I'm gonna say something. When I started watching Jujutsu Kaisen and got hooked on the story and characters, I did not expect for the story to progress into something so dark and hopeless. I loved both seasons 1 and 2, and so I moved on to the manga to avoid being spoiled because I thought season 2 was an amazing set up for something exciting to come, but then the manga sorely disappointed me. First we had the slow and boring Culling Game arc after Shibuya and that short stretch of interesting chapters in which we got to see Choso and Yūji together, and we got to see Yūta again as well. (Tbh I didn't care for the Zen'in extermination mini arc, and I thought it was very poorly done and wtf was that random inc*sty moment between Maki and Mai? ew).
I don't mind a story going dark, but if it's going to be done (especially when the story as you set it up at the start has a totally different vibe/tone), then I expect it to be done right.
But yes, these were my expectations at the end of the Shibuya arc:
I thought the remaining Jujutsu sorcerers as exhausted they were after the Shibuya incident would have to deal with the outbreak of curses attacking innocent people all over Tokyo. Instead it was all ignored or like glossed over...
I thought there would be some state of emergency in the Jujutsu world about Yūji Itadori. Yes, his execution was reinstated, but after what Sukuna did in Shibuya I thought there would be something like a state of emergency and all sorcerers would be called to finish off Itadori on the spot. I get to prevent something like that Yūta fought to be appointed as Yūji's executioner, but given the circumstances I thought we'd see more of a horrified reaction from Yūji's friends and colleagues, and a rush to find him and kill him to prevent Sukuna from taking over again and causing another catastrophe. As far as many know, Yūji had lost control over Sukuna, so there should have been more worry about this. Instead, we got Yūta faking Yūji's death and then that didn't even matter because it seems like everyone at Jujutsu High knew he was alive afterwards?? Or maybe Gege forgot about that plot, idk. Then it didn't even matter because Sukuna didn't even remain in Itadori, so.
I thought that with Gojo gone there's be a scramble amongst the top families to establish some sort of dominance over the Jujutsu world. We got some half-assed bit about this during the Zen'in extermination arc. And Kenjaku sort of took over the Kamo clan or something. It was all very poorly done.
I also thought we'd get to see Kusakabe's support for Yūji's execution in some way, or him being vocal about how Yūji Itadori is dangerous. If Gege was going to do literally nothing with that, why even have that scene in the first place? (When Kusakabe told Panda he was in favor of Itadori's extermination). In the end, he did nothing with that.
I thought Tsumiki's and Megumi's arc would wrap up once they saved her from Kenjaku's control after she was thrown into the Culling Game, and afterwards Megumi could continue to grow his technique and gaining more Shikigami etc. Instead Tsukimi was a pointless character and Megumi took Itadori's plot basically. More on that below. We only got to see Megumi's shadow technique's development through Sukuna's control of his body and nothing else. Megumi was a pointless character as well in the end.
I thought Nobara Kugisaki would be revealed to have survived. If not, why on heaven and earth would you even have a random character show up and heal Itadori and "heal" Kugisaki as well and say that she MIGHT survive when she wasn't going to?? Has Gege ever heard of Chekov's Gun principle in writing or...? That doesn't make sense. I still have hope for her return, though. I'm almost caught up with the manga, finally, and as far as I'm reading it's only been about two months since Shibuya arc, so... She might have been recovering from the injury. But yes, little hope left for this one, but I still hope as it hasn't been like fully confirmed because obviously Gege knows he'd lose readership, so. Yūji's fear of Nobara being replaced by Hana made me think that she truly is gone, because he would know by that point if she was alive, I would think.
And finally, I thought Itadori was going to consume the rest of Sukuna's fingers and lose control again as the ending drew near. After what Shibuya arc set up, it felt truly like the end of the series is very near, and as Shibuya arc and his exchange with Yūta afterwards hinted, Itadori is going to lose control again. I thought it was likely to happen, only for Itadori to be "saved" in the end in some form. I thought he'd find a way to defeat Sukuna from within.
I thought Sukuna was going to use Megumi's shadow technique to incarnate outside of Itadori's body. Like, Ok I admit since season 1 I had this vibe that Sukuna wanted Megumi for his body, since I watched Naruto and I felt like Gege modeled some things after Naruto especially Megumi having this Sasuke vibe, but I hoped Gege would be more original. In the end I thought Sukuna wanted Megumi for his shadow technique; like maybe Megumi could manifest something Sukuna needed, or even manifest Sukuna himself outside of Itadori's body. But yep instead we got the most boring outcome possible and also the most pointless and unimaginative. Megumi ended up getting Itadori's plot? Like Sukuna ofc wanted to take over Yūji but he wasn't being able to take over and he was more like "caged" so he wanted out, but if Itadori consumed all fingers he might have lost control. It would have made sense if the final fight came to be Itadori-Sukuna vs Megumi, as this whole situation even started because Itadori consumed the finger to save Megumi, a mission Megumi sort of failed (to locate the cursed object). Like I feel that the final fight should have been them, but I guess Gege wanted Itadori to fight as himself, as the hero, and not Megumi, so the roles were reversed and Sukuna ended up inside Megumi for the final fight... But given as it was Jujutsu Kaisen a different kind of shounen (this is so not shounen anymore; it's more like seinen), and how the story started as Yūji being the one who took Sukuna in, it would have made sense for the end to be either Yūji facing the darkness (Sukuna) within, or Megumi and the others stopping Yūji and saving him from the darkness. It just doesn't pack an emotional punch that I feel was promised with the plot premise, if Itadori isn't the one being possessed by Sukuna in the end.
Anyway, these are my thoughts. I didn't sign up for this, but since I still love Itadori Yūji and some of the few remaining characters, I will finish reading the series...
For me, after Shibuya arc this manga only kept losing quality, more and more, and now it's just this unsatisfying, hopeless, and often boring thing I am only reading because I still love a few of the remaining characters and I want to know how their story will end. But yes, this manga just lost the appeal for me and it became something I didn't sign up for when I got hooked on the first couple of seasons.
Edit: You can tell I was really angry when I wrote this, but I still feel this way, except I now feel like the manga has gotten interesting again as Yūji has done some real damage to Sukuna (chapters 257-258). But yes, the story did lose its way, that is undeniable. When I said it's now seinen, though, on hindsight, I feel it still retains the shounen vibe, except for the few dark moments like the Zen'in extermination arc and the situation with Megumi and how he's just given up.
