Anime: Jujutsu Kaisen 92h2p

INTRO

Jujutsu Kaisen belongs in the category that began with Demon Slayer: Anime series that are carried almost entirely by their movie-quality animation. Despite the constant lies a lot of hyperiders are saying about it being a deconstruction or a subversion, or whatever meaningless platitudes they will say for making views and money, the plot and the cast are nothing you haven’t seen before. They simply look gorgeous and if colores bonitos is all you care about then you will be dumb enough to think a patchwork of stuff you have already seen in other shonen is the best shonen ever.

CHARACTERS

Let’s dig into what is wrong with it and why it’s not as good as they make it sound, starting with the character chemistry which is completely phoned in. Everyone meets and befriends each other in a matter of minutes, thus there is no gravity behind their friendship. It’s one thing to spend months with someone before you can call him an ally or a friend, and a whole other to bond in mere minutes. Basically every Jujutsu sorcerer in the show gets introduced and instantly becomes part of the team, thus it never feels like these characters care deeply about each other.

Character motivations are another lame thing, since they are ridiculously simple. One wants to help people because his grandpa told him to do it, another wants to find her childhood friend, and a third wants to be kind like his sister. It’s one thing to expect something less than trying to be the best sorcerer in the world, and a whole other to want close to nothing. There is nothing inspiring or grand in whatever they want. Naruto was instantly grabbing your attention because he was very sad on the swing, and Deku did the same by crying after being bullied and was told he will never become a hero. There is no such thing here. And it doesn’t help how ive they are the whole time. They fool around, then a mission happens, and they go to the mission. Their motivations don’t play a part in the plot in the least.

Special mention must be made for the female characters, which are often praised for not existing as fan service and for being strong and independent. It’s not much of a positive trait when they come off as unlikable feminists who are too busy bitching about first world problems and their role in society, while in battle they are still far weaker than the men. Especially Nobara, who fails at almost everything she does, has to be constantly saved by the men, and yet the audience is supposed to praise her as a strong and independent woman. She’s just there to be bitching, yelling, and being obnoxious, this is not a well presented female character, why’s everyone acting like a simp over such an obnoxious person?

ACTION

Anyways, the sole reason for anyone to watch this anime is the fighting, which is super duper well animated and choreographed. Just don’t expect it to be deep or something.
-Most supposed tactics are silly at best since they come down to a character having broken juchubruchu powers that nobody can defend against.
-The characters will also have to explain their juchubruchu powers in the middle of the fight. On one hand it’s lame infodumping that stops the fights. On the other hand it’s a lame excuse for their juchubruchu abilities to work. That’s right, if their opponent doesn’t know what hit him, he won’t get affected by them. How stupid is that?
-The ending of the fights is also anticlimactic most of the times, because it’s left inconclusive. A good guy, usually the protagonist, will be butting in right before a conclusive strike, the bad guy will be running away, and nothing will be resolved. It will be leaving you with blue balls since it’s not satisfactory. All this flying and shooting and screaming will amount to absolutely nothing. It’s sakuga for the sake of sakuga, there is no catharsis at the end.
-There is also a good guy who is so powerful, no bad guy stands a chance against. The only way a good guy will bother to fight is if there is a lame excuse for why Reverse Kakashi is not present for ending everything in a few seconds. Which is why he will be often mysteriously away on a trip, or a barrier specifically designed for him will be keeping him out of the fight. Just lame excuses, since he kills all the tension and the stakes the moment he appears. What a big mistake; you never make someone so strong and expect the audience to give a shit after awhile.
-Oh, and there is a tournament arc at some point, because there can’t be a shonen without one, and it’s easily the most boring part of the show. There are zero stakes in the fights since nobody can die, and don’t tell me you were actually worried even for a second about someone dying. It’s all just an excuse for showing a bunch of flashbacks regarding the cast. Too bad none of that matter since these people have no chemistry and never feel like they are a team. All that flashy animation goes down the drain because they are not only uninteresting, they are also not important. As stated by the very bad guys, the only two people that matter are the protagonist and the blindfold guy. What a way to fodderize the entire cast right from the beginning of the show. It’s like the guy who wrote this didn’t learn from the mistakes of My Hero Academia.

DEATH

Another thing is how the show is full of permanent deaths, many of which are outright gruesome. They make it seem like anyone can die in the story and just in every other show that wants you to think that, it applies only to unimportant characters. There was someone important who died as well, but he was so stupid he almost deserved to die. That idiot thought some school bullies killed his mom, and not a mass murdering monster. The main character in specific can resurrect whenever he feels like it, and then jokes about it before his grieving friends (who have no chemistry and therefore are not much of friends). There is no tension regarding him surviving or not during the fights and it’s also a motivation killer since his friends wanted to get stronger while they thought he was dead.

THE REST

And now for a few more things that bug me.
-The comedy is mostly miss. I was hardly laughing during the comedic moments, because the jokes are all very weak in delivery and are written for toddlers.
-What’s the point in having a monster hierarchy? There are difficulty levels when it comes to the monsters when the major characters can defeat the strongest grade right from the first season, effectively making the chart completely obsolete in the same episode it was introduced.
-There is never an explanation for how they cover up the destruction caused by the monsters. There is no gas explosion excuse like in Fate Stay Porn, or an invasion from the north excuse like in God of ten chapters per episode. The barrier they set up doesn’t prevent the victims from seeing the monsters, and buildings are constantly blowing up during the fights. So why doesn’t the public know about the curses when they are not hidden?
-And finally, training is a joke. Nobara trains to get stronger by being thrown at the ground repeatedly. Itadori masters ki control by sitting down, eating chips and watching movies. I am sure this is far more relatable to the average modern viewer than the days when shonen characters were training in lethal martial arts over a pit of lava.

So yeah, Jujutsu Kaisen is yet another run of the mill action fest that does not deserve its popularity and it’s certainly not reinventing the wheel when it comes to shonen.