Anime 51009 Jujutsu Kaisen 2nd Season Reviews

Episode 3 review: I am a manga reader, and I won't spoil anything. This season is adapting one of the greatest Shounen Arc in history which is why I started to reading the manga in the first place. But storyline isn't the only main thing here, the anime adaption is also an important thing, and luckily Mappa is in charge of that. From the last 3 episodes, the anime adaption are pure masterpiece. Episode 3 was 10/10 to me. The animation, the artstyle, the art background, the visuals, the composition, the sound directing, the anime directing, the pacing of this story was everything 10/10. The ... undersea scene with Riko was visually my most favourite part. And Gojo vs Toji was a great fight scene. Him using his maximum Blue technique was a masterpiece adaption. I was expecting this creative camera movement once I knew Shota was announced as the new director. Finally got what I expected. If it was like Season 1, then this whole scene would've been static with no movement and less camera movement with unnecessary details in the Gojo's cloth & the surroundings. Hopefully it stays top in this anime week, cause this episode was 10/10 and it deserves to stay top at different Anime Ranking Platforms.

So this is what it’s like to watch a series crash and burn in real time…

Jujutsu Kaisen is an interesting beast of a series. When it first hit the mainstream anime community in 2020, many immediately took to praising it as one of the best Battle Shonens to come out of modern Jump, in spite of the fact that, in many other people’s eyes, it had yet to do anything all that notable or special to set itself apart from the competition. A big part of this was, of course, manga readers hyping up what the series would eventually do later down the line, and ... the rest was anime-onlies who were either blinded by the sakuga or engaged with the idea of what the series *could be* rather than necessarily what it actually was at the time.

Regardless of the reason behind the hype, it was undeniable to many people that the show had potential. Sure, it might not be anything too special now, many people said, but if it executes its ideas well and lives up to the expectations the Manga readers set, then it absolutely could become one of the best modern Shonens.

And that’s where this season comes in. Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 is the series’s attempt to cash in all its hype, the moment where shit hits the fan and it truly becomes the series everyone says it could be. Or rather, to put it more accurately, Season 2 is when the show *tries* to do that, but ends up failing, falling down several flights of stairs, and ruining most of what made it entertaining in the first place.

Breaking it down first, it’s almost necessary to talk about the season in terms of the two parts which it was broken up into: the 6 episode Hidden Inventory arc which constitutes the start, and the 17 episode Shibuya Incident arc which makes up the remainder of the season.

The Hidden Inventory arc isn’t exactly anything too special, but it’s easily the best part of the season. This is some of the most tightly focused and plotted writing in the series, with its relatively short episode count being well-complemented by its small cast. As a flashback arc detailing Gojo’s Past, it succeeds well enough, adding a layer of nuance to the character which expands on what had been previously hinted at regarding him. It retains the first season’s sense of goofy charm while managing to be relatively more serious, and is generally rather well-directed and animated on top of that.

This isn’t to say that it’s perfect, of course. The last stretch of the arc especially shows signs of rushing as just 5 episodes isn’t quite enough to fit the many emotional beats the arc tries to hit, leading to several parts of it falling rather flat when it comes to elements which don’t deal directly with Gojo’s character arc.

Now you might be thinking at this point that this seems rather more positive and good than I was making it out to be at the start of this review. Well, that’s because the real problems with the season come in its second, much larger part, the Shibuya Incident.

Shibuya starts out fine enough, mostly in how it picks up the momentum from the Hidden Inventory arc to fuel its first major fight and kick off the events of the arc. However, this is immediately lessened by the fact that that fight then proceeds to negate half of the emotional core of the Hidden Inventory arc in the first place, retroactively ruining a perfectly good arc for the sake of a cheap shock value reveal.

This bit of less than stellar writing is then followed by the onset of the rest of the arc, which is practically a nonstop series of fight scenes. And here’s where a huge problem rears its head: most of them don’t really matter.

Firstly, the show’s rather lean worldbuilding becomes a detriment here. The Jujutsu World as it exists is essentially a vague sketch made up of generic shonen worldbuilding tropes which the audience has no investment in. This was fine in the first season, where the stakes were generally character-based and the overall world took a backseat, but as Shibuya’s stakes are inherently grounded in the series’s setting, this starts to become a detriment to the audience’s investment.

This would also likely be fine if the character writing within the arc was competent enough to carry the series like it did in the first season. However, here we come to another problem: the character writing in Shibuya takes an utter nosedive. This problem is rather multifaceted, so let’s break it down a bit.

Firstly, the fights don’t really progress anything meaningful regarding the characters. Half of the fights in this season are against random one-note mooks whose only notable feature is their special ability. Consequently, there’s no personal stakes involved for any of the characters, and they have little-to-no development coming out of them. This arc’s episode count could be cut in half and pretty much nothing would change considering how inconsequential most of the fights are. This isn’t helped by the insane cast bloat, as the show constantly throws even more underdeveloped, one-note characters at the viewer and hopes that they might care about at least one of them.

Secondly, the series’ fights lack any sort of flair or personality. A big part of the appeal of the show’s first season was how simply fun the cast was in terms of their interactions and how their lovably distinct personalities shined through in their fights. However, as this is the “serious” arc, characters are not allowed to show personality or any interesting unique characteristics while fighting. So instead we get an indistinct gray sludge of generic, forgettable fight after generic, forgettable fight which is lacking in both style and substance, carried only by the efforts of the animators.

How does a writer keep the audience engaged in such an aggressively uninteresting slog, you ask? It’s quite simple, really: cheap shock value! You see that character the audience generally likes? Arbitrarily kill them off! Sure, their potential as a character hasn’t even begun to be tapped into and the audience barely knows them since you’ve spent so little time actually developing them, but if you make it sudden enough, you might be able to deceive the viewer into thinking it’s good writing!

Oh, what’s that? The viewer isn’t quite emotional yet? Just shove a flashback in the middle of their death scene and spend half the episode on it! Shoving all the character’s actual depth into the very end of their screen time, literally right before they’re dead, is *totally* a legitimate substitute for writing an actually compelling character. And, just to make sure the audience gets the point, give the character *another* flashback at the start of the next episode, just beat the audience over the head with what they’re supposed to be feeling, that’ll totally make them think the show is actually emotionally meaningful and not just boring crap.

Repeat some variant of this formula a couple times over, and you’ve got yourself the Shibuya Incident experience!

Now, of course, some might say that even if the show isn’t well-written in the slightest, it’s still very well-animated, so you can just enjoy it as turn-your-brain-off fun. However, even that approach has its problems due to the series’s consistency issues. For every genuinely great-looking fight, there’s another that’s ruined by flat shading, messy storyboarding, and the show’s ludicrously boring color palette. And even if you can look beyond that, the show’s attempts to shove emotions down your throat consistently ruin any attempt you might make to turn your brain off. It’s rather hard to just take in the action sakuga when half the episode is taken up by a boring flashback.

Overall, Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 can best be summed up in one word: Edgy. The season discards all of the potential it once had in favor of an “I’m 14 and this is deep” experience where an incoherent combination of black & red color palettes, random horrific imagery, and arbitrarily killing off characters passes itself off as good storytelling. It’s the most disappointing direction the series could have possibly taken, and easily one of the worst anime experiences of the year. Unless you’re an edgy teenager or a rabid sakuga fanatic, avoid this season like the plague.

This show has MULTIPLE kickass openings and endings, crazy high production values, and enough slice-of-life scenes to flesh out its characters. I don't care too much for the magic system, but the animations and effects do a great job of selling it. Jujutsu Kaisen is a beautiful series with outstanding art direction, which lets it stand heads and shoulders above the competition visually.

However, I have trouble taking the main story seriously. It has inconsistent stakes, unbelievably convenient writing, and awkward, start-and-stop pacing. The scattered conflicts feel unsatisfying to follow and silly to the point of breaking my suspension of disbelief. I think I might just ... be too old for Jujutsu Kaisen's antics.

Second season of Jujutsu Kaisen is truly astounding. It's incredible creative vision and ambition are only matched by disappointment coming from failures in achieving its enormous goals. To truly express my feelings about such a complicated piece of media I will have to go into spoiler teritory, but for now, until stated otherwise, I will avoid going in depth and assume you only watched the first season.

So should you continue watching Jujutsu after its long introduction you had to go through that is the first season? It is hard to say as the continuation of this story is very... let's say uneven in its strenghts. ... To help you decide let me start with what I enjoyed the most which is the combination of courage and passion put into this anime by a team of some of the very best artists in the industry. Despite massive challenges (that I will disscus in a bit) this show includes one of the most stunning and creatively impressive tv animation highlights I've seen in a long time, with incredible directing too. The team of very strong and different animators make this season of Jujutsu a compilation of many different styles and approaches animation can take, the scale of which is rarely seen. Sometimes a whole episode will be keeping a quality worthy of being shown in cinema.

Music was very fun with wide array of styles reaching some very jazzy places that I enjoyed greatly. Voice actors as always give their all in this series with many impressive performances throughout the show.

Story wise author shows some of his best moments with the first arc and many creative ideas throughout the rest of the season, but unfortunately here is where I will start complaining, with all of the ambition in mind it is obvious to me that plot is the weakest part of this show.

Lack of development for the many important characters is the most annoying problem. Even in the main trio only Itadori got sufficient level of development for me to care at least a little bit. Characters that are with us since a long time are still being neglected while new ones are being intruduced. Thanks to this problem author turns to a classic move of fleshing out a character right before his/her death, which I always hate to see, especially when they do it by having a long flashback. Antagonists are a very mixed bag. Sure Sukuna is great and I liked Mahito, but people like Toji or Geto are totally wasted which I will discuss in the spoiler section.

Fights are mostly badly written. There are few very notable exceptions, but mostly we are putting an established character against some random while the narrator is boring me to death with expositon about said random dude and his power. Rearly do we put two known, major and developed characters against eachother and sometimes when we do it turnes out to be badly handeld (I will get to it later). This is very annoying when some of the biggest fights in this climactic arc are between someone we know and some new or uninteresting dude. Many of those fights feel like being here mostly for show with not much being achived.

Power system is convoluted, and thanks to the aforementioned narrator we often are just informed of what everyone can do taking out any mystery about some of those uninteresting opponents. Conveluted system also gives the author an opportunity to often get his characters out of tough and interesting decisisons like with Gojo who ended up breaking a rule to his ability just because he is that good.

I don't really get what this series is trying to tell me. With no strong theme and lackluster plot, story of Jujutsu is just not very appealing to me.

Now let's talk about the production problems and tight timelines, resulting inconsistency in quality can either be very annoying or fascinating depending on you. Sure it is sad that those amazing artists didn't get to achive their vision thanks to corporate greed, with many frankly ugly moments in the series, but it is very impressive to see what they managed to achive after getting to know a little about what kind of problems they had to face. I would love to see a documentary about how we even managed to get what we did.

Should you watch season two? I would say most likely, but if you have problems along the way take a similar approach as one would in museum. This show made history and history while important doesn't have to be always pretty.

Now time to get into detail with my more important problems, first one is with Geto and the bad structure of this whole story.

If you, like me after watching Jujutsu zero assumed that Geto is dead and surely the one in the first season must be an imposter than chances are that the first half of this season will be very frustrating and will fail in many of the goals it is trying to accomplish. In the whole prequel arc I didn't care at all about Geto, problem which would be easly fixed by placing said arc at the begging of the story. This would also make Jujutsu zero a much better story. Unfortunately while the first arc impressed me the most it wasn't free of flaws as the fall of Geto himself felt very rushed and didn't convince me at all. Toji also feels wasted, with his only contributions being a power up for Gojo and a push towards evil for a dead soon to be antagonist.

Let's talk more about Toji and Megumi. Their fight was one of the biggest let downs of this season. We basically got nothing out of our protagonist who didn't even realize he was fighting his father. How do you screw this up?! This by all means shoud have been one of the best moments in this series. While we are talking about the big characters Kugisaki and Nanami turned out to have practically no arcs at all. Sure Nanami had his epic anime rage against some random, but I don't care. Nanami got basically abandoned by the author in favor of developing Itadori, which I despise as a decision. To be honest woman in this show have always been disappointing either being just a variation of your typical smirki personality or underdeveloped and forgettable like the blue haired Gojo fangirl. While we talk about Gojo I also have to say that I really don't get the hype about the most prideful and unchanging character in this series, but that is me just ranting at this point.

I haven't even talked about the many abandoned plot points. That will either be forgotten or reintroduced in the distant future, making me wonder why set things up like politics in the Zenin clan in the first season or other things like that when we barly even touched the subject.

I hoped that if you enjoyed Jujutsu Kaisen you won't come to my home and murder me in sleep as I've seen some very devoted fans of this show. Enjoy your show, know that I enjoyed it as well and have a great time.

Before I begin this review, I have a confession to make. After Episode 18 had aired, I felt honored as my home country was mentioned in the anime while also slightly amused by the idea the author included it. Hearing 2 different VAs having a vacation in a different country other than the usually portrayed countries like the US, Italy, France, or anything else is weirdly soothing. And yes, this is where I admit that I am a Malaysian. Witness the honored one.

It's been difficult to approach Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 with an objective mind, given how it was produced with extremely tight scheduling (only ... a week before the episode had to be aired!), and the studio's reluctance to pay its staff fairly. When MAPPA's working schedule is this bad, it's almost impossible to fathom how something like Jujutsu Kaisen could still look so good, despite the simplified look and some awkward drawings during action sequences. The staff had to give 120% of their potential to push out the episode for us, devoted fans of Jujutsu Kaisen, and to satisfy the company's greed for mainstream attention. At this point, it's hard to determine which approach is appropriate, as praising it would justify the decision MAPPA executives made and later encourage more situations like this for its staff, while criticizing it would discredit the effort of the staff, later proven by the cultural impact and media edits fans have posted for this season.

The two arcs this season adapts, Gojo's Past Arc and the infamous Shibuya Incident Arc that had many leaks and spoilers from manga fans; were surprisingly handled pretty well for something that was rushed. Well, since the Shibuya Incident Arc took a delay after Episode 5 aired, and for as little time they made to create 18 episodes fully compassing it, it did not disappoint, to say the least. The magnitude of the fights JJK is known for has multiplied further. Not to mention, we see some of the best voice acting to compete for 2023. Honestly, it was difficult to choose who had the best voice performance between Enoki Junya and Shimazaki Nobunaga, since they put their heart and soul into their roles, not to forget about Gojo's VA though. Truly the perfect example of everyone using 120% of their potential.

If there's any actual criticism I could give for this anime, it's the storytelling. While the set pieces are pulled off really well, it's at the cost of some brainless plot conveniences. While the action sequences and the payoffs are great, the story's logic is idiosyncratic, like the previous season. It takes plenty of time to elaborate the power system and techniques used by different people alike, but then allows some characters to ignore that logic and then proceed to explain it in the most general way possible as if it would accomplish anything. This kind of shenanigans can be a real pain in the head for people who are looking for actual grounded shows. The author follows the system until they say that something needs to happen regardless of the outcome. Well, it just means you're going to see some plot armor here and there.

