JJK Is the First Anime Since Dragon Ball to Make Power Feel This Big

The big question is if JJK will be more impactful than Dragon Ball Z. I'll be real that's not exactly what I argued on the pod. What I said was there's no better anime that shows fight and power than JJK, and I don't believe that's been the case since Dragon Ball. I told the guys I was gonna pop the hot take and let it sizzle so here it is in writing where y'all can come at me properly.

Naruto gets the choreography

Before anybody runs to the comments, choreography for sure Naruto has it. Somebody on the call said Naruto deserves some respect for how its fights are put together and I agreed. I think Naruto might even have that over Dragon Ball. However power is a whole different conversation and that's where JJK separates itself for me. If you want the full list of fights that did it for me, check legendary anime battles.

The city was flat

Spoiler warning: this section talks about the Shibuya Incident arc of Jujutsu Kaisen.

Think about Sukuna telling everybody to freeze and then going at Jogo, the volcano head. On the pod I was calling Sukuna the chef guy because I couldn't remember names in the moment so forgive me. Then you got the monster that can adapt to everything, Mahoraga. Both of those fights show straight power.

I can see people quickly saying oh My Hero Academia shows destruction too. No. When that fight was over the city was flat. We haven't seen that since Dragon Ball. Dragon Ball would show you people fighting above water and then in the next frame show you how the earth just got deleted. A whole mountain gone, the whole sky cracked. That's what I grew up on and JJK does that for me right now. Ray even said the newer season gets better from there, the Maki episode in Season 3 had him losing it and that season only started in January 2026.

Is it even fair to judge DBZ now?

Then somebody hit us with the question of how we feel about Dragon Ball Z now that we're grown. The take on the call was that after the Buu saga it's the same loop over and over. Somebody dies, they come back with the Dragon Balls, hair gets a new color, fight again. Super is fun to watch but not good.

My honest take is I support that, but I also feel like the question isn't even fair. Now that we're grown we've seen so much great anime that's really deep. But Dragon Ball and a lot of those older animes are the reason we have some of these great animes now. If I try to keep it fair I gotta ask what else was out around that time that hit like that. Not a lot. Dragon Ball Z ran from 1989 to 1996 and 291 episodes later it basically set the template for the anime fight. So now that I'm grown I gotta keep it where it's at. It's a great piece of work. It's the same reason the Dragon Ball games still get played.

However just to give you some meat, it is very surface now that I'm older. A lot of the schemes are the same. I was watching Dragon Ball before One Piece but me at my current age, One Piece is holding me down.

So will JJK outlast it?

You might be asking why I'm not just saying yes since I think JJK has the power crown right now. Because lasting is a different thing than hitting hard. JJK already passed 100 million copies in circulation according to Shueisha and the anime is still going with Culling Game Part 2 already in production, there was even a sequel manga called Modulo that Ray was hyping on the pod when it was 21 chapters in. It ended at chapter 25 in March. The momentum is there.

Dragon Ball has decades on it though, and Akira Toriyama passed in March 2024 with almost every anime fight people praise today standing on what he built. JJK showing power on screen that nobody has matched since Goku is the part I'll stand on. Whether it lasts like DBZ is up to whether the next generation is still bringing it up 20 years from now the way we still bring up Goku.

So let me ask you. What anime fight since Dragon Ball made you feel like the whole planet was actually in danger, and is it JJK or am I tripping? Tell me in the CXM Discord.