From Demon Slayer to Jujutsu Kaisen: Crafting Product Journeys with Heart and Intent

Jul 20

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By Ryan K McDonald

https://tse4.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.iLi2Mg-tgzzYDPBZA4pi0wHaEK&cb=iwp1&pid=Api

Why Great PMs Must Be Great Creators

Great products aren't made by accident, they're designed with purpose, built on emotion and refined through feedback. While watching Demon Slayer one afternoon, it hit me: everything I was seeing from the character arcs to world building to fan feedback loops mirrored how we should approach product development.

If you want to build something people obsess over you can’t just think in JIRA tickets and stakeholder updates.

You have to think like a creator.

Like a showrunner.

Like a mangaka.

Because Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen didn’t become global hits by optimizing for efficiency they did it by building worlds worth believing in.

This is more than metaphor. It's a playbook.

Case Study One: Demon Slayer -> Risk, Emotion, and Visual Power

From Near-Cancellation to Cultural Phenomenon

Author Koyoharu Gotouge was one of the few female mangaka in Weekly Shonen Jump. She pitched Demon Slayer as a mix of horror and family drama. Editors almost rejected it due to its quiet tone and unconventional pacing.
The manga’s first volume debuted in 2016 to tepid reception. (Average weekly sales hovered around 50,000 copies.)

The Anime Changed Everything

Studio Ufotable took a huge creative risk. Instead of phoning it in with low-budget animation they crafted fight scenes like art installations.
Episode 19 of the anime, "Hinokami," blended traditional 2D art with CGI backgrounds, a full orchestral score and emotional voice acting. This one broke the internet!
Manga sales exploded overnight from 3M total copies in 2018 to over 100M by 2020 (source).

What Product Managers Should Note

The product (manga) struggled until the experience changed (anime).
Ufotable acted like a true partner, not a vendor which is a reminder that your designers, engineers and marketers are co-creators.
Emotional storytelling and visual identity became more powerful than traditional marketing.

Case Study Two: Jujutsu Kaisen — Iteration, Identity, and Fan Momentum

⚡ From Failure to Foundation

Creator Gege Akutami debuted with Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School, a manga that flopped commercially. Instead of scrapping it, they used it as the canon foundation for Jujutsu Kaisen 0.
When JJK launched in 2018, it started slow: ~58,000 volume sales in its first month.

🚀 MAPPA and the Modern Viewer

Anime studio MAPPA took over the adaptation in 2020. They leaned into fast pacing, crisp animation, and modern fight choreography.
The moment Satoru Gojo removed his blindfold, TikTok and Instagram lit up with fan edits. That scene alone contributed to a 5x spike in manga sales between Oct 2020 and Feb 2021 (source).

🧰 Strategic Lessons

JJK succeeded because it owned its identity: brutal, existential, and Gen Z-ready.
The team listened to fans: themes like trauma, grief, and meaning became more prominent post-launch.
The original failure wasn’t wasted. It became an intentional prequel and monetized asset.

🛠️ What These Anime Teach Us About Product Creation

Anime Phase	Product Management Parallel
Early manga chapters	MVP or pre-seed product
Flat sales	Weak early signals but sticky emotional core
Anime adaptation	Channel pivot / format refactor
Viral moments (ep 19/Gojo)	First "Aha" experience or product-market fit
Fandom + merch explosion	Community flywheel + monetization stack

🤖 Product Lessons for the Creator-PM

Build Emotion First: Great anime starts with stakes. Your product should too.
Refactor, Don't Abandon: Turn failed features into future wins (like JJK 0).
Design for Moments: Find your episode 19. Engineer delight.
Create a World, Not a Widget: A product is a tool. A great product is a universe.
Treat Your Team Like Ufotable: Creative partners, not execution machines.

🏆 The Product Recipe: Anime-Style Product Building

Premise First: What core belief drives this product? For Tanjiro, it was “protect Nezuko.” What’s your user’s core mission?
Conflict = Utility: Every challenge in anime exists to grow the character. Make every feature solve a real conflict.
Pacing Matters: Don’t dump everything in v1. Arc your roadmap like a narrative.
Find Your Visual Hook: Just as anime lives and dies on animation style, your UX/UI should tell a story before a user clicks.
Fan Service = Community Listening: Know when to break the fourth wall and delight your users with unexpected joy.