Summary
Jujutsu Kaisenhas finally revealed its highly teased “unbelievable project” which was set to be announced in issue #39 of Weekly Shōnen Jump, and it has unsurprisingly turned out to be a complete letdown. In fact, the disappointing project has all but confirmed a new concerning trend in the industry involving suchoverly hyped announcementswhich needlessly get fans' hopes up.
Jujutsu Kaisen’s big project has finally been revealed and, according to a post on X byWSJ_mangathe project is a special promotion on Zebrack and the Shonen Jump+ app, allowing fans to read 245 chapters of the series for free. The announcement also includes the release of a new unspecified countdown video, wallpapers, and the revelation of the latest volume cover.
The teaser for the announcement initially had many fans excited specifically due to it being referred to as an “unbelievable project.” However, it is safe to say that this announcement hasfailed to live up to fans' expectations and the anticipation built up around it, which has been a common trend among announcements and projects recently teased by many other major franchises as well.
Jujutsu Kaisen’s “Strongest” Character Turned Out a Complete Disappointment
Jujutsu Kaisen’s Yuta Okkotsu had the potential to be the strongest in Gojo’s body but the series has proved to be quite disappointing in the end.
Jujutsu Kaisen Joins Tokyo Ghoul and My Hero Academia With Its New Disappointing Project
Many Anime and Manga Franchises Have Recently Been Overselling Announcements
In light of the news thatJujutsu Kaisen’s manga is ending soon, many fans expected much more from this project, which made it all the more disappointing. While it may seem like fans are unnecessarily upset,Jujutsu Kaisen’s latest announcement isn’t the first to be advertised in such an exaggerated manneras of late, which most likely aggravated the situation.
Many notable franchises likeTokyo GhoulandMy Hero Academiahave also recently teased announcements in such a manner, which ended up being equally disappointing. InTokyo Ghoul’scase, many expected the 10th-anniversary announcement to be the remake of the anime but were sorely let down when it turned out to be an art exhibition. As forMy Hero Academia, while the announcement of the global popularity poll was fairly well-received, many fans still expected a little more from the announcement given the manga’s conclusion, much likeJujutsu Kaisen.
Smaller franchises likeNoragamihave also followed this misleading trend, similarly teasing many huge projects for its recent 10th anniversary, much likeTokyo Ghoul.Again, given the suspense built up around these projects, many fans expected news ofNoragamibeing renewed for a third season but were in for a similar disappointment. As such, manyfans have begun automatically viewing such announcements with skepticism.
Why Franchises Need to Stop Over-Selling Announcements
Overall, the main issue with this emerging trend is the fact that it prevents fans from taking such announcements seriously in the future, even when a project may actually be as interesting as it claims. Oddly, big projects like animerenewals and sequels are usually not hyped up nearly as much in comparisonbut are instead directly announced out of the blue. All this does is foster a negative, rather distrustful environment between fans and their favorite franchises.
Of course, promoting these smaller projects isn’t the issue, and in most cases, these announcements end up being disappointing simplybecause they simply aren’t relevant to the series' wider audience outside Japanwho end up feeling left out. This is especially true in the case of what happened withTokyo Ghoul,as the art exhibition which was held in Tokyo might have held some appeal to its local fans but was not of much interest to the series' international fans. Another recent example is thepublic screening of part 3 ofBleach: Thousand Year Blood Warwhich is being limited to Japan only despite the series being an international success so far.
As such,Jujutsu Kaisen’s new disappointing project is very much just the cherry on top of this new unfortunate trend that has been taking shape for quite some time. Seeing as it was inclusive of international fans as well,Jujutsu Kaisen’s announcement would otherwise have been met with excitement over the new volume cover and free-to-read chapters. However, mislabeling it as an “unbelievable project” needlessly misled fans to expect more than they were being promised. As such, hopefully, the negative reaction from fans will help franchises avoid causing unnecessary disappointment in the future.
Source:WSJ_manga/X
Jujutsu Kaisen
Jujutsu Kaisenis a Japanese anime and manga series created by Gege Akutami. The story is set in a world where Cursed Spirits, born from negative human emotions, prey on humanity. It follows high school student Yuji Itadori as he becomes entangled in the world of Jujutsu Sorcery after swallowing a cursed talisman—Ryomen Sukuna’s finger—and becomes the host for one of the most powerful curses. Yuji joins the Tokyo Metropolitan Magic Technical College to learn how to combat curses while searching for the remaining fingers of Sukuna to exorcise him permanently.
