Jujutsu Kaisen 2nd Season

trashcan007 Dec 31, 2023

5

An average sequel to the shallow but action-packed Jujutsu Kaisen anime. Let’s get the obvious out of the way: The animation was top tier. But let’s not conflate great animation with a great anime. Now let’s go into the actual good, ok, and bad of the anime: The Good:  The first 5 or so episodes went at a nice pace and gave much needed background info about heroes and villains. Had the rest of the series kept up with the pacing, storytelling, and action of those episodes with an occasional episode-long action packed, multiple-battle fiasco, it would have been a lot better. Some of the action scenes were cool and some of the techniques were really unique. I actually thought it was very realistic that some of the characters died. These sad occurrences keep the thrill and intensity alive. Unfortunately, one of my favorite characters was killed off :’( The Ok: You get the usual anime things like characters who walk, talk, etc after getting multiple deadly blows. The Bad:  The "main plot" was average at best. I honestly found it paper thin after the first 5 episodes. It also felt strung together by a lot of convenient fantasy. The MC stays generic. Most of the other characters are plastic molds and lacking any real depth.  Speaking of character depth: there are some Johnny-come-lately character development scenes upon the deaths or supposed deaths of some of the plastic-molded characters. Why not establish backgrounds, trials, and/or endearing things before people are taking their last breaths? Tons of fantasy and unrealistic occurrences to move the plot along: One of the most obvious being: The multiple fingers being given to the MC at just the right time to wake up Sukana. Remember when the plot entailed them looking for those fingers? That's pretty much been thrown out of the window to defeat critical foes. Another convenient fantasy part was how the robot-puppet-curse guy's consciousness was transferred to multiple headphones. This allowed him to be able to be completely aware of all different surroundings and have convenient knowledge at selective times to make a difference in the outcomes of certain characters. Then his power dries up in time for some crocodile tears for a character who no one cared about anyway. In contrast to the beginning, the ending felt jerky and boring.  Overall, I would say it was an average anime (a 5/10). It's overhyped- largely due to the high-grade animation.

kyozaii Dec 29, 2023

5

The standard for Shounen surely has dropped in the past years, the bar is now almost non-existent if this is considered the best current shounen. Let me clarify, I do not hate this show despite my critical stance, I'm just able to put aside personal bias and recognize its flaws. JJK is nothing short of mid.  Despite everyone screaming for the past years JJK has been out that it's a 'masterpiece', it surely isn't. I've been following the manga since 2019 and when the anime came out I always wondered what the hype was about and when I saw the animation... I knew. Please repeat after me everyone: entertainment value does not equal peak writing. Speaking of narrative... the writing leaves much to be desired. People like to disparage older Shounen for their animation and filler episodes BUT there’s actual value in the characters, writing, and plot. The power dynamic and structure make sense and you can follow it w/o much difficulty. When JJK starts explaining their abilities all of a sudden I'm illiterate. I become incapable of comprehending basic logic. Why are you making your power dynamic so complicated for no reason, that if I were to break down 'purple' or 'cursed energy' it boils down to a lot of nothing? The point is if you're going to compare, at least have your show be 100 times better in every aspect and not just a patchwork of every shounen before it.  Now for my favorite part: The Characters JJK does have a few likable characters. But most of them are disappointingly two-dimensional, having no interesting story of their own and a surface-level personality. However, people still like them because they're either good-looking, emo, or both. I noticed it's easier for people to like paper-thin characters than complex ones (Not me though, you all stay safe).  When you do get to like a certain character, Gege has other plans for them: Death. Death to them all. This is the reason the fandom relies heavily on headcanons because the characters are so short-lived.  Jokes aside, killing off characters for the sake of shock value started to become cheap. Nanami is an example of "killing off a character for the sake of motivating the MC" and the others fell victim to cheap shock value. Speaking of which, the flashback sob story doesn’t help. I have beef with Gege and how he wrote Toji (that's all I'll say on that). Gojo is just a different story... Yes, I find him to be a good enough character (I love OP characters) and his ego is through the roof. But he outshines the MC and I mean why not? he has six eyes, infinity, limitless, purple, red, etc at his disposal Vs someone whose ability is to throw hands. So anyway, I'll give credit where it's due, and Mappa went all out with overall animation and production quality (albeit at the expense of overworking and underpaying their animators). JJK has a very high entertainment value and will continue to have it. The fight sequences are always enjoyable to watch and it's the only thing that keeps me entertained. 

