What once was a very enjoyable series turned into a slog

WARNING: This review does contain spoilers for Jujitsu Kaisen. Major spoilers will be spoiler tagged. Minor spoilers are not spoiler tagged.

It has been quite an eventful year in the world of battle shounen manga. This year, two massive manga series from Shounen Jump, My Hero Academia and Jujitsu Kaisen have come to an end and both have caused a massive uproar following their endings. Out of the two, Jujitsu Kaisen (or JJK) was the one that I had chosen to catch up on when it was announced back in September that the manga was ending since for any of the faults I had with some story beats, I did have a lot of fun watching the JJK anime. While I certainly prefer some other recent battle shounen like Chainsaw Man, I did really like how JJK presented its very dark world and themes. I also really enjoyed the cast and thought that the power system was simple but elegant. So imagine my disappointment when, as the story went on, it started to feel like it not only wasted or ruined a lot of the core characters that I came to like, but it also all built up to an arc so awful that many of my previously positive feelings for the story and the cast feel wasted as a result.

The battle shounen power system in this world is known as cursed energy, which feeds off of negative human emotions like stress, fear, anger and grief. This cursed energy leaks out of most people and creates cursed spirits, which can harm or kill people. This energy can also be harnessed by a jujitsu sorcerer (or cursed user) to create these different cursed techniques that can be passed down through generations or it could be a cursed technique that is randomly gained. What I had liked about the cursed energy system before the Culling Game arc was that it was relatively simple. Yes, there were specific details on individual cursed techniques like Gojo's limitless cursed technique and Mahito's idle transfiguration, but generally speaking, you could just pick up what's going on pretty fast. This allowed the fights to have a simple flow to them that kept dialogue (and thus, blabbing about techniques and other dialogue) to a rough minimum. One of my favorite examples of this was the fight that Yuji and Todo had against Hanami where you just kind of marvel at how Todo is executing his technique to throw off Hanami throughout that whole fight.

However, by the time we get to the Culling Game arc, this is no longer the case. For instance, while I did find Hakari to be a really fun character, his gambling ability feels needlessly complicated. I get that it's set up that way cause the reward for pulling it off is insanely good, but there's just so many instances of the cast just explaining certain techniques or what's most likely going to happen. What was once a fast paced series started grinding to a halt sometime after the Shibuya Incident arc and the events right before the Culling Game arc. Yuta is another glaring issue when it comes to the power system. In a world filled with particularly OP characters, Yuta somehow manages to stick out. This is because These issues got a thousand times worse when we got to the final arc, Shinjuku Showdown. It felt like characters were throwing shit at the wall constantly just for Sukuna to shrug it all of anyways with more and more BS. Binding vows, which are conditions that sorcerers place upon themselves so that they could get desired effects, start to be seriously abused by characters like Sukuna to survive situations that they otherwise shouldn't. Beforehand, binding vows were used very sparingly, but Sukuna just starts fuckin spamming them in the last arc like its a damn aimbot. Dude is actually hacking, he should be banned. Also, reversed curse technique, which was previously a very difficult skill that only a small handful of jujitsu sorcerers were capable of doing (though special grade curses like Mahito could use it all of the time), became a technique that multiple characters could just...do now. This becomes especially egregious during the last arc, but ultimately, the last arc felt like it was bending over backwards so much so that the fight could be dragged out as long as humanly possible.

One thing I particularly liked about JJK up until the Culling Game arc was how much I enjoyed the cast for the most part. I'm not going to go over every single character, but I'll quickly gloss over the more notable ones. Yuji was kind of a classic shounen protagonist. Someone with a heart of gold and was very headstrong. He was someone who often acted on instinct, but he was also someone who was susceptible to self hatred, especially when things went horribly wrong (as it often did). The guy is a silly bundle of joy who also had a lot of his own struggles in relation to getting stronger and how Sukuna affected others. Nobara was another character I liked quite a lot, as her dynamic with Yuji was both hilarious and pretty sweet. She gives Yuji a lot of crap, but you can tell that she did see him as a friend and that she did value her own life beyond being a jujitsu sorcerer.

Gojo is this laidback and insanely OP character that ultimately shifts the balance of power between the jujitsu sorcerers and the cursed spirits. Behind that cocky attitude and cheerful demeanor is someone who is deeply frustrated with the authority figures in the jujitsu world for how short sighted and cruel they are and is someone who is looking to build up the next generation of jujitsu sorcerers. The Hidden Inventory arc (probably the best arc in the series) explored how Geto and Gojo developed their own separate mindsets as well as how these best friends ended up turning on one another.

Massive spoilers for Hidden Inventory:

~! Gojo and Geto had very different mindsets when it came to jujitsu sorcery. Geto believed that they were strong and that they had to use that strength as jujitsu sorcerers to protect the weak. Gojo on the other hand was very cocky about his abilities and believed that protecting the weak was a waste of their talents and their time. Despite them budding heads on this specific issue, they are very close to one another as they have a mutual respect over one another's strength. They also just do a lot together, including missions. The pair is tasked with protecting one non-sorcerer named Riko due to her being a star plasma vessel for Tengen to absorb. At first, Gojo made a point that he has no real interest in this random girl that they were assigned to protect, but as the arc progresses, it becomes clear that the pair does share the same goal of protecting Riko, even if it meant fighting Tengen over it. They became actual friends with Riko and even Riko realized that she didn't really want to merge with Tengen either.

The bond that they developed with Riko is why its so devastating to see her get killed by Toji, a "monkey" with a heavenly restriction who was scorned by the Zenin clan and had defeated the almighty Satoru Gojo. While Gojo ultimately killed Toji in what is probably one of my favorite fights in anime, the two had permanently changed. Gojo was now the sole strongest sorcerer and Geto fell deep into depression and hatred for the non-sorcerers. Geto had become a fallen hero who turned into a villain due to his dejection towards the jujitsu society that doesn't really care about them dying and the non-sorcerers who he blames for the mess that they find themselves in. Hidden Inventory was a beautiful and tragic arc that really explored how friends drifted apart and how callous the jujitsu society really is towards their own sorcerers. It also helped Gojo realize that being strong on its own isn't enough and that he would have to raise the next generation to be strong as well. !~

There's a lot of characters in JJK, so I'll just sum up a few more characters. Nanami is this absolute unit who takes nonsense from nobody and is committed to getting his job done, even though "work is shit". While the guy is a rather standoffish and blunt, he does believe that the adults should be the ones protecting the younger sorcerers like Yuji. He's someone who is also very dejected over how the jujitsu society treats its own sorcerers, but he ultimately decided to continue his work in that society because he did want to help people. Nanami was my personal favorite in the series because I found that he really struck a balance between being a funny straight man to everyone else's antics (particularly Gojo's) while still maintaining his sincere care for the students and his friends.

Maki is another really cool character who is treated like garbage by the Zenin clan due to her lack of powers as she has the same heavenly restriction that Toji had. Like Toji, she's very skilled in martial arts and the usage of cursed tools, though not to the same level as him. As a result, she's far more hands on when fighting curses and other fighters in comparison to the rest of the jujitsu sorcerers (with the exception of Yuji ofc). It's really fun to watch her fight as she seeks to prove that she can be a big shot sorcerer in spite of the Zenin clan (including her sister Maki). There's a few other characters I would like to go over, like Megumi and Sukuna, but I'll save them for later.

The Shibuya Incident arc, which starts right after the Hidden Inventory arc, is where shit really hits the fan, as scores of background characters are slaughtered by curses like Jogo, Mahito, and Sukuna. While the arc starts off in a very lighthearted way, the arc quickly starts to go off the rails. The cast are in the worst position that they have ever been in as it becomes clear that jujitsu society had relied too much on Gojo and his godlike powers to deal with threats that pose as much risk as Mahito and Sukuna. In many circumstances throughout the arc, our heroes are saved by the skin of their teeth or by circumstances that they couldn't have possibly predicted. For the most part, the Shibuya Incident arc was a rather solid way of taking the story in a darker direction and certain fights like Jogo vs Sukuna, Sukuna vs Mahoraga, and the rematch between Yuji and Mahito were all very well done. Having said that, certain fights like Yuji's fight with that cricket curse felt super dragged out for no real reason. I also have some serious issues with one particular death.

