Jujutsu Kaisen

Berm

3 years ago

Welcome to Jujutsu Kaisen, an anime filled with great animation, horrendous characters, and an average shounen plot.\r\n\r\nOver the time the show aired, it gained massive attention and critical acclaim, rivaling even Demon Slayer in terms of commercial success. However, just like Demon Slayer, I see no reason to enjoy the show other than for its animation. In fact, many criticisms I have with the show are similar in line to criticisms that I had with Demon Slayer. Let’s start out with the thing that people have been talking about the most with the show.\r\n\r\n(Spoiler warning of course)\r\n\r\n“The animation in this series is incredible,” is what\n ...\n I would like to say. However, the animation isn’t always as amazing as most people make it out to be. It still is amazing at certain parts, especially when it needs to be, but a lot of the time the animation is just above average. For many scenes which involve a lot of talking, the animation becomes very run-of-the-mill. These scenes have very little animation, usually only the characters moving very slightly. Of course, it’s unrealistic to expect all of the scenes to look that good, however, these scenes take up a majority of the show. People focus too much on small chunks of the show and completely ignore the bad elements. \r\n\r\nI must say though, when the animation hits, it REALLY hits. In almost every episode, there’s at least 1 scene of sakuga. The action scenes, regardless of the characters participating in them, the plot importance, or any other reason, look amazing. The number of different cursed techniques characters use in the show allows for the action to elevate to even greater levels. There’s tons of variety in the fight scenes. My personal favorite is the action scene in the final episode. The way the animation matches up with the music makes the scene that much more engaging. Seriously, that scene was like a flash of brilliance in an otherwise mediocre show.\r\n\r\nTo touch on the openings (even though it doesn’t affect my score at all), the animation is some of the best I’ve seen. Even better than the show\'s high points, the animation is on another level.\r\n\r\nNow time for the thing keeping the series from being good, the characters. Almost all of the characters in the show, including the main trio, are insufferable.\r\n\r\nYuji Itadori is just like a standard shounen protagonist in many ways. TvTropes defines the average shounen protagonist as “big hearted, energetic kid heroes, with a natural gift that blows others out of the water.” This definition fits Itadori down to a tee. Now the problem with his character is not the fact that he fits within this trope, it’s the fact that he leans heavily into the negative aspects of the trope.\r\n\r\nHe seemed like a promising character at the beginning of the series. Although simple, his motivation with his grandfather and his whole “proper death” thing seemed like an interesting idea. The problem is, they did nothing to his character after the first 5 episodes. He becomes a completely stagnant character. He doesn’t have any meaningful interactions with other characters, we don’t get to explore his psych at all, and most importantly he doesn’t change. This is sort of a problem with most characters in the series, but we’ll get to that later. Basically after the first fourth of the anime he’s dedicated to 3 things: showing off how cool his powers are, making just plain awful or tone breaking jokes, or furthering the plot.\r\n\r\nMegumi and Nobara I have less to say about, since they’re also basically trope characters. Megumi is ‘Serious Guy’ and Nobara is “Mean Girl.’ They have some flashbacks in the earlier episodes that give their characters some background information, but, just like with Itadori, they serve no narrative purpose after the first 6 episodes.\r\n\r\nGojo is also listed as a main character on this site, although I don’t see him as one. He’s easily the most interesting of the four, however that still does not make him a good character. His cheerful and laid back attitude despite the circumstances he’s in is interesting, but sometimes can be tone breaking.\r\n\r\nAs for the side characters, they’re a little better. None of the other Jujutsu Tech students are anything special. They consist of another “Mean Girl” trope, a talking Panda, and a person who can only speak through onigiri flavors. They also get some small characterization but nothing ever comes from this. None of them serve any importance to the plot.\r\n\r\nOne major problem I have with the characters is their quirkiness. Most characters seem to be very exaggerated with their personalities, making them seem unrealistic. Lots of characters are completely one dimensionally, and their entire character hinges on a single quirk that they have. The worst example of this has to be Toudou. His entire character is centered around the fact that he likes women who are tall and have a big ass. He is quite possibly one of my least favorite characters in anime ever. All he does is ask people what type of women they like and fights them if they don’t agree with him. In a comedy anime, his character could have been at least bearable. But in Jujutsu Kaisen, a show with lots of blood and death constantly happening, his character seems to be so out of place in the show. Every time he appears on screen I get whiplash from how at odds he is with the rest of the show.\r\n\r\nAs for characters such as Nanami, Mahito, and Junpei, I actually like them! They’re the best characters in the show, and make the Vs Mahito Arc the best arc in the series by far. All of their motivations are great, they get lots of characterization for how little time they are on screen, and each one of them has an impact on the plot for the arc they’re in. \r\n\r\nThe most asinine thing though is that they completely get shafted from the narrative after that arc. Junpei ends up dying, and there is not a single mention of him after the fact. When Itadori’s talking about what a proper death means right after Junpei dies he’s not even mentioned. Nanami completely disappears, never to be mentioned again, even after the slight connection he and Itadori made. Mahito is the only one to actually be mentioned or show up later in the series, but even then he says like two lines, and could have been swapped in for another character for when he appears.\r\n\r\nBasically, the character writing in this series is awful. Like...REALLY awful.\r\n\r\nOne gripe I have with the show that is completely subjective is the comedy. Of course, humor is subjective, so I can’t really go into why I don’t like the comedy of the series. To me, the humor in the show is very standard shounen humor. Anime slapstick never works with me.\r\n\r\nThe soundtrack is a mixed bag. The action music is good at most points, however the OST during the slice of life sections is horrendous. \r\n\r\nJujutsu Kaisen falls into many holes that standard shounen shows fall into. Overall this show is massively overrated. Points of it are enjoyable enough, however those sections make up very little of the show. I hate giving out number scores but if I had to give this show a score it would be a 4/10. The animation is the only thing holding this show up. \r\n\r\nStory - 4\r\nArt - 8\r\nSound - 6\r\nCharacter - 2\r\nEnjoyment - 3\r\nOverall - 4

Noctilus

4 years ago

“Let’s make a dumb joke, show a stupid face or shout a lot at every possible moment regardless of tone considerations” The Anime.\r\n\r\n“Let’s copy all of shounen cliche and add literally nothing to them” The Anime.\r\n\r\n“Let’s have zero interesting characters and a meaningless plot” The Anime.\r\n\r\nGUYS, WHAT IF WE HAD A HILARIOUS CHARACTER THAT ONLY SAYS NAMES OF FISH, AND A TALKING PANDA, THAT TOTALLY MAKES ME WANT TO TAKE THIS ANIME SERIOUSLY. Yeah, this anime really is a joke.\r\n\r\nBut, but muh animation....\r\n\r\nGood animation, yes but if that’s all that matters, then you might as well just watch 3D renders on YouTube. This is easily\n ...\n one of the worst anime I’ve ever seen in my life. To think all of this time and effort was wasted on this, precious resources that could have been utilized to give AoT’s fourth season just that little bit more polish. Sad!

Aspection

4 years ago

This show is as average as they come, personally, I was really disappointed with not only the show, but the hype it garnered for reasons I cannot fathom. If you want the most basic example of a shounen, this is it. \r\n\r\nTL;DR: This show is borderline bad. There is NOTHING in here that\'s better than other shows, and there are plenty of things that are truly dreadful. I only completed this show believing in the hype and hoping it would improve eventually-- it never did.\r\n\r\nSummary: \r\nCool guy Naru-- I mean Itadori with innate powers stronger than the universe itself beats everyone else by order of\n ...\n magnitude cause he\'s an orphan and gets bullied. Oh wait, wrong show (His grandfather did tell him to be useful though so good enough). With the help of the most legendary jujutsu master Kaka- I mean Gojou, they go around beating everything down to a pulp. Oh, there are also side characters that get increasingly stronger to try and match Itadori\'s unreasonable growth like his rival sasuk-- I mean Fushiguro and the and fan service 'I\'m a badass but also hot' waifu sakur-- I mean Kugisaki to fill in the trio squad. Obviously no one can actually harm any of them since it\'s a terribly written shounen, but at least they pretend to. \r\n\r\nArt & Sound (9/10):\r\nLet\'s get this out of the way: the only reason anyone cares for this show is because it looks good and jujustsu sounds like jujitsu and that\'s exciting. Art and sound are great as you would expect from a show that is literally nothing but art and sound quality. The fight scenes are great, but I would personally argue there is much better out there.\r\n\r\nEverything else (2/10): \r\nThere are curses or something that need to be exorcised, so we have sorcerers that may or may not have randomly assigned curse powers that can kill these curses that may or may not actually be humans with half-assed backstories half the time. \r\n\r\nDISCLAIMER: this all depends on what feels the coolest at the moment and can change whenever the show feels like it. \r\n\r\nThese curses interact with the real world, but conveying that through storytelling is too much of a hassle. Instead we just accept random moms dying and entire school student bodies being seriously injured out of nowhere as being the unquestioned norm. But that\'s alright, because a character will do something funny the next scene so we can haHAA and forget about it. \r\n\r\nThe curses dealing such immense damage to society are ranked from weak to mega strong, but in typical lazy shounen fashion, in our story they actually scale from mega strong to OMEGA STRONG AND BEYOND. In their very first mission, the trio could barely defeat a 'weak' curse. *spoilers till next paragraph* By the end of the season they defeat THREE curses of the 'strongest' category in one swoop. We know those curses to be nowhere near the strongest in reality, but the show built them up to be on par with the most elite of curses. Also everyone gets promoted to 2nd highest rank possible straight from the bottom to adjust for their power level spiking.\r\n\r\nThis is horrendous story telling. It\'s a Naruto clone with an even worse story. We have nine tails-- I mean Sukuna chilling the whole time doing whatever he wants, but only when convenient to the plot. At least Naruto had a reason for the big bad evil being sealed away beyond 'CaUSE ItAdoRI Is SpeCIAL'. \r\n\r\nWe have no reason to like any of the characters. At no point in the story did I give a crap about any of them, why should I? They all have two-dimensional personalities with one dimensional attitudes. The show even goes out of it\'s way to claim 'Sorcerers need to be one dimensional to be powerful' & 'A sorcerer\'s power curve isn\'t always gentle'. The show is self aware of how terrible it\'s own plot is and attempts to excuse it with more lazy reasons; I have no idea why anyone would argue otherwise.\r\n\r\nBad characters, bad setting, bad story (even by shounen standards!), bad dialogue, and honestly even bad slapstick jokes which make up half of each episode. By the end of the show I skipped everything that involved a side character knowing it will amount to 0 impact on anything beyond that one scene. Actually, you could skip any scene in the show that isn\'t sakuga and not miss out on anything. I really hope this show doesn\'t get a 2nd season and people come to their senses of just how mediocre this show truly is.

