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A review by zhaenya
Jujutsu Kaisen, Vol. 16 by Gege Akutami
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
my boy okkotsu yuta finally made an appearance and is here to stay! rest in peace, yuji, here comes the original main character. i'm just joking, obviously, they're both my best boys and mean the world to me. can't wait for them to become best friends! <3 you'll see, it'll happen! <33
(five stars for the sluttiest volume cover of all time. this one, plus the one before this with mahito looking all gross, are my favorite jjk covers, nothing comes even close)
it's actually crazy to think that shibuya arc is officially over from this point on. it's been over for half the volume already, and we're starting a new part of the story, an even scarier one, the one that seems to be even bigger. lonelier. it was nice to see so many familiar faces at the beginning of this, with everyone coming together to try and fight brain-kun to get the prison realm from him. we've got a lot of yapping from body hopper, a lot of talk about reshaping the world by causing a lot of chaos, with him revealing some of his plans that involve fushiguro tsumiki, among other people, waking up and maybe becoming a vessel for some powerful sorcerer or a curse of the past. it's very scary to think about, that he is planning to bring back so many different people and curses and shape tokyo as some kind of playground for them to fight on. but also, this was the only part of the volume that had a little bit of humor and lightheartedness to it, it's been a while since we got anything like this, so a little bit of a warmer tone was very much welcomed. comedy kaisen was actually back, even if it was for a very short period of time. the way everyone just kept gagging kamo that day, first the body hopper by sharing the name with him (that whole part with everyone staring at him and him yelling out "me?!" was so funny, i still stand by the fact that his parents were fucked up for naming him after the most evil sorcerer ever), and then choso with his blood manipulation, much stronger than kamo's own. and i was giggling and kicking my feet over yuji busting choso out of the ice and asking "you're our ally, right?" just to get a hard "no!" in return, lol. he was there only for you, baby bro! "i'm your older brother." "take this seriously, would ya?!" "why don't you try calling me big brother? just once!" the fact they were fighting against basically the main villain plus another very powerful curse user, but it was all so cute and lighthearted was making me giggle way too much. i was so happy with the tone shift, it was really needed! it felt like this was supposed to be a very serious ending for the shibuya arc, but it was actually much more light, and filled with fun little moments like these, and i loved it so very much. i also loved yuki finally showing up, her conversation with 'geto' was really great, but she didn't do much else, unfortunately. i hope we get to see her fight soon too. my favorite part about that whole thing was actually uraume, we got to see them fight for the first time, and their technique is actually very cool. i didn't expect them to use ice, but it actually really suits them and their attitude, from what we've seen so far. i honestly can't wait to see this animated, mostly because i know the sound design is going to eat. i'm not sure why uraume is on kenjaku's side in the first place, i thought they were only loyal to sukuna, but i guess they share some kind of goal, or maybe they have an agreement? i'm very curious about that.
i don't think i say this nearly enough, but i love the way gege draws the fight scenes, the choreography is so nice. sometimes it's chaotic but it's also very clear what is happening, it's very rare for me to spend too much time on some specific page because i can't understand what's going on, even though it does happen from time to time. but it's mostly my problem because i don't read battle manga all that much, but i truly think that it's one of the best and more clear ones i've seen. and i think it's becoming better and better with each volume. it's very beautiful too, especially when it's hand-to-hand and not just technique after technique, though that also can be very fun, it depends. like, todo's technique is confusing and disorienting, but it's supposed to be. but the little bits we got of choso vs kenjaku going hand-to-hand, and then uraume with their beautiful ice powers, it was all just incredible. everything i love in one chapter. chapter 135, i will remember you always.
you would think that my favorite part about the volume would be my boy yuta finally coming back to japan, but it was actually all the choso and yuji bonding we got. well, i wouldn't call it bonding, but they were definitely getting closer, looking out for each other. but especially choso, of course. the love for his brothers is the biggest part of his character, so it's no wonder that he would do anything for yuji. he's much softer with him too, calling him by his given name and asking him to call him his older brother. it's okay, he'll get there! and so it seemed to be rather fitting that choso's opponent would be someone like zen'in naoya, zen'in naobito's son. the person who doesn't love or respect any of his brothers because in his eyes they're weak and not worthy to be respected by him. i can't stand either of them, father or son, (but i guess that can be said for any of the zen'ins, expect for maki and mai) they're both jerks and i would rather see anyone else, but naobito is a fun character, when he's not opening his mouth. his biggest flaw is how much he shittalks, and not even in a fun way, not in a satoru way, naoya is just very annoying and makes my eyes roll so much, i almost get a headache. but he has a very nice design, he's nice to look at and he shares the technique with his father, which i actually really liked and was hoping we would see more of. but the best thing about him showing up in the story was the way choso beat his ass, that was very satisfying. and then yuta looking down at him with "looks like you're hurt, naoya."