~! Before I get into that "one particular death", there is one other death that happens beforehand that I should talk about. Yuji's rematch with Mahito starts right after Mahito kills Nanami. While I feel like you could've easily done more with Nanami and the story definitely could've benefited from keeping him around, I didn't really have a problem with his death. He finally felt at peace and his arc was completed. The scene where, after being half burned by Jogo, still has the strength to kill scores of transfigured humans while imaging what he would've wanted to do with his life had he been able to continue. The passing of the torch to Yuji was also very nice to see, as it does add to Yuji's sense of immense guilt following Sukuna's widespread death and destruction as well as continuing to push Yuji to fight on despite those feelings of shame and guilt.

However, the issue wasn't Nanami's death, it was the "death" of Nobara that annoys me. You're telling me that after having Nobara do basically nothing in this arc after getting her ass handed to her by some guy with a stupid side ponytail and after she dealt a serious blow to Mahito did the story decide that it was a great idea to "kill" her right after Nanami? Are you fucking serious??? Nobara was one of the main characters in the series and her dynamic with Yuji and Megumi was my favorite part of the whole thing, but then you seemingly kill her off and then you don't have her come back till the very end just to deal one blow to Sukuna??? What a joke. It feels super disrespectful to her entire character when she's just thrown by the wayside and then brought back haphazardly. !~

Despite some issues with the Shibuya Incident arc, I still had a lot of fun with the story and I enjoyed certain parts of the story afterwards like how Maki grew much stronger following that arc. However, the Culling Game arc is where the story really plummets in quality overall. While a lot of the arc is still pretty fun, and I do really enjoy certain characters that are introduced like Hikari (who has a really fun energy to him) and Higuruma (a lawyer who develops a really cool ability), most of the new characters are nobodies who are only really there to have cool fights in this killing game Kenjaku set up to mass produce jujitsu sorcerers. The result is a lot of cool fights, but ones that feel far more inconsequential in comparison to the fights that took place beforehand. I also have to emphasize how much of a slog the story became after the Shibuya arc. The Culling Game and Shinjuku Showdown take up about half of the entire 271 chapter manga. The arcs beforehand were much shorter and the story was good at balancing its lighter, more comedic side and the darker, more brutal aspects of the world. These last two arcs by comparison are far slower and don't have that same fun energy that the arcs before them did. There are some major highlights that do explore the cast, like Yuji vs Higuruma and Maki vs Naoya, but many of them, like Yuta vs some other guys, feels like they're just there for the spectacle, which is fine and all, but before, it felt like there was more than just the spectacle, ya know? Before, it felt like there were a lot of stakes and emotion behind the fights, especially the ones Yuji had against Mahito, but now? Now it felt like there was a lot of padding with all of this yapping about character powers and the fights felt like they were just there to pass the time.

I didn't hate the Culling Game arc or anything per se. I found it kind of disappointing, but I still had fun here and there, and as mentioned previously, I did really like Hikari and Higuruma. However, the same cannot be said about Shinjuku Showdown. Shinjuku Showdown? More like Shinjuku Letdown! Holy shit, this arc was abysmal. What the hell even happened here?

Massive spoilers for Shinjuku Showdown below
~!
Ok, I have no intention of going through this scene by scene and I already mentioned the shit with Nobara. Instead, I will summarize some of the bigger picture stuff:

1. The first massive problem I have is with Gojo's death. Now, the story had made it clear that Gojo was going to die and it makes total sense to kill him off and then have Sukuna be killed by Yuji and the others. It makes total sense to have Gojo get killed by the "King of Curses" and it also makes the fight between Sukuna and everyone else to be rather balanced (in theory anyways). The issue is how it was done, as after Gojo and Sukuna traded all of these blows did the story decide to kill Gojo off screen and then have Sukuna just mindlessly explain how Gojo was killed at that moment. It felt super cheap, especially given how beloved Gojo is as a character. I realize that Gege hated Gojo, which is perfectly fine, but fuckin hell, you could've killed him in a far less stupid way. The fact that the cast barely reacted to his death also feels like a slap to the face.