katsucats

4 years ago

[Note: The mods have edited this review and now the opening paragraph no longer makes sense.] Have the shounen fans forgotten Yuyu Hakusho or even DBZ? Perhaps the real reason for the rants and raves lie in the annoying and inopportune character biopic digressions, extended flashbacks that set up every fight reversal -- in the middle of them happening -- as if the results of every power-up are predetermined by some childhood angst. Honestly, these would have worked in some key moments, but the card is overplayed -- and unoriginal since Haikyuu uses this extensively.\r\n\r\nIn reality, Jujutsu Kaisen is just like any other shounen that\n ...\n seeks to ruin jujitsu like Naruto ruined ninjas. The plot structure is actually extremely similar to My Hero Academia, in that a bunch of children inadvertently find themselves in a school that trains their fighting capability, complete with families where magic runs in their lineage. The biggest difference is that the jujutsu world is far more incompetent, with powerful figures fighting petty familial squabbles as if the world isn\'t in danger. In addition, we get the same familiar arcs: the first run-in with the enemy, a inter-high competition that goes wrong, and ending with a fight with some enemy head honchos that give our heroes the recognition they deserve. If that sounds like a prior season of My Hero Academia, or something from the first season of Naruto, then it probably is. These are all shounen fight staples, cliches that have been around so long that they\'re even emulated in Chinese donghua Quanzhi Fashi, which also has a tournament arc that goes wrong.\r\n\r\nI will admit that I do enjoy the idea of domain expansions, a powerful technique that alters space and time within an area to the user\'s will. It seems to have a more cohesive explanation than Demon Slayer\'s blood demon art.\r\n\r\nThere are also things I don\'t enjoy. For example, the entire premise seems to be one huge plot hole that questions the integrity of the Jujutsu Organization. Itadori, the main protagonist, is able to synthesize with Sukuna, the King of Curses by eating decapitated parts of his rotten corpse (ew). But what follows is a debate within the organization about what should be done, with a camp saying Itadori should be killed, and others shrugging their shoulders, saying they should just wait to see what happens. I\'ll leave to your imagination on who is considered the 'good guys', and also why that might be supremely irresponsible. The group that wants to kill Itadori passive aggressively tries to again and again, with no one recognizing to foil these obvious plots. Then we have Sukuna himself, who saves Itadori because he 'wants to see something interesting', in a scene that might be one of the most desperate cliche asspulls of all time. \r\n\r\nBut overall the powers that be, both the Jujutsu Organization and the Curses seem supremely disorganized, petty, and full of bad ideas. If the world was in jeopardy, it seems these should be the last guys to be making decisions. Yet here we are, stuck with a bunch of armchair philosophers from Fate/Zero making perpetual moral posturing. I lost it when a character went on a long rant about 'proper deaths', killing people\'s hearts as opposed to their souls, saying nonsense such as 'the human heart is a delusion' or 'the heart is just the metabolism of a soul'. One character keeps obsessing over people\'s favorite 'type' (of women), until the anti-climactic reveal that he was once saved by a woman. Another character goes on an edgy rant about being handicapped, to another character that insensitively says he would rather be handicapped.\r\n\r\nThese characters are all quirky, but not in the natural way. It\'s almost like they were designed with these quirks in mind, as a sort of gimmick to create angst and arguments from nothing. None of the characters have any likeable qualities. It almost seems that if they weren\'t all forced together by circumstance, they would all be loners with no friends. They all say stupid things just to be unique as a part of character design. Kind of like Rika saying 'nipaa' or Kuriyama\'s 'fuyukai desu', except it\'s not cute when a grown ass man says it, and it\'s borderline disturbing when someone who\'s being trained to become a savior of the world displays tsundere tendencies, or someone who\'s so immature that she thinks confidence amounts to talking shit.

