Warning! Spoilers ahead for Dandadan chapter 60!
The wildest series in Shonen Jump, Dandadan, just gave the curses in Jujutsu Kaisen a much weirder - and even more concise - spin. The move also justifies the use of one of the series' more random moments.
In Jujutsu Kaisen, cursed spirits or curses are physical beings that have manifested in the human world after a high concentration of negative human emotions have gathered together. Many of Jujutsu Kaisen's strongest curses take a form that's associated with the negative emotions that created them. One of the most obvious examples is Jogo who represents any negative association with volcanoes and other fire-based natural disasters since his head is shaped like a volcano or, more specifically, like Mt. Fuji, and he emits flames.
In chapter 60 of Dandadan by mangaka Yukinobu Tatsu, readers are introduced to thought-forms or tulpas. The only types of tulpas readers have seen so far are bobblehead-like versions of famous composers. They represent the collective fears that people have of certain portraits in a school's music room. Each tulpa represents one of the portraits in the classroom and looks exactly like the composer pictured there except for having an abnormally large head. They are also quite volatile, viciously attacking series protagonists Okarun and Aira with music because the two heroes were foolishly training in their music room. Dandadan is famous for using random moments to hide its genius, and this is no exception.
In comparison to the cursed spirits in Jujutsu Kaisen, Dandadan's tulpas are much weirder. Composers aren't normally associated with something people fear and seeing them act so out of character in such an extreme way only heightens the absurdity of it all even more. When did famous composers ever unleash a slew of musical markings from their instruments that could explode upon impact? Conversely, as far as Jujutsu Kaisen's Jogo is concerned, the fear of volcanoes is understandable. Readers can readily and easily associate what he does in the manga with how they would expect a fire-based character to act, especially one who has a short fuse and lights people on fire without the slightest provocation. While a head that looks like a volcano is odd, it is relatively normal in the realm of manga, especially an action series. The same can't be said of composers except in music-based manga like Shonen Jump's PPPPPP.
The introduction of tulpas in Dandadan also promises that others like the bobblehead composers could appear in future chapters. However, it's highly unlikely they will serve as major antagonists like the cursed spirits do in Jujutsu Kaisen, what with the slew of Dandadan's yokai and aliens that saturate the year-old series. The explanation that the bobblehead composers are in fact tulpas is also a relief. Although Dandadan set up them perfectly by mixing training with rhythm, many fans might have found the bobblehead composers a little disconcerting even for Dandadan. At the time, mangaka Yukinobu Tatsu didn't provide any explanation about why composers had randomly appeared except that Okarun and Aira were in the school's music room and that their attackers were somehow associated with the room's portraits. Chapter 60's elaboration definitely helped justify their usage and possibly even got the more skeptical readers not only onboard but excited for more. While Jujutsu Kaisen has its weird moments, it's got nothing on Dandadan.
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