Jujutsu Kaisen Manga's Original Draft Had Megumi As The Protagonist, Akutami Reveals
Gege Akutami, the creator of Jujutsu Kaisen, recently revealed that Megumi Fushiguro was initially intended to be the protagonist in an early draft of the story.
In a Q&A which was displayed at the Gege Akutami ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’ exhibition, the author explained that the series was originally titled Sousen and Fushiguro (then named Megumi Wanibuchi) was supposed to be the protagonist.
He was a 16-year-old in the story who decided to go straight to work after graduating middle school, instead of going to college, so that he could spend more time at home with his sister Tsumiki who was blind and sick.
However, after the initial draft failed to secure serialization, Akutami decided to go back to the drawing board and rework the concept to better fit a shounen magazine demographic.
Akutami observed that Fushiguro’s character was somewhat hardened, while Yuji Itadori possessed a softer and more relatable demeanor. This led Akutami to swap their roles, making Itadori the main protagonist and Fushiguro a supporting character.
Gojo was still a main character in the series, and the Culling Game too, interestingly was part of the original draft of Jujutsu Kaisen
The drafts of Sousen were also displayed at the exhibition alongside Jujutsu Kaisen. Check out some panels that made to social media platforms below.
The Q&A’s from the exhibition have proven to be treasure trove of information for fans, as Akutami has revealed a lot of behind the scenes details from his manga.
An important information revealed at the exhibition include – the confirmation of Shinjuku Showdown as the final arc of the JJK
Jujutsu Kaisen manga, which began serializing in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 2018.
As of July 2024, the chapters of the manga have been collected into 27 tankobon volumes, with over 90 million copies in circulation.