THEHANZO1

4 years ago

Many of you probably won\'t even listen to my words after having seen the score that I gave to this anime. Many of you probably think: 'What a f**king retard, the anime he\'s been talking about is a god damn masterpiece! How dare he?!' And many of you probably haven\'t even read further than these first three sentences. But in case you\'ll give me a chance to explain my score, let me give you a closer look into my thoughts, and let\'s see, why I didn\'t like JJK as much as other ppl did.\r\n\r\nStory – 6/10\r\n\r\nFirst things first: The story starts off right away with\n ...\n our main character, hanging around at school, giving us the first insights of him and his personality. Also, with the death of grandpa, his motives of doing good things in this world and becoming some kind of a “hero” (that’s technically the false expression, but you can see it as a place holder) are revealed.\r\n\r\nAnd here’s the first problem in my opinion, which isn’t the really the fast start of the anime itself, it’s actually that Yuuji’s personality, and more or less his only motivation to keep going on this whole journey, consists of his grandpa saying: “You’re strong, so help people”. To admit, this would’ve been completely fine if some of Yuuji’s past was revealed, and if the author decided to show how important his granddad was to him. Just Yuuji saying that he was the only person that was there for him isn’t enough, and in the end this simple motive, which honestly offered some potential to develop and to grow, just becomes a dull somewhat, which clearly can’t carry a whole personality.\r\n\r\nFocusing on the storyline again, Yuuji’s not the only character that gets introduced in the first couple of episodes. Basically the whole main cast with Gojou, Megumi, Nobara, Sukuna and the aforementioned Yuuji shows up in a truly short period of time. Being honest with you, that in particular went a little to fast for me. The mc showing up in the first episode is a really common thing, but so many characters at once destroy the opportunity to explain their motives, and who they are supposed the be in this whole construct. And those vague glimpses of their pasts that I’ve seen don’t give the viewer a sufficient understanding of those characters. But if you understood what the motive was, again, it’s just the classic 'I have to save people because person xy affected me back then' kind of thing. Using the same pattern over and over, and changing it a little bit isn’t really a creative way of constructing motives. But hey, we’ve gotta work with what we’ve got, don’t we?\r\n\r\nSo there they are, our team on an endless mission of fighting evil spirits to protect the world. Although this concept has been covered in many, many shonen anime (the most popular one would be Bleach), JJK did this quite alright. The ranking systems for the monsters, as well as for the jujutsu sorcerers make it easy to understand if a situation is dangerous or not, or if the character is likely to have a chance or not. Thanks to that, the viewer gets invested easily into the matter, which furthermore makes this show uncomplicated to watch. What I like indeed, is how the show progresses from those missions to a battle against a big enemy, which has a threatening plan to take over the world. Even though this might sound as cliched as possible, it’s in fact well-done. The characters themselves play a big part in this, but I would want to get into that later. \r\n\r\nWhat the author did right in that regard was building the bridge between of the first and the second arc. In the first 6-7 episodes, everyone was just kinda playing around, and that phase was used, as I said, to let the viewers “find their way” into the show. 2 or 3 twists were built in, which had a surprising effect. The unexpected situations which it resulted in personally entertained me and gave the show a refreshing aspect. After that, Junpei, an intriguing and relatable character was presented to the audience, and he marked the beginning of the new arc. Through the newly formed cooperation between Junpei and the antagonist Mahito, there maintained a constant tension, because one does not know whether Junpei will give in to his anger or resentment, or whether he will decide to follow Itadori and turn to the good side. This situation only resolves when it comes to the showdown between Mahito and Nanami & Itadori. This actually created new tensions, because, if you’re willing to see it like that, Junpei’s suffering and hatred devolved to Itadori, and Itadori himself now holds a grudge against Mahito and his allies. Thus the author succeeded in a clever way to give Itadori a reason to hate the enemy from the bottom of his heart, with which a new enmity was born. In that regard: Chapeau!\r\n\r\nBut what could come next? Oh yes, there was something that shouldn’t be missing in any shonen anime: A tournament arc! Although it wasn’t a complete tournament, I assume that you can count it as one, at least it was originally planned out to be a tournament. Funny moments, tragic flashbacks, good fights, and my personal highlight, the friendship between Toudou and Itadori makes it all an enjoyable watch. The infiltration of Mahito and Hanami was pretty obvious to see coming, and that they also get away with it wasn’t surprising at all. In pretty much every other shonen anime that also had a tournament arc, the process was always the same after all: 1. Group A competes with Group B, 2. Enemy attacks, 3. Group A and Group B fight together to beat the enemy, 4. Enemy escapes, but actually reached his goal. THE END. Well, not exactly like that, but it’s often the case. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing, it’s just kinda overused after hundreds of anime adapted tournament arcs in that way.\r\n\r\nSo, what have we got after all that? Intriguing characters? A refreshing story? I wouldn’t say that those aspects weren’t covered in the anime, it’s just like something inside me wants to tell me: “Hmmmm, haven’t we already seen this somewhere?” Maybe I’m just stupid, maybe I’m just not able to appreciate the “greatness” of this show, but in the end, I don’t see a reason to praise this as the next big thing. I’m one hundred percent sure that JJK gets big, I mean, it’s already massive now, but imo it doesn’t differ from the most shonen anime, of which some also have an equally interesting concept as this one. It’s done well quite in fact, that’s to say. Still, the idea it tries to develop already had a limited potential right from the beginning, and since it didn’t manage to pass that limit, the story’s sadly just slightly better than average.\r\n\r\nCharacters 7.5/10\r\n\r\nMaybe I was pretty rubbish about the story, I’m sorry ‘bout that. In contrast, what I have to admit is that Jujutsu Kaisens’ characters really are something very special. Or at least some of them.\r\n\r\nLet’s begin with our protagonist, Yuuji. You may be surprised, but along with Megumi, he’s probably one of the least intriguing characters, at least I see it that way. Yuuji is like vanilla ice; some kind of eatable, but nothing special in particular. His motive and goals are too simple in my opinion, especially the relation to his grandfather could’ve been extended to give his motive more importance (I mentioned that earlier). He’s kind of a funny guy, and isn’t cringe in any way, which makes it bearable to watch him. He also sometimes has his moments where he’s able to shine, and honestly, seeing that is quite entertaining. However, after all he’s like a typical shonen mc. You know, wanting to protect his friends, believes in the power of friendship, actually isn’t the smartest guy in the world, never gives up and believes in his goals and motives, etc. If you’re the author, ofc you can whatever you want with your characters, but I would’ve wanted to avoid any kinds of cliches, because nobody genuinely likes them. And if they suit the character well, they have to be executed in a really really unique way, which I haven’t seen often in anime. So yeah, he’s ok as a protagonist, develops like you would’ve expected it, and does the things you would’ve expected from him.\r\n\r\nJumping to Gojo now, what I like about him is the harmony that exists between him and Yuuji. They’re just a perfect match, because their personalities are very similar to each other. The bullshit I’ve heard that he’s just a bad copy of Kakashi from Naruto isn’t even close to reality. Gojo is a totally different character, and apart from his blindfold and his strength, he shares nothing with Kakashi. Kakashi is more the reserved kind of character, who calmly observes a situation and then makes some intelligent moves to defeat his opponent, whereas Gojo loves to fool his enemies. As seen in the fight with Jougo, he loves to play with them and teasing them, before revealing his real skills and finishing them off. His goofy personality fits perfectly in that regard and makes it understandable why so many people love him. He’s just the guy you have to like no matter what.\r\n\r\nNobara and Megumi do an alright job as serving as Yuuji’s companions, but nevertheless, they’re also good as standalone characters. Nobara has some typically girly traits, e.g. liking fashion a lot and caring about looks, but she can also get very serious, or sometimes even silly or funny. The same goes for Megumi, even though he’s more the quiet and thoughtful type of guy. But hey, that means more diversity, which serves to make this anime more than just a one dimensional show. Both of them also have their pasts, which shall create their reasons to keep on going, as same as it was for Yuuji. Sadly these “motives” are as boring (if that’s the right word) as Yuuji’s was, and that was clearly some wasted potential. On the other hand, I think they don’t have to be perfect, and perhaps everyone else says that the development they go through, which is directly connected with their background is perfectly done. I can’t judge about that, I only say what I think, just to make that clear.\r\n\r\nDicucssing the other guys from the school in Tokyo, at the beginning I thought it’s supposed to be a bad joke. A talking panda? A dude who permanently repeats the ingredients of a meal? I honestly thought that the author wanted to prank me. No, really. But what shall I say, even them I started to like. And one by the name of Maki impressed me much more than the others, she could even be a better character than Nobara. If you look at her strong and independent personality, you’ll notice that she’s really an exceptional person. In general, the female characters differ a lot from the standard weak and useless, often oversexualized girls in other shonen anime. Another compliment to the author at this point.\r\n\r\nBy the way, the same thing as for the characters from Tokyo also goes for the ones from Kyoto. But there’s one character, a certain man who stands above everybody else, in terms of likability as well as in terms of fighting skills. And who could be other than my boy: Toudou. My god, I haven’t seen such a cool dude in a fairly long time, and it was so invigorating to experience him in action. At first his well-known question seemed dumb to me. Why would you ask something like that? But in his craziness, he literally searched for his one and only brother. And when he found Itadori and both became like best friends, it was just so much fun watching them fighting together. And therefore I want to say: Toudou, actually you aren’t being hated, everybody f**king loves you!\r\n\r\nSo that this essay comes to an end soon, let\'s talk briefly about the antagonists, or rather the two most important ones: Sukuna and Mahito. Sukuna kinda reminds me of Gilgamesh (Fate) with his arrogance combined with his powers. His line: ”Know your place, fool” just fits perfectly to his character and makes him standing above all the other curses. It was mentioned that e.g. Jougo is technically stronger than him, but his presence makes the difference in the end. And that’s the thing: He’s the king. He rules all those other weaklings who think they’re strong, but only are small fishes compared to him. Sukuna also gives of a mysterious vibe, especially when he’s talking about Megumi, because we all know that he has some plans with him, which makes it even more interesting to watch. Mahito in comparison is more the likable kind of guy. He may have done cruel and bad things, but because of his often shown goofy and funny personality, I can’t take these actions even serious anymore. I think I actually sympathize with him, just because of his character. Now if that’s a good thing or not to sympathize with the villain who eventually wants to destroy the world is left to be seen, but I can\'t help admitting that he\'s a great character and that I hope for seeing even more of him in the future. \r\n\r\nArt & Animation – 9/10\r\n\r\nThe fight scenes go hard. Because of each individual\'s diverse abilities, there’s relatively more tactics and strategy that go into them than your average action anime, which makes them a whole lot more interesting to watch as it’s not just punching each other, and winning through willpower. It’s a mostly consistent art style, and if you saw just the style you wouldn’t be able to differentiate it from any other anime, but the studio didn’t skimp out on the elaborate backgrounds and set design. As for the animation itself, it’s smoother than a baby’s bottom, with constant angle changes and fast paced movements the scenes come to life, but also aren’t so crazy as to prevent you from being able to focus on what’s happening and not be able to enjoy it. The animation of everything from Cursed Energy to rushing water was great to look at. I loved how parts of the animation style occasionally changed, such as water and the backgrounds when movement was increased. Personally, I quite like the character design, though some people have said it\'s alright compared to its predecessors. Both the people and the curses character’s looks are deliberately well suited for their personality and skills. Some of them just look cool too, nothing too deep or thought out, just, yeah, looks cool. That\'s honestly about all I have related to the animation. It\'s simply extremely good! \r\n\r\nSound – 8/10\r\n\r\nThe soundtracks of Jujutsu Kaisen are in-fact very well done. It’s 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 a crazy good in a way to where it sticks out in the genre but it does do a great job fulfilling its role. Also the opening and ending songs are god damn sensational, I haven’t heard such great songs in a while. The voice acting is really good, too, and that’s no wonder, because many experienced voice actors and talented people worked on that show, so it had to be great.\r\n\r\nEnjoyment – 5/10\r\n\r\nNow it almost hurts to say that, but I honestly couldn’t force myself to like that show as much as I should have. You know, I’ve already watched quite an amount of shonen in my life, and while watching this anime, I only thought: “Bruh, that’s so boring, I’ve seen this millions of times”, even though it’s not the case. I wrote down why this show’s so great, and tried to convince myself to like it, but something inside rebelled against that. It doesn’t make any sense to me, and I really would’ve loved to like that show as a whole, but it didn’t work in the end. Btw, this doesn’t mean that I disliked everything of it, I certainly had moments, where I felt like: “Man, the shit’s about to get crazy!”, but in the next moment, the feeling was gone again. And that\'s how it went throughout the anime. Well what do you wanna do? \r\n\r\nOverall – 6/10\r\n\r\nAll in all, from the objective perspective, it’s a must-watch for shonen fans, even though the story might be boring sometimes. I probably would’ve given it a higher score, but I couldn’t detach myself from my inner feelings about, so I’m really sorry. For everybody reading this review, I hope you had a great time while watching Jujutsu Kaisen, and I also pray to the gods for a seconds season, because maybe my feelings will change then.\r\n\r\nCheers🎶

Twumi

4 years ago

After the ridiculous success of Demon Slayer, the shounen industry is finally taking notes on how to make a successful adaption. There\'s so many things that can be said about JJK, that I\'m confused where to start from.\r\n\r\nLet me start by giving JJK\'s staff the appreciation they deserve. Being a huge AoT fan, I\'m honestly a little bit salty. I\'m not undermining AoT, it\'s just that my eyes have been spoiled from seeing a sakuga on every damn episode of JJK. It\'s honestly just so good.\r\n\r\nSo yes, I\'m gonna first highlight the sector which totally carries JJK, the animation. JJK is a feast for your\n ...\n eyes. The animation is just so magnificent, starting from the beautiful landscapes to the sakuga on even the smallest fights. The fights are so well choreographed, the camera angles, the key frames. I don\'t have enough words to explain the greatness of the animation. You have to witness it for yourself. Just like how Demon Slayers impeccable animation by Ufotable carried it, in the same way JJK\'s animation by MAPPA definitely elevates the anime to another level. And without the elegant animation, I don\'t think JJK would be at where it\'s at right now. So MAPPA definitely needs credit where it\'s due, this is how you do a first season of an anime.\r\n\r\nOne other great thing about JJK is it\'s power system. If you\'re like me who absolutely loves a great power system, then you\'ll also fall in love with JJK\'s power system. JJK has a very concrete power system, which is cursed energy. Cursed energy kind of replicates Chakra from Naruto. Both needs a good amount of focus and training to achieve them. The only difference is that in Naruto, Chakra exists in all beings. However, in JJK, not everyone had cursed energy, like Maki, they use cursed tools instead which is also an interesting concept. The reason I love the power system is that it is not too complex neither is it too simple like, eat hair = I\'m strong now. Yuuji imbues his hands with cursed energy, Nobara uses hammer and nails, Fushigoro summons cursed beasts, and Gojou can manipulate space at an atomic level. There\'s literally an old man who uses an electric guitar to fight, I fucking love this! This power system and the character\'s powers, all of them makes the anime even more amazing for me.\r\n\r\nThe characters are probably the second greatest part of the anime. Yuuji is such a good shounen protagonist, he isn\'t annoying and doesn\'t scream all the time, is quite care free. On the other hand, the other members of the MC trio are just so fun to watch, Fushigoro and Nobara both. I\'d be lying if I said that it didn\'t remind me of Naruto a little bit. The fun little rivalry between Yuuji and Fushigoro, just like Naruto and Sasuke, except better. And isn\'t it a breath of fresh air, finally having a female MC that isn\'t annoying and absolutely useless. In episode 23, when Nobara was suddenly getting sucked into a gate, instead of screaming and crying for help, she just showed Fushigoro a thumbs up, saying that she\'ll be fine, like the badass she is! God I love the characters.\r\nThe character goals are really interesting, which also makes the characters, interesting. Yuuji isn\'t like other shounen nice guys who refuse to kill people like Deku, he has an actual reason to do that. He highly commends 'the value of life'. He also does good deeds because he wants to die peacefully and be remembered as a good person, quite a simple but respectable goal. Fushigoro is probably my second favourite character in JJK. He is very secretive and stoic, all while caring for his friends. In episode 23, we got to see a different side of him, and honestly he has so much depth to him. I normally hate female delinquent characters so much, I can\'t stand them as much as I can\'t stand Tsunderes. I hate how they go 'Kimochi warui' after everything. But Nobara is different. She is very talkative during battles, verbally destroying the shit outta the opponent, all while being badass as fuck during all times. She also deeply cares about his friends, she is a great character. Not only this, but side characters like Panda, Maki, Inumaki. Every- again LITERALLY EVERY CHARACTER in this anime is so fucking good and interesting, even the antagonists like Sukuna and Mahito have a considerable amount of depth to them which everyone can comprehend, which makes them so good.\r\nLet me tell you this, an entire paragraph isn\'t enough to explain how amazing and interesting the characters are.\r\n\r\nThe only part JJK is a bit lacking in is story. Since it\'s only season 1 and the story hasn\'t expanded much, but even still, the story is a bit generic. It feels like a typical monster of the week kind of story. Even the story is a bit average now, all other aspects carry this anime. And yes, the story switches tones really quick, it goes from a dark and gritty tone to a light hearted tone pretty fast. And the best part is that they perfectly execute it.\r\nNo one said that an anime must excel at all aspects. There was no boring moment in the entire anime, despite the story being typical, I always thoroughly enjoyed it.\r\n\r\nThe Juju Strolls are a perfect addition after the end of every episode, no matter how tense an episode is, the Juju Strolls are entertaining to watch.\r\n\r\nNow about sound, it\'s amazing. The 2 opening sequences and ending sequences are all so amazing. Especially the amazing opening from Eve and the great ending from ALI. After that, there\'s the voice acting. Most people can\'t differentiate between good voice acting and bad voice acting, but I have noticed that a good amount of anime often fail at properly delivering dialogues. JJK\'s voice acting feels genuine and natural, so big props to the talented voice actors. Soundtrack is also quite lacking. It\'s not the best there is, but it works. Of course, I don\'t expect all anime to have Sawano level soundtracks.\r\n\r\nAnother thing that I need to separately mention are the eye catchers. If you don\'t know what eye catchers are, they are those intro type of clips that are often in the middle of an episode. JJK\'s eye catchers are so captivating, they have this horror-y feeling to it.\r\n\r\n\r\nNow to sum it all up in one sentence: Jujutsu Kaisen is great.\r\nJJK has to be one of the greatest new gen shounens. As for whether you should watch it or not- YOU DEFINITELY SHOULD. I don\'t always tell people so confidently to watch an anime. It is the start of a new era through Jujutsu Kaisen, and I\'m damn interested to see where it\'s gonna go from here. See you all in the next season!

