YMMV / Jujutsu Kaisen

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Some spoilers may have been left unmarked, read at your own risk!

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A-D

• Adorkable: Miwa owes her popularity to her cheerfully dorkish personality, most notably her introduction where she internally fangirls over Gojo.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Is Suguru Geto a Well-Intentioned Extremist who genuinely wants to make a better world for everyone by eliminating non-sorcerers, forcing evolution and preventing the creation of Curses? Or is he merely a haughty, insane Misanthrope Supreme who is using that motivation as an excuse to slaughter the "monkeys" he hates so much? Or is it a bit of both? Information from his backstory provides evidence for either interpretation, as it's clear he was a remarkably virtuous and noble guy in his younger years, and his being Driven to Villainy was just as much about his growing hatred of humanity as it was about making the world better.
  • With the revelation that Kenjaku, at one point, was Yuji's own mom, there's common discussion about whether he genuinely cares for Yuji as his offspring or only sees him as a tool or experiment. Though he's callous towards him and shows no particular attachment at the end of the Shibuya arc, the culling game has him earnestly thank Yuji's friends for getting along with his son while escorting them out of the barrier.
  • Did Gojo hold a grudge against Toji or not? His actions are quite contradictory on this case, while he claims that he is no longer angry about the death of Riko, once he refocuses on Toji he immediately gives Fushiguro a frightening Death Glare, while he does his best of honoring Toji's dying wish, when Sukuna possesses Megumi Gojo rather callously says that his current face helps him fight the King of Curses. Was he caught up on the moment because of the state that even Toji described as high? Was he simply admiring the beauty of the world and then remembered that he was in the middle of a fight? Or was he telling the truth in that while he didn't like Toji Fushiguro he no longer held a grudge against him due to his new state in power as The Honored One?
• Alternate Self Shipping: One popular ship in the fandom is Yuuji/Sukuna, often done by making Sukuna's Yuuji form his true self in reality.
• Arc Fatigue:
  • The Culling Game arc is even longer than Shibuya, with lots of fights introducing new characters that seem to not end up mattering later, dividing the fanbase over whether or not the constantly interchanging battles are enjoyable or if they're just delaying the next arc that holds more potential.
  • The Shinjuku Showdown. Although heavily built up as the final, climactic fight of the manga, many fans believe that the fight has long overstayed its welcome, especially with Gojo's controversial defeat and death at the hands of Sukuna. After the initial fight of the arc ended on such a note for fans, stretching out the fight by having almost every named major and secondary character left in fighting shape in the cast fighting against Sukuna has been considered by fans to be repetitive Padding, stalling the story progress with fights that, while at times impressive, often end with beloved characters getting the stuffing beat out of them by a bored Sukuna or with fans having to spend a long time reading about characters they don't care for; neither of which is particularly emotionally fulfilling.
• Ass Pull:
  • Chapter 236. The death of Gojo Satoru in his fight against Sukuna. During their fight, Sukuna had his summon, Mahoraga, adapt to Gojo's Infinity progressively faster each time the sorcerer used it until the shikigami adapted to the technique. Sukuna, after seeing this, then copied Mahoraga's adapted technique himself and slashed all "existence" in front of him, cutting Gojo in half. This was after Gojo had unleashed a point-blank Hollow Purple that Sukuna apparently survived through sheer cursed energy reinforcement, and the killing slice occurred off-panel. Not helping any of this was sorcerer Kusakabe's declaration that “Gojo won” at the end of the previous chapter. Chapter 236 opens with Gojo in the afterlife before eventually showing an image of Gojo's severed body. Some have seen the entire fight as a microcosm of commonly purported issues with the manga, with various confusing, almost arbitrary, and seemingly contrived power sets being shown in rapid succession. The combination of all this over two chapters could be chalked up to a victory reversal for pure shock value. It's only revealed way after the fact that Sukuna made an impromptu Binding Vow to send a World Dismantle at Gojo in return for being forced to use hand signs and chants for all later usages of the attack. Even then, many still found this explanation highly questionable as, despite having the Six Eyes, Gojo somehow wasn't able to see it coming and dodge, when it's later established that the World Dismantle is entirely possible to dodge. Whether this explanation is satisfactory or a baffling Idiot Ball moment from Gojo is a frequent point of debate.
  • Chapter 245. It's revealed in the last page that if the target of Higurama's domain is sentenced to Confiscation while holding a cursed tool, then confiscation applies not to the target's cursed technique or domain but instead to their cursed tool. This massive loophole is never hinted at prior to this chapter and was seemingly added at the last second for the sake of plot convenience. The fact that Higurama somehow wasn't aware of this condition despite being one of the highest scoring players in the Culling Game—meaning that he just so happened not to fight a single sorcerer with a cursed tool—is extremely hard to swallow as well.
• Awesome Art:
  • The first opening to the anime, directed by the talented Shingo Yamashita, is a minute and a half of creative imagery and action-packed cuts showing off the characters of the story.
  • The first ending to the anime, directed by music video and commercial director Masatsugu Nagasoe, incorporates bright colors and fun dances that is sure to get you smiling every time.
  • The artwork for the series' Domain Expansions, especially Gojo's "Unlimited Void" is simply gorgeous, creating a surrealist atmosphere that plays with imagery and color exceptionally well. Mahito's, Sukuna's, Kenjaku's and Naoya's also stick out by simultaneously diving deep into the Uncanny Valley.
  • Episode 13, the conclusion of the Mahito Arc is a stand out with the direction, storyboarding, and key animation all done by the talented and prolific Hironori Tanaka. The visuals are distinctly more horrific and surreal than previous episodes of the arc.
• Awesome Ego: Satoru Gojo. The man constantly talks about how he's the strongest. But he always backs it up with amazing feats of strength, which combined with his charismatic personality and hilarious antics have made him one of the most beloved characters in the series.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • While Megumi has always been a divisive character to a minor extent, as the series progresses his positive and negative qualities develop in equal quantity. Either his unique foil qualities to Yuji make him interesting and one of the better characters in the series, or his apparent weakness makes him frustrating and one of the worst characters in the series. There is no in between.
  • Sukuna became this during the Shinjuku Showdown arc, owing to what was felt to be author favouritism from Gege Akutami to keep him alive. His controversial victory over Gojo in Chapter 236 and what was perceived as a boring arc due to the repetitive "Sukuna Cycle" thereafter lead to accusations of being a pet favourite character, while other fans insisted that Sukuna's hype was enough to earn the resulting chapters of him beating almost everyone who challenged him in single combat. There's also debate as to which version of him looks best, between when he was in control of Yuji, his takeover of Megumi, or his final Heien-era reincarnation.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In Chapter 181, the readers are briefly shown a scene of Kasumi Miwa walking through the wreckage of one of the colonies following Okkotsu's fight with Ishigori, before quickly cutting over to the Establishing Character Moment for Charles Bernard, making it seem as if she's going to be involved in the Culling Games. This scene is never referenced again, and when Miwa is next seen, it's in Chapter 220 alongside everyone else preparing to free Gojo, and its soon after revealed she can no longer pick up a katana due to a Binding Vow she placed on herself when attacking Kenjaku in Shibuya, making many wonder what the hell she was meant to be doing there at all.
