It’s not even the only “dark” battle shounen.
Summary:
- It feels like fans of Jujutsu Kaisen criticize it more than haters do.
- It has an excellent reputation that stems from some incorrect arguments.
- Because of that, fans’ standards for the manga are too high.
Jujutsu Kaisen is a series where every single week, whenever a new chapter drops, some fans find something to complain about. Of course, most people are still enjoying the series — but it also gets a ton of criticism. In fact, it sometimes feels that its own fans hate Jujutsu Kaisen even more than haters do.
Of course, no series is safe from fans nitpicking at every possible detail. With JJK, however, it’s been getting a little bit ridiculous. Its popularity has been both a blessing and a curse — the reputation of the manga makes the fans demand from it way too much.
People Go into It Expecting It to Be Flawless — and Are Disappointed When It’s Not
Initially, many of the reasons why Jujutsu Kaisen became so successful were that it was “unlike other shounens.” Characters die easily, it’s fast-paced and doesn’t drag, it’s darker than other shounen series — all these arguments have been used as praise towards Jujutsu Kaisen. However, when it’s praised too much, fans start expecting too much from it.
That’s why if it doesn’t match the expectations — and it won’t, because many people expect it to be the best thing ever with no faults at all — fans start finding points to complain about.
Characters die, yes, but their deaths are too cheap and have no impact — and there’s too much of them. While that can be a sound argument, people only care because they are dissatisfied with the series already.
Any Aspects That Don’t Fall in Line with the Series’ Reputation Will Be Hated
As usual, anything with a great reputation will be hated by a moderate chunk of the fandom as soon as it introduces plot points that are at least somewhat controversial. Perhaps the biggest example in recent years was Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) — where many fans outright hated the ending and wanted it changed. In hindsight, it wasn’t even that bad.
Of course, unrealistic expectations and the reputation make fans criticize it a lot. The weirdest thing is that it’s not even entirely correct: many other shounens are fairly dark, have many characters dying throughout the story, have their protagonists deal with trauma, etc.
It’s not like Jujutsu Kaisen is a subversion or a deconstruction of the battle shounen genre: it’s just a different take on it. In the end, Jujutsu Kaisen is probably best read blind, without interacting with the fandom much.