Jujutsu Kaisen and The Media Literacy Crisis

What is a Jujutsu Kaisen?

I do not expect everyone to understand the context in this blog post, and I will do my best to provide all of the relevant context. Jujutsu Kaisen is a manga/anime series written by Gege Akutami and is currently airing its third season across the world. The show is currently one of the most popular in the world for a number of reasons including the quality of animation, break-neck pacing, and the uncompromisingly dark themes.

The Dark Themes

The most relevant theme that persists to the end of the story is the clash of younger generation's breaking from the older generation's. Akutami portrays this generational divide through his world of Jujutsu Society with the older generation representing the traditional "might makes right" philosophy, while the younger generation seeks to break from this and carve out a different path for themselves. The episode that best represents this is Season 3 Episode 4 "Perfect Preparation" with the character Maki literally and metaphorically dismantling the conservative old-guard of her clan. It's an episode that confronts themes of systemic misogyny, feminine trauma, and rage that has been building up through the story up to this point.

Having read the manga, I was extremely excited for this episode because it was one of my favorite parts of the whole story. On a personal note, I really enjoyed the episode. Maki is my favorite character, and getting to watch her liberate herself from a system that sought to oppress and abuse her was extremely cathartic. It genuinely baffles me to hear that there are people (domestically and abroad) that find the episode to not be faithful to the original.

The Controversy Part 1: Misogyny

Brett Cardaro of CBR laments that Season 3 Episode 4 betrayed the tone of the original material that it is adapting. This is a sentiment that is echoed through other online circles inside of Japan. Tokyo Weekender's Alina Joan Ito in her article on the topic says, "It’s easy to see why the episode was so divisive. It deals directly with thorny topics like misogyny and abuse, and in the process delivers uncompromising catharsis, tearing down a powerful male character and placing a deeply traumatized woman at the heart of its action." She sites that same sentiment that the anime adaptation is too different from the manga. However, Ito digs deeper into why the episode faced some backlash at home.

Jujutsu Kaisen is part of the weekly magazine Shonen Jump! which hosts character popularity polls for fans to vote on. Ito sites that in the Weekly Shonen Jump 39th issue of 2024 popularity poll, the character Naoya Zenin is more popular than Maki by over 10,000 votes. Naoya is killed by Maki in the climax of the titular episode. In Ito's words, "... episode 4 doesn’t just defeat him; it humiliates him and discards him without reverence. For a portion of the audience, that loss clearly stung." I highly recommend that you read her article, she explains in greater detail.

The Controversy Part 2: Nationalist Conservatism

Some articles covering the controversial episode 4 refer to the tweet from X user @makura_amers, a self-proclaimed otaku (Japan's equivalent of a turbo nerd) in which he writes (machine translated from Japanese to English) "Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 episode 4 apparently got a 9.8/10 rating overseas. In the end, those guys are only interested in the fights. “Animation is insane!” “Such crazy aura!” That’s literally all they say. Meanwhile, episode 3, which had the anime-original explanation of the Culling Game rules so that even anime-only viewers could understand, and got massive praise in Japan, only scored 7.7/10 over there." This is nothing special in the way of criticism of the episode, and mostly refers to the shallow ideas expressed in the prior section.

What I have not seen in any articles is the follow-up tweet from the same user, "I'm convinced. Coexisting with foreigners is impossible. Let's go back to isolationism. Our values are just too different." I am highlighting this portion of the tweet because it goes to show a subsection of right-wing reactionary nerd culture that persists in Japan and America. This individual continues in the thread posting an image of bullet points lamenting the perceived influence that foreign PC culture has on modern anime. Quote tweets and replies from other users range from lightly agreeing with this sentiment to outright racism directed at black anime fans.

This, unfortunately, is a rising sentiment outside of Japanese nerd culture as well with the most recent elected conservative Prime Minister of Japan, Sanae Takaichi. Media outlets world-wide have described her as Japan's Iron Lady, a reference to England's Prime Minister from 1979-1990 Margaret Thatcher. A part of Takaichi's conservative platform is the growing base of Japanese nationalism, supporting isolationist values and policies. If individuals like this X user form their media criticism based on non-existent themes foreign intervention in their media, then there is a media literacy crisis that exists inside of Japan that is just as tied to right-wing reactionary sentiments.

Conclusion: Please Dig Deeper

Media literacy and right-wing reactionary may take different forms but always affects media literacy. I think that it is a shame that other media outlets have not investigated further into the tweet that has sparked most of the sentiment that "Japan hated season 3 episode 4" because it is just not true. Only some reactionary racists from Japan hated the episode. There are others from Japan that actually liked the episode that reply to this user's post. I know that my blog does not have far reach at all, but I hope that those that read come away with determination to dig deeper into online sources. Not all journalists dive deep enough like Alina Joan Ito who took the blanket sentiment and expanded upon the idea. Most are just looking to write about a headline, hit the minimum word-count for their article, and send it off to the editor so they can get to the next one. Don't let the surface dictate the depth of the conversation.