1. The second major problem I have is how much BS is used to keep Sukuna alive as long as humanly possible, dragging the entire story down with him. Before this arc, I found Sukuna to be an entertaining and intimidating villain. His sheer hatred of Yuji and how this all powerful curse caring only for his own pleasure made him very enjoyable to watch, but this arc ruins that image I had for him. Now he feels like a fraud that only lasted as long as he did because Gege wanted to keep the story going. Examples of this include, but are not limited to:

• The endless spamming of binding vows.

• Higuruma's domain, which judged Sukuna guilty, randomly decided to restrict the cursed object that Sukuna had instead of one of his techniques and the executioner's sword, which was hyped up as a way to kill Sukuna, basically vanishes after Higuruma dies in an unceremonious way with nobody, not even Yuji, really seem to give a damn about.

• Characters come in and out, dealing one blow or trying to deal one blow to Sukuna before getting freaking bodied. Maki, Kusakabe, Higuruma, and so many others accomplish fuck all against Sukuna and he just keeps going and going. It gets super tedious very quickly, especially given how seemingly nothing works on Sukuna.

• Hana, one of the only characters capable of dealing damage to Sukuna with what is basically holy light, tries to hit him with that attack again. She had done this attack earlier and could've actually killed him right there. It forced Sukuna to pretend to be back to Megumi to stop here firing again. The stupid thing is that she fucking believed the obvious lie and then Sukuna tried to kill her. When she tries again here....he just dodges and would've killed her with a black flash had Todo not taken the hit for her. This attack knocks them both out of the fight.

1. The fight Takaba had against Kenjaku was actually rather good. It was a very unconventional fight where Takeba's technique could basically bend reality to his whims as long as he found it funny. There is actual character growth for Takaba as he examines why he enjoys being a comedian and how he should approach comedy. It results in Kenjaku and Takaba being a comedic duo after Kenjaku realized that he couldn't just kill Takaba due to his cursed technique. It didn't feel like a generic fight like so many others at this point in the story. It felt like an actual breath of fresh air despite the fact that how Kenjaku dies feels....anticlimactic.

1. Ah yes, Megumi. Potential Man! By far the biggest waste of a character in the entire series. After Nobara "dies", it felt like the entire dynamic he had with Yuji just felt very wasted. They were basically a trio with Megumi being the straight man to balance out Yuji and Nobara's comedy. Without Nobara, Megumi feels a bit imbalanced, but that's the least of his problems. The real issue with Megumi is how the story spends so much time hyping him up and even giving him a pretty kickass fight during the Culling Game....only to then have him get possessed by Sukuna (which was plenty foreshadowed tbf) and then he does basically nothing to resist after Sukuna kills Megumi's plot device of a sister. Megumi's whole motivation to stop the Culling Game was to prevent his sister from getting killed by the games rules. That motivation is perfectly acceptable...but the problem Megumi's sister never really gets much of any characterization so as a result, we might only end up feeling bad for Megumi rather than Megumi and his sister. Because of this, I could never really care about his motivations and Megumi as a whole felt like he could've been so much more. Instead, all he's known for is spamming Mahoraga at any inconvenience, so good job I guess

1. The conversation Yuji and Sukuna had in Yuji's domain was pretty interesting as Yuji laid the situation and background rather well while also still making it clear that nothing he could say would sway Sukuna, especially given how Sukuna just hates Yuji's entire being. Having said that, Yuji (and Higuruma earlier) being able to do reversed cursed technique after just a month of training despite the story making it clear that even special grade sorcerers struggled with this technique, including Gojo before his first fight with Toji, feels really bizarre. The whole shit with Yuta using Kenjaku's technique to use Gojo's body was also just...so annoying to see.

!~

To make a long story short, Shinjuku Showdown was probably the most disappointing thing I have had the displeasure of reading from beginning to end. Sukuna felt like some kind of Saturday morning cartoon villain with no backstory or any real intrigue by the time it took place. The characters all felt wasted as they either died in an anticlimactic way or many of them were just pushed to the side. Nothing about the ending really inspired any satisfaction from me and all I'm left with a disappointing slog from a story I previously had a lot of respect and admiration for. For what its worth, I would still recommend the story up to the Shibuya arc. After that? There's not too much I would really recommend beyond some stand out moments. I have no real intention of disparaging Gege as a writer or anything like that, but it feels like he got lost in the sauce, and that is a damn shame.