Other than that, feast your eyes on some of the most action-packed sequences we have gotten this year. There are still some legitimate criticisms with people claiming the animation looks like fan art (they're not wrong, sometimes the art does look rough and unpolished), but the cinematography and choreography do not miss. It's so fluid that the impact of each of their force is properly registered and does not feel awkward (well, excluding a few scenes that took shortcuts like Episode 17). Taking into consideration the intensity and stakes this series has introduced further, the payoff is immensely satisfying, even greater than JJK Season 1's action sequences.

To summarize, Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 is a product of great talent that has been stretched thin by tight deadlines. We might never see a sequel of Jujutsu Kaisen that reaches this level of quality ever again, due to staff leaving MAPPA and never to be associated with it ever again. To me, it seems like the swan song of MAPPA's glory, as it all finally crumbles down for the people to see what lies beneath their facade.

I've never seen a show more devoid of substance that's as popular. It's honestly mind-boggling! And clearly, this feeling is not mine alone (read some of the reviews here). The most heinous sin here is the incoherent storytelling and world-building. In fact, I think almost everything else about the show is equally bad too.

World-building
Starting with the world-building, how do you even make sense of it? Each episode you have the "opportunity" to see a new mechanic or some random gibberish being said about this mechanism. It's so lazy to have the characetr using a new power explain how he does it every time there's ... a new power being introduced. And, none of it has to make sense or be consistent with the existing world building (the little there is).

Characters
I truly can't seem to care about any of the characeters. Yuji at the beginning of the show was traumetized by the kids being turned. At this point in the show, he's just so casual about it. I don't care about the people dying and neither do the characters. Every character is just so bland. I have no clue what anyone's motivation. Why are the villains bad again? They just are?

Animation
Honestly the only thing that might be keeping this show afloat is the animation. I painfully watch each episode just to see the cool animation and powers. I suppose that is indeed the apppeal. But then again, is that all it takes for a show to get a 8/9 on 10 on MAL??

ENG/ESP Review on Jujutsu Kaisen Second Season
This review contains minor spoilers.

ENGLISH:

Everyone told me to wait for the Shibuya Incident arc, that it is one of the best arcs in shounen and I have also seen people comparing it to the Chimera Ant arc from Hunter x Hunter 2011 (something I could almost consider an insult to Togashi's work). It is to no one's surprise that the second season of Jujutsu Kaisen retains many of the first season's flaws. It is still a work devoid of any substance and it contains many notable tone problems; when it tries to be dark it is ruined by the ... ridiculous monster design and the absolutely idiotic decisions that the characters make, when it tries to be funny it is instead totally cringe and ineffective. It just feels so cheap, bland and shallow; Gege tries to be deep and psychological in this second season with Gojo and Geto's relationship, Geto's metamorphosis and the Hidden Inventory arc but it fails tremendously and instead turns into a show of mediocrity, superficiality and edgyness which I will talk about later. Of course, I cannot do a negative review without talking about Walmart Kakashi akka "Satoru Gojo" who receives a nice power-up to defeat an enemy; this is pretty annoying, he was a character with a lot of future to participate actively on other arcs and this is what I expected before starting this season, but the guy was dispatched in less than three episodes because Gojo gets a powerup out of nowhere with Hollow Purple; so sad bro, you were a victim of the white-haired generic prettyboy, the Gojo fapping session starts here and expands all across the Shibuya Incident arc; where despite being on a precarious situation he manages to still be asslicked by the rest of the character cast every single fucking episode. This review will be somewhat long and painful to write.

First circle of Hell: Animation

It is obviously not bad, in fact it is amazing; this is due to the fact that MAPPA has every worker on extra hours and working like cattle constantly so the studio can get more revenue from this thing without any substance, of course the animation will be very pretty.., but I still have a complaint, am I the only person who feels that this animation has no soul or inspiration whatsoever? Yeah, yes, it looks objectively cool, but I feel nothing watching Gojo take off his blindfold and reveal his eyes, I feel nothing watching the fights, I feel nothing watching the domain expansions, I feel nothing but utter apathy; there is no sense of any kind of soul behind the pretty things I'm watching, something that was a similar complaint to the one I had in my review of Oshi no Ko. This feels like you're putting lipstick, long eyelashes and pretty makeup on a robot that's constantly fighting another robot, to the point that by the time I watched the fifth fight in a row with pretty animation I was getting bored out of my mind, there is nothing in these fights that interests me. The choreography of the fights is weak and mostly consists of who can throw the strongest firework at each other instead of truly interesting and unforced tactics (I'll talk about what happens in the Shibuya arc later). Still, this is in the first circle of hell as it is obviously the strongest thing about this anime and it's still objectively nice and good, there are fights (especially in the second half of the anime, towards the end and climax of Shibuya Incident) that are visually spectacular and it is obvious theres inmense amounts of effort put into them.

Second circle of Hell: Worldbuilding

Jujutsu Kaisen's world is completely empty; yes, the worldbuilding in this anime is tremendously lame; the powers that be of Jujutsu Kaisen are explained on very silly and superficial ways, it does not feel like an actual world and it is more like randomly-chosen scenarios in which the characters fight, explain or resolve their problems on immature ways. It just does not feel like theres a true world or deep scenario surrounding our characters, there is no explanation or substantial attention to detail in how the authoritarian orders work in the Jujutsu schools or how the government acts in Tokyo at that moment, in the Shibuya Incident arc I was constantly asking to myself "how would high ranks of the government respond to a terrorist attack of such a big scale?" "why arent there any militaristic or police forces moving in when the attack is so notoriously obvious?" Even if they cannot do anything against the curse users or the monsters they can still help people out and let the Jujutsu sorcerers fight without having to care for harming innocent people. The worldbuilding feels extremely vague, the power system on Jujutsu Kaisen is still pretty basic and the curses are bland and not-interesting. It does not feel like there is a world beyond what the characters can see or something that surrounds them, there is not much else to say. Jujutsu Kaisen's Japan feels extremely artificial and it isn't more than a green screen or a chroma where the entirety of the plot happens, there is no depth or substance.

Third circle of Hell: Atmosphere and tone

The dark atmosphere that Gege tries to settle many times is ruined by his obsession to try and make his characters look "cool" constantly. Jujutsu Kaisen at some point becomes a competition of "who throws the nicest-looking fireworks" throwing powers everywhere, doing idiotic stuff because it is cool.., etc, it is extremely cheesy and I couldn't help but roll my eyes and get stressed because of the tenth time in which Gege used his lame excuse of a character cast and basically screamed at my face "LOOK HOW COOL MY CHARACTER IS WOW, LOOK AT HIS POWERS, IMPRESSIVE YOU HAVE TO BE IMPRESSED WOW" until it just became tedious and boring. This show is also sold as a shounen with a dark atmosphere and tone, yet it fails in establishing one correctly due to what I said in the first place and the ridiculous monster design; yet it isn't the worst thing in this anime and in some points the atmosphere is quite decent, like the discussion between Fushiguro Toji and Geto Suguru in the weird japanese-like halls or the big haunted house in episode one.., up until this last one is ruined by Satoru Gojo, of course, as he has an innate talent to ruin every single scene or plot that is minimally interesting.

Fourth circle of Hell: Characters

In this case, the worst circle of hell and the worst thing in the entire anime. One of the things that annoyed me in the Hidden Inventory arc is Suguru Geto's idiotic character transformation; he is taking a shower alone, he starts to say pseudo-intellectual nonsense and CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!! He suddenly becomes Jujutsu Kaisen's Adolf Hitler in basically 3 or 4 episodes; this is not character development yall, this is just a cheap and forced character metamorphosis so the plot can advance, you can't make me think that this guy goes from one pole to the other, completely radical only because one of his fellow workers died in a job where older people should be respected and because he failed a mission; have you not seen thousands of situations like this? Don't you think that people like you, in very emotionally-hard jobs like this, should have developed coping mechanisms to deal with work and emotional problems? Doctors, morgue workers, volunteer people in poor places, fireworkers, military, etc, workers on these lines of labour have ways to face problems on their work; Geto did not care at all, he suddenly decided to transform into Jujutsu Kaisen's third reich for an absolutely idiotic thing. Suguru Geto is a terrible villain, badly written and without motivations that inspire the viewer to be genuinely interested on him, he is your classic cliché BBEG who decides to become a fucking CULT LEADER and do a fucking massacre for dumb stuff that occured in the past. This guy decided to go thru wisest path and kill more than half of the population, become an authoritarian imbecile cult-leader and practice eugenics, it seems that he never thought that massacring most of the human population and only let a handful of people alive is a bad idea. Wow a girl you rescued from a hostage mission died, who cares?

Like in the first season, Satoru Gojo is a character who leaves a lot to be desired and someone who Gege constantly puts in your face to try and impress you (in my case failing tremendously) with his OP powers and cringe attitude. Gojo has always been a terrible teacher and badly-written character, I will never understand people who like to pretend that hes a deep character. I particularly remember one scene in which Gojo could have ended the Shibuya Incident arc in only three episodes.., but the plot needs to advance and he decides to make the dumbest decisions known to mankind, an enemy is running away from Gojo and he decides to fucking WALK; bro, he is running away please just RUN AND CATCH HIM, it just doesnt make any sense, it doesnt even happen because of his mental state since hes able to carefully analyze his environment and the battle conditions, it is a scene that insults your intelligence; he could have killed all of the bad guys right there with ease, escaped from that situation and could have went vs Geto, yeah thats it Shibuya ends in fucking three episodes. Episode 9 is one of the worst episodes, since it is essentially a Gojo asslicking session where every character simps for him, saying how powerful he is and yadda yadda, of course all of the fights he has Gojo completely destroys them and he can only be defeated with a deus ex machina forced by Satoru Gojo's stupid decisions. TLDR is basically that Gojo is an extremely stupid character, ridiculous, overrated and badly-written; with inconsistent speed feats and incomprehensible decisions, who is absolutely obnoxious and cringe, I'll never understand the success of this character in popular anime culture.

Gege has the tendency to mercilessly execute his characters before they can even get any type of character development or interesting plot, he has an obsession with killing them before the viewer can even feel anything for them and due to this their deaths and the things that happens during the Shibuya Incident are completely irrelevant and feel like nothing to me; it is this bad or I just don't have empathy, I'm not sure, I just cannot feel anything for such bland characters. This anime uses the "Kimetsu no Yaiba" tactic, which is inserting flashbacks and memories with sad music just before someones death so the scene can be sadder; of course it feels overtly artificial when you see a character who is clearly going to die and they suddenly insert a random flashback, no, I will not empathize with this character only because you're putting these flashbacks in their last moment. To empathize with a character and feel emotions the writer needs to build them in a correct way previously; the death scenes are good but they don't belong to anyone who feels human and thus they are very ineffective. Nobara is a nobody who has done nothing in every season and is absolutely bland as a character, Megumi is still the same Sasuke-trope guy from the first season and there is not a single type of development or change, they are still the same person they were on the first season and beginning of Shibuya, the Kyoto alumni are absurdly forgotten in a conflict which should involve both Kyoto and Tokyo schools (because of their danger and scale, it doesn't matter what Mechamaru thinks or does) and the rest of the secondary characters are the same cliché stereotype they were on the first season, there is nothing that makes them unique. Because of this, the death of people on Shibuya doesn't affect me on any way and thus Itadori's "development" feels forced and cheap, Itadori's trauma is treated in a very immature and short-lived way; as a viewer I wasn't capable of putting myself in the protagonist's shoes because I don't care a single bit about Jujutsu Kaisen's character cast, and this incapacity to empathize with such a bland cast is an enormous error on what should be a tremendously tragic and chaotic arc (Shibuya Incident) simply because they don't feel like real people, they are just stereotypes, it's like killing a bunch of NPCs without any relevance. The last episodes also have the tendency to disable and suddenly materialize characters out of nowhere in a way that is convenient for the plot, suddenly the strongest sorcerers appear in the battlefield and I'm asking to myself "where were these guys when we needed them???? why in the fuck do they appear in the ending of this conflict???" It is a terrorist attack of a great scale and these guys weren't even present here, they appear in the ending to throw around exposition dumps to the spectator and not help in anything, its ridiculous. The worst thing a storyteller can hear is: "I don't care for any of these characters" and it certainly rings true here. I don't care about anyone on here.

The Cocytus River: Conclusion

I didn't expect much but it still managed to disappoint me, the second part of Jujutsu Kaisen isn't more than the continuation of something tremendously mediocre and a shounen hidden under a veil of pretencious darkness. It is like if you turned a battle of edgy robots without any personality in japanese animation with generic anime character-designs, this battle will for sure look great but behind of that there isnt anything else; its just a show of pure style over substance and a show that is constantly trying to convice the viewer that it is more than it really is, a mediocre shounen show with generic, badly-written characters, stylish-yet soulless battles, stupid decisions, edgyness, pretenciousness and more; because of these reasons, it is interesting to me how people treat Jujutsu Kaisen as the last bottle of water in the desert, truly, I can't see how this is not less mediocre than, for example, Boku no Hero Academia.

ESPAÑOL:

Todos me decían que espere al arco de Shibuya, que es uno de los mejores arcos de los shonen e inclusive he visto personas comparándolo al arco de las hormigas quimera de Hunter x Hunter 2011 (algo que consideraría casi un insulto hacia la obra de Togashi). No es de sorprenderse que la 2da temporada de Jujutsu Kaisen contiene muchos (sino es que todos) de los defectos que la 1ra tiene. Es todavía una obra sin ningún tipo de sustancia y que posee problemas de tono muy notables; cuando intenta ser oscuro es arruinado por el diseño ridículo de los monstruos y las decisiones absolutamente estúpidas que los personajes cometen en los episodios, cuando intenta ser chistoso termina dando vergüenza ajena y siendo absolutamente ineficaz en esto. Se siente todo tan barato, blando y superficial; Gege se atreve a intentar ser más profundo y psicológico en esta segunda temporada con la relación entre Gojo y Geto, la transformación de Geto y el arco del pasado de Gojo, pero falla tremendamente pues no puede evitar que todo lo que escriba se vuelva un festín de mediocridad, superficialidad y edgyness. Por supuesto, él era un personaje con bastante futuro para estar en otros arcos de Jujutsu Kaisen y eso es lo que esperé que sería antes de ver la segunda temporada, pero el tipo fue eliminado en menos de 3 capítulos porque Gojo se sacó un powerup de entre las nalgas con el purpura; que pena bro, fuíste víctima del pretty boy peliblanco genérico, la sesión de masturbación a Gojo empieza aquí y se expande a lo largo del arco de Shibuya; en donde a pesar de que este último esté en una situación precaria sigue siendo el pretty boy famoso de este anime, por lo tanto debe seguir siendo venerado cada puto capítulo. Esta reseña será algo larga y dolorosa de escribir.

