When did rotting fingers become a delicacy?
Creative Staff
Story: Gege Akutami
Art: Gege Akutami
Translation: Stefan Koza
What They Say:
In a world where demons feed on unsuspecting humans, fragments of the legendary and feared demon Ryoma Sukuna were lost and scattered about. Should any demon consume Sukuna’s body parts, the power they gain could destroy the world as we know it. Fortunately, there exists a mysterious school of Jujutsu Sorcerers who exist to protect the precarious existence of the living from the undead!
Yuji Itadori is high schooler who spends his days visiting his bedridden grandfather. Although he looks like your average teenager, his immense physical strength is something to behold! Every sports club wants him to join, but Itadori would rather hang out with the school outcasts in the Occult Club. One day, the club manages to get their hands on a sealed cursed object, but little do they know the terror they’ll unleash when they break the seal…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Yuji Itadori is just your normal, everyday high school kid. Nothing special about him at all. Well, he does possess superhuman strength. I’m sure kids these days are just stronger than we remember, right? Naturally, he’s a big star on one of the sports teams. Wait, he’s not? He’s actually a member of the Occult Research Club? I must admit that seems like an odd choice. But hey, he seems to be having a lot of fun with the club and his clubmates. While that’s true, we learn eventually that Yuji chose this club because he needed to leave school before 5:00 p.m. every day to visit grandpa at the hospital. What a good kid! Sadly, his grandfather passes away during his latest visit. Before he dies, he tells Yuji to not be like him. He should be surrounded by people that care about him when he passes away. He should use his strength to help people. Yuji takes his grandpa’s dying words to heart.
For someone who just lost a family member, Yuji is taking it better than expected. I guess he’s strong emotionally and physically. He could probably use a hug though. As he’s leaving the hospital, he’s confronted by a kid his age called Megumi Fushiguro. He questions Yuji about a certain cursed object and explains that it’s very dangerous. He needs to retrieve and exorcise it. Yuji doesn’t know exactly what’s going on but he did find the object that Fushiguro is talking about. The only problem is that his clubmates have it and they already broke the seal on it. Well, that’s not good. In fact, it’s very, very, very bad. People are going to die! Fushiguro rushes to the school to try and do damage control. He urges Yuji to stay behind but he doesn’t listen. He won’t abandon his friends. You’re too nice a guy, Yuji. And reckless. It’s going to get you in trouble one of these days.
Guess what? That day is today! Surprise, surprise. The school is overrun by Curses. I should mention that the Curses take on the form of hideous demons. Fushiguro manages to take care of the weaker ones but there’s one Curse that proves to be a challenge. It’s also holding one of Yuji’s clubmates hostage! But she’s not held hostage for long as Yuji busts through the window and dropkicks it in the face. Had to make a flashy entrance, eh? Well, that was easy. All’s well that ends well, yeah? Ha, things are never that simple. The Curse isn’t quite defeated yet and it manages to seriously wound Fushiguro. That’s certainly not good! Yuji tries his best to fight the Curse but it’s no good. Fushiguro informs him that despite his exceptional strength he’s still only human. It takes cursed energy to defeat cursed energy. So, all Yuji needs is some cursed energy? He picks up the cursed object that they were looking for and eats it. By the way, the cursed object is a rotting finger. Yuji ate a rotting finger. That’s gross. Gross, but effective. After eating the finger, Yuji easily dispatches of the Curse.
Besides it just being disgusting, eating a cursed finger has no repercussions, right? Again, things are never that easy. Yuji is now inhabited by a Curse. That’s unfortunate. We learn that it’s not just any Curse. It’s actually the special grade curse Ryomen Sukuna, also known as the King of Curses. Jujutsu sorcerers weren’t able to completely exorcise him in the past and decided to chop his twenty fingers off. They sealed them away as cursed charms and hoped that one day they would be destroyed, thus finally defeating him for good. Basically, Yuji is now sharing his body with Sukuna. He’s no longer considered human. He’s pretty much a Curse himself. I can see this posing a lot of problems. Speaking of which, it’s Jujutsu policy to exorcise anyone who becomes a curse. Yuji should be exorcised but he’s given two options by Satoru Gojo, a teacher who teaches at Jujutsu High. He can either die now or agree to eat all of Sukuna’s fingers and then be killed. Not the best options but he doesn’t have much of a choice. He’s told that he’d be saving a lot of lives if they defeat Sukuna and he remembers his grandfather’s last words. He decides to hunt down Sukuna’s fingers and eat them.
Yuji immediately eats the finger in Gojo’s possession. Still disgusting! Gojo is pretty excited to have him on board. It’s extremely rare for a human to be able to ingest curses and still remain in control of their own body. Yuji is transferred to Jujutsu High so that he can get the proper training as a jujutsu sorcerer. He’s in the first-year class that only consists of three people. Those that have the potential to be jujutsu sorcerers are rare. His other classmates are Fushiguro, of course, and Nobara Kugisaki. Yuji and Nobara are assigned their first missions while Gojo-sensei and Fushigoro observe. It’s clear to them that these two have a lot of potential. They both manage to defeat the Curses and complete their missions.
Their next mission involves investigating a detention center where a Curse womb appeared. It has the potential to become a special grade curse! Everyone is warned that they should not make contact with it. Their only options are to run away or die. As the three first-years head inside, the mother of one of the inmates asks if her son is okay? Yuji tells her to not worry and that he’ll make sure he’s okay. Once inside, they find three of the inmates gruesomely murdered. One of them turns out to be the son. That’s a shame. Yuji wants to return the body to the mother but Fushiguro firmly states that they’re going to leave it behind. They don’t have time to worry about dead bodies. Harsh, but true. Their worst fears come true as they’re confronted by a special grade curse. Time to run! Of course, Yuji doesn’t run at all and instead tries to attack the hideous monster. Before he can even connect with the punch, his hand is chopped off. Why didn’t you run!? In fact, it’s not too late! Run now! He doesn’t though. He keeps trying to fight the Curse and gets his ass kicked. This could have been avoided, you know?
At this point, Yuji is determined to at least make sure that Fushiguro and Kugisaki escape. He tells Fushigoro to find Kugisaki and get away. He’ll keep the Curse distracted! Yuji refuses to lose but he’s not winning this fight. He loses his other hand in the process. Well, he’s screwed. There’s nothing left he can do…except give control of his body to Sukuna. It’s a risky move, but what choice does he have? At first, Sukuna refuses and is content letting Yuji die. There’s still eighteen of his fingers out there! He can still revive without him. However, the volume ends with a smiling Sukuna taking control. Did he have a change of heart?
In Summary:
This got my shōnen blood pumping! It gave me early Bleach vibes and I freaking love early Bleach. I even gave the characters Bleach dub voices in my head while I was reading this volume, haha. Anyway, it did a good job establishing the world and kept me interested in learning more about the lore. I’m also a fan of the characters, particularly Gojo-sensei. He’s such a chill dude. He reminds me of Kakashi-sensei from Naruto. Yuji is an idiot but in a good way. His heart is in the right place. I found it badass that Kugisaki attacks using a hammer and nails. Fushiguro’s ability to create spirits from his shadows was also pretty rad. I can’t forget the artwork either! The designs of the Curses were hilariously horrifying. I didn’t know if I should laugh or scream in terror. It’s kind of like the titans from Attack on Titan. Yeah, I know I’ve been making a lot of shōnen references. So what!? Anyway, this was a solid first volume and I’m looking forward to reading more.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: T
Released By: VIZ Media
Release Date: December 3rd, 2019
MSRP: $9.99 (US), $12.99 (CAN)
