Few manga in recent years have had more divisive endings than Jujutsu Kaisen's. After the announcement of its last final chapters and its impending conclusion, the series came under intense scrutiny as mangaka Gege Akutami was accused of rushing the story to a close and leaving behind loose ends. To make matters worse, certain surprise events—like the unexpected return of Nobara Kugisaki—were essentially called shoehorned-in fanservice, while Gege's failure to deliver other major events (such as, say, finding a way to bring Satoru Gojo back into the story) would draw criticism from the opposite direction.

With any series, it's hard to make an entirely appropriate ending that will leave every fan satisfied. The release of Jujutsu Kaisen's final volume included an epilogue as well as an afterword from Gege himself, showing how he internalized and responded to fans' responses surrounding the series. While some are satisfied with the expansion of the series' ending and others are empathetic to Gege's plight and pressures as the mangaka behind a surprisingly successful franchise, I think a lot of people miss something incredibly important: Jujutsu Kaisen's ending was already ridiculously strong, but tragically misunderstood.

Jujutsu Kaisen's New Afterword Gives Revealing Insight Into The Manga's Creation

Nonetheless, It Doesn't Say What Fans Want It To Say

Perhaps it would accurately sum up Gege Akutami's feelings about Jujutsu Kaisen's ending to quote him referring to the entire series as "pissed out"—a vibrant analogy, no doubt. But there's a latent worry that fans might draw too much from this, seeing it as a declaration of Gege's dissatisfaction with the end of Jujutsu Kaisen. There's no question that Gege offers a frank insight into the pressures he faced as the mangaka behind a massive franchise, a huge calling for anybody—no less for a relatively young and inexperienced mangaka.

However, as Gege refers to the fact that Jujutsu Kaisen was tailored at great pains to meet the demands of the huge readership that drives the success of Shōnen Jump (and Jujutsu Kaisen itself), he also doesn't compromise on the original ending. Indeed, through his farewell to Gojo and his recognition of the difficulties he faced in the final chapters of the manga, Gege doesn't once take back any of his storytelling decisions. It's inarguable that Jujutsu Kaisen's final chapters were rushed, as one writer shows with a thorough investigation of the artstyle changes between the chapter releases and the final versions featured in the volume release.

Overall, a perceived "dip in quality" is notable, as the volume releases bring a significant clarity and contrast that's lacking in the sometimes-rough s of the chapter releases. However, fans who regret the "rushed" nature of the ending or Gege's troubles with the pressures of the manga industry undermine one of Jujutsu Kaisen's central themes—that sometimes, despite how unpleasant they are, things simply are as they are. They're there in the world to be taken or left.

Jujutsu Kaisen's New Epilogues Are Great, But Unnecessary

There's No Such Thing As A Truly Satisfying Ending, But Focus Is Important

Jujutsu Kaisen is no exception. It's the hard-earned result of Gege's tireless work, and it's worth recalling that even if a certain precision is lost in the way the final chapters play out, Gege never once "lost control" of his narrative. The mangaka always possessed and exercised a total control over Jujutsu Kaisen's story, including any warts in its execution. And now, even though its execution might not be perfect, it remains a sterling reflection of the actual conditions that produced the manga, rather than an idealistic send-off to some perfect, ideal narrative that never existed. Its warts are the marks of its creator.z

This extends to its epilogue. Although it's satisfying in many ways to gain additional context for characters like Yuta, Sukuna, or Yuji, it's also not necessary from a storytelling perspective. Jujutsu Kaisen's original ending is a lesson in brevity: in spite of being in such a condition that chapters are "pissed out", Gege's narrative intentions are executed with unabiding clarity. It might even be the case that "pissing the chapters out" helped the story; without meandering, Gege hits story-beat after story-beat.

Fans don't like to realize that there is an alternative, and the epilogue gives an uncomfortable look at what it could be. No story is ever completely finished, and every character provides a lifetime of possible stories to be told. Naruto is an example, perhaps, of a story that can meander too far into tangential backstories and asides that distract from its main plot points. Against Naruto, Jujutsu Kaisen projects the complete opposite: an ending that is tight to a fault, sticking to its narrative beats and refusing to get caught up in character minutiae. Whether one likes this or hates it, it's a worthy approach to storytelling on its own.

Jujutsu Kaisen's Ending Was Already Great, Even If Fans Didn't Get It

Proximity To Release Can Cloud Judgment Of A Story's Value

Allow me to quickly tell a story about a manga called JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. When JoJo got its famously successful anime adaptation, it was just starting off with Jojolion—its eighth part, and also its longest-running. Jojolion came out with a chapter every month from 2011 to 2021, about a year into COVID. Long story short, it absorbed much of the viewership bump that JoJo obtained from both its anime release and pandemic-time indoor anime binging.

The problem with Jojolion is that it's brilliant, but it's also slow-paced. Especially as its mystery branches out and unfolds in its later chapters, a monthly chapter could be fairly boring on its own, and the wait for the next chapter would be excruciating. Although a good number of JoJo fans came to love Jojolion during its release, I and many others felt that it was on the slower end.

Now, Jojolion is a completely different animal when tackled as a binge-read, especially if one picks up its colored version. It's enthralling, engaging, and the chapters which formerly felt somewhat dragging and detached start to feel really cohesive and like ingenious entries in a long, meticulous narrative. The moral of the story is that the context around how one experiences a story really has an impact on how the story hits.

I think the same will be true for Jujutsu Kaisen. When one knows that only a handful of chapters are left and there's a laundry list of scenes one wants to see happen before that final chapter finally hits, things like Nobara's return or the reflection on Gojo by the main trio can fall flat. A huge fight, like Yuji and Sukuna's final standoff, can feel either rushed and lazy, or compact, intense, and concise—all depending on how one is actually reading the story at that point in time.

Jujutsu Kaisen's ending is still remarkably fresh. Still, I actually feel that as time es, jaded expectations fall to the wayside (as does the discourse surrounding the ending). Volume releases or anime adaptations allow the story to be consumed all at once, scenes that formerly felt rushed will be allowed to have the full fanfare they always deserved. Jujutsu Kaisen's ending isn't just focused. One of the most remarkable things about it is how efficiently Gege used the remaining space he had to finish out the story and laser in on the themes he wanted to express.

Jujutsu Kaisen's epilogue and afterword are beautiful, but I worry they draw attention away and promote misinterpretation of a story that was, by all means, beautiful. I've always vehemently defended Jujutsu Kaisen's ending, and I'll continue to do so now. These new additions, while welcome, don't invite a reinterpretation of the ending, nor do they represent the repentant reworking of a story mishandled by Gege, tragically wet behind the ears. They do the very opposite; Gege claims the story he told. "This is the end of the Jujutsu Kaisen I have drawn,"

he says, without apologies or uncertainty.