Culture News Jujutsu Kaisen: the manga answers one of the biggest questions asked by fans
Published on 01/17/2023 at 10:31
How Strong Are Jujutsu Kaisen Exorcists? A question that must often turn in the minds of manga fans, which is being addressed by Gege Akutami.
Summary
Ranks in manga, something very recurrentIs an army enough to defeat the strongest characters in Jujutsu Kaisen?
Attention spoilers
The article below is about advanced scenes from the manga Jujutsu Kaisen. It is therefore not recommended for those who want to retain the pleasure of discovery to read its content.
Ranks in manga, something very recurrent
The rank system in Shônen manga (a term used to refer to manga aimed at young boys) has always been used in successful works. Whether in Naruto with its ranking of ninjas (Genin, Chunin), One Piece and the bonuses or Food Wars with its numbered places, readers are often intrigued by how the protagonist will climb the ladder little by little. Something that also uses one of the most popular manga of recent years: Jujutsu Kaisen.
Without going back over the entire story, Gege Akutami’s manga follows the story of Ryûji Itadori: a high school student with superhuman strength, a series of events pushes him to eat one of the twenty fingers of the demon king Sakuna . He will then cohabit with the evil entity and be recruited by the school of exorcism in Tokyo. The latter offers him an ultimatum: either he helps her destroy the other fingers by swallowing them (which poses a risk to his life), or she kills him. Back to the wall, Itadori accepts and joins the school in first year. He then discovers that there are many exorcists, all classified according to ranks:
Grade 4 – A wooden bat is enoughGrade 3 – If you have a handgun, don’t worrySemi-Grade 2Grade 2 – Keep it tight with a shotgunSemi-Grade 1Grade 1 – Even a tank might be insufficientSpecial Grade 1Special Grade – A bombardment through the air could walk
To advance to a higher rank, you “just” need a recommendation from a higher-ranking exorcist. But you will have to prove yourself to deserve the higher ranks, especially since the differences are colossal: you have to prove your resistance to a shotgun to benefit from grade 2, or even to a tank for grade 1.
Is one army enough to defeat the strongest characters in Jujutsu Kaisen?
A resistance highlighted in the last chapters of Jujutsu Kaisen which answers a question from fans raised since the highlighting of this rank system. Which characters could resist soldiers? Beginning in chapter 209, the US military invades Japan in order to harvest the cursed energy of those involved in the Death Hunt story arc. She manages to capture some of the weaker ones (even if she is sometimes forced to kill them) but quickly falls on a bone.
Indeed, Itadori and company prove their skills in repelling the army’s efforts. The next chapters should therefore be particularly crisp to follow since the American army seems to be an adversary of choice for the exorcists and this for several reasons. She is superior in number, has annoying firearms for our heroes and remains limited in her actions: again, she must not kill them but harvest their energy. It remains to be seen how far the military will go for special rank individuals like Satoru, capable of overthrowing a country single-handedly and withstanding a tank or a bombardment.
A narrative arc that should not be adapted to television anytime soon: season 2 of the anime, expected in April 2023, must cover the Shibuya narrative arc.