and now, onto yuta and rika finally showing up in the main story. i couldn't be happier! when i was reading these chapters for the very first time, i was reading them weekly, and it was the most frustrating thing ever, because i wasn't sure what the hell was going to happen to yuji. when one of your favorite characters is trying to kill your other favorite character, it tends to be very stressful. and even now, as i'm reading this years later, it's still tense as fuck. yuji's not dying, we know this, but it doesn't help to ease my nerves even a little bit. yuta's whole presence gives this overwhelming pressure, even though it didn't even look like he was trying to kill yuji, it was more like he was testing the waters. he didn't seem angry with yuji, he didn't have a look of revenge on his face, and we know just how yuta looks like when he's fighting for his friends, he tends to go unhinged and is full of rage, but this just wasn't it. he wasn't summoning rika, he was hitting yuji with the back of his sword instead of the sharp end. he still did a lot of damage, but it wasn't the type of knocking out choso with just one punch damage. for now, it looks like yuji is dead, it looks like yuta drew a sword through his heart, but we know that it can't be the end of it. does he need someone to confirm yuji's death by seeing his body? will he make sukuna bring yuji back somehow, if he's actually dead? or maybe that's exactly why he was fighting him in the first place, trying to see just how much control of his body yuji actually has? because if he doesn't switch to sukuna even when he's on the brink of death, he wouldn't be considered a threat by him, right? or maybe yuta was trying to bring out sukuna to fight him and not yuji, because sukuna is the one he was angry with in the first place, which i don't think was the case at all. so many possibilities, but i guess we'll just have to see. the one thing i'm actually really curious about is rika. more specifically, how is she back? it was kind of a big deal, her getting her peace at the end of volume 0, so now i can't help but wonder what happened. is it the same rika? did something change? is she somehow just back now? can't wait to know more about that whole situation.
(five stars for the sluttiest volume cover of all time. this one, plus the one before this with mahito looking all gross, are my favorite jjk covers, nothing comes even close)
it's actually crazy to think that shibuya arc is officially over from this point on. it's been over for half the volume already, and we're starting a new part of the story, an even scarier one, the one that seems to be even bigger. lonelier. it was nice to see so many familiar faces at the beginning of this, with everyone coming together to try and fight brain-kun to get the prison realm from him. we've got a lot of yapping from body hopper, a lot of talk about reshaping the world by causing a lot of chaos, with him revealing some of his plans that involve fushiguro tsumiki, among other people, waking up and maybe becoming a vessel for some powerful sorcerer or a curse of the past. it's very scary to think about, that he is planning to bring back so many different people and curses and shape tokyo as some kind of playground for them to fight on. but also, this was the only part of the volume that had a little bit of humor and lightheartedness to it, it's been a while since we got anything like this, so a little bit of a warmer tone was very much welcomed. comedy kaisen was actually back, even if it was for a very short period of time. the way everyone just kept gagging kamo that day, first the body hopper by sharing the name with him (that whole part with everyone staring at him and him yelling out "me?!" was so funny, i still stand by the fact that his parents were fucked up for naming him after the most evil sorcerer ever), and then choso with his blood manipulation, much stronger than kamo's own. and i was giggling and kicking my feet over yuji busting choso out of the ice and asking "you're our ally, right?" just to get a hard "no!" in return, lol. he was there only for you, baby bro! "i'm your older brother." "take this seriously, would ya?!" "why don't you try calling me big brother? just once!" the fact they were fighting against basically the main villain plus another very powerful curse user, but it was all so cute and lighthearted was making me giggle way too much. i was so happy with the tone shift, it was really needed! it felt like this was supposed to be a very serious ending for the shibuya arc, but it was actually much more light, and filled with fun little moments like these, and i loved it so very much. i also loved yuki finally showing up, her conversation with 'geto' was really great, but she didn't do much else, unfortunately. i hope we get to see her fight soon too. my favorite part about that whole thing was actually uraume, we got to see them fight for the first time, and their technique is actually very cool. i didn't expect them to use ice, but it actually really suits them and their attitude, from what we've seen so far. i honestly can't wait to see this animated, mostly because i know the sound design is going to eat. i'm not sure why uraume is on kenjaku's side in the first place, i thought they were only loyal to sukuna, but i guess they share some kind of goal, or maybe they have an agreement? i'm very curious about that.
