Readers outraged over missing protagonists in Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia, and Chainsaw Man 

Some fandoms seem excessively upset regarding a lack of protagonistic presence in their series lately (Image via Sportskeeda)
Some fandoms seem excessively upset regarding a lack of protagonistic presence in their series lately (Image via Sportskeeda)

Despite all three series receiving incredible chapters as of late, fans of Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia, and Chainsaw Man are seemingly upset with the lack of protagonist presence. My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen have been publishing issues for quite some time with minimal to no appearances from their protagonists.

Chainsaw Man, meanwhile, has begun its second story arc overall and its protagonist Denji hasn't featured in any of its four issues. Needless to say, fans of all three series are somewhat disgruntled at the lack of presence of each series’ purported protagonist.

Follow along as this article fully breaks down fan reactions to these issues from the Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia, and Chainsaw Man fandoms.

Fan reactions

The protagonists of Chainsaw Man (CSM), My Hero Academia (MHA), and Jujutsu Kaisen (JJK) (Denji, Izuku Midoriya, and Yuji Itadori, respectively) have been benchwarming in the recent issues while others take center stage.

While the Chainsaw Man fandom has taken this lightly due to Asa Mitaka’s captivating presence and Part 2 having only just begun, My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen fans feel differently. Fans of the latter two series have gone quite some time during regular serialization without seeing their main characters.

Jujutsu Kaisen is rapidly approaching a year of serialization without Yuji, while My Hero Academia fans had a glimpse of Midoriya roughly five issues ago. This was his first appearance in the series since 8 issues prior, which (despite the relatively short length to Jujutsu Kaisen) raised hell amongst My Hero Academia fans.

While Chainsaw Man fans were initially satiated in this regard by Asa Mitaka, their patience seems to be wearing thin, especially in light of Tuesday’s release. While the closing panels portrayed a scenario which seems to be the perfect opportunity to reintroduce Denji, some fans are calling it too little, too late relative to their interest in the series.

Interestingly, the MHA fandom seems to be having one of the more volatile reactions to their main character’s absence than the other two despite seeing their protagonist recently.

While CSM fans have, by chapter, seen Denji less than half-a-dozen issues ago, the real-world time which has passed has been well over 18 months as of this writing.

Even more interesting is that the JJK fandom seems to be having the most patience amongst the three, with many fans only recently voicing complaints of Yuji’s absence. This is most likely due to the nature of the series’ current story arcs, which see the core protagonistic group split up into various areas around Japan to achieve goals that contribute to a larger mission.

While some fans are being respectful and patient regarding this issue of protagonistic presence, all should at least remain civil towards the series’ authors. There’s simply no reason to do anything beyond critiquing an author for writing their story the way they want, with some fans going as far as to use threats against the authors of the respective series.


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