Jujutsu Kaisen Might Not be Following in Masashi Kishimoto’s Footsteps After Gege Akutami’s Editor Forced Them to Change the Manga’s Entire Concept

Jujutsu Kaisen wouldn’t be where it is today if it wasn’t for the combined effort of its author, Gege Akutami, the editors and the staff members at Shueisha. The series has come a long way from the one shot, Jujutsu Kaisen 0, where fans probably would have thought Yuta Okkotsu would be the main character of Jujutsu Kaisen.

However, things took quite a turn for the series from its initial concepts to its final product. Gege wrote Jujutsu Kaisen with no themes to follow but wanted to write and draw cool-looking characters. And critics found Yuta more compelling than Yuji Itadori, who, while having several similarities with Yuta, has different characterizations. Well, things would have gone their way if only Gege’s editor hadn’t intervened!

Jujutsu Kaisen‘s original concept was vastly different from the final product

Gege Akutami wasn’t really the most enthusiastic mangaka when they began. In 2017, Gege hit a wall when it came to drawing and reading manga, losing the inspiration they experienced while reading Hinomaru Sumo and My Hero Academia. Nevertheless, Gege still wanted to make a horror manga and showed their editor a storyboard as a prototype for the manga, which later became to be known as Jujutsu Kaisen.

In the storyboard, both Yuta and Rika were kept exactly as they were in the end result. However, according to the author in the official fanbook, the concept of the story was creating sorcerers who would be able to stop Yuta and Rika’s rampage from killing others.

That’s right! In Gege’s first vision of Jujutsu Kaisen, Yuta was the villain rather than Sukuna, and the former was a psychopath and Rika was that of an ordinary girl who would come across as evil when being remembered.

In the initial concept, Gojo Satoru was never even there. In fact, the character who recruited Yuta to was Maki Zen’in. Additionally, Yuta’s relatives were meant to be included in the story, most notably his sister, who would be taken by Rika over jealousy.

Gege’s editor, Yamanaka, was interested in the storyboard and talked to other members of Shueisha about it. However, their first editor claimed the story was too dark and persuaded them to give it a school setting, much to their anger.

Although several changes were made until the official version, Gege still believes the higher-ups should have kept the original concept. But the mangaka held their wits and persevered. Actually, Gege looked like they wanted the manga to be famous and kept that as their first priority, given how sad they were when they heard that the manga would be published in Jump Giga instead of Weekly Shonen Jump.

During the publication of the monthly series, Gege had no intention of having their series published in Weekly Shonen Jump. The positive response to the prototype manga Jujutsu Kaisen 0: Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School, however, led them to turn the series into the main manga, Jujutsu Kaisen.

In the main series, Gege took Yuta’s psychopathic tendencies and gave them to Sukuna, whom the author would later like over the others. However, that came at a cost. Gege had to introduce a sensei character to Yuta and thus gave birth to Gojo Satoru, whom they absolutely hated.

Given how different Jujutsu Kaisen turned out to be from its original concept, fans now think that Gege would not be interested in continuing the series.

Jujutsu Kaisen: Shippuden may not become a reality

The idea of Jujutsu Kaisen Part 2 or Jujutsu Kaisen: Shippuden came into existence when the manga’s editor stated that the story will not truly end in September and that there’s still more to come.

Weekly Shonen Jump teases a “Happy Announcement” that will be made once the final chapter drops on September 30, 2024.

A lot of fans are happy if the idea turns out to be true. This will give Gege the chance to explain many things that he didn’t in the original story. Some of these questions include whether Kenjaku is actually alive or not, will Tengen’s merger actually take place, how did Nobara come back to life and what will be Yuji’s future in terms of a sorcerer?

Just like Tatsuki Fujimoto with Chainsaw Man Part 2 and Masashi Kishimoto with Naruto: Shippuden, Gege Akutami can actually avoid the mistake Hajime Isayama did with Attack on Titan and make a sequel to Jujutsu Kaisen.

However, fans now think that the sequel may not happen. The reasoning comes from the fact that Jujutsu Kaisen as it is now is vastly different from Gege’s original concept. So he may not want to continue the story. Maybe that’s why he was rushing with the ending and wanted to get it over with.

As the series comes to a close, fans are expecting the anime adaptation to fix the manga’s mistakes if Gege doesn’t want to make a sequel. Who knows, maybe a Jujutsu Kaisen: Evolution live-action film is needed to bring the author out of retirement and have them continue the story out of their own will.

Jujutsu Kaisen is available to watch on Crunchyroll and Netflix.