Looking at the cover of Jujutsu Kaisen Vol. I it peaked my interests. Horror and the supernatural is always a great genre to read. Jujutsu Kaisen by Gege Akutami was released in December 2018 and also has an anime that came out in December 2019. I was actually unaware about the anime so I was going into this fresh. Initially, I had high hopes going into Vol. I but my expectations for this manga fell flat.
Yuji Itadori is a teenager that is part of the Occult Club at his school. Rather than join the track team at his school he chose the Occult Club despite his athletic abilities. Itadori has a grandfather whom he greatly looks up to. However, he is sick in the hospital literally on his death bed. His grandfather gives him some advice prior to his sudden death to help people whenever possible and to not expect gratitude in return.
Meanwhile, a student from the Tokyo Metropolitan Magic Technical College named Megumi Fushiguro has been searching for a cursed object which was last seen at Itadori’s school. Fushiguro tracks down the cursed object and first finds Itadori outside the school whom had taken the cursed object from a shed. The cursed object is revealed to be a finger of Ryomen Sukuna wrapped in paper. As the Occult Club members inside the school unwraps the finger it ends up releasing monsters called curses. Itadori and Fushiguro fight their way into the school to defeat the monsters and get the cursed object. Cornered and overpowered by a large curse, Itadori decides to eat the finger which then gives him supernatural powers to destroy the curse.
Itadori is now cursed himself but has the supernatural abilities of controlling the curse. A plan is devised by Fushiguro’s teacher that Itadori should consume all of Sukuna’s fingers so that they can finally kill him. Unfortunately, Itadori is to be executed for swallowing the finger. If someone dies while cursed then that curse will die with him.
Jujutsu Kaisen has an interesting plot but is messy and hard to follow at times. Who or what Sukuna is leaves the reader confused and makes them assume that its probably a supernatural monster or curse as they call it. The main character Itadori is an ordinary teenage protagonist all too common in manga. This kind of protagonist may appeal to some but it is rather stale and redundant. Vol. II may help propel the series to where it needs to go but judging solely on Vol. I the series tries but somewhat fails at this genre of manga.
2 out of 5 cats
