It Feels Like Jujutsu Kaisen Is Ending Too Soon

Jujutsu Kaisen creator Gege Akutami announced on August 19 that his successful shonen manga would end in five chapters. With the final chapter scheduled for September 30, it feels like the manga might end too soon, given that the rich world that Akutami created still has so many unanswered questions.

Sukuna and the Heian Era of Jujutsu Kaisen

A significant reason Jujutsu Kaisen feels like it is ending too soon is the character of Ryomen Sukuna. Much of the overarching plot of the manga involves the reincarnation of long-dead jujutsu sorcerers via possession. The first and most significant case of this possession is Sukuna, dubbed the King of Curses, who inhabits Yuji Itadori’s body in the earliest chapters of the series after Yuji eats a mummified finger of Sukuna’s to save his friend Megumi. At first, Jujutsu Kaisen does nothing to indicate that there are more dead sorcerers patiently waiting to return to life; it isn’t until the Culling Games arc three years into the series that it was revealed that there were more reincarnated sorcerers, with backstories of their own.

Akutami teased and intrigued readers with subtle references to the Heian Era of Japan and the strength of the sorcerers of that time. Many of the themes and character arcs of Jujutsu Kaisen revolve around the supposed softness and stunted growth of sorcerers of 2018 simply because Jujutsu society isn’t as cruel or unforgiving as it was before. The only problem with this setup for sorcerers from a bygone era is that the series hardly shows the past. The Heian era is not explored at all and only referenced, which is an ample reason why it feels as if Jujutsu Kaisen is ending too soon.

The Mystery of Kenjaku

Akutami has name-dropped different factions and groups from Sukuna’s era of Jujutsu Sorcery but never once explained their meaning to our characters. The second biggest antagonist of the series, Kenjaku, is a body-hopping sorcerer who has lived throughout several eras, with the primary objective of replicating the Heian era of savagery to achieve new heights of Jujutsu Sorcery. The only problem with this is that we’re never really shown what happened in the Heian era, whether it be through the eyes of Sukuna or another sorcerer of that time.

Jujutsu Kaisen isn’t a stranger to flashback arcs, either— the Hidden Inventory arc of the manga showcased Gojo and Geto’s time in high school. It helped provide plenty of much-needed emotional context to the stakes of the Shibuya Incident arc that would follow immediately after. Following that line of logic, it would have made sense for Akutami to provide a brief insight into the sorcerers of the Heian era before the Culling Game, but we would end up having no such luck.

One reincarnated sorcerer, named Kashimo, was born several hundred years after Sukuna and, therefore, was unable to find someone to match his vast strength. Much of that is explained in a flashback that consists of only a few pages and even features Kenjaku in a different body. It’s all an incredibly intriguing setup. However, readers aren’t given any more tastes of the past eras of Jujutusu Sorcery after that; it’s a missed opportunity that could have been explored if the series had run longer.

Related: Jujutsu Kaisen Popularity Poll Results (August 2024)

Jujutsu Kaisen Never Stops to Smell the Flowers

The Jujutsu Kaisen manga definitely had room for more story, and the fact that it is ending leaves us without any questions about the past answered, which is a bit of a disappointment. However, it isn’t just the past that Jujutsu Kaisen could have explored further; it is also much of the present. The manga moves at a frenetic pace, and because of that, it chooses to leave many of the present-day sorcerers that Akutami introduces as nothing more than background characters. It’s never more evident than in the Cullin Games arc, which not only featured a lot of sorcerers we already knew from Tokyo Jujutsu High but newly awakened sorcerers as well.

With that many players in a story, it makes sense that some would be relegated to the background. However, Akutami doesn’t take the time to make the rules of the Culling Game have any real meaning, something that could’ve been fixed had the story run its course a little bit longer. In many of the story arcs of the series (except for the Shibuya Incident, which doesn’t allow its frenetic pace to compromise the story being told), Akutami sets up interesting rules and environments, only for the story to move on quickly before any of the stakes can truly take hold on the characters and the reader.

There’s So Much Story Left to Tell

One of the most significant examples that shows signs that Jujutsu Kaisen feels rushed is in this final story arc – the Shinjuku Showdown arc, which pits Yuji and all the other sorcerers against Sukuna. In one instance of the fight, Hakari, a fan-favorite character with a flamboyant personality, goes up against Uraume, a character rarely seen in the series but known as Sukuna’s cook and assistant. The two begin their battle right as Yuji starts his with Sukuna. Unfortunately, readers are never shown Hikari’s fight. In the 45 chapters that the arc has had, Hakari’s battle has barely been shown.

Had Akutami attempted to let Jujutsu Kaisen go on for more chapters than what’s been given, perhaps there was a chance we could’ve seen this fight. After all, Hakari’s only other two battles in the series, against Yuji and then against Kashimo, are some of the best the series offers. Unfortunately, Akutami, as an author, is intent on wrapping up the fight with Sukuna to end the story, sacrificing any possible developments for other characters.

Overall, the core themes of Jujutsu Kaisen would have benefitted and made more sense with a few more story arcs between the ones we were given. Akutami’s writing and intricate worldbuilding prove this point more than anything I’ve written here. Just brief teases, name drops, and the few flashback pages I was treated to as a reader had me wanting to know more about the world. Unfortunately, it just feels like Jujutsu Kaisen is ending too soon.

Jujutsu Kaisen is available to read on VIZ and other platforms.