular Shonen trope that people tend to gravitate toward. Only a very small amount of characters feel unique, but they’re either never around or killed off for the sake of shock and awe. Some characters have meaningful sacrifices where others seem to be killed for the sake of “pulling heart strings”.

Readers should enter “Jujutsu Kaisen” with caution. Be aware of fan hype. This manga does a solid job in delivering an average, fun yet convoluted story. Many may be mislead by fans who are overly excited about this manga and may end up disliking an otherwise fine Shonen manga. It’s an entertaining manga but it’s far from being a great story and continues to suffer from being rushed.

It's a disaster, where the Author is way too hung up over the worship and screen time of his antagonist character, to the point where every other character suffers from a lack of exposition and the Author's lack of understanding of his own set up systems and logical orders of how things work with Cursed Energy and Cursed Techniques.

It's hard to get behind the thinking process between the various death and revival writing decisions, this Manga also severely avoids and rejects the golden rule of "Chekhov's Gun", because sometimes fights can start, certain things are implied to be done, or there is a looming ... threat about to come just for it to be either; Forgotten and 40 chapters later quickly wrapped up, completely side lined till the end, or just the means of things getting exciting completely erased through the acts of killing characters off.

This Manga will give you the feel you are marginally smarter, and could imagine something MUCH more interesting, fun, exciting, and technically sound than whatever shit the Author stirred up. I believe whoever has written this is also was greatly aware of its target audience, and monitored them closely to intentionally "shock" them with certain writing off decisions. Anything that seems out of the ball park or you think will be explored in a cool way you can forget about because you likely will never be satisfied if you have self-respect for your intellectual standards. During the time this Manga was still continuing, rooting for any character is met with a fear that they die because of some bullshit reason, anyone else got akame ga kill flashbacks?

Either way, you could genuinely read ANYTHING more worth your time, than this where an Author is too hung up on exquisite fancy powers, or making his antagonist a unique force of nature that is like a god with the random diablos ex machina shit he can do until at least some point the author had to conclude the manga in 5 chapters and decided to just make it utterly filled with nothing but slop because the author likely achieved all he wanted to do and probably needed to just clean up a bit. I would rather eat my own shit than read a single chapter of this Manga again.

The jujutsu kaisen series is enjoyable. I could reread it and not get bored, but it is a series that feels like its not matching up to its potential. Every chapter feels like its lacking something define to it.

Story: 7

The story line is pretty good. They have a lot set up for future chapters, but it isn't something never seen. If you have read the synopsis, you could tell. Very similar to blue exorcist, but it has its own sparks that make it more enjoyable. For a series with around 100 chapters thus far though, it feels like its one big rush and sometimes ... the storyline becomes vague. They timeskip in unexpected places and you feel like you missed a chapter or two. You would also expect some of those "set up for future chapters" to come in, but its just plot holes after plot holes. However, the series has so much to give if the plot thickens. The timeskips bother me, but its not enough reason for me to stop reading.

Character: 7

There wasn't enough character interactions. One minute you meet a new character, and they time skip and become best friends. The characters are quite hollow as of now and I feel like they could all be likable characters if we could see them interact more.There is not enough insight of the mc's thoughts either. I would say the author might be focusing more on the action thriller aspect of the story, but gives up on showing the characters actually just chilling with each other. Though it would definitely benefit the story telling if we had some insight on the personal turmoil's in the characters.

Art: 9

The art is perfect for deciphering the characters emotions and the author knows how to angle the scene in a way that pulls readers into the world. I can't say its beautiful, but I like the sketchy and simple style it has as it fits the vibe of the manga.

Enjoyment: 8

It is a really enjoyable series so far. It certainly kept me reading despite all that its missing. The mc is a likable character as well. You will find that the story doesn't really revolve around just the mc either, the same way that Gon is to hunterxhutner actually.

Conclusion

There is just so much the series could become, but it hasn't gotten there yet. It will be an action packed, interesting read for you to pass the time for sure though, so don't skip out!

The thing about Jujutsu Kaiisen is that it's too convoluted for its good. The author adds unnecessary complications to drive the narrative forward—too many rules, rules that are incredibly inconsistent at worst or far-reaching at their best. What's the appeal, you may ask? It's obviously the action. People want to see characters ripping each other in halves in a cool, brutal, and deranged fashion. That's also where the edginess comes from. It is incredibly phony and on the surface, because the reasons for everything happening are extremely lackluster and one-dimensional. Some characters and moments are okay, but most of them are hollow and exist only ... so the fight can happen. This manga is very disappointing.