Bluesky8 Jan 5, 2024

7.8

Review of the second season of Jujutsu Kaisen produced by the Mappa studio, there will be spoilers. Characters: Let's start from what in my opinion is the strong point of this season, the cast of characters who, compared to the first season, offer us new introspections, twists and evolutions that accompany us throughout the season (I won't include them all). Itadori: In this season we witness a constant growth of the protagonist who is confronted with forces that unfortunately he is unable to counteract and it is underlined that up until now he had lied to himself only to use excuses to be able to move forward, but when reality reveals itself on his face he understands what his purpose is and decides to act accordingly despite the horrors he is forced to face. I have to say that seeing him so traumatized this season leaves a bad taste in the mouth, but this is exactly what the sorcerers of jujutsu kaisen have to face. Nobara: seeing her die a tear fell, unfortunately she didn't have time to develop on screen which almost seemed like a pretext to give more drama to the show with her death, which is a shame because as a character she had a lot of potential but unfortunately she is been wasted in the plot. Gojo: protagonist of the first narrative arc of this 2 season, here Gojo is further explored in how he manages to achieve greatness following the clash with Toji Zenin and it was very nice to see how he had a completely different vision of the world at the beginning of the sorcerers and humans, but following the death of Riko Amanai both he and Geto change perspective leading Gojo to mature following those events faced, it was also a nice twist to see that in Shibuya he was sealed in following his clash with the various special curses ranks, but it will be a shame not to be able to see him again so soon in the show.  Mahito: what can I say, perhaps the best villain of the show, the one who has the highest number of kills with the sorcerers: Junpei, Mechamaru, Nanami and Nobara, as well as having irreparably damaged Todo, it is incredible how this character fully presents the concept of "inhuman" and is also the one who puts the protagonist face to face with the sad and cruel truth of how the two behave in different ways but are similar to each other, the final scene with Mahito scared by Itadori as he imagines being hunted by a wolf in a forest in the middle of winter was something sublime to see, the one who killed humans for no reason ends up being scared by one of them he wanted to kill.  Aoi Todo: A nice character with his moments of fantasy that make you laugh out loud, this season he confirms himself as a good character, but it's a shame that he is taken very badly by Mahito, his future as a sorcerer is unfortunately ruined  Nanami: And we are here to say goodbye to one of the most interesting characters in jujutsu, when he was about to die, Nanami realizes that in reality his dream was another and that he was only a sorcerer for convenience, the last words are a curse that unfortunately Itadori will have to take responsibility for carrying forward. Honorable mention also goes to characters like Megumi, Mei Mei, Jogo, Choso and Sukuna who play their roles in this season and their facets are known. Story: This season is divided into 2 narrative arcs, Gojo's past and the Shibuya incident: Gojo's past was interesting to see the strongest sorcerer as the protagonist as he faces his first enemy who manages to put him in difficulty and fails to complete his mission, the philosophy that Gojo presents as he evolves as a character (like: the most beautiful thing in this world is me) was interesting to watch, even as Geto falls more and more to the dark side even following the his conversation with Yuki Tsukumo, while the Shibuya arc takes us to face a very dark arc in which we see the protagonists fight for the first time with a threat bigger than them, the Shibuya arc were endless fights in which the various characters, both good and evil, evolve as the game progresses, although I have some criticisms to make, such as some characters who did not show their full potential (Hanami's dominance, Nobara's death), some missed interactions that would have been interesting to see (an ideological clash between Megumi and her father Toji ) and some fights that would have been interesting to see (Nobara vs Choso), I have to say that here perhaps we reach the highest point of Jjk, the darkness, the cruelty, the sense of helplessness that you felt while watching the show were really well managed and everything will end with consequences that will have serious repercussions in the future of Jujutsu Kaisen. Animations: Here we come to one of the most controversial points of the season, if in the 1st season we had a coherent and constant technical quality for all the episodes, in this 2nd season there were some obvious problems in some episodes you were watching (ep 8,14, 18) while in others a change of style that sacrificed details to make the animations more fluid (ep 16,17), although Jujutsu kaisen 2 has many high points (ep 9,13,21), I can't help but be a little disappointed by the production of one of the most renowned anime of recent years, in the end the show was enjoyable to follow despite some inconsistencies and drops in the animation, but much more could have been done, this is mainly due to the terrible working conditions that Studio Mappa reserves its employees. Direction: Although a great job was done in producing this 2 season and there are some episodes that are really well managed from the direction point of view, others unfortunately lack real directorial coherence, mainly due to the problems that the mappa studio staff was facing at that time, it's a shame that they couldn't give us the best version they had in mind for jjk2, it's also said that they couldn't make ep 17 as they wanted due to time constraints and that it was only 30% complete Work. Sound: here we reach the lowest point of the 2nd season, although the ops and edings are very beautiful to listen to with the op "Specialz" which has become one of my favourites, the same cannot be said for the sound sector which was really disappointing especially in the Shibuya arc, there were some OSTs worthy of attention but for the most part it seemed like we were seeing an anime without sounds that didn't accompany the right moments during the narration of the story, for example the ep 9 despite being one of the best animated, as far as the OSTs are concerned it was completely wrong, having sometimes annoying soundtracks... Verdict: Jujutsu Kaisen 2, although from a production point of view it lacks in some aspects, it can still be said that overall it offers us good entertainment for one of the most loved parts of the story within the community, if you appreciated the 1st season, don't you will be disappointed by this 2 season in which the work reaches high points.