The Jujutsu Kaisen manga concluded in September 2024 with a bittersweet ending after the intense battle against the King of the Curses. The final arc featured the battle of the strongest and quickly moved to the Sukuna raid, highlighting almost every character’s importance in the final fight. The anime’s second season aired in 2023 and the third season is currently under production. So far, MAPPA has only released a key visual featuring Yuji and the rest of the details will be shared later on. After covering the two short arcs, Itadori Extermination and Perfect Preparation, the third season will adapt the Culling Game Arc of the manga, one of the most brutal battle royale in the Shonen series.
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The manga already released its final volumes last year but only in Japanese. It usually takes a few months, or even a year for a volume to be released and distributed in English. The Japanese version of Volume 25 was released on January 4th, 2024, and will finally be globally available with its English translation on April 24th. Unfortunately, it still has the major translation issues fans often complained about during the manga’s serialization.
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Jujutsu Kaisen Volume 25 Didn’t Change the Controversial Translation Errors
Scenes from Jujutsu Kaisen Volume 25 quickly made the rounds on X (formerly Twitter) of these translations not being updated ahead of the volume’s official release. The top panel in the image from the fan account Go_Jover is from Chapter 218, which covers Sukuna vs. Yorozu, where she actually urges Sukuna to use his Cursed Technique, “Shrine.” However, the translation by John Werry says “Malevolent Shrine,” which is actually his Domain Expansion. Additionally, the bottom panels are comparing the official translation vs the fan translation.
Surprisingly, the fan translation is more accurate and easier to understand while the official one is quite confusing. The scene is from Chapter 220, right before Gojo’s release from the Prison Realm as Shoko reminisces about him. She also makes it clear that she would never fall for either him or Geto, and that hell would freeze over before that happens. Jujutsu Kaisen Volume 25 includes Chapters 218 to 227. Fans also acknowledge the controversial mishaps in translation, with comments such as the following:
@JOTADefender shares, “Man…If only somebody made a Kickstarter so that they retranslate all of it because it’s looking gloomy.”
@bammi057 tags the official account of VizMedia and writes, “Please, this is embarrassing fix this.”
Unfortunately, Viz Media has yet to acknowledge any of the fans’ complaints despite the recurring issue with the translation, and comments reaching years back into their original localized Jujutsu Kaisen chapters.
Jujutsu Kaisen Had Recurring Translation Issues Since the Translator Changed
In 2020, Jujutsu Kaisen’s translator was arrested for possessing and distributing child pornography. In May 2023, Jujutsu Kaisen’s initial translator, Stefan Koza, was sentenced to ten years of jail with seven years suspended. John Werry, a popular translator who has worked in Demon Slayer, Claymore, One Punch Man, etc., began translating Jujutsu Kaisen in Chapter 133.
However, the manga has had several issues with the flow of the dialogues and techniques’ names changing frequently. Many fans have been complaining for years, even tagging Viz Media on several occasions to address the issue. Back in August 2024, Yuji’s English voice actor, Adam McArthur, shared a funny JJK gif on X with the protagonist saying “I see. I don’t get it.” He also captions the post, “John Werry,” calling out the translator for the confusing dialogues even in the Final Saga. Adam gathered a bunch of mixed reactions but it again highlighted the severity of the issue.
While Viz Media has yet to publicly acknowledge fans’ complaints, they quietly fixed a couple of errors including the iconic scene in Chapter 221 where Gojo says, “Nah, I’d win.” The original version simply said “No,” leading to surprisingly widespread outrage. This is only one of the examples of the publisher fixing the error, while most of them still remain the same.
Even the manga volumes aren’t fixing the problems, so people who don’t read fan translations wouldn’t know they are reading the scenes completely wrong. Another controversial blunder, and a major one at that, happened in Chapter 256 when Gojo specifically explains he can’t use Black Flash because of his Six Eyes. When actually, he cleared up the misunderstanding that his inability to use Black Flash at will isn’t because of his Six Eyes.
Jujutsu Kaisen is one of the most popular manga and anime series in recent times, and the manga sales have been generational for the past few years. Unfortunately, these carelessnesses reduce fans’ trust in the official version and disappoint them further. Fans reading this manga in other languages, such as Spanish and French, have also voiced out a few mistranslations, but the English version has been the most controversial globally. Including Volume 25, JJK still has to release six volumes so it’s unclear if these errors will continue or not.