Jujutsu Kaisen is your typical cookie cutter shounen manga, your tropes are all present here. The character designs are cool and all but you won't really get an attachment to them. Characters die way too fast before you even have some sort of emotional connection to them, the battles are mindless and features lots of asspulls. The storytelling is whack, it's all over the place without any sense of direction at all. The power gap also isn't fun, characters just get stronger and stronger without any good reason, there's just no build up for everything on this manga, everything comes in a whim.

This was truly our Jujutsu Kaisen, huh?
Well... absolutely not.

This manga is the definition of wasted potential.
After chapter 236, the downfall of Jujutsu Kaisen began and Gege fumbled really EVERYTHING - the characters, the plot, the "art" (which looks like incredibly bad and unfinished sketches), the fights and unfortunately, even the ending. I could point out so many other aspects which made this manga abysmally bad but that's just time waste.

Lemme put it in this way: After every new chapter in the last months, I thought "Please, let it end" and thank god, it did with chapter 271. And now, let's pray that there won't be ... any sequel or "Jujutsu Kaisen Part 2" 'cause that would be even worse than this one.

Please, don't get me wrong: I'm not the average hater of this series, I even liked many parts (including the Shibuya Incident and Culling Game arc) of Jujutsu Kaisen and it had very good chances to become one of my favorites. But if, at a certain point, Gege destroys almost everything that I personally liked about this manga, then all disappointment and criticism is justified.

So, if you're looking for a good battle shonen manga which constantly maintains its level... then Jujutsu Kaisen is definitely nothing for you.

DISCLAIMER: this is less of a review and more just a mess of a ramble so read at your own risk.

the ultimate potential manga. absolutely nothing other than aura and text dumps of cool sounding shit gege throws at the wall. ok fine, there's glimpses of pretty good storytelling even under all the murk, but it's just buried too deep for it to be worth salvaging.

it wasn't always like this though. the first couple arcs weren't anything too special imo, but they did their job. hidden inventory and shibuya arc were fire despite their flaws.

everything went to shit with culling games. the second half of ... the manga completely throws away its plot, its characters and worldbuilding out of the window, choosing to focus completely on cool fights that barely matter in the series.

main character gets neglected until the final arc, deuteragonist gets hyped up only to make a puddle, and nobara is just an absolute trainwreck. dont even get me started on gojo, im not obsessed with him but even i have to say that gege absolutely fucking hates him lmao, it's one of the craziest examples of an author doing a character such a disservice because he straight up doesn't like him.

actually you know what, that just sums up jjk in general. im absolutely convinced the jjk that we knew at the start, was pushed by the editors and not gege, and thus once the series blew up he could finally get rid of the setting and characters that he just didnt give a fuck about and wrote what he truly wanted.

it's genuinely baffling how downhill this gets. but i have to say, despite all that, i still have a really twisted attachment to this series. gege does pull off some pretty cool scenes and ideas in the first half, and the memes are gold.

still though, i'll take mha and demon slayer over this ANYDAY. which is hilarious, considering jjk used to be leagues above those 2 if u asked me 2 years ago.

4/10.

-- This review has no spoilers --

The manga is very good ... I recommend it a lot, it has incredible fights and well explained and creative powers, besides having an AMAZING art. One of the only negative points of the manga is the relationship of the characters ... idk, there could be a little romance and develop the characters' friendship more, it's not so bad but I think it could be better. Other than that, it's one of the best manga I've ever read, it's still being released, but it's very good, I think the anime will be great

-- Thanks for your feedback! --

I always knew this manga was bad, but that chapter 269 that's 100% made of inane text really takes the cake... I can't even be bothered to read the final chapter, just like I can't be bothered to make a proper review. Just drop this series at whatever point you are and never come back.

Is the story unique? If it was predictable, did you enjoy it anyway because you like this genre/set-up?
Do you think the art style is fitting for the story?
Were the characters well-rounded? Did they have flaws and strengths, or were ... they unusually strong/smart/stupid?
Did the characters react to situations and events in a realistic way?
Do you think others will enjoy/dislike this series, even if you didn't? Why?