Gege Akutami is a master at subverting the shonen tropes and making a world where the stakes do not go down, and no one is safe. Jujutsu Kaisen has some of the most complex power structures and character interactions in modern manga, and its pacing and the absence of filler have garnered it much appreciation. Nevertheless, the same lightning-like pace may drive already fully developed characters to the sidelines. During the competition in the last arc, some of the sorcerers, who were established as key players, are left behind, made to draw ambiguous conclusions, or simply vanish throughout the narrative.
Jujutsu Kaisen: Toji vs Maki - Who Is Stronger?
Maki Zenin and Toji Fushiguro, the black sheep of the Zenin clan, sure know how to make a mess, but which of them is stronger?
Although the attention Gege puts on the main plot makes the series addictive, viewers can consider the alternative possibilities of what could have happened to the characters that should have lived longer. These seven characters are the most striking of the supporting cast of Jujutsu Kaisen — those who, despite the occasional lack of closure in the story, captured the interest of the audience with their methods, their background, and their personalities.
Toge Inumaki
Toge Inumaki was a unique member of the Tokyo Second-Year class and a fighter with the dangerous Cursed Speech. In Jujutsu Kaisen 0 and the initial arcs of the main story, he had demonstrated himself as a powerhouse who could end battles instantly by uttering just one word, but at a great physical cost.
Inumaki mostly fell out of the front line after losing an arm in the Domain Expansion of Sukuna in Shibuya. He was featured in only a few cameos and a minor supporting role in the final fight, so his arc and his reaction to the loss of his friends occurred mostly off-screen. Before the series ended, many fans observed that his relationship with Yuta and Panda might have deserved a more thorough resolution.
Miwa Kasumi
Miwa initially comes out as an ordinary girl in a curse-infested world, but her shades of emotion turn out to be very relatable. After the death of Mechamaru (Kokichi Muta), Miwa is arranged for a sad separation story, hoping to be made stronger. She even threatens to keep bargaining with Kenjaku in Shibuya, promising never to pick up a sword again, had she so much as drawn a sword, an effort that Kenjaku easily evades. Following this event, the role of Miwa is only decorative. The fans lamented that her talent as a Simple Domain expert did not actually materialize in the Culling Games and that she was used as a mere tragic figure when she could have been a hero.
Hajime Kashimo
Kashimo is a 400-year-old God of Lightning who was a sorcerer who was interested in Sukuna only to challenge him. His entry at the Culling Games is legendary and his duel with Hakari is one of the best in the series. However, when he actually goes on to use his one-time Cursed Technique, Mythical Beast Amber, on Sukuna, the fight ends almost instantly.
As a character whose history was rooted in centuries of anticipation, his departure was too quick to suit the fanbase. Kashimo was an otherwise well-written battle addict, but he eventually existed to measure the strength of Sukuna rather than as a fully developed character with a complete journey.
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Hana Kurusu / Angel
Hana Kurusu and the old sorcerer living within her, Angel, played a major role in the story long before, and had the ability to unseal Satoru Gojo. In spite of the fact that the vessel dynamic is similar to those of Yuji and Sukuna, the interaction between Hana and Angel is hardly explored.
The majority of the screen time on Hana is devoted to her childhood crush of Megumi Fushiguro, which causes her to be easily removed by the trickery of Sukuna. According to the arguments of the Reddit users, the lore of Angel, namely, their vengeance on The Fallen, was a key plot twist that Gege left out to get to the final confrontation.
Aoi Todo
Aoi Todo is probably the most popular character of Jujutsu Kaisen. With his Boogie Woogie technique, some of the fight choreography in the series are the most creative. Todo loses a hand in Shibuya, and does not appear in the manga, except at the very end, when he helps in the last battle.
What makes this feel like forgotten potential is that Todo was tutored by Yuki Tsukumo, but the two do not even have a single scene in the current timeline. His absence leaves a huge gap in the personality of the series and even though his appearance was marketed, the dozen of chapters where the character known as the Best Friend was absent do not count.
Jujutsu Kaisen: Nobara's Ending, Explained
Nobara's ending was very underwhelming. Her character had a lot more potential in JJK.