• Bile Fascination: The tie-in video game Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash is so notoriously bad that it garnered attention from the fanbase simply for how bad it is, along with the mere fact that it's a Jujutsu Kaisen video game.
• Broken Base:
  • The revelation that Geto died a year ago at the hands of Gojo, making the current Geto a corpse being possessed by a different person altogether. While many acknowledge it was a well-foreshadowed and set up twist, the decision itself has caused friction. One group of fans finds it an interesting swerve that adds more emotional investment and tragedy into Geto's character and the plot, while the other group is disappointed at one of the series' best villains having been effectively split into two halves, with arguably the more interesting half now dead and no longer relevant. This has been largely placated however, as the revelations of Kenjaku's machinations and the scale of their ambitions and plans have been made a bit more apparent, particularly the immense reveal that Kenjaku is Yuji's mother, which has largely redeemed the character in their own right and added a far greater deal of complexity to them.
  • Gege's seeming eagerness to kill off characters or otherwise write them out of the story with a Career-Ending Injury. Some like this because of the tension and high stakes created by the feeling of Anyone Can Die and allowing for changes to the status quo, while those against it feel cheated because of how often their favorite characters not only die, but feel the character was wasted and never allowed to reach their full potential.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • After Mahito demonstrates his clear lack of empathy by casually killing poor Junpei and laughing about it, Yuji punching him square in the face and revealing he can bypass Mahito's ability is very cathartic. In addition, he gets jumped by Yuji and Nanami, which is even more satisfying not only because of the karma, but because of how well-animated the beatdown is. Much later, after all the torture, mockeries, and massacres he committed, Yuji manages to overwhelm him for the second time and punch his face to the ground. It inflicts so much damage on Mahito that he scurries away like the Dirty Coward he is, cowering in fear. And to culminate his humiliation, he finds Kenjaku in hopes of gaining his aid, only to be casually absorbed by the latter's curse techniques with casual disinterest — much like Mahito himself had done to Junpei. The anime even prolongs this humiliating moment. He scurries away by having him twist his leg so he can't run away and resorts to throwing balls of dirt while making whimpering cries like a scared child, having lost the means to do anything else- a far cry from moments before he was causing city-wide attacks and became a nigh-invulnerable demonic form that caused a crater from his power- before Itadori kicks him out of annoyance at the anti-climatic whimper the fight had become.
  • The Zen'in Clan, one of the Big Three sorcerer families, is led entirely by smug, cruel, bigoted sexists who enforce the "traditions" of rejecting anyone in the family born with low/no cursed energy and treating women in the family as slaves. Maki and Mai, who are viewed as worthless because they're women and have low cursed energy, were put through hell by the Clan their entire lives. In the "Perfect Preparation" arc, the true depths of the family's cruelty is shown when they attempt a coup against the rightful heir, Megumi Fushiguro, and Ogi Zen'in, the father of Maki and Mai, attempts to murder his own daughters just to increase his standing, forcing Mai to sacrifice herself to save Maki. Upon Mai's death, however, Maki becomes fully disconnected from cursed energy, giving her the same superhuman abilities as Toji Fushiguro, and then goes on to honor her sister's Last Request: "Destroy everything." What follows is a series of Curbstomp Battles where Maki kills every single member of her abusive family, starting with slicing half her horrified father's head off before he can even finish his threat and ending with her cruel cousin's ignominious death at the hands of Maki's own abused mother. By the time Maki's finished, the Zen'in Clan is completely destroyed.
  • After over 200 chapters of Sukuna being an untouchable Smug Super psychopath, seeing Yuji disrespectfully spit Sukuna's ideology back at him, tanking all of his attacks, and punching him straight in the face is... satisfying, to say the least. It's taken further in the final battle against Sukuna. While it's clear that Sukuna would be fine with dying a warrior's death under most circumstances, what pushes the fight into catharsis territory is that Yuji is the one who repeatedly whittles Sukuna down by attacking his soul. Although Sukuna typically holds respect for his opponents and views them as a source of entertainment to face in battle, he genuinely holds nothing but hate for Yuji. For all of Sukuna's feigned attempts at indifference towards the boy, Yuji refusing to go down seriously starts to bother him, to the point that he outright makes Sukuna question his own identity.
    • Chapter 257 deserves a mention all on its own. After a whole series of Sukuna tormenting Yuji and after a whole arc of Sukuna almost effortlessly beating every opponent after Gojo, seeing Yuji absolutely beat the shit out of Sukuna is immensely satisfying. Yuji tears into the King of Curses with eight Black Flashes. Sukuna sees all of them coming, but either isn't able to react in time or has gotten too weak from all fighting to slow Yuji down with his counter attacks. Sukuna isn't smiling or having fun during any of this like he was in his battle against Gojo; he's genuinely livid over Yuji getting the better of him. The best part is that Yuji doesn't say a word in the entire chapter. Because unlike Gojo or Kashimo, Yuji doesn't respect Sukuna nor does he need Sukuna to understand him. To Yuji, Sukuna is nothing more than a curse to be exterminated, effectively denying Sukuna the very satisfaction he gave to his own foes.
• Common Knowledge: Sukuna, both in-story and out, is sometimes erroneously referred to as a Cursed Spirit. However, it is repeatedly made clear (by himself no less◊) that he is a sorcerer who incarnated in the modern era by turning himself into a cursed object, which is to say he's more similar to the incarnated sorcerers in the Culling Game than he is to Cursed Spirits like Mahito.
• Complete Monster:
  • Kenjaku, the ancient Jujutsu sorcerer turned Curse, has lived a millennium stealing the bodies of others and committing countless acts of terrorism and experimentation to satisfy his intellectual curiosity. As Noritoshi Kamo, he kills and tortured numerous beings, including impregnating a woman and aborting the children 9 times to craft the Death Painting curses. In the modern age, in the body of Suguru Geto, Kenjaku organizes the deaths of numerous humans under the Disaster Curses and manipulates the Shibuya Incident for massive death, only to eliminate his final ally Mahito. Announcing the Culling Game to get new sorcerers to fight to the death and whittle one another down, Kenjaku starts worldwide conflicts, kills numerous sorcerers, and finally plans to merge the entirety of humanity into one tortured being just so he might see what will happen.
