Gege Akutami just ended Jujutsu Kaisen last September, and the ending was…kind of divisive. Fans are calling out Gege for not having closure to a few lore. With the tragedy undertone of the manga, fans are expecting ‘the big twist’ would happen as the final arc. Alas, the manga ends as any other typical shounen.

Look, not every story should be another Evangelion or Attack on Titan. Things ended happily ever-after is a-okay, and it shouldn’t entirely determine the quality of writing itself. Jujutsu Kaisen is no exception. People need to understand that, by the end of the day, Jujutsu Kaisen is a typical shounen!

Spoiler ahead! Please finish Jujutsu Kaisen before proceeding.

I think the biggest disappointment comes from the ‘merger’ set-up. Kenjaku’s set up as a big-brained villain is on-par with Aizen from Bleach. From Geto’s ideological shift to Sukuna’s reincarnation, all the major turning point in Jujutsu Kaisen‘s lore was set and planned by none other than Kenjaku. All that is planned was manifested, and fans expected that the merger could very much happen judging by the way of how Kenjaku was written. That twist never comes, and people are calling the ultimate battle as ass-pulling kaisen.

The other disappointment came from fans who accuses Gege of incapable of writing character development. The characters didn’t possess that much depth, and most pages were spent for fight scene and explaining the cursed power system.

Let me address those disappointment and explains why that very decision is apt for shounen manga like Jujutsu Kaisen.

Merger that never comes.

In terms of self-restraint and master planning, we can agree that Kenjaku might on-par with Aizen. That doesn’t mean that Kenjaku is omniscient. Like Aizen, Kenjaku is an arrogant character who is incapable of seeing their own downfall. They underplays and underestimates the pawn, unaware of their resilience.

Granted, the pawn was none other than main characters; they have plot as their savior. Even then, it doesn’t guarantee bad character writing. Yuuji was facing hardships and had his idealism deconstructed multiple times. Hell, he even faced death once!

The whole schtick of shounen that the resilience and idealism of good beats the organized evil every time. This very fiction serves as moral argument instead of being the bleak mimesis of reality. The whole deal with shounen is to see the grand evil scheme being thwarted off course, and Kenjaku merger plan is no exception. Granted, we saw few trope-bending here and there, yet that is the shounen standard. Jujutsu Kaisen is not a bad manga for following the standard.

Writing a fight

It’s in the name. Jujutsu Kaisen means Sorcery Fight. What at stake is much lower due to fantastical nature of it. Cursed energy armament and reverse cursed technique healing prowess existed within the universe, making the fights as explosive as it is implausible. It requires much further suspension in disbelief and the ability to admit the fantastic. Compare it to seinen like Vagabond, where swords cut people and guarantee deaths: where every fight becomes a philosophical argument, instead of panels spent adjusting and explaining the cursed technique.

Inherent in it’s name, punching doesn’t require that much moral argument. Self-defense and survival are the sole reason for the fight. The strongest villain, Sukuna, is just as powerful as his motivation; to exist in a world of fight. Depth wasn’t exist to begin with, it was just pure villainy. Fights bound to happen; not as much as clash of ideology per se. But to see which justified strength is the strongest!

And that very reasoning is also why shounen doesn’t require that much yapping. Even more, with fight in it’s name, arching character development is just the default; what matters the most is how the fight is written. No wrong in that.

As for rating, I would give Jujutsu Kaisen 3,5/5. The fight was particularly exciting, and hell to animate!