Jujutsu Kaisen continues to pull out all the stops and shows no sign of slowing down. What sets it apart from other shonen manga, especially those that have hit their five-year mark, is its ability to strike down tired old tropes and keep raising the stakes. This week's chapter, written and drawn by Gege Akutami, is no different, with Gojo once again being the focal point and proving why he is still a fan favorite.
The chapter starts off with a casual yet surprisingly light and humorous conversation about if the main crew has ever taken a punch or punched Gojo. Many reply that landing a punch is near impossible and that even his weakest punches feel like powerhouses of pain. After a few more conversations, the reader gets to revisit the fight between Gojo and Sakuna, where things are not going so well for Sukuna, especially with Gojo unleashing a new attack.
The visuals of this new chapter are top-notch and play with fan expectations. At first, the audience is under the impression that they are reading a cool-looking fistfight that they've seen a million times before. Then, Gege Akutami drops a reveal that ups the ante by letting Gojo shine with his new ability to make shadow clones of himself at tremendous speed. An already engaging battle becomes larger than life. Already fans of Jujutsu Kaisen, and the manga/anime online fandom as a whole, are bringing back older fan theories connecting Gojo with another beloved shonen character, Killua from Hunter x Hunter. Their attacks might be similar but leave the validity of such theories up to the fans. Either way, this new chapter definitely lives up to the hype.
Fan theories aside, the story moves at a smooth pace with a nice translation by Viz Media's John Werry and clean panels that allow for easy reading. Some manga can have cluttered and wordy panels, making reading chapters a chore, but Jujutsu Kaisen never seems to have this problem, and the latest chapter is no exception. But the fast action does not stop there. This chapter also reveals that Megumi might have an even bigger part to play in the adventures to come after this chapter's cliffhanger. It goes without saying fans will be on the edge of their seats, waiting with bated breath and fingers just aching to turn the pages of the next chapter.