i don't think i say this nearly enough, but i love the way gege draws the fight scenes, the choreography is so nice. sometimes it's chaotic but it's also very clear what is happening, it's very rare for me to spend too much time on some specific page because i can't understand what's going on, even though it does happen from time to time. but it's mostly my problem because i don't read battle manga all that much, but i truly think that it's one of the best and more clear ones i've seen. and i think it's becoming better and better with each volume. it's very beautiful too, especially when it's hand-to-hand and not just technique after technique, though that also can be very fun, it depends. like, todo's technique is confusing and disorienting, but it's supposed to be. but the little bits we got of choso vs kenjaku going hand-to-hand, and then uraume with their beautiful ice powers, it was all just incredible. everything i love in one chapter. chapter 135, i will remember you always.
you would think that my favorite part about the volume would be my boy yuta finally coming back to japan, but it was actually all the choso and yuji bonding we got. well, i wouldn't call it bonding, but they were definitely getting closer, looking out for each other. but especially choso, of course. the love for his brothers is the biggest part of his character, so it's no wonder that he would do anything for yuji. he's much softer with him too, calling him by his given name and asking him to call him his older brother. it's okay, he'll get there! and so it seemed to be rather fitting that choso's opponent would be someone like zen'in naoya, zen'in naobito's son. the person who doesn't love or respect any of his brothers because in his eyes they're weak and not worthy to be respected by him. i can't stand either of them, father or son, (but i guess that can be said for any of the zen'ins, expect for maki and mai) they're both jerks and i would rather see anyone else, but naobito is a fun character, when he's not opening his mouth. his biggest flaw is how much he shittalks, and not even in a fun way, not in a satoru way, naoya is just very annoying and makes my eyes roll so much, i almost get a headache. but he has a very nice design, he's nice to look at and he shares the technique with his father, which i actually really liked and was hoping we would see more of. but the best thing about him showing up in the story was the way choso beat his ass, that was very satisfying. and then yuta looking down at him with "looks like you're hurt, naoya."
and now, onto yuta and rika finally showing up in the main story. i couldn't be happier! when i was reading these chapters for the very first time, i was reading them weekly, and it was the most frustrating thing ever, because i wasn't sure what the hell was going to happen to yuji. when one of your favorite characters is trying to kill your other favorite character, it tends to be very stressful. and even now, as i'm reading this years later, it's still tense as fuck. yuji's not dying, we know this, but it doesn't help to ease my nerves even a little bit. yuta's whole presence gives this overwhelming pressure, even though it didn't even look like he was trying to kill yuji, it was more like he was testing the waters. he didn't seem angry with yuji, he didn't have a look of revenge on his face, and we know just how yuta looks like when he's fighting for his friends, he tends to go unhinged and is full of rage, but this just wasn't it. he wasn't summoning rika, he was hitting yuji with the back of his sword instead of the sharp end. he still did a lot of damage, but it wasn't the type of knocking out choso with just one punch damage. for now, it looks like yuji is dead, it looks like yuta drew a sword through his heart, but we know that it can't be the end of it. does he need someone to confirm yuji's death by seeing his body? will he make sukuna bring yuji back somehow, if he's actually dead? or maybe that's exactly why he was fighting him in the first place, trying to see just how much control of his body yuji actually has? because if he doesn't switch to sukuna even when he's on the brink of death, he wouldn't be considered a threat by him, right? or maybe yuta was trying to bring out sukuna to fight him and not yuji, because sukuna is the one he was angry with in the first place, which i don't think was the case at all. so many possibilities, but i guess we'll just have to see. the one thing i'm actually really curious about is rika. more specifically, how is she back? it was kind of a big deal, her getting her peace at the end of volume 0, so now i can't help but wonder what happened. is it the same rika? did something change? is she somehow just back now? can't wait to know more about that whole situation.