Primer círculo del Infierno: La animación

La animación no es mala obviamente, de hecho es increíble; pues el Estudio Mappa tiene a todos sus trabajadores en horas extra y laburando como ganado constantemente para sacar solo un capitulito más y conseguir ganancias de esta cosa sin sustancia alguna, es obvio que la animación será bonita; más tengo una queja. ¿Soy la única persona que siente que esta animación no tiene ningún tipo de alma u inspiración? Sí, sí, se ve linda, pero no siento nada al ver como Gojo se saca la venda y revela sus ojos, no siento nada al ver las peleas, no siento nada al ver las expansiones de dominio, no siento nada más que absoluta apatía; no se siente ningún tipo de alma detrás de las cosas lindas que estoy viendo, algo que fue una queja similar a la que tuve en mi reseña de Oshi no Ko. Esto se siente como si le pusieras pintalabios, pestañas largas y maquillaje bonito a un robot que está constántemente peleándose con otro robot, al punto de que cuando ya vi la quinta pelea seguida con animación bonita me estaba aburriendo hasta el hartazgo, no hay nada en estos combates que me interese. La coreografía de las peleas es débil y en su mayoría consiste de a ver quién tira el fuego artificial más fuerte hacia el otro en vez de tácticas verdaderamente interesantes y sin estar forzadas (luego hablaré de lo que acontece en el arco de Shibuya). Aún así, esto está en el primer círculo del infierno pues es obviamente lo más fuerte de este anime y sigue siendo objectivamente bonita y buena, hay peleas (en especial en la segunda mitad del anime, ya tirando al final y climax del Incidente de Shibuya) que son espectaculares visualmente y es obvio que hay un montón de labor y trabajo puesta en ellas.

Segundo círculo del Infierno: El worldbuilding

El mundo de Jujutsu Kaisen está completamente vacío; sí, es así, la construcción del mundo de este anime es penosa; las organizaciones de poder en este anime están explicadas de forma boba y superficial, más que un mundo se siente como escenarios elegidos al azar en los que los personajes pelean y explican o resuelven sus problemas de forma inmadura. No se siente como si hubiera un mundo de verdad rodeando a nuestros personajes, no hay ningún tipo de explicación a detalle o sustancial en como funciona el órden autoritario de las escuelas de hechicería o como es el órden gubernamental de Tokyo en ese momento, en el caso de la invasión a Shibuya estaba constántemente preguntándome "¿cómo responderían altos mandos del gobierno a un ataque terrorista a tan gran escala?" "¿por qué no hay refuerzos militares o policiales de ningún tipo cuando ya el ataque es tremendamente notorio?" Sí, seguramente no podrían hacer nada contra los monstruos o los usuarios de maldiciones, pero igual podrían ayudar a la gente lastimada a que se alejen de Shibuya o llevar gente a refugios para que los hechiceros de Jujutsu peleen sin preocuparse por bajas civiles. La construcción del universo se siente absurdamente vaga, el sistema de poderes de Jujutsu Kaisen sigue siendo bastante básico y las maldiciones siguen siendo llanas y poco interesantes. No se siente como si hubiera un mundo más allá de la visión de nuestros personajes o algo que los rodee, no hay mucho más que decir. El Japón de Jujutsu Kaisen se siente extremadamente artificial y no es más que una pantalla verde o chroma en donde sucede toda la trama, no hay nada de profundidad ni sustancia.

Tercer círculo del Infierno: El tono y la atmósfera

La posible atmósfera oscura que Gege ha intentado establecer una y otra vez es arruinada por la obsesión de este mismo con hacer que sus personajes hagan cosas "cool" a cada rato. Jujutsu Kaisen en cierto punto se vuelve una competición de "a ver quién tiene los fuegos artificiales más impresionantes" tirando poderes para todos lados, haciendo idioteces porque es cool.., etc, es muy cheesy y no podía evitar girar mis ojos y estresarme ante la décima vez en la que Gege me ponía a sus excusas de personajes en la cara y me decía "MIRA, QUE COOL MI PERSONAJE WOW MIRA QUE PODER QUE TIRA, IMPRESIONANTE TIENES QUE ESTAR IMPRESIONADO WOW" y ya hasta se volvía tedioso y aburrido. Este show es además vendido como un anime de un tono u atmósfera oscura cuando falla en establecer una correctamente debido a aquello que dije en primer lugar y por el diseño ridículo de los monstruos; a pesar de esto, no es lo peor del anime y en ciertos puntos la atmósfera es decente, como la charla entre Toji Fushiguro y Suguru Geto en aquél lugar extraño con los pasillos de apariencia japonesa o la mansión del capítulo uno.., hasta que esta última es arruinada por Gojo, por supuesto, el cual parece tener un talento innato para arruinar cualquier escena o trama mínimamente interesante.

Cuarto círculo del Infierno: Los personajes

En este caso, el peor círculo del infierno y lo peor del anime. Una de las cosas que más me molestaron en el arco de Hidden Inventory es la metamorfosis tan boba y aniñada de Geto; el tipo se está duchando solo, ve a gente muerta que es típico en un trabajo tan peligroso como el de él y entonces empieza a decir idioteces pseudo-filosóficas y ¡¡DESARROLLO DE PERSONAJE!! El tipo se vuelve el Adolf Hitler de Jujutsu Kaisen en básicamente 3 o 4 capítulos; esto no es desarrollo de personaje gente, es una transformación barata y forzada para hacer que la trama siga avanzando, no me puedes hacer pensar que el tipo pasa de un polo a otro completamente radical solo porque se murió una persona que conoció hace unos meses y falló una misión; ¿no has visto miles de situaciones como estas? ¿no crees que gente como tú, en trabajos emocionalmente difíciles, tendría que haber desarrollado métodos para hacerle frente a tus problemas laborales y emocionales? Doctores, trabajadores en morgues, voluntarios en lugares pobres, bomberos, militares, etc, todos estos trabajos tienen formas de hacer frente a lo que son los problemas que acontecen en sus trabajos; a Geto le importó un bledo esto, decidió de repente transformarse en el tercer reich de Jujutsu Kaisen por una absoluta idiotez. Suguru Geto es un mal villano, mal escrito y sin motivaciones que inspiren al espectador a estar interesados en él de forma genuina; es un malo maloso que de repente se vuelve líder de un culto y decide hacer una masacre por absolutas tonterías que le sucedieron en el pasado. Este tipo decidió que la decisión más sabia era masacrar a la mayoría de la población, volverse un imbécil autoritario líder de una secta y practicar la eugenesia, parece que nunca pensó que quizá masacrar a la mayoría de la población humana y dejar a un puñado de gente viva es una mala idea.

Al igual que en la 1ra temporada, Gojo es un personaje que deja muchísimo que desear y el cual Gege te planta constantemente en la cara para intentar impresionarte (fallando estrepositosamente, al menos en mi caso) con sus poderes OP y su actitud cringe. Gojo desde siempre ha sido un profesor horrible y personaje mal escrito, nunca he entendido a la gente que pretende que Satoru es alguien más profundo. Recuerdo particularmente una escena en donde Gojo podría haber terminado el arco de Shibuya en tan solo tres capítulos.., pero el guionazo pega y decide hacer las decisiones más estúpidas de la historia, a Gojo se le está escapando un puto enemigo y el tipo va CAMINANDO; hermano, se está escapando el tipo CORRÉ PARA ATRAPARLO POR FAVOR, no tiene ninguna pizca de sentido, ni siquiera es por su estado mental en el momento pues luego de eso procede a analizar detenidamente el escenario de batalla con cautela, es una escena que insulta tu inteligencia; podría haber matado a todos los malos malosos ahí, escapado de esa estación e ir a por Geto, listo Shibuya termina en tres capítulos. El episodio 9 es uno de los peores, siendo una sesión de lamerle las patas a Gojo constantemente y todos los personajes se babean por sobre él, diciendo lo poderoso que es y etc, por supuesto que las peleas que tiene las destroza completamente y solo puede ser derrotado por un deus ex machina forzado por las estupideces de Gojo. El resumen es que Gojo es un personaje estupidísimo, sobrevalorado, mal-escrito y ridículo; con logros de velocidad inconsistentes y decisiones incomprensibles, que cae mal y da vergüenza ajena, nunca entenderé el éxito de este personaje en la cultura popular del anime.

Gege tiene la tendencia a ejecutar sin piedad a sus personajes antes de que puedan conseguir cualquier tipo de desarrollo o trama interesante, esto es así, tiene una obsesión a matarlos a todos antes de que el espectador pueda sentir algo por ellos y por lo tanto sus muertes y los acontecimientos por los que pasan son irrelevantes; esto o yo soy alguien sin empatía, no lo sé, simplemente no puedo sentir emociones por personajes tan blandos. Este anime ejecuta la clásica táctica que Kimetsu no Yaiba también hacía, la estrategia de "métele flashbacks y recuerdos con música triste antes de su muerte para que la escena sea más triste"; se siente extremadamente artificial cuando estás por ver que un personaje claramente va a morir y justo insertan un flashback sin motivo alguno, no, no voy a empatizar con esta persona solo porque me estés metiendo estas escenas a último momento. Para hacerme empatizar con un personaje y sentir emociones precisas construírlo correctamente de forma previa; las escenas de muerte están bien pero no pertenecen a personas que se sientan humanas y por eso resultan tan poco efectivas. Nobara es una don nadie que no ha hecho nada en todas las temporadas y está tremendamente poco desarrollada, Megumi sigue siendo el mismo de la primera temporada y no hay ningún tipo de desarrollo u cambio que suceda con ellos, siguen siendo la misma persona en el inicio y en sus finales, los alumnos de Kyoto están absurdamente olvidados en un conflicto que lógicamente debería incluir a los dos institutos de magia por igual (por su peligro y escala, inclusive a pesar de lo que Mechamaru haga y piense) y el resto de personajes secundarios son el mismo estereotipo cliché y clásico que eran en la primera temporada, no hay nada que los haga únicos. Por esto mismo, la muerte de la gente en Shibuya no me afecta de ninguna forma y por lo tanto el "desarrollo" de Itadori se siente forzado y barato, el trauma de Itadori es tratado de forma muy inmadura y es de vida muy corta; como espectador no fuí capaz de ponerme en los zapatos de Itadori porque no me importan ni un poco los personajes de Jujutsu Kaisen, y esa incapacidad para empatizar es un gran fallo en un arco tan caótico y trágico como lo debería ser el Incidente de Shibuya, simplemente no se sienten como si fueran gente real, son tan solo clichés y estereotipos sin profundidad alguna, es como matar a un puñado de NPCs sin relevancia alguna. Los últimos capítulos además tienen la tendencia horrible de inutilizar y materializar de la nada personajes de forma conveniente para el plot, de repente aparecen varios hechiceros completamente sanos y yo me pregunto, ¿¿¿dónde mierda estaban cuando se les precisaba??? Es un ataque terrorista a enorme escala y estos tipos ni siquiera estaban presentes acá, aparecen al final para tirar exposition dumps al espectador y no ayudar en nada, es ridículo.

El Río Cocito: Conclusión

No esperaba mucho pero logró decepcionarme, la segunda entrega de Jujutsu Kaisen no es más que la continuación de algo mediocre y un shonen disfrazado bajo un velo de oscuridad pretenciosa. Es es como si conviertes una batalla de robots edgy sin personalidad en animación japonesa con diseños de personaje anime genéricos, la pelea seguramente se vea bien pero luego de eso no hay mucho más; es un show de puro estilo sobre sustancia y que está constantemente intentando convencer al espectador de que es algo más de lo que en realidad es, un shounen mediocre tirando a malo con personajes genéricos y mal escritos, batallas con estilo pero sin alma alguna, decisiones estúpidas por parte de los personajes, edgyness, pretención y más; por estas razones me resulta interesante ver como la gente trata a Jujutsu Kaisen como la última botella de agua en el desierto, de verdad, no encuentro la diferencia de mediocridad entre esto y otro anime como Boku no Hero Academia, como dije en mi reseña de Jujutsu Kaisen 1ra temporada esto no aporta nada nuevo y tiene básicamente los mismos defectos que su predecesor. No, no subvierte expectaciones ni hace nada nuevo, no te dejes engañar por este anime, matar a tus personajes antes de que tengan cualquier tipo de desarrollo relevante no es buena escritura ni subvertir expectaciones o algo especial, es tan solo mediocre y estúpido. Es un anime lleno de decisiones tontas, clichés y tramas forzadas, con desarrollo no-existente y peleas por doquier para justificar la falta de una trama interesante o buena escritura.

I have noticed that the reviews most people have left regarding Season 2 of Jujutsu Kaisen have no middle ground. Those who praise it act as if it was the second coming of Jesus Christ, while those on the opposite spectrum act as if it was the worst thing to come into existence. Some of them seem to be quite outdated as well, most of them having left the review during the first five episodes of this season of JJK, called the "Hidden Inventory" arc. I don't usually leave reviews for animes (I did before but it became tiring when my mindset of leaving a ... review for any anime I watched made me realize "I don't have time for that, and no will care anyways.") but after having observed the reviews of this anime I thought, "Why not leave a review where it'll cover both the good and the bad of this anime?" and so here I am. Do take note that during the writing of this review, there were still 4 episodes left, so I might or might not update it depending on if I feel like it.

To give an idea on how things stood before this anime aired, I'd like to give a summary. Manga readers have been hyping this season of JJK, stating that it is one of the best shounen arcs to ever exist in modern anime (how do you define what is modern anyway?). There are two arcs apparently being covered this season, which was the Hidden Inventory arc that I stated before, lasting 5 episodes. The meat of this season that manga readers mostly hype it for is the Shibuya Incident arc, lasting the remaining 18 episodes of this season and also the arc that manga readers regard as "one of the best arcs in modern shounen anime". Hidden Inventory arc is a half slice-of-life half-action and drama covering Gojo Satoru's past during his days as a student in Jujutsu High. It also serves as a prequel to the whole Jujutsu Kaisen series, as it answers questions viewers have been wondering about after watching both JJK 0 and Season 1, while also leaving new questions in its place.

Now then, onto the actual review. On the technical side of things, animation of this season have been a high point of praise (and deservedly so), barring a few episodes in the middle of the season where it was obvious that MAPPA's horrible treatment of its animators had started to take a toll on its production. MAPPA isn't known to slack on that department, so of course animation has been very good, if not better than Season 1, throughout nearly all the episodes. There have been improvements on its art style as well, where the distinguishing features of characters allow them to shine and stand out among all characters, thanks to its improvements. Because of this, it also sets the mood nicely for most of the episodes, where it's supposed to be a dark or gloomy moment for our protagonists. Music and sound are also very good (love both the first and second OP), which shouldn't be a surprise to be honest, given how good the music of Season 1 was. Voice acting, as always, is impeccable. Nakamura Yuichi's work as Gojo Satoru is always a blast.

Regarding the story, hooohhh boy is there A LOT to unpack. First of all, I loved Hidden Inventory arc. Gojo and Geto's dynamic as friends with almost a brotherly bond allowed them to shine onto the spotlight of the arc spectacularly. The new character of this arc, Riko Amanai, was also a breath of fresh air as while she is the key character that caused the series of events to happen both in Season 1 and in the following arc, she was also filled with personality in an already stacked cast. How she plays with Gojo and Geto's dynamic never feels forced and in fact strengthens their bonds while allowing her to leave an imprint on their lives as the arc later descends to a disaster. Secondly, character development of Gojo and Geto was also widely explored in the Hidden Inventory arc, as for the first time, it actually made me symphatize with Geto's character and explaining how he turned out the way he was in JJK 0, while Gojo struggles with the conflict he has against him. The end of the arc actually made me feel bad that they had to go their separate ways, and their eventual spiral to enemies (as we've seen in JJK 0) had me thinking back on how everything in the movie finally made sense (as well as parts of Season 1), and what a shame it was to see their friendship break up over the events of this arc. At this point, it might not be an exaggeration for me when I say that Hidden Inventory arc is probably the best arc JJK has so far (assuming we'll get another season of JJK since I'm no manga reader).

