This may come as a bit surprising to some of you, but Jujutsu Kaisen is the most popular anime in the world. I’m not exaggerating, nor am I just biased and gibberish: the real Guinness Book of World Records says so. The organization revealed last week that a data science company found the show’s “global demand ratings are 71.2 times higher than the average TV show.” This demand is based on factors such as “how much attention, engagement, desire and viewership consumers express for the content.”
Yes, that means it’s more popular than heavyweight games like Attack on Titan and long-running series like One Piece. In fact, One Piece was the more popular show until around July of last year – of course, that was before season two kicked off with the extremely popular Hidden Inventory storyline. Since then, we’ve seen a full season of impeccable animation, more than one cosplay from Megan Thee Stallion, and intense weekly chapters born out of Twitter and TikTok The whole meme culture. It’s a great time for Jujutsu Kaisen, with the series on the verge of joining the likes of My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and Attack on Titan in the top 100 million-selling manga series. Honestly? I can’t think of any series more deserving of its popularity.
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I do understand that Jiu Jitsu Kaisen is not suitable for every situation. It had several disturbing character deaths, it felt like any actual victories for the characters never lasted too long, and some people even disliked Yuuji Itadori as the protagonist, finding him a bit bland. But for those who like it, like myself, it’s a real hit. In particular, I think Yuuji is one of the best shounen protagonists and probably one of my favorites.
The litmus test for teenage protagonists is that they are strong, happy, not shy about crying for their friends, and always find a way to stand out. Yuuji is certainly the first three things, but he doesn’t really do the last one, and I think he’s a lot better than your typical shounen protagonist anyway.
A scene takes place after Hidden Inventory in the anime where Yuuji meets his old classmate. It is worth noting that this classmate was once fat and ostracized because of his weight, but when asked who Yuji would date in class (even though he was not very interested in dating), he chose her. Not as a joke, not in any way malicious, just because he sees people for who they are and not some label the world might put on them.
Later, when he became a magician, he met that classmate again, although she had lost weight and looked completely different. Yuuji recognizes her immediately, though, as he sees her soul again, and it’s a truly thoughtful moment that’s a thousand times better than how many teenagers have dealt with obesity before.
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I think this goes hand-in-hand with the theme of the show, which has characters who often risk their lives for others simply because they care about everyone’s quality of life. Changing the status quo is a recurring idea, and handsome boy Satoru Gojo tries many times to impress his students in a way that benefits everyone, including those on the fringes of society, the rejected, and the marginalized.
While I’d like to further explore how these themes are explored, I’d be veering into manga spoiler territory, so for the sake of just watching the anime, I won’t be doing that, but despite the impression many people have that Jujutsu Kaisen is just a show A frustrated fighting boy, it’s actually a pretty subtle but powerful anti-conservative text in a way that I rarely see in mainstream comics. So, yes, I know One Piece fans will be annoyed that their favorite series they swear by isn’t at the top after the first 300 episodes, but personally, I’m glad that spot belongs to Jujutsu Kaisen. We just hope it stays that way.
