r/CharacterRant • u/DrWasabiX • Apr 24 '24
Jujutsu Kaisen is an incredibly subpar series.
I can't get into it. Jujutsu Kaisen was so bland it's one of those rare instances that I bothered to drop a series and I usually give many titles a chance to see where they go for better or worse but this series is just not it.
After reading so many manga from obscure titles dating back from the 1960s up until now, whether a story has epic twists or characters getting to cosmic levels matters very little to me. It's how human the characters are. First, it's important to establish that characters and their relationships are the most important components for any good stories, as Akutami's idol Togashi stated. Intricate battle system descriptions and epic plot twists don't matter, Araki praised Togashi not for his ability to write complex battles, but because he knows how to write characters that feel human, characters that feel like they could be your friends in real life.
But the characters in Jujutsu Kaisen don't feel human and lack meaningful relationships. It's one of these series where interesting things are happening, but I don't care because I don't give a fuck about the cast. They feel like concepts, objects who exists mainly to move the plot forward instead of actual people who exists in their own universe and breathe life into the story. Throughout the series, it becomes evident that the characters exist solely as vessels to propel the plot, rather than being individuals with their own distinct personality, motivations, and emotions. They're practically all just a bunch of massively undeveloped ragdolls who aren't given any time to be anything other than ragdolls that exists to beat the shit out of each other.
I feel like this has to be said, because it's not said enough, but the character relationships just aren't there or feel so shallow that the fans make up these headcanon relationships where there aren't any. Prime example being "dad Gojo", he saved Megumi from being sold to the Zen'in years after he became aware of Megumi's situation (for his own gain, not for Megumi's sake, confirmed by Akutami) and the fandom seems to believe he was some father figure that raised Megumi when that isn't the case at all. Megumi still uses polite Japanese speech ("Keigo") with Gojo when even Panda and Maki just calls him Satoru. They don't consider each other family the way Geto considers the twins and his friends family.
Gojo's only relationship was with a dude he knew 10 years ago that he respected because he was "as strong" as him but never reached out or searched for him to at least understand why. Gojo also never even references Tsumiki. She literally just existed so that Megumi could become a Sorcerer and later on so Megumi would become Sukuna's vessel. He didn't even hug her or shed a tear when she finally woke up.
I'm sorry if this may come off as harsh, but I'm under the belief that Akutami must be the world's most colossal NEET or just aromantic/asexual because he cannot write friendships, romances or just general human relationships in any believable manner. I want to say the closest we get to a genuine bond is Choso's character and his love for his brothers... But we're also barely shown any interactions of them together, the rest are fetuses and we haven't really been shown Yuji interacting with him as a brother. The only time proper relationships are explored with Jujutsu Kaisen are in the audio dramas and Juju Strolls, which aren't canon.
Even Jujutsu Kaisen's strongest suit which are the fights, lacks the complexity to warrant that kind of tactical thought because every fight is just won by either the stronger guy overpowering the weaker guy, or the weaker guy jumping the stronger guy. I hear people constantly say Jujutsu Kaisen is too wordy but it's genuinely one of the easiest reads because it's heavily action-focused like Dragon Ball.
...Which brings me to another point that Jujutsu Kaisen is like Dragon Ball cosplaying as Hunter x Hunter. Hunter x Hunter will often have exhaustive walls of text wherein characters will contemplate their strategies, go over all of the information they currently know, and explain why they're making the decision that they're making. And then they actually do something that makes sense given their knowledge, personality, and capabilities. Togashi does this because his "sandbox" writing style necessitates that characters are thinking and making decisions, rather than being NPCs who do things just to do them. Whether this is good or bad is debatable, especially in the boat arc, but it's a deliberate decision to write the story that way.
Gege openly loves Hunter x Hunter and he idolizes Togashi, so it makes sense that he would try to emulate this style. Problem is that he doesn't really understand why it works. Hunter x Hunter is extremely wordy, but the wordiness is always on-topic and goal-oriented. If Gojo was in Hunter x Hunter, his walls of text would be the same size (or bigger), but he wouldn't talk about infinite series or imaginary mass or shit like that, no. He would say "I can conjure black holes..." followed by a lengthy contemplation on the best way to use said black holes in combat.
The actual fights are no more complex than your average Dragon Ball fight, when you get down to it. But because Gege wants to achieve that "talk a lot -> do something" formula from Hunter x Hunter, he needs to make shit up on the spot. And he does it by going into detail about how the powers mechanically work in a way that never affects the outcome of the fight.
If you're in for Jujutsu Kaisen expecting well-written, dynamic characters who changes over the course of the story and where relationships are integral to the plot, then you're not going to have fun with this series. If you're just in it for the cool fights, then it might be your cup of tea... Key word, might.
One thing I'll give Jujutsu Kaisen however, is that it did the "demon within the MC" cliché better than other titles like Naruto. Sukuna yielded no positives for Yuji unlike Kurama and he's not some misunderstood monster with a tragic backstory, he's just a bastard.
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u/Arukitsuzukeru Apr 24 '24
Says who? Gege focuses a lot more on action than Togashi, since they're two different kinds of series.
Point to me one major/main character that acts solely to progress the plot. The only character that can even be explained like this is maybe Tengen, but the series isn't over, so we didn't even get to see her motives yet.
Every single fandom does this to characters, they'll take a dynamic between a character and exaggerate it a bit for fun. Anyways, when did Gege say that he recruited Megumi for his own sake?
Can you point to a major dynamic that can even be explained this way? Yuta and Maki don't have a genuine bond? Yuji and Megumi? Yuji and Nobara? Gojo and Geto?
Just because the weaker people team up against the stronger person doesn't mean that they no longer require tactics to win the fight..and its not even true that characters win just by being more powerful. When Todo assists Yuji, is the gameplan to just run at the bad guy and spam powerful attacks? No. When Todo fights with Yuji, he uses his ability to keep Yuji safe and also let him get close to Mahito so that he can land hits, since Yuji is stronger + hes the only one who can deal damage to Mahito. That forced Mahito to improve with a 0.2 DE that he only learned from his encounter with Gojo.
I wouldn't care for JJK if all there was to is was cool fights, I can watch a lot of cool fights by going on Hyun Dojo, or just rewatching RWBY S1 and S2 fight comps. JJK fights are excellent, but I also like the characterization of the cast.