For the second arc of Season 2, Shibuya Incident arc, I'd say that I'm very much... mixed to low on my opinion of it. I want to get the question out of the way first: is Shibuya Incident really one of the best arc in modern anime? And for that, my answer would be a very high no.

To start with, the animation is still as good as always (despite MAPPA's insistence that its animators are robots). Pretty much everything in the technical side is pretty consistent with what we got from Hidden Inventory arc. The gripes with it that I have the most is very much its storytelling. Shibuya Incident arc has been very good at creating hype and shocking moments and for that I give it credit. However, when the arc relies only on shock value and pretty display of characters fighting each other until one of them gives out due to a bunch of reason or other (mostly nonsense like pulling out trump cards and battles of "You thought you were stronger, but nope I am because I still have my *insert power move here* technique!"), the story becomes rather hollow. I don't like to blame source readers when they're praising the anime adaptation of a beloved source material they've been following for years (after all, nearly all source readers of all anime adaptations are guaranteed to do that), but I want to state that Shibuya Incident arc is an overhyped story arc by its source readers who probably remember this specific arc from the source for its shock factor and "wow moments". This in turn has made me disappointed on what they think is one of the best story arc of modern anime.

Firstly, while there are indeed shocking moments in this current arc, it doesn't really feel like there are any emotional weight or attachment I'm feeling towards to them. For example, a certain mentor character that a lot of people have been loving since Season 1 dies in the second half of the arc, and for me it's just a 5 second moment of shock and then indifference afterwards. Maybe it is just me (opinions are like buttholes after all, we have one), but I feel like we should've spent more time with them before offing them off because I felt like they were killed just to establish that *insert villain who killed certain character* is a force to be reckoned with, which we already knew back in Season 1.

Secondly, I'd like to point out that despite all the hype moments that Shibuya Incident arc has, I haven't been drawn at all to the events nor be interested on everything that has been going on so far. One significant moment in this arc is when a certain character commits a massacre, which is supposed to be shocking to the audience. However, aside from the short moment of shock factor, I find no reason to care nor be interested why I should feel bad for those involved, or how that certain character changes things after committing what he did. Another significant moment is when a certain character summons a character that is able to go head-to-head in battle with another, very strong well-known-to-be-the-strongest-in-the-world character. Source readers hyped it up a lot prior to the episode stating that a certain character is about to go change things in regards to the whole plot. For me however, it didn't really feel like a lot has happened. Sure, we know now that there are two very strong characters in the already-gigantic cast of JJK, but I find no reason to care why I should be interested in that or why his appearance is going to be very significant.

Third and lastly, speaking of an already-gigantic cast, the characters in this season, while being given a time on the spotlight between episodes, don't really feel like their scenes matter because all they have been doing is getting involved in the fights. We already know that the events of this arc will be a bloodbath, and we know they're all going to get caught up sooner or later, but there is just no substance on why I should care this battle is going on between Character A and Character B. There is no character development between them, which I was dismayed with given that Hidden Inventory arc really did well with how they developed Gojo and Geto's characters.

There is also the matter of the fact that this arc has been constant fighting with little to no breathing room. You might complain that "Well duh the events are supposed to show that Shibuya Incident arc is chaotic!", but I want to bring up another story arc from a modern shounen anime that executed a high-stakes constant-battle story arc perfectly: Return to Shiganshina arc, from Attack on Titan's S3 P2. Both are full of hype moments, main characters dying, and shock value, but Return to Shiganshina succeeded where Shibuya Incident failed for me: bringing meaning and weight to deaths of characters without making it feel like a constant tiring battle of fights and fisticuffs, and also paying off audience expectations and adding new reasons to be interested to the overall story of each respective anime. Return to Shiganshina arc had me trembling for the characters involved, not only because their characters were well-developed, but also because it actually gave off massive implications while establishing new plot points on in the story that would come into play later on. Shibuya Incident arc doesn't off give that feeling for me. I can't exactly say what is the root cause of JJK S2's Shibuya Incident arc shortcomings: is it an overhyped arc and I was just pinning my hopes too much on source readers, or is it simply because I just can't vibe with all of the action and fights?

Overall, I'd rate JJK's Season 2 a 6 for "Fine", mostly thanks to the Hidden Inventory arc (again, probably my favorite arc of JJK series so far), and its spectacular animation. I just wish Shibuya Incident arc lived up to its hype of being "the best arc of modern anime". One thing is for sure though, if this is the peak that JJK has to offer, then I am only worried for the next (probably) seasons of JJK.

Disappointing season in terms of animation and character design, there's no way to compare it to the first season, if the third reaches that level I won't follow it. Most of the battle scenes were distorted, some episodes had a very slow pace, there were hours that looked like children's drawings. The only thing that made me continue to follow was the story that clarified some points, not all that were open. Unfortunately, the studio ended the work, I hope the mistake doesn't happen again and they still left the ending completely open, they could have added a few more chapters to really close the ... arc.

Honestly do not get the hype around this one.
Season 1 started off somewhat interesting with the fingers of Sakuna and Yujii being able to somewhat control him, the mystery and intrigue of the world and curses etc.
It quickly became standard shonen power system anime that nobody fucking gets because the powers in question are just pulled out of thin air and explained mid-fight (with the kack-handed explanation that this makes the person stronger lmfao). Explainu No Kaisen.

There is no build-up for anything, there is no tension in fights because the big three (Satoru, the Frankenstein boi and whatever emo-man's name is) are completely busted ... in every sense and thus will always win, no matter how much shit you throw at them. The fake "oh my god will they ACTUALLY die/get hurt this time?? 😱😱😱" moments just add to the hilarity because anyone with half a braincell knows exactly that this won't happen. Stakes? There are no stakes, the plot keeps chugging along in between overblown fight scenes and the initial intrigue is lost because everyone is too busy sucking off Satoru.

We still do not have a clear grasp as to how the world works, what the power differences between characters are, how powers work and potential constrictions. It just happens on screen and you're supposed to be pumped about some meaningless buzzwords that got over-energetically screamed into a studio mic.

Speaking of characters - the character development is poor at best, there's so many quirky supporting characters that it feels like being thrown into Infinity War without any explanation beforehand. Loads of colour but no depth. I can't care about character deaths because there is not enough character to care about.
What has Yujii done in these 1 1/2 seasons? How has Satoru evolved? Oh nvm, he's already perfect pls have my childwen UwU.
What is Getou's plan? No like, in concrete bullet points. Yeah, I don't know either. Nobara? Barely remember what she was about or how she evolved. If there is development, it moves at a glacial pace.

The animation and sound is what carries this anime, if its production value was standard, nobody would bat a fucking eye at this.
Great intros though.

All in all, a very middling anime and I frankly do not see how this is supposed to be the Attack on Titan of the 2020s. Will probably keep watching but not feeling too enthusiastic about it.

a copy without an original
Most of the problems of season 1 is apparent here unfortunately I’ll just do a quick rant and then I elaborate on them below
It’s actually disappointing how people are crawling over each other to hype up pure radioactive nuclear garbage called "Jujutsu Kaisen 2nd Season"
how style and fight scene have become what we mainly judge an anime with, who cares about plot holes? who cares if we get asspull after asspull
all that matters is mei mei is fucking her simp brother, all that matters is kakashi doing the "blue technic", all that matters is the fight scene, look at that badass ... technique kakashi just pulled out of his fucking ass, look how our 0 dimensional main character Yuuji is fighting with all his passion for humanity and finally look at how the heroes give a final speech to the villain about friendship

The thing about the blue technique is that it’s not just a power the character has, it’s a get out of the jail free card, oh you are losing the fight? The villain is smart? Don’t worry you have this hidden technique to save you, which makes you wonder why not use this power immediately? This is the plot hole I’m talking about

In a certain episode a certain ‘nobody’ dies and this was supposed to be a sad thing but the death serves as power fuel for Yuuji to fight evil harder at that moment, that’s it, I’m not upset why he/she dies because none of the characters are developed or are interesting, the incompetent mixture of comedy and seriousness made it impossible to emotionally invest in anything in this shitshow
The asspulls in the show are awful, during a fight someone suddenly gets emotional and it’s power-up time, this is really insulting, I don’t have to explain that this is a cheap way to win a fight against villains, this is overused garbage

The thing that makes me angry at the fight scenes is that they are absolutely purposeless, what is it they are progressing in the plot? Nothing! If that villain didn’t show up nothing Would have been missed
it's 10pm and instead of sleeping i'm writing this, i hate you guys so much

*** This review contains spoilers ***
Review in English and Spanish – Below is the same review in Spanish

Well, the second season of Jujutsu Kaisen is divided into two arcs: Hidden Inventory and the Shibuya arc. I read these two arcs in the manga years ago, and they are among my favorites in all of JJK. In general, they are some of my favorite arcs. When they announced this season, it was what I was looking forward to the most out of all the anime. I'm going to comment, analyze, share my opinions, and several other things that I'm not sure if I can mention ... about what I thought of this entire season or, better said, this masterpiece of a season


Hidden inventory: I must say that there was a change of director from the first season to the second. The shift in direction by Gosso (it's the abbreviated form, named Goshozono, Shouta) is quite noticeable to me. Personally, I love the direction not only in this mini-arc but throughout the entire season; it literally feels like a different series, giving me vibes of Chainsaw Man. Perhaps it's just me thinking this, but well, idk. This director is one of my favorites. I should also mention that he had prior experience working on Jujutsu Kaisen (JJK), as he was the storyboard artist for episode 17 and directed some episodes in the first season, which were animated quite well. He was also involved in episode 8 of Chainsaw Man, episode 4 of Mob Psycho, the famous episode 21 of Ousama Ranking, practically being part of the best episodes, at least technically, of each series. But well, enough about Gosso; let's get back to the arc.
Both the opening and ending song of this mini-arc are amazing. The ending, in particular, complements the arc well, slow yet melancholic, reflecting Gojo's past with his only friend who left due to his ideals. I love it; it gives me those vibes. The animation is insane, to be honest. I love how well the 2006 setting fits. It's simplistic, silly, and charming, especially in funny moments. Beyond that, the animation is top-notch. The fight in the second episode with a random masked character vs. Gojo has fantastic choreography that I adore. The soundtrack, which I love, is very solid

Chapter three, aside from what I mentioned above about the direction that didn't make sense in this episode, in every good sense, what it did at the end with inserting the ending, the voice actors, BROTHER, the voice actors did an amazing job with the girl crying, reaching out to cut with the shot and cut with the music and all. It was incredible—the music, the shots of the aquarium, the shots of them strolling through an entire park with flowers. Those backgrounds, GOD, how I loved everything about this chapter. Everything about Gosso is not making sense, to be honest, I never doubted. The soundtrack is being completely outdone by that of the first season, at least in these early chapters and as far as I know, only 1 of the 3 composers from the previous season is part of this season. Incredible, the work of these three individuals. At the beginning of the chapter, Gojo resolves an entire plot that seemed like it was going to develop further but in the end, NO, BAM, he takes it, and we already rescued the maid. Well, what I mentioned above about the backgrounds, bodyguards arrive at Tensen's lair to deliver Riko, and my FATHER Touji appears—WHAT A FIGHT, MY GOD, WHAT INTENSITY, WHAT ANIMATION, GOSSO CINEMA. Those eyes Gojo has, I love them, and all the blood when he's almost dead. Definition of cinema

Chapter 4 was also incredible, but not quite like the third one. The third is something, as I mentioned above in the text. At this point in the season, you realize it has a completely different style, another vibe that I love. I liked this episode in terms of the Gojo vs. Touji fight. The fight showcases the purple with a beautiful soundtrack as all of this unfolds. In the overall episode, Gojo seems quite lost in his gaze—well-directed in every aspect. I love how he's in the sky, as if he's so far above Touji... and since we're talking about Touji.

I firmly believe that Touji also carried a very heavy psychological burden. He had been mistreated and rejected his entire life by his family, constantly treated as if he were worthless. Meeting Gojo made him feel miserable about himself because Satoru was a prodigy, born with luck, gifts, and a very powerful technique. Everyone loved Gojo; he didn't need to prove what he was capable of, unlike Touji, who constantly struggled for approval, both from himself and others. Gojo was what he would have wished for himself because he was constantly referenced as the strongest sorcerer. For Touji, eliminating Gojo mentally lifted the burden that had plagued him his entire life, proving to himself and others that he was capable of more. Touji's mistake strengthened Gojo, and the sadness Touji had to carry remained with him alone.

What a character Touji is, one of my favorite characters in Jujutsu Kaisen, and he appears only briefly, but when he does, he stands out. He was rejected by the Zenin clan for not having cursed energy. Despite being recognized by the clan as a formidable fighter (and killer), they still expelled him out of fear and concerns for the clan's prestige, among other things. In the end, he became the strongest human without cursed energy and with immense courage. I love that later, after leaving the clan, he drops the Zenin surname and takes on his wife Fushiguro's name. He starts working as an assassin and earns the nickname 'the sorcerer killer,' a title he imposes.
In addition to everything I mentioned, he was a brilliant person in every sense, not only in skill, strength, but also in intelligence. The plan he devised to kill Gojo, the time limit for the reward to exhaust him, the meticulous planning and strategy to defeat him and catch him off guard once the time was up, and then devising the entire plan to kill Rika seem brilliant to me. What I like the most is that he makes Gojo, possibly the most overpowered character in the entire anime, look like a child. If Touji hadn't explained the entire plan, Gojo wouldn't have even realized it, especially when he revealed the reward and all that. What a character.

Excellent character development and brilliant writing for what he did to defeat Gojo. The way he killed Rika without a word, without anything, appearing from the shadows to do his job, THAT'S HOW IT'S DONE. Even hesitating to kill Geto so he wouldn't release the curse that scared him a bit because he didn't know what it would do. Impeccable character.

Well, since we've deviated quite a bit, let me share my favorite characters from this season and in general: Touji, Gojo, Nanami, Itadori, Maki (although she's a bit for what happens later, but Maki has to be there), and I'd include Sukuna too; I like the presence he commands, but I feel like there's something missing for him. That would be them, basically. I'd love to continue with each of the following characters, but I feel like I've gone too off-topic, and let's continue where we were, besides, each of them will have their moment.

Last chapter of the mini-arc: The episode begins, and it's been a year since the fight in episode 4. Gojo is now the strongest, and Geto is already questioning everything after so much time alone and so many curses arising from everything that happened. It seems like there's a plague, and he wonders what the point of all this is if everyone ultimately dies. Then a waifu appears and tells him two ways humans can't detect curses: one, if humanity controls cursed energy, and two, if they are like Touji. I understand...