debochca

4 years ago

What is wrong with a generic shounen anime? \r\n\r\nI firmly hold the idea that, nowadays, originality is something almost impossible, because every new anime you see will remind you of x anime you had seen before. No matter how hard you try not to compare, the floating idea is always there 'oh, this is exactly the same premise as x anime'. Nevertheless, does a show need to be only original to be great? No! Of course, if it has originality it is something to congratulate, but if it doesn\'t, there\'s a lot of ways to tell a story and pass over that. It can have\n ...\n a big potential and develop it very well, with a good soundtrack and an amazing animation. It can have a bunch of likeable characters that, even though they are typical shounen main cast, can be really good and memorable. It\'s like reading a lot of books from the same author; even though you have an idea of which path the book is going to take, since you know how the writer works, that doesn\'t mean that you are going to despise every book the author writes after you read a pair of them just because it looks like his previous work. And if you do, please, grow up, grab a few books from the same author or movies from the same director and take a seat and, for once, enjoy life. If you have good reasons and a lot of arguments against a work, do it, hate it, and do it with all your strength! But hating just because, is stupid. Hating on generic or hyped animes assuming it is mediocre or repetitive because it belongs to certain genre doesn\'t make you look cool, get over it.\r\n\r\nThat is Jujutsu Kaisen, a shounen anime that has a lot of things you have seen before, and a lot that you haven\'t. It has a simple premise: a guy eats a cursed finger and gets some sort of Kyuubi to lodge ins his body and becomes a magician so he can control that beast. The only thing is that the guy that starts existing inside him, instead of being the strongest bijouu, is the strongest curse. Instead of being the one with the major quantity of tails, he is the one with the major quiantity of lost cursed fingers all over the place. The adorable guy that ate that finger is called Yuuji Itadori, and the entity that lives inside him is called Sukuna, the king of curses, a strong as hell dude that can use Yuuji’s body to his own benefit and possess it whenever he felt like it. Oh, yes, and he can create a second mouth on his container friend’s face so he could talk to the rest and to not be excluded of the conversation. And to laugh at Yuuji, of course. \r\n\r\n I must admit it. I saw the first episode by accident, it wasn\'t at my radar at all. And even more, I dropped it by the middle of it because I found it unattractive. After that, the anime got to CR and its publicity all over the platform kind of convinced me to give it another chance. And I don\'t regret it. When I finished that first episode, I liked it. It didn\'t seem to me the perfect first episode, because it\'s nothing really special, but it was fine. After that, every episode was getting better, and that\'s another point that I give to it. It\'s way better a show that improves every minute than one that starts with all the cards and loses the game by the middle of the show.\r\n\r\nThe humour in this show is, in my opinion, well done and in good measure. The dark atmosphere is successfully handled with some scenes that show you how crude that reality is. From the go, curses are nothing but a humanity’s creation. Curses are born from hate, resentment, pain and so, and that says a lot since the more pain it collects, the more powerful it is, and there’s a lot of fucked up curses. And even letting aside that fact, this reality is harsh since people is too. We saw it with Nobara’s backstory, with Junpei, with Megumi’s family. Darkness and a sad aura is all over the place. The world, then, is decent constructed; is not perfect, but it does justice to the show. I can say there are some plot armour on it, based on how powerful Sukuna is and how he can manipulate some stuff in the way he desires without thinking it too much, or based on the dark energy and its scope, because Gojou, for example, is sooooo buffed that the world kind of fails to demonstrate his power’s limits. He protect, he attack, but most importantly he FLY. However, I won’t be focusing on that since this plot armors or exaggerations are lowkey subtle. At least, it is not the only weapon they have.\r\n\r\nIt has the typical main character that is pretty cheerful, charismatic, energic and that respects the dead. Personally, I loved him; if he was real, I would adopt him. His personality doesn\'t seem forced, he plays the fool without abusing of it, and most important, he isn\'t in love with his sidekick but with Jennifer Lawrence. Something that I really liked about him and the beginning of this series is how, since the first moment, his grandfather dies and throws him his last words. I mean, you start the show and you already know what motivates him to play the hero part. And that\'s nice. I \'m not saying is mythical, but is well made and gives him a little depth that is going to carry with him for the rest of the story, rather as a weight than as a lesson or a choice, almost forcing him to be a good person or to do a good for the others before he dies. Another thing, related to this, that I can save from him is that he doesn’t want to fight, he doesn’t want to be the best. He just wants to read mangas and keep doing stuff with his friends at the occultism club. He doesn’t have that typical MC complex of trying to be the strongest just because he wants people to respect them nor a dream of being the highest in a hierarchy. The only reason he is becoming a magician is because he is taking responsibility for his acts, and later on because he wants to be strong enough to control Sukuna in order not to hurt his partners. \r\n\r\nItadori is a simple person who likes simple things, that is relatable, sensitive and funny. He is so simple that that makes him a human, and as such, you can understand him, and his fears and his suffer. He doesn’t cry because his sensei died nor anything so dramatic, he cries because he loses his friends. He doesn’t behave as some sort of powerful guy, but he openly admits that he is scared of dying. He is so likeable that every person he mets, likes him. Even when he is insistent, he makes his way through them and gets to develop a good relationship with them, just like he did with Junpei, and I just can’t believe how much I ended up empathizing with both of them and their relationship and the natural way it was handled. Nothing from other world, just two guys discussing about gore movies. Junpei himself is a really well-made character that achieved his goal of getting us all sentimental with his tragic and detailed background and story. Not gonna lie, his entire arc broke my heart, with just a bunch of episodes I could totally feel him. As a lot of people said, Junpei wasn’t a victim of curses, but a victim of humanity. Just when you think that JJK is starting to get slow, this arc comes in, breaks your window and slaps you in the face. \r\n\r\nGoing back to the characters, I have to say that I’m a person who gets attached easily to them, as long as they give me something to like them. I don\'t usually like “cold” characters, but Megumi is a guy that I like a lot. Typical emo of the group, but at least he has a good background and doesn\'t mistreat the MC all the time, he even constructs a valuable relationship with him. In the first episodes you already get a glance of his past and after some events the viewer starts to witness his first perspective changes and how Yuuji’s personality start to take root within him. \r\n\r\nNobara is a character that I also love very much, because she doesn’t exactly fit in the stereotype of the useless female character that is in love with the emo, and another interesting quality that differences her a little is that she is shown as strong girl who appears with a clear objective in her mind. Since the first moment, she is a character with a part to achieve, an objective of starting a new life on her own and to chase after someone of her past in order to make peace with her and herself, and that’s pretty good. She fights a lot with Itadori in a comedic way and it’s a humour I personally enjoy because it’s well settled and the anime doesn’t abuse of it, she doesn’t get to the point of being unbearable, not even close. Yes, they argue all the time because they like to annoy the other one, especially her, but at the same time they develop an estimable partnership. Overall, I liked her since her first moment, and even more after seeing how confident she is even though her mistakes and her debilities, and how she doesn’t think of the main characters’ dicks. And the way she wanted to beat Mai just because she ruined her clothes cracked me up. \r\n\r\n“I love to look pretty as much as I love being strong”. That’s the woman I needed. More characters like Nobara, and even more like Maki, please. \r\nThe other students are pretty interesting, every one of them: Maki, PANDA, Mechamaru. However, braindead muscles guys are my weakness, I’m not going to lie. Toudou is one of the best things of this show. He is one of those that are insanely strong and that enjoy having a good fight and that even enjoy losing if their opponent was better than them. He is an idol’s fan and takes every oportunity to demonstrate he is straight, considering a man’s taste in women as a matter of life and death. This guy can’t be taken seriously but damn, he made me laugh a lot, and really impressed me with his skills. His clean-punch fight against Itadori is AMAZING. No power-ups, no abilities getting out of nowhere, just two guys throwing fists and taking advantage of their surroundings. Excellent animation, choreography, feelings and the little talk. That fight is just so well done. And, of course, my favourite thing about that episode was his evangelism. He doesn’t become Itadori’s friend because Itadori told him his tragic backstory and told him “we are the same”. No, Toudou become’s Yuuji’s friend because they share opinions in their perfect type of woman, and their favourite butt: Jennifer Lawrence. You guys should just break the tension by opening a Jennifer’s fan club. I’m joining, you know.\r\n\r\nIf you just tell me that “these are characters with nothing special and that you will eventually forget them”, well then, I’m sorry about your memory and how bad it is to not remember these guys. If you stick to that argument, then you just didn’t want you to like them.\r\n\r\nNow, about animation and sound I have nothing to say. MAPPA nailed it. No complaints, I love this studio and didn’t disappoint me here. And the sound, what can I say? Everybody talks about Lost in Paradise. I mean, it’s an awesome ending, not only because of the song, but the art on it. The OP is decent too, and beyond it, the OST along the episodes is noticeable too. And what I enjoyed a LOT were the seiyuus. My god, I love Nakamura Yuichi and Suwabe Junichi. Having both of them in this series were a gift to me, specially Junichi, who voiced Sukuna and did a very memorable job.\r\n \r\nIn conclusion, Jujutsu Kaisen is the generic shounen anime that has its unique things that makes it a very good anime and even better than a lot of its predecessors. This show proves my point that you don’t need a perfect originality to make an excellent work done with lovable characters and a pretty well world building. From an idea to an execution there is a whole world and it depends on a show how it deals with it. This anime did it in a great way.\r\n\r\nIn my experience, none of its defects stopped me from enjoying this piece, and I hope I made myself clear that If you are looking for a great show, to have a good time and have some laughs with an excellent animation, this is for you. If you hate generic shounen because you are a superior human being that thinks that a person that enjoys a shounen is unable to understand Evangelion, then pass it and miss it, for the health of the community.

