

呪術廻戦
Idly indulging in baseless paranormal activities with the Occult Club, high schooler Yuuji Itadori spends his days at either the clubroom or the hospital, where he visits his bedridden grandfather. However, this leisurely lifestyle soon takes a turn for the strange when he unknowingly encounters a cursed item. Triggering a chain of supernatural occurrences, Yuuji finds himself suddenly thrust into the world of Curses—dreadful beings formed from human malice and negativity—after swallowing the said item, revealed to be a finger belonging to the demon Sukuna Ryoumen, the King of Curses. Yuuji experiences first-hand the threat these Curses pose to society as he discovers his own newfound powers. Introduced to the Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School, he begins to walk down a path from which he cannot return—the path of a Jujutsu sorcerer. [Written by MAL Rewrite]
Idly indulging in baseless paranormal activities with the Occult Club, high schooler Yuuji Itadori spends his days at either the clubroom or the hospital, where he visits his bedridden grandfather. However, this leisurely lifestyle soon takes a turn for the strange when he unknowingly encounters a cursed item. Triggering a chain of supernatural occurrences, Yuuji finds himself suddenly thrust into the world of Curses—dreadful beings formed from human malice and negativity—after swallowing the said item, revealed to be a finger belonging to the demon Sukuna Ryoumen, the King of Curses. Yuuji experiences first-hand the threat these Curses pose to society as he discovers his own newfound powers. Introduced to the Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School, he begins to walk down a path from which he cannot return—the path of a Jujutsu sorcerer. [Written by MAL Rewrite]
Twumi
March 26, 2021
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. Let 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. So yes, I'm gonna first highlight the sector which totally carries JJK, the animation. JJK is a feast for youreyes. 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. One 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. The 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. The 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. Let me tell you this, an entire paragraph isn't enough to explain how amazing and interesting the characters are. The 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. No 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. The 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. Now 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. Another 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. Now to sum it all up in one sentence: Jujutsu Kaisen is great. JJK 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!
Japanese


Naruto: Shippuuden
UrOpinionsRGarb
September 1, 2023
Literally the most overrated anime in the world... The first season was barely tolerable. It was essentially a complete Naruto rip-off with the main character who holds a demon inside of him, which in turn grants him great power. The key difference here is: Naruto is a character of depth who goes through great personal struggle and growth and that demon functions as an artistic metaphor as well as a functional plot device. Jiujutsu, on the other hand, was written by a child with crayons and just steals the most obvious elements from Naruto without paying attention to why it actually works. Yay crayons! Characters: Gojo is clearlya Kakashi ripoff, it's baffling to me how 100% of people do not call this out. His character is one-dimensional, like all the characters in Jiujutsu. He's the OP rebel... he wins all fights and says whatever he wants--he faces no struggles, ever. The series includes a Sasuke ripoff named Fushiguro. He is very strong and oh so cold. What an original foil to place against the series' Naruto ripoff: Itadori. Itadori is Naruto except worse in every way. Sakura in this series is manifested by the brash and very tsundere girl known as Kugisaki. She is relatively useless and purposeless, just like Sakura. Special mention! Inumaki, the character who uses "cursed words" (not curse words), which is a clear ripoff of the bug user Shino. They both have their mouths covered by their outfits, hardly speak, and appear only occasionally to do their very narrowly illustrated power. The plot: Is incomprehensible. There is no plot. They just kind of hang out, fight sometimes, see poorly drawn monsters sometimes, and the episode ends. Animation: Season 1 animation was sad, average. Season 2 animation is fantastic and essentially, I imagine, the writer was like "I can has Chainsaw Man animation, mappa?" And they were like... "I guess..." Still frames, backgrounds, character depictions are often gorgeous works of art. This is literally the only redeeming quality of this horrific horrific series. [end]
Aspection
April 17, 2021
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. TL;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. Summary: Cool guy Naru-- I mean Itadori with innate powers stronger than the universe itself beats everyone else by order ofmagnitude 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. Art & Sound (9/10): Let'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. Everything else (2/10): There 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. DISCLAIMER: this all depends on what feels the coolest at the moment and can change whenever the show feels like it. These 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. The 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. This 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". We 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. Bad 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.