Well, the episode concludes with spectacular direction, reminiscent of the manga that was pure text with characters talking all the time. Gosso plays with the direction, engaging all the senses with applause, transitions in the rain, funny shots, and fluid animation. The episode has excellent direction, a great OST, and a nice contrast. Geto switches sides, conflicting with Gojo's ideology, and in the middle of the street, he leaves us with an iconic quote:

'Are you the strongest because you're Satoru Gojo, or are you Satoru Gojo because you're the strongest?'

I really liked the episode, and this mini-arc delving into Gojo's past is spectacular. Episode 3 remains my favorite throughout the arc because of its nonsensical brilliance, and while Episode 4 is also excellent, it doesn't quite reach the level of Episode 3.

The Shibuya Incident: That one-month hiatus felt eternal, but it returned with THE arc. Well, Chapter six starts with the trio protagonists being recommended for first-grade sorcerers, basically those who face strong curses. But getting recommended is not enough to become a first-grade sorcerer; their actions in the mission also matter for the promotion. The rest of the chapter revolves around the childhood friend who had feelings for Itadori but doesn't express them. By the way, I thought this character was introduced for a reason or would become more relevant, maybe not in this arc but later on. Gege put her there to fill in, perhaps to explore a bit of Itadori's past? I don't know, quite irrelevant, but anyway.

The other half of the chapter suggests there's a mole, which turns out not to be a mole, revealed later on. It's Mechamaru, who has information about Shibuya and wants to take it to Gojo. However, he can't because Geto and Mahito don't need him anymore, leading to a fight. The animation and direction, Gosso cinema, remain solid at this point. There's a new opening that I loved from the first moment I heard it, and the ending fits the arc perfectly, although I have to say I liked it more towards the end, but I didn't dislike it initially.

The next two chapters were more or less okay. Well, Chapter 7 was more introductory, featuring the Mechamaru vs. Mahito fight, which was very well animated. I think they added a bit to the animation, as I didn't remember the fight being so long in the manga. Anyway, I'm not complaining because the fight was well animated with references to other anime and notable shots. The rest of the chapter involves a curtain set up in Shibuya to trap people, and they divide into various groups to enter the curtain. Gojo enters Shibuya alone in this chapter. He came out like a machine. As I mentioned earlier, this chapter was very introductory, and the next one was too weak. I'd say it's the worst of the entire Shibuya arc because it basically boils down to the fight with that grasshopper, which Gege thought was a good idea to explain the whole mating process and other things. I was falling asleep, but Gojo saved it by removing his eye bandages and giving them a look that says I'm going to mess you up. I also liked how they restrain Gojo and how all the blood flows with Choso's power, but nothing more. Two chapters well-adapted because it follows the manga exactly, but these chapters weren't Mappa's fault, it was Gege's

Chapter 9 and 10: These two chapters were very good, unlike the other two I mentioned. They were much better in terms of everything: animation, direction, OST. The piano soundtrack while Gojo takes down all the curses in the middle of the crowd was impeccable. The way he uses the Domain Expansion for 0.2 seconds, the time normal people can endure, taking down all the curses (which gave us a good meme, by the way). When they seal Gojo, they replicated very well what happened in the manga and even improved it with the silence and the entire plan. The soundtrack, especially the piano when Gojo is sealed, completely immobile, and it's revealed that it's not Geto who sees, with some notable shots, was impeccable. It was a very wise decision by Gege to seal him because I, and many people I know, were wondering what they were going to do with Gojo. He's the strongest person, but how was Gege going to handle it? Honestly, he silenced me and wrote it very well. This is just the beginning of the arc, and it's already the best.

After all this, there is a HUGE amount of text, thankfully saved by Gosso's direction. But it's important text, not useless like that grasshopper, and a lot of preparation for everything that's going to happen. I have to say, when Itadori kills the curses, they looked a bit odd, but I'm not complaining; they're just randoms (although the animation of the entire arm was very fluid, I'm not complaining about the animation here). And then, THE character Nanami appeared, another of my favorite characters in JJK.

Since I talked about Touji, it's time to say a few words about Nanami. He embodies everything that's right in a character for me—charismatic, crucial to the plot, and nothing that happens during the development of his story feels forced. His design is fantastic, and his personality is just THE CHARACTER. I love his introduction in the first season, how he despises working overtime, and imposes it as a ritual, a restriction that makes him weaker during regular working hours. But when he works overtime, he unleashes all his power. This is brilliant because if the fight takes a long time, it's genuinely challenging for him, and the longer it goes on, the better for him—a plus for quickly dispatching any curse that proves difficult. Another thing I like about the character is that he left the world of sorcery for the business world but realized it didn't fulfill him. It wasn't enough; something was missing. He discovered that he actually liked being a sorcerer. Well, objectively, he thought it was a crappy job, but it made him happy to help people. I like that he thinks the job is bad but continues to do it anyway because it gives him a sense of fulfillment. I'll continue talking about Nanami later; I think he's an amazing character, and I love how his story ends.

The next three episodes are something else. The weakest is episode 11 because the direction here failed me; it felt a bit odd. While some moments highlighted beautifully drawn frames, in others, you couldn't understand where the punches were directed, and the impact was barely felt. The fight itself was too weak, more due to direction than animation. The manga handles this fight much better, but I'm not too bothered. Touji is revived, and personally, I HATE character revivals, but Gege gives it a certain sense here since they can only revive someone without cursed energy due to the power of that grandma. It's well-written, and besides, he appears quite rarely, so I won't complain too much. Maki and Nobara also appear, fighting against the sword guy (can't remember his name, but I've wanted him dead since this episode). Fortunately, Nanami appears to purify him, and during every punch, Nanami is beautifully drawn. Meanwhile, on the other end, Itadori vs. Choso is happening. I love Choso's design, and I must say he's a character with a lot of potential in the future. The fight itself is an audio/visual delight from start to finish, and some consider it one of their favorite episodes. I'm not sure if it's my favorite because there are so many good ones in this arc, but it's a 10/10 for this episode in every technical aspect (OST, animation, direction). The color palette in this fight is great, especially when they enter the bathrooms. It lights up red for Itadori and blue for Choso, and the lighting is impeccable. Something I forgot to mention, and this episode reminded me of it, is that the setting plays a very fundamental role not only in this fight (like how the signs fall or when they explain something with a background warning in Shibuya, the lighting as everything gradually dims) but also in several others. In the previous Nanami fight, they played with the setting using electricity, and in the fight with Gojo, when he took down Hanami and finished him, there was a momentary power outage. I like these little details.

Chapter 14: The second-worst chapter for me, by far and with a significant difference. I love the beach fight and everything in the manga; you can clearly see the problems Mappa is having with the staff that left halfway and the contract they made their animators sign to prevent them from disclosing their working conditions. This seems horrible on Mappa's part and unnecessary because they were doing well! The episode is watchable, but everything was quite mediocre—the animation with too much contrast, excessive light, and poorly animated creatures. The direction was also quite odd. The standout here is the soundtrack, always solid; it was well done, and the beginning of the episode was not bad until the opening. From the opening onwards, it's horrible. In the manga, the octopus they fight against is imposing, but in the anime, it looks like a joke. Clarification note: The episode director posted tweets about the terrible working conditions, so the blame for this is 100% on Mappa for rushing everything and not giving the animators and directors enough time. I don't blame them; I'm perfectly aware that they are capable of creating absolute art, but those in charge above them don't want that. They want fast food, episodes to come out, and money. How sad.

Chapter 15: Now, this is much better, quite good. Well, Touji appears, which is fine, he's my favorite character, but it's quite a surprise for him to show up in the middle of what Megumin opens, haha. I prefer his entrance as a surprise more in the manga, but oh well. Touji's fight against the octopus has good choreography, he takes it down easily, and then sends Megumin flying. After that, Jogo appears and SUPPOSEDLY kills everyone, then goes to give Itadori the fingers to awaken Sukuna. How he rips off Jogo's arm with that look he gives and then killing the other two and challenging Jogo was well done. The episode was very good, and in terms of animation/direction, it delivered much better, especially in Touji's fight, very few downsides compared to the previous one. Well done, keep it up; I hope it continues this way.

Chapter 16: This chapter focuses on two fights: Touji vs. Fushiguro and Jogo vs. Sukuna. I loved both in terms of everything—the fight choreography, animation, direction. The animation's fluidity is well achieved in this chapter. There are scenes in the anime that are much better than in the manga, for example, when Megumi summons all the rabbits and Touji takes them down in one go. Throughout the fight, Touji was significantly superior to Megumin, and the most important part of this fight is that he dies. Now, the best character in JJK, Touji, dies in a remarkable way—asking for Megumi's last name. The way Touji's eyes light up and he smiles upon realizing that his son is not a Zenin, the clan that treated him so badly, was tremendous. That scene is sublime.

"No Zenin, huh? I'm glad."
The mere existence of Megumi, the greatest blessing of his life, allowed him to die in peace. God, this chapter is one of my favorites.

The fight against Jogo, well... I'm not sure if I can call it a fight since Sukuna was toying with him the whole time. The setting, always present (as mentioned above), and in this fight even more so, playing a very important role. The anime portrays and shows you better than the manga how everything is absolutely destroyed during the fight, providing details that I loved. For example, they show the temperature gauge just after the attack on the building, and after this, Sukuna grabs two buildings and throws them at Jogo for him to split in half, so to speak. The setting was very present in this chapter, and I wanted to emphasize this. I love it, and it maintains the fluidity I mentioned above in animation, like how Sukuna cuts through buildings, throws Jogo around as if he's playing, quite literally. And there's more because Jogo throws a freaking METEOR, causing half the city to explode. Before he makes the city explode, Sukuna appears in front of those random people and literally says not to move until he says so. The tension there is tremendous, Sukuna literally playing with everyone, and the others are scared out of their minds. The entire choreography of the fight was fantastic, and seeing Jogo's death with the famous animated arrow adapted like a masterpiece is simply great. What a chapter.


Chapter 17: No, no, no, no, no, why Mappa, WHYYYYYYY THE OPENING, YOU WERE DOING SO WELL. I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE LYRICS, IT DOESN'T FIT. No, I can't believe it, they ruined one of the best moments in Shibuya with the opening????? It literally doesn't fit at all. People commenting about the lyrics, I don't know what, okay, put a phonk metamorphosis theme and tell me 'it works because of this and that.' NO, man, it's completely offbeat, the theme doesn't fit because it's one of the MC's most traumatic moments, and you put a Shakira waka waka theme, and it doesn't fit, do you understand? It would have been much better with a calm background piano, a violin, THE ENDING IN THE BACKGROUND, a calm ost, JJK has tremendous osts, let's not forget, they could have done it easily, OR JUST SILENCE WOULD HAVE FIT MUCH BETTER, god, no, I still can't accept it. Well, aside from this, which was at the end of the episode BUT IT WAS NOT MINOR. The episode itself I liked, haha, yes, it seems like I'm joking, but aside from what I mentioned above, I liked the whole episode because the incident occurs at the end of the episode. I've read that they practically had no time to do it, so I applaud the animators from here. Perfect in terms of the entire technical department. I feel like I repeat myself too much saying that the animation is good, but I think I don't do it enough. The Sukuna vs. Mahoraga fight was incredible. Someone on Twitter mentioned that in one of the buildings that appear so much in the fights, there are measurements of the entire Mappa animation sector, that is, where they were practically working. I like that as a detail.

A detail that I really like in this fight is showing the people taking refuge and hiding. This gives much more impact to the fact that it shows how Sukuna is destroying the entire city and everything he's doing. It's directly showing that he's killing thousands of people, and the worst part is as if he's killing them as a byproduct of the fight, nothing more. This is better in the anime. Besides, in several sequences, you see people dying in the middle of the fight, giving it a nuanced touch. The OST is also excellent, tremendous animation, as I always mention throughout the fight sequence. It reminds me a lot of the second season of Mob Psycho, the episode that is incredibly animated (I think it's episode 5 or around there, but you know which one I mean), and I love that it only reminds me of that episode and I love it. Just applause, applause for the animators for the little time they had and what they achieved. And my father appears in the background, Nanami. I also like the beginning of the fight, how he summons Mahoraga and practically says: well, I summon him, he kills me, but he kills you too, and let's just wreck this creature.



Chapter 18: Well, in this chapter, they learned to use silence throughout (both at the beginning and in some parts with Nanami). Even if it wasn't animated or directed in the best way, I'll touch on that topic. Nanami's death is very well done with the silences, and that soundtrack hits hard in the heart, everything is very well done. Itadori vs Mahito, the fight itself doesn't seem bad at all, to be honest. It has some very good shots, BUT sometimes, the action isn't very clear; you don't know where the hits are going, and it feels a bit strange. Although I liked the fight itself, especially considering the animators had very short delivery deadlines, and not only that but this entire fight is original to Mappa, not in the manga, so I don't complain so much. Towards the end of the chapter, Nobara encounters Mahito and gives him a couple of cuts. Nobara's shots were very well done, and that whole part was very well animated, to be honest. The chapter wasn't that bad; the important thing was Nanami's death, and they portrayed it very well, focused on it.
Arguably, this is the best part of the Jujutsu Kaisen chapter, Nanami fighting while imagining himself on the beach, at peace with himself, to finally give us a warm smile and say goodbye to Itadori... In the manga, Nanami's death is cruel and unexpected. The impact is felt more from Yuji's side. In contrast, the anime gives us a deeper understanding of Nanami's desire, to have his own peace. It's quite nice to get different feelings from the same product.


Chapter 19: I loved this chapter. A quite bold chapter if I have to describe it in some way, as it removes a character from the trio of protagonists right in front of Itadori, who couldn't even process what happened with Nanami, and now this happens to the other. Very good writing in this chapter by Gege. The flashback itself, I feel, is a bit forced, like from the very second it appears, you know what's going to happen, and they try to make you shed a tear with the typical anime cliche of a character about to die and they bring in their childhood friends. Despite sounding like I'm complaining about this, I think the flashback is quite well done, not very bad nor very good, a bit forced as I mentioned, but not unnecessary. Perhaps it felt a bit long to me, but overall, very well executed.
Anyway, I talked about Nobara but didn't mention the beginning of the chapter where Nobara faces a copy of Mahito and Itadori faces the real Mahito. Here, I want to highlight the good animation and choreography in both fights, especially Nobara's. Everything I complained about in the previous chapter, where nothing was clear, was absent in this chapter, and it felt much better. Well done, Mappa, very well animated, and surprisingly, they put a lot of effort into the flashback as well. Good animation and tremendous backgrounds in the flashback. Also, in the fight, there were some amazing shots, like when you see all the nails on the floor as Nobara approaches. The entire sequence is excellent.

Itadori had good exchanges of blows with Mahito that I really liked, and the fight ends with Mahito touching Nobara. They show us the flashback mentioned earlier. The entire sequence of what happens, the climax of everything, the scene, everything feels dark, cold, with a glimpse of all the people Nobara met in the chairs. You see her as a child, and from one shot to another, you see her falling, you hear her body hit the ground, the silence is deadly, the camera pulls away, and so does Nobara. It creates a great contrast with the sweetness of the flashback, very well done. AND THERE'S SILENCE; I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY DIDN'T PUT IN THE OPENING, THIS IS HOW IT SHOULD BE DONE. The chapter had good sound as well. Brilliant direction. Everything was perfect, from the soundtrack to the entire team. Thanks to everyone involved. Simply cinematic.

