Jujutsu Kaisen Anime Review

Rising star of the last semester.

To be honest, I didn’t think Jujutsu Kaisen would become such a popular show before the start of the 2020 Fall Season. I thought Jujutsu Kaisen would be a side job that would last 12-13 episodes for MAPPA, which is already dealing with a fairly large project (Shingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season) and an original production anime (Taisou Zamurai). I thought that if he could get enough popularity, maybe his second season would come and he’d make his real boom; But it didn’t take me long to realize I was wrong. First of all, this was not a side job for MAPPA. Jujutsu Kaisen was one of mappa’s main focuse projects and would last 24 episodes. Besides, when it comes to popularity, there’s been more events than I expected. The popularity of Jujutsu Kaisen officially took flight a few weeks after the season began and became the star of both the 2020 Fall Season and the entire 2020 season. No matter what site you looked on the Internet about animes, it was inevitable that you would see Jujutsu Kaisen.

I really don’t know what caused such a big explosion. Productions based on manga in Shounen Jump magazine, especially action-oriented ones, often reach high popularity, which is not unusual. However, what surprised me was that it happened so quickly. When I watched a few episodes without an antics and saw that the production quality was pretty good, and a few days later, when I found out there were going to be 24 episodes, I thought it would grow in popularity towards the middle of the antics, just like in Kimetsu no Yaiba; But jujutsu kaisen hadn’t been out for two months, and all of a sudden, he was all over the place. I’m not sure, but I think it’s because 2020 is already a pretty dry year for animes; There wasn’t a proper job throughout the year, and when people saw an action annulment with a high production quality, they attacked without thinking. It’s hard to be sure exactly what’s going on now, but there’s one thing we can be sure of. Jujutsu Kaisen is now one of the most popular shows of recent years, and if the producers are getting their heads around it — or if nothing bad happens to the project — we’re definitely going to see sequels for Jujutsu Kaisen.

SCENARIOS AND CHARACTERS

In a world where “Curses” arising from people’s negative thoughts circulate secretly from normal people in daily life, Itadori Yuuji, a high school student with tremendous physical power, calmly lives his daily life. However, one day a close friend gets involved in an incident involving Curses, and Itadori takes the Curse into his own hands by eating the finger of a Curse to save his friend. This Curse, in which he eats his finger, belongs to sukuna, a high-level Curse feared even by the sorcerers who fought against these Curses and by the Curses themselves. After Itadori refused to allow Sukuna to take over his body, he enrolled at Tokyo Capital Magic Technical High School, where he was taken into custody by Satoru Gojou, the most powerful of the wizards. Keeping in mind the last advice his grandfather gave him before he died, he decides to fight the Curses so that when he dies, he is surrounded by people who love him; And so begins his story in this newly met world.

To be honest, my initial views on Jujutsu Kaisen were not very positive; I almost hated the first part. When I said Itadori’s ridiculously overpowering, bad jokes and poorly written dialogues, I was suddenly chilled; The only parts I liked were when Itadori talked to his grandfather in the hospital. However, in the three episodes that followed, my views completely changed and Jujutsu Kaisen became one of my favorite shows of autumn 2020. Although looking back now, sections 2-4 and episodes 2 and 3 didn’t have much to do with it; We can even say that they remain quite bland when we consider the parts that come after the first 1/3 of the an anim. I guess the first episode was such a low episode that even though the three episodes that followed were average, they looked so much better to me than they were.

Looking back after the intervening 5 months, the part where Jujutsu Kaisen is in an acceptable position in my eyes is episode 4, while the part where he gets to what I can say is really good is the plot that starts with chapter 9. The first three episodes are bland episodes based on introducing the main characters and world of an anim to the audience. I wouldn’t say episodes 4 or 8 are great, though. Although there are some pretty good battle scenes and funny moments in these parts, the main goal is to introduce new side characters and lay the groundwork for future events.