SunlitSonata

4 years ago

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.\r\n\r\nOver 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\n ...\n 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. \r\n\r\nJujutsu 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. \r\n\r\nIt 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. \r\n\r\nJujutsu Kaisen wants to mix shonen power action, comedy, and horror ideas together into one distinct package, and all things considered it’s really cohesive.\r\n\r\nThe 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. \r\n\r\nIt 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.\r\n\r\nThe 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:\r\n\r\n-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.\r\n-A guy who can only speak normally in ramen ingredients, but has incredible word power with increasingly higher personal costs against opponents\r\n-An incredibly wholesome talking panda with very versatile fighting stances\r\n-A bratty, yet at times comically deadpan witch girl with vantage via flight\r\n-A cool-looking bloodbender that currently gets by throwing packets but’ll inevitably have to use his own as deadly consequence. \r\n-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. \r\n-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.\r\n-A talking Iron Man suit with a twist that pleasantly caught me off guard\r\n-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. \r\n\r\nNot 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.\r\n\r\nComedy 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.\r\n\r\nAs 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. \r\n\r\nSpeaking 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. \r\n\r\nJujutsu 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.

bulkyhog

4 years ago

Overall: 9/10\r\nNow that JJK is over, I’m sure everyone who dropped it after 4 episodes or clowned it for being more trashy shonen are shaking and crying right now. While y’all did look foolish today, clown tryouts for the circus are next week. And if anyone STILL thinks JJK is an average shonen or sub-par anime, I would like to quote the great intellectual, Cardi B: “Hoes speaking capanese hit ‘em with karate chop.”\r\n\r\nJJK is peak shonen that, in my mind, WILL become a masterpiece in the coming years (can’t wait for Shibuya adaptation holy shit man). You take the hypest arcs/features that took forever\n ...\n to develop from existing shonens, and you’ll find them in the first 24 episodes of JJK albeit on a smaller scale. \r\n\r\nSo what makes JJK so fucking good? Is it the mix of realistic and diverse cast of characters? Or it’s ability to incorporate great themes and subtexts without feeling forced and overbearing? Maybe it’s the classic shonen tropes reskinned and used to maximum effectiveness, or the INSANE animation sequences and visuals Mappa pulled off. I think that’s what makes JJK such a fun anime to watch, because no matter what you watch anime for, you can find something enjoyable in this series. For me, the big enjoyment factor was the added level of realism and darkness you don’t quite find in other shonen anime, which makes JJK more of a 30% seinen 70% shonen hybrid: an AOT but more towards shonen. I think Parasyte x MHA is the closest comparison I can think of to JJK for a non-watched, and even then it’s still so vastly different.\r\n\r\nAll that said, let’s take a look at why I consider JJK to be one of the absolute best shonen anime, and amongst the best anime released this year.\r\n\r\nStory: 6/10\r\nI think most people can agree that JJK has a very simple story. Although I will say, without spoiling anything, that the Shibuya arc will elevate the story aspect of JJK to the next level, so keep an eye out for when that adaptation comes.\r\n\r\nJJK’s premise is very simple: monsters (curses) exist, people eliminate these curses (sorcerers). In terms of originality or creativity, there isn’t much to be found, although I will applaud JJK for having a very strong power system to work with (cursed energy works similar to chakra/nin from Naruto and HxH respectively). This means it’s easy for the average viewer to follow along in battles, and that we shouldn’t expect crazy plot twists/insane power scaling that ruins the integrity of the series.\r\n\r\nIt’s important to realise that “story” has 2 defining aspects:\r\n1. The worldbuilding, storytelling, and plot\r\n2. The message, themes, and subtexts being explored\r\n\r\nThat being said, I think JJK explores just enough messages, themes, subtexts and whatnot through its story and characters, that gives it that tiny edge over your traditional story. To name some arcs where these elements are a primary focus, consider the Junpei and Mahito interactions from the Vs. Mahito Arc, the all-girls battles in the Kyoto Goodwill Event Arc, and finally Megumi’s time to shine and the fallout from the Death Painting Arc. It’s a healthy amount of seasoning where it doesn’t feel forced at all, and quite natural within the scope of the characters and their personalities, which I’ll get into later on.\r\n\r\nThat being said, I gotta acknowledge the introductory arc, EP 1 in particular, is a tiny bit of a downer. We quite literally jumped right into the world of curses, without much exploration of the relationship between Yuji and his deceased grandfather. An argument could be made about how the trope of “family member dies which sends protagonist out on a quest” is almost immediately subverted by Principal Yaga, but it doesn’t change the fact the pacing for the first arc is a bit weird, especially when you consider how well crafted and paced every other arc is.\r\n\r\nSimplicity shouldn’t be a killer: Dr. Stone has an equally simple story as JJK. At the end, it’s all about how well that story is executed. Dr. Stone does an amazing job of executing their story, and while JJK isn’t quite at the same level yet, it hopefully will be in the future.\r\n\r\nArt: 10/10\r\nNo debate to be had here. I think anyone who’s seen a single Crunchyroll clip of this anime would agree, the art is top-notch. Impact, flow, key animation frames, transitions, and camera angles are all insanely well done: I especially enjoyed how Mappa played around with “first-person” camera angles during certain fights (Toudou vs. Megumi and Toudou vs. Yuji). Action sequences aside, still frames and shots were done very nicely as well, with the shot of Hanami posing while talking about becoming sages being some wallpaper type shit. And don’t even get me started about the OPs and EDs we got, all of which are absolute masterpieces in their own rights.\r\n\r\nSound: 10/10\r\nGoing off of the amazing OPs and EDs, god damn is the music and OST for JJK good. I really can’t get enough of it. You already know some hype ass shit is coming when certain tracks start playing, or when that eerie violin track comes on that shits gonna hit the fan. Most recent track stuck in my head is that sick rift we got when the trio crossed the river in EP 22.\r\n\r\nOST stuff aside, the voice acting is extremely well done too. You can hear the seething anger in Yuji’s voice when confronting Mahito. You can pickup the traces of whimsical innocence and cockiness in Gojo’s carefree voice, or in contrast, the serious nature behind Nanami’s voice. I for one also love the sounds curses make. Shit can be disturbing and hilarious at the same time and I’m all for it.\r\n\r\nCharacter: 9/10\r\nIf you asked me to pick one thing that makes JJK so much more different from contemporary and even iconic shonen, it would be this. The characters. I fucking love the characters from JJK, especially the women. And not for the typical simp reasons you’d imagine. For once, in the entire history of shonen anime (and I’m honestly not exaggerating at all considering how much shonen I’ve watched), we have finally witnessed truly amazing female characters. I have no fucking clue how Gege pulled this shit off (his mom reads the manga which partly explains the lack of fanservice and bullshit), but if you asked me for the definition of perfectly written female characters, you’ve got them right here in JJK. And not just one or two, a whole truckload of them. \r\n\r\nThis is why I was super-peeved when people were shitting on JJK characters for being unoriginal, and comparing this shit to Naruto. As much as I love Naruto, you cannot possibly look at Nobara and Sakura and tell me they’re the same: anyone who thinks this outta be arrested. \r\n\r\nNobara, like many other female characters in JJK, is an actual character. They have their own motivations and personality that’s NOT defined by the male characters around them. You pick any other shonen anime and most female characters are only defined by their interactions with male characters, through the typical sex/romance gags or damsel in distress stuff. While these tropes can sometimes be funny or good, it’s wayyyyyy too overused and honestly quite sad to see potentially interesting characters relegated to this. Nobara wants to be strong because she wants to be strong. Not so she can ride Sasuke-kun’s dick. Heck, we haven’t even gotten any serious romance shit going on, which should already tell you everything about the female characters. Maki wants to be strong to spite her family and Mai doesn’t want to be strong because she’s fine with living a “normal” life: this contrasting sibling dynamic was amazingly well written. Hell, Sakura didn’t do shit until her battle against Sasori in Shippuden. And Nobara? Fucking black flashed Kechizu’s bitchass in EP 24. Get that shitty ass comparison off the airwaves bitch. If you need any more evidence of strong female characters, I simply point you to EP 17. Specifically, the conversation between Nishimiya and Nobara on what it means to be a female-sorcerer, and Maki and Mai’s conversation on why Maki is trying so hard. Perfectly executed, chef’s kiss, mwah. Honestly can’t get any better than that.\r\n\r\nNow, let’s look at best boi Yuuji (Gojo is the goat, different status here people). I like him because his goal is simple: help people before you die. It’s something I can relate to personally, and I’m sure many others can as well. This adds, again, to the realism of JJK’s characters. We don’t have grandiose goals like becoming Pirate King, Wizard King, Ninja King, Hero King, etc. etc. Even moreso, I like Yuuji’s development. Yuuji is like a tragic hero (this is truly realised later on but I won’t spoil it). He never set out to become a sorcerer, his life was turned upside down and he was thrown into this whole other world. And we see this reflected in the first 2-3 arcs. He gets his ass clapped, time and time again forcing him to realise how hopelessly weak and stupid he is. This guy straight up hit depression and shit, his lowest of the low, in VS. Mahito Arc where he really came to realise how fucked up the world of curses is. What about our other shonen protagonists? Naruto didn’t really hit this until Valley of the End, Luffy until Marineford, Asta until Vetto/Midnight Sun, and Deku basically never has (in the anime). But because of the path he’s committed himself to, after despairing and regretting, his only option is to keep moving forward (Eren stans Yuuji).\r\n\r\nI can’t really elaborate too much on Megumi since he hasn’t had too much of the spotlight so far, but he’s the moody lancer archetype done right. He never feels too extra or unnecessarily cringe and isn’t an asshole about his views either, since he cares about his friends even though he’s normally grumpy and collected. So far his biggest development was in EP 23, where we see him finally discard his old perception of himself as a limited, extremely selfless individual. It’s a simple lesson but one a lot of people forget: sometimes, you gotta be selfish instead of selfless. Good on you Megumi for realising your own power and deciding to just go ham with it when you feel like it instead of being a team player, after all, “dying to win and risking death to win are completely different things.”\r\n\r\nI won’t speak too much on Gojo since we haven’t gotten his backstory yet, which is more like his actual character development, but all I can say is he’s an overpowered character done right. He’s never used as a deus ex machina, heck, he’s often missing when he’s truly needed the most because he’s got shit to deal with overseas. \r\n\r\nAs for villains, super well done on Gege’s part too. Mahito is an amazing villain, as is Sukuna. Most importantly, there isn’t any moral ambiguity in these villains, as you would often find in other series, and as Yuuji realised himself. These guys are just pure evil incarnate. Sukuna doesn’t help Yuuji for any other reason than to advance his own agenda, which even now we don’t really know. We also know Getou is pretty fucking evil, but the fact we don’t know much about him leaves you excited for when the reveal is actually made on who he is and what he wants. \r\n\r\nSide characters like Inumaki, Panda, and Maki get enough development so they aren’t absolute fodder and you can care about their wellbeing, but not so much where they detract from the primary trio of Yuuji, Nobara and Megumi.\r\n\r\nTLDR, JJK does a very good job of making their characters independent of each other and realistic. It’s able to effectively use tropes to enhance, but not define each character. Add in Gege’s amazing writing ability and you get truly meaningful interactions between super realistic characters. Good shit.\r\n\r\nEnjoyment: 9/10\r\nAlthough the story started off a bit weak, everything just kept getting better and better. Literally, every episode, every arc, was in some way or another better than the previous one. And that’s really hard to do when most series just plateau at certain points: JJK is constantly going up, even if only by a small amount. \r\n\r\nEven when life as a university student got busy and hectic, JJK was something I could look forward to every week, where I could spend 24 minutes just chilling and enjoying a really fucking good piece of work. The mixing of characters, plot, action, and themes/messages is masterfully done, so it’s no wonder so many people enjoy watching JJK.\r\n\r\nAll I can say is, JJK does it’s job fantastically well: I strongly expect manga sales to increase even more now that the anime has ended. As for what to expect in the future, I’m sure it’s hard to believe considering how great JJK already is but it just gets even better. Whether it’s 3, 4, or even 10 years from now, the day the Shibuya arc is adapted and released, is the day JJK will cement itself in history as one of the greatest shonen to ever be made. And that my friends, is most definitely not capanese.