'Itadori, tell everyone... it wasn't that bad.'"


Chapter 20: Pfffff, these last two chapters were 10/10 in everything. Well, let's discuss the chapter. It starts with a flashback of the trio, or better said, ex-trio, recalling one of their happy moments. The scene abruptly shifts from a cheerful moment to the supposed corpse of Nobara. Clarification: I say 'supposed' because even in this chapter, they say, 'Maybe she's dead, she might be saved, but don't get your hopes up.' And that phrase GENERALLY means she's coming back. This isn't a spoiler since I'm not up to date with the manga, but sooner or later, I have faith that she'll reappear, healed, traumatized, with a lovely eye patch—I have faith.
The entire chapter is well-directed (the Shaft director of the chapter, pfff, I love it, and it's quite noticeable). From the flashback to Nobara's corpse and all of Yuji's expressions, everything feels incredibly smooth. The animation played its role exceptionally well, and the noticeable strokes in the facial expressions are delightful—it lived up to expectations. Mahito's strikes feel like he's hitting something devoid of willpower and that can't resist any longer, accompanied by some illustrations of what he's saying (like the mountain of skulls, for example). The lighting in this chapter is also fantastic, illuminating the hallway when Mahito is hitting in complete darkness. Although the later lighting in the chapter is also good, we're still at the beginning.
BUT, when Mahito seems about to kill Yuji, MY ABSOLUTE F***ING DAD, MY BEST FRIEND, appears with that soundtrack playing—INCREDIBLE. He finds Yuji completely devastated and quickly helps him recover to resume the fight. I love Todo's ability, and the animation does it justice; you don't feel lost at any moment as he changes positions, all accompanied by a tremendous OST. Everything flows incredibly smoothly, and the fight shifts positions for Yuji to enter and give a massive punch to that guy.
Following this, we move to a flashback where Miwa and the robot have a conversation where Todo's involvement is explained a bit. The robot bids farewell to all of them. We quickly return to the fight we were watching earlier, and I already mentioned that the animation here looks fluid. Well, I think I've said it a few times, but let me say it once more—what animation! The lighting shifts from yellow when they're in Shibuya to blue when they break everything and are underground, giving Mahito more prominence. It makes him look more imposing, as if he's playing. The final scene has a soft greenish tone, almost dark, where the light is barely visible, creating a feeling as if they were practically in the sewers. It ends with the last scene featuring immersive fire, as if the background wants to tell us that they're in the very depths of hell.

Apart from playing with colors and palettes in each scenario, the lighting also varies within each scenario. For example, when Todo enters the curse train that Mahito creates, the inside looks as if it's inside a living being, while Mahito is lit with a greener and soulless light (as if the way Mahito is illuminated represents his soul, if I can explain it, but I love this). Doing all of this feels dynamic and perfect. They even recreate the original manga panel with the three of them in the final pose. It ends with Mahito unleashing an attack that destroys part of Shibuya, releasing a horde of curses. Simply beautiful, the entire technical aspect, the story, the adaptation—everything was brilliant. It's complete madness what they did, all of this in such a short time, and I love it, especially that it works so well. My hats off to the animators.


Chapter 21: Satisfaction in this chapter for the beating that Mahito received. The climax of the fight is in this chapter with its iconic panels as Mahito constantly evolves. He does the same as Gojo, the domain expansion in 0.2 seconds, almost killing Todo but leaving him totally incapacitated with only one arm and quite injured. I didn't expect that special sequence with Takada Chan. Many emotions in this tremendous chapter, which is a masterpiece. The technical aspect was excellent in this chapter—animation, almost dark lighting accompanying the background where there is nothing, I like that a lot, and the soundtrack, that's how I like it, not putting the opening...
Well, I got lost commenting on things. The point is that Mahito evolves constantly in the fight until he evolves into a definitive Mahito vs. Itadori with incredible choreography and tremendous animation against an all-black background, simply amazing. Both are quite worn out in the battle, both Itadori and Mahito. Just when it seems like Itadori is more affected, a character who seemed dead emerges from the shadows—THE CHARACTER TODO:

"An arm is just an ornament. The act of clapping is an acclamation of the soul."

And thanks to this tremendous moment (and a tremendous reference to HxH), Itadori can deliver the final blow to Mahito. Without any soundtrack or anything, the protagonist proceeds:

"Right, Mahito. I am you. I wanted to reject you, convince myself that you were wrong. But that doesn't matter anymore. I'm going to kill you. Even if you come back as another curse, I'll kill you. Change your name. Change your form. I'll kill you again. I don't need to find meaning or reason. Maybe a hundred years after my death, the meaning behind my actions will become clear. In the grand scheme of things... I'm probably just a cog. But I'll keep killing curses... as long as I can. That's my role in all of this."

Saying this speech almost expressionless, completely cold as if he were practically involved in causing Mahito to die in any way he wishes (and rightfully so). All of this is accompanied by the silence in Shibuya alongside the presence that Itadori imposes in this scene—cinematic moment of Jujutsu and a brilliant adaptation of this incredible moment. It was truly what I wanted to see. The wolf hunts the rabbit, a beautiful and entirely symbolic panel to the core.

Mahito's screams, completely terrified for his life, literally begging for his life, Itadori's determined walk fixed on his goal, the snow and silence of Shibuya, the rabbits and wolves representing the hunter and the prey, the resentment, the desperation, and the determination—all contribute to the absolute peak of Jujutsu Kaisen.

Chapter 22: God, the soundtrack in this chapter was incredibly solid, and the animation was top-notch, although during the Choso vs. Geto fight, there were attacks or hits that I didn't understand. Apart from that, which might have been just a few frames, the animation was very much up to the mark. There were some great shots, like the one of Miwa trying to strike Geto with a sword, and it breaks (useless till the end, like in the meme). Geto summons the Uzumaki spiral, a monstrous creature, and Miwa is in the background—this shot I really liked. They animated Itadori well, all bloody on the floor after Geto's hundred feet attack, although I didn't like the attack much as it seems to lack impact. The iconic panel of Itadori that I mentioned earlier is well-executed, and after that, Mahito leaves for the collection. Goodbye, my man, you were a great villain, but what makes you great is that you ended it here.
After all that, to no one's surprise, reinforcements come running... the Kyoto school... well, more than reinforcements, they are THERE. BUT, something interesting happens, and clearly, they are not who they seem to be. Choso discovers the revelation of who was actually in Geto's body: Noritoshi Kamo. He's an evil sorcerer from hundreds of years ago, apparently from the Kamo clan, labeled as the black sheep and broken, essentially. Choso falls under the influence of besto friendo, and now he's Itadori's big brother.


The fight between Geto and Uraume vs. Choso is so well animated. The fluidity is noticeable, especially with Choso's penetrating blood abilities, and then the blood appears on the floor, leaving Geto airborne. Geto summons some kind of flying manta ray, and then they engage in close combat, accompanied by that soundtrack that I love. The animation stands out, especially with the all-black background, making it look like they are in absolute nothingness when, in fact, they are in the middle of Shibuya or what was Shibuya.

NOTE: I continue to call him Geto even though I know it's not him, for better understanding. I won't change the entire text to his REAL name, and besides, I think it's clear when I refer to him that it's not him. Just a small clarification.

I like Uraume's ice ritual technique—the ability itself and how it immobilizes everyone, allowing Itadori to save his big brother with a kick and set him free. But when it seems like they're going to be crushed by the ice ritual, with a tremendous animated panel and beautifully executed lines, Yuki Tsukumo appears, and the chapter ends.

When I was reading this in the manga, I thought, "Here it comes. Now all the curses will be all over the world, and this is going to turn more into a dark fantasy apocalypse." I'm not up to date with the manga, but I would say it didn't turn out that way, but I'm not sure.
This episode was incredible; the pacing of the action and information in the script was on point. The OST, as mentioned above, was very good. The animation was a bit subdued at the beginning, but the fight between Geto and Choso was well executed. And Mahito's fate was very well written from start to finish, worthy of a villain.


LAST CHAPTER AND FINAL CONCLUSIONS: We've reached the end, I can't believe it. Well, there will be an overall conclusion at the end, but for now, let me share my thoughts on the last chapter and wrap things up. I think it was a very good conclusion to the arc. Geto cheated. He lied to us and Mahito's group when he said he wanted to help the curses, or rather, he never really stated what he truly wanted. Instead of a world where curses dominate, what he desires is a world in constant conflict and evolution, and now that Gojo is sealed, humans have lost their best card. By the way, Yuki looks fantastic.

And in the end, the one everyone was speculating about finally appears. Yuta shows up, where he was thought to appear earlier, but well, he arrives when everything is already over, confronting the higher-ups, claiming he wants to kill Itadori, or so he says. Itadori and Choso have a brotherly meeting.

A very solid and excellent season, hence the rating. Quite brave in the writing, Gege. Could it have been better? Perhaps, if Mappa's director hadn't reduced the staff by half and done what he did, it could have been better, but it lived up to being one of my favorite arcs and became a season I hold dear. Regarding the technical aspects, I've talked a thousand times in each analyzed chapter; needless to say, everything was impeccable, and the adaptation was very good. The pacing felt just right, and I enjoyed it immensely, which is the important thing, to enjoy and appreciate the art of this entire season. Impeccable overall. Hats off.

10/10



Review in Spanish
* Esta Review CONTIENE SPOILERS *

Bueno, la segunda temporada de Jujutsu Kaisen se divide en dos arcos: Hidden Inventory y el arco de Shibuya.
Estos dos arcos me los lei en el manga hace años y son de mis favoritos de todo JJK y en general es de mis arcos favoritos, cuando anunciaron esta temporada era lo que mas estaba esperando de todo lo que hay de anime. Voy a comentar, analizar, opinar y varias cosas mas que no se si puedo poner que me parecio toda esta temporada o esta obra maestra de temporada mejor dicho.



Hidden inventory: He de decir que hubo un cambio de director de la primera temporada a la segunda. El cambio de dirección de Gosso (es su forma abreviada de decirlo, se llama: Goshozono, Shouta) se nota bastante a mí en lo personal me encanta la dirección que tuvo no solo este mini arco si no toda la temporada en general parece otra serie literalmente y me da un poco vibes de Chainsaw Man (por lo menos en este mini arco en concreto), quizás soy yo el que piensa esto pero bueno idk, dicho director es de mis favoritos, aprovecho a decir, ya tenía experiencia trabajando en JJK, ya que fue el Storyboard del cap 17, y dirigió algunos capítulos de la primera temporada, que estuvieron animados re bien y estuvo implicado el (tambien trabajo en el cap 8 de CSM, en el 4 de Mob Psycho, el famoso cap 21 de Ousama Ranking, estuvo prácticamente en los mejor capítulos por lo menos hablando técnicamente de cada serie), pero bueno ya esta mucho Gosso volvamos al arco. Tanto el Opening como el ending de este mini arco me encantan aparte el ending va muy acorde al arco, como lento pero triste por un el pasado de Gojo del único amigo que tuvo y se fue por sus ideales me encanta me dan esas vibes el ending. La animacion es una locura la verdad, me encanta como encaja tan bien el escenario de 2006. Simplista, tonto y encantador en momentos funny y mas allá de eso está muy a la altura dicha animacion, la pelea que tiene en el capítulo dos con un random de la máscara vs Gojo esa coreografía me encanta. El ost que me encanta muy solida la banda sonora.

El capítulo tres aparte de lo que comento arriba de la dirección que no tuvo sentido en este capitulo en todo el buen sentido lo que hizo al final de este mismo con meter el ending, los seiyuu HERMANO los seiyuu hicieron un trabajaazo con la piba llorando tendiéndole la mano para cortar con el tiro y cortar con la música y todo, fue increíble la música, los planos del acuario, planitos de ellos recorriendo todo un parque con flores que fondos DIOOOS como me encanto todo este capítulo mira esos fondos, todo lo de Gosso no está teniendo sentido la verdad nunca dude. La banda sonora está siendo una cosa totalmente superada por la de la primera temporada por lo menos en estos primeros capítulos y hasta donde se, parte del staff solo 1 de los 3 compositores que hay en este temporada estuvo en la temporada pasada increíble la verdad el trabajo de estos tres muchachos, al principio del cap gojo resolviendo todo una trama que parece que iba a desarrollarse más pero al final NO PUM toma y ya rescatamos a la maid bueno pasa lo que comente arriba lo de los fondos guardaespaldas llegan a la guarida de Tensen para entregar a Riko y aparece mi PADRE Touji QUE PELEA DIOS MIO QUE INTENISIDAD QUE ANIMACION GOSSO CINE que ojos que tiene Gojo me encanta y toda la sangre y cuando está casi muerto. Definición de cine.

El capitulo 4 estuvo increible tambien pero no igual que el tercero el tercero es una cosa como pongo arriba en el texto. Y ya llegados a este punto de la temporada te das cuenta que tiene otro estilo totalmente diferente otra vibes esa seasson que me encanta. Me gusto este cap en cuestion de peleas Gojo vs Touji dicha pelea para mostrarte el morado con una hermosa banda sonora mientras pasa todo esto y en el cap en general y a Gojo se ve bastante perdido en la mirada que bien dirigido en cuestion de todo. Me encanta como esta en el cielo como parece que esta por tan por encima de Touji… y ya que estamos hablando de Touji. Creo firmemente que Toji también cargaba con un peso psicológico muy fuerte. Él había sido maltratado y repudiado toda su vida por su familia y constantemente se le trató como si no valiera nada, el haber conocido a Gojo lo hizo sentir miserable consigo mismo porque Satoru era un prodigio, había nacido con suerte, dones y una técnica muy poderosa, todos amaban a Gojo, Gojo no necesitaba probar de que era capaz a diferencia de él que constantemente luchó por tener aprobación, propia y ajena, Gojo era lo que el hubiera deseado de si mismo porque constantemente era referenciado como el hechicero más fuerte, para el, la carga mental de eliminar a Gojo era eliminar lo que lo acomplejó toda su vida, demostrarse a sí mismo y a los demás que era capaz de más. El error de Toji fortaleció a Gojo, y la tristeza que debía cargar fue algo que permaneció solo para el propio Toji.
Que personajazo que es Touji de mis personajes favoritos de JJK y eso que aparece poco pero lo que aparece destaca. Fue repudiado por el clan Zenin por no tener energía maldita, de igual manera el mismo clan sabia que era una máquina de peleas (y de matar) lo echan igualemente por tenerle miedo y cosas del prestigio del clan y mas huevad*s Y AL FINAL termino siendo el ser humano mas fuerte sin energía maldita y con dos huevos. Me encanta que mas adelante de irse del clan deja su apellido del clan y toma el de su esposa Fushiguro y se va laburar de asesino y tiene el apodo de “el asesino de hechiceros” que apodo que impone. Aparte de todo lo que mencione era una persona brillante en todo los sentidos no solo en destreza, fuerza sino también en inteligencia. Todo el plan que ideo para matar a Gojo, lo del tiempo limite de la recompensa para extenuarlo, el idear todo un plan y estrategia para vencerlo y para agarrarlo con la guardia baja una vez terminado el tiempo para luego idear todo el plan para matar a Rika me parece brillante. Y lo que mas me gusta es que lo hace ver a Gojo el personaje mas roto de todo el anime posiblemente como si fuese un niño ya que si Touji no le hubiera dicho todo el plan el ni siqueira se hubiera dado cuenta hablo de cuando saco la recompensa y todo eso pfff que personajazo. Una excelenete escritura tanto de personaje como de lo que hizo para vencer a Gojo, el como mato a Rika de una sin charla sin nada apareciendo de las sobras para cumplir su trabajo ASI SE HACE, hasta no haberlo matado a Geto para que no libere la maldicion ese que le daba un poco de miedo porque no sabía que hacía. Impecable personaje.
Bueno ya que nos desviamos demasiado les comento mis personajes favoritos de toda la temporada y en general: Touji, Gojo, Nanami, Itadori, Maki (aunque ella esta un poco por lo que pasa después de todo esto pero tiene que estar Maki) y pondira a Sukuna también me gusta como impone pero siento que me falta algo para el pero serian ellos básicamente. Me encantaría seguir con cada uno de los siguiente personajes pero siento que me fui demasiado por las ramas y sigamos por donde estábamos aparte que ya les va a llegar su momento a cada uno.