As I just said, for me, jujutsu kaisen’s real story begins with the plot that unfolds in episode 9. I think it’s safe to say that this plot, which lasts from episode 9 to chapter 13, is more closely tied to the animate, not just me, but many others. Because, just during these episodes, Jujutsu Kaisen’s scores began to rise and anime began to receive praise from a wider audience.

This beautiful plot develops around a boy named Junpei, who was bullied at his school, and Mahito, a newborn high-level Curse. In addition to these two new characters, we also have a professional Jujutsu wizard who has just joined the cast: Kento Nanami. Although this character has its own parts and these parts are very beautiful, the storytelling revolves around him, not so much. The main focus of this plot is Itadori’s character development.

In this plot, Mahito takes the opportunity to manipulate Junpei’s loneliness in a way, while Itadori meets Junpei, who is a suspect in Mahito’s crimes. Itadori and Junpei quickly become friends thanks to Itadori’s extroverted personality, and Itadori eventually meets Mahito. Itadori then finds himself questioning his principles and the moral values he believes in. These were the best parts of the season for me. Itadori’s character was neither rushed nor slowly followed. Everything felt like it was at exactly the pace it was supposed to be, and the change in Itadori’s mindset was given quite convincingly; The action scenes were also quite nice. With good character processing and beautiful action, this plot quickly engulfed me and excited me for the sequels to Jujutsu Kaisen.

Our next plot is about the annual competition between Tokyo and Kyoto Jujutsu schools. Due to the nature of this competition, there are plenty of fight scenes in this long plot, which lasts 7 episodes. If you’re someone who thinks there are too many character-oriented scenes in the previous plot and wants to see more fight scenes, you might be happy. Because there are very few character-oriented parts in this plot. While some fights focus on the history of characters, they’re more about informing the viewer about the history of side characters than actually presenting character processing; And naturally, none of these parts can even make up half the impact of character-driven moments in the previous plot. My guess is, if it does, the next season will use the infrastructure thrown in this plot to produce beautiful character renderings; But so far, we have nothing. However, don’t let this plot get to the point where it’s bad. The fighting scenes that stand out in these sections are very good, and towards the end the quality becomes almost equivalent to the previous plot.

There are 7 big fight scenes in total in this plot between episodes 14 and 20, and all but one of them (Mehcamaru vs. Panda) all have great directing, immeasant moments and beautiful animations. Their only problem is that they don’t have much diversity. Since I follow Jujutsu Kaisen weekly, I’m not bothered by the lack of diversity in these parts, and it doesn’t bother me much, but those who will watch the episodes in a row may be dissatisfied. However, the final fight scene in this plot is so good that it is acceptable that it is somewhat reduced to diversity in order to make way for that fight scene. There is also a truly hearty Satoru Gojou scene in the final parts of this final fight scene. If you’re from the band that loves Jujutsu Kaisen’s Gandalf, the final parts of this plot will be very enjoyable for you as it features one of the most satisfying scenes of the season.

After this very full 7-part plot, we have one break section. In this episode, Kyoto and Tokyo play a baseball game. There are some fun moments during this game and important details for the last episode of the season; But even if you forget to watch these parts by mistake, you won’t miss a big thing.

As the final plot of our season, we have a mini-plot focusing on Fushiguro. Covering the last three episodes of the season, this plot has a few poignant moments and a beautiful fight scene, but it doesn’t feel like it has a straight story. The first episode features scenes that will delight horror-thriller lovers; the second episode is completely reserved for Fushiguro fans; The third part is based on Itadori and Nobara fighting in teams with the two Curses they face. Although I liked the first and third episodes, the second part was quite boring, even a bad experience for me, as I felt no affinity for a character like Fushiguro who had almost 0 functions installed over 22 episodes.

