JUJUTSU KAISEN

Jujutsu Kaisen is a dark action fantasy anime made by the studio MAPPA. It is based on the hit manga by Gege Akutami. Sunghoo Park directed the first season, and Hiroshi Seko wrote the scripts. The first episode streamed early online on September 19, 2020. The regular TV run aired on MBS and TBS from October 3, 2020, to March 27, 2021, with 24 episodes. The word jujutsu here means a kind of cursed magic, and kaisen means battle, so the title roughly means sorcery fight.

In this world, strong bad feelings such as fear, anger, and regret do not just fade away. They gather and take shape as curses, which are dangerous spirits that most people cannot see. Curses cause accidents, sickness, and even deaths. A hidden group of fighters called jujutsu sorcerers protects ordinary people from them. Sorcerers use cursed energy, a power that grows from their own emotions, to fight. In Tokyo, young sorcerers learn their craft at a secret school called Tokyo Jujutsu High.

Yuji Itadori is a kind high school boy with almost unreal physical strength. He would rather spend time in his school's odd occult club than play sports. Everything changes when his friends open a sealed object and attract dangerous curses. To protect them, Yuji swallows a rotting finger that belongs to Ryomen Sukuna, an ancient and terribly powerful curse sometimes called the King of Curses. Instead of dying, Yuji becomes Sukuna's host. The two now share one body, and Sukuna can sometimes take control. The sorcerers' leaders want Yuji dead because of the danger he carries. Instead, the teacher Satoru Gojo offers him another path: join the school and eat all of Sukuna's scattered fingers, so that the curse can be destroyed for good along with him.

Yuji soon trains beside two first-year classmates. Megumi Fushiguro is a serious young sorcerer who calls spirit animals made from shadows. Nobara Kugisaki is a bold girl from the countryside who fights with a hammer and nails. Gojo, their cheerful and very powerful teacher, wears a blindfold and treats danger like a game. Over the season the team takes on missions, faces a cruel curse named Mahito, and joins a tense contest with students from the sister school in Kyoto.

The show mixes fast, stylish fights with jokes and warm moments between friends. Under the action it asks heavy questions about death and about what it means to live and die well. Yuji wants to give people a proper death, not a lonely or meaningless one, and that wish drives him. MAPPA's animation, especially in the fights, earned wide praise. The music also helped the show become popular. The first opening, Kaikai Kitan by Eve, became a big hit. The composers Hiroaki Tsutsumi, Yoshimasa Terui, and Alisa Okehazama wrote the score. Fans who finish the season usually move on to the movie Jujutsu Kaisen 0 and the later seasons.