  • Mahito, the youngest Disaster Curse, represents the fear and hatred humans have towards each other, and seeks the eradication of mankind. A sadistic killer, Mahito uses his power Idle Transfiguration to toy with the lives of humans, including children, by transforming them into monsters and weapons, all while they are aware of their suffering and beg for help. Meeting a troubled young man named Junpei, Mahito toys with his head to turn Junpei into a killer for his own amusement, murdering Junpei's mother to frame a bully, and eventually turning Junpei into a monster who dies in sheer anguish, all while laughing at Yuji's failed attempt to save him. Later on, Mahito takes part in the Shibuya incident to seal Gojo Satoru by transforming over a thousand people into monsters and slaughtering hundreds of other civilians, all while attempting to break Yuji's mind and soul for petty revenge and enjoyment by killing his mentor Nanami in front of him and one of his best friends, Nobara. A cruel and sadistic Curse lacking the care for his fellow Curses that his comrades share, Mahito lives up to being the worst humanity has to offer, even for a Curse.
• Continuity Lockout:
  • Most fans have jumped into the series either by the main manga or anime, skipping or being unaware of the existance of Volume 0 before it was adapted into a movie. For most of the run this isn't an issue, as the series reintroduces characters and concepts again, while Volume 0's main character, Yuta Okkotsu is Put on a Bus. However, this trope comes into effect when Yuta comes back and rejoins the main cast in the aftermath of the Shibuya Arc. Those who haven't read Volume 0 or watched its film adaptation are likely to be confused by this immensely powerful character coming out of nowhere and who is friends with the other students (sans Itadori) and there being no explanation for his abilities, as all of that was covered in 0.
  • Similarly, 0 covers Geto's fate. While Hidden Inventory explains his relationship with Gojo well enough, the fact that the current Geto is an impostor and the relevance of the character overall can be missed without reading 0, as there are only a handful of allusions to the events surrounding him.
• Creepy Awesome:
  • Mahito has grotesque shapeshifting powers, a terrifying lack of concern for human life, and can turn you into a dying sack of flesh by simply touching you. These things combined with his great design, fun personality, and strong presence only make him more awesome.
  • The rest of the Disaster Curses have equally disturbing usages of their powers and monstrous appearances, making them very memorable antagonists.
• Creepy Cute:
  • Mahito is prone to making disturbing smiles and his whole body is covered in stitches, as if he'd been cobbled together. However his actual face is reasonably attractive and he expresses an almost child-like enthusiasm for things such as board games, pushing him into this territory for some.
  • Dagon is a three-foot tall squid who is shy and timid, only communicating in ‘bwoo-hoo’ noises until he transforms into a full cursed spirit. He’s round and squishy, looking an awful lot like Ponyo, and all he wants to do is swim in the ocean and play with Hanami. Cute!
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • In Sukuna's innate Domain, Yuji getting the top of his head cut off by Sukuna in a duel over a contract wouldn't be nearly as funny if it didn't happen literally the second after he agreed to the duel.
  • Dagon literally drinking a room full of dozens of humans? Horrifying. Mahito cheering him on like a frat boy cheering on his friend chugging alcohol? Hilarious. Dagon's burp afterwards is the cherry on top.
• Crossover Ship:
  • Gojo often gets shipped with Makima from Chainsaw Man due to their similar power levels and terrifying presences.
  • He also gets shipped with Reigen Arataka from Mob Psycho 100 mainly due to them being "all-powerful" mentor figures who are also seen as goofy and pathetic by their peers.
  • Nanami has been paired with Tiana from The Princess and the Frog mainly because of Nanami's Sweet Tooth fitting well with the princess being a Supreme Chef along with the universal agreement on how he'd cherish her like a true gentleman.
  • Sukuna has been shipped with Cinderella of all characters, primarily because of how bizarre the idea of the shamelessly monstrous villain hooking up with a kindhearted Nice Girl is.
  • Following both series seeing them riddled with scars in the final acts and both proving to be iron-willed determinators, the pairing of Maki and Izuku Midoriya began to crop up more often.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Some of the more villainous characters have their villainous traits downplayed in fan content due to how good looking they are.
  • Sukuna is charismatic, cool and has a suave voice to go with his appearance. He's also an extreme narcissist that goes to any length to make Yuji's life miserable from doing something as petty as laughing at Yuji's inability to save Junpei, to controlling his body to commit a massacre and switch back to Yuji so the kid can have a mental breakdown.
  • Mahito can be childishly cute, has a soft-spoken voice and an attractive appearance, looking past the oddities and whenever he's not transforming into something horrific. This tends to overlook the fact that he's largely a heartless sociopath that transforms his victims into horrific beings who die shortly after from the pain, backstabs those who trust him and will laugh at a person's demise that he causes personally to show how much he enjoys screwing with them.

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• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Inumaki has a surprising amount of popularity in spite of being the least-developed of the Tokyo students, even managing to get 4th spot in the first popularity poll.
  • Junpei Yoshino ended up getting 9th in the first poll in spite of being in only one arc and dying partway in, owing to his tragic character arc and the fantastic Character Development he gives Itadori.
  • Among the Kyoto cast, Kasumi Miwa was able to get 12th spot, making her the most popular behind just Todo (the Arc Hero of the Goodwill Games), mostly due to being an Adorkable Nice Girl.
  • Aoi Todo is very popular despite having his biggest roles in the Goodwill Games and the Shibuya Incident where he loses his curse technique during a fight with Mahito, after which he's mostly absent from the story. However, he's beloved for being one of the funniest characters in the series, his brotherly bond with Yuji and being a total badass.
  • Hiromi Higuruma is extremely popular for his interesting personality, sympathetic backstory, and his creative powerset. Despite only really getting spotlight in the Culling Game and the fight against Sukuna, he's considered by many to be one of the most interesting side characters.
  • Hanami is fairly popular among fans for being the only Disaster Curse with an understandable motivation for their hatred of humans, having an eye-catching design, and putting on a formidable show as the Arc Villain of the "Kyoto Goodwill Event" arc. Consequently, many were saddened to see Hanami killed off early into the "Shibuya Incident" arc by Gojo, with some even calling it a waste of an interesting antagonist.
• Estrogen Brigade: The manga's abundance of attractive male characters has led it to garner a solid female fanbase as well as an LGBT Fanbase, despite being a male-aimed shonen fighting series packed with gruesome horror and vicious battles. In particular, Gojo's pretty design and cocky personality, combined with his incredible power, has gained a huge fanbase of women primarily interested in him. Sukuna and especially Toji also have a huge number of female fans due to their extremely muscular appearances and completely dickish personalities, meaning they strike a solid All Girls Want Bad Boys appeal.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Ryomen Sukuna, a narcissistic, condescending, Ax-Crazy sociopath who manages to own his status as the so-called "King of Curses" with skill, power, and sheer charisma. Any scene with him has him basking in his own power and destruction, making him look cool as all hell because of it.
  • The Disaster Curses are human hating, monstrous beings who each have intimidating appearances, usages of power and being a major threat to anyone that isn't Gojo. Mahito in particular, is an enjoyable hateable sociopath with a nightmarish power.
