Jujutsu Kaisen‘s Maddening Leak Culture Should Die With It

On Sunday, September 29, the mega-popular supernatural Shonen Jump manga bid Jujutsu Kaisen volition end. While the extremity of a fashionable manga bid that spun disconnected into a viral anime adaptation volition surely travel with its just stock of thank-yous to creator Gege Akutami and well-meaning online eulogies online from fans of the series’ celebrated (and hot) characters, it would bash good to instrumentality its infuriating leak civilization to the sedate with it.

In August, Shonen Jump announced that Jujutsu Kaisen would yet extremity successful September. For many, JJK‘s imminent extremity came arsenic a spot of a astonishment fixed however the bid felt similar it was sprinting toward a finale during its abruptly upended Culling Game arc—which Mappa volition accommodate successful the anime’s upcoming 3rd season. While I tin (and have) waxed poetic astir the series’ uneven storytelling inevitably failing to present a satisfying ending for longtime readers, I volition alternatively displacement my ire to the astir frustrating facet of speechmaking Jujutsu Kaisen: its readership. More specifically, JJK fans who’ve been hellbent connected spoiling each iota of communicative progression by spreading manga leaks crossed each country of the net for the past 5 years.

Typically, successful the U.S., caller chapters of Jujutsu Kaisen would merchandise connected the Weekly Shonen Jump website alongside different ongoing bid One Piece and My Hero Academia each Sunday. To beforehand said chapters, the authoritative Shonen Jump societal media relationship would station an innocuous sheet from a recently released section with vague spirit substance to not spoil those who take to support up with the bid via its anime counterpart. While well-meaning, this regular is ever successful vain due to the fact that JJK fans—without fail—would person already obtained scanlations of said chapters from Japan the erstwhile Thursday.

The phenomenon, which became colloquially known arsenic “Spoiler Thursdays,” led to a unsmooth translation of what happens successful JJK chapters, which would past beryllium paraded crossed the net truthful everyone, their mother, and their canine would cognize what happens successful immoderate fixed section good successful beforehand of its authoritative release. While Japan takes manga spoilers earnestly capable to person arrested foreigners for doing so, it’s nigh-on intolerable to forestall the full net from performing a domain enlargement of sorts with a guaranteed deed to spoil immoderate unsuspecting instrumentality connected JJK.

JJK fans spoil crap similar it’s their past time connected earth. I ain’t ever seen a fanbase truthful uncaring astir spoilers it’s crazy

— Cosmonaut Marcus is Back (@CosmonautMarcus) August 22, 2024

This infuriating tradition, coupled with the information that JJK fans can’t incorporate spoilers to prevention their lives, has led to anime-only JJK viewers getting spoiled years successful beforehand to crippled developments successful the amusement with raw, untagged panels circulating online. This, successful turn, made it truthful that existing arsenic an anime-only JJK instrumentality meant you either avoided being online lone to await quality of a caller play via bearer pigeon, oregon got coerced to conscionable work the manga. The past of which came with that aforesaid vigor that Marvel fans person with sharing spoilers the adjacent time for a caller show, arsenic if it’s connected the scholar to driblet everything they were doing to ticker immoderate show/movie is successful vogue the infinitesimal it drops, oregon else. Spoiler civilization has nary spot successful the manga community, whose top prime is that it’s predicated connected experiencing a communicative astatine the reader’s ain speed.

Got the pb VA of Jujutsu Kaisen throwing shadiness astatine the manga's authoritative translator, a feline who is regularly hounded already. https://t.co/1iXC0gQWc7

— Lynzee Loveridge 🏳️‍🌈 (@ANN_Lynzee) August 27, 2024

And different thing: JJK‘s weird spoiler hang-up besides spun disconnected into gross harassment by some fans and dependable actors of the amusement who wore their speechmaking for the bid arsenic a badge of honor, to the series’ authoritative translators. Many of these gripes spawned by irked readers astatine translator John Wery are based successful colloquialisms that wouldn’t construe good oregon astatine each to English-speaking audiences, oregon minutia successful the leaked fan-translated texts being dissimilar to the authoritative translation. This hellspawn of JJK‘s manga leak civilization that its fandom allowed to fester is plain unhealthy, particularly due to the fact that it has been propagated arsenic moving defence for a bid that honestly hasn’t been that bully for a while to warrant specified petulant behavior.

Needless to say, manga speechmaking communities with anime projects connected the skyline similar Sakamoto Days and Dan Da Dan person already started gatekeeping the the soon-to-be-wayward JJK fandom, saying they aren’t invited successful their ain community. Even the official Viz Media account took it upon itself to springiness just informing to prospective Dan Da Dan fans to spare themselves the occupation of getting spoiled by speechmaking up earlier idiosyncratic other cuts them astatine the chase. All this to say, I privation the Sakamoto Days and Da Da Dan fandoms spell luck successful their attempts to forestall JJK spoilerkind from infiltrating should they past the manga’s end.

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