Looking back, this 24-episode season feels like a pre-preparation for something bigger. It introduces us to its world and its characters, but apart from Junpei’s story, there’s not much of a big deal going on. None of the main villains are permanently defeated or the problems in any character’s background story are fully solved. As I said before, I hope that all the questions that remain in the air will be solved in the next season; That’s why I consider this season to be just an introduction, and judging by that, Jujutsu Kaisen has a very good debut season.

For those who want a more neat description of this season’s plots, let me leave this:

Chapter 1-3: Introductions to the main characters and the world.
Chapter 4-8: Infrastructure for side character introductions and future plots.
Episode 9-13: The best parts of the season in my eyes. Very good character development for Itadori. Great storytelling around Junpei and Mahito and Nanami.
Chapter 14-20: It’s a good plot, but not as good as the last one. Lots of moments, new enemy introductions, great battles, and igning moments for us to get to know the side characters better.
Episode 21: Jun Maeda.
Episode 22-24: A small plot focusing on Fushiguro and a beautiful fight scene in which Itadori and Nobara fight together.

As for the characters, it’s hard to say that there’s much more to it than I mentioned in the previous paragraphs. There are some important moments, but none of them go far enough to be worth talking about. Even Junpei’s character, which I liked quite a lot at first, is spent at some point only contributing to Itadori’s development. The only extra thing that can talk about the characters is that the interactions between them are very good.

Jujutsu Kaisen has four main characters as well as tons of side characters, all of whom have at least one partner with a good dynamic between them. For example, there are 4 characters that Itadori has quite entertaining interactions with: Satoru, Nobara, Nanami and Toudou. While he has a brother-sister relationship with Satoru and Nanami, he has a twin-brother relationship with Nobara. Although all of his interactions with these three characters were very entertaining, what I liked most was his interactions with Toudou. Itadori and Toudou meet during a meeting between Kyoto and Tokyo schools and quickly become friends thanks to their harmonious personalities. From there, Toudou helps Itadori develop his cursed powers, and after that, a full-on revelry begins; Because this accelerated course that Itadori took gave him tokyo etc. Kyoto is very helpful in the fight at the end of the plot. Besides, it’s so much fun watching the harmony between Toudou and Itadori in this last fight that these are the parts of the season that I enjoyed the most.

VISUALITY AND SOUND

When it comes to Jujutsu Kaisen’s visuals, I’m a little in between. Although the quality of animations and drawings is very good, I am definitely not in the group that this color palette and environmental design appeals to. Let’s talk animations first.

Jujutsu Kaisen has great animations, and I’m not saying that just because he has good animations in fight scenes. Jujutsu Kaisen is not an anime with average animation quality in the rest of the show, having good animations only in sakuga scenes. They have good animations both in most normal scenes and in fight scenes. The only mediocre visual quality I can remember is in the final chapters. For example, the first 8 minutes of episode 20 are quite mediocre, both in drawing and animation, it is very clear that they are not able to get those parts in time. Fortunately, the sequel has some pretty good animations, which can cover the gap here. However, still, the quality of animation in the second half of Jujutsu Kaisen is definitely below the first half. It’s hard to maintain the same animation quality for the entire 24-episode season, and it looks like MAPPA hasn’t reached that level yet; Now, let me add that some people don’t get the wrong idea. The majority of animations in the second half are definitely not bad, even quite good. It’s just that the animations in the first half are better than the second half, which is unfortunately quite natural in an environment where animators compete with time. This is why the recent trend of splitting the 22-26 episode seasons into two and broadcasting with 3-6 month breaks is also due. By the way, when I make this first and second half comparison, I exclude Satoru Gojou’s ‘Hollow Purple’ scene from the end of episode 20. Because that scene was one of the few that looked the best this season.

While there are many beautiful looking scenes in Jujutsu Kaisen, the scenes that steal all the attention are definitely ‘Domain Expansion’ scenes. Field Expansions come with some of the most powerful spells in the Jujutsu Kaisen universe and eye-catching scenes. Their only problem is that they’re too few. There are 5 in total in 24 sections, and 1 of them is not a complete Area Expansion. I hope there’s more to the story than this Area Expansion, and we’ll be looking back on season two.