  • Toji Fushiguro is a professional assassin ruthless enough to target a teenage girl, but the fact he's a non-sorcerer whose complete lack of cursed energy gave him superhuman physical abilities that turned him into an unstoppable Mage Killer that allows him to fight the most powerful Jujutsu sorcerers who ever lived on equal footing, gives him serious cool points. He also displays impressive cunning in how he outsmarts and nearly kills Gojo in their first fight, successfully carries out his assassination and defeats Suguru Geto as well, sparing the last only out of pragmatism.
  • Suguru Geto (the real one) is a cold, ruthless sorcerer who's convinced that all humans are vermin and must be exterminated so sorcerers may thrive. However, thanks to his interesting backstory with Gojo, his sense of charisma, and the fact that he genuinely believes what he's doing is right, he's one of the most popular villains in the series. As a result, the plot twist that the current Geto is actually an impostor and the real Geto died a year ago was quite controversial.
  • The sheer length of Kenjaku's machinations elevates him above the level of all the previous villains in the story, with him impersonating Suguru Geto for a full year, manipulating world governments to serve his ends, and taking over Jujutsu society with barely a struggle. On the whole, he's played the part of The Chessmaster without flaw, being perpetually calm and collected.
  • Ryu Ishigori and Kashimo Hajime, two main antagonists of Sendai and Tokyo 2 respectively are fan favorites for their blood knight characters and confident and boisterous personalities when they faced Yuta and Hakari, who were both hyped up to become as good as Gojo in the future.
• Fandom Rivalry: A rather fierce one with My Hero Academia has been occurring due to both manga being in their final arcs at the same time. And due to different perspectives on how each series is handling said final arcs, there tends to be a heavy Culture Clash in what either side thinks is better in terms of character handling, plot, and combat if they aren't a part of the Friendly Fandoms portion of the two fanbases. In the particular case of character handling, as of this writing, harsher fans of My Hero Academia tend to accuse Jujutsu Kaisen of being a hopeless case of Too Bleak, Stopped Caring for being way too willing to kill off a lot of major characters and making it hard to care about any of them, while harsher fans of Jujutsu Kaisen proclaim My Hero Academia as a childish case of Sweetness Aversion for being willing to not kill a lot of major heroes and claiming a lack of stakes as a result.
• Fandom-Specific Plot:
  • Considering Junpei's popularity, stories where he lives after his introductory arc are popular enough to warrant their own tag on Archive of Our Own.
  • There is plenty of fanfiction and artwork of Sukuna being Yuuji's twin brother; which one is the older or younger varies.
    • It's also common to see Sukuna majoring in Culinary in college wanting to be a chef in Modern AU Fic's alongside Uraume.
  • In Alternate Universe's, Megumi almost always has his Divine dogs Kuro and Shiro as pets. Sometimes occasionally with some of his other Summons as well.
  • There are a ton of fics dedicated to Gojo fumbling around trying to raise Megumi after becoming his guardian. The types tend to vary with some being outright comedic and others being bittersweet and genuinely heartwarming.
  • Satoru is often business canonically because, as the strongest, he's trusted to operate overseas with little to no supervision. A common way to write Gojo into crossovers involving western series' is to have him enter another character's domain while off on missions that often involve him investigating whatever supernatural problem the heroes are dealing with anyway.
• Fan Nickname:
  • A big one is "Papaguro" for Megumi's father, whose first name was only revealed to the readers after his death. "Holy Father" is also a common one, owing to his muscular and attractive appearance.
  • There are also "Getwo" and "Brain" for Fake Geto, at least before his true name was revealed to be Kenjaku, with "Kenny" later becoming a common nickname.
  • "Mechapods" for the little talking Mechamaru discs that his dead self uses to communicate with Yuji in the Shibuya arc.
  • Haruta Shigemo, the effeminate-looking curse user with the hand-shaped blade has been called "Hup Hup", based on what he repeats before stabbing Ijichi. He's also received the name "Handy", because of his unique blade.
  • Prison Realm is often just referred to as "The Box" or "Rubik's Cube".
  • Kurourushi, the Special Grade Cursed Spirit featured in the Sendai Colony arc, is simply referred to as "Roach".
  • Ryu Ishigori is sometimes called "Elvis" based on his design both final and inital looking like the man himself.
• Fanon:
  • Despite Gege Akutami telling us that Gojo excels at anything he tries, it's commonly accepted by the fans that he's terrible at cooking.
  • Many also believe while Gojo was Megumi's sole guardian, he would drop by periodically to visit him and attend his parent teacher conferences. Though how often he would come over varies in the fandom.
  • A lot of fans have come to view Gojo having an estranged relationship with his Clan due to the lack of mention of them in Canon which was only encouraged by the strong belief that they treated him more like a weapon then a person. However this was proven wrong with Gege in a recent interview saying Gojo was spoiled rotten.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • One with Chainsaw Man, helped by its similar premise, tone, and the fact that it and Jujutsu Kaisen are basically brother series concurrently running together in Weekly Shonen Jump. It also helps that their respective authors expressed mutual liking towards each others' works.
  • You can find many fans of Bleach being fans of Jujutsu Kaisen due to similar premises and shared genres. It helps that Gege Akutami admits that Bleach is one of his inspirations for the series.
  • Some fans of Neon Genesis Evangelion are also starting to get into the series, thanks to Megumi Ogata being recently confirmed as Yuuta’s VA in the Volume 0 movie trailer as well as Gege being an Evangelion fan himself.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In the Anime Awards 2023 from Crunchyroll, Yuta won two awards from different countries (Best Voice Artist Performance (Castilian) and Best Voice Artist Performance (German)) and was a nominee in another (Best Voice Artist Performance (Portuguese)). He was also second in the Anime Grand Prix behind Tengen Uzui from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.
• Growing the Beard: While the prior arcs do a great job at establishing the series' ideas, the VS Mahito arc is said to be where the series truly finds its footing thanks to some hard-hitting emotional moments, a more protag-centric conflict, and an archnemesis with a great presence in the form of Mahito.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Itadori's fight against Eso and Kechizu becomes this after Chapter 143, when it's revealed Kenjaku possessed Yuji's mother during his birth, thus making Choso, Eso and Kechizu his half-brothers, and thus retroactively revealing Yuji killed his siblings during their fight.
  • In an early episode Yuji asks Gojo if he can take on Sukuna, and the former says that even if the latter reached full power, Gojo would still win. Come chapter 236 and he was bisected and killed by Sukuna. What makes this worse is that Gojo admits to Geto in the afterlife that he failed to force Sukuna into using 100% power.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: A really bittersweet example but before his death Nanami mentions how much he wanted to retire to a beach in Kuantan. Shortly after that episode aired, the Malaysian government built a shrine dedicated to him, specifically in Kuantan.