Ultimo capitulo del mini arco: comienzo el capitulo y ya paso un año desde la pelea del cap 4 y Gojo ya es el mas fuerte de todos y Geto ya se está cuestionando todo teniendo tanto tiempo solo y habiendo tantas maldiciones a raíz de todo lo que paso parece que hay una plaga y se cuestiona que para que sirve hacer todo esto si al final se mueren todos. Después aparece una waifu y le dice dos maneras en las que no hallas espiritus malignos la humanidad: una que la humanidad controlo la energia maldita y otra que sean como Touji entiendo

bueno termina el capitulo con una direccion espectacular para lo que es el manga que era puro texto y estan hablando todo el tiempo y Gosso juega con la direccion a todos los sentidos con los aplausos transición de la lluvia los planos funny y animacion fluida con una buena direccion y muy buen ost y contraste. Geto se cambia de bando chocando con la ideología de Gojo y en medio de la calle nos deja una frase icónica:

”Eres el más fuerte por ser Satoru Gojo o eres Satoru Gojo por ser el más fuerte ”

me gustó mucho el capítulo y este mini arco del pasado de gojo es espectacular el cap 3 sigue siendo mi favorito de todo el arco porque no tiene sentido y el 4 es especular también pero no a al nivel del 3.

El incidente de Shibuya: Que eterno se me hizo el parón de un mes pero volvió con EL arco. Bueno el capitulo seis arranca con que quieren recomendar al trio protagónico para ser hechiceros de primer grado básicamente son los que enfrentan a los bichos fuertes. Pero para ser hechiceros de primer grado no basta solo con la recomendación, si no también en cómo se desarrollan en dicha misión y lo que hacen para que te puedan ascender . Después el resto del cap se resume en la piba esta de la infancia que le gustaba Itadori pero no le dice nada. Por cierto pense que dicho personaje se habia puesto por algo o que iba a tener mas relevancia no se si en este arco pero mas adelante pero no ajsdja gege lo puso ahí para rellenar calculo para ver un poco el pasado de itadori quizás? No se, bastante irrelevante todo eso pero en fin. La otra mitad del cap parece que hay un topo ,que en realidad no es topo pero eso se sabe después , y es mechamaru, tiene info de shibuya y se la quiere llevar a Gojo. Cuestión que no puede ya que Geto y Mahito no lo necesitan mas y pelean. La animacion y direccion ,gosso cinema, sigue solida en este punto. Y hay opening nuevo que del primer momento que lo escuche me encanto y el ending va perfecto tambien acorde al arco, tambien tengo que decir que el ending me gusto mas al final pero no me disgustaba.

Los dos próximos capitulo estuvieron maso menos. Bueno, el 7 fue más introductorio estuvo la pelea de Mechamaru vs Mahito que estuvo muy bien animada y creo que rellenaron un poco con la animacion, ya que no me acordaba que era tan larga la pelea en si en el manga, de igual manera no me quejo ya que dicha pelea estuvo muy bien animada con referencias a otros animes y planos destacables. El resto del cap es una cortina que ponen en Shibuya para que la gente se quede atrapada, dividen en varios grupos para que entren en dicha cortina. Y Gojo entra solo a Shibuya en este capítulo. Sali de ahí máquina. Y como marco arriba este cap fue muy introductorio y el que le sigue estuvo demasiado flojo diría que es el peor de todo Shibuya ya que básicamente se resume en la pelea con el saltamontes ese que a Gege le pareció una buena idea explicarme todo el proceso de apareamiento y demás cosas que me estaba durmiendo pero lo salvo gojo sacándose las vendas de los ojos y mirándolos con cara de los voy a hacer mierda, también me gusto como lo retienen a Gojo y como pasa toda la sangre con el poder de Choso, pero nada mas dos capítulos muy bien adaptados porque pasa tal cual en el manga pero sin mas acá no fue culpa de Mappa estos capítulos, sino de Gege.

Capitulo 9 y 10: Los dos capítulos muy bien a diferencia de los otros dos que comento, estos dos estuvieron mucho mejor en cuestión de todo: animacion, dirección, ost. La banda sonora del piano mientras Gojo se baja a todas las maldiciones en medio de toda la multitud esa, impecable, como usa la expansión de dominio durante 0,2 segundos que es el tiempo que aguanta la gente normal y bajandose a todas las maldiciones (que nos dio un buen meme por cierto), cuando sellan a gojo supieron replicar muy bien lo del manga y hasta mejorarlo con el silencio y todo el plan en si, y buena banda sonora especialmente, el pianito cuando gojo queda sellado ahi totalmente inmóvil y se revela que en realidad no es Geto el que ve con unos planos bastante destacables, impecable, una muy sabia decisión por parte de Gege el sellarlo, ya que yo, y mucha gente que conozco también, se preguntaba el que iban a hacer con Gojo? Porque okey es la persona mas fuerte de todos pero como iba a hacer gege para que esto no sea cualquier cosa y la verdad que me callo la boca e hizo una muy buena escritura por su parte ante todo esto muy bien y solo esta arrancando el arco lo mejor.
Bueno, luego de todo esto hay una BARBARIDAD de texto que lo salva la dirección de Gosso por suerte pero bueno texto IMPORTANTE lo bueno y no texto al pedo como el saltamontes ese y mucha preparación de todo lo que va a pasar, tengo que decir que cuando itadori mata las maldiciones se veían un tanto raras pero no me quejo son unos randoms (aunque la animacion de todo el brazo estuvo muy fluida la verdad, no me estoy quejando de la animacion aca) y aparecio EL personaje Nanami, otro de mis personajes favoritos de JJK.

Ya que hable de Touji me toca hablar un poco de Nanami. Es todo lo que esta bien en un personaje para mi, tiene carisma, es super importante para la tramada, nada de lo que ocurre durante el desarrollo de su historia se siente forzado, el diseño estas tremendo, su personalidad en fin es EL PERSONAJE. Su introducción de la primera temporada me encanta, como odia trabajar con horas extras y se lo impone en su ritual a modo de restricción de que el tiene menos fuerza en horas laborales pero cuando trabaja horas extras desata todo su poder esto es brillante ya que si tarda mucho el combate es porque realmente le cuesta y mientras mas largo se haga mejor para el, un plus para matar rápidamente a cualquier maldición que se le ponga difícil. También otra cosa que me gusta del personaje es que se fue de la hechicería para irse al mundo de los negocios pero se dio cuenta que no llenaba eso, no le alcanzaba le faltaba algo, se dio cuenta que en verdad le gustaba ser hechicero bueno en realidad le parecía una cagada desde una mirada objetiva pero a el le hacía feliz el poder ayudar a personas y eso me gusta que le parezca malo el trabajo pero que lo siga haciendo igual porque te sentis realizado. Mas adelante voy a seguir hablando de Nanami me parece un personajazo y hasta de como termina me encanta.

Los tres capitulo que vienen son una cosa. El mas flojo es el 11 ya que la dirección acá me fallo siento que estuvo medio raro, en algunos momentos destacaba algún que otro plano lindo dibujado pero en otras no se entendía nada hacia donde estaba dirigido los puñetazos o el impacto de los mismo no se sentía nada. Demasiado floja la pelea en si pero por tema de dirección mas que por animacion el manga aca esta mucho mejor esta pelea pero igual me da un poco igual. Reviven a Touji, miren que a mi en lo personal ODIO que revivan a los personajes pero acá Gege le da cierto sentido ya que solo pueden revivir a alguien que no tenga energía maldita por el poder de la abuela esa así que está bien escrito y aparte aparece bastante poco así que no me estaría quejando. Y también aparecen Maki y Nobara peleando contra el loco de la espada que no me acuerdo su nombre pero que desde este capítulo quiero que se muera. Y por suerte aparece Nanami a hacerlo pure básicamente, y durante todos los golpes que le está dando que bien dibujado que esta Nanami. Y a su vez, en el otro extremo están peleando Itadori vs Choso. Como me gusta el diseño de Choso me encanta y he de decir que es un personaje que promete mucho en un futuro no se lo que pasa después pero promete. La pelea en si es un deleite audio/visual de principio a fin y algunos lo tienen de sus capítulos favoritos, no se si es mi capítulo favorito ya que hay tantos buenos en este arco que es complicado quedarse con solo uno pero es un 10/10 este capitulo en todo el apartado técnico (ost, animacion, dirección) también la paleta de colores en esa pelea me gusto cuando entran en los baños como se ilumina de rojo a itadori y de un azul a Choso y la iluminación también todo impecable todo eso. Algo que se me olvido comentar y que este capitulo me hizo acordar es que el escenario juega un papal muy fundamental no solo en esta pelea (como se van cayendo los carteles, o cuando explican algo y te lo muestran con un aviso de fondo en shibuya, la iluminación en si como se van apagando todo) sino tambien en varias mas en la anterior de nanami jugaron con el escenario con la electricidad en la pelea de gojo cuando se bajo hanami y lo remato como que hubo un segundo de corte de luz me gustan esos pequeños detalles.

Capítulo 14: El segundo peor capitulo en lo personal, de lejos y con diferencia. La pelea de la playa y todo eso en el manga me encanta se notan mucho los problemas que está teniendo Mappa con todo del staff que se fue la mitad y lo del contrato que le hicieron firmar a sus animadores para que no digan como estaban trabajando eso me parece horrible por parte de Mappa e innecesario porque lo estabas haciendo bien!! a ver se deja ver el capítulo pero fue bastante mediocre todo la animacion y con mucho contraste demasiada luz, muy flojo los bichos animados, la dirección también bastante rara. Lo destable acá es la banda sonora siempre solida estuvo muy bien y el principio del capítulo no estuvo nada mal hasta el opening. del opening para adelante es horrible, en el manga el pulpo con el que pelean impone un montón y en el anime parece un chiste. nota de aclaración: el director del cap puso tweets diciendo la pésimas condiciones de trabajo así que la culpa de esto es 100% a Mappa por hacer todo esto y no darle los tiempos a los animadores y directores no les culpo a ellos soy perfectamente consciente de que son capaces de hacer absoluto arte pero los que están arriba no quieren, quieren el fast food y que salgan los capítulos y dinero que triste.

Capítulo 15 : Ahora sí, mucho mejor este bastante bien. Bueno, aparece Touji, que está bien que es mi personaje favorito pero es un guionazo que aparezca en medio de lo que abre megumin ajsdja pero bueno. Que dicha entrada de guionazo encima me gusta más en el manga pero buen en fin. peleíta de Touji contra el pulpo buena coreografía en la pelea y se lo baja fácil y después lo manda a volar a Megumin. Después aparece Jogo y SUPUESTAMENTE mata a todos y va a darles los dedos a itadori para que despierte Sukuna. Pfff como le arranca el brazo a Jogo con esa mirada que le lanza y después matando a las otras dos y retando a Jogo estuvo muy bien el cap muy bien y en animacion/ dirección cumplió bastante mas en la pelea de Touji muy pocos altibajos como en el anterior muy bien sigan así espero.

Capítulo 16: Este capitulo se centra en dos peleas: la de Touji vs Fushiguro y Jogo vs Sukuna. Ambas me encantaron en cuestión de todo la pelea coreografía, animacion , direccion la fluidez en la animacion esta re bien lograda en este capítulo, hay escenas que en el anime están muchísimo mejor que en el manga como por ejemplo cuando Megumi invoca a todos los conejos y Touji se los baja de una, toda la pelea en si Touji estaba recontra re por encima de megumi en la pelea y lo mas importante de esta pelea en si, es que se muere, ahora sí, el mejor personaje de JJK Touji y de la mejor forma preguntado el apellido de Megumi, la manera en la que a Touji le regresa la luz a las ojos y sonríe al ver que su hijo no es un Zenin, el clan que tanto lo basureo, fue tremendo esa escena es sublime.

"No Zenin, ¿eh? Me alegro."
La sola existencia de Megumi, la mayor bendición de su vida, le permitió morir en paz. Dios este capítulo es de mis favoritos.

La pelea contra Jogo, o bueno… no se si decirlo pelea ya que Sukuna estaba jugando con el todo el tiempo. El escenario siempre presente (como comente arriba) , y en esta pelea más todavía, jugando un papel muy importante en esta pelea. Ya que se ve y te lo muestra de manera mejor el anime que en el manga como se destruye absolutamente todo al paso de la pelea poniendo detalles que me encantaron, como por ejemplo que pongan el medidor de temperatura justo después del ataque en el edificio ese y después de esto agarra los dos edificios y se los tira a Sukuna para que el los parta al a mitad por decirlo así. El escenario estuvo muy presente en este cap y quería recalcar esto y me encanta aparte que sigue esa fluidez que comento arriba en animacion el como corta los edificios como tira a Jogo de un lado para otro como si estuviera jugando Sukuna literalmente. Y todavía hay más encima porque Jogo le tira un puto METEORITO haciendo estallar media ciudad y antes de hacerla estallar la ciudad aparece Sukuna en frente de esos randoms y dice que literalmente que no se muevan hasta que el lo dice, la tensión que se siente ahí es tremenda, hermoso literalmente sukuna jugando con todo el mundo y los otros re cagados mal y si. Toda la coreografía de la pelea fue general y ver la muerte de Jogo con la famosa flecha animada adaptada como los dioses es simplemente genial. C A P I T U L A Z O.

