Jujutsu Kaisen

KaiZerr

#Introduction: Now when I heard that a new Shonen Jump manga was getting an anime I immediately though “Ahhh shii here we go again” and immediately compared it to Naruto after reading the description ,but after reading it, it became apparent that it was anything but that. Jujutsu Kaisen definitely has its own identity and is very different from the run of the mill generic Shonen and I would recommend it to anyone who likes Shonen. After reading the Manga it became one of my favourites of all time and watching the anime has been a treat too - and I believe it could be one of the biggest shows of this decade. #Story: The story goes as follow - Yuji eats a finger and it just happens to be the king of curses, The jujutsu world sees him as a Danger to humanity and sentences him to death but before that he is allowed the chance to collect all the fingers of Sukuna then die - saving the world in the process. img300(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TKzuQHHZxjg/maxresdefault.jpg) #Animation: As expected of MAPPA, the animation is some of the best animation seen of the entire year of 2020. MAPPA have proven themselves this year ,to the anime community, everyone knows now more than ever their animation is some of the best in the WHOLE animation industry. I never thought that I could cream my pants at such a beautiful draw dropping scene of Upside down Kakashi literally ripping of someone’s head with his bare hands (this is a joke I love Gojou). This anime does a perfect job of blending CGI and 2D animation perfectly- it’s not even noticeable unless you are really looking for it- and the animation in the opening (CG in particular) is jaw droppingly good, yes JoJos level CG-OP good. The fights, the choreography, the facial expressions everything is how I would have imagined it form the manga, they do a lovely job at faithfully portray the unique Jujutsu Kaisen art style ( like what they did with SnK - unlike WIT) and even improved on it making some meme worthy scenes from the manga 10x better and extending fights to the point where they aren’t too drawn out but just absolutely perfect - anime onlys were definitely in for a treat with this anime. img300(https://64.media.tumblr.com/3b6a9202fc49fe1d70cad8d658c2421d/b7894590f960a5f5-82/s500x750/4ead6aaa02d238194f29fde166776ed775c3feea.gifv) #Pacing: The pacing is extremely fast paced , at first I thought it was too fast paced but it definitely slows down in later arcs becoming a lot better in my opinion .However we don't stay in the school setting too long and waste time(like in Bleach) . Not much to say here except it's really good. img300(https://giffiles.alphacoders.com/211/211793.gif) #Characters: Yuji Itadori: Yuji is just so GODDAMN LIKABLE like how can you hate him? His personality is pretty much the same as most Shonen protagonists except he does not scream his ideology or goal every 10 seconds(Asta/Naruto). His character getting his ideology challenged in different ways is intriguing and watching him grow as a character is good as well. He is not just a cardboard cut-out of a character and is unique. img300(https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-3c5cfa1d4da929ce3260fefbdc148ff2) Megumi Fushiguro: Out of the 4 main characters(Yuji , Gojo, Nobara) he isn't my favourite as all of the others outshine him by A LOT, especially Gojo , but that doesn't mean that I don't like him he's a good enjoyable character. But he only really shines when with other characters . His past is quite interesting when later discovered in the manga and his family is one of the coolest families in the series .However he has one thing , his abilities on the coolness metre , are only second to Gojo in my book. img300(https://64.media.tumblr.com/6773c293f64227ebb24c8ec6c5606a00/af1b57fdfbdcc7f1-90/s500x750/0c8b9f855d3a0b56e7324d95ab0f0910aa8c94f0.gifv) Nobara Kugisaki: She is a treat to watch and her personality shines 2nd out of the main four just after Gojo IMO .She is also actually able to fight and isn't the typical helpless Shonen girl who just cries for help (Sakura) and isn't and annoying Tsundere who just abuses the MC(Noelle). img300(https://giffiles.alphacoders.com/211/211838.gif) Satrou Gojo(u): Definitely the favourite character of the whole series and for good reason too his personality is great , his design is great , his powers are great and his ambitions are great too. It’s interesting to see him struggle with being the strongest Shaman and having to bear the responsibility that if he dies the order of the world will collapse and how he prepares the future generations for it - which we don't see often in Shonen and I wish we did with other stories like Naruto. img300(https://64.media.tumblr.com/53cda02fed17fe5604cfa46912346a09/42c17a59efc399ef-2c/s500x750/f80db63f900c2a34373528d4c421c429966b1929.gifv) Sukuna: Sukana isn't the bog standard demon inside the protagonist that they eventually make friends with and become a crime fighting duo (Kurama/Naruto or Liebe/Asta). Sukuna is pure evil, tormenting Yuji whenever he is present, killing his friends and innocents. Basically vomiting atrocities whenever he slips out from Itadori. His character is really fun to watch because whenever he is present you already know the kill count is going up no matter what or Yuji is going to get traumatised again - however Yuji usually grows from it and develops as a person. Sukuna almost has a pseudo-positive influence on him - he obviously has an influence on him seeping as he changed his whole life of course. As a manga reader I can't wait to find out what they will do with his character and i hope that he stay pure evil and doesn't turn good(like Kurama) as I think it would ruin his image as the sadistic two-faced spectre… img300(https://giffiles.alphacoders.com/211/211803.gif) #Adaptation: The Jujutsu Kaisen anime is pretty much perfect adaptation of the manga. Not much being skipped and it has the same vibe pacing and feel to the source material. The budget is also very large and the studio(MAPPA) is very skilled so no fights are skipped or shortened due to budget. Honestly, to me at least, they are on par with each other - sometimes the anime surpasses the manga.This isn't to say that the magna is bad, it happens to the greats like One Piece (with the walk to Arlong). img300(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EYb9rbRXYAIg0j2.jpg) #Manga v Anime: If you enjoy the anime a lot and don't want to have to wait for the sequel you should read the manga and keep up with that. However as the anime is such a good adaptation , if you have patience, you can watch that and not miss out on any content and get the same enjoyment. This isn't like other anime(like Black Clover) where to get the proper experience you have to read the manga - the anime is amazing... #Conclusion: I highly recommend this anime and manga. It's one of the biggest serializing manga out right now and the anime adaptation is a good place to start - its animation and all that shiz is amazing. So whichever version of Jujutsu Kaisen you jump into make sure that you start soon! Also listen to the anime opening cos that shii slaps youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwaRztMaoY0)

SunlitSonata

The thing about trends that a lot of people take for granted is that the more overstuffed a particular set of ideas are, the more likely it is to see either flipped on its head (see Shrek for fairy tale musicals) or given more offbeat renditions (see Joker or Into the Spider-Verse for superhero blockbusters). Genres being overstuffed, if anything, should encourage more experimentation and refinement. Over the years the Shonen genre has gone through a number of these phases. From past its formative years with Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, you’ve gotten shows using the mold for massive tapestries (One Piece), those attempting to rewrite the genre rulebook (see Fullmetal Alchemist), shows trying to test Shonen’s capacity for being applicable in distinct scenarios (see HxH), long-form parodies of the genre, and many that wallow in it without doing anything interesting. Jujutsu Kaisen is interesting in this regard because on paper, it doesn’t seem that different from the standard genre mold, but in practice, it truly understands the appeal of the genre and what audiences want to get from it. Jujutsu Kaisen’s first season served as a phenomenal introductory section into the story it wants to tell, presenting its plot, characters, action and tone in a way that’s easy to digest, but is simultaneously a very smart setup that stands out by committing to multiple angles. The show feels like natural selection, where Gege Akutami realizes the elements that people have grown to like in the genre and downplays those that haven’t held up as well. ~~~img400(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/cb/0f/33/cb0f3377971e05f3e5ea7ed771a9c2f8.gif) ~~~ It can be seen immediately with the protagonist, Yuuji Itadori. While yes, he is a teenage protagonist with the goal to protect others and become better at some special skill, a lot of the more in-your-face elements of this are downplayed. He’s not an overly hyperactive idiot, an insecure nerd or a miserable angsty sad sack, but has a good balance of characteristics, being a risk-taker at important moments, more down to earth yet still very passionate about his interests should the subject arise. Character design helps with this as he, alongside the other members of the hero cast, have taller designs that fit the “cool rebellious teen” look a la Bleach, more than the short, childish look of many Shonen heroes. The uniforms convey style during day and night with their reflective black and blue surfaces, but Yuuji still sets himself apart with the red hood adding that degree of cheeriness to the rest of the outfit. Yuuji doesn’t just feel like an archetype; he feels like a character, one given an early sense of consequence, as well as an interesting comparison to be made with the final boss tier opponent in his body as far as power ceiling goes. The idea of this “manifest double” is played up more in the first half of the show than the second, but as Yuuji grows personally, it promises to be a unique recurring element. ~~~ img400(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8d/a7/83/8da7839ff0aca15b4693cc1ac8724589.gif)~~~ Jujutsu Kaisen wants to mix shonen power action, comedy, and horror ideas together into one distinct package, and all things considered it’s really cohesive. The first half of the show is primarily dedicated to showing the ropes of the world to Yuuji, but even this basic setup is handled in some pretty fun ways. By Episode 3, they already have the main three characters banter together in an enjoyable dynamic that thankfully never turns into love triangle bollocks. A later episode has to explain how the show’s power system works, but it doesn’t have Yuuji sit in a classroom to learn about it through exposition dumps, or even white-haired mentor character Gojou talking to him about it one on one. No, Gojou’s an incredibly wholesome gadfly, so he pulls Yuuji out of movie-induced focus to actively demonstrate how Cursed Domains work against a monster who actively reacts to its use. This felt like a much more natural way to convey exposition, and even the more whiteboard exposition like the danger grade levels is conveyed with a pretty breezy, sardonic sense of humor. It also introduces the villains in a way that, while not outstanding, worked well in pushing Yuuji to his physical and emotional limit right before the second half started. The only weird structural issue I had with the first half was some backstory for Kento Nanami. It’s spliced right in the middle of a serious fight, where the circumstances leading to it and the consequences following it were far more pertinent than this one guy’s backstory. By the end of the season, he was one of the characters who left the least impression on me. The second half of the show makes the focus of the first half even more reasonable, whilst honing in on the aspect that grew my attention the most early on; the many students from their setting’s magic school, all wearing the same swag as hell reflective uniform. The exchange event team battle serves as a great way to introduce a lot of these characters, their powers, unique designs, and their respective dilemmas without cheating shit later as story ramps up. Almost a third of the run is spent on this, but it’s infinitely more interesting than having a tournament arc in small arena cutting to stills of audience reaction since it gets out a lot more fun character moments. Akutami understands that we, as the excitable audience, want to see some coolass superpowers from a Shonen, and he happily delivers a ton of those that get to shine in this arc, from characters like: -Nobara, the main female girl in the series that, much like Yuuji, doesn’t feel tied to an archetype, appreciating fashion and fangirling over exciting scenes, yet not taking taunts lightly, being protective of her friends, and having a coolass power of fabricating voodoo dolls with specially sized hammers. -A guy who can only speak normally in ramen ingredients, but has incredible word power with increasingly higher personal costs against opponents -An incredibly wholesome talking panda with very versatile fighting stances -A bratty, yet at times comically deadpan witch girl with vantage via flight -A cool-looking bloodbender that currently gets by throwing packets but’ll inevitably have to use his own as deadly consequence. -The adorableness incarnate that is Miwa; a super earnest girl with a simple dream and appropriately simple power that is easy to see as being friendly with others, possible reflection for the audience too. -Two sisters, Mai and Maki, with a quick but strong burst of emotional tension established between them. They each have some sort of limit, Maki being an incredibly resolute fighter but with a weakness to not see curses without glasses, and Mai being unable to use curses without an object but being driven by heaps of vindictive spite. -A talking Iron Man suit with a twist that pleasantly caught me off guard -Toudou, a muscleman who’s incredibly self-centered until struck at personal interest, in which case he becomes an increasingly earnest partner with a sickass skill. Not everyone may like all of these characters, but with their fun powers, interesting power limiters and/or distinct personalities, they nail the appeal of a shonen ensemble. The initial presentation of these abilities in a lower stakes scenario makes their introduction less intrusive on a wider plot. Plus, the majority of these personalities play well for whenever the goofier moments roll around, particularly in the post episode stingers, and episodes like #21. I’m glad the author thought beyond the overly standard elemental stuff to make the ensemble leave an impression. Only hero characters of note I didn’t go more extensively on are Megumi and Gojou. Admittedly, Megumi doesn’t leave quite as much an impression as the others, but he still has a pretty cool power over familiars and got more interesting near the end as his persona began to unravel. And Gojou is such a fun rendition of the typical mentor character, with an excellent design that’s fitting to both sides of his character, constantly holding back yet being comically curious. ~~~img400(https://64.media.tumblr.com/1228642df3d65935d6ceea16e1ac8c40/5b6144a01acc9f7e-aa/s500x750/d6c472e877eee2aadba03b2a54c42c52ebf9a37b.gifv)~~~ Comedy doesn’t only exist for its own sake, but often as a way for Yuuji to bond with other characters in the cast, such as Nobara or Toudou. It’s given a lot of creative expressions, and for characters like Miwa, where their design presentation is intentionally at odds with their character, it feels fitting and adorable. Even Gojou’s comical overpowerdness doesn’t purely exist to be a joke by itself fitting his troll mentor personality, or an excuse for the animators to flex to a stunning degree, but an element actually considered by the show’s antagonists. Some jokes don’t land, but there’s enough characterful personality and expressiveness to them for them to not feel out of place, separate from more serious points to come. ~~~img400(https://i.postimg.cc/59KMDCGg/tenor-1.gif)~~~ As for the horror elements, Jujutsu Kaisen’s animation does a great job conveying the darker atmosphere when need be in the early/mid-section of the show. It really gets that a major part of horror presentation is fear of the other, and more specifically, body horror of not-quite humans, with some excellent creature design animated in off kilter ways. As Gojou states, everyone at Jujutsu Academy is a little crazy, so it makes the major characters in the show lean into these crazier designs when channeling immense power, fitting for a series around handling curses. Thus, the show has its main villain, Mahito, use body horror to startling effect when creating his monster army. While I wouldn’t call the guy particularly deep so far, the show does present a playfully devilish personality and show his capacity to manipulate others in a reasonable sense. His powers to twist the composition of both himself and those he gets close to in uncanny, distorted shapes play into the show’s theme about curse power perfectly. The show isn’t that scary, but it adds an additionally unique element for itself with these fitting and well-animated leans to body horror. ~~~img400(https://64.media.tumblr.com/717523b9c5e26e70b3b8bb56bd8fc0e3/b098bc35d5afd7f8-ce/s500x750/70e7b418393f6ef3de954048b21d4029ba363af9.gifv) ~~~ Speaking of animation, that’s most definitely a major draw into the series. Director Seong-Hu Park and his incredibly talented team of animators making bursts of exciting, visually active battle scenes when showing off the characters and their various powers. Almost every episode has a scuffle in it, several of which have some exciting camerawork to make leadups to individual actions consistently dynamic. Yes, comparing fights definitely shows that some look better than others (the sewer fights stood out the least to me), but relative to the sheer quantity of fights illustrated in the source, as well as the shonen anime landscape at large, it’s incredibly impressive and that the action was this consistent over the run. A lot of the common issues with anime fight scenes (placeholder backgrounds, motion tweens to cover up lack of movement, butt ugly CGI, long periods of chat in between blows) didn’t come up for me during the production, which really speaks to the work (or possible overwork) involved in the passion. Cursed Domains in particular get excellent scene-setting animation, and the unique way aura is depicted, with its aquamarine coloring and pseudo 3d “drawn” outline adds definably high energy to individual moves. This of course is helped by a pumping score, with Nanami’s theme, Fushigoro’s theme and Your Battle is My Battle standing out most among them. In general, while individual fights aren’t on par with ufotable’s more thinly spread action scenes, the impressive flexes from the team and strong character/tone aesthetic create a consistently visually appealing show. ~~~img400(https://64.media.tumblr.com/9dba5b0367e0b77e63b2373e23056cab/0065f27365d2c1ce-11/s640x960/bab22353d6bc2bc5abfc9e510128e100259fc953.gifv) ~~~ __Jujutsu Kaisen__ doesn’t feel like a massively grand vision yet, so much as an ever-evolving series of smaller elements that combine well together when taped with strong structural decisions, but this feels in line with my natural selection thesis. In its characters, its story structure, its tone, and its ease to hop into exciting powerup action the animation team flexed over, it gets what audiences want from Shonen material as a strong start to a story while removing or playing down stuff that’s been less palatable overtime. I can only hope it improves further as the characters/battle conceits become stronger and its many dynamics continue to be tested.

setok

Jujutsu Kaisen honestly seems very run of the mill, almost even generic at first glance. Just another shonen about demons and kids training to beat them... another Naruto wannabe, the cast is so similar... no, that isn't the case at all, actually. Let's just dive in already. So, yes, Jujutsu Kaisen is about kids training to defeat demons (or, cursed spirits, I should say), who manifest themselves in places where dark emotions and stress exist. In this world, there are people known as Jujutsu Sorcerers, who are able to use their own cursed energy and cursed techniques to exorcise these cursed spirits. The main plot kicks off when the main protagonist, Yuji Itadori, consumes the finger of an ancient curse known as Sukuna, fusing the soul of Sukuna with his own. The Jujutsu Sorcerer community wants to execute Yuji, since Sukuna is a wildly powerful curse, but the most powerful sorcerer, Gojou Satoru, decides to keep Yuji around, and plans to have him consume all 20 of Sukuna's fingers (he has four arms) and then execute him, effectively removing Sukuna from this world. The story so far follows Yuji, Gojou, and the other characters on their journey to find Sukuna's fingers and exorcise curses, all the while training to become stronger sorcerers. This cast of characters is really, really, REALLY fun. The main group consists of Yuji, Gojou, Megumi, and Nobara. Yuji is your typical shonen protag: athletically gifted, goofy, but strong willed and motivated. Following his grandfather's death in the first episode, Yuji makes it his goal to help and save as many people as he can. Rarely is it that one individual character makes me smile and laugh this much, but every moment and every interaction Yuji is a part of is golden. Not only is he funny, but he has some really badass moments as well. His bromance with Toudou, a student from a rival Jujutsu sorcerer school, is probably the highlight of the whole show. Megumi Fushiguro is a quiet, but powerful sorcerer studying alongside Yuji. He tends to be a lot more serious and is often indifferent to Yuji's goofiness. Nobara is kind of the token girl of the group. She likes to go shopping and out to eat, and likes to embrace her femininity while still being independent and strong. She gets along well with Yuji, their interactions are quite funny. Gojou is hilarious, every scene he's in is a hit. Not only is he extremely goofy and careless, but he also happens to be the most powerful sorcerer in the Jujutsu world. His nonchalant demeanor combined with his immense power make for some comically unbalanced battles. The rest of the characters are not quite as important as these main four, but they are all really likable (at least the good guys are) and memorable. The villains are excellent too. One thing that Jujutsu Kaisen does EXCEEDINGLY well is tone. Typically, shonens tend to take themselves somewhat lightly, mixing goofy scenes in with serious battles and drama. JJK does this extremely well. I never felt as if any serious scene was interrupted or abruptly ruined by a funny interjection; whenever something like that was done, it felt like it was natural. When things get REALLY serious, the show knows how to keep it serious and raises the tension accordingly. The humor is also really spot on in this show. All of the jokes genuinely land, and I don't think I'm exaggerating at all. I seriously don't think there was a single scene intended to be funny in which I did not chuckle at least a little. The pacing in this show is also excellent. There is zero time wasted. Every episode is fun, it doesn't feel like there are any lulls in the overall enjoyment of this show. I can't think of one episode where I started thinking about something else in the middle, or an instance where I started getting bored in the middle of an episode. To be honest, this is what makes this show so good. The characters are fun, and the plot is interesting so far, but the feat of making 24 consecutive episodes of fun, engaging anime that you simply cannot take your eyes off of is amazing to me. I don't think I have seen many shows that pull this off as well as Jujutsu Kaisen does. I'm sure you've already heard this ad nauseam at this point, but the animation of this show is very, very good. Everything looks spectacular. The fights are crisp, and it really feels like everything important that needs to be animated feels like it has had the most possible effort put into it. I have to applaud Mappa for making such an excellent looking show. I've heard a lot of people say that the animation carries this show... well, no, it certainly helps the show's case, but if you're watching something solely on the basis of animation, then that's kinda strange to begin with, honestly. The show is carried by how much of a joy it is to watch and experience. Looking good makes it more enjoyable, but high animation quality is not the only thing JJK has to offer. Jujutsu Kaisen certainly isn't a groundbreaking anime by any means, if you ask me, not in concept or character composition at least. It's true that the concept of an anime revolving around teens going to a special school and training to defeat demons (or any other ambiguous enemy) is definitely not unique in the realm of shonen, and the character tropes present are tried and true. But there's something about this show that sets it apart from the rest. I can't quite put my finger on what makes this show so fun, such a positive experience. One thing is for certain, though; the lovable characters and overall enjoyability of this show make it something that I personally consider to be a must watch right now. While I was watching, I mulled over what score was right for JJK quite a few times. Sure, it's definitely not perfect or the greatest anime I've ever seen, and like I said, it isn't wildly groundbreaking or insanely unique by any means. But what sets JJK apart from the others is the fact that every episode is a hit. 24 out of 24, back to back, this is basically a perfect season. And for that, I can't think of any fair score that isn't a 100 out of 100. Do yourself a favor and go watch this show right now if you haven't already. You will not regret it.

Magenta

When watching the first few episodes of Jujutsu Kaisen, I didn’t really have really many strong opinions on it other than it had the potential to become great. It had the right pieces to become amazing, and if the story had a strong enough direction, then the show could truly become something special. My biggest hope was that it wouldn’t become like Demon Slayer, where the series’s writing wouldn’t be completely shallow in every way, with only good animation carrying it. However, as I continued to go on with this show, it started to become exactly that. But I would definitely say that this show endlessly pissed me off more than Demon Slayer, due to how much its quality fluctuated throughout its course. Jujutsu Kaisen is endlessly disappointing due to how much wasted potential it had. The premise of Jujutsu Kaisen is immediately an intriguing one. Right from the start, it is apparent that the series is going to be a darker take on the shonen formula. Something extremely bold that the series does from the start is that it literally tells you that the protagonist, Yuuji Itadori is going to die. From the beginning, death is set as a pervasive theme that consistently looms over every element in the story. The tragic nature of the series that is set up from the very beginning got me hooked instantly, only to then immediately discard it. The fact that the Itadori is going to die at the end doesn't really get mentioned after it is first brought up. What is even more disappointing about this is that there are many points where this serious tone gets completely thrown out the window in favor of a far more comedic tone. Comedy in a serious story isn’t a bad thing, since comedy can provide levity in dark situations. However, the comedy is extremely obnoxious, and it is overdone to the point of insanity. The singular exception to this is with the arc with Junpei, which perfectly showcased what an arc that actually fits the inherently tragic nature of the show can be. However, it is surrounded by a sea of a series confused about its identity. The pervasive amount of tonal whiplash makes the whole series feel directionless. Directionless is a word that can describe most of Jujutsu Kaisen. It never really feels like at any point that it has any type of rock solid foundation. This can be seen in the main three characters, Itadori, Fushiguro, and Fugisaki. From the beginning, it is established that these three characters are going to be the main trio of the series. While I thought that their dynamic was pretty insufferable at first, mainly due to the previously stated obnoxious comedy problem, any character dynamic can grow on the viewer if they feel extremely familiar with them by the end. However, after this trio is set up, like many things in this story, it is immediately thrown out the window. Between episodes 6 through 21, I can only count around 2 scenes where the three of them even talk. Out of those scenes, I can only really count a few times when Fushiguro and Fugisaki even really did anything. What makes this choice exponentially more insulting is that the final arc of the season goes back to the style of the very early episodes, where the main trio is front and center. However, it doesn’t exactly matter, because it feels like Itadori has grown separately from Fushiguro and Fugisaki. I associate Itadori far more with Toudou, because the show actually puts in at least a little bit of effort to establish their relationship. For Itadori to just suddenly just be best friends with Fushiguro and Fugisaki again makes everything in the last three episodes feel extremely unnatural and remarkably forced. Something instrumental in most stories with a large cast of characters like this is that they have at least some type of character interaction. In many cases like this one, Jujutsu Kaisen just gives up before it even tries to make an effort. Well if there is one aspect of Jujutsu Kaisen that everybody likes, it has to be the animation. MAPPA must have the touch of the gods, because the animation of every single fight can impress anybody. However, a lot of fights feel like they lack weight to them, because the setup to those fights can be undercooked at best. This is just a personal thing, but I can’t be swayed by good animation if the setup to that point is pretty mediocre at best. In nearly every single fight, I looked at the animation, thought, “Oh that looks cool”, and then proceeded to not care about anything else that happened. The Kyoto Goodwill Event arc perfectly shows this problem. It consists of absolutely incredible animation in every single moment, but the episodes preceding the arc barely did anything to actually set up the characters. Another aspect involving the general production is the music. The most obvious examples of music are in the OP and EDs. They are criminally incredible. Despite my feelings about the show that they are attached to, I can listen to these songs over and over again. In direct contrast to this, the actual music used in the show is absolutely terrible. This show must have some of the absolute worst music choices for given scenes I have ever seen. Why there are so many scenes with relatively nothing happening that have songs that directly contrast the mood make me feel like that songs from the OST were just placed at random. It feels like I am drowning in a large ocean whenever there is a low stakes scene with this type of music playing in the background. Jujutsu Kaisen as a series feels very disappointing. What could’ve been a shonen that stands out from the crowd, becomes a directionless mess of a story that barely stands out. It is purely carried by its flashy animation, but it doesn’t really matter, due to the fact that it doesn’t have substantial story or characters to bring out any emotion in that animation. I consistently tried to give this show the benefit of doubt at every moment, but as its flaws grew more and more apparent, it became impossible for me to find much enjoyment in it. Maybe these issues get ironed out in a potential Season 2, but my expectations are already on the floor.

peteg13

I'm going to preface this review by stating my opinion on two things related to reviewing anime. First off, to me, not everything is a 10/10 or a masterpiece. In my opinion, rating everything extremely high takes away some of the value of a high rating. Second off, you like what you like and you dislike what you dislike. There is nothing wrong with that. Rating anime (unless it is your job) is a fun hobby and should not be something you lose sleep over. Before I begin my review I will state clearly I have not yet read the manga and I am rating this anime based on this season alone. I am not rating this anime based on the potential of what it could be or what it will become when later manga arcs are adapted. Along with that I keep all my reviews spoiler free so I will not be stating any spoilers in this review. With all that out of the way and said I'm going to state my opinion on Jujutsu Kaisen. In this review I'm going to sing the many praises along with the gripes I have related to this anime. __Story:__ The story of Jujutsu Kaisen, while not unique, is somewhat interesting. It keeps the viewer invested from episode to episode but isn't anything too special. The central premise of stopping cursed spirits from killing and placing curses on people is somewhat compelling. When you add in that the average human can not see these cursed spirits and do not realize that they have a curse placed on them it further emphasizes the importance of these jujutsu sorcerers. The main characters act through a secret agency of jujutsu sorcerers and must exorcise evil spirits but do so in a way that will not cause harm to the general public. In this way Jujutsu Kaisen prevents itself from falling into the monster of the week formula. __Animation: __ The overall animation of this anime is spectacular. MAPPA really did outdo themselves with this animation. The animation flows seamlessly throughout the fight scenes and the fight scenes are beautifully choreographed. Along with this the characters are beautifully adapted and each have their own unique flair to them. That's honestly about all I have related to the animation. It's simply extremely good! ~~~img520(https://media.giphy.com/media/vRc2V5ixLGh0OU02zp/giphy.gif)~~~ ~~~img520(https://media.giphy.com/media/S257UKaCkfsUoOujZj/giphy.gif)~~~ __Power System:__ The power system is arguably the greatest aspect of Jujutsu Kaisen. The idea of using cursed energy as a power scale and something that is finite and is determined based on the individual is a good way of doing power scaling. It prevents the whole power of friendship trope from so many shonens of interfering with the power system. Furthermore, the addition of domains allows for the writer to give each character their own unique skill, similar to nen in Hunter x Hunter. Overall, the power system in Jujutsu Kaisen has a lot of potential and it is one of my favorite aspects of Jujutsu Kaisen. ~~~img520(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/U6D0VbP2-PM/maxresdefault.jpg)~~~ __Characters:__ img(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GEvqnGO_oME/X75rrFBF3mI/AAAAAAAAFjE/E1Vqt7TWKTsbDPlb5Ebkwgkvw8Qb1wIbgCNcBGAsYHQ/w0/jujutsu-kaisen-anime-characters-uhdpaper.com-4K-8.1762-wp.thumbnail.jpg) I came to enjoy some protagonist more than others. Todo, Gojou, and Megumi stuck out by far the most. Looking specially at Yuuji, the main character, there is very little that makes him stick out from your average shonen main protagonist outside of the fact that he doesn't like killing and that he is extremely physically gifted. The result is that the main character feels fairly vanilla and kind of falls flat. Many people loved Gojou, as did I, but I found that he prevented us from seeing actual growth out of the other main characters because he was always there to protect them when they actually faced a realistic chance of death. This was however solved in the final arc of this season so I can't really complain too much about that. I am going to sing the praise of Jujutsu Kaisen very heavily for a second here. The females in this show are very well written. The creator does not try to jam down the throat that female characters are just as strong as male character but instead shows us that they are. Each female character feels like they are just as strong as their male counterparts and that is a very welcome change to the norms of the shonen genre. That being said, the villains (antagonists) in Jujutsu Kaisen might be some of the most underwhelming I've seen in a shonen anime in a long time. This is where my main disappointment with Jujutsu Kaisen stems from. There is not a single time I was convinced that any of our main protagonists would fall to the villain they faced. Throughout this season the main characters never actually have to encounter a real threat of death because Gojou will always come to the rescue. Mahito and company never really do feel like a threat to the main protagonists so long as Gojou is still around. Along with that, outside of some actions that Mahito makes, the villains don't actually do anything that makes me inherently hate them. I simply see them as villains because they are on the opposite side of our protagonists. All this added up together took away greatly from my enjoyment of the anime as a whole. I think the potential of Sukuna as a main villain is very promising but there is no development towards that in this season. __Soundtrack: __ The soundtrack in Jujutsu Kaisen is very well done. It is not overbearing during scenes with heavy dialogue. Furthermore, some of the fight scenes in the anime are accompanied with incredible songs that just get you hyped. It's not crazy good in a way to where it sticks out in the genre but it does do a great job fulfilling its intended role. ~~~youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyPf5ipLFkU)~~~ __ Overall Thoughts:__ I do think Jujutsu Kaisen is brimming with potential but I think it is very premature to call it a masterpiece among shonen anime. If the writer does a good job continuing this trend and he shores up the villain problem that this anime seemed to have then I could see it entering the conversation as a classic shonen anime. The best way I could put it is that it is currently a jack of all trades but a master of none. For me, it is currently a very solid shonen that has a lot of potential but it isn't there just yet.

Dilbaan

# A Short Synopsis: A high school kid sees a weird-looking kid playing with some giant monsters that are also proceeding to devour his classmates. He joins in the fight and ends up swallowing a finger. An eccentric guy with a bandana covering his eyes kidnaps him and forces him to enroll in his high school. He is trained to fight monsters and eat more fingers. It may sound weird at first but in my humble opinion _Jujutsu Kaisen_ is a good watch. #The Meat of It: Overall, Jujutsu Kaisen follows a typical shounen progression. The protagonist has a somewhat depressing backstory, the main problem revolves around him, and the whole story takes place in a high school setting with his new friends. The show is not overly obsessed with fighting some typical shounen monsters with some typical shounen superpower. The character development of the main character, Itadori, is phenomenal. You start to see Itadori's mindset change. He starts off thinking that he is helping people, but he slowly begins to question the weight of his actions. It helps to add some drama to the overly comedic supporting characters. #The Visuals: In terms of animation, MAPPA does a great job, for the most part. MAPPA opted to use some 3D animation in a few of the larger fights. It is above the level of 2016 _Berserk_, but with 3D animation, the quality does go down. Besides the 3D animation, the rest is beautiful. Everything is clean and crisp, the color schemes match the mood of the scene, and the detail is impeccable. The 2D parts of the fight scenes pull the viewer in. The sudden change in colors combined with the tense atmosphere emphasizes what the producers wanted you to feel. The animators must have been worked to the bone, but the end product is the crème de la crème. Without this animation team, I sincerely doubt that I would have given this anime as high a rating as I did. #The Music: The soundtrack was not as ambitious compared to other recent anime; however, it gets the job done and it does it well. The first opening, "KaiKai Kaiten" by Eve, made you want to wait the extra minute and a half every episode, even if you were on a binge. The second opening, "Vivid Vice" by who-ya Extended, accomplishes the same thing. ~~The endings are both good, but not notable enough to put down~~. I would definitely add both endings. "Lost in Paradise" by Ali and "Give it back" by Cö shu Nie, to your anime playlist. Progressing into more of the sounds of the show, both the voice acting and sound effect are top-notch, immersing you in the show. #In Short: A great show with a great soundtrack, great animation, great voice acting, great sound effects, etc. Overall, a great watch.

OhWowzers

~~~~~~Review #6 - Jujutsu Kaisen~~~~~~ Yeah Shounen has never really been my thing. I just get tired of the same type of storyline and the same type of characters. This show does have it's typical shounen tropes, like conversations with the enemy during a fight, and also explaining to them how their attack moves work and stuff. Or the main character being a young highschool student. For the most part though, I didn't really mind those things in this show. Probably because it's mix of horror, comedy and action was well done here I thought. The characters erase my annoyance of some of these typical tropes because they are just that entertaining to watch. img500(https://64.media.tumblr.com/89c0d79169d8a7c982d05a2f0a3c13d9/674e07cfe7b70692-45/s540x810/91e53d880313b53fdc027cb0ec273d406cb4eabe.gifv) Yuuji who is our main protagonist has that common goal of wanting to save and help others. Pretty typical, but he's still interesting. At first he starts off pretty reckless in the show, but he learns ways to deal with situations better in the show. He's got a cool personality. In the beginning, he's not like Izuku Midoriya who was this nerdy and overpolite kid, or like Edward Elric who can be pretty hotheaded and pretty mean sometimes. Yuuji most of the time is pretty chill, pretty cool guy that you'd like to hang out with. He can crack some jokes about you or something else but its all in good fun. He can be angry, for obvious understandable reasons. You see him make smarter decisions, and learn how he must handle these life and death situations, which shows how much his maturity has grown. The story revolves around Yuuji who becomes a Jujutsu Sorcerer. He makes friends along the way and their mission is to get rid of the evil that are these invisible cursed spirits. Some spirits being way stronger than others. The plot is nothing unique or anything, it's pretty similar to shows like Demon Slayer. But that doesn't mean that its not entertaining. The world building for the most part was good, for example when we learn where these spirits come from and why they are so evil, or where Jujutsu sorcerers come from, or how the combat training is done. My only complain however is the public. The normal citizens of Tokyo. Maybe this was explained and I somehow missed it, but is the public aware of these evil spirits? Some evil spirits can kill of a random person in a split second? Is the public aware of Jujutsu sorcerers? Because I don't know how they wouldn't be aware when some citizens have died crazy deaths. Like in one of the episodes, there was a scene where everyone in a dining restaurant randomly caught on fire. If the public does know about these spirits, why do they seem very relaxed? I just feel like there would be more panic if they did know about them. Anyways, there is something that is sort of unique with the plot, and that is that an evil spirit somewhat possesses our main protagonist Yuuji, who can take full control over him from time to time. One more complaint actually is that we don't see much of this evil spirit, who's names Sukuna. Even when Sukuna is not fully possessing Yuuji, he still has scenes of him inside Yuuji or whatever. We did learn somethings about Sukuna, like some of his past but I feel like I still barely know what his deal is. Just wish he had more screen time. There are also fillers in this show but nothing too overwhelming or anything, so not a major problem. Of course Yuuki isn't the only main character, we also got his friends. We have Megumi who looks like a member of an emo band. He seems like a mysterious character with some stories to tell later on. We learn somethings about his sister late in the season, but not a lot of focus was put into that. I mean we do get a good backstory about him and his sister when they were kids but I mean, what about the present? Is something gonna happen with him and his sister in the present? We'll see. We also have Yuujis other friend Kugisaki. She's a cool character who can be pretty hasty and disrespectful, but she still cares about her friends a lot. She likes to stay true to herself. She's strong and free spirited, however I don't believe there was any backstory on her unless I'm forgetting. One more character I'd like to focus on is Satoru Gojou, who is the fan favorite. He's the guy that helps Yuuji make wiser decisions and get stronger and yadada. He's a funny dude, but also incredibly strong. So strong, he likes toying with his enemies, who seem very strong too that Yuuji and his friends would have a hard time dealing with, but Satoru just toys with them. It's like he's One Punch Man in a way, I have not seen this dude get hurt yet in battle. It's rear to see a good guy be so cocky, so powerful, and so confident like this and I would be extremely interested to see him battle someone that does give him somewhat of a hardtime. There are a lot of other side characters, like a talking panda named....Panda, and a big buff dude named Aoi. A lot of them are cool, some however I don't care for that much, like Maki who is just ok, but most of them are cool. img500(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8d/a7/83/8da7839ff0aca15b4693cc1ac8724589.gif) The art and animation is another big reason though why this show is so enjoyable. The fight scenes are flawless. The colors are nice, the character designs are great. I have no complaints there. The OST was nothing memorable in my opinion. After just finishing the show, I don't remember a single background song. The OPs the are good though, I liked the second one over the first one. For ED, I prefer the first one over the second. In conclusion, it's been awhile that I liked a Shounen this much, besides the recent AoT seasons. I'm also as of writing this currently watching FullMetal Alchemist:Brotherhood which is also great so far, but I watched a lot of shounen that personally just do not care too much for, so I'm glad that there is one here that I'm liking a lot. The story, although I do have some minor complaints, for the most part it was great. The characters were great too. Some minor characters I didn't care for but whatever. Hey if you like Shounen, I really think you should give this thing a shot. Pros: (Things that were great) - Great main cast of characters - Compelling story telling, with great world building for the most part - Intense and fun action which brings an amazing experience - Some great side characters - Great OPs/EDs - Art/Animation is pretty impactful Meh: (Minor problems, or things I just don't care for personally but no big deal) - A plothole that never stops leaving my mind about the regular public/citizens of the world - Some other side characters are just well... I didn't care for - Forgettable OST - Some fillers but thankfully not a lot Cons: (Things that PISSED me off) ****No Cons****

Lenlo

~~~img(https://starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Jujutsu-Kaisen-Banner.png)~~~ Recently it feels like there's a Shonen Jump series in every season. From last years *Kimetsu no Yaiba* and *Haikyu* to *Dr. STONE S2* this season and even *My Hero Academia S5* coming up. Everywhere you go its Jump, Jump, Jump. Sometimes a man wants a break. Oh what's that? A new cornerstone of Weekly Shonen Jump got an anime adaptation you say? [Kohei Horikoshi](https://anilist.co/staff/104834/Kouhei-Horikoshi) of *My Hero Academia* called it the next pillar of the magazine? And Keiichiro Watanabe is animating for it?! Well count me in! Originally created by [Gege Akutami](https://anilist.co/staff/125415/Gege-Akutami), produced by [MAPPA](https://anilist.co/studio/569/MAPPA) and directed by [Seong-Hu Park](https://anilist.co/staff/123074/SeongHu---Park) who also recently *The God of Highschool*, ladies and gentleman I present to you: *Jujutsu Kaisen*, the next big thing. So without further ado, lets jump into it. ~~~webm(https://sakugabooru.com/data/fa8b509d4f79962ad8aa1e0ef503e5c5.mp4)~~~ # __~~~Visuals~~~__ First things first, lets talk about what we can see, the art and animation. And visually? *Jujutsu Kaisen* is pretty good. The actual art style is pretty standard as far as I'm concerned. It doesn't do much interesting with character or world designs. Aside from the occasional heavy shading or exaggerated face to drive home an emotional scene *Jujutsu Kaisen* doesn't change it up much. What it does do though is execute that standard style to a very high degree. I'm not even talking about animation yet, though we will get to that. Rather *Jujutsu Kaisen* makes good use of lighting, proportions and detail to make the characters stand out. It knows when to go heavy on the detail for striking stills and when to hold back for easier animation. It's not perfect, you'll get weird proportions here or there, but for the most part it works. In fact I would say there are only 2 areas where *Jujutsu Kaisen* doesn't excel, the first being the composite. Multiple times in the season Director Seong-Hu Park gets to ambitious with his environments and multiple times they look like shit. Whether it be an underground sewer system or lush forest, you need to take your time on the composite. It's not like the animation is bad in these either! Animators like Hironori Tanaka and Yuuki Yamashita do their best with what they are given. But when stuck integrating MS Paint water splashes or dense forests into their shots, its hard not to feel bad for what it does to their cuts. For all that I rag on the CGI environments though they aren't all bad. It's only the most egregious, most obvious, that catch my ire with the rest being unobtrusive and doing their job fine. And as for the second area? Well I admit this may be more of a personal bugbear than anything. But I simply can't stand Park and his sweeping camera angles. It's as if the man is allergic to still shots or hasn't heard of the 180 degree rule. And I understand that it's weird to have this problem when most anime might as well be power point presentations. However there is such a thing as to much and I think Seong-Hu Park has found it. Following characters uncomfortably close, flying through the middle of a conflict and flipping which side characters are on, etc. It's not that it's technically bad, the animation tries its best to keep up and does a good job. It's that more often than not it makes it difficult to tell what is happening. Making scenes way more complex than they really need to be. You know where *Jujutsu Kaisen* does excel though? That's right its time to talk FIGHT SCEEEEEENES. From Vercreek to Keiichiro Watanabe, *Jujutsu Kaisen* has a plethora of well animated action. If adrenaline and punching is what you are looking for in a show then *Jujutsu Kaisen* has you covered. Of course we all know animation goes beyond just fight scenes. Whether it be stunning effects work by Yoshihide Ideue, great character movement by Kouki Fujimoto or HANDS by Hironori Tanaka, *Jujutsu Kaisen* looks great. What I'm trying to say here is: When not held down by shitty composites or the ever present march of time, *Jujutsu Kaisen* looks pretty damn good. So ignoring story, narrative characters and all that extra crap that surely *no one* cares about, you'll probably have a good time. ~~~img(https://i2.wp.com/starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Jujutsu-Kaisen-2.8.png)~~~ #~~~__Narrative__~~~ Moving on we come to the setting and story. At its core the setting isn't anything we haven't seen before. Highschool for magically gifted students? Check. Modern day Japan with a mystical side that most can't see? Check. Curses, spirits and the afterlife? Check. Whether it be *Bleach*, *Yu Yu Hakusho*, *Noragami* or anything in between, the core setting isn't what I would call unique. Where *Jujutsu Kaisen* manages to set itself apart though is in its tone. It may not be the first Shonen to go down this route but it's certainly the darkest I can think off. These curses, these spirits, they don't mess around. If the average person is caught *they will die* and most likely in excruciating pain. It's in this way that *Jujutsu Kaisen* carves its niche, centered around death, grief and its effects on people. It's here that we find our story. The main thrust of *Jujutsu Kaisen's* narrative is of grief, loss and moving forward. There's an overarching meta story about finding 20 McGuffins as well but that isn't very important. Rather the real meat of the show comes from the ones holding those McGuffins and their reasons for conflict. Thus enter our lead Itadori Yuji. Spurred on by the words and death of his Grandfather, along with being possessed by the King of Curses Sukuna, Itadori becomes a jujutsu sorcerer for one reason: To save people. And while this may sound like a standard Shonen Protagonist MO, because it is, *Jujutsu Kaisen* does a good job of using its arcs to question it. Asking Itadori *why* he wants to save people. Confronting what it means to die and how it effects those who are left behind. Exploring and working him through his grief. And for the most part, it works. No spoilers yet but the first cour of *Jujutsu Kaisen's* is fantastic. The villains are compelling, the battles are gorgeous and they way it connects each arc to Itadori's story works well. If I was judging the story on the first 13 episodes alone it would be a home run. However there is an arc, a tournament arc of all things, mid way through that drops the ball. Here the themes of grief and coping take a back seat to standard Shonen action. Don't get me wrong, it's pretty good action. But it feels like an excuse for more fights rather than a continuation of the previous arc. It introduces a lot of new characters, the story starts to get bogged down in jujutsu politics and across the board its a bit of a stumble. Luckily *Jujutsu Kaisen* manages to end the last arc on a strong note. All in all I would say *Jujutsu Kaisen's* narrative holds up. The broad strokes aren't anything you haven't seen before but the emotions and tone they are presented in are unique for the genre. And aside from a small misstep with what feels like an underdeveloped tournament arc each of the stories stand strong. Of course with how *Jujutsu Kaisen* is structured your mileage may very. These arcs are heavily reliant on you being connected and engaged with the characters. For you to feel grief when Itadori feels grief. To feel relieved when Gojo or appears or joy when Toudou does literally anything, etc. If you just want rad fights, you'll get that. I just think you'll be missing out if that's *all* you get. ~~~img(https://i1.wp.com/starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Jujutsu-Kaisen-3.4.png)~~~ #~~~__Characters__~~~ This brings us to the characters, of varying quality. But as far as the main cast goes? I approve! Unlike other shows airing this season such as *Dr. STONE*, this isn't a one man show. Itadori, Nobara, Toudou, Fushiguro, Gojo, each of them manages to stand on their own, though for some it takes a bit of time. Starting with Itadori he is in most ways your standard Shonen protagonist. He smiles often, laughs loudly and always responds when push comes to shove. You've seen it a hundred times before and odds are you're going to see it moving forward. However while Itadori isn't the most unique character on the roster the way his emotions are portrayed help him stand on his own. He's allowed to be sad, he's allowed to grieve, to be irritable and more than a smiling face. And that goes a long way in my book. Following Itadori we have the rest of the main cast Fushiguro, Nobara and Gojo. Fushiguro is your straight man in Itadori's double act. He rarely shows much emotion, preferring to keep it bottled up internally and deal with him. *Jujutsu Kaisen* does a decent job showing how unhealthy that is however and giving him room to vent. Letting Fushiguro show who he is beneath that stoic exterior. Nobara meanwhile is the tough as nails genki girl who can crush a watermelon with her thighs. *So help me god*. Sadly she doesn't get much room to shine this season, acting primarily as a support character. By the end of the second cour though *Jujutsu Kaisen* has her standing as equals with the boys. A rare commodity in most Shonen, I know. And as for Gojo? We need more room for Gojo. Gojo fits into the wise and overpowered mentor role, teaching us and Itadori about the world of curses. As far as characters go he's a good time. Standing head and shoulders above the rest of the cast in terms of power the guy never has much need to be serious. As such his antics lead to some of the funniest skits in the show while his power leads to some of the hypest. Also he's hot as fuck. And the rest of the cast? Well outside the villains, they're generally pretty dull. There are some exceptions such as Nanami who makes for a good temporary mentor, or Toudou who is the single best thing in the entire tournament arc. But by and large your love and attention is going to land on one of these 6 characters. The rest falling by the wayside. As for the villains? Well all the ones with names are pretty great! There are some monster of the week curses that don't bear talking about but core of Mahito, Jogo and Hanami carry the conflict well. Mahito in particular strikes a special cord. He is the antithesis to Itadori, everything wrong and brutal about mankind, and it shows in every facet of his being. From his creepy design and unnerving mannerisms to his abilities and sadistic personality. Mahito is the perfect foil to Itadori and I couldn't help but be dragged in by his presence. Factor in the great voice work of -Nobunaga Shimazaki- as well and you have a strong contender for Best Antagonist of 2021. ~~~img(https://i2.wp.com/starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Jujutsu-Kaisen-20.3.jpg)~~~ #~~~__OST/Sound Design__~~~ Finally we come to the OST and let me tell you, this was a pain to prepare for. Turns out it doesn't release until April 21st so I'm stuck here making up track names and trawling through footage to listen to music. So with that disclaimer about this section out of the way I ask you give me a bit of leeway in how I talk about it. Cool? Cool. Then let me start off by saying that [Hiroaki Tsutsumi](https://anilist.co/staff/120019/Hiroaki-Tsutsumi), [Alisa Okehazama](https://anilist.co/staff/168518/Alisa-Okehazama) and [Yoshimasa Terui](https://anilist.co/staff/161984/Yoshimasa-Terui) did a pretty good job. That's no surprise from Tsutsumi at least. The man was involved in the OST for both seasons of *Dr. STONE* which had an incredible soundtrack. Meanwhile Terui was last heard in anime working on the OP's for *Houseki no Kuni* and *Hi Score Girl* so seeing him here was a surprise. And as for newcomer Okehazama? *Jujutsu Kaisen* appears to be her first work on a full OST, only previously doing some insert songs for *God of High School*. What a way to start a career huh? As for specific songs this is where it gets difficult. As I said the OST isn't officially out and that leaves me with a very small example size. Of course I could talk about Gojo's ["Hollow Purple"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwG36P3_sYo) and how it mixes modern electronic with what I believe are traditional koto strings. Or we we could talk about ["Domain Expansion"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtssUOzJFhY) with its sweeping violin's, orchestral choir and heavy rock guitar. Mixing the 3 in such a way to give us an action packed yet dark battle theme. But because of my inability to source legitimate versions of this OST makes this difficult as even these are but covers. So suffice to say you are just going to have to take my word on this. ~~~img(https://i0.wp.com/starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Jujutsu-Kaisen-2.6.png)~~~ #~~~__Exploring Grief__~~~ This brings me to the personal portion of this review where I talk about what resonated with me. There's no set structure here, no judgement, this section doesn't even effect the final score. It exists purely so that you can understand a bit of what I was looking for in *Jujutsu Kaisen*. If you don't care, feel free to skip. But if you want some context for this review then read on! And fair warning, there will be spoilers. ~!So I've talked about it a few times before in this review but the way *Jujutsu Kaisen* handles grief is my favorite aspect of the show. This theme is introduced early on in episode 1 as Itadori's grandfather passes away and *Jujutsu Kaisen* immediately sets itself apart in how it handles this. In most Shonen there would be comical tears, exaggerated faces, rain and sorrowful music. But here Itadori processes his grief in silence, as if he was going through the 7 stages. He has no one to talk to, no outlet for his emotions. He can only think back on his grandfathers words as he processes what they mean. So it makes sense that these very words are what drive him towards jujutsu in the first place. The effects of his death don't stop there however. Soon afterword's Itadori is confronted with the selfishness of his ideals, of his desire to save. He isn't doing it for some noble reason but rather to assuage the guilt and pain in his heart. The confrontation with the Principle challenging him to find a real reason to save people. How if he only does what others ask then when faced with his end he will come to curse them for putting him on this path. After this we come to what I see as the final nail in the coffin for Itadori's naïve Shonen world view. With the conflict at the prison Itadori is shown how weak his drive really is. Forced to choose between his own life and Fushiguro's, Itadori finally finds his answer. He doesn't want to save just for the sake of saving. Instead he saves because he understands the pain those who survive go through. From this point forward Itadori's journey through grief is largely complete and so *Jujutsu Kaisen* shifts focus to a new character, Junpei. Where Itadori had a relatively healthy journey, Junpei's is anything but. He provides us a different, more cynical look at what grief can do to a person and the importance of support structures. Where Itadori ended up with Gojo, Nobara and Fushiguro, Junpei has Mahito who isn't prone to support... anything. It's a nice look at what could have happened. Also showing how much Itadori has matured and is better able to process his grief this time. It's because of this thematic focus, the maturity with which *Jujutsu Kaisen* tackles it, that I dislike the tournament arc. It feels like an excuse for some fights rather than any kind of meaningful conversation. And the worst part is it could have easily been fixed. Had *Jujutsu Kaisen* used its time to focus on Nobara and Fushiguro in place of the Kyoto side-characters it could have worked well. Show us how *they* process grief. Show us *their* anger at Itadori for lying about being dead, *their* joy that he has returned and the uncomfortable war between those emotions. Instead they accept him back as if nothing had happened aside from a few jokes when it could have been the arcs central conflict. Nobara does get a small moment with Itadori in the finale, and thats nice, but its to little to late for me.!~ ~~~img(https://i0.wp.com/starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Jujutsu-Kaisen-13.4.png)~~~ #~~~__Conclusion__~~~ So all in all, when everything is said and done, tl;dr how good is *Jujutsu Kaisen*? And the answer is... I had a blast. There's a lot I could, and do, nitpick in this review. The composite often looks ugly, the tournament arc felt underdeveloped, Nobara was a damsel in distress for most of the show, yadda yadda. But when I boil my enjoyment of *Jujutsu Kaisen* down to a single yes/no question the answer is always **yes**. The fights were great, Itadori, Gojo and Toudou were a laugh riot, Nobara is hot and when it really wants to the darkness of *Jujutsu Kaisen* is suffocating. I understand now where Horikoshi was coming from when he called it the next pillar of Shonen Jump and I have to agree. *Jujutsu Kaisen* has a bright future ahead of it and I can't wait for me. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the review! Leave me a comment here or on my personal blog, whichever you care for. Not happy with the score? Feel free to hit me up to chat about, I'm always down to talk. See you next season!

ranrannerson

It's been a good long while since I sat down and watched a big Shounen Jump shounen given how I've ended up feeling about the other ones I liked when I was younger. Don't talk to me about Bleach, I'm still kinda sad about it. But I'm really glad I went ahead and watched this show, because it's so good! It's SO good. I should say one thing outright, and it's that it starts off a little rocky before a lot of the characters are introduced. I mean, it looks completely amazing and the OST is pretty great, but I do understand why people feel a little underwhelmed by the start of the show. It's not a super original concept, and the plot of the main character having a demon sealed inside him has been done before, but I think as the various aspects of said plot are delved into further it's done really, really well. The biggest strength of the show's writing is the characters and their relationships with each other, so I personally think it gets exponentially better as the cast fills out both on the sorcerers' side and the villains' side. The characters are legitimately completely hilarious, and I love watching them goof around being friends. Like, there are post-credits gags after every episode, and the one where Nobara, Itadori, and Gojou show up to embarrass Fushiguro because they think he's asking a girl out perfectly encapsulates the main team's dynamic. I'm kind of surprised that the character I expected to be a gag character (i.e. Panda) felt like he fit in perfectly with the rest of the cast because he's not that much goofier than the rest of the cast. What I think is fun is that the villainous curses have an equally fun team dynamic where, much like the heroes, they do things like hang out on a beach and play board games together. One of them looks like an adorable squid creature and he spends all his screentime vibing in the ocean. None of this takes away from the fact that the villains are a bunch of terrifying eldritch horrors out to eliminate humanity, mind. Mahito is a gleeful, fun-loving child whose superpower is inflicting body horror on humans he touches, and it's used to horrifying effect in the most emotional arc of the series thus far. The world of jujutsu sorcerers is dark and gory, and everyone's kind of messed up by their experiences fighting curses or by the internal politics of the Old Sorcery jujutsu families which are predictably really messy. I feel like the fact that there's a lot of genuine humor is a great way to humanize the cast and drive the emotional stakes home hard when things get dire. One thing that I was personally pretty impressed by was how much I liked Itadori Yuuji himself. He's probably not my absolute favorite, but I'm usually not all that invested in shounen protagonists in comparison to the side characters. I feel like he can be criticized for feeling a little overpowered, but I think his personal internal conflict is really compelling in that he's a genuinely good dude who's been pulled into this world of gore and murder and death due to becoming the host of a genuinely evil demon. His scenes with Nanami in the first half of the show were really compelling, and I feel like what I got from them was, essentially, "How do you be a good person in a cruel, uncaring world?" And I do think that's kind of the larger theme of the show in general. It feels pretty resonant in the present day, and I'm not really surprised that this and Chainsaw Man both got big in this era of Shounen Jump. Aside from my thoughts on the big themes, some more minor things I like: wow, the female characters are excellent! I don't think the show starts off handling them super well, and I was kind of worried Nobara would get sidelined in fights despite being a really fun, interesting character with good motivations, but I was SO pleased to see her get to be incredibly awesome in the end. The characters go absolutely feral when they power up and Nobara is no exception. I'm really excited to see where all their characters go in the future! Speaking of, I'm not sure if this is something I'd necessarily consider a flaw, but I did find the way the show was paced to be kind of weird as a 24 episode anime. I don't think any of the arcs after the show gets going were bad, but the ending of the season felt like a character development arc in between two big bombastic arcs rather than a series ending. Given that I'd be really surprised if this didn't get a season 2, this doesn't bother me all that much, but it does feel like the show should continue with the next episode next week instead of going on break for however long. I do hope there is a break, by the way. I'm really excited to see more of this show, but I definitely want there to be enough time in the oven to keep the show's production quality as good as it is. The animation is a big highlight, and there are a ton of really excellently animated fights scored to a fantastic OST. I think the recent trend in shounen to animate a few arcs and then leave off for a while is a good one for the industry compared to the older trend of having a series constantly running, surpassing the manga, and then needing to get bogged down in filler. One other thing: the first OP and ED were really good, and while I liked the second OP and ED too I didn't like them quite as much. I expected the more soulful ED of the second half to be used to emotionally manipulate me after someone died painfully but it didn't happen. The initial OP's animation had some fun things to pay attention to, and the first ED was such a bop that I don't know how you'd follow it up. That's kind of a minor criticism but eh. Regardless, the show's good, I definitely recommend it!

KitKitovsky

Review contain spoiler scenes. If you have ever worked in the anime industry (and in the current conditions it is possible), then you should have received a letter of happiness from the Mappa studio asking you to work on JJK. Spammed everyone. In this way, this disgusting studio compensates for the small number of workers, and the tight deadlines can be overcome by increasing the working hours to 13 and more. The series took over the information field, boosted manga sales, and even won the competition for AOTY on Crunchyroll (the anime didn't even end at that time). It is a pity that not in the category "the worst compositing". By the wrighting JJK is an ordinary battle shounen, with strengths and weaknesses. The characters turned out to be strong enough, not annoying characters with funny gags. Kubo Taito, sitting opposite the author of the manga, in an interview hated female heroes, because they are too unyielding. It is ironic to hear this from the author, whose heroine in Bleach remained a walking joke about huge breasts. So, the tough but pleasant female characters, and the male ones, are also pleasing, it's not for nothing that the female viewer (and some male) is dripping because of the Great Teacher Gojou. On the other hand, there is a strong failure in working with the world. Many heroes here are from clans with evil grandfathers. The viewer is frightened by these clans, by the tense internal situation, but there is no specifics. img1920(https://i.imgur.com/desO5bt.jpg) _~~~There was one grandfather, played two chords and left~~~_ Again, a school organization, from which there is only a uniform and a tournament arch. Lazy explanations of abilities in the style of "here he has a lot of chakra and a chocolate eye." A local imba came to episode 20 and ruined it, because with one blow she destroyed a fight of equal opponents. Lots of fights, but little meaning. The technical part is also uneven. Almost every week, the series held a Sakuga festival - there are a lot of invited personalities here + an animation director with an excellent understanding of the fighting scenes. Some episodes stand out because of the strong personality at the head. Top three: №13, directed by Hironori Tanaka, theman found in any seasonal anime. The episode is very atmospheric. webm(https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/3ae5ff43d83b136e2a346fee25772822.mp4) _~~~Pay attention to the floating camera in static scenes, how disgusting it is. The studio's trademark is the illusion of motion in static frames~~~_ №17, directed by Shota Goshozono, animator-turned-director. A sea of fights and a pleasant setting of the shot. webm(https://sakugabooru.com/data/1e4e375c9d6fea7bc68071c292d7e392.mp4) _~~~Doesn't fit the description, I just love this clipping~~~_ But at the same time as the sakuga festival, the series held a funeral for its compositing. On a par with [Majo no Tabitabi](https://anilist.co/anime/112609/Majo-no-Tabitabi/), the worst in this aspect in the Fall 2020 season. Strange filters, a lot of ugly sprites, characters and objects don't fit together, layers don't integrate in any way img1920(https://i.imgur.com/SNZFMxc.jpg) _~~~ Heroes in one dimension, backgrounds in another~~~_ The most striking example is episode # 7, filmed by Park himself. Apparently the director was able to finish the production of [TGOH](https://anilist.co/anime/116006/THE-GOD-OF-HIGH-SCHOOL/) and burst into jjk, only stumbled at the entrance. webm(https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/51a77bdbe284ecaaf5671bed896a927e.mp4) ~~~_Timing 0:46_~~~ Definitely good animation, BUT! Textures of trees, earth, grass, everything is absolutely disharmonious, the aforementioned problem with layers - the clip looks like a gameplay recording from PS2. webm(https://sakugabrasil.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/asdf.mp4) ~~~_Earth, very low quality lava fire, strange filters_~~~ Meme footage, where the original is all right, but the result is... img1920(https://i.imgur.com/mdLBrfO.jpg) ~~~_Blurry smoke without clear boundarie_~~~ img1920(https://i.imgur.com/ZFSRjg9.jpg) ~~~_Instead of water bad CG model_~~~ The photography department failed for quite trivial reasons - the management assigned a person with no experience to a really important role. Poor performance can ruin the days of animators. This is not the fault of the person, it is the fault of those who appointed him. Remember, Mappa studio is one of the worst out there today. And in order to get out of this negative block, I will mark the last favorite episode №22. Directed by Kamiya Tomomi, the episode is almost 100% done by the girls who previously worked for I.G. Almost 3 months to produce = great storyboard with proper use of lights and filters, fine motion in animation. The last episode brought together everything that was in the series (with the exception of music, for the first time I heard here a remarkable ost, the weak side of the anime). A bunch of sakuga from talents: director Park Sung Hoo, Keichiro Watanabe, Hironori Tanaka, Tatsuya Yoshihara. Yuki Sato was making this piece, and at 0:39, these wretched trees happened again. webm(https://sakugabooru.com/data/c284ade59b3cd52b49d8f3dc75570429.mp4) ~~~_And in another video, MC will run through the air..._~~~ The announcement of the film has already happened, with the same studio. I will laugh wildly if there is the same lineup with the same photography department. At the very least, it was funny to look at such obvious mistakes. As a maximum, the further the sadder. The Battle Shounen is still the Battle Shounen, and there is no need to give him non-existent merit.

Groenboys

The shounen genre has always been simple good fun. From underdogs rising to the top to good-hearted people saving their loved ones, shounen always brings in the most simple kind of enjoyability. Sometimes its simpleness can be a detriment, but for Jujutsu Kaisen it actually is its savior. But first he formalities. Itadori is a normal high schooler that loves horror, but his curiosity brings him to the end of the wrong stick. His horror club gets attacked by curses, so to save everyone he swallows a cursed object, which revives the great demon Sukuna. Luckily, Itadori is able to control it, but he now that he is a husk for the great demon, Itadori gets wrapped up into a Sorcerer school and is tasked to kill curses, all along while other Curses are eyeing on Itadori to fully revive Sukuna. Itadori accepts his situation and thus begins the adventure of the sorcerer Itadori and his friends. A pretty standard shounen story, but for a story like this, I think it does a good job balancing tension, reveals, comedic parts and character building. It all feels so well paced, with taking enough time to flesh out certain characters but fast enough to keep things going. The biggest highlight of the anime are the characters, which are SUPER likable. __Itadori__ might be the most standard, being super strong but still a bit of a loser underneath that just wants people to not die, and Itadori works as a character. He does go with the flow but with a strong idealistic mindset that keeps scenes fresh, not to mention that Itadori has some great comedic moments. __Megumi __is the cold friend with a good heart that for most of the season feels a bit tame, but with reveals and some really good moments Megumi becomes an intriguing character to follow. __Gojo __is the obvious highlight of the character cast. Great design, laid-back, fun, anti-authoritarian and the most beautiful eyes Shounen has ever seen. __Nobara__ is kind of the bitchy female at first but she quickly becomes a fucking badass, which brings me to one of my favorite aspects of the anime: The female characters are actually really good. Often when I am watching shounen anime, the female characters always feel… average. There is not much variety in them and they often feel like the weak link of the main cast. In Jujutsu Kaisen, the female characters are some of the main highlights of the anime. They get so much screentime with great scenes that make them look like badasses. Even if they aren’t badass, like __Miwa__, they are really funny. There are more great characters show, like Todou, Panda and aformentioned Miwa, but dwelling on the character cast would lessen the other aspects. I do what to give one critique tho: While the main trio (Itadori, Megumi, Nobara) has great characters seperately, together the trio chemistry feels... eh? I like it is laid-back but it feels so underdeveloped, so I don't fully believe their friendship. Now let's talk about this anime's comedy. Often, comedy in shounen is like peanut butter on a computer screen: Really annoying. Most jokes fall flat and can't seem to bring in any variety. Jujutsu Kaisen revolutionises the shounen genre by being actually funny. The comedic timing alongside its self-aware ridiculousness really makes the anime funny, although the Jujutus Strolls on the end of each episode can be hit or miss. Now let's get to the exciting part of the anime: The production values, and holy fuck MAPPA delivered. The character designs don't just look great, they constantly look great and go abstract the right way when it is needed for a joke. There is so much sakuga each episode it sometimes feels overwhelming at times. Each episode contains at least one great looking scene that makes you search the scene on Sakugabooru to fangirl about it. I have to admit, while the sakuga looks really good in motion and is really exciting, not every piece of sakuga is great. Not enough movement, too much movement, animating the wrong parts of the shot, these issues crop up more then I would like, but they aren't dealbreakers for the great animation of this show. I also want to give the music of the show a quick shout out. There are a surprising amount of good tracks that really enhance important scenes in the anime. In short, Jujutsu Kaisen is one of the best first seasons I have seen in anime in a while. Great characters, great production values, great comedy, a solid story, it has it all for a really good shounen. It doesn't so much revolutionise the shounen genre, but puts its own spin on it to create a quality product. It still has little flaws here and there to stop it for being a perfect watch, not even mentioning we aren't _that_ far into the story yet, but if it continues getting better with each episode, I think we have a classic on our hands. I fully recommend watching Jujutsu Kaisen, no matter if you are a veteran who dismisses anything with a shounen label or a newcomer who wants to start their journey through the wonderous worlds of anime (which includes Jujutsu Kaisen).

MemeLoop

# JUJUTSU KAISEN img500(https://media.giphy.com/media/ubUD8va3Fs9S9egL1g/source.gif) (may contain some spoilers, be warned) im sure all the praise i have for this anime has already been mentioned, but id like to give my views on this show! __introduction__ the beginning of this anime was the hook, it started off with a bang and it did not disappoint. they developed the story, and the plot within the first few episodes. it was easy to grasp and entertaining. it felt fresh! and on top of that, it doesn't exactly follow the typical shounen stereotypes. __animation__ the animation is flawless. the fight scenes are fluid and extremely well animated. the switch in art style in some scenes depending on the mood is such a nice detail and it sets the mood of the scene. __characters__ our main trio is perfectly balanced in personality with the "no energy", "too much energy", and the "balanced" character group. some of their back story does come a little late to be fair, but it does work out in context of the plot progression. later on in the story, with the inclusion and extra focus on the other characters and their origins keeps the story fresh and exciting by expending on them and giving them more relevance and a bigger part in the story. the relationship between the characters is so well done that you feel included in these friend groups. __the mood__ jujutsu kaisen is a perfect example of how a shounen anime should balance the mood of the story, where the serious moments shine just as bright as the goofy moments, and this builds up for the sadder, more painful moments in this story to hurt much more. the tension built in fight scenes does not fizzle out, it almost always starts and ends with the same exciting tense feeling. __pacing__ i believe that the pacing in this anime is perfectly fine. the arcs are not shortened nor extended, its just the right length to keep you satisfied, rather than getting bored of it, or having too little. theres not really much more to say about the pacing. __some issues__ (may have spoilers) i wouldn't say these aren't too many or too bad but its just a few things i noticed that were a little off. nanami seemed like he would have had a bigger role, he did for a while but he kinda went under the radar, not even mentioned in the last handful of episodes. i cannot speak for the events after the anime, but he kinda disappeared. i hope he does make a return in future arcs. in the beginning goujou mentions that itadori is merely a hostage and they are using him as a body for sukuna and he is to be executed and disposed of after he is not needed. this is never a worry for any of the characters and it is not mentioned ever again. i started the series expecting the end of this season to be itadori trying to avoid his execution. but from what it looks like, the plans of execution is forgotten. once again, i cannot speak for future arcs past the anime. the ending was by no means bad. but it does give the vibe of an "ending" in the sense that nothing is to come after. this anime will most probably have another season as its very successful. but the ending kinda makes it seem like they are trying to wrap things up and seal it off. it gives little to none hints of whats to come in the future. in my opinion it doesn't give much excitement for whats to come. (although i am very excited for whats to come) this doesnt take away from the ending as it was really good, and it was not rushed. with that being said, i had hoped for something to build excitement for the next season. __conclusion__ with all that being said, this is truly a wonderful anime, im happy i was able to experience it from start to finish. if any one reading this hasnt watched jujutsu kaisen, i really, really recommend it. its worth the hype, trust me. ~~~:)~~~ img500(https://www.icegif.com/wp-content/uploads/jujustu-kaisen-icegif-1.gif)

Iero

Quando Studio MAPPA annunciò l'adattamento del manga di Jujutsu Kaisen era difficile immaginarsi il risultato finale, tra chi non aveva mai sentito parlare del manga e chi lo aspettava invece con trepidazione, magari dopo aver visto un primo promettente trailer o avendo già sfogliato l'hit di Shounen Jump creata da Gege Akutami, nessuno sapeva cosa sarebbe potuto uscirne fuori. Molti si sono poi insospettiti quando lo stesso studio in un breve lasso di tempo si è fatto carico anche di adattare la quarta stagione dell'Attacco Dei Giganti, Dorohedoro, The God Of Highschool e Chainsaw Man, temendo che questo sovraccarico di lavoro avesse potuto minare la qualità delle singole opere. Ebbene, l'anime di Jujutsu Kaisen è riuscito a zittire in grande stile tutte queste preoccupazioni, confermandoci che questa tipologia di show è ancora in grado dopo anni di sapersi rinnovare e trovare la propria strada anche in un mercato apparentemente saturo. ~~~img(https://images.everyeye.it/img-notizie/jujutsu-kaisen-ufficiale-puntata-dell-anime-includera-scena-post-credit-inedita-v3-475769.jpg)~~~ La storia ruota attorno ad Hitadori Yuuji, uno studente liceale dalla forza sovrumana, che dopo essere venuto a contatto con un ragazzo che gli si presenta come stregone, in seguito ad una serie di eventi, spinto dalla necessità, ingerisce un feticcio maledetto che fonderà il suo corpo e la sua anima con quella del re delle maledizioni, Ryoumen Sukuna. Al ragazzo spetteranno dunque due scelte: essere giustiziato sul posto in quanto maledizione o vivere come stregone in attesa della sua esecuzione. Un protagonista sempliciotto, diviso tra il mondo dei cattivi e quello dei buoni, è qualcosa che sicuramente molti avranno già visto da qualche parte; eppure la credibilità dietro ai gesti e ai pensieri di Hitadori riescono subito a farlo prendere in simpatia allo spettatore e trasformarlo di colpo in un personaggio dinamico e fresco, con cui è facile empatizzare e comprenderne i flussi di pensiero. Il dualismo tra il suo modo di vivere estroverso e genuino ed il sadismo e il narcisismo di Sukuna diverranno due facce della stessa medaglia. Una scelta davvero azzeccata. Il resto del cast prende esempio da Hitadori, e nonostante inizialmente molti sembrino dei cosplayer di personaggi usciti da Naruto nel giro di un paio di episodi riescono immediatamente a discostarsene e anzi rendersi a loro volta legittimi e mai fuori posto. Fushiguro e Kugisaki, i due compagni di Hitadori, sono ben caratterizzati e diversificano il trio, mostrandoci anche un lato più umano e quotidiano della loro vita, come ad esempio il semplice desiderio di una ragazza vissuta in campagna di fare un giro in una grande città. Le maledizioni sono genuinamente terrificanti e la loro esistenza narrativamente viene giustificata abbastanza bene, così come il world building e power system; specialmente quelle più forti vengono introdotte saggiamente e ci fanno capire fin da subito la reale forza dei personaggi che ci troviamo davanti attraverso delle sequenze che lasciano con il fiato sospeso e ci spingono a continuare a vedere tutti i diversi e interessantissimi archi narrativi che compongono questa prima stagione. ~~~img(https://64.media.tumblr.com/9dba5b0367e0b77e63b2373e23056cab/0065f27365d2c1ce-11/s640x960/bab22353d6bc2bc5abfc9e510128e100259fc953.gifv) ~~~ La qualità delle animazioni è indiscussa. I colori sono sempre nitidi e i movimenti dei personaggi veloci e fluidi, rendendo così le scene d'azione ed i combattimenti una gioia per gli occhi e i contorni dei personaggi e le espressioni facciali definite e molto espressive, probabilmente uno dei maggiori difetti del manga, che invece soffre parecchio proprio sotto questo aspetto a causa dei tempi molto stretti di pubblicazione. Artisticamente si tratta di un lavoro di fino davvero notevole che per 24 episodi mantiene una qualità quasi sempre elevatissima, complice anche un comparto sonoro di tutto rispetto, in particolar modo nelle opening e nelle ending (quest'ultima addirittura talmente accattivante da togliere tutta la drammaticità dei cliffhanger di ogni fine episodio), e una cura del character design molto rappresentativa ed immediata. Nota dolente maggiore sono purtroppo spesso gli sfondi e i fondali durante alcune scene movimentate che si rivelano totalmente fuori sincro con i movimenti della telecamera e dei personaggi. Se infatti spesso alcuni errori o approssimazioni nelle "texture" del terreno e dei fondali sono ben nascosti, in altri diventano molto più ovvi, facendo sembrare i personaggi volare, correre per distanze impossibili e confondendo lo spettatore. Non si tratta di qualcosa di così grave, anzi è abbastanza normale che il processo di correzione dei fondali, lavoro del Direttore Artistico, sia uno di quelli che soffre di più i tempi stretti e tutto sommato il risultato finale eccetto un paio di scivoloni è davvero soddisfacente. L'uso intelligente della CGI la rende praticamente invisibile e la scelta di non usarla nemmeno durante le scene con molti elementi a schermo è sicuramente coraggiosa e degna di nota. La serie esteticamente poi trova il suo massimo splendore intorno al potere di un personaggio particolare che coniuga una presenza scenica di tutto rispetto con degli sbalzi cromatici davvero mozzafiato. Ogni altro riferimento sfocerebbe nello spoiler. ~~~img(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e8/4e/db/e84edb279472c7ab49e97ec276d4ffda.gif)~~~ I toni sono nettamente più dark e cupi rispetto ad altre opere dello stesso genere e non tardano ad incuriosire. Gli stregoni, costantemente a contatto con la morte e le maledizioni dell'animo umano, riescono a mostrarci anche le emozioni che le generano e il dolore e la sofferenza che le persone si infliggono l'un l'altro. Dimenticatevi pure quindi dell'eroe che arriva all'ultimo secondo per salvare tutto e tutti e mettetevi nell'ottica che in Jujutsu Kaisen il confine tra uomini e maledizioni è molto sottile, e spesso causa di conflitti e punti di vista divergenti. La scelta di mostrare a schermo scene macabre o cruente risulta quasi sempre vincente e mantiene alta l'attenzione. Contemporaneamente la serie riesce a sfruttare questi momenti drammatici per tracciare i profili psicologici e caratteriali dei personaggi e dare alla narrazione un ritmo altalenante, a volte veloce e frenetico, a volte lento e pesante a seconda della necessità. Questo continuo cambio di impostazione rende ogni episodio un'incognita e lascia molto più spazio di manovra per terminare e collegare degli archi magari molto intensi, con scene che spezzano la tensione e consentono all'opera di ripartire in quarta. ~~~img(https://www.parmateneo.it/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/jujutsu-3.jpg) ~~~ Jujutsu Kaisen è davvero un anime piacevole da vedere, sia per i fan del genere di lunga data sia per quelli più nuovi, riuscendo ad unire molto bene le atmosfere degli anime thriller e horror con i topos narrativi dei classici battle shounen. I combattimenti intelligenti e scenici in accoppiata con le curate introspezioni psicologiche dei protagonisti e dei cattivi lo rendono la ricetta perfetta per un prodotto di successo. Insomma non avete scuse per non dargli almeno una possibilità

brandotendie

_note: i use a 5 star scale, and the 100 scale for this review reflects that. check out [my profile](https://anilist.co/user/brandotendie/) for more detail on how i rate things._ _________________ ~~~img220(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eici3AGX0AEw_0p.jpg:large)~~~ ~~~⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐~~~ _________________ _Jujutsu Kaisen_, or _Sorcery Fight_, fully lives up to its name. not only does it fully embody its title's straightforward nomenclature, it also fully embodies the nature of its anime subgenre: _battle shonen_. ~~~img220(https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/jujutsu-kaisen/images/1/12/Panda_vs._Mechamaru_%28Anime%29.gif/revision/latest?cb=20210130044450)~~~ ~~~_this show is about socrerers fighting. and there's a lot of it._~~~ it's a show that's brimming with energy. from its high octane animation quality to the one-two punch one liner comedy to its brisk nonstop pacing to the varied score with new tracks for every new fight, _Jujutsu Kaisen_ is a pure delight to watch. but it's clear to me that Jujutsu Kaisen is more than just a fast paced seasonal thrill ride: _Jujutsu Kaisen_ is a watershed moment that will forever change the mainstream approach not just for _battle shonen_, but for the anime medium from this point onwards. ~~~img720(https://i.redd.it/sa7vv6ukrki21.gif)~~~ ~~~_the 2010s was a great decade for anime. so what's next?_~~~ airing directly after the close of a decade that had equal amounts of wild experimentation/the preservation of hand-drawn animation in more niche circles (_Mob Psycho 100_ and the works of Masaaki Yuasa come to mind) and lucrative derivative creative bankruptcy/the rising over reliance of shoddy CGI in the mainstream (name any of the dime a dozen isekai), Jujutsu Kaisen serves as a perfect middle ground, appealing to the largest audience possible whilst upholding a standard of quality that's heretofore unprecedented in a mainline battle shonen. reminiscent to 2019's _Demon Slayer_ (which was a watershed moment for the medium in of itself), _Jujutsu Kaisen_ rises above every single one of its contemporaries as a showcase not for the best writing, the best original premise, nor even the best characters (which is not a slight against the characters at all; they're all wonderfully rounded-out, even the sentient Panda). no, _Jujutsu Kaisen_ serves almost purely as a showcase for the handdrawn animation that explodes across the screen, bringing in its viewers for more doses of animated phantasmagoria every week. ~~~img720(https://64.media.tumblr.com/a63801966d7441737f7ee64de2caa785/4dd13607b42b173a-7a/s540x304/11575c1f3b27b31fc5017e3d2035c552b7873ca3.gif)~~~ ~~~_it's unbelievable how consistent the animation is throughout every episode_~~~ i found myself dumbfounded at the amount of hard work the animators over at MAPPA poured into this, with week after week of _sakuga_ goodness flowing without any seeming end. even small character moments and simple conversations possess detail that most _shonen_ don't even bother with; characters actually emote even in mundane scenes, their hair animated to react to walk cycles or gusts of wind. but what elevates the animation as well as the show at large is how the writing, pacing, and plot all serve to highlight the animation and the battles themselves. to understand what makes _Jujutsu Kaisen_'s structure so special, we have to also understand that it's not original; this isn't the first anime to use this formula of prioritizing battles over everything. the formula of a nonstop battle shonen is something that's been around for a while, most prominently featured in classic manga/anime like _Yu Yu Hakusho_ and _Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo_. ~~~img720(https://i.imgur.com/ACN6DEe.gif)~~~ ~~~~~~_~~~Jujutsu Kaisen owes a lot to its predecessors~~~_ it's a formula that forgoes the hallmarks of typical battle shonen that turn so many people off the subgenre as well as the medium at large; it's lean, cutting off any unnecessary "filler" episodes, excising any episode that is fully dedicated to exposition and/or character development. ~~~img720(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d7/bb/b5/d7bbb535fcb910ab75b71f51116c4d70.gif)~~~ ~~~_Araki's (hopefully) to-be animated Steel Ball Run is a perfect example of the optimized battle shonen formula_~~~ instead, the formula these _battle shonen_ utilize is one that purely revolves around the aspect of battle itself: - "training" arcs are relegated to a one or two episodes at most, with the breakthrough required from this narrative device achieved purely through fight scenes - comedy isn't just relegated to a few side characters or an episode or two, it's organically weaved between battles and sometimes, within battles themselves - battles/fights themselves don't just serve as climax to machinations of ongoing plotlines, but also as a form of therapy for our characters, doubly advancing the plot while also rounding out our characters' backstory and development _Demon Slayer_ is the most recent example of this formula, but even that show falls to some of the pitfalls of the genre, its pacing taking a break from the action for comedic bits, exposition, or world building. what _Jujutsu Kaisen_ does differently is that it fully commit to that formula to the fullest. it's no wonder that the show is so delightful in wearing its influence on its sleeve when everything it accomplishes is built off everything that came before. in acknowledging rubbing shoulders with _battle shonen_ giants like _Naruto_ and _Bleach_ (whose influence is [the largest out of any battle shonen predecessor](https://edomonogatari.wordpress.com/2021/03/14/akutami-kubo/)), it also acknowledges how it makes up for their shortcomings, learning from their mistakes and advancing the medium-dominating genre of battle shonen as a whole. ~~~img720(https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/866/219/536.gif)~~~ ~~~_Bleach is the manga that actually introduced Akutami-sensei to the medium_~~~ at the end of the day, _Jujutsu Kaisen_ may not be wholly original but it isn't trying to be. in perfecting what makes the battle shonen subgenre works so well, and fixing the shortcomings of its biggest influences, _Jujutsu Kaisen_ becomes something wholly different altogether: a gestalt of all its influences, elevating its quality to be as good if not better than the giants whose shoulders it stands on. it's forward-thinking in every way possible, working in tandem with respect for the influences that came before as well as upholding and revitalizing the lifeblood of traditional handdrawn animation rather than casting it by the wayside. ~~~ img720(https://64.media.tumblr.com/c626b58ba6de90807ae9acf5f0d78196/3b87bb15a16bf02b-29/s500x750/97172ee94b6cd2b71114a82ca446d8f09a2cf1eb.gif) _did i mention the animation is fucking amazing?~~~_ only time will tell if this show is truly a microcosm of what popular anime will look like in the future (the upcoming adaptation of _Chainsaw Man_ on the horizon is a great sign). regardless, it's very plain that _Jujutsu Kaisen_ is an instant classic. here's to the future!

gums

~~~~~~~~~__Jujutsu Kaisen Review: A New High-Level Anime__~~~ ~~~img550(https://otakukart.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Jujutsu-Kaisen-Itaori.jpg)~~~ ___ ~~~__Overview of Story__~~~ - _Jujutsu Kaisen_ follows a teenage boy named Itadori Yuuji as he goes from being a normal kid to being the vessel for one of the world's strongest curses after eating the finger of Sukuna Ryomen. After meeting Gojo Satoru and Fushiguro Megumi from Tokyo Jujutsu High, he is captured. He is told that he must die, being too dangerous to be left alive with Sukuna inside of him. But, he is given an ultimatum: be killed now, or fight along with the members of Jujutsu Tech to find all of Sukuna's fingers and save the world. After choosing the latter, he embarks on a journey to fight for the right death while learning to become a Jujutsu Sorcerer. ___ __~~~Story - 9/10~~~__ - The story is really well constructed. It gives the audience a great deal of background information with not many plot holes or unanswered questions. They explain the power system extremely well and show us a lot of cool abilities to keep us interested. While the pacing was a little weird, it was solid. There really isn't much to complain about. ___ __~~~Characters - 9/10~~~__ ~~~img330(https://www.tvseasonspoilers.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Jujutsu-Kaisen-Episode-15.jpg)~~~ - Early in the show, we meet many of Yuuji's close friends that he has before working to become a Jujutsu Sorcerer. Once the show gets going, we are introduced to a large cast of characters. Many are students, workers, and teachers from Tokyo Jujutsu High. Later, we meet a full cast of villains that plot against our protagonist, as well as more students from Kyoto Jujutsu High. - The characters are incredibly written. Yuuji is a perfect shounen protagonist that offers exciting fights, inspiring moments, and a lot of humor. Megumi has great character development as he learns to live up to his true potential. And most all, it is very enjoyable to watch Gojo be Gojo. He is a funny, border line psychopathic, unbelievably strong sorcerer. He creates this internal feeling where you can't really tell if he is fighting for good, or evil self motives, but you still love him either way. - Obviously, I have to bring up the fact that there is strong inspiration for character design and personality from the popular anime, _Naruto_. _Jujutsu Kaisen_ takes inspiration from the famous three man teams that Naruto uses. Yuuji mirrors Naruto as they both are charismatic, rambunctious, empty-headed, naturally-talented protagonists. Fushiguro mirrors Sasuke as they are both dark, quiet-but-powerful characters. Nobara mirrors Sakura as they are both the only female of the group, and they have sassy personalities. However, Nobara proves to be stronger and more independent than Sakura is in _Naruto_. Lastly, Gojo mirrors Kakashi as they play the “cool sensei” role. Gojo is practically a carbon copy of Kakashi in design. Same hair, very similar face coverings, and interesting eyes. - The background characters are hilarious and interesting to say the least. There is a panda that is named "Panda". He can also talk and turn into a gorilla. Must a say more? All of these background characters have very unique abilities and stories that make them so much more likeable than they already are. My favorite character, Todo, adds so much comedic relief and joy to the show, it's indescribable. Lastly, Maki is amazing. ___ __~~~Animation/Art - 10/10~~~__ ~~~youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjoUv9Wrwk4)~~~ - Animation doesn't get better than _Jujutsu Kaisen_. This show can compete with any visuals of any other anime out there and I stand by that. The fight scenes are absolutely incredible. The funny moments are animated perfectly. The animation of the characters convey emotion so well that you feel almost sucked into the world of _Jujutsu Kaisen_. ___ __~~~Audio - 10/10~~~__ ~~~youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwaRztMaoY0)~~~ - Top tier. It's just incredible. OST and background music is just so insanely good that I would rewatch episodes after I just finished them. And as many people already know, _Jujutsu Kaisen_ holds the title of top 5 anime openings of all time. I'm ready to debate that claim. ___ __~~~Conclusion~~~__ - To keep this brief, _Jujutsu Kaisen_ overwhelmingly exceeded my expectations. I don't think I've ever been more presently surprised by a show than I have by this one. I truly believe that this show will lead the era of new-gen shounen for the next few years. I am so excited to see what MAPPA has in store for us with the _Jujutsu Kaisen 0_ movie and the next season which is scheduled to release in the summer of 2022. So with that being said, _Jujutsu Kaisen_, thank you so far! _____ Note: - This is my first review. If there is anything that was really atrocious, please give me some advice so I can improve. Thanks!

leesonTV

Jujutsu Kaisen is a good example of a fun, engaging, and enjoyable shonen series. Filled to the brim with brilliant action sequences, cool and interesting characters with niche abilities, and great effort on production. So what does Jujutsu Kaisen have to offer in terms of plot? Well, essentially the main focus of Jujutsu's plot is centred around curses and these curses can take any form be it a cursed spirit or a cursed object. The students of Jujutsu Tech, a school specialising in the education of exorcising these spirits as well as those who are well knowledgable of using cursed energy are the ones who seal away cursed objects from getting into the wrong hands and perform exorcisms on cursed spirits, all in an effort for the greater good of humanity. Our main character, Itadori Yuuji has now been put at the forefront of these events because of a cursed object known as Sukuna's finger which his occult club friends had found. After unforeseen circumstances, Itadori decides to eat Sukuna's finger which now makes Itadori a vessel for Sukuna, the king of curses and the most powerful curse of them all. Because of this, the Jujutsu Tech tutor, Gojo Satoru is now keeping an eye on Itadori and allows for Itadori to be trained as a Jujutsu sorcerer under his guidance. It's up to Itadori, Fushiguro and Nobara as well as the rest of Jujutsu Tech to scour around for the remaining Sukuna fingers, with Itadori knowing full well that he would sacrifice himself just to put an end to Sukuna for good. This plot provided is here is to be expected from a shonen such as this but the way Jujutsu lets it play out is excellent. There were only really two instances where I was confused about the passage of time due to unprecedented time skips in the middle of certain episodes however it doesn't necessarily hinder the performance of Jujutsu's writing whatsoever. The pacing within these said arcs are perfect. The fights and confrontations too are really the highlight as Jujutsu ups the ante and brings excitement and engaging strategic battles with each episode. The energy is non-stop here, it just keeps flowing and it's magnificent. Now onto characters, which let me just say, these characters all have something niche about them. Itadori is the kind type yet carefree, but that's really what makes his character lovable and endearing. Fushiguro is the level head of the main trio, being more serious in most circumstances. Nobara from what I have seen can be a mix of Itadori and Fushiguro, sometimes she's just as carefree and goofy as Itadori. But under normal circumstances, she's more like Fushiguro although in contrast to him, Nobara is a lot more expressive and upfront. Other characters like the Tokyo second-years - Panda, Maki, and Toge were interesting too. Panda being a cursed spirit with three different souls led to an interesting battle between them and one of the Kyoto students. Maki only wanted to do something in her life to make herself happy without considering the consequences of having her sister Mai enroll in Jujutsu Tech against her own will, leading to Mai hating her for doing so. Makes Maki seem selfish but ultimately, she had a goal and she wanted to seize the opportunity to prove herself. Toge is an interesting case, he somehow brings unnecessary humour to the table with the random things he says in place of what any average person would say. But that downside of not being able to speak normally actually comes as a plus when used against cursed spirits and those who oppose Toge, as he can essentially utter a command and have the opponent do exactly as he has said. An interesting twist on abilities here, that's for sure. One of the most interesting students from Kyoto has definitely got to be Toudou, there's something about his character which honestly makes me smile. He's cunning, knowledgeable of cursed energy which helps out Itadori in the battle between Hanami, and overall is just a hilarious and joyous character. Gojo Satoru is also a joyous character to see on screen, whenever he's not taking much serious at all to when he pulls a Domain Expansion or one of his abilities, he is honestly just a cool character. A good way I can really describe Gojo is that he's like a main character that has already went through his character arc and story and now he's just chilling among the others. Villains like Mahito and Sukuna are really interesting too. Sukuna is the embodiment of lawful evil and Mahito is straight-up chaotic with that same dynamic being shown off in episodes like Episode 12. Other than those notable mentions, most of the faculty and some of the other Kyoto students never really struck me as influential or deep characters. Nanami is an exception to this, I like how he works on his own rules and uses the 7:3 ratio as his skill to his advantage in battle, an interesting character too. But yeah, sorry to report that some characters aren't all too deep, although this may be a given because it's a shonen and that it's only the first season that has been adapted, there is much more content and stuff for me to see in the manga I'm told so I'm excited for that. Now moving onto the score... My god, the score here is insane. Some tracks in the BGM really fit the mood and fights themselves actually, whether it be Itadori and Toudou vs Hanami in Episode 20 or Itadori and Nobara in Episode 24, these background tracks are outstanding to have here. Fits the pacing and the action quite nicely. OP 1 is nice to listen to over and over, it never gets boring. ED 1 is much the same with a funky twist, Lost in Paradise is my favourite ED here. OP 2 has really grown on me though and it's a shame it's overshadowed by OP 1, it's honestly some solid stuff that really fits the theme of what Jujutsu Kaisen is going for more than OP 1. ED 2 is Co Shu Nie which I really love and I like that it contrasts from the OPs and EDs we had gotten, going more emotional and melodic. This ED has grown on me too but I still prefer ED 1 overall. With art, MAPPA just loves to show off what they can do, the art and presentation here are just off the charts, it's genuinely phenomenal. What else is there to say? The fight sequences show this off very nicely. With that, I consider Jujutsu Kaisen a really solid watch honestly. Great action, solid characters, great use of strategy and ability, top-notch production is definitely enough to land Jujutsu Kaisen a solid 8. I would have definitely enjoyed this a lot more if it had more depth to the characters but it's not much to really go on about since it's a shonen and that's usually to be expected so I'm not really fussed. I haven't checked out the manga yet but I do plan to very soon so I hope it definitely does deliver. Honest to god, superb stuff here.

KaizokuOtaku

If you read my Demon Slayer review for both anime and manga, you should be familiar with my hate for those two. Well, here is the thing. Jujutsu Kaisen what I am currently going to write about is far worse. I bet you didn't see that one coming huh? To explain my reasoning, I am going to compare the two in some way. If you are easy to trigger, don't care about a different perspective with proper reasoning, then be my guest. Scroll down to the bottom while you are on crack like an angry kid and smack that dislike button with all your might. But in the process, giving me further solid reasons to justify my points. I will tell you this now, that I am not a manga reader as I dropped it 20 chapters in because of the tediousness of the story, inconsistent direction, stagnant and horrible paneling, and the shoddy art style making it hard to make out what's happening. My belief is revolved around anime. Well, let's get going. There is a misconception going around the community of top-notch visuals and art is equal to good when it's not even close to the truth. I feel most don't realize it themselves unless someone points it out for you. I don't blame them either. I was riding the Demon Slayer hype-train for a while before taking a step back and looking it from my own heart. Rather than being influenced by other words, thus being a slave to their bloated opinions. Yes, I am saying that Jujutsu Kaisen's overwhelming popularity stems from its lush and stunning production value, nothing else. Do you want proof? Where was Jujutsu Kaisen before the anime happened? Just like Ufotable for Demon Slayer, Jujutu being touched by the hands of the passionate and hardworking staff at Mappa got the same prescription due to its insane production value, despite mediocre to dreadful writing. Well, that's kind of wrong. I won't deny the fujoshi details of glossy lips of the male characters and creating them to be so handsome is another core reason people cannot stop the shill. Seesh, I lost count of the number of times I saw someone simp for a character through a global post, activity, and other means. I don't think I have ever seen someone make a valuable point about the story, crack out some theories/predictions, only a ton of simping. Say, Gojo alone got far more favorites than his worth if you exclude his appearances and look at him from a personality standpoint. The guy is literally a man-child that doesn't even know how to crack out jokes. Remember that awful scene when he wore Nobara's skirt and tried to make a joke out of it? I felt my life slipping from the amount of cringe the scene exuded. There was also that segment with those curses doing a one-note shoujo play. That was so unnecessary and awful. In any case, I liked Gojo at first but the community made me not care about him anymore. Now I only see cringe which was always there. Thank you me for waking up. Well, he's at least not the worst character in JJK even if he is high up there. That title goes for Yuuji the stoic immovable cringe-ass dried face wall. Yuuji was introduced as this guy who was already incredibly powerful from the getgo. Guy could literally run marathons in a matter of seconds, dent football goals with his abnormal wrist powers batting a baseball, plus he was plenty agile, acrobatic, and got immense jumping power. This was all there before he got a hell of an insane powerup by eating a cursed finger belonging to the king of curses Sukuna. Which led Yuuji to have Sukuna as another lifeform inside of him and not just anyone. A powerful ancient demon essentially boosted his already haxed stats. I don't mind any of this personally. This is a shounen so expect illogical writing and lots of things served on a silver platter for the MC. I enjoy my fair shares of OP characters if they are executed rightly but most Shounen tends to something more than letting them feel like a concept, that's what Yuuji genuinely is. He is not even fit to be called a character. His motivation is as flimsy as himself, he wants to save people and that's where it ends. There is no why or other clarification. You could assume it's due to his grandpa's last words, but a guy we barely knew for a second death does not accomplish anything other than being wasteful baggage. I am sorry to put it like that but it's the cold hard truth. Yuuji is very much the same guy we know and in my case hate as he was introduced in the beginning. A wall with little to no substance outside of being crazy powerful and wanting to save people for whatever reason. Did you know Yuuji at the beginning of the story was even able to throw cars around casually when that should not even be possible? Do you know how many tons a vehicle even weighs?. If you like Yuuji, be my guest but please don't tell me he is a good main character or any of that nor is Tanjiro that. Both are flimsy and boring. Tanjiro is consistent at least but nothing special in the grand scheme of things and Yuuji is just a ball of mess. The only thing Mappa accomplished by animating this wall was giving it some colors, but at the end of the day, a wall is a wall no matter how many colors you use. Yuuji is no doubt the worst shounen, no protagonist, in general, I had the absolute worst displeasure of seeing. Why do I think JJK is worse than Demon Slayer? Here's the thing. Tanjiro who was portrayed as this fantastic human being and was boring outside of being consistent and having the clear motivation to do things is far better than someone who's there just to be there. Sure, it's simple but there is a clear why Tanjiro became a demon slayer. It's to save his sister and return her to human again. And unlike him being totally overpowered from the getgo, there are things about Tanjiro that make no sense but do not become clearer before long. These details about him become clear as foreshadowing as we learn things about him. Well, doesn't change the fact the ending is a disaster, but hopefully, my points got across well. Now JJK is not entirely hopeless as it did try to explore and show us Yuuji's character as more than this overpowered boring beast. When he got acquainted with a guy, became friends shortly after only to die it definitely hurt Yuuji. He got swallowed by rage, it was conveyed on the dot through the visuals. It was the only point I remember Yuuji showing some level of personality besides spamming that stoic face all the time. Not that it matters in the grand scheme, nothing that transpired there was ever put to use again, nor did Yuuji feel any less than a wall from that point on. Besides, the glaring flaw of Yuuji, there is no flow in the writing or the direction of JJK for the most part. We've been jumping places one after another and quite abruptly. Our main idiot trio got introduced in a rush and was barely fleshed out during their first exorcism job together. It was also against a special grade and here they tried to explore Yuuji again and show him he can be afraid when faced with a monstrous beast beyond anything he imagined. I enjoyed the moment of seeing Yuuji terrified for his life, but it quickly got shafted to the side as Yuuji used Sukuna to get out of the hell hole after making a contract with him. After that, it was never touched upon again. Yuuji had supposedly deceased but was gaining training under a poor man's Kakashi. Nothing like the aloof, hilarious, charming fella we know and love from Naruto. Entering Kyoto arc where a bunch of characters was introduced and was given the same formulaic backstory as we saw them fighting against special grade curses. Here the author clearly tried to flesh out our cast through a segment of backstory, playing out their sad moments to make us feel sympathetic for them and give us wishy-washy reason to care about them. I never did. But I did think the stark contrast that was shown between Maki and Mai and how they were the complete opposite of each other, basically portrayed as yin and yang respectively was interesting. Plus, the matter surrounding how one cannot use curse power, but is plenty strong and crafty in hand-to-hand combats and with weapons. While the other is not quick on her feet nor good any sort of combat but can use curse power was a good idea by the author. I also adored Miwa, she might've been my favorite character. The fact Gege played her out like she was useless and her being self-aware about it was charming. Dare I say unique? I have not seen many characters like her, plus this thing about her being afraid of not being useful gives room for strong character direction for adorable and air-headed Miwa. There is one more character I liked in Jujutsu Kaisen and thought should've been the main character personally. It's Megumi. Just his name alone got lots of story intrigues plastered over it. He was far more interesting than Yuuji and had felt slightly layered. In what way, you ask? Megumi was obsessed with making his own decisions and being powerless gave him the right motivation and feasibility to become stronger. I am not the first to admit JJK's production is stunning and Mappa knocked it out of the park. There are many good moments. One of which for me was Gojo's attack, but more than that Megumi scene of destroying that curse as he manically laughs. It's very vibrant in showing his personality and the animation to the direction was immaculate. The same goes for the scene with Yuuji fighting against Hanami in tandem with Todou. The acrobatics and the fluid of their movements were absolutely insane even if the soundtrack was misplaced and kind of killed the experience. I won't deny the scene was eye-candy but Yuuji nor Todou ever showing any expressions other than that blasted stoic immovable face kind of killed it for me and didn't make me care for it as much. Another good use of directing was Nobara moment when she shafted that one-note awful villain clown. It showed her proud and arrogant personality clearly and the facial expression on her face was satisfying. As noted previously, the way the soundtrack, insert song was used in JJK just felt off and weird. It honestly made me cringe on multiple occasions. It's too bad the inconsistencies about JJK still manages to overshadow the few goods I have seen. What issues are you talking about? I mentioned Yuuji already, the flow of the story being erratic and the direction being random, feeling unplanned and at times even forced. I can't count the number of times JJK failed at comedy. To be fair, it's subjective but please tell me I am not the only one in the world who found the "funny bits" obnoxious and honestly cringe? None of the scenes with Takeda and Todou made any sense to have, I even heard that in the manga most of it was only 3 pages but the anime made it feel like an eternity by extending it without purpose. Tell me what did add? Besides telling us the comedy of JJK's absolutely is asinine and a mess. That's not even counting the time when Yuuji and Gojo tried to make a surprise out of the Wall being alive but it didn't hit the right notes. It was brushed off to the side the moment Yuuji opened his cringe-ass mouth. I am still highly disappointed in what could've been a passionate and sentimental moment being done nasty like that. The thing is Nobara was seen crying when she heard Yuuji died and both she and Megumi was clearly depressed. But when the cringing lad was shown to be alive it was like nothing happened. Pun intended. All of the emotions the character shared become null and void. Hell, it was done so it never existed in the first place. It's time to touch upon about Jujutsu Kaisen power system, which seems easy and straightforward at first glance before getting overly complicated and illogical. To put it simply, cursed energy is a phenomenon nurtured from anger and sorrow. This allows the user to create and manifest unnatural things and apparently nurtures a broken ability that makes not even slightly sense. Take Black Flash as an example which was introduced into the story as this flashy and impressive attack that most users are unable to pull off. All the while contradicting itself by having Nanami explain most users can only pull off two attacks in a single day, while he shows off and says on a good day I could do four. Later, Yuuji the Wall uses this attack multiple times against a curse without any backlash. Not to mention, this attack that was hyped up was no doubt one of the most anticlimactic things I had seen in JJK. It was like there was no weight behind those punches. Not even after few arcs, JJK even forgot the fact it's an exorcism story. I never got those vibes. To me, it felt more like a shounen anime about slaying demons masqueraded as an "exorcism" story just without any sense of direction, value, or reason in the thing it with does. If you want exorcism there is Twinstar exorcist and Ao no Exorcist which most definitely sticks to its themes presented in the first episode. Another notable negative and problematic thing I have noticed about JJK is the vast amount of dialogues. It's clear the author cares more about "telling than showing". During a time the scene of the characters running toward each other to throw an attack got significantly reduced to throw a bunch of nonsensical exposition that will get forgotten in the next moment. It's part of the reason I felt it was exhaustive at times to watch Jujutsu Kaisen and this has nothing to with me not tackling heavy works. Look at my favorites. I love my complex and dialogue-heavy stories, but when it's useless it just becomes a massive pain. Not to mention, while I was flipping through the pages of Jujutsu Kaisen out of curiosity to see if anything catches my eyes. I get hit by an extensive amount of dialogue boxes with nothing but text. This was on the level of Hunter x Hunter. To be fair, it's clear JJK takes some elements from there, like the expansion ability which is a more simplified version of a variation of Nen. Sadly, it took inspiration in the wrong things as well like its dullness in exposition. No, I read those boxes and it was literally just explaining the thoughts in the character's head. It was wasteful. It's something that shows the author is struggling to write interesting consistent characters and stories. My final point is the potential with Sukuna being shafted after having few moments to shine in the story. Sure, it's early but he never really felt like part of the crew. Just a means to an end. If you have seen Naruto, you know how much personality Kurama had. It was one of the best execution of a demon residing in someone else, making their life living hell at every chance he got. While Sukuna just gets forgotten by the Kyoto arcs comes around. My favorite part was arguable during the times Yuuji and Sukuna monologued with each other. I enjoyed Sukuna's arrogant and prideful self and I was curious what the author was going to do with him. He is probably the biggest potential in JJK considering there are many routes the author can take with Sukuna. I don't know if I will be there to see it though as I have little to no motivation to pick up the sequel when it eventually rolls around from the corner. I don't think Jujutsu Kaisen deserves a silver of the hype it's receiving. It's filled with nothing but issues and again discrepancies, no flow in moments, besides few stunningly produced cuts. Thanks to Mappa. It got an obnoxious cast of characters who are acting in the same way with meager differences, some potential solid ones but it doesn't seem like JJK seems to care about them much. No logic behind its power system which feels to me more like convenient writing. The author literally explained in detail about Gojo's broken ass ability in the extra chapters, not even during the main manga story. To me, it says the author doesn't have things planned out or rather doesn't have an idea in which direction he is heading. I am happy for them to see their work being praised and getting recognized even if I think there are far better stories out there deserving of that. I cannot deny that. However, I don't get why the community calls this messy travesty a masterpiece, excellent, best shounen of all time, let alone of the decade. Nothing has touched the big three yet in terms of writing. Really everything. I hope one day that work will come but Jujutsu Kaisen is far from ever. This is another example of anime being shilled due to it having crazy production value even when it's not worth it as a whole. I don't recommend this to anyone who wants a solid cast and writing. If you want your flashiness and lifeless light hype, sure knock yourself out. But still not worth it at all. Jujutsu Kaisen? More like Pooputsu Shitaisen.

DEADLYmusings

__Jujutsu Kaisen - I NEED more__

__Starting off with the right foot...__

This anime is absolutely amazing and got me hooked from the first episode. I woke up thinking about this anime and went to bed thinking about it as well. And while there were a few minutes that didn't catch my attention to its fullest, the creators did an excellent job for the most part. There was always something happening and mystery revolved around it. To start, I'd like to say I'm very recent to watching anime, and I was a little unsure whether to watch this one or not. I found the anime through a tweet posted by Valkyrae, a streamer, which made me want to watch it. I don't want to spoil anything, so without going into much detail, I'd like to say it has some gory scenes, and it mentions the death of oneself and the execution of humans. Though this anime doesn't go into depth with it in this first season, it could still be triggering to someone, so be wary if you wish to watch it. __I highly recommend Jujutsu Kaisen.__ However, as referred to in the previous paragraphs, themes such as gore, suicide, and death are very mild represented, but you should still be wary.

# __Story 10/10__

The story follows Itadori Yugi, a young boy who has a solid attachment to someone dear to him, which is his inspiration/fundament to do right by and save people. But what happens when you can't even save yourself? We can see a realistic portrayal of his struggles between doing the good or wrong through his dialogues and thoughts, facing many hard decisions. One major decision could unleash an evil supernatural being, which can help or kill him.

# __Art 10/10__

My decision to rate this art a 10 goes through how dark the environment is when we see some real evil and the change of lightning when the characters are happy, or things are going well for them. The 10 also drives from the outro of half of this season, which, combined with the song, gives me summer, chill, dancing vibes.

# __Sound 8/10__

There aren't very memorable songs apart from the intro and outro. The outro's song __will__ be in your head even after days you've finished the anime.

# __Chracters 8/10__

The characters are very well written and fit inside the story quite nicely. Each of them has their own reason to act the way they do, which makes the story more interesting. Though, I hope we get to see more background story in future seasons.

# __Enjoyment 10/10__

There were very short minutes in this anime that were slow-paced, but those moments are not enough to not give this a 10.

# __Overall 10/10__

As soon as I finished the 1st season, I felt like rewatching it again because it was __that __good. I can understand why this is one of the top-rated anime this year, and you will understand too ;)

JULESWK

~~~ img220(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0d/91/38/0d9138f70435e75678f46547ca10247a.png)~~~ La historia de Jujutsu Kaisen nos pone tras los pasos del joven y despreocupado Yuuji Itadori, un estudiante que sin ser el más brillante, sí tiene bien definido el principio de lealtad y de amistad, siendo que pese a no tener muchos amigos o ser popular, valora a aquellos que tiene, como por ejemplo los chicos del club de ocultismo de la escuela. Lamentablemente todo cambiara para Yuuji en un abrir y cerrar de ojos: su abuelo morirá y sus amigos serán atrapados por algo que jamás pensó pudiera existir: Una maldición. Y es por ello por lo que Megumi Fushiguro llegará a su escuela con el fin de detener a tal monstruosidad... Y lo logrará con la ayuda y determinación de Yuuji, quien se termina comiendo una maldición llamada Sukuna con el fin de salvar la situación. Así que tras dicho suceso y con Sukuna dentro de él, Yuuji se unirá al Colegio Técnico de Hechicería de Tokio y junto al serio Fushiguro, la glamourosa Kugisaki Nobara y el genial profesor Gojo Satoru, se encargarán de preservar la paz de Tokio exorcizando a las maldiciones que encuentren a su paso... ~~~ __Exorcistas, maldiciones y... Un panda__~~~ Es así como durante la serie seremos testigos del día a día de Itadori y compañía, teniendo como base lo acontecido al grupo de Nobara, Fushiguro, Gojo y el mismo Itadori pero sin limitarnos a él, pues de a poco conoceremos al resto de estudiantes y profesores, desde el genial "oficinista" Nanami hasta la decidida Maki, el callado Inumaki y el asombroso Panda, con visita incluida de la escuela rival con sede en Kyoto... Todos y cada uno piezas importantes para el crecer de la historia, siendo que cada uno tendrá sus momentos cumbre, dotando a la serie de una frescura y vis cómica que sientan de maravilla y ayudan a que sin importar que, logres identificarte y/o apoyar a alguno de ellos. Y es que tenemos un buen equilibrio de personalidades e individuos, la mayoría con una línea clara y compartida sobre el volverse exorcistas, poniendo su talento y empeño en ello; pero al mismo tiempo persiguiendo sueños o motivantes cuando menos variados, siendo que Yuuji lo hace por la promesa a su abuelo, o Fushiguro busca salvar a otras personas bajo sus propias reglas, Nobara quiere reencontrarse con alguien importante (y visitar el glamour de Tokio) y Maki busca vengarse del desprecio de su familia, y así podría seguir con el resto porque cada uno tiene sus peculiaridades. Sin embargo, y como es de suponer, la serie tiene una estrella y contrario a lo que podríamos creer, no es Itadori ni tampoco alguno de los poderosos villanos. El personaje que acapara los mejores momentos es el fabuloso, cómico, ocurrente y poderoso sensei Gojo Satoru; ese que con un estilo que a muchos les recordará al buen Kakashi, se roba cada secuencia en donde aparezca, ya sea por sus tremendas habilidades o por sus ocurrencias al lado de Itadori... sin lugar a duda un personaje que ha creado legiones de seguidores y que lo ha hecho a basa de espectacularidad. ~~~ __Ladies and Gentleman... This is MAPPA__~~~ Y sí, hay que decirlo: si Jujutsu Kaisen ha impactado, logrando incluso superar a AoT en los ranking semanales, es gracias a la tremenda adaptación que ha realizado el estudio a cargo, el todo poderoso (y nuevo gran estudio) MAPPA. Sí, aquel que a mediados de año decepcionara con Listeners, que comenzará a ilusionar con Dorohedoro y que luego tuviera el archivo zip que fue The God of High School, llegaba a Jujutsu Kaisen con más dudas que interrogantes por parte de la comunidad y vaya que nos ha cerrado la boca. Porque ha logrado que cada secuencia, cada movimiento y cada personaje destaque más allá del material fuente, aprovechando todo el potencial de la animación y dándonos potentes batallas a diestra y siniestra. Y no solo ello pues la dirección ha permitido impulsar secuencias que pese a ser importantes en el manga, ahora son realmente impactantes, tal como la batalla entre Todou e Itadori vs Hanami o el plano de Gojo en el cielo. Incluso las escenas de mayor peso dramático se han visto beneficiadas gracias al ritmo utilizado, tal como se vio en el episodio 12 tras la muerte de cierto personaje ante los ojos de Itadori, donde no solo tenemos el detalle técnico sino también el tiempo y las voces adecuadas. Una gran adaptación que (comparación incomoda aparte) me parece más completa a nivel narrativo (no tanto) y redonda en cuanto a elementos mostrados que lo hecho por Ufotable hace unos años con Kimetsu no Yaiba, siendo que pese a la espectacularidad y mejor montaje de Kimetsu, al menos personalmente cada secuencia se me hizo más liviana, divertida y frenética en Jujutsu Kaisen (en parte también por la cercanía respecto al tiempo en que se situa cada una). Pese a todo, Jujutsu Kaisen sigue siendo un shounen bastante genérico y padece por tanto, de algunos fallos típicos del género: desde (a veces) poca profundidad en los personajes, una trama no tan elaborada y protagonistas con un estilo por demás conocido, lo cual hace que, de fallar el nivel técnico nos quede una serie bastante común (como sucedio durante algunos episodios de la 1er mitad) así que este no es el tipo de serie que buscas al hablar de una gran historia. Sin embargo, he aquí que Jujutsu Kaisen no necesariamente necesita de lo anterior y es por ello que su visionado en ningún momento resulta aburrido, simplón o repetitivo, todo lo contrario, es pura diversión. Pero no estamos aquí para leer los errores de la serie, no. Estamos aquí porque como ya mencione Jujutsu Kaisen es un trabajo BRUTAL en cuanto a su animación; cortesía de Tadashi Hiramatsu, estamos ante un diseño de personajes bastante pulido, que adapta muy bien el trabajo original y lo lleva al siguiente nivel gracias al trazo de los rasgos y expresiones faciales, haciendo de cada expresión un fiel reflejo de lo que sienten y piensan los personajes, siendo una constante para todos y cada uno de ellos, dotándolos además de un estilo y características propias ya sea en su vestimenta, técnicas o inclusive el modo de andar. Mención especial para el trabajo de los planos en movimiento porque sin importar que se trate de un bosque, un enfrentamiento dentro de la escuela o un partido de beisbol, la fluidez mostrada en cada fotograma es simplemente asombrosa; cada musculo, luz y sombra y leve movimiento del escenario está bien representado y aprovecha los planos y enfoques de una genial manera. Pero la serie no se queda ahí y donde realmente brilla al 100% es en las secuencias principales, ya sea de batalla, conversaciones importantes, e incluso las aperturas y cierres; todas son tremendamente animadas al detalle, mostrando una tremenda variedad de estilos y recursos que hacen de Jujutsu Kaisen un must para los amantes del Sakuga desde el primer segundo de su OP. Poco más que decir de una serie tremendamente efectiva a nivel técnico y que tiene en su animación la mejor baza posible. Respecto al sonido, Jujutsu Kaisen también brilla en este aspecto, principalmente en el apartado musical. Cortesía de Arisa Okehazama, Hiroaki Tsutsumi y Yoshimasa Terui, la serie presenta una buena variedad de temas instrumentales, todos con la potencia y vibra suficiente para acompañar cada secuencia que vemos, desde los tremendos momentos de acción hasta aquellos más dramáticos y cargados de perdida. Sin embargo, lo mejor viene al hablar de las piezas principales, teniendo como OP los temas "Kaikai Kitan" interpretado por mi favorito personal Eve y "VIVID VICE" de Who-ya Extended, siendo que el primero tiene el característico juego de voces de su autor mientras que el segundo muestra una tremenda energía. Por otra parte los ED son el espectacular y bailable tema "Lost in Paradise" interpretado por Ali y el intimista y frágil "Give it back" cortesía de Cö shu Nie, ambos temas espectaculares y claros ejemplos de la dualidad que presenta la serie. ___Jujutsu Kaisen es una obra que generó una tremenda expectación y que, visto lo visto, ha cumplido con creces cerrando de paso, la boca de muchos que auguraban su fracaso. Con un guion propio de los shonen pero con momentos divertidísimos, unos personajes que logran la simpatía a cada instante y un trabajo técnico que sorprende, se mantiene y apabulla tanto en animación como en sonido, Jujutsu Kaisen es una serie de la cual tendremos mucho más y que definitivamente merece ser vista y apreciada en todo su esplendor, siendo claro ejemplo de lo que debe ser una buena adaptación... Gracias por tanto, perdón por tan poco MAPPA...___ >___Si te gusto esta reseña te invito a visitar mi blog con mucho más contenido: https://13fotogramas.blogspot.com/___

LunaEndWitch

It's kind of weird in a flattering way to find a show that feels very specifically made for me, but that's kind of the only way I can sum up this show. It's nothing particularly special, hitting some heavily trodden but strong ground of shounen fundamentals, with blood traced from all across the medium. Its characters are round but mostly stagnant, leading up to particular characterization an arc will allot for before being put back to their primary roles. These characters will toy around with themes that have decent range, sometimes going outside the primary scope of the question of "what do you think of your role in this life" but not leading to much exploration at all beyond what the characters care about. Action follows a very stringent formula where a power structure is explained as a fight progresses and/or characters monologue their analysis of the fight. Hell, it even makes an in-universe explanation for narration of character mechanics. This has a worldbuilding edge in that it grounds that narration, but it's still lampshading JJK's comfort in wanting to tell as it shows. Despite all this that might paint a more bland picture, Jujutsu Kaisen is one of the most colorful paintings I've fallen in love with recently, if not one of the few animes that have gotten me back into watching some of the medium at all. The simple explanation, is that I'm a devout lover of a lot of the heart poured into it. The animation is pristine, never skipping a beat with its juxtaposition of cursed-magic lining vs. grounded general human lining, and leading to some absolutely excellent fight choreography and direction. The show in general just has a powerful hand to it, that draws you into the broad strokes of "WEEEEEE THIS IS SO MUCH FUNNNN" into its downtime strokes of "fuckkk that hurt". It appeals to the things I love, a hogwarts with a cavalcade of memorable personalities, all with powers that not only reflect the user but genuinely reflect their growth. A wonderful throughline of comedy that elevates the chemistry and dialogue, with Nice Pitch being a particular joke I'm never going to get over, but even the Juju Strolls at the end of every episode might as well be the best joke strips I've seen in shounen. The world is 'grounded', in that all the power systems really just service the characters, where the biggest steps a person takes to be stronger has to actively be a force that challenges the way they think about life and their worldview. It's a classic writing style that still makes me squeal. Jujutsu Kaisen just combines into this throbbing culmination of lovely personality, with attention to tone and detail. If there's one thing that I'm disappointed about right now, it's that the path is extraordinarily unclear with what it's really building up to. The point of the show still really escapes me, and I struggle with whether or not the messages it has given so far will really resonate long after the anime reaches its conclusion after multiple seasons. Even still, this first season is such an exciting path I can't wait to jog down again. Also Satoru Gojo is really hot I want to FUCK him

chezaye

_Spoilers ahead!_ I was eager to watch this anime: who wouldn't? Top-tier animation, attractive characters’ design, occult arts, wonderful openings. I actually had some problems digesting some things at first, and I dropped it. However, a friend told me to give it a second chance, because the overall plot was deserving of my time. I still didn't like the fast-paced introduction of our hero but, eventually, I felt trapped in the vivid fighting scenes and the engaging plot. I’ll thus focus on the main points I didn’t like and, lastly, on things that made me appreciate this show. __Things JJK got wrong, or reasons that made me drop the show at first:__ • First of all, I hated the fact that almost everything relevant about the main character happens in the first episode: an overpowered human being perfectly knows how to fight a gigantic demon/curse? No context at all? I felt annoyed by the sheer straightforwardness of this show. Why is Yuuji so strong, how can he fight monsters even if he doesn’t regularly fight or simply practice karate, boxing, or taekwondo? How could he possibly CONTROL a millennial demon with no efforts? I got that it will be revealed later in the show since we couldn’t hear it from his grandfather. Still, it felt wrong and too rushed; • Even if the protagonist had been introduced without formality, we still don’t know anything about Geto. This adds suspense and certainly keeps the audience waiting for the second season, or encourages them to read the manga. Hanami is an interesting character, its actions are underpinned by strong reasons. However, Mahito had plenty of screen time and I still feel like he’s flavorless. I think that his character design lacks depth. I still can't decide if it's deliberate or a writing flaw; • With a bunch of strong, interesting, and non-conventional female characters… WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU DRAMATICALLY REDUCE THEIR SCREENTIME TO THE BARE MINIMUM? Give! Us! More! __Things JJK got right, let alone the _wonderful animation_ and the _characters' design_:__ • Even if Yuuji, Nobara, and Megumi’s personalities resemble the brightness of Naruto, Sakura’s temper, and the mysterious aura revolving around Sasuke, there is no ambiguous hint at a romantic relationship/triangle between the main trio: they are simply friends. Yuuji brings in the necessary and healthy amount of idealism and kindness, he's funny and we still have a lot to learn about his past. Megumi portrays a calm and rational facade, anguished with a turbulent past that is for us to discover. Nobara is strong and selfish when necessary, but altruistic in demanding circumstances. The overall chemistry between the three of them is significant; • I’ll now move on from Nobara’s isolated example to the whole spectrum of female characters in JJK. They are STRONG, they have REAL PERSONALITIES, not stereotyped ones, with REAL STRUGGLES TO LIVE WITH, REAL AMBITIONS driven by motivated reasons. It sounds so silly to say, given that we are so used to appreciating these features in male characters. The amount of fanservice is pretty inexistent, as well; • Supporting characters are so relevant that I rarely found people dramatically in love with the main trio: it’s easy to be charmed by Nanami, Gojo, Junpei (poor him), Mai, or Maki. It means that well-written characters are an advantage to capture the viewers and that they have a strong potential to evolve in the future; • There are no excruciatingly prolonged or boring fillers/subplots: except for the sports tournament between the two schools, which somehow urged the author to introduce some other students, I felt like the anime was fast-paced in the progression of relevant events, which can be really rare in the shonen market. The comedy and funny scenes also alternate the perfect pinch of horror to well-deserved lightness; • I’m absolutely obsessed with the openings and the endings. They contribute greatly to the auditory and visual experience, definitely a great choice to attract viewers and keep fans engaged.

TheMaxDT

__Aviso: Não leve essa review muito a sério, essa é apenas a opinião de um desocupado que tem absolutamente 0 de experiência quando se trata de escrever reviews e de analisar animes/mangás, tudo aqui é apenas baseado na minha opinião e nos meus gostos, se oq tu ta procurando é uma crítica geral e bem feita sobre Jujutsu Kaisen, seu lugar não é aqui.__ Eu me lembro que durante a época que Jujutsu Kaisen ainda estava tendo seus episódios lançados semanalmente, eu sempre via muita gente falando muito bem do anime e sobre como cada episódio novo o anime conseguia se superar, seja no quesito de história ou animação, mas eu geralmente não sou de assistir animes assim que eles lançam pq hype é algo que funciona quase que como uma histeria coletiva, você vê outras pessoas falando do anime como se ele fosse perfeito e isso te leva muitas vezes a enxergar o anime como sendo algo melhor do que ele realmente é, e com isso em mente... Jujutsu Kaisen É MUITO F#DA. P#ta m#rda eu realmente não esperava que esse anime fosse ser tão bom assim, eu comecei a assistir com as minhas expectativas meio baixas, achando que não fosse ser nada demais e que as pessoas estavam exagerando quando diziam o quão bom esse anime é, mas nos primeiros episódios eu percebi como eu estava errado. __História:__ A história de Jujutsu Kaisen é boa, não achei nada muito complexo mas hey, isso pra mim é algo bom, já que eu prefiro bem mais um anime com uma história simples mas bem escrita do que algo tipo o final de Evangelion, felizmente Jujutsu Kaisen não é assim, acho que eu posso definir a história de Jujutsu Kaisen como um sanduíche caseiro, daqueles que tu faz usando ingredientes simples que tu encontrou espalhados pela cozinha mas que quando tu come tu vê que os ingredientes estavam frescos e que a combinação que tu usou pra montar o sanduíche foi definitivamente a escolha certa. A atmosfera de Jujutsu Kaisen é meio mista, tem bastante cenas de alívio cômico mas também temos muitas cenas tristes e com uma pegada mais dark, mas o anime não passa a sensação de ser indeciso no que ele quer ser, ele escolhe um tema pra trabalhar em volta daquilo mas com alguns desvios aqui e ali pra quebrar um pouco o clima. __Personagens:__ Os personagens de Jujutsu Kaisen, principalmente o time principal são bacanas, o protagonista é muito carismático, ele tem aquele pique de protagonista de shounen mas não chega a ser chato, pelo contrário, tu se sente motivado vendo algumas cenas com ele superando suas fraquezas. Felizmente o anime não joga seu foco completamente no protagonista, nós temos um foco bem equilibrado entre ele e outros personagens, mas aqui vem um problema em particular que eu tive com o anime, eu senti que o anime não da tempo o suficiente pro espectador se apegar a alguns personagens secundários, eles apenas são introduzidos, tem sua história e motivações explicadas e depois somem até o final do anime, e eu realmente espero que isso mude na segunda temporada, pq maioria dos personagens secundários são interessantes e definitivamente mereciam mais tempo na tela. Os vilões que foram introduzidos até agora no anime não são nada fora do padrão, e eu diria que na verdade estão até um pouco abaixo da média, funcionando apenas como barreiras pros personagens superarem, é explicado mais pro meio do anime o verdadeiro objetivo deles, mas eu achei bem superficial. __Animação:__ A animação de Jujutsu Kaisen é definitivamente um dos pontos fortes do anime, fazia tempo que eu não via um anime de luta com uma animação tão bem feita, não chega a ser algo que eu consideraria um colírio pros olhos mas chega perto em algumas partes. Também me agradou muito como a animação em cenas de comédia muda pra algo mais simples e bobo, me lembrou bastante Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. __Pensamentos Adicionais:__ Ainda é cedo pra tirar quaisquer conclusões sobre a história de Jujutsu Kaisen, por ser apenas a primeira temporada do anime e tudo mais, depois de ter uma experiência ruim com o final de um certo mangá sobre gigantes que devoram pessoas, eu prefiro manter minhas expectativas baixas... Mas eu realmente espero que eu esteja errado por pensar assim e que o anime cale a minha boca com as próximas temporadas sendo tão boas senão melhores do que a primeira. __Openings e Endings:__ ~~Finalmente minha parte favorita da review~~ A primeira abertura é muito boa, é aquele tipo de abertura que tu escuta a primeira vez e não gosta tanto mas que conforme tu vai vendo ela mais vezes tu vai gostando cada vez mais, e não é só a música mas a abertura em si, os visuais e os detalhes que tu começa a perceber depois que tu vê o anime, é tudo muito bom. O primeiro encerramento é simplesmente sensacional, a música me agradou muito já na primeira vez que eu ouvi ela mas que conforme eu escutei ela comecei a de alguma forma gostar ainda mais dela, sem falar da animação que combina perfeitamente com o estilo da música. A segunda abertura não me agradou muito no começo, eu me apeguei bastante a primeira abertura e quando ela mudou eu fiquei até um pouco triste, e por mais que eu tenha que admitir que a música da segunda abertura é muito boa senão um pouco melhor do que a primeira, os visuais dela não me agradaram muito não (tirando o começo e o final que eu curti bastante). Não tenho oq falar do segundo encerramento do anime, não gostei da música, os visuais são ok, mas depois de ver ela umas 3 vezes eu passei a pular ela completamente. __Conclusões:__ Eu gostei muito de Jujutsu Kaisen, e definitivamente recomendo assistir se tu gosta de um bom anime de luta com uma animação muito boa e personagens carismáticos e com aquele toque de comédia que vai te render bons momentos enquanto tu assiste. __NOTA FINAL:__ 5/5 (Sim eu mudei meu formato de dar notas, ainda estou descobrindo mais sobre minhas preferências pra analisar animes, então... Me julguem)

Khaotish

The concept is extremely clever, accompanied with great characters that don't shy away from being completely overpowered in all the right ways. The animation is unbelievably fluid, using 3D animation in ways that are subtle and barely noticeable. I really do wish that they would drive home the ideas of "The right way to die" more, but it seems more like it would focus on that idea around the inevitable end of this series. __I am going to use this space to talk about the highlights this show brings.__ First off, the characters are pretty well written. The dialogue is intriguing at times and the ideas that come through the table because of the way these characters are written are honestly brilliant, as they are often unique ideas, or ideas that conflict with the overall final idea of "The right way to die". The designs of the curses and the characters overall are solid too, they serve their purpose to establish a character simply by looking at them, or divert the audiences expectations entirely as the characters act entirely different as to what you'd expect. Another aspect of the characters I would like to speak on specifically is how incredibly overpowered some of these characters are. Gojo, to be more exact. He is overpowered in every way that counts. Gojo's character felt off in the beginning, as he constantly felt too casual when it came to curses and something as abhorrent as them, but when we finally get to see Gojo fight, his character writing and the way he acts fits right into place with how overpowered he is. Gojo is one of the best characters in this show, and I'm so happy with how he was handled. The animation is BRILLIANT with some of the most fluid action scenes in an anime I've seen in a long time. Every punch feels like there is weight behind it, and even the strange and taboo fighting that goes on is believable due to how brilliant the animators have made this series. Honestly, this series would not be as good as it is without the talent behind the animation. The last point I would like to bring up is emotional beats. This show manages to understand and respect it's emotional beats, and doesn't try to make things lighthearted when shit goes south, like other Shonen anime. I honestly respect how Jujutsu Kaisen respects emotional beats. __I am now going to use this space to talk about the lowlights this show brings.__ Exposition. This is inevitable with Shonen anime's, I know, but it still makes a large portion of the episodes feel underwhelming and honestly boring, with a lot of the exposition dumps being explained later in a much more interesting and visual way. It's essentially there to fill time, which bugs me quite a bit. Another thing that bothered me was pacing. At some times the pacing was spot on, but would often be brought to a screeching halt whenever there was an exposition dump, and that brought me right out of the experience. This series holds an unbelievable amount of potential, and I cannot wait to see where it goes from here.

ShadowStar219

Gonna put a spoiler warning, if you're reading a review, you should expect spoilers, but just in case someone is trying to decide whether or not to watch the show, this probably isn't the review you wanna read. If you are debating on watching the show, you can read my general overview and story section (If you don't mind being a bit spoiled on My Hero Academia too) as they don't provide many spoilers and are more broad, just don't go any further. So it's been about two months since I watched JJK. Reason being is I wanted to let it settle and really think about the show as it is mainstream meaning there are more people looking to watch it as well as casual viewers who see pretty animation and think that equals a good show. I do want to clarify, I'm not one of those people who bash on people who love amazing animation, I do too. It's the only reason I rate Demon Slayer season 2 so highly. But if a show is trying to be something more than just flashy fights (unlike Demon Slayer 2), then I just see good animation as a bonus to a show, I mainly care about the story and characters. I want to break down these aspects without ranting too much. **General Overview**: Okay, so starting off. Jujutsu Kaisen is the most basic and average shounen I have ever watched. It does nothing great nor horribly wrong either. Except animation, this show's animation is amazing. The story is as basic as can be, the characters are lacking for the most part, the OST besides the OP and ED is unmemorable, etc... I think this show is perfect for casual viewers or people looking to get into anime. It can still be enjoyed by long term anime fans of course, but I think it will have a much harder time distinguishing itself from other shounens for that crowd. And I will get into what two other animes/mangas JJK reminds me of the most. JJK wears it's influences on it's sleeve and doesn't go out of it's way to create something new or exciting. It's just using every shounen cliche in the book which is acceptable but makes for a very predictable experience. **Story**: Jujutsu Kaisen is My Hero Academia Seasons 1 and 2 mixed with Chainsaw Man's main premise. As per shounen fashion, a young adult, Itadori Yuuji, is thrust into a new world where he must fight curses after gaining a new power. He is taken under the wing of the strongest Jujutsu Sorcerer there is, Gojo. He undergoes a little training arc while the villains plot their scheme and then returns for a tournament arc where it is attacked by villains. See what I mean by it's My Hero? Deku gains power, trains with All Might, while training, is attacked, then season 2 is the tournament arc. It's essentially the same thing. And how is JJK similar to Chainsaw Man? In JJK, they must gather Sukuna's fingers, in Chainsaw Man, they must gather the fragments of the Gun Devil to eventually hunt it down and kill it. Same premise. There is really nothing interesting or new here, it's just passable. 5/10. With season 2 inevitably on the way, I hope they try something new next season. Characters: They're robots. The main trio just don't work well together, Fugishuro is given SO much screen time to develop but barely does and when he gains a new power... it's an elephant... next. Okay, fine. He got the most development but still by the end of it, he still feels stale to me. He isn't interesting. Nobara exists to be sucked into portals during fights and then saved. Except during the tournament and final fight where she's quite cool. Character wise, I feel like she bounces all over the place. Is she super serious? Is she goofy and laid back? She doesn't have a clear character and just kind of flip flops to match the situation. Itadori is a basic protagonist trying SO hard to become his own character. There are times where he's unique and feels fresh but then goes back to being the most basic character you can imagine for a shounen. For other characters, Gojo sucks. Unpopular opinion. Goofy overpowered character who takes on a mentor role. Where have we seen this before? Like 80% of shounens or even other genres, it's a common character trope. The problem with these types of characters is that they suck all tension out of fights as they are just clearly the strongest and no villain stands a chance so it's hard to get invested. Nanami is cool, just not given enough time to become anything more, he serves his purpose then disappears. Maki is good but again, doesn't do a whole lot. She's played up as a badass which is fine, but as a character, her rivalry with her sister feels so cliched and she suffers for it. My favorite three characters in this show were Miwa, Todo, and Sukuna. Sukuna is not a good character, he's just a complete jerk and I found him funny due to that. Todo is Gojo, aka OP, but not so much that his presence removes all tension from the scene. He also has his own motives and doesn't just do what he's told such as in the tournament arc where the grandpa tells them to kill Itadori. Miwa is the same way, but weak instead of OP. Instead of just going along with the plan to kill Itadori, she's too weak to fight against the idea, but at least we hear her inner dialogue and see that she's reluctant to do so. The rest of the characters fail to stand out in any meaningful way. Even the villains. Mahito just kinda exists and serves his purpose... I guess. Mahito's a pretty bad villain if you ask me. And then there's Junpei. Who genuinely believed he was gonna survive? I see people everywhere saying they were shocked by his death. I've seen that trope of innocent character gets with villain, villains eventually backstabs character and says they were "curious" or using them for an experiment to try and create a sad scene that forces the MC to develop too many times. Junpei by the end felt like such a worthless character. Characters as a whole: 3 or 4/10. Animation: Nothing really to say, it's amazing. Mappa knocks it out the park here. 10/10 OST: The OPs are great and the EDs are just... okay. That's personal preference of course, I just don't like that genre of music. The other songs in the show, I remember none of. Except the final fight song that had lyrics, that song was great and really elevated an already pretty cool fight even more. But the show's OST as a whole: 5/10. The two OPs, the first ED, and the final fight song are the only songs worth mentioning. Misc: Just a random category where I want to say that the power system in JJK is great. It's very grounded and believable compared to other shounens. Conclusion: JJK is just okay. I'll give it extra points for the animation. The story was just far too basic and the characters just lacked any personality or compatibility. Nothing in this show stood out. I switch my scores on this show pretty often, but it's usually at highest a 6.5 and lowest a 5/10.

Lownar

This one took an attitude adjustment from me, but once I stopped being a jealous hater and gave the show an honest chance, I got to really enjoy a next gen shonen that delivered most everything I love from this genre. First let me say I am very impressed with the entire cast. Imma quickly point at the elephant in the room ofc Gojo is like Kakashi and Sukuna is an inner demon for our protag. It’s ok. It is not a big deal. And once you spend a season with them you will notice for yourself many differences between these characters and their predecessors. To me, Sukuna will never be like a Kurama or a Leibe or a Zangetsu; he is not Yuji’ buddy and they have opposing goals. I thought of Sukuna much more like a Raizen who never took his vow. And Sukuna is hella funny, when we get to see him it’s actually a really good time, even if it is a little scary. But the way all the characters play off each other gives the show a real charm all of its own. It's impossible for me to pick a fav or least fav character. But i'll go ahead and do it anyways, it's Todo and Yuji’ relationship, that's my fav character =) I don't want to go through everyone but Maki and Mai are notable excellent female characters I have to mention. Nobara is very funny, and I usually like the cool best friend character so Megumi was automatically really high for me. Todo and Panda are also hilarious yet because they are dense characters with a great backstory I do not want to call them comedic relief because they are fully developed characters and it feels disrespectful to label them.. The power system is very detailed and complicated but is not dumped on you all at once so you get to kinda pick it up as you go (along with Yuji). And honestly this more than anything makes me want to read the manga to get see where things go from here and to get more details. We kinda start with where cursed energy comes from, then how to channel it into jujustu techniques, Shikigami, Domain Expansion, Black Flash, reverse cursed energy being like a positive energy force, cursed items having grades, curse reversal techniques, cursed spirits, Cursed Spirit Manipulation, curse corpses, Heavenly Restrictions.. Imma stop here hopefully you get the point. I'm thirsty to learn more about this stuff, and I never felt like I was drowning in it. The show has very fast pacing with basically an action scene every epi, all season. Music is something I usually don't notice but I was def groovin watchin jjk. And the general character designs of both guud and bad guys are a lot better than some of its contemporaries (like mha imo, just bein real). And let me say this, the show also has a lot of adult themes, especially themes surrounding death. It is mostly subtle and easy to miss but it's all over the show. And having these more adult themes inside a shonen setting was something I really vibed with. Sometimes the seinen settings can be overwhelming or distracting from the story whereas some shonen themes are just too kiddy, but for me this was a great mix of an adult show with engaging themes without presenting anything that might make me recoil. But the last thing for me that really made jjk shine bright, and above all my other praise what I really enjoyed the most, was just how laugh out loud funny this show is. Especially at moments you do not expect. Sometimes it's the things the characters say, sometimes it's just them goofin off in the background, sometimes its the situations they get into, sometimes its just the jujustrolls. But if you say you watched this whole show and never laughed once, I would say you're a giant liar. Honestly I am excited to rewatch some day, just turn it on and let it play in the background, rewatching random scenes as they come on. Or even reactions of this show and see what other people thought about it. I know it got a great reception when it first came out but I also know of a vocal minority in my shonen community that really does not like it. I wanna go out now and see both perspectives.