HellLyter

4 years ago

“It’s not about whether I can, I have to do it!” – Megumi Fushiguro...and also me steeling myself to post a critical review on this beloved anime. \r\n\r\nJujutsu Kaisen is the latest shounen to gain a surge of popularity and get invited to join the mainstream table of the true anime titans, probably taking a seat right next to Demon Slayer. And I can say with certainty that this is primarily because of Studio Mappa\'s admirable dedication to making this show, particularly the fight scenes, look breathtakingly good. But here\'s the age old question: Does fantastic animation trump average writing?\r\n\r\nYeah, no. Heh, sorry to be\n ...\n blunt. I guess I\'m taking a lesson out of protagonist Itadori\'s book. But who\'s to say that Jujutsu doesn\'t have a bit of both? While I find there to be several glaring issues with the anime, it also has many great aspects. So therefore, I\'m gonna do things a little differently. This review will go over 5 areas that I believe the anime handled poorly, represented as 5 of Sukuna\'s, the king of curses himself, cursed fingers. And then 5 departments that were a triumphant success in my eyes, represented as 5 of Sukuna\'s fingers that were eaten by Itadori...which probably gave him some digestion issues, poor guy. I mean, eating a centuries old finger? Bleh. Probably no nutrients left in those old things. \r\n\r\nAh, so you\'re wondering why I\'m going with 10 fingers when Sukuna has 20 overall? Heh. The sheer power of representing ALL of his fingers would embed this review with massive cursed energy that even I couldn\'t control- Ok, fine, it\'s actually because I couldn\'t think of 10 more things and it would make this review drag on anyway. There. Happy? Alright, let\'s get into it!\r\n\r\nSukuna\'s cursed finger 1: Comedy \r\n\r\nI figured I\'d get this out of the way since its the most subjective flaw on the list. Comedy comes in all shapes and forms, so everyone has their own preference...the comedy in Jujutsu Kaisen wasn\'t my preference. Ok, so I\'m not that hard to please in this department. I\'m mean, I laugh at boob jokes and panty shots, that should tell you what kind of person I am. Yet shounen always seem to fail for me when it comes to the humor. I mean for one, it\'s generally out of place. This anime tries to be serious and has a lot of dark moments, but then immediately follows with characters making stupid faces at each other and saying dumb things. The timing is just consistently terrible. And what the heck were those after credits scenes? I dunno, I just found them to be very...odd. \r\n\r\nThe comedy can basically be boiled down to a character acting either overly idiotic or incredibly loud/annoying during random moments. And they try to do this for EVERY character, even for the villains who, you know, have slaughtered hundreds, potentially thousands. It just doesn\'t work, and I don\'t find the show or characters funny at all, with the exception of the Kyoto School students (thank goodness for them) and some of Gojou\'s little quips. \r\n\r\nSukuna\'s consumed finger 1: Action \r\n\r\nThis one is quite obvious to anyone with eyes, but I definitely have to bring up the epic fight sequences as the first positive. They\'re the highlight of the show, and the focal point of numerous episodes. Because curses come in all shapes and sizes, plus each Jujutsu sorcerer has their own diverse abilities, each and every fight was unique in how the characters did battle. I thought things really picked up in intrigue and intensity when Itadori and the ideal businessman Nanami took on the villainous and childish antagonist Mahito. It was a well animated fight with a lot of interesting tactics. And then the show just had to go and outdo itself with the Sister School arc. There were a lot of great combat sequences on display, culminating in the Itadori and Toudou vs. Hanami fight, which was my personal favorite. Just some great action all around. \r\n\r\nSukuna\'s cursed finger 2: Main characters \r\n\r\nOh boy, this is probably what held Jujutsu Kaisen back the most. The trio of Itadori, Megumi, and Nobara are just...bad. I\'m not a fan of any of them. Itadori is your typical dense protagonist guy who\'s constantly used for comedy, but you already know how I feel about that. His beliefs are interesting, but I\'ll get into those later. Several characters appropriately call him Sukuna\'s vessel, because that dude is a much more fun and interesting character than Itadori. And when it\'s necessary for Itadori to develop in order to progress the narrative, the show just conveniently gives him a ridiculously brief revelation or a sentence long pep talk from someone else and boom, he gets stronger and stuff. Absolutely atrocious. And his two best buddies don\'t even act like characters. They\'re terribly inconsistent. They supposedly have a bond with Itadori yet show no emotion when he comes back from a certain DEADly event. When situations get serious and death is involved, Nobara just acts entirely obnoxious and Megumi reacts to practically nothing. It\'s like they were trying to make him one of those cool, stoic characters but made him so cold that he\'s turned into ice with how frosty and nonexistent his personality is. They\'re painstakingly poorly written.\r\n\r\nGojou is also considered to be a main character, but I don\'t really see him as one. If he counts, then he\'s definitely my favorite of the four. Despite not being a fan of how absolutely overpowered he is, I enjoy his laid back yet caring nature and think that he\'s a solid addition to the show. \r\n\r\nSukuna\'s consumed finger 2: Supporting cast \r\n\r\nOn the flip side, I really appreciate how the side characters were written. Sukuna himself has a great setup with how he\'s actually a part of Itadori. The obnoxious and condescending tone that he takes with the kid is pretty fun, and for me this guy is the most intriguing of the characters. And I mentioned it before, but wow, the Kyoto School students are a lot more entertaining than the ones from Tokyo. With the exception of Panda of course. Panda should have been the main character because he\'s a panda, yet not a panda. I like his backstory and intelligence. That is all for Panda. But I really liked Miwa and thought she was fun (should\'ve replaced Nobara as main girl honestly...) and the over the top nature of Mechamaru and his backstory is just such a joke, I love it. Every morning he breaks his legs, and every afternoon, he breaks his arms. The other two girls in the group are interesting as well. \r\n\r\nAnd then there\'s Toudou. He\'s probably my favorite character outside of Sukuna and his comedic value was actually...funny! I liked his dynamic with Itadori and his over the top nature was surprisingly a big success and didn\'t rub me the wrong way like I thought it would. Nice support cast Juju! \r\n\r\nSukuna\'s cursed finger 3: Motivations \r\n\r\nA boy fights...for 'the right death.' Straight from the synopsis. \r\n\r\nAm I the only one who thinks that sentence sounds stupid and wishes Itadori\'s ideals were, at the very least, worded differently? Yes? No? Ok...\r\n\r\nWhile his motivation certainty is unique, I\'m just not a fan of how Itadori\'s whole shtick is portrayed. I mean, I get it, he doesn\'t want people to die to curses and instead to pass away content and satisfied with life, and that\'s pretty cool. But the way he expresses his wish feels strange sometimes with how overly macabre it can be and doesn\'t sit right with me. This is probably just me, but his goals made his character feel a a little off, I dunno. Also, the villain curses have pretty bad motivations. I mean, they\'re all like 'we\'re the true people because we have true emotions unlike humans!'...yet these curses are constantly shown to have wavering and changing feelings. Doesn\'t work. It all comes down to the themes demonstrated by the show in the end, and I feel like they could have been expressed better. \r\n\r\nSukuna\'s consumed finger 3: Dark content \r\n\r\nI love how this anime isn\'t afraid to get violent and grotesque. Yes, some of the curses look creepy, but I\'m mostly referring to what they do over how they look. The show doesn\'t hide the fact that death is synonymous with curses in this universe, and there are plenty of on screen killings. Even main characters aren\'t safe from this anime\'s clutches! Things got the darkest during the arc with Junpei and Mahito. Let\'s just say I was not expecting what happened to Junpei to go down, or I was at least anticipating some sort of reversal of his fate. But wow, there really is a ton of horrifying (maybe a bit too strong of a word, but I digress) content in the anime, and I believe it definitely works in the show\'s favor.\r\n\r\nSukuna\'s cursed finger 4: Power scaling \r\n\r\nThis is more of a smaller issue that I had with the anime, but I absolutely despised the power system on display and how it was handled. Shounen shows just love to have this kind of mechanic, and it\'s usually used primarily to show the protagonist getting stronger and moving through the ranks. Some, like HunterXHunter, utilize this effectively. But it\'s just so bizarre here. The ranking of both curses and Jujutsu sorcerers is poorly conceived and made absolutely irrelevant when you have guys like Gojou who can practically destroy the world if he feels like it. There\'s just not that much explanation behind how it all works. And it\'s especially negligible when Itadori can basically power up and advance to the next level just by getting a sentence long pep talk, like he does with Toudou. Kinda silly honestly.\r\n\r\nSukuna\'s consumed finger 4: Audiovisuals \r\n\r\nI\'ve already mentioned this briefly in other sections, but the show looks hella good. Great artistic quality with a lot of diverse and inventive designs. Equally important is the animation. Character movement is fluid and doesn\'t look that awkward at all. Also, the soundtrack is solid. Several pieces help to enhance scenes by pumping you up during fights or making you unnerved during more horror based moments. The theme songs are pretty hype as well. All in all, Jujutsu Kaisen boasts some great technical aspects. \r\n\r\nSukuna\'s cursed finger 5: Plot progression \r\n\r\nMy final issue listed in this review focuses on the narrative. I\'m sorry, but the plot can basically be boiled down to 'Righteous protagonist has unlimited potential and he gets stronger with his friends as they beat up bad guys.' It\'s terribly generic and if you really focus on it, the story doesn\'t offer anything particularly great. There are several parts of it that are just plain sloppy, like shoving in literally everyone\'s backstory during the Sister School event instead of properly spacing out such scenes. While it ultimately isn\'t bad, the plot really didn\'t take any risks or try something new, with the exception of having Sukuna, who I assume will be the final boss, live inside of Itadori. That\'s pretty cool, but next to nothing was done with it in the second half of the show. In the end, the writing and unfortunately standard progression ended up being the most mediocre part of the anime.\r\n\r\nSukuna\'s consumed finger 5: Entertainment \r\n\r\nWhat can I say, it was a fun experience. Despite lacking in several key departments, the show itself can be pretty entertaining. Whether it be the action, character interactions, comedic scenes, or more, Jujutsu Kaisen brings a lot to the table that a wide variety of people can enjoy, so I respect the show for that. If nothing else, it can be an enjoyable viewing experience if you don\'t go into it with high expectations. In the end, it just wasn\'t for me.