Now, as for art design. Although I like character and curse designs quite a lot, I am definitely not included in the segment that this color palette appeals to; and the color palette, as well as the brightness on the hair and clothes of the characters in places, certainly do not appeal to my eye taste. As someone who perhaps cares a little too much about the atmosphere created by the color palette, this incident has made me very uncomfortable throughout anime, especially in scenes set during daylight hours. Since this is a matter of taste, some will like this color palette and some will not, but I don’t think there will be much separation in this regard, because there is nothing wrong with it, it is purely for personal pleasures. I hope you’re the one who likes the color palette.

What I want to mention last and briefly about visuality is aesthetics. Jujutsu Kaisen has some great scenes that are actually from the beginning but where the level is increased towards the final episodes, which would normally sound ridiculous but are pleasing to the eye when used with the right music and timing. Although I don’t like the color palette, I like these parts very much, and with the level increasing towards the end, I wonder if there will be much more of them in the next season. I hope I’m right in my predictions, and we can see more of these scenes that are very pleasing to the eye, even though some of them sound ridiculous.

As for the sound, there’s not much there worth talking about because anime doesn’t peak or dip in sound , except for one detail; it has a quality that always moves on the same curve and is quite good. The music used in the fight scenes is very good and gives the stage a plus point. Although it is near impossible to do a bad job with such a cast, there are not many parts of the season where the voiceovers can shine because there are so few intense scenes. However, I think Yuuma Uchida is completely wasted. Giving such a wonderful voiceover an almost dysfunctional character like Megumi led to the man being wasted. There are only two scenes in which he can show off his talent over the course of 24 episodes.

Although I think some techniques could be used with more satisfactory sound effects, the sound effects were generally of average quality. If I have to praise the sound, unfortunately, the only thing I can praise is the opening and closing music. Jujutsu Kaisen has 2 opening and 2 closing clips in total, and all four are great. It’s all music worth opening and listening to, but even in these, the second closing music video, “give it back,” stands out to me. This clip follows a different style and has a collage of images that look like they were taken from the phone, and both animations and music are great.

As we slowly come to the end of the review, the last things I want to address are dialogues and comedy in action scenes. Let’s briefly talk about these things and finish the review.

Jujutsu Kaisen still has a considerable amount of comedy sequences, though not a lot, and they’ve been either as good as they are to me. When I was laughing and laughing on a comedy scene, I said, “Why did they put it in another comedy scene two minutes after that?” These scenes are a bit of a matter of taste, just like the color palette, but even though there are scenes where I laugh, I wouldn’t be absent if the total number of comedy scenes was halved.

As someone who hates empty dialogue in action scenes, I’m completely neutral in Jujutsu Kaisen. While it’s a clever excuse for characters to strengthen their techniques by revealing the secrets of their techniques, I’m still in favor of telling the audience before the fight by explaining the character’s technique to the unannounced friend next to him. For example, although we saw Toudou’s technique four or five episodes before the war in chapter 20, we listen unnecessarily long again to what happened in the middle of the war. This could have been much more fluid if the strengthening event had not happened when the technique was explained to the opponent, and if Toudou had explained his technique to Itadori before entering the fight, this already fluid fight could have become much more fluid. Besides, the simplest thing we see on stage is that the characters tell us like we’re idiots, but they’re pretty few compared to their peers.

Jujutsu Kaisen was a show that started out just like the kind of anime I hated at first, and in the following episodes it both improved the quality and took its style in the direction that I liked a little more. The number of episodes I was bored with in 24 episodes did not exceed the fingers of one hand, and with the preparations made, I wondered what would happen in the sequel seasons. While the squad is still going on and selling madly, I think the sequel season will come in the second half of 2022, or rather I hope it won’t come before the second half of 2022. Since his future is almost guaranteed, he’d better come late than be rushed.