Rating - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
"In a world where cursed spirits feed on unsuspecting humans, fragments of the legendary and feared demon Ryomen 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 supernatural!
Yuta Okkotsu is a nervous high school student who is suffering from a serious problem—his childhood friend Rika has turned into a curse and won't leave him alone. Since Rika is no ordinary curse, his plight is noticed by Satoru Gojo, a teacher at Jujutsu High, a school where fledgling exorcists learn how to combat curses. Gojo convinces Yuta to enroll, but can he learn enough in time to confront the curse that haunts him?"
Jujutsu Kaisen is a shōnen manga by Gege Akutami.
This is a very short arc consisting of only Vol.0 of the series. It is recommended that you read this volume after chapter 78 as not only will you possibly spoil something, but it also might not just make a whole lot of sense.
I also will not go into too much detail for this because of that and will leave a more in-depth review for the actual start of the series.
Nonetheless, let's get into the details.
WRITING/ART
When it comes to manga, I don't usually have any comments regarding the writing because of its inherent structure of having short blurbs of dialogue. The only comment I have to make is that with the English translation, it is a bit odd to read Inumaki's lines.
Since he only speaks in onigiri ingredients you get used to the Japanese and not the English, so when he speaks I end up re-translating the English words back into Japanese in my head.
When it comes to the art though, while it is a bit different compared to the rest of the manga, there are some really panels depicted. I really like the shading and the use of stark blackness, and I thought the buildings were stunning. Architecture seems to be a strong suit of the author.
PLOT
I won't talk too much about the plot because, again spoilers, and because it is a rather short arc. What I will say though is that it does a lot of needed context when it comes to Geto. Geto is introduced fairly early on in the series, and you don't really get to know much about him initially. This though gave me some very much-needed pieces of the puzzle.
Admittedly, I did find the relationship between Okkutso and Rika to be a bit...odd. Rika died when they were kids and is still essentially a kid even as a curse while Okkutso is all grown up now. So, the pure love depicted in this is between a child (and curse with very large and sharp teeth), and a teenager. In retrospect, a bit odd but it might be best to just not think too much about it.
CHARACTERS
Now, Okkotsu is a character who is mentioned only a couple of times in the manga until he shows up later on in the series, so I thought that, at first, it was an odd choice for a prequel volume. Despite that though, I thought that this was a good introduction for one of the strongest characters in the series.
He is a rather complex character due to his backstory, as you will learn through this, due to his trauma. You get to see him grow as a character in this as he comes to terms with his reality and makes some friends along the way.
We are also joined by the rest of the second-year students (who are first years in this volume) - Panda, Maki, and Inumaki. I was particularly psyched about this because Maki is one of my favourite female characters, and I have a huge soft spot for Inumaki. One upside of this prequel is that you get to see them bond before the focus shifts in the manga to focus on the new first years.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
I originally gave this a 3.5 rating but ended up bumping it up to a 4 because of, well, quite frankly Okkotsu and Inumaki.
Again, I will reiterate that you should not read this first because you will be very confused. I also want to note that, due to Okkotsu's backstory, there are trigger warnings for suicidal ideation and attempts, so keep that in mind before you go in.
Finally, if you are curious about the movie adaptation, it was done incredibly well and was even better than the manga only because the characters looked better on screen.