Redrebel12

4 years ago

Im already on episode 6 and I am already bored with this anime to the point where I had almost fallen asleep or went of my phone. The plot doesnt catch my attention at all as well as with the characters being generic anime characters.\r\n\r\nYuuji is typical super strong, overly nice high schooler who got himself into a world he has never seen before after the passing of his grandfather who he made a promise with him to 'try to help others, save as many people as you can even if it is the only people closed to you' and he to pursue this goal\n ...\n along the way.\r\n\r\nFushiguro is basic as it come he\'s the quiet cool edgy character who is the opposite of the Yuuji who he doesn\'t get along but deep inside thinks of him as a friend.\r\n\r\nNobara is the weaker one out of the three of them. She\'s came to the city to give herself a better life in the city and find herchildhood friend. Overall the\r\nonly thing I really liked was the opening.

EricPhantom

4 years ago

I\'ll give this review straight to the point! (10/10)\r\nFirst , MAPPA studio has certainly nailed it!\r\nThis show has the potential to be one of the best Shounen Anime series ever!! This show has kick started really hard! \r\nI\'ve watched 12 episodes of JJK and I can easily say this is the most entertaining series I\'ve ever seen to exist .The show has a dark plot where every episode is so much entertaining and straight to the point.(no fillers or waste of time scenes). Every episode ends with a cliff hanger(which shows how smartly they have put all the ending scenes of the ep).\r\n\r\nThe animations(10/10)\n ...\n are undoubtedly the most fantastic and flawless. Every fight scenes are really badass and smooth as if it\'s very real. The amount of power levels & various curse(fighting) techniques seems to be extraordinarily huge and unique.\r\n\r\nAll the characters are incredible, beautifully animated and appealing. The dialogues are at another level(It\'s Dope!!).\r\nThere are scenes which are really funny, inspiring, also sad & emotional breakdown scenes.( All in one package )\r\n\r\nThe sound tracks ofc. are one of the best we can get! The music & sound effects are also clean. The voice acting is also wonderful.\r\n\r\nFor the story, it has been straight to the point & good yet but I can say definitely it\'ll become even better in the upcoming episodes .

-ANIgourMEt

4 years ago

Its just an anime with bad/average story and no depth with masterful animation. \r\nAnd i would prefer anime with the other way round: bad animation but therefore amazing story.\r\n\r\nReally average anime and doesnt deserve the hype at all. Only newbies to anime would rate this anime good. \r\n\r\nFeels like Bleach/ Aoi no Exorcist /Fire Force 2.0 + one dimensional characters. \r\n\r\nIts just like the Fate Anime series - best animation but therefore uninteresting plot.\r\nI dont get why people hype it to the air. Its really nothing special, the motivation from the protagonist isnt deep. The characters at all have no message to us as watchers.\n ...\n Its just all average, why do anime studious always waste their best animation on the worst anime. I dont get it. Thats my Opinion.\r\n \r\n.............................................\r\n \r\n.............................................\r\n \r\n.............................................\r\n \r\n.............................................\r\n \r\n.............................................\r\n \r\n.............................................\r\n \r\n.............................................

JCPrp

4 years ago

Jujutsu Kaisen is unlike any other anime I have seen before. When I first saw the trailer for it I thought that it was not really my style; seeming like a horror anime with obscure powers and weird monsters. Although Jujutsu Kaisen is this to a point it is so much more. As it does focus on the premise of curses, you can expect a horror aspect to this anime, which may not be your cup of tea, but trust me there is so much to offer in this anime. \r\n\r\nI have never had characters in a series I have enjoyed more as much as\n ...\n I do in Jujustu Kaisen. The trio of Yuji Itadori, Megumi Fushiguro and Nobara Kugisake are downright perfect. Yuji Itadori\'s comical presence pairs perfectly with Megumi Fushiguro\'s flare and Nobara Kugisake\'s spunk making this trio some of my favorite characters of all time. Then add Saturo Gojo as their teacher and oh my god you have some of the best protagonists ever, and Sukuna and Suguru Geto have the makings of being A tier Antagonists as well.\r\n\r\nAnother incredible thing about Jujutsu Kaisen is its animation. Its absolutely stunning, my mouth dropped at some of the fight scenes, because of how beautiful it was, and the fight scenes are unlike any I have seen before, they are just spectacular. \r\n\r\nThe only knock on Jujutsu Kaisen I have is that it kinda moves a little too fast at times, especially in the first episode. I found myself a little confused at times since it was explained or shown so quickly, but I think the pacing does get a lot better as the series goes on.\r\n\r\nI can\'t recommended this anime enough, please just watch the first 2 episodes and I guarantee you will be hooked.

fahoosa9

4 years ago

Okay, i get the hype its pretty cool shonen and its been 8 episodes out now. But its add nothing new to the genre. You can see the series got influenced a LOT by other shonen anime. For example :\r\n1. 1 teacher and 3 student, hell even the personality just kinda copy-paste from naruto even tho slightly different but u know what i mean.\r\n2. Kinda about demons/monsters slaying??, well theres a lot anime that similar to that.\r\n3. Spritual/magical/superpower school??, yea its not original either.\r\n\r\ni know all of this doesnt mean the anime just ripoffing other series and bad in general and of course the series\n ...\n has its own originality. But so far nothing special for me.\r\n\r\nThe Story so far just starting to get into the worldbuilding part, i cant say much for now. But the main protagonist tho, its very GENERIC shonen protagonist and his goals is very Half-assed compare to other shonen series. Basically hes just a normal highschool student whos very gifted in physical ability, has a bright personality, and got nothing else to do. And then he got brought down to these sorcerers world and just kinda follow the riverflow. (remind you of something?? yes this is basically ichigo from bleach)\r\n\r\nAnimation is so Good, definitely the top tier of this season. Fight scene smooth, magical2 things so smooth too. Coloration and Artstyle got no problem with it, its good. But i got problem with how the studio directing some scenes in it, in some intense scenes the studio DIDN\'T did a good job building it up (even tho this maybe because the story too). You got these super cool character introduced, emotional main protags resolution, intense super strong creepy monster coming out of nowhere and yet it feels so BLAND. They did these scenes with straight-forward pacing (kinda like they did with god of highschool) and the music adds nothing to the scenes, i know this sound mean but literally the musics in this anime sucks. But i do like the atmosphere they potraited for the series, i dont read the manga but i think its perfectly match for the series.\r\n\r\nWell its only 8 episodes, and i dont think im gonna drop it and its too soon to generelize the series as a whole for now. But its still good, go watch and judge it yourself i guess\r\n\r\nStory 3/10\r\nArt 8/10\r\nSound and Music 4/10\r\nCharacter 5/10\r\nEnjoyment 6/10\r\nOverall 6/10

L1eske

4 years ago

I rate shit on enjoyment because that is what\'s important. Shit\'s lit, so watch it if you like high quality action scenes with moments of light heartedness but with a general dark theme. Mixes really well in my opinion and I suggest highly. \r\n\r\nDon\'t go into it looking for a psychological thriller with some really deep story. Because that\'s not what it is. Go into it looking for a well crafted show with a story that takes its self seriously enough to keep you in it but not so much that the light hearted moments seem out of place. \r\n\r\nIn short it\'s a main stream\n ...\n minded show in it\'s lore, story and direction. But executed greatly making the show worth watching on its other merits alone.

