Jujutsu Kaisen is a fusion of Naruto, with its teen protagonists with incredible abilities, and Bleach, where the protagonists face off against potent spiritual entities with vast magical/spiritual powers. The series is a midway point between Naruto and Bleach, and this is not a bad place to be for an anime.
The protagonists are older teens, so you don’t have to hear Naruto shouting how he is going to be Hokage every three episodes. Yet, you don’t have to immediately despair every time you see a new Hollow, thinking the world is about to end and your favorite member of the Bleach lineup may be about to bite the dust.
I truly enjoy this anime, filled with bold ideas. It rewrites the conversations about demonic existence (cursed spirits and cursed spirit energy), not as a parallel universe of near-divine beings tasked with the punishment of human souls, but as a psychological effluvia given shape and form. The idea that cursed spirit energy is generated from human frailty and that ultimately the worst of those demonic beings have come to dominate the landscape of the world because of how we see ourselves.
I think of the truly powerful cursed spirits like billionaires whose money allows them to flaunt the rules of the world the rest of us have to obey.
The series features, mostly through his manipulations of his students, Satoru Gojo, who is one of the main protagonists of the Jujutsu Kaisen series. He is a special grade jujutsu sorcerer and is widely recognized as the strongest in the world. However, his incredible abilities are hidden behind a mask of indolence and indifference, generally used to disguise both his power and his involvement in battling against the formation of special grade cursed entities.
Synopsis
A high school student finds himself in a world of curses and sorcery in this anime from the dynamic, multimillion-selling manga by Gege Akutami.
Author
Gege Akutami (a pen name). ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’ is his most well-known manga (2018–present) — and is serialized in Shueisha’s Weekly Sh?nen Jump.
Pros
- Simple but solid story and easy-to-follow characterizations
- Good character designs, both for the heroes and the villains
- Dynamic and visually satisfying fight sequences
- Great depictions of their curse power and technique paradigm
Cons
- Dark and more than occasionally dipping into body horror
- Feels a little lean to me, but having grown up from an earlier era of anime, this streamlining means the story moves fast and stays dynamic, so this is not truly a con, just me complaining because I want MORE side stories
The series creates a premise in which periods in time have created powerful cursed energy users, either spirits or humans who are upset with the status quo and choose to use their abilities to harm, destroy, or subjugate humans without the power to utilize cursed energy or the techniques which channel that power into feats of superhuman strength, agility, durability, or various forms of energy projection and manipulation.
Satoru is the pride of the Gojo Clan, the first person to inherit both the Limitless and the Six Eyes in four hundred years. He works as a teacher at the Tokyo Jujutsu High and uses his influence to protect and train strong young allies.
Gojo’s greatest enemy remains the cursed spirit Ryomen Sukuna. Sukuna was regarded as the strongest jujutsu sorcerer from an era over a thousand years ago. So powerful and so feared, Sukuna devastated the ranks of the Jujutsu sorcerers, even killing legendary masters and forcing the nation of Japan to bow to his sorcerous capabilities.
Refusing to die, Sukuna transformed himself into a cursed object after death. Being a cursed entity with four arms, he split his power into his twenty indestructible fingers, which became a focus for cursed energy over the centuries. Regarded as the undisputed King of Curses, Sukuna is one of the primary antagonists of the Jujutsu Kaisen series. It is said that during the Golden Age of Jujutsu, the best and brightest fell to the rapacious destruction of Sukuna, who lives only to kill other sorcerers or special grade spirits which might one day rival his might.
Sukuna was reincarnated into the body of the show’s primary protagonist, Yuji Itadori, an incredibly powerful but untrained young jujutsu sorcerer capable of consuming and containing the threat that was Sukuna, at least for a time. Season One showcases how Yuji goes to school to become a jujutsu sorcerer with a number of other talented individuals, each on their own path toward mastery of the Jujutsu art forms and techniques. The interplay between Yuji and Sukuna is part of the fun for me as the young sorcerer slowly realizes just how out of his depth he is the longer he hosts the malevolent Sukuna.
If the show were willing to take risks, we might see that not only schoolgrounds and cemeteries create demonic forces, but the corporate world would be creating some of the most horrific and terrible beings short of an actual battlefield.
I think it is a hit or miss series. If you like shonen, like Naruto or Bleach, then Jujutsu Kaisen will likely appeal. I still think I enjoy Demon Slayer just a bit more, though they both demonstrate an amazing visual chemistry, making their surreal battles completely a joy to watch.
You can watch Jujutsu Kaisen as a subscribed viewer on Netflix, Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, as well as just about any other service with a modest fee.
The Answer-Man rates JUJUTSU KAISEN — 8.5
Thaddeus Howze is an award-winning writer, editor, podcaster and activist creating speculative fiction, scientific, political and cultural commentary from his office in Hayward, California.
Thaddeus’ speculative fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals. He has published two books, ‘Hayward’s Reach’ (2011), a collection of short stories and ‘Broken Glass’ (2013) an urban fantasy novella starring his favorite paranormal investigator, Clifford Engram.
