“In a world like this, I want to be sensitive to what’s popular right now.”
This project is an attempt to get everyone on board with the current trend by researching and understanding the words and content related to anime, manga, games, etc. that are currently booming mainly on the Internet!
This time, we will be talking about the popular manga “Jujutsu Kaisen” by Gege Akutami, which came to an end after six and a half years of serialization on September 30. The original comics, as well as the TV anime and movie adaptations, are a hit all over the world and are the so-called flagship works of Weekly Shonen Jump.
In this article, we invited Ogawa, an editor at Animate Times who loves a wide range of entertainment content such as manga, anime, special effects, movies, etc., to look back on the story that “Jujutsu Kaisen” has depicted, and give his own review in the form of a roundtable discussion about what kind of work this is!
What did the work give us?
*This article contains major spoilers. It is also a personal interpretation and opinion, and is not official.
Writer Tyra
likes works that depict human activities such as daily life and living. He got into “Jujutsu Kaisen” through the TV anime.
・Animate Times editorial staff member・
A person who has always watched movies, anime, manga, and other content in the Ogawa family. After going through various things, he entered society. He started reading “Jujutsu Kaisen” from “Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School” published in Jump GIGA.
Taira: I started watching the TV anime “Jujutsu Kaisen” first. It was a big hit, so I thought, “I have to watch it!” and watched it online.
After that, the movie “Jujutsu Kaisen 0” was released, and I went to see it at the cinema in Ikebukuro. It was so funny. “Okkotsu Yuta is so cool…” (laughs). I thought he should appear in the original work, so I immediately went to the bookstore and bought all the existing issues. I had been away from “Weekly Shonen Jump” for a while, but I couldn’t stay still.
Ogawa: I was shocked when I read “Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School,” the work that became the basis for “Jujutsu Kaisen,” in “Jump GIGA,” which publishes one-shots by new writers. All of the works in “Jump GIGA” are full of energy and are interesting, but “Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School” has a unique awesomeness to it, and it was a hot topic among readers at the time.
Taira: “Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School” is the original work for “Jujutsu Kaisen 0”. I thought, “Who could write something so interesting from the beginning…?”, but it seems like it was popular in real time too.
Ogawa: That’s right. After that, it was decided to serialize it in Jump, but when a one-shot becomes a serialization, I think it’s common for them to “follow the setting of the one-shot while telling a new story.” But when characters I knew from “Jujutsu Kaisen” appeared, I was surprised and thought, “You guys are there!”
The fact that it was a continuation of “Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School” shows that it had a lot of power even as a one-shot. It was amazing even after the serialization started.
The story unfolds rapidly from the beginning, with Akutami-sensei’s choice of words and view of life and death popping out, making a big impact from the very beginning. In any case, there was a strong desire to grab the reader’s heart right from the beginning. There was also the aspect of having to compete on the pages of famous works, so perhaps this was the kind of enthusiasm that comes with being a weekly serialization.
小川：本作は私達が触れてきた90年代後半〜の作品たちの影響を感じますよね。『エヴァンゲリオン』であったり、『HUNTER×HUNTER』『NARUTO』『BLEACH』のような子供の頃から好きだったジャンプの系譜を感じます。術式、領域展開、逕庭拳、黒閃……みたいなワクワクするワードも沢山出てきます。ジャンプ作品らしいかっこよさがあります。
タイラ：僕はジャンプから離れていたからか、逆に「ジャンプっぽくないな……！」という驚きが強かったですね。友情・努力・勝利みたいなイメージが無意識にあって、『呪術廻戦』の最初の印象が孤独・才能・惨殺……みたいな感じだったので（笑）。一方で、それぞれが個性的な能力を持っていて、それを元に戦うみたいな馴染みがある要素も多くて確かにかっこよかったです。
小川：いわゆる、王道みたいなものは移り変わるものだと思います。空虚に感じてしまう虎杖の精神性や、最強の五条悟という存在に対する安心感と軽い絶望があって、それより弱い僕ってなんだろう？みたいな。キャラクターがあっさりと命を落としてしまうなど、『僕のヒーローアカデミア』の中盤以降、『鬼滅の刃』など、今のジャンプっぽさ、今の王道みたいなものがあるのかもしれません。でも私は「ジャンプやってるな〜！」とテンションあがっていたタイプですけど。
タイラ：なるほど。原作を読み進めてみると最初は呪霊たちに惹かれましたね。人間の黒い部分が具体化したような彼らの存在、呪いとして気高く生きている彼らの言動に哲学的なものや仏教的な価値観を感じておもしろい、みたいな。
また、『呪術廻戦』の凄いところって読んでいて「芥見先生絶対ノリノリで描いてるじゃん！」って思ってしまうところかなと。禪院真希の相撲のシーンもそうだし、五条先生の物理チックな術式だったり、パチンコをモチーフにした秤金次の領域「坐殺博徒」、日車寛見の裁判とか（笑）。
先生が現実世界の興味があることを徹底的に取材して、能力に落とし込んでいるというか。調べるのも、設定を考えるのも楽しいんだろうな〜と勝手に思っていました。
小川：あと、東堂の全てとかね（笑）。
タイラ：東堂葵の「不義遊戯」とか、思いついた時点で芥見先生の勝ち（笑）。直接的に攻撃する能力じゃないけど、強いやつが使ったら滅茶苦茶強くてかっこいいって、読者は大好きだから。『呪術廻戦』で最も好きなのは髙羽史彦vs羂索戦かな〜。読んでいるこっちまで楽しくなってきて、なぜかラストで泣いてしまう。
小川：大事なラスボス級のキャラの最期をあんな『ボボボーボ・ボーボボ』みたいなテイストでやるんだという。本作は、終盤になってもなにこれ!? と思っちゃう展開が沢山あって、やっぱり芥見先生って天才なんだ……と思わされました。
タイラ：まさか、乙骨が五条の体を乗っ取るという。読んでて宿儺と同じ反応したもん。乙骨お前そこまでやるか……！ と（笑）。しかも、ちゃんと乙骨は無事だったし。
小川：あんなに東堂が大暴れした後に、狂気の展開が用意されていて、痺れました。五条が死んだ後の方がヒートアップしていって、虎杖の領域展開でまた1つ作品としてのギアがあがっていましたね。
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