CloudWatcher

4 years ago

This seems to be another of those run-of-the-mill power shonens. It has basically the same story as Chainsaw Man up till at least chap. 91 of that series manga, and i think Chainsaw Man will give us a much better experience. I don\'t expect the plot give us anything special tbh.\r\nWhat\'s great about this is definitely the animation and OST. I think this series is helped greatly by its good fight scene animation and if it continues to play into this heavy power shonen tendencies, i think it will continue to be as popular as it has. For this season at least.\r\n\r\nThough you should not\n ...\n expect anything special from this series tbh. Standard MC gets power from some mcguffin. He uses that power to fight for good, sometimes the power gets out of control. That\'s pretty much what these 6 episodes have shown me.\r\n\r\nThe characters aren\'t anything special either. Now i know 6 eps aren\'t that many episodes to showcase how deep a character is but i honestly don\'t think they\'ll get any better. The MC is as generic as they come. The female main gets the same treatment male japanese mangaka seem to give all their female characters and the other guy seems to be a mash up of emo characters.\r\n\r\nOverall, if you watch this for the fights? You\'ll have a good time. If you\'re looking for something deeper? Nope

YeeYeeAss

4 years ago

Pretty Neat\r\n\r\nSo I came here after the hype that was the trailer and the wait for this show. Of course I did start the manga but only read the first few chapters and kinda stopped. I thought it was pretty good. But this anime made the experience different and hype as hell. This delivered some top tier animation and great voice acting, hell some decent CG as well.\r\n\r\nStory: Some demon called Sukuna was killed and his fingers were chopped in to many pieces. This one Occult club found one of the fingers in a package and opened it. Which attracted many curses their way.\n ...\n Our Main hero who has superb strength and is pretty much a super human had the brilliant plan of eating the finger. It was revealed that he is a rare m,an who can become a vessel for Sukuna so they could eventually destroy him. He then joins the Jujutsu sorcerers and goes on missions with his friends\r\n\r\nCharacters: They have been pretty decent but nothing new. Yuuji is very energetic and kinda dumb like every shounen mc. He blasts demons away with his superhuman strength and sometimes asks help from the curse within him. He is accompanied by Megumi who is the shows edgy boy. His ability is to summon shadow beasts. Ironically he uses 2 wolves the most that makes him more edgy. Nobara is the main female but unlike the stereotypes she is not useless. She still does dumb shit. She uses cursed nails or some shit as a weapon. Then comes best boy Gojou Satoru. He is pretty much like Kakashi. He is the strongest Jujutsu sorcerer. He is also pretty funny. Sukuna is just a cunt\r\n\r\nAnimation and art: It is great on both.The animation is smooth as fuck\r\n\r\nMusic: Good ost, good songs. They are pretty epic. The opening is a banger and has great visuals. The ending probably sticks out the most. Compared to the hype music the ending is pretty chill. The animation in it is good and the song is an earworm.\r\n\r\nI enjoy this show a lot. It is funny and epic. Kinda reminds me of Demon Slayer. I recommend

mydayruined

4 years ago

*Contains minor spoilers*\r\n\r\nFor me the Shōnen Genre differs in itself into two different categories. The distinct difference can be seen starting from the first episode. It involves the protagonist’s motive and the cause of his journey. Known classics such as HunterxHunter, Naruto and the newly added Black Clover have their characters simply wanting to become stronger and starts through “aspirations”. Gon wanting to be a hunter like his father, Naruto wanting to become the next hokage, Asta wanting to be the Wizard King.\r\n\r\nIn contrast, Jujutsu Kaisen derives from misfortune and not having a choice. Yuji Itadori consumes Sukuna’s curse and at that moment, he becomes\n ...\n the protagonist. Not through aspiration but as an outcome of his misfortune. One can possibly see the similarity between “Kimetsu no Yaiba” where the normal lives of the protagonists get disturbed and are left with no choice but to become a “jujutsu sorcerer” and “demon slayer” respectively.\r\n\r\nIf you are a fan of shonen in general and have liked Kimetsu no Yaiba, you are very likely to enjoy Jujutsu Kaisen as much.\r\n\r\nIt wouldn’t be wrong to say that Jujutsu Kaisen is a mixture of Shōnen and Seinen at this point. The dark theme of curses and the mangaka not being afraid to put the cast in danger with actual consequences is always welcome in my book.\r\n\r\nIt is very nice to see how Sukuna\'s curse works. The protagonist doesn\'t simply absorb the power of the curse in his case but he bears Sukuna. Seeing Sukuna fight and his interactions with the world and other curses carries the show to what it is. It mustn\'t be forgotten that Sukuna isn\'t an ally to the Jujutsu Sorcerers and Yuji. Sukuna is basically a double-edged weapon and in the first couple of episodes we see the consequences of overly relying on Sukuna and how problematic he can become for the protagonist ('The Cursed Wombs Earthly Existence' arc).\r\n\r\nThe cast overall compliments each other. There are comedic moments but it isn’t overdone. When the show is serious the mangaka doesn’t ruin it with very silly moments. It is very much enjoyable to see Yuji and Nobara having their moments of being fascinated by Tokyo every now and then. I’m sure that many of the viewers would actually relate and find it hilarious.\r\n\r\nWhile it doesn\'t pose a problem for me, as a 'Shōnen Jump' series, the characters are made through the typical archetypes that have been used in most of the successful series in this genre. For me, this is not a problem and I enjoy the formula itself. While the characters follow the same tropes as most shonen series, do not think that the characters in Jujutsu Kaisen will act immature and do silly things. The characters all feel very genuine and charming in their own ways. Yuji, the protagonist, gives off how mature he is compared to most other shonen protagonists. How he reflected on his grandfather\'s death and how he embraced that the only possible way of living for him was to become a jujutsu sorcerer after consuming Sukuna\'s curse.\r\n\r\nWhile I may have said that the characters are through the typical archetypes, Jujutsu Kaisen has something very interesting that isn\'t necessarily made this good in other shonen series. It involves how the mangaka gradually develops the characters through events. The mangaka uses monologues and makes the characters reflect on their actions and where he reveals their true motives and who they truly are. Dialogues between characters and monologues strengthen the character which turns these one-dimensional characters into genuine characters that are actually well developed over the course of the show. While the first episode is a simple introduction to how Megumi and Yuji get to be involved with each other. In the next arcs, the characters naturally get to bond with each other. Megumi is a character that keeps his emotions to himself and doesn\'t show his true thoughts. By using monologues the mangaka manages to further give depth to Megumi\'s character. We get to see the character\'s ideals and how he came to these conclusions through the flashbacks provided. The mangaka manages to turn these superficial characters into well fledged out genuine people through the course of the show.\r\n\r\nIn episode 5, we see how Sukuna manages to take Yuji as a hostage. This unexpected turn of events is masterfully used by the mangaka where we can get to see how Megumin will act in this tough situation and what he truly thinks about his friends and Yuji which bears Sukuna\'s curse. He puts in dialogues that further develop and gradually improves the one-dimensional tropes of the characters. We get to see Sukuna and Megumi fight, while this happens we see flashbacks from Megumi\'s past life and not only that, the author connects Megumi\'s flashbacks with the actions he has taken so far in the show. The flashbacks strengthen Megumi\'s motives, he becomes much more believable for the viewers. We get to understand that Megumi isn\'t simply just a character that saves character cause he is a 'shonen character'. We get to see how deeply he cared for other people in his past life, and how he became a jujutsu sorcerer to save other people and this leads to us understand why he deeply cares about Yuji while they haven\'t known each other for a long time. \r\n\r\nThe fight between Sukuna and Megumi is truly a showcase of this. The fight between them is used as a catalyst to further develop the characters. As the mangaka manages to capture the emotions of Megumi with flashbacks of his life and give these flashbacks to show who Megumi really is and show the ideologies behind his character. The motives and actions of Megumi become justified, where we understand that he doesn\'t save people just because he is a character in a 'shonen anime'. The mangaka successfully manages to develop not only the protagonist but the rest of the supporting characters at the same time. One can say that without developing supporting characters the protagonist can\'t truly be developed as it would come off as superficial. The world-building and characters are introduced at a good pace where it isn\'t rushed. Each character gets to shine and be developed in a non rushed manner. The viewers start to bond with the characters as we learn the thoughts and motives behind the characters.\r\n\r\nIn short, the mangaka creates situations where characters get to make hard decisions and reflect on their past actions and become much more believable characters in the present. This at the same time connects the viewers with the characters. While the characters of Jujutsu Kaisen might be thought of as one-dimensional characters in the very beginning, even from the first arc, the mangaka manages to show us what he is capable of developing the story and characters through well-structured arcs. The arcs, similarly to HunterxHunter progress smoothly into one another. As the later on arcs get hinted by the previous ones and the later on arcs are caused by the ones becoming before them. In my humble opinion, compared to Kimetsu no Yaiba, the writing is actually done not in an as superficial way.\r\n\r\nProduction-wise, Mappa has done a very good job of animating the series so far and the fighting scenes are very well done. It doesn’t get much better than this. The pacing is done very well and the adaptation is going very smoothly so far. What caught me most off-guard is how well the scenes are directed. How the scenes meaningfully change the focal point to what\'s more important and change through the character\'s perspective becoming the first person of view in certain cases which makes scenes and scene transitioning spectacular.\r\n\r\nIf you are wanting to try out a shonen anime this is as good as it gets. The story will just get better as we haven\'t really seen the villains as of episode 5. Jujutsu Kaisen manages to use already existing archetypes and plot devices of the shounen genre and presents it in a highly realistic and enjoyable way with interesting twists and well-developed arcs and characters.\r\n\r\n\r\nStory: 9\r\nArt: 10\r\nSound: 9\r\nCharacter: 9\r\nEnjoyment: 10\r\n\r\nOverall: 9

m118970

4 years ago

MC is very bad... Yuji\'s entire personality is based around a grandpa we knew for 1 episode with a screen time of less than a minute. and said like 7 words. yet his 7 words will dictate how the main character will act for possibly the rest of this series. very unfortunate that the author thinks we should care about someone that had less screen time than a no name curse. For the other characters, I see a lot of potential and hope they carry the load. Villains are mediocre at best except for one who\'s extensive backstory and connections to current characters is pretty\n ...\n nice. overall, its a (worse) demon slayer that takes place in modern times, and instead of good smelling he strong.