JUJUTSU KAISEN

I’m gonna do a review, it should have no spoilers.

I’ve read to chapter 160 so far and plan on reading to the latest chapter then seeing if I’ve got anything else to say.

The characters are amazing, and they’re pretty much all super interesting. However, the story is kinda meh. In other manga or manwha, occasionally you’ll see comments that are like “who cares about this boring crap, where’s the mc” and essentially just want non-stop action. This manga is a lot closer to non-stop action than most. Maybe this is significant, but I’ve essentially binge read these 160 chapters, and kind of it’s tiring due to the lack of release for tension.

Additionally, the characters aren’t really treated with any respect, they just kind of seem like tools to keep your interest. This story wants to keep tension, so they make the mc’s get out of jail free card also a potential self destruct, which I like. They also try to increase tension by killing characters off. I do not like that. This story isn’t Chainsaw Man, and I don’t think it’s appropriate for crazy shit to be explained away by “oh they’re just nut jobs, enjoy the ride”.

The story is set up to be, and I believe, aims to be a typical hero story. It’s a bit edgier since meaningful characters are just killed off without warning, and it’s got a supernatural setting because that’s kind of interesting. However, it ends up more like a kid gets thrown into a war zone and is now fighting for his life, naively chasing some sort of escape when in reality his actions are instead dictated by the generals commanding each side. It’s like the author is pretending the characters have autonomy while they drag them from battle to battle.

A lot of it plays out in the first person perspective of the mc, with glances at who they’re fighting to deepen the enemies character. There ends up being a lot of action from the people actually making the decisions that we don’t get to see and don’t have the opportunity to understand. I don’t think a story that only makes sense the second time only after already about the character’s motives or actions on a broader level works well, I think it’s poor storytelling.

What I’m trying to get at is that the story isn’t set up to be read in one go, it’s set up for weekly releases of chapters to drip-feed action. While the characters are interesting and the art is great, the story just feels off.