By Andrew Osmond.
“My student’s watching,” the blonde youth wearing the eye-mask that snaps up says with a smile, “so I’m going to show off a little.” The enemy of his is a tattooed muscle, magically sculpted and is possessed by a terrifying demon. This doesn’t bother the youngster in the least. He scurries around the demon and then hits him in the head and sends the demon spinning. There’s an eerily swaying pause while the demon floats above the ground and he screams, “He’s unbelievably fast!”Then the young man is back at it to send his foe flying at a high speed across the roof, in which they are fighting.
It’s all beautifully animated. The man wearing an eye mask might show off his skills to his students however it’s actually the studio that produces the anime, MAPPA, showing off the viewers. Gentlemen, it’s saying, you’ve seen this type of fight many occasions before. Now forget about it and be amazed by the design.
MAPPA is, as you have guessed as the studio responsible for 2010’s biggest hits like Terror In Resonance, Yuri on Ice and Kakegurui. In the summer of 2020 MAPPA created the battle stunning “The God of High Schoolwhose director, Sunghoo Park, stepped in to direct the show. However, Jujutsu Kaisen is the first MAPPA first which is the studio’s debut series adaptation of an original Shonen Jumpstrip. The manga’s source by Gege Akutami has been published for the past four years in the publication 2014 , and it’s the traditional Shonen the Jumpfare young hero with a big spirit, fantastic adventures, and all that jazz. But MAPPA’s style stands distinct, as does its characters, and especially its protagonist.
The main character of the show isn’t the cool white-haired dude in the very first paragraph. The character is actually an normal boy named Yuji Itadori, a high schooler living in contemporary Japan. It’s funny to see that the world-class sports skills of Yuji Itadori however, he doesn’t seem to be more uninterested in these skills. The only thing he cares about which is a departure in comparison to the usual – is to care for his gruff grandpa who he considers a parent. Yuji’s parents aren’t part from the equation somehow.
In the very first few minutes of the strip, his grandfather is killed in the hospital, as Yuji is by his side in a tragic reality that isn’t typical for an Shonen Jumphero strip. But the last remarks for Yuji are to urge him to help those he can and not fret about how they will thank them. This is much more than a jump-ish.
Then, his life alters forever. A mysterious boy, Megumi, demands Yuji give him an ancient artifact that was hidden in the school campus. It turns out that Yuji actually did discover the artifact. He offered it to his pals from the occult club and they’re examining it at the school at night. Megumi is horrified. The object is a severed hand with an awful curse on it an occult representation of an explosive that has not been detonated. The boys rush to school, where Yuji’s fellow students are about to be consumed by demons. Megumi says that the value of the finger in the world of the occult and if consumed, it can transmit it’s “cursed energy” powers to the person who eats it.
You’re probably able to imagine the next part. Yuji saves his friends however, he’s about to get eaten by the demons themselves. In a desperate attempt to save himself, he eats the finger and acquires supernatural powers. The savage spirit inside the finger is determined to control the body of Yuji… but , astonishingly Yuji is able to thwart the spirit and remain (mostly) as a human. The fact that Megumi’s bosses aren’t happy with her and even Satoru who is the youth with an eye mask previously mentioned. The majority of elders would like to kill Yuji however, Satoru says there are many cursed fingers all over this world that suffer of them from the same evil. If Yuji is able to locate and ingest the whole lot, then it is the right time to take him down…
Then we witness Yuji heading into the mountains close to Tokyo to begin his training and then meeting an imposing girl student. And… it gets a bit… it’s Bleach and Narutoplus The Blue Exorcist. There’s still MAPPA’s fantastic presentation that allows for stunningly fast fights as well as equally quick jokes that are in the authentic the Jumpmanga style. A few characters are truly amazing, like the lethal soft toy from the second part that’s frightening andfunny in its pint-sized monsters.
There’s also some really interesting stuff, like Yuji being questioned by his new teachers on the reasons why the desire to become a hero and whether he’s willing to risk his life to save all. A mother cries out for Yuji to help save her son, only to finds out that the son was killed as the child… What’s the question? How do Yuji be worried about?
Yuji himself appears to be a vulnerable and humble lead character who is full of strength but not himself as compared to other Shonen Jukebox leads we could name! There are times when Yuji may even look like the gentle and innocent Mob from the Mob psycho 100 manga; Jujutsu Kaisen‘s scriptwriter Hiroshi Seko had previously transformed the manga into anime. Some heroes are fond of exaggerating, but maybe it’s better not to.
