Following in the footsteps of anime/manga greats like Bleach, Naruto and One Piece is no easy task. However, several new series have managed to stake their claim in the big leagues of the industry. One of these is Gege Akutami’s Jujutsu Kaisen.
Jujutsu Kaisen has been running for almost 5 years now, and is currently one of the most popular series in the anime sphere. However, the closer a story gets to its end, the higher the odds that it will start to get out of hand. Some would argue that Jujutsu Kaisen is reaching that point. Akutami is undeniably an ambitious writer, and while this has led to many satisfying moments and very clever worldbuilding, the manga’s current direction is in danger of alienating some readers, due to the sheer weight of everything it expects them to grasp.
The Pacing
Previously, the longest arc in Jujutsu Kaisen’s story was the ‘shibuya incident’ arc, which wrapped up at 58 chapters. That was already quite a long and complex arc, but it at least all took place within a fairly small location. While it is split up into several smaller arcs, the manga has been running through the ‘culling game’ arc for 61 chapters and counting, with little sign of slowing down.
The culling game takes place across several different regions of Japan, with each colony having different characters, environments, and goals for the main cast to accomplish. While splitting it up into arcs of only 7 or 15 chapters should be a bonus, some readers have felt like the constant location shifts have muddied their grasp on the big picture.
The arc just before the culling game began was also mostly set-up for it, meaning one could easily argue the culling game has actually taken up 76 chapters. Since the game started, there have been near-constant fights against brand new characters with brand new abilities and complex backstories. All of this has resulted in a feeling of exhaustion in some fans.
The Complexity
It also doesn’t help that the culling game itself takes several rereads and reminders to properly grasp. It’s fittingly chaotic, considering the fact that chaos was Kenjaku’s goal when setting it up to begin with. The chaos and fighting within the game is supposed to create stronger jujutsu sorcerers and high amounts of cursed energy in order to aid Kenjaku in merging all of Japan with Master Tengen, which will supposedly create a new evolution of cursed energy users.
Just explaining the culling game and the mechanics around it took several text-heavy chapters, meaning anyone who didn’t reread or look up wiki entries likely didn’t fully grasp what was being discussed. JJK itself is also quite a complicated series. The base plot and characters are fairly straightforward, but the mechanics of cursed energy are complex enough to rival Hunter x Hunter’s ‘nen’, which is often seen as the most complex power system in anime.
Cursed energy starts off easy to understand. It is negative energy produced by negative emotions. However, the uses it has have continued to grow in number as the series progresses. Once the series introduced advanced versions of barriers and domains, as well as new concepts like cursed technique reversal, binding vows, and Tengen himself, it quickly became hard to keep track of what the limits of cursed energy were. And now that cursed energy is being used in increasingly complicated ways, in an increasingly complicated plot, it feels hard to keep everything memorized.
The Stakes
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Like most shonen action stories, JJK started off with a simple premise. Yuji Itadori had consumed one of 20 fingers of the cursed spirit Ryomen Sukuna, and now had to find and eat the other 19 before being executed, in order to erase Sukuna for good. The story since has had Yuji and his friends on a steady progression power-wise, but the rug feels like it has now been ripped out from under them.
In a recent chapter, Sukuna was able to escape the restrictions of Yuji’s body, instead possessing that of Megumi Fushiguro. In his new body, Sukuna has nigh-unlimited control of his own actions, and can use Megumi’s cursed techniques, on top of his own. With Sukuna having teamed up with Kenjaku, the two main villains of the story are now in an alliance, and individually they were already far stronger than any of the heroes.
Even special-grade sorcerers like Yuta Okkotsu and Yuki Tsukumo aren’t able to take them on. The only people who could was Satoru Gojo, who is currently imprisoned, and Hana Kurusu who might be dead or dying. This bottlenecks the plot, as either Gojo returns to give the heroes a fighting chance, or one of them will have to receive a large power boost, that will feel somewhat hamfisted, as no natural or believable growth seems capable of bridging the gap between them and the villains.
It still remains to be seen where Jujutsu Kiasen’s plot will go, but hopefully these concerns can be addressed in the coming chapters without sacrificing the energetic and clever battles the series is known for.