Jujutsu Kaisen: Review
Jujustu Kaisen is a Japanese anime series based on manga. Don't let the name fool you, it has nothing to do with martial arts.
Based on a Japanese manga series by the same name, Jujutsu Kaisen follows a talented athlete who ends up possessed by an evil spirit. He was part of the school’s Occult Research Club. A mishap sees him swallow a cursed object and become a host to a powerful demon spirit.
Jujutsu Kaisen manga and anime
The manga series first appeared in a popular Japanese manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump, in March of 2018. The series was a prequel to Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School. Later it was renamed Jujutsu Kaisen 0.
The series was created by Gege Akutami. In 2020, the animation studio responsible for the final season of Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin,) MAPPA, released a 24 episode adaptation of the manga series. The anime ran from October of 2020 to March of the following year.
What is Jujutsu Kaisen about?
The story follows young Yuji Itadori, a physically gifted student. He is quite sought after by his school’s athletics teams, but he avoids getting involved as a result of the time commitment involved with sports. Instead, he joins the school’s Occult Research Club, which will allow him more time to visit his ailing grandfather in the hospital.
On his deathbed, his grandfather leaves him with two gems of elderly wisdom. He tells Yuji to “always help people” and to “die surrounded by people”. He seems greatly affected by his grandad’s words, and distilled his wisdom into a single statement “everybody deserves a proper death.”
Shortly after his grandfather’s passing, he encounters a sorcerer, Megumi Fushiguro, who can control cursed animals. Megumi is in search of a powerful cursed talisman. Unfortunately, the item is in the possession of the Occult club, who have already unsealed the talisman. What follows is an attack of dark curses on the school.
Early Plottwist of the show
Curses, in the context of this narrative, are wicked spiritual entities born from the negative emotions that flow through humans. They consume the energy of sorcerers and other magically charged objects.
Yuki, probably acting on his grandfather’s last words to him, acts to protect his friends by swallowing the cursed object which has brought on all the mayhem. This causes him to be possessed by Ryomen Sukuna, a powerful evil spirit, who has the potential to bring about unspeakable imbalance in the world.
Sukuna is to be exorcized on sight along with his host. However, Yuji’s mental and other faculties remain unchanged. Megumi’s teacher takes Yuji to the Kyoto school of Jujutsu so he can propose a delay of the execution to his superiors.
The cast
The series was first announced as early as 2019, with MAPPA responsible for all products of the series. Producer, Sunghoo Park took charge of the adaptation, while Hiroshi Seko oversaw scripts. Tadashi Hiramatsu was in charge of character design.
