During the Jump Festa 2023 Super Stage on December 17, 2022, Jujutsu Kaisen’s creator Gege Akutami announced that his series may come to an end in a year. The mangaka’s message to his readers stated that he wished for their support for another year.
The Jump Festa 2023 Super Stage unveiled the character previews for season 2 and presented a Q&A session with the voice actors present. The message was read at the end of the presentation and displayed Akutami’s signature flare and the key announcement.
Jujutsu Kaisen creator Akutami’s message at Jump Festa 2023 asks fans to support him for one more year
The panel consisted of Junya Enoki, Yuichi Nakamura, and Nobunaga Shimazaki, who play Yuji Itadori, Satoru Gojo, and Mahito, respectively, in the Jujutsu Kaisen anime. Suguru Geto’s voice actor, Takahiro Sakurai, was also set to appear. However, he was absent due to the recent scandal regarding his personal life.
The message from Akutami was read aloud by Shimazaki. Roughly translated, it reads:
“Thank you for your continued support of Jujutsu Kaisen. It’s unfortunate but we often have to hear the news that we dread every day. It’s honestly a surprise that so many people enjoy my work even as reality seems to slowly but surely smother us.”
It further continues:
“I will keep drawing things that make no sense, and Gege (referring to himself) will be so happy if you continue to stay with me and enjoy my work for about another year (maybe).”
In Mando Kobayashi, Gege Sensei said that JJK will be over in 2 years…So maybe now it’s updated that JJK will end in around 1 year#JujutsuKaisen
Needless to say, the message was confusing at best and gave rise to rampant speculation. Akutami had previously stated in January 2021 that he wanted to end his series within two years.
It appears that the deadline has been extended due to the introduction of the Culling Game. One of the ongoing debates in the fandom is whether The Culling Game arc will be the final arc of the manga. Suffice to say, Akutami’s message seems to have confirmed this speculation for some fans.
Meanwhile, many fans believe that while The Culling Game arc may come to an end in a year, the manga itself will continue, given the number of plot-threads Akutami has yet to resolve. While it is almost universally acknowledged among fans that the series will end in a tragedy, it is only natural that they want to prolong the arrival of said ending.
Enoki even commented that he doesn’t trust mangakas regarding the end-dates of their series, likely referring to how My Hero Academia mangaka Kohei Horikoshi planned to end his series this year. However, the latter could not do so due to the story being far from finished.
Final thoughts
Today’s Jujutsu Kaisen Super Stage at Jump Festa 2023 also contained information about season 2 and a Q&A section, where the voice actors revealed the answers to some of the quirky questions, such as the origin of Takaba’s joke and why Charles was made a foreigner. Moreover, the voice actors had to continuously censor themselves so that they wouldn’t reveal any spoilers.
