i pay $3 a month for a digital weekly shonen jump subscription (the only wsj worth paying for) but i only read chainsaw man, which like, that's still a pretty fucking good deal considering how much i love it. anyway, i thought i should finally check out even a single other currently running jump manga!
jujutsu kaisen is getting an anime adaptation this october (spookee) and it's about demons and stuff so i gave it a shot and then uh, read all 117 currently released chapters in 3 days. the monster designs are stellar, both gross and creepy, and i like that they're "curses" born from human emotion and conflict. pretty fun! it hits all your favorite battle shonen tropes: magical high school, angsty deuteragonist with a mysterious past, overwhelmingly OP teacher, but it manages to avoid my least favorite battle shonen trope: insufferable main character. yes, the main character is likable! he's not the smartest, strongest, or crybabiest, he's just a good kid trying his best and he is NOT ANNOYING.
it's still a pretty new series, even though it's already hit a ton of satisfying payoffs already, so i'm cautiously optimistic about long-term pacing. i really like a series that ends but that's the risk of wsj popularity. if the anime adaptation is successful at bringing in new fans, maybe this will be another series that will never end. or maybe it'll follow the lead of the new crop of jump manga that told the story it came to tell and ended on its own terms (e.g. demon slayer, promised neverland, and *fingers crossed* chainsaw man?????).
a couple other thoughts: