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MANGA ActionJujutsu Kaisen
MOVIE ActionJujutsu Kaisen 0
ANIME ActionJujutsu Kaisen 2nd Season
ONA SupernaturalJujutsu Kaisen PV

REVIEWS

• 

  KaiZerr

  90/100
  A Darker Take On The Standard Battle Shonen Formula - With Deep Storylines And Characters

  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.

  

  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.

  

  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.

  

  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.

  

  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.

  

  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).

  

  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.

  

  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…

  

  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).

  

  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
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• 

  SunlitSonata

  85/100
  Jujutsu Kaisen is Shonen Natural Selection at its Finest

  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.

  

  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.

  

  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.

  

  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.

  

  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.

  

  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.

  

  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.

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• 

  Magenta

  43/100
  What could've been a great show gets heavily bogged down by a messy plot and a lack of direction.

  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.

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