SunlitSonata
March 26, 2021
The thing about trends that a lot of people take for granted is that the more overstuffed a particular set of ideas are, the more likely it is to see either flipped on its head (see Shrek for fairy tale musicals) or given more offbeat renditions (see Joker or Into the Spider-Verse for superhero blockbusters). Genres being overstuffed, if anything, should encourage more experimentation and refinement. Over the years the Shonen genre has gone through a number of these phases. From past its formative years with Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, you’ve gotten shows using the mold for massive tapestries (One Piece), those attempting torewrite the genre rulebook (see Fullmetal Alchemist), shows trying to test Shonen’s capacity for being applicable in distinct scenarios (see HxH), long-form parodies of the genre, and many that wallow in it without doing anything interesting. Jujutsu Kaisen is interesting in this regard because on paper, it doesn’t seem that different from the standard genre mold, but in practice, it truly understands the appeal of the genre and what audiences want to get from it. Jujutsu Kaisen’s first season served as a phenomenal introductory section into the story it wants to tell, presenting its plot, characters, action and tone in a way that’s easy to digest, but is simultaneously a very smart setup that stands out by committing to multiple angles. The show feels like natural selection, where Gege Akutami realizes the elements that people have grown to like in the genre and downplays those that haven’t held up as well. It can be seen immediately with the protagonist, Yuuji Itadori. While yes, he is a teenage protagonist with the goal to protect others and become better at some special skill, a lot of the more in-your-face elements of this are downplayed. He’s not an overly hyperactive idiot, an insecure nerd or a miserable angsty sad sack, but has a good balance of characteristics, being a risk-taker at important moments, more down to earth yet still very passionate about his interests should the subject arise. Character design helps with this as he, alongside the other members of the hero cast, have taller designs that fit the “cool rebellious teen” look a la Bleach, more than the short, childish look of many Shonen heroes. The uniforms convey style during day and night with their reflective black and blue surfaces, but Yuuji still sets himself apart with the red hood adding that degree of cheeriness to the rest of the outfit. Yuuji doesn’t just feel like an archetype; he feels like a character, one given an early sense of consequence, as well as an interesting comparison to be made with the final boss tier opponent in his body as far as power ceiling goes. The idea of this “manifest double” is played up more in the first half of the show than the second, but as Yuuji grows personally, it promises to be a unique recurring element. Jujutsu Kaisen wants to mix shonen power action, comedy, and horror ideas together into one distinct package, and all things considered it’s really cohesive. The first half of the show is primarily dedicated to showing the ropes of the world to Yuuji, but even this basic setup is handled in some pretty fun ways. By Episode 3, they already have the main three characters banter together in an enjoyable dynamic that thankfully never turns into love triangle bollocks. A later episode has to explain how the show’s power system works, but it doesn’t have Yuuji sit in a classroom to learn about it through exposition dumps, or even white-haired mentor character Gojou talking to him about it one on one. No, Gojou’s an incredibly wholesome gadfly, so he pulls Yuuji out of movie-induced focus to actively demonstrate how Cursed Domains work against a monster who actively reacts to its use. This felt like a much more natural way to convey exposition, and even the more whiteboard exposition like the danger grade levels is conveyed with a pretty breezy, sardonic sense of humor. It also introduces the villains in a way that, while not outstanding, worked well in pushing Yuuji to his physical and emotional limit right before the second half started. The only weird structural issue I had with the first half was some backstory for Kento Nanami. It’s spliced right in the middle of a serious fight, where the circumstances leading to it and the consequences following it were far more pertinent than this one guy’s backstory. By the end of the season, he was one of the characters who left the least impression on me. The second half of the show makes the focus of the first half even more reasonable, whilst honing in on the aspect that grew my attention the most early on; the many students from their setting’s magic school, all wearing the same swag as hell reflective uniform. The exchange event team battle serves as a great way to introduce a lot of these characters, their powers, unique designs, and their respective dilemmas without cheating shit later as story ramps up. Almost a third of the run is spent on this, but it’s infinitely more interesting than having a tournament arc in small arena cutting to stills of audience reaction since it gets out a lot more fun character moments. Akutami understands that we, as the excitable audience, want to see some coolass superpowers from a Shonen, and he happily delivers a ton of those that get to shine in this arc, from characters like: -Nobara, the main female girl in the series that, much like Yuuji, doesn’t feel tied to an archetype, appreciating fashion and fangirling over exciting scenes, yet not taking taunts lightly, being protective of her friends, and having a coolass power of fabricating voodoo dolls with specially sized hammers. -A guy who can only speak normally in ramen ingredients, but has incredible word power with increasingly higher personal costs against opponents -An incredibly wholesome talking panda with very versatile fighting stances -A bratty, yet at times comically deadpan witch girl with vantage via flight -A cool-looking bloodbender that currently gets by throwing packets but’ll inevitably have to use his own as deadly consequence. -The adorableness incarnate that is Miwa; a super earnest girl with a simple dream and appropriately simple power that is easy to see as being friendly with others, possible reflection for the audience too. -Two sisters, Mai and Maki, with a quick but strong burst of emotional tension established between them. They each have some sort of limit, Maki being an incredibly resolute fighter but with a weakness to not see curses without glasses, and Mai being unable to use curses without an object but being driven by heaps of vindictive spite. -A talking Iron Man suit with a twist that pleasantly