Jujutsu Kaisen
Gege Akutami · 2024
Although Yuji Itadori looks like your average teenager, his immense physical strength is something to behold! Every sports club wants him to join, but Itadori would rather hang out with the school outcasts in the Occult Research Club. One day, the club manages to get their hands on a sealed cursed object. Little do they know the terror they’ll unleash when they break the seal…
Thoughts
Jujutsu Kaisen is a battle shonen series that’s (mostly) about high schoolers that fight cursed spirits, otherworldly monsters born from humanity’s negative emotions. Over the course of it’s run, Jujutsu Kaisen asks a bunch of questions that makes you think it might become more than that, but it never really does. While the series asks a lot of philosophical questions of its cast, the optimism it forces on both readers and characters often doesn’t pay off. The series often responds to these questions with the nihilistic answer that struggle is usually futile.
The series starts strong but unfortunately crescendos at the midpoint of its run. While the second half is enjoyable if you treat it as spectacle, there’s not much substance and it falls off rather quickly by the end.