Jujutsu Kaisen by Gege Akutami

 

Jujutsu Kaisen is a manga series that’s considered one of the best of the new generation and one of the top selling, with 20 million copies sold in January 2021. After reading it, I finally understood why it received so much praise. 

Summary

In the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, everyone has something called “Cursed Energy”, which arises from negative emotions. Eventually, they take form and become Curses, and these Curses (which are represented as monsters) can vary in strength. People who can control this Cursed Energy and train to use it are called Jujutsu Sorcerers.

The story revolves around high schooler Yuuji Itadori, who is grieving after his grandfather’s death. He is approached by Megumi Fushiguro, a Jujutsu Sorcerer, and informs him about a cursed object located at his school. The object is a finger of Sukuna, “the King of Curses”. In a rash decision, Yuuji consumes the finger and becomes the vessel of Sukuna. Sukuna is able to take possession of his body at times, but for the most part, Yuuji is able to control him. At this, Yuuji is brought to the Tokyo Jujutsu High School. The higher-ups believe in the execution of him due to him being the vessel of Sukuna, but compromise with a plan for Yuuji to consume all of Sukuna’s fingers before he is executed. He works alongside Megumi and many others in the world of Jujutsu and to eliminate cursed spirits.

Review

Jujutsu Kaisen is an ongoing series and currently has 17 volumes/166 chapters. The plot of Jujutsu Kaisen was so action-filled, it had me on the edge of my seat. I started reading it at night, and finished it within 5 hours. I barely left my spot while reading because I was eager to know what would happen next. Although I had some trouble understanding it, the plot was interesting enough to keep me going. It’s a quick-paced manga, but not too fast to the point where I would miss major details. One of my favorite parts about this series are the main characters. Yuuji is a strong-willed character who cares fiercely for his friends, and often considers the value of life. I think his character is really interesting and I love how the author often has him thinking about morality, especially with him being the vessel of a curse. The readers can see how much it weighs down on him, and how much he tries to do good in this dog-eat-dog system. The story is definitely a rollercoaster of emotions, though. The beginning was more lighthearted, and it escalated to be more serious later on in the series. 

However, with the good come the bad, and I do have a couple critics about the series. Although the characters are one of my favorite parts, the series tends to focus on a few characters at a time during an event, and all the other ones are sidetracked and not mentioned. There have been a couple characters who appear lots during certain points, and then they’re barely mentioned again. It’s quite frustrating at times, especially when they do that with main characters. For example, one of the main characters hasn’t been mentioned in almost 50 chapters, despite being crucial to the plot. Another complaint I have is that the whole power system the story follows is quite confusing. I understood only the gist of it, but they don’t really explain it well enough in the story. They more or less just mention the basics of cursed energy and the readers are expected to follow along and understand.

In all, I personally believe the good outweighs the bad. I had an enjoyable time reading this series and I think the concept is unique and interesting. I would definitely recommend this series to anyone who’s interested in action and suspense, but keep in mind that this is a violent story.

-Khuyen