akutami gege interview (2nd part) with french publisher ki-oon
translated from french by @Anco#8613

How did you come up with Jujutsu Kaisen story?

I went through a difficult time, making short stories that didn’t really lead anywhere. At the time, many big shot series in Jump were ending, like Naruto, Bleach, etc… It was nerve wracking and I kept wondering what the magazine would become! Thankfully, My Hero Academia made its appearance and my mind was immediately put at ease. The energy was still there! It gave me a motivation boost and made me realize I would need to be more dynamic at the same time. (Laughs)
When I showed my initial project to my editor, he told me it was too dark and wouldn’t suit a shonen magazine. I was about to give up when he suggested that I changed my initial story setting to a school one. I really didn’t want to at first, but I had nothing to lose… And so, the pilot of the series, Jujutsu Kaisen 0, came to be.

Did the fact that the story happens in a school setting change a lot of elements?

That’s correct! These alterations gave me the opportunity to change my way of writing manga and learn to focus more on my characters. Beforehand, I would usually think of stories in terms of plot only. I couldn’t understand at all those manga writers who claimed in their interviews that they felt like their characters were moving by themselves. I always thought: “What the hell are they talking about?” (Laughs)
Talking about myself, I always thought about it in terms of plot at the beginning, in the middle while before I would even think about the characters’ involvement. When I had no choice but to change everything all at once, I had to revise my story board fast while disregarding any preestablished storyline. It changed my way of thinking greatly. From there, I decided to make the other characters evolve around the protagonist, Yuta Okkotsu, and followed suit with developing their interactions. The experience was educational!

Jujutsu Kaisen 0 and Jujutsu Kaisen are both set in the same universe and some characters look alike. Was it difficult to start a new manga with a different protagonist without making it repetitive?

I never thought that this story I made for Jump Giga would end up becoming a long running manga in  Weekly Shonen Jump! Where I was concerned, the manga was ending at four chapters but seeing how none of my other projects seemed to cut it, my editor proposed that I reuse the same concept. This suggestion gave me another opportunity to look closely into the shonen basics. The one thing I knew for certain going in was that I wouldn’t continue Yuta Okkotsu’s story. Instead I wanted a brand-new hero.
I wanted something that new readers would find easier to easier to get into but also a manga which complied with the shonen rules. With that in mind, I revised the story and finally got the green light.

Are there specific rules you had to follow to adapt your manga to Weekly Shonen Jump?

I try to use elements that I liked in popular manga that I’ve read… Looking at it that way, the basic structure of Jujutsu Kaisen first chapter is close to Bleach first chapter, although the rules governing Jujutsu Kaisen world look more similar to the Naruto world. In Bleach, the protagonist gets his powers after meeting a young girl. The events happen in a similar fashion in Jujutsu Kaisen, although this time the main character meets a boy instead. I added my own twists like having the hero swallowing a curse finger to absorb power, for example.
This kind of plotline has been used in manga for a long time now. Already with manga such as Dragon Quest: the adventures of Dai, we had the concept of the young boy with a hidden power inside him. It’s just part of the shonen formula.
When we look at Naruto, the protagonist is discriminated against because of the power of the nine tails which resides in him. On my side, the hero gets his power from a curse it’s impossible to get along with. Now how will Yuji manage his new life with such a horrible curse?

Have you already thought of Jujutsu Kaisen entire story, from start to finish?

While creating the characters from Jujutsu Kaisen 0 was my starting point, I still needed to think of the story in the long term when the time came to adapt my short story into a long running manga for Weekly Shonen Jump. I’m the type of person who worries if they don’t have the faintest idea of what comes next… I need to know what my end goal is in order to set course without hesitation. Consequently, I already know the ending and what will happen to Yuji and the others. That doesn’t mean that everything is set in stone. It’s important to keep your story open, just in case.


You mentioned My Hero Academia as an inspiration earlier…

Yes. It happened at a time where I kept wondering what could be done to revive the shonen formula for both Jump’s and my sake. Thinking that way made me see other popular shonen under a new light. Back then, Attack on titan was making waves and Naruto had just ended. I was wondering where things were going… Then My Hero Academia started in the magazine and I realized then that Jump had the strength to breathe new life into its gears. I also became conscious that I would need to shift gears if I wanted to stand in the same arena (laughs)

Was it yours or your editors’ idea to have a promotional crossover between you and Kohei Horikoshi?

It was our editors’ idea. Honestly, I love mangakas! Just picturing the career in my mind has always been enough to make me daydream and to me mangakas in general have a certain coolness about them. Mr. Horikoshi strikes me particularly. He’s really a representation of the modern writer to me. I respected him a lot already reading his manga, but my admiration increased even more after meeting him in real life. After that, I would always ask my editor if he heard anything about Mr. Horikoshi, every time we met. (Laughs)
Since I wouldn’t stop talking about him, our editors decided to make this promotional marketing project between both manga. Apparently, one of the reasons why Mr. Horikoshi accepted to participate was because he reads Jujutsu Kaisen. That made me very happy!

**His editor, M. Katayama: I was only asking for a commentary for the opening banner but Mr. Horikoshi decided instead to send us illustrations for Jujutsu Kaisen. We did tell him beforehand that he didn’t have to spend too much time on this crossover because of his tight schedule yet he did! **

On top of that, Mr. Horikoshi wasted no time sending in those illustrations and said he didn’t want to disturb the release schedule for this project. Can you imagine? A well-known writer like him not only agreed to promote my work but also showed a lot of modesty. I’m as much a fan of his manga as I am a fan of the man himself!

translated from french by @Anco#8613