• He Really Can Act:
  • While Megumi Ogata is skilled at her work, her portrayal as Yuta Okkotsu surprised the audience with critics praising her shift from classic antiheroes to energetic, confident boys as a result of how he develops.
  • Season 2 might as well be called He Really Can Act, the season, where all voice actors really get to show off their talent in the biggest Wham Episode of the series. Special mention goes to Jun'ya Enoki and Nobunaga Shimazaki with Junya perfectly encapsuling the pain and suffering that Itadori goes through this arc, while Shimazaki perfectly encapsuling Mahito's Screaming Warrior tendencies in the arc's last act.
  • Season 2's finale surprised social media with not only Yuta's return but also how different Megumi Ogata changed him. The actress was praised giving both cheerful and cold lines at the same time.
• He's Just Hiding:
  • Nobara Kugisaki is seemingly killed by Mahito during the Shibuya Incident, where the curse uses Idle Transfiguration to blow half of her face off, leaving her without a pulse. However, soon afterwards a character capable of putting Nobara in a kind of stasis that can prevent existing wounds from getting worse appears and says there's a non-zero chance he can get her to Shoko to be healed. Over a hundred chapters have passed and Kugisaki has neither reappeared nor have any of her friends discussed her in a way that confirms her fate one way or the other. This has caused debate among fans about whether Nobara's alive due to Inferred Survival and the deliberately vague way her friends reference her, or if she really did die and the confirmation has just been poorly communicated to the readers.
  • After Gojo's death at the hands of Sukuna, a massive number of fan theories exploded as to how he could possibly come back, both from those being serious and from those doing it as a joke. Everything from Gojo being reincarnated to Gojo stitching himself back together was thrown out there, though by far the biggest theory was that Shoko Ieri would somehow be able to save his life after Ui Ui recollected his corpse.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • When fighting the horde, Nanami was thinking about his dream to move to and live in Kuantan, Malaysia. In January 19th 2024, The Movie of the Malaysian animated series Mechamato released in Japan. The official fanpage confirms that Kenjiro Tsuda, who is also Kento Nanami's seiyuu, is the Japanese dub voice of the movie's Big Bad Grakakus.
  • Some fans took dark comfort in knowing that Mei Mei was livestreaming the fights with Sukuna and Kenjaku and managing a betting pool for them from the safety of Malaysia while everyone else was on the front lines.
• Hype Backlash: Received it almost immediately upon release, due to it hitting mainstream popularity almost instantaneously and being continuously praised as one of the best new Shonen Jump manga. This then led it to developing a vocal subset of detractors who viewed it as generic and overhyped. This became especially pronounced in Season 2, which was widely anticipated before its release due to manga readers considering it the pinnacle of the series, but gained an increasingly vocal amount of critics who found it didn't meet the heightened expectations its fans set (echoing the reception of its sister series, Chainsaw Man).^note Speaking of which, season 2 of JJK soundly thrashed CSM in the 2024 Crunchyroll Anime Awards despite their releases being almost a year apart and CSM being much better positioned for the 2023 award season, thus causing even more of this trope among fans who were hoping for CSM to gain some Western recognition and prestige given its anime adaptation's divisive reputation in Japan. The fact that its release coincided with an incredibly controversial arc in the manga didn't help the discourse surrounding the show's quality.
• I Knew It!:
  • When the story revealed that there was apparently a mole amongst the Jujutsu schools who was feeding information to the antagonist group, some people correctly guessed that it was none other than Mechamaru, a.k.a. Kokichi Muta, since he mentioned he'd do anything to have a normal body, and Mahito's regenerative abilities are capable of just that.
  • Some people also correctly deduced based on Geto's comments about "this era", his awareness of the Cursed Wombs, and his immense knowledge of the jujutsu world, that he was actually the ancestor Noritoshi Kamo, though many believed he would be Kamo, rather than a mysterious entity who'd used him and Geto's bodies as hosts.
  • At the end of the Perfect Preparation arc, Naoya was killed by Maki & Mai's Muggle mother with a regular kitchen knife. This left fans more concerned than triumphant; it was noted that sorcerers must be killed with cursed energy, or else they'd come Back from the Dead as cursed spirits themselves. Sure enough, Naoya returns as a grotesque worm curse at the start of the Sakurajima Colony arc, out for revenge on Maki.
• Iron Woobie: Yuji is constantly subjected to horrible trauma over the course of the series, especially from Shibuya onwards. But no matter what he gets put through, he never breaks and keeps going through sheer force of will.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Despite the series having many truly monstrous villains ranging from sadistic mass murderers to Omnicidal Maniacs, some of the most hated characters in the series are Shota Ito and his gang of bullies for the abuse they put Junpei. By contrast, Mahito, who's a sadistic Cursed Spirit who revels in inflicting Body Horror and Fates Worse Than Death on his victims along with being the one who actually kills Junpei, is one of the most popular and well-liked villains in the series. Reasons for this being that while Mahito is certainly much worse, his villainy is of the kind that most people will have no experience with, and he's a case fo Evil Is Cool and Creepy Awesome, so it's hard not to like him, in spite of his actions.
• Just Here for Godzilla: To the annoyance of Gege Akutami, many fans are solely interested in Satoru Gojo due to his handsome appearance and utterly incredible power. While Gojo is a fan-favorite in pretty much all circles, there's a vocal group of fans that don't care about the rest of the cast and are only interested in seeing more of Gojo, leading Gojo to constantly win popularity polls and be touted as one of the most badass characters in shonen history. This actually led to some complaining when Gojo was sealed away in the prison dimension. Akutami, meanwhile, publicly stated how happy he was about the event.
• LGBT Fanbase:
  • The second Yuji appeared shirtless... oh, it was on. Doesn't help that the majority of the male cast is very attractive, the manga being filled with pretty boys and muscular men (especially Aoi from the Kyoto school).
  • Jujutsu High third-year Kirara Hoshi is a character of Ambiguous Gender Identity (presenting as female, despite Panda insisting that they are male) and appears to be in a relationship with the muscular Kinji Hakari, getting even more of a fanbase.
• Love to Hate:
  • Sukuna is an unrepentant Card-Carrying Villain who constantly plans to kill Yuji's friends , even laughed at his suffering when one of them died and manages to kill Satoru Gojo. In spite of this, it's this audacious and unrepentant Jerkass traits that make him compelling.
  • Mahito is a sociopathic monster who corrupts a young man into misanthropy under the guise of friendship and causes one of the series notable Tear Jerker moments by killing that same young man just after the latter was starting to become nicer thanks to Yuji's influence, even indulging in laughing at it. He also has a habit of making others undergo Body Horror For the Evulz. It's due to these very traits and Lovecraftian Superpower that he's considered to be a compelling villain and Yuji's definitive Arch-Enemy.