Nobara Kugisaki
The narrative is highly controversial as to why Nobara is supposed to have died in Shibuya. Her condition was deliberately ambiguous over many years, and Arata Nitta advised of a non-zero probability of survival. That ambiguity left fans in limbo, waiting to have a comeback, which did not happen until the last chapters.
Since she was not present during a majority of the series' major arcs (the Culling Games), her character growth was basically put on hold. A strong, well-written female protagonist who did not fit in with the damsel stereotypes, Nobara was fierce, and many believe that Gege had overlooked her until the story was almost complete.
Yuki Tsukumo
Yuki Tsukumo is an example of a character with the god-like potential removed prematurely. Being the only one of four Special Grade sorcerers, she was the only one who intended to transform the world by eradicating Cursed Energy, not only dealing with spirits. It was her study on the soul that rescued Megumi and defeated Sukuna, though we witnessed her in action just once.
Jujutsu Kaisen: Kenjaku vs Yuki Tsukumo, Explained
When Choso was spent, she stepped in to defeat Kenjaku. This is the brutal story of one of Jujutsu Kaisen's most pivotal fights.
Her death at the hands of Kenjaku was heroic, but fans definitely think it was Kenjaku's plot armor. How often do you just recently acquire a cursed technique that could counter a literal black hole? Fans also wish they could see more interaction between her and her student, Todo or a greater part in the story. Yuki had the most interesting philosophy in the series, being a revolutionary character, but she was sacrificed to progress the plot before she could lead it.
Fumihiko Takaba
Fumihiko Takaba has what many believe to be the most broken of all the Cursed Techniques in the series: Comedian. According to the narrator, his power is capable of turning anything he finds funny into something tangible; it becomes as potent as the powers of Satoru Gojo himself. However, Takaba is a "purist" comedian who refuses to kill, as he doesn't find death funny. This self-imposed setback is the sole factor that did not allow the series to end completely differently. If Takaba had even a shred of dark humor, he could have simply imagined it would be "hilarious" if Sukuna accidentally hit himself with a World Slash or if Gojo's Infinity suddenly stopped working all together, he could easily win a 1v2 against the strongest two sorcerers in history.
However, Takaba was practically pushed out of the story after his legendary comedy battle with Kenjaku. As was a brilliant example of experimental writing, the very fact that an experimentalist of this kind was never fully utilized, or even referred to, in the last battle against Sukuna, seemed like a great opportunity lost. He is a well written, quirky anomaly who could have changed the course of the war but was discarded after his particular narrative mission was served, and the story served to make Yuji and Yuta the heroes.
- Release Date
- October 3, 2020
- Network
- TBS, MBS, CBC, Tulip Television, BSN, tys, NBC, HBC, RKK, i-Television, SBS, IBC, BSS, MRO, OBS, TUF, RSK, TUY, tbc, RKB, SBC, KUTV, RBC, UTY, RCC, MRT, atv, MBC
- Directors
- Ryohei Takeshita, Masataka Akai, Chie Nishizawa, Daisuke Tsukushi, Tomomi Kamiya, Kakushi Ifuku, Ken Takahashi
Cast
-
Junya EnokiYuji Itadori -
Yuichi NakamuraSatoru Gojo
WHERE TO WATCH
Based on Gege Akutami's Jujutsu Kaisen manga, Mappa's battle shonen anime envisions a world where Jujutsu Sorcerers battle against entities born out of Cursed Energy. One day, a teenager named Yuji Itadori is dragged into this conflict when he eats a possessed finger.
- Writers
- Hiroshi Seko
- Franchise(s)
- Jujutsu Kaisen
- Main Genre
- Animation
- Seasons
- 1
- Studio
- MAPPA
- Producers
- Makoto Kimura, Hiroaki Matsutani, Yuriha Murai, Toshihiro Maeda, Yoshiaki Takagaki, Tatsuya Omori, Hiroaki Yamazaki
- Based On
- Manga
- Creator
- Gege Akutami
- Number of Episodes
- 47
- Streaming Service(s)
- Crunchyroll, Netflix, Hulu
- MyAnimeList Score
- 8.57 (Season 1)
- Executive Producer(s)
- Hiroo Maruyama, Keiji Ota
