JUJUTSU KAISEN Review — A Curse Economy That Actually Works

The smartest decision JUJUTSU KAISEN makes is structural: its horror has a supply chain. Curses are born from ordinary human misery — regret, shame, fear — which means the monsters are renewable, the threat is systemic, and exorcism is a job rather than a quest. Build on that a clean paradox (only a curse can fight a curse) and you get the premise's engine: Yuji Itadori swallowing the finger of a legendary specter and becoming both weapon and time bomb.

As worldbuilding, the sorcery school framework earns its keep. Rules about cursed energy are introduced before they pay off, mentors explain limits rather than hand-waving power-ups, and the stakes attached to Yuji's shared body are established early and never cheapened. Gojou is the obvious crowd-pleaser, but the system around him is the real star — strong enough that fights read as problem-solving.

The honest weakness is the early supporting bench. Outside the central trio, classmates and adult sorcerers arrive faster than the show can characterize them, so a few episodes lean on archetype where it needs texture. That thins the emotional stakes precisely when the plot stakes spike. Still, as a 2020 entry point into modern battle-supernatural anime, this is close to the standard. Four episodes are free here — enough to know if it hooks you.