M-V

• Magnificent Bastard: Toji Fushiguro, the "Sorcerer Killer," is a master assassin who will kill anyone for the right price. The only human being with no Cursed Energy, Toji compensates with raw physical prowess and cold tactical skill. After years of killing powerful Sorcerers, Toji takes a job to kill the young Riko Amanai. First tiring out her guards by putting up a bounty weeks in advance, Toji attacks when they seem at their weakest. After personally taking out her guards, including two of the most prodigal Sorcerers in Japan, Toji manages to kill Riko. When cornered by Satoru Gojo, Toji is undone by his newfound power, using his last words to tell Gojo of the son he abandoned. Revived in Shibuya, Toji is cursed to find and kill the strongest fighters he can. While doing this, Toji tracks down the Disaster Curse Dagon and viciously exorces it before then turning his attention to his own son Megumi. Upon realizing Megumi's identity, Toji musters the willpower to end his own life, telling his son how happy he is that he didn't end up in the clutches of the cruel Zen'in Clan.
• Memetic Badass:
  • Jogo^note Commonly referred to as "Jogoat". While he legitimately is very strong in canon, fans commonly joke that he's secretly the strongest character in the story, only losing against Gojo and Sukuna because he was holding back.
  • Miwa got this treatment (while being a Memetic Loser) after her encounter against Kenjaku, who tried to kill her using Maximum: Uzumaki. While Kenjaku's actual purpose was to extract Mahito's Idle Transfiguration technique and Miwa just happened to be the closest opponent to him, the internet jokingly interpreted that Kenjaku saw Miwa as a danger (with some people putting her power even above Sukuna's level) and forced him to use his best move against her.
• Memetic Loser:
  • Megumi Fushiguro has become infamous for attempting a Taking You with Me ploy the moment he starts losing a battle (read: most of them), by summoning an incredibly powerful, but uncontrollable summon (Mahoraga). Most notoriously, he tries summoning it during a brief sparring match against Todo in the school, and later in Shibuya, actually summoning it against a small time Mook, which leads to Sukuna obliterating most of the city. Even Gojo became aware of this extreme self-sacrificial nature, and tells Megumi to stop trying to throw his life away for no reason. Needless to say, this has been exaggerated to humorous effect by fans, joking about how Megumi would start the summoning at even the slightest inconvenience. This got worse during the Culling Games, where he gets possessed by Sukuna, bathed in cursed energy, finds out his sister was possessed, is forced to kill her, and is in the process of being killed by Gojo, only for it to backfire and basically Forced to Watch Sukuna killing his father-figure instead, while being used earlier to shield Sukuna from most of Unlimited Void's negative effects several times.
  • Hajime "Old MacDonald" Kashimo got hit with this hard after not even lasting two chapters against Sukuna, despite all the hype he has gotten. And just to twist the knife further, Yuji, Yuta, Maki, and even Higurama all got good showings against Sukuna as the fight progressed, which just made Kashimo's performance look even worse by comparison. Jokes are abound with him being a Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond that only seemed strong because he fought against farmers doing jujutsu as a hobby and other such weaklings.
  • A rare case of a character being both this and Memetic Badass: Jogo is a very powerful spirit, potentially the strongest of the Disaster Curses... who also has the bad luck of picking the worst possible opponents he's vastly outclassed by.
  • Miwa ended up with this reputation soon after her debut, particularly after she herself said she was "Useless Miwa" and was stuck sleeping during the attack by Hanami. While initially it was in good jest and owed to her being adorkable to the fans, it became a lot more serious following the events of Shibuya. Mechamaru being killed after it's made clear she did reciprocate his feelings; entering a Binding Vow that forbid her from ever touching a katana again in an attempt to kill Kenjaku only for him to easily block it, rendering her efforts a Senseless Sacrifice; getting what looked like a teaser of her in the Culling Game only for it to amount to nothing; etc. Miwa tends to now be seen as "useless" due to her being one of the bigger examples of Gege Akutani creating interesting characters and not knowing what to do with them.
  • In general, the Kyoto class sans Todo and Mechamaru became regarded as this following the anime adaptation of the Shibuya Incident, due to largely failing to accomplish anything and ignoring Mechamaru’s plans.
  • Gege Akutami himself has slowly gained this reputation as the series draws to a close, most infamously due to his well known disdain for the series' most popular character: Satoru Gojo. Gege has made it no secret he dislikes Gojo, even telling readers to vote for Nanami after Gojo won the Jump Festa poll in a landslide, seemingly just so he can draw Gojo looking dejected when someone else beats him.^*Though it wasn't Nanami who beat him, it was Itadori and Megumi So after Gojo was Killed Offscreen in Chapter 236, many began joking that Gege was deliberately going out of his way to screw over Gojo and his fans by giving him more negative depictions posthumously. Fans cite Gojo's racism (by ignorance, but still racism) during a flashback about Miguel's abilities as an example, plus how Gege drew him Off-Model on the cover for Volume 26 so he wouldn't be a bishounen anymore. The general idea of an author going to such lengths to make their readers dislike a character as much as they themselves do alone is hard to take seriously.
• Memetic Mutation: Has its own page.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Jogo crosses it in his introduction when in a fit of intense emotion, he causes an entire restaurant's worth of people to burn to death from the exposure to his flames.
  • Mahito crosses it with his treatment of Junpei causing the death of his mother, orchestrating the events leading to Junpei and Yuji fighting each other, all culminating in finally killing the boy in a nasty manner while laughing at his demise.
  • Toji Fushiguro crosses this instantly when he murders Riko.
  • Suguru Geto spends most of his time being Affably Evil, with all the evil he commits being aimed to achieve his goals. Then, however, it's revealed that he's not actually Geto, but the Sorcerer Kenjaku, and one of his identities was Noritoshi Kamo, the "most evil Sorcerer of his era." While that alone is nasty, it's the revelation that, in that time, he forcibly impregnated a woman and removed the fetuses nine times in a row that brutally tears apart any illusion that he's redeemable.
  • If Sukuna didn't cross it by laughing at Junpei's death and refusing Yuji's pleads to heal the former then he sure as hell crossed it when he murdered thousands of innocents that were caught in his domain at Shibuya and then making Yuji see the carnage for himself to break the poor boy.
• Narm:
  • The climax of the first opening features rapid-fire cuts of various side characters showing off and looking cool in front of the camera... until it cuts to a distance shot of what looks like a CGI Panda inexplicably doing parkour on the rooftops.
  • After Sukuna gives Yuji control of his body after straight-up erasing a large part of Shibuya, Yuji starts to breakdown crying. In the anime, this is underscored with the season's opening "SPECIALZ". While the lyrics of the song fit the scene, the song itself does not, and it results in a jarring contrast that would've been avoided with a song that better fit the tone of the scene or simply having complete silence.
• One True Threesome:
  • Megumi/Yuji/Nobara is pretty popular for obvious reasons as well due to their great chemistry as a group.
  • Also, Gojo, Geto and Shoko.
