It has actually become what haters criticized it for.
Spoilers ahead!
Summary:
- After being criticized for being “only about fights,” Jujutsu Kaisen has reached its current arc, which is actually just about fights.
- These fights serve no purpose and don’t progress the story.
- “Sukuna is holding back” has become a meme at this point.
The current span of chapters in the Jujutsu Kaisen manga is unsatisfying for many reasons. Seeing so many characters fight (and lose, and die) against Sukuna in such a short span of time is really disheartening, and many fans said they’re on the verge of dropping the manga.
However, it’s actually bad in another way. Jujutsu Kaisen has sometimes been criticized for only being about fights and having nothing else to offer. While it definitely wasn’t true before, it’s hard to argue with that sentiment now — because the current arc is exactly that, fights after fights.
It’s really just a fight after a fight now
Jujutsu Kaisen devolving to what haters often disliked it for is somewhat sad to see. One of its stronger points was exploration of trauma and negative emotions in a realistic way, something we don’t really see in battle shounen. At this point, this is no more than an afterthought, and Gege seems to be set on killing as many characters as possible.
Technically, there’s nothing wrong with Jujutsu Kaisen having a lot of fights. After all, it’s primarily an action manga, so an abundance of fights is a good thing. However, that’s only true if these fights serve some purpose — and there seems to be none in the current arc.
The fights are pointless and make no sense
Seriously, it seems that the only reason for the current sequence of fights to happen is to show how strong Sukuna is. Except… we already knew that.
Sukuna’s strength has been hinted at since the very start of the manga, and we’ve had times where it was actually showcased. No one really wanted him to kill off so many characters — especially when we already have very few to care about.
Some may argue that the point of these fights is to write the characters out of the story. However, as we’ve already seen with Todo, it’s not needed to kill all of them. Besides, it’s questionable why Gege needs them out of the story in the first place — and these fights don’t progress the actual plot at all.
Perhaps the most infuriating part is that the fights don’t even make much sense. “Sukuna is holding back” has become a meme in the JJK fandom, and some even joke that the series will end with him winning.
This gets even worse when you realize he effortlessly defeated and killed Gojo, who was supposed to be much stronger. Yuji should have collected himself and dealt with Sukuna chapters ago.