Gege Akutami’s brilliantly written supernatural manga Jujutsu Kaisen has attained a cult following after it reached an international audience through English translation. Viz Media licensed the manga for English-language release in North America, publishing the manga in print since Dec. 2019. Shueisha also publishes the series in English on the Manga Plus platform.
The anime adaptation of Jujutsu Kaisen, which first hit MBS in Oct. 2020, again widened its fan base with the English dub hitting Crunchyroll a month later in November. The Japanese gift of manga and anime to the world is one of the few arts that have found great success despite the language difference. One of the main reasons behind this is the accuracy of the English subs and dubs that do not lose the charm and essence of the original story.
Production houses have also adopted the trend of translating titles of manga/anime series which are hard to understand in Japanese. The most famous examples of this trend include Attack on Titan (Original: Shingeki no Kyojin), Demon Slayer (Original: Kimetsu no Yaiba), and more. Though Jujutsu Kaisen is famous as it is, you might still be curious about the official English title of the series, and what’s the true meaning behind it.
Jujutsu Kaisen’s English title
The official English title of Jujutsu Kaisen is “Sorcery Fight,” which seems acceptable on the surface since the series revolved around the Jujutsu Sorcerers as heroes fighting against the demonic Curses. However, “Sorcery Fight” isn’t actually the literal translation of “Jujutsu Kaisen.” While “Jujutsu” does mean Sorcery, or magic, “Kaisen” is not an actual Japanese word and was rather made up by Gege Akutami to convey a deeper meaning to the title by joining two separate Japanese characters.
The term “kai (廻)” translates to “around,” or a never-ending cycle, and “sen (戦)” translates to “war” or a battle/fight. Putting the two together, “Kaisen (廻戦)” would mean a never-ending round of battle. This puts the true English translation of “Jujutsu Kaisen” to “an everlasting battle of sorcery.”
The literal translation fits the story perfectly as the series conveys the idea at its core that Curses come along with humans. As long as humans exist, so will the Curses, and so shall the fight. At the center of Jujutsu Kaisen‘s plot is a first-year Jujutsu Sorcerer at Tokyo Jujutsu High named Yuji Itadori, who, along with other Sorcerers, fights against a powerful Curse named Ryomen Sukuna, residing in Yuji’s body.
The anime series is available to watch on Crunchyroll, and manga is available to read on Viz Media‘s official website.
