Spoiler Alert !!!
The following article contains major spoilers from Jujutsu Kaisen manga. Read ahead at your own discretion!
Jujutsu Kaisen is a series notorious for killing characters left and right, and Gege Akutami loves to make fans cry by doing so. Look no further than the Shibuya arc. At least a thousand people were mercilessly killed, including fan favorites like Nanami Kento, Mahito, and Nobara Kugisaki. Sure, Nobara had returned later to help kill Sukuna in the final arc out of nowhere, she was basically absent for a long time.
But what I personally feel, along with many other fans, is that Gege killed many characters too soon. I mean, look at Yuki Tsukumo, for instance. Upon her introduction in the Hidden Inventory arc, many were curious to learn more about Yuki and her notorious powers. However, fans didn’t get much of an opportunity to connect with her character, as Yuki died in her first major battle against Kenjaku.
Why these character deaths in Jujutsu Kaisen were unnecessary or too soon
Same applies for folks like Nanami, Nobara, Yui Haibara, Choso, and Kenjaku. Nanami was literally going to complete his character arc by doing his job, finishing Yuji’s training, and going to Malaysia for retirement. Sure, a lot of fans feel the timing of his death was justified, I feel he should have stayed on to complete Yuji’s training arc because Gojo was too busy being trapped in the Prison Realm.
Instead, Gege Akutami speed ran Yuji’s growth in strength and suddenly introduced new powers out of nowhere during the final fight with Sukuna. Although Nobara did have some sort of sendoff, her return was an asspull through and through with zero explanation provided by the author. Haibara didn’t even get through his first year at the school before dying on a random mission. His death merely served as a plot device for Nanami and Suguru Geto to kickstart their character arcs.
Choso’s death, in particular, left fans disheartened with how little closure his character has received due to dying so abruptly. Right after Choso sacrifices himself, his place by Yuji’s side is taken by Todo, someone who fills a similar “older brother” role to the protagonist, which made Choso’s death feel even more inconsequential. Similarly, Kenjaku’s death wasn’t satisfying at all considering the expectations of him returning to carry out his master plan. Later, it turned out that his master plan had no backing whatsoever and merely ended for Yuji and the others to get into another random mission, keeping aside the whole incident without any further thought.
How Gege Akutami picks characters to kill in Jujutsu Kaisen
This goes back to the reasoning Gege uses to kill the characters they created. At the latest Jujutsu Kaisen Exhibit in Japan, Gege explains why they left Mei-Mei to live on and not kill her in the Shibuya arc.
I don’t think a character should die if readers don’t feel any emotion for them like sadness.
This is similar to how Chainsaw Man author Tatsuki Fujimoto would treat his characters as well. Killing Himeno in the most heartbreaking way after making us attached to the character was, in a way, cruel. But that was just the start, as Fujimoto went on to make Denji kill Aki and Makima kill Power. But unlike Gege, Fujimoto killed these characters in a satisfying way that made sense. They weren’t robbed off their character developments and went off in a way that I felt was something beautiful.
Since Gege affirmed that Jujutsu Kaisen won’t be coming back at all, it’s safe to say that none of these characters, like Kenjaku or Sukuna, will have their backstories elaborated, and the series remains to be a mere battle shonen with no major plot.
Jujutsu Kaisen is now available to watch on Crunchyroll and Netflix.