• Self-Fanservice: Hiromi Higuruma is a middle-aged man, with large, tired eyes, small pupils and a large nose. He's also a very well-liked character, and while most fans aim to keep these traits about him out of respect, a faction makes him more conventionally attractive for self-shipping reasons.
• Ships That Pass in the Night: Kento Nanami was dead by the time Hiromi Higuruma first appeared, meaning the two would never meet, but that didn't stop the fans from jumping on board and it's the latter's most popular ship.
• Signature Scene:
  • The first Gojo vs Jogo fight, specifically the moment the former removes his blindfold and activates his Unlimited Void, completely suppressing the latter's Domain Expansion.
  • The ending of the Hidden Inventory arc, where Gojo, on a Power High after recovering from nearly being killed by Toji, challenges him to a rematch where he destroys him using Hollow Purple. The scene is a huge Awesome Moment, and Gojo quoting the Buddha ("Throughout Heaven and Earth, I alone am the honored one...") became a very popular meme.
  • Yuji vs. Mahito in Shibuya is considered by many to be the highlight battle of the "Shibuya Incident" arc, which is already packed to the brim with memorable fights. The growing enmity between the bitter enemies is given the climactic payoff it deserves in a richly gripping and emotional fight that closes out the series' most pivotal arc.
  • For better or for worse, Gojo vs Sukuna became one of the most discussed in the entire series, in no small part for its extremely controversial conclusion.
• Signature Series Arc: The Shibuya Incident. With nearly sixty chapters, this arc is the culmination of the first half of the series. An all-out war breaks out between the sorcerers and villains, resulting in back-to-back memorable battles that continually escalate the power system to new heights. Emotions run equally high, with every side facing major casualties— with Yuji getting hit hardest. The sheer impact of Shibuya completely changed the course of the manga, and it’s universally considered to be the definitive arc of Jujutsu Kaisen and something like the Sanctuary Arc or Chimera Ant Arc of the early 20's.
• Spiritual Successor: For some, this series fills in the void left by Hunter × Hunter. Particularly, the way it pulls off its complex supernatural fights.
• Squick:
  • Though the anime has been otherwise well-received, MAPPA's adaptation added some scenes with Gojo leaning in uncomfortably close to Yuji and Yuji even blushing faintly on occasion. This did not go well with some people, considering Yuji is a minor and Gojo is an adult, as the latter's behavior toward Yuji can come off as flirty at times. After Episode 2 premiered, some on Twitter have taken to expressing their discomfort about the scenes. There are people in both the west and Japan who took the scene nicely, however, for obvious reasons.
  • While Mei Mei is a well-liked character for certain reasons, her relationship with her little brother Ui Ui is quite... uncomfortable, to say the least. Initially, most fans didn't bat an eye to their rather close relationship, chalking it up to Undying Loyalty, which may be partially due to how female perpetrators of sexual harrassment isn't taken as seriously as it would with male perpetrators. However, in Chapter 133, both were shown in bed together, complete with them teasing each other and Ui Ui blushing furiously. The Incest Subtext, not to mention the fact that Ui Ui is a child, did not go over well with fans. Those who were uncomfortable with their relationship from the beginning have interpreted this scene as a possibility of Mei Mei grooming him.
• The Problem with Licensed Games: The arena fighter Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash is considered to be very shoddy and poorly-made, with boring game modes and uninspired gameplay. It ended up hitting a record for most Steam refunds in 4 days, and many people consider it to be 2024's successor to The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. Even among Bandai Namco's usual forgettable anime tie-in fare, Cursed Clash stands out as one of the absolute worst and most hated.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Generally speaking, the series' extreme willingness to kill off characters is a point of division for many. Although it certainly gives the story a sense of high stakes as most characters can be killed off at a moment's notice, it also means that many promising characters are either killed off or written out of the story without meeting their full potential.
  • Hanami the forest curse. After showing to be a tough enemy in the Kyoto Goodwill Event arc and revealing a more sympathetic reason to want humans gone unlike the sheer misanthropy and cruelty of Jogo and Mahito (showing the possibility of curses being more than purely chaotic beings), he's mercilessly destroyed by Gojo in his next major appearance during the early stage of the Shibuya arc before his character could have been fleshed out more. To make matters worse, we never get to see his Domain Expansion, making the audience miss what could have been an interesting technique.
  • The ocean curse, Dagon, also qualifies to a lesser extent. He spends his first appearances as a silent, non-sapient creature that despite being one of the strongest curses spends most of the time in the background. When he finally have has the chance to fight in Shibuya, he evolves into a proper curse and shows to be very strong by coming close to defeating Nanami, Maki, Naobito and Fushiguro by himself, apart of developing into a serious yet passionate fighter who holds his fellow curses in high regard and possessing a terrifying ability. However, he's suddenly killed by a revived Toji Fushiguro before more could be done with his character, being finished off in his first and only battle.
  • Suguru Geto's original followers are this, as they don't have a proper place in the narrative following the end of 0 and his death. Which is all the more jarring since that film ended with Gojo confirming that they all survived the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons and managed to get away.
    • Of them, Nanako and Mimiko specifically presented the possibility of playing an interesting Wild Card role in the narrative during Shibuya. Their loyalty did not lie with curses, curse users, or humanity, but solely on Geto, as they played a crucial role in his Start of Darkness, since saving them is what made him turn against humanity, which ironically serves to humanize who was up to that point the major villain of the story. Their support for Kenjaku's plan was entirely hinging on the fact that he would return Geto to them on completion and turn against him the second they realize he doesn't intend to go through with it. Alas, however, they are killed as soon as they wake up Sukuna and do little to nothing in the plot.
    • Manami Suda and Toshihisa Negi also return during the Shibuya Incident, where it's revealed they've chosen to align with Kenjaku because they believe the world Kenjaku seeks to make comes closest to that Geto wanted to create. No sooner are they reintroduced and prepare to fight Kusakabe and Panda, then they're caught in the crossfire of Sukuna and Jogo's duel. Like Kusakabe and Panda, Sukuna prevents them from running from Jogo's Maximum: Meteor attack until seconds before impact. While the former two are able to escape unscathed, neither Manami nor Toshihisa are confirmed to have survived, nor are they ever shown working with Kenjaku again even when they could've been supporting villains. On top of that, they are very casually revealed to have been killed offscreen by Jogo's Meteor well over a hundred chapters.
    • Miguel and Larue are revealed to only have been personally loyal to Geto himself, not to his genocidal ideology, which is why neither of them continue their villainy following Geto's death. Despite Miguel being a sorcerer powerful enough to stall Satoru Gojo of all people during the events of 0, and implied to have become friends with Yuta Okkotsu, he doesn't return for the events of Shibuya or afterwards. Larue, meanwhile, is implied to have performed a full Heel–Face Turn, siding with Yuki Tsukumo and helping her save Todo, Mai and Miwa from Kenjaku. However, after Shibuya, he too disappears even though Yuki remains a supporting character in the fight against Kenjaku. Bizarrely, Miguel and Larue actually do return in the battle against Sukuna despite their extremely minor role in the story prior to that point. Even stranger is that they actually do end up taking on a helpful, if minor, role in the heroes' fight.