Capitulo 17: No no no no no, porque Mappa PORQUEEEEE EL OPENING, LO ESTABAS HACIENDO MUY BIEN. ME DA IGUAL LA LETRA, NO PEGAAAAAAAA. No, es que no lo puedo creer arruinaron uno de los mejores momentos de Shibuya con el opening????? Es que literalmente no pega nada, la gente comentando es que letra no se que no se cuánto, a dale pone un tema de phonk metamorphosis y decime “no pasa que la letra pega por que esto y lo otro” NO, loco es totalmente ritmito el tema y no pega por eso, ya que es uno de los momentos más traumático del MC y vos pones un tema de Shakira waka waka y no pega por eso entienden?. Hubiera estado muchísimo mejor un piano de fondo tranquilo, un violín, EL ENDING DE FONDO, un ost tranqui que tiene tremendos ost JJK no nos olvidemos pueden hacerlo tranquilamente O EL PUTO SILENECIO HUBIESE PEGADO muchísimo mejor dios, no no lo puedo asimilar todavía. Bueno, sacando esto que fue al final del capitulo PERO NO FUE MENOR. El capitulo en si me gusto ajsdjas si parece que estoy jodiendo pero sacando lo que comento arriba todo el capitulo me gusto ya que el momento incdent ocurre al final del cap. Estuve leyendo que prácticamente no tuvieron nada de tiempo para hacerlo así que yo desde aca les doy un aplauso para los animadores. Perfecto en cuestion de todo el apartado tecnico ya siento que me repito demasiado diciendo que la animacion esta bien pero creo que no lo hago lo suficiente la pelea de Sukuna vs Mahoraga estuvo increible, una persona puso por twitter que en uno de los edificios que tanto aparecen en las pelea hay uno que estan las medidas de todo el sector de animadores de Mappa, es decir donde estaban trabajando prácticamente, me gusta como dato ajsdjas.

Un detalle que me gusta mucho en esta pelea es que se muestre a la gente refugiada y escondida por todo esto le da mucho más impacto el hecho de que se muestre como esta destruyendo toda la ciudad y todo lo que está haciendo Sukuna, te está mostrando directamente que está matando miles de personas, y lo peor es como si las estuviera matando de paso como si fueran efectos colaterales de la pelea y nada mas. Esto en el anime esta mejor, aparte de cómo te muestran la gente en varias secuencias se ve gente muriendo en medio de toda la pelea y le da un detalle. El ost también muy bien animacion tremenda como comento siempre en toda la secuencia de la pelea me recuerda mucho a la segunda temporada de mob psycho el capitulo que esta tremendamente animado(creo que es el 5 o por ahí pero saben a cual me refiero) y me encanta que solo me haga acordar de ese capítulo y me encanta. Aplauso simplemente aplauso para los animadores por el poco tiempo que tuvieron y lo que hicieron. y aparece mi padre de fondo, Nanami. Me gusta tambien el inicio de la pelea como invoca a mahorada y dice prácticamente: bueno. lo invoco, me mata, pero tambien te mata y que haga mierda todo este bicho ya ta.

Capítulo 18: bueno en este capitulo aprendieron a poner silencio en todo (tanto en el inicio hay silencio y en algunas partes de la Nanami). Aunque no estuviera de la mejor manera animado o con la direccion, ya voy a tocar ese tema. La muerte de Nanami está muy bien con los silencios y esa banda sonora tocaba muy fuerte en el corazón, todo muy bien. itadori vs Mahito la pelea en si no me parece muy mala la verdad tiene algunos planos muy buenos, PERO a veces, la acción no se entiende muy bien los golpes como que no sabes a donde van y se siente medio raro aunque me gusto la pelea en si y más si los plazos de entrega de los animadores es muy corto bastante que pudieron hacer algo, y no solo eso si no que toda esta pelea es original de mappa no está en el manga así que no me quejo tanto. Por el final del capitulo en si, Nobara se encuentra con Mahito y le hace un par de cortes Nobara los planos de nobara estuvo muy bien y muy bien animada toda esa parte la verdad. No estuvo tan mal el cap lo importante fue la muerte de Nanami de este cap y lo reflejaron muy bien muy bien como lo enfocaron.
Probablemente esta es la mejor parte del capítulo de Jujutsu Kaisen, Un Nanami mientras pelea imaginándose en la playa, estando en paz consigo mismo para al final darnos una cálida sonrisa y despidiéndose de Itadori...
En el manga la muerte de Nanami es cruel e inesperada. El impacto se siente más desde el lado de Yuji. En cambio, el anime nos da un entendimiento más profundo del deseo de Nanami, tener su propia paz. Es bastante lindo conseguir diferentes sensaciones con el mismo producto.

Capítulo 19: Este capítulo me encanto. Un capítulo bastante valiente si tengo que describirlo de alguna manera ya que se saca de en medio un personaje del trio protagonista enfrente de itadori que ni siquiera pudo procesar lo de Nanami y ahora la “mata” a la otra. Muy buena escritura de este capítulo por parte de Gege. El flashback en si siento que esta puesto un poco forzado como que desde el segundo 1 que aparece ya sabes lo que va a pasar y tratan de sacarte la lagrimita para que veas con el típico cliche del anime de que un personaje está a punto de morir y te ponen a sus amiguis de la infancia a pesar de que parece que me estoy re quejando de esto creo que esta bastante bien el flashback ni muy malo y muy bueno un poco forzado por lo que comento pero tampoco innecesario quizas se me hizo un poco largo pero muy bien.

Llegue al limite de texto en MAL ni siquiera sabia que habia pero bueno son como 30 paginas de word asjdas, en la version en ingles sigue la review, traduzcan. Perdon si fuera por mi la subiria entera.

The 2nd season of JJK is a major flashback. I don't have problem with that. But what I dislike in this season is the directing, especially the "there's a flashback within flashback". In episode 3 alone, there are already 3 different flashbacks 😅 which all of them are better to be included in the previous episodes.

I watch JJK for fight scene only, so I don't really expect a masterpiece kind of story. And yes, the fight scenes are cool. But I prefer the artwork of the first season than this one. It's darker and more fitting to the theme. The most interesting characters in this ... season are Toji and Geto. Gojo? Nah, I'm not a fan even from season 1. I personally don't like a stupidly overpowered character who almost have zero flaws.

first season was great, but after this season crashed and burned, i'm not continuing the series.

the animation in this season is amazing, especially in the first five episodes and a vast majority of the fights. it's a far cut above the first and you can tell the animators were passionate. there were times where i rewinded just to see how a specific part was animated again.
...and that's about all the praise i have for this season.

the entire season is having an objective, saying "this is time sensitive, solve it as quickly as possible or everything will be destroyed" and then having every character go ... "mmmm ok, but i gotta get rid of this random guy first". i guess it makes sense in a way, but it felt more like the author was stalling then setting up a good roadblock. there's so many enemies introduced that die in the same episode that i have no reason to care about. so many of these fights don't add anything, if anything they just repeatedly subtract.

i like to suspend my belief when watching shows like this, but there were many times that i just couldnt. there were multiple times where characters should've died and just. didn't, somehow. meanwhile there were others where it'd make sense for a character to dodge something or flee, but didn't because getting hurt and dying would definitely be better writing and not just frustrating to watch. this isn't even mentioning that the antagonist objective doesn't make sense- we're told why it doesn't in the beginning and then we're expected to sympathize with them for idiotic reasons?!

the character writing is far worse- from confusing, to annoying, to boring, to the point where i starting saying "holy shit, just get off the screen, i don't care" and started skipping through (which i never usually do). nearly every character- especially during what should be an important moment- was handled so poorly. it felt like the author just wanted to create shock value over and over again. there comes a point where it gets less and less shocking, where you get bored and annoyed, apathetic to what's happening and instead starting to pick it apart.

the end of the season left nothing that interested me. the first season set up so much potential, and this season destroyed it. if you have to watch it, watch the first five episodes then immediately end there. it's not worth it. it adds nothing beyond that point.

I don't watch nearly as much anime as I did in my formative teenage years, but whenever a new show pops up that people don't shut up about I try to make an effort to see what all the fuss is about. I did initially try to watch Jujutsu Kaisen as it was airing, got through season 1, thought it was pretty ok, and then didn't feel the need to go back when season 2 came out and thought that maybe the hype would die down.

It didn't.

So I said fine and made the effort to rewatch season 1 and then all of season 2 ... after it had already aired. Ignoring my thoughts on season 1 (its very average) season 2 throws you into a whole new arc that takes place in the past so it should be given a fresh chance. And upon giving it that fresh chance, I realized that season 2 is just as average as the first season but with higher highs and lower lows. It's as if the author was trying to recreate how it feels to experience Fate Zero but without all the parts that make Fate Zero good. You know, like the interesting characters.

I can understand if you just don't care about a genuinely interesting story how you could just shut your brain off and enjoy the fights. I really do get it. But the show does not present it's in that way so I did not attempt to experience it that way. To boil it down to my main gripes, characters are killed for seemingly no reason most of the time, other than to attempt to illicit a reaction from the viewer (rather than the conclusion of that character's story).

When these characters are killed there is always a post hoc "here's my backstory so please cry now" scene either right before they die (spoiling the moment entirely) or right after they die which lead to me just rolling my eyes. When this technique is typically used, it's to EMPHASIZE the emotions that the viewer is supposed to feel, not to create them from scratch. The characters are all paper thin, even the main character who got pushed aside for a flashback arc after one season with very little development.

Do the fights look good? Yeah they absolutely do for the most part! But every single fight in season 2 is either over something that was JUST introduced, or completely undermined by another story factor, causing it to have zero impact. The show genuinely feels like it was made for people who have seen like 3 anime series in their life, and that's the only explanation I can come up with for it's bizarre popularity.

It is by no means unwatchable, but for a show to be this highly regarded I expect far more than what I was given. But hey who knows, maybe when season 3 comes out it'll give me a whole new perspective.

I would like to give my opinion on this season of Jujutsu Kaisen. I think I can now give it since there are only 3 episodes left to watch.
This is my first review and English is not my native language, so excuse me in advance if I make a few mistakes.

I would like to talk first of all about the visual aspect over the whole season.
When I learned that Park Seong-Hu would no longer be the director of season 2, I was sort of surprised. I didn't really hate his direction in season 1. It must be said that there was clearly a DA problem ... that I didn't really appreciate. There was really a problem with this filtered orange tint that I didn't like at all. But its strong point was the fight scenes, which are very impressive to me. However, I find that film 0 really enhanced the manga. It was very well directed.
So when Park left for another project, I was surprised, but not saddened.

When Goshozono was announced as director for season 2, I was really happy. I didn't know him that much, but his work on episode 8 of Chainsaw Man was amazing. I expected a lot from him with this season 2.
Season 2 finally begins after 2 years of waiting without counting the film.

Gojo's arc, in terms of visuals, I don't have much to complain about. Well almost...
All 5 episodes were very good, I would say my favorite is clearly the 5th. I haven't noticed any huge production issues.
However, I don't like the fighting scenes during this flashback. Not in terms of production, but in terms of direction. The worst for me was the first duel between Gojo and Toji. I found it poorly paced and we don't understand much during the fights. It's a shame. But I would still say that production-wise, I much prefer Gojo's flashbacks to Shibuya...
However, I liked the calm and emotional moments. It was very pleasant to watch.

Now let's talk about Shibuya. I don't have much to say about Gojo's flashback, I just think it's the best part of season 2 visually speaking.

What a desappointment. I was so excited to see what Shibuya, this long-awaited big arc, was going to look like.
How can I put it... this arc in terms of production is the ying and the yang. Sometimes it's very well produced, but in the vast majority of cases.... It's bland. And I hate saying that.
I'm not going to talk about the problems at Mappa, we all already know. But this time it's too much. I don't know exactly what happened, but seeing all these animators complaining, it makes me sad for them, and for the animation industry.
I would also like to raise the fact that for this season, Mappa went looking for beginner animators. And when I say beginner, I mean "animators" who don't even know how to properly animate or who don't yet have the basics of animation. I don't say that unkindly, but I just wanted to raise this point to point out how dire the situation is in terms of production for this season.
There are episodes, like that of Yuji against grasshopper which was my first disappointment. Then, there was the episode of Nanami and the others against the octopus, the episode of Nanami's death... which disappointed me enormously. Honestly Shibuya, apart from 3-4 episodes, the others are forgettable.

And frankly, the ghosting and dimming, although I can understand why they put it, it doesn't help me fully appreciate the episodes.

Let's talk about these 3-4 episodes. I am obviously referring to Yuji vs Choso, Sukuna vs Jogo, Sukuna vs Mahoraga and Gojo vs Choso, Jogo and Hanami. (and I also liked the Nobara death episode tbh)

Obviously, they produce the biggest episodes when it comes to big fights (but hey, it's Shibuya, there are only fights anyway..).
I would say my favorite of them is Sukuna vs Jogo. Nope, it's not Sukuna vs Mahoraga. I preferred the DA of Sukuna Vs Jogo and it is much more consistent, for me. This episode is the pinnacle of animation. I was speechless, frankly, what a shame it hasn't been this level for the whole season. And that was also the case for Sukuna vs Mahogara and Yuji vs Choso. I really liked these episodes from an artistic point of view.

I think I've done the trick for the productivity and visuals of this season 2.

Also, a lot of people complained about the OSTs. I kinda liked them.


Rating: Gojo Flashback: 8/10
Shibuya: 5.5/10

Now, let's talk about the scenario, the characters, the plot.

Again, I'm not going to talk for long about Gojo's fb, since it's my favorite arc of the manga. But let's come back a little...
To be honest with you, Gojo and Geto are my two favorite characters from this manga (especially Geto). I sincerely think that there is no character whose writing is close to that of Geto. And it's a shame, because Gege Akutami showed us that he could write great characters, yet, even today in the chapters, no character surpasses Geto Suguru.
The plot with Riko, I found it very good. Although too short for me. I didn't find Riko particularly endearing or interesting, but it must be said that the character is well brought out.
I don't have much to add for this part of Gojo's FB, which once again I find very interesting.
The reason why I like this arc so much is because I think there is an atmosphere and a very good relationship development between Gojo and Geto, which is terribly lacking in Jujutsu Kaisen in general. I would have liked to find this kind of moment in the manga, we don't take enough advantage of the characters created, there is no relationship development (or not enough).

Now Shibuya.

I often hear people say that Shibuya is the best arc of all new gen combined (???).

Firstly, the term "new gen" means absolutely nothing.
Secondly, while I can "see" what this means, I completely disagree.

To be quick, Shibuya is just a fight sequence. Nothing else. Which I find very unfortunate.

The beginning of the arc starts slowly. There is really a problem with the rhythm at the beginning of the arc. There are fights and scenes that are not necessary.
Then the “real” fighting begins.
How can I say... apart from Yuji vs Mahito, there is no interesting dialogue or interesting subject discussed. Only fighting and super stylish techniques.
And obviously, I can understand that the majority of people love it. But that's not the case for me.

The only time we have "character development" is with Yuji.

“That’s normal, he’s the MC!” Yes I agree. But what about Kenjaku, Sukuna, Megumi, Nobara...? I mean, the cast in Shibuya is so diverse, there are so many characters portrayed.... But only Yuji? Seriously?

Let's talk about the antagonists first.
I don't have much to say since the antagonists themselves, except perhaps Jogo when he dies, don't offer anything interesting.
People like Sukuna because he's mean, destroys entire maps, and has a mechiavelous laugh.
Kenjaku........ This character offers nothing.

That's all. I'm only talking about these two, because they are presented as major antagonists for Shibuya.
It's disappointing.

Fortunately, Mahito raises the level a little.
I really like what he's proposing when talking about rivalry with Yuji. The fact that he's like Yuji, and Yuji is like him, because they're both selfish murderous beings. I liked it