ADVANCED REVIEW: ‘Jujutsu Kaisen,’ Volume 11

The Shibuya Incident continues in Jujutsu Kaisen Volume 11, and Geto schemes to take out Gojo, the pinnacle of the sorcerers’ resistance. The Shonen Jump manga by Gege Akutami has exploded in popularity, especially with the recent anime adaptation. A supernatural horror, the story follows Yuji Itadori after he swallows a finger belonging to special-grade curse Sukuna, and is thrown into a world of sorcerers and curses that lurk just beneath the surface of everyday. This volume features touch-up art and lettering by Snir Aharon.

Thanks to flashbacks, we know that Satoru Gojo has a history of being colder in a fight than most. Jujutsu Kaisen Volume 11 kicks off with this idea. Of course Gojo is trying to protect as many civilians as he can, but the curses have not made it easy for him. Additionally, the curses are predominantly attacking said civilians whenever they dodge Gojo’s attacks. Geto has essentially put him in a trap of either enabling the murder or committing the murder himself. It is a fascinating setup for the character, because based on his history readers likely won’t have much inkling of which direction Gojo will lean.

While all of this is fantastic, Jujutsu Kaisen Volume 11 also includes a bit of a reveal about Geto during his encounter with Gojo. Unfortunately, after everything set up throughout the series so far (including Volume 0), this reveal felt very anticlimactic, and in fact almost cheapened the inevitable encounter between Geto and Gojo after all this time. Granted, it definitely leaves a lot open to explore still, but since Akutami has set such a high standard in the series for emotional impact…this moment just doesn’t quite live up to that.

On the students’ side of things, Yuji and Megumi have to team up. Compared to his team up with Nobara, Yuji and Megumi do not mesh near as well. Both of them notice this too, and it certainly makes things more interesting. Both young sorcerers have a tendency to go off on their own, it is refreshing to see them struggle to fight together not because they are arguing, but because they genuinely don’t know how to mesh their styles.

Once again, Jujutsu Kaisen Volume 11 is a great showcase for Gege Akutami’s artwork. It never feels overly gory even when the curses are plowing through bodies. That isn’t to say that the fights are tame. Far from it, they are quite horrifying in the ways the curses both casually dismember humans and psychologically force the sorcerers into corners. Also, while funny, the grasshopper curse is gross (in a good way). Delving further into the psychological part of it is how Akutami zeroes in on the characters’ faces in the heat of battle. Many of them look on the brink of insanity. It is especially chilling when it is the face of one of the “good guys” readers have come to know.

Jujutsu Kaisen Volume 11 is quite Gojo-centric, which works to its benefit considering how fascinating of a character he is. The horror elements are great here as it delves more into the psychology around his high-stakes fight. The reveal about Geto unfortunately was anticlimactic and didn’t live up to the standards set by volumes past. Overall, it is a great installment for a volume that takes place in the dead middle of a fight.

Jujutsu Kaisen Volume 11 is available August 3, 2021, wherever books are sold.