caught me off guard -Toudou, a muscleman who’s incredibly self-centered until struck at personal interest, in which case he becomes an increasingly earnest partner with a sickass skill. Not everyone may like all of these characters, but with their fun powers, interesting power limiters and/or distinct personalities, they nail the appeal of a shonen ensemble. The initial presentation of these abilities in a lower stakes scenario makes their introduction less intrusive on a wider plot. Plus, the majority of these personalities play well for whenever the goofier moments roll around, particularly in the post episode stingers, and episodes like #21. I’m glad the author thought beyond the overly standard elemental stuff to make the ensemble leave an impression. Only hero characters of note I didn’t go more extensively on are Megumi and Gojou. Admittedly, Megumi doesn’t leave quite as much an impression as the others, but he still has a pretty cool power over familiars and got more interesting near the end as his persona began to unravel. And Gojou is such a fun rendition of the typical mentor character, with an excellent design that’s fitting to both sides of his character, constantly holding back yet being comically curious. Comedy doesn’t only exist for its own sake, but often as a way for Yuuji to bond with other characters in the cast, such as Nobara or Toudou. It’s given a lot of creative expressions, and for characters like Miwa, where their design presentation is intentionally at odds with their character, it feels fitting and adorable. Even Gojou’s comical overpowerdness doesn’t purely exist to be a joke by itself fitting his troll mentor personality, or an excuse for the animators to flex to a stunning degree, but an element actually considered by the show’s antagonists. Some jokes don’t land, but there’s enough characterful personality and expressiveness to them for them to not feel out of place, separate from more serious points to come. As for the horror elements, Jujutsu Kaisen’s animation does a great job conveying the darker atmosphere when need be in the early/mid-section of the show. It really gets that a major part of horror presentation is fear of the other, and more specifically, body horror of not-quite humans, with some excellent creature design animated in off kilter ways. As Gojou states, everyone at Jujutsu Academy is a little crazy, so it makes the major characters in the show lean into these crazier designs when channeling immense power, fitting for a series around handling curses. Thus, the show has its main villain, Mahito, use body horror to startling effect when creating his monster army. While I wouldn’t call the guy particularly deep so far, the show does present a playfully devilish personality and show his capacity to manipulate others in a reasonable sense. His powers to twist the composition of both himself and those he gets close to in uncanny, distorted shapes play into the show’s theme about curse power perfectly. The show isn’t that scary, but it adds an additionally unique element for itself with these fitting and well-animated leans to body horror. Speaking of animation, that’s most definitely a major draw into the series. Director Seong-Hu Park and his incredibly talented team of animators making bursts of exciting, visually active battle scenes when showing off the characters and their various powers. Almost every episode has a scuffle in it, several of which have some exciting camerawork to make leadups to individual actions consistently dynamic. Yes, comparing fights definitely shows that some look better than others (the sewer fights stood out the least to me), but relative to the sheer quantity of fights illustrated in the source, as well as the shonen anime landscape at large, it’s incredibly impressive and that the action was this consistent over the run. A lot of the common issues with anime fight scenes (placeholder backgrounds, motion tweens to cover up lack of movement, butt ugly CGI, long periods of chat in between blows) didn’t come up for me during the production, which really speaks to the work (or possible overwork) involved in the passion. Cursed Domains in particular get excellent scene-setting animation, and the unique way aura is depicted, with its aquamarine coloring and pseudo 3d “drawn” outline adds definably high energy to individual moves. This of course is helped by a pumping score, with Nanami’s theme, Fushigoro’s theme and Your Battle is My Battle standing out most among them. In general, while individual fights aren’t on par with ufotable’s more thinly spread action scenes, the impressive flexes from the team and strong character/tone aesthetic create a consistently visually appealing show. Jujutsu Kaisen doesn’t feel like a massively grand vision yet, so much as an ever-evolving series of smaller elements that combine well together when taped with strong structural decisions, but this feels in line with my natural selection thesis. In its characters, its story structure, its tone, and its ease to hop into exciting powerup action the animation team flexed over, it gets what audiences want from Shonen material as a strong start to a story while removing or playing down stuff that’s been less palatable overtime. I can only hope it improves further as the characters/battle conceits become stronger and its many dynamics continue to be tested.
THEHANZO1
March 26, 2021
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. Story – 6/10 First things first: The story starts off right away withour 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. And 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. Focusing 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? So 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. What 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! But 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. So, 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. Characters 7.5/10 Maybe 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. Let’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. Jumping 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. Nobara 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. Dicucssing 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. By 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! So 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. Art & Animation – 9/10 The 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! Sound – 8/10 The 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. Enjoyment – 5/10 Now 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? Overall – 6/10 All 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. Cheers🎶
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