My Favorite Anime: Che Lingo’s journey from Death Note to Jujutsu Kaisen

Che Lingo, the U.K.-based rapper and musician, is an avid anime enthusiast. In addition to collaborating with Crunchyroll on its fall 2023 anime trailer, Che Lingo also composed and performed several songs for Jujutsu Kaisen’s first season.

Polygon recently had a chance to connect with Lingo, so we had to ask: What was your first favorite anime, and what’s your favorite anime now?

My Favorite Anime is Polygon’s column dedicated to collecting the stories of the biggest celebrity anime fans in the world, charting a path from their earliest introductions to Japanese animation to the series and films they love today. Here’s what Che Lingo had to say.

What was your first favorite anime?

Death Note is easily one of the most famous and iconic anime of the late 2000s. Based on Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata’s 2003 manga, the series follows the story of Light Yagami, an intelligent yet disaffected high school student who yearns for a world where his personal idea of “justice” is upheld.

After discovering the Death Note, a notebook with the power to kill anyone whose name is written in its pages, Light plunges into a megalomaniac killing spree, acting as judge, jury, and executioner for anyone he perceives as unworthy of life. When the rash of inexplicable deaths sparks an international manhunt for the person responsible, Light must elude his would-be captors with the aid of Ryuk, a Reaper-like supernatural entity known as a shinigami and the previous owner of the Death Note.

A psychological mystery thriller with a Faustian supernatural twist, both the original Death Note manga and its anime adaptation enjoyed massive popularity and commercial success, with the manga having sold over 30 million copies as of April 2015. Death Note has spawned multiple adaptations and spinoffs since the anime’s conclusion, including five Japanese feature films and a 2017 American adaptation starring Nat Wolff, LaKeith Stanfield, and Willem Dafoe.

What’s your favorite anime now?

Since its premiere in 2020, Jujutsu Kaisen has quickly become one of the most popular supernatural shonen action anime in recent memory. Based on Gege Akutami’s ongoing manga series, the show follows the story of Yuji Itadori, a Japanese high school student with unnatural physical strength who is inadvertently thrust into an ongoing war between humanity and preternatural entities known as “Curses.” After accidentally swallowing one of the mummified fingers of Ryomen Sukuna, arguably the most powerful cursed spirit to ever exist, he becomes the living vessel of Sukuna’s consciousness, allowing him to wreak havoc and destruction in Yuji’s body.

Fortunately, Yuji is incapacitated by Satoru Gojo, one of the most powerful Jujutsu sorcerers in Tokyo and a teacher at Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School. Saving Yuji’s life from certain execution, Gojo takes him under his wing and teaches him how to become a Jujutsu sorcerer himself so he can use his newfound powers in the fight to save humanity.

Both the manga and the anime have been tremendously successful, with over 90 million copies of the manga sold as of January 2024 and the anime adaptation having won several awards, including Anime of the Year at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards in 2021 and 2024. Jujutsu Kaisen 0, a feature-length prequel to the anime based on Akutami’s original manga, became one of the highest-grossing Japanese films of 2021, amassing $196.2 million worldwide.

Death Note is available to stream on Hulu, Netflix, Peacock, and Prime Video. Jujutsu Kaisen is available to stream on Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Netflix.