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The ending of ‘The Legend of Sword and Fairy’ has finally arrived, leaving many fans feeling deeply moved. Recently, it has been revealed that the popular early style of “Jujutsu Kaisa” is actually the result of editors adjusting it based on market feedback, rather than the story originally created by the author Katsura Shimonoseki (pen name One Eyed Cat). Before its official serialization, this work underwent three trial issues, but was required to be rewritten due to accusations of lacking JUMP flavor. This back and forth contradiction filled Jiejian with resentment towards the character Gojo Satoru. He deliberately belittled this character in the work as one of his retaliations, which also led to the awkward ending of “Jujutsu: The Return of War” later on.
Every work prepared for serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump needs to go through a short trial issue, and the prototype of “Jujutsu War” is a set of three story completed short stories called “Jujutsu War”. It was only made public once at the “Jujutsu Battle Exhibition” in July this year. From it, it can be seen that Jiejian’s original intention was not to create a campus battle type story, but rather a work that incorporates urban elements and a gloomy style. The character setting and story development are very different from traditional youth comics.
At the beginning of the story, Gojo Satoru tells the story of a mysterious disease called “curse” spreading among young people and warns that it may evolve into a “curse attack”. Subsequently, the story quickly enters a chapter called ‘Dead Migration’, which is considered the most difficult and controversial part of the entire work, including a killing competition where only by killing the opponent can one survive. In early versions, the Tiger Staff was only a minor character, and the real protagonist was the predecessor character of Fu Heihui, “Crocodile Zehui”.
The initial version of “Death and Extinction Migration” was rejected and requested to be revised because it did not meet the standards for publishing youth comics and reflected the editor’s prediction of the market. In the end, Jiejian was forced to modify “Jujutsu Kaisen” to a more passionate and friendly style: the protagonist’s Tiger Staff contains mysterious powers inside, forming a classic “trio” mode with Fushimi and Takasaki.
Jiejian once stated that the settings in the work were based on “Naruto”. The appearance of Gojo Satoru was initially not a tribute to Kakashi, but was inspired by a secondary character named “Flying Bamboo Dragonfly”. However, due to the intervention of the editor, Gojo Satoru gradually became a shining character among his classmates, which made Jiejian even more disgusted with him.
Why did the protagonist turn into a tiger cane in the end? According to an interview with Jiejian, the Tiger Staff was initially a relatively unimportant character, only appearing as the main character to meet mainstream requirements. Its weak presence also stems from Jiejian’s inability to target this traditional hot blooded protagonist.
For Jiejian, Gojo Satoru not only represents the will of the editor, but also symbolizes commercial calculation, which is more popular than the characters he creates with care. So, when Jiejian became famous and gained creative autonomy, he quickly sealed Gojo Satoru and began creating a new chapter on “Death and Migration”. However, the poor evaluation during this stage seemed to reflect Jiejian’s dissatisfaction, ultimately taking Gojo Satoru offline in an extreme way.
Will Jiejian pay special attention to feedback from netizens? His response seems to be “the more you dislike it, the more I want to write”, even openly using the name of the character to confront netizens or modifying the setting in the story, pushing the story to extremes. This trend may prompt JUMP to agree to the conclusion of the work and end everyone’s troubles. For those readers who have accompanied ‘The Legend of Sword and Fairy’ for six and a half years, the result seems disappointing, leaving only a trace of resentment.