Wednesday, September 11, 2024

I can’t do justice to Jujutsu Kaisen

 Over the last couple of years, I have been occasionally reading Jujutsu Kaisen. Frankly, it’s enough in demand at the library that I can’t binge it lol However, I do understand that it is currently one of the best selling manga in the world and I can see why.


After high school student Yuji accidentally eats the finger of a super evil and kind of dead sorcerer during a supernatural encounter. As you can well imagine, this gives him super powers. He is then thrust into the shadow war of cursed spirits and cursed spirit users.  To make things worse for him, the powers-rhat-be want to execute him because he could be possessed by the evil dude whose finger he are.

And… the powers-that-be are very justified in their fear.

According to people who know how to categorize manga better than I do, Jukutsu Kaisen is primarily a battle manga but it also has strong elements of urban fantasy and horror. Oh so much horror. Recoccuring antagonist Mahito is essentially body horror as a character. 

Every single cursed spirit and cursed spirit user has different and distinct abilities. It’s not quite as varied as My Hero Academia but it is light years past hitting each other harder. This nuance turns fights into chess matches. Kind of reminds me of stand battles from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and, yes, that’s a good thing.

And if that’s not a thing you like, the strong personalities of the characters (cursed spirit energy apparently comes from emotional damage so plenty of room for character) and the horror that sometimes require reading Attack on Titan for a breather are there too.

All and all, it’s buck wild. Over the top visuals, damaged but interesting characters and even the flashbacks have a fever pace. Jujutsu Kaisen just keeps delivering.

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