  • This was a complaint some had for the Zen'in clan members introduced following the Shibuya arc. While it would be hard to find someone who didn't think their fates were deserved, many felt they didn't receive enough characterization before their deaths at Maki's hands.
  • Yuki Tsukumo, one of the four Special Grade Sorcerers. After appearing sporadically in flashbacks before Shibuya, she makes her official debut in the modern day right at the tail end of that arc to save Itadori and the other survivors from Kenjaku. Quite a big mystery is built around who she is and what she's been spending all this time doing but after this, she's taken off the board to act as a guard to Tengen. Only returning once more to be killed after a vicious battle with Kenjaku. More than a few fans expressed shock and disappointment at this outcome. In all fairness, however, it is shown that Yuki continues to have an influence on the story even after her death, much like her ideological foil Kenjaku. Although Yuki herself is never able to see the fruits of her labor, her research on the soul proves to be vital in the heroes' battle against Sukuna, allowing them to figure out how to weaken his connection to Megumi's body and progressively weaken the King of Curses until he's at a manageable level.
  • Although billed as one of the manga's main characters Nobara Kugisaki is "killed" by Mahito before she can really get much development or do much in the story. It doesn't help that the story has had a couple hints that she might be alive, but hasn't confirmed her status one way or another over a hundred chapters later.
  • The Kyoto students post-Shibuya. Despite having interesting designs, powersets, and being overall popular characters, their relevance takes a nosedive during and after Shibuya. Muta is killed in A Death in the Limelight facing Mahito, Mai is killed by her father and it comes off more as killing her solely to benefit Maki's character, Momo is just sorta there among the protagonists, Miwa gets a moment during the Culling Game suggesting her own role to play only to later reveal she's unable to use a katana anymore after accidentally invoking a Binding Vow fighting Kenjaku, Noritoshi briefly returns to aid Maki against Naoya only to leave again to protect his mother and brother, and Todo is never seen again after losing his hand in the fight against Mahito. To say many found their abruptly disappearing from the story or being Demoted to Extra disappointing is an understatement.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Despite the first two episodes making a big deal about finding Ryomen Sukuna's fingers and feeding them to Yuji, for the ultimate goal of destroying both the demon and the vessel at once, this very quickly ceases to be an actual plot point in the story. The Fingers are essentially treated as random objects that some characters either just have or stumble across and their recovery doesn't have much significance outside of a general sense of foreboding with the exception of Shibuya, where Itadori is forcefed about 10. Some fans have expressed a desire for the show to have rather been hinged around Yuji finding each finger individually, maybe even using a Monster of the Week format for each encounter.
  • During the Shibuya Incident, Gojo's words of encouragement are enough to momentarily awaken Suguru Geto, allowing him to briefly seize control of his body back from Kenjaku and attempt to strangle the Curse User that's been using his corpse as a puppet. Kenjaku himself is astonished at this, saying no one has ever been able to do that before. One would think Geto Fighting from the Inside and Gojo being the trigger allowing him to do so is a set-up that would pay off down the line, perhaps in a crucial moment that allows Kenjaku to be defeated. Instead it never comes up again (except perhaps subtly in the confrontation between Takaba and Kenjaku if one accepts that Geto is more likely to have had an interest in contemporary Japanese comedy, and being part of a double act as nostalgia for the time of him working with Gojo, than a 1,000 year old body surfing sorcerer and that it is this remnant of Geto’s soul within his body that enables Takaba’s soul resonance to serve as such an effective distraction) and Geto's body is seemingly finished off for good when Okkotsu decapitates him.
  • During the Culling Game, there's a subplot in which Kenjaku manipulates the United States government, making them aware of the existence of Cursed Energy to provoke them into sending soldiers in to the Culling Game. Despite this idea having a ton of potential, a few chapters later Kenjaku reveals that he's only doing this to give the colonies an extra bit of Cursed Energy to start the merger, and all the soldiers are quickly taken out by the cursed spirits roaming the colonies. Unsurprisingly, many were rather disappointed that the story introduced such an interesting idea, only to immediately drop it after the fact. It's also unclear what actually happened to all the soldiers. Sure, a lot were clearly wiped out but a few looked like they were meant to become major characters. Then there's the question of what the governments of all these countries who sent in troops are going to do once they get no word back. Somewhat humorously, author Gege Akutami heavily implied in the Volume 23 extras that the reason he didn't do more with this plotline was because the army's uniforms and vehicles were a pain to draw.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Post Shibuya, some fans felt this towards the series due to Gege's copious tendency to kill off main cast members, Nobara's being a prime example,. More fans started feeling this over the course of Culling Games, with Gojo's death causing a lot of readers to stop caring about the series altogether.
• Too Cool to Live:
  • Kento Nanami. A level-headed mentor with a very powerful ability, unique mindset and personal connection to Yuji. His death at Mahito's hands cements how dangerous the latter truly is and what Yuji needs to do in order to overcome the Curse.
  • Masamichi Yaga. A Reasonable Authority Figure who is one of the few people who understands Gojo's true intentions and possessing an extremely potent Cursed Technique, is executed by Gakuganji simply because he was associated with Gojo, who was blamed for the Shibuya Incident.
• Ugly Cute: Dagon qualifies for this in his Cursed Womb form, with a stubby body, timid demeanor, large eyes and (in the anime) childlike voice.
• Unpopular Popular Character
  • In-universe, Aoi Todo is heavily disliked for his odd behavior, violent tendencies, and almost delusional obsession with his favorite idol. With the fandom, these are the same traits that make him absolutely hilarious, and a favorite for many as a result.
  • Satoru Gojo, to a lesser extent. Characters such as Utahime, Ijichi, and Megumi express displeasure with his personality and attitude. The higher-ups don't seem to be fond of him at all, and even his closest friend, Geto, wasn't above fighting with him at times in their earlier years. Fans love him however, and he's one of the series' most popular, if not, the most popular character.
  • Mahito is justifiably hated for being a sadistic killer and causing Yuji endless amounts of suffering. He's still one of the most popular characters in the series.
  • Kinji Hakari, like Todo and Gojo is disliked by his peers and juniors and even more so by the leaders of Jujutsu Society due to his modern and confusing Cursed Technique clashing with their conservative ideals and him beating up one of them leading to his suspension from the school. He rapidly became one of the most popular characters in the series.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Hanami is voiced by Atsuko Tanaka and Marie Westbrook in Japanese and English respectively, who give him a smooth, feminine voice, which leads some viewers to believe he is female. However, he has a masculine figure and other characters refer to him as male.

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