Gege Akutami has impressed the entire world by creating one of the biggest manga series of all time Jujutsu Kaisen. The series has been serialized in Shueisha’s Shonen manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump since March 2018, with chapters collected and published in 23 tankbon volumes as of July 2023. The plot follows Yuji Itadori, a high school student, as he joins a secret organization of Jujutsu Sorcerers to destroy a strong Curse named Ryomen Sukuna, of which Yuji becomes the host. The series has a prologue movie by the name of Jujutsu Kaisen 0 which was a superhit and was deeply loved by fans.
The series follows Yuta Okkotsu, a teenage student who becomes a sorcerer and strives to tame the Cursed Spirit of his childhood companion Rika Orimoto. The series had to go through a lot of trouble as creator Akutami was suffering from writer’s block because they read the My Hero Academia Manga series.
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Gege Akutami Suffered Writer’s Block Because of My Hero Academia
Writer’s block is a phenomenon encountered by authors that is best described as an overpowering feeling of being stuck in the writing process with no capacity to move forward and produce anything new. Akutami witnessed this writer’s block because of My Hero Academia and Hinomaru Sumo. They were so impressed by the two series that they started doubting their storytelling abilities to create something that could stand beside them in the magazine.
Akutami witnessed this block in 2017 and eventually after a lot of struggle, changes, and discussion with their editor, Akutami was able to develop a story that would later become the fan-favorite movie Jujutsu Kaisen 0. MAPPA produced the anime film adaption of Jujutsu Kaisen 0, directed by Sunghoo Park, which aired in Japan in December 2021. It was followed by a novelization and a new gag chapter by Akutami.
Akutami Made a Lot of Changes After Suffering from Writer’s Block
Akutami felt that it would be very difficult to compete with the likes of series like My Hero Academia and Hinomaru Sumo. Eventually, they found some inspiration to create the story of Jujutsu Kaisen 0. But when Akutami presented the story to their editors, he convinced Akutami to change the scenario to a school setting as the series got too dark. Yuta and Rika remained unchanged from the final product. The story’s goal was to create sorcerers who could stop Yuta and Rika from killing others. Initially, Maki Zen’in was the intended recruiter for Yuta.
Yuta’s relatives were supposed to appear in the plot, particularly his sister, who would be taken by Rika out of jealousy. Although various adjustments were made before the official edition, Akutami believes the original concept should have been retained.
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