adminWhether you’re new to anime or a longtime fan who is biding time until Jujutsu Kaisen season three releases in January, here are the best anime like Jujutsu Kaisen.
What’s the best anime like Jujutsu Kaisen?
Where to even start?! There are so many incredible shows that we could list as other series that might give you the same battle shonen kick as Jujutsu Kaisen. These are just five of them, but honorable mentions we didn’t include go to Yu Yu Hakusho for some fun 90s anime, Dororo, and Mob Psycho 100.
Chainsaw Man
If you’ve seen Jujutsu Kaisen, odds are you’ve already watched Chainsaw Man. And if not, you’ve probably seen it mentioned on fan forums as a must-watch. So we can’t say this pick is necessarily anything you wouldn’t expect on this list, but we’re putting it here because it’s so clearly the one you should jump to next, in the off-chance you haven’t seen it yet.
From the same studio that produced Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man gives us another superheroic protagonist tasked with tracking down and destroying supernatural evil that will take down humans if left unchecked. In Chainsaw Man, the main hero we follow is a teenager who makes a deal that fuses his body with Pochita, a dog-like chainsaw devil. This contract gives him the transformative ability to turn his limbs into chainsaws (and his head, if we’re being accurate), which is a useful power when dealing with evil. And as you might expect from the chainsaw-body situation, the series gives us some of the goriest battles. That should keep your adrenaline pumping until January.
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Demon Slayer: Kimetshu no Yaiba
Another series that follows heroes taking out evil is Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. The series, produced by Ufotable, is based on the manga series created by Koyoharu Gotouge. The story is set in Japan during the Taisho era (1912-1926). It follows a teenage Tanjiro Kamado, who enlists in the Demon Slayer Corps after demons kill his family, and his sister is cursed by a demon. That’s as good a motive as any. From here, the story tracks Tanjiro’s progression as a fighter and the journey to take down the Demon King.
Aside from the storyline itself, fans of Jujutsu Kaisen will appreciate the animation style. Both shows are recent releases, so their animation styles speak to each other. No shortage of enjoyment comes from the exceptional choreographed battle sequences. Though extended battles sometimes have the risk of getting boring, Demon Slayer gives us plenty of variation based on the supernatural powers and skills at play. If this piques your interest, you can easily check it out on Netflix.
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Hunter x Hunter
Based on Yoshihiro Togashi’s manga series, Hunter x Hunter begins with a young boy, Gon Freecss, who learns that his father, whom he thought was dead, is alive. Beyond being alive, he’s very much active as a Hunter, an individual who is tasked with particularly dangerous jobs. Think of these professionals as superhuman bounty hunters, but the bounty could be almost anything. This could be from tracking down treasure or busting criminals. The whole Hunter progression system gets explored more throughout the series, and that alone is just fun to watch. After learning about his father, Gon is determined to take the hunter exam himself. The pass rate is bleak: less than 1 in 100,000. But Gon is nothing if determined, and he sets out to make it happen.
Even though this blurb might not make it seem like there’s a ton of overlap between Hunter x Hunter and Jujutsu Kaisen, JJK’s creator Gege Akutami has said Togashi’s work heavily influenced them. As a note, some parts are definitely slower than JJK. If it’s not giving you the breakneck pace you’re used to, hang in there. It’s worth the patience.
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Soul Eater
Created by Atsushi Ohkubo and produced by Studio Bones (the studio behind My Hero Academia), Soul Eater is based on his manga series and is one of those anime picks that’s sometimes overlooked in favor of newer shows. Though its setup is a little different from JJK, it absolutely gives us the human–weapon transformation. And you should know, the manga series did it all the way back in 2004.
Set in the Death Weapon Meister Academy, the series follows three teams, each made up of a weapon meister, or the weapon-wielder, and a human who can transform into that weapon. Now that’s what we call teamwork, folks. In this setup, the main protagonists, Maka Albarn and Soul Evans, set out to hunt down the souls of evil humans, which they can absorb to boost their supernatural powers.
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Bleach
Bleach ran from 2004 to 2012 and delivered 366 episodes. While that barely makes it past the halfway mark compared to Naruto‘s 700-something, it’s still more than enough to keep you occupied for a while. But beyond the episode count, Bleach is absolutely a series that influenced Jujutsu Kaisen. Produced by Studio Pierrot, it follows teenager Ichigo Kurosaki, who gains the powers of a Soul Reaper — a supernatural guardian who protects humans from demonic beings called Hollows and guides wandering souls to the afterlife.
These two series are constantly compared, and you’ll find plenty of fan forum threads debating which is better. The result often ends up around a 50/50 split. JJK may be new, but Bleach was ahead of its time.
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How we picked the best anime like Jujutsu Kaisen
We narrowed down our choices to series that fit the supernatural action-shonen style. These picks offer our favorite battles, complex power systems, and protagonists who square off against monsters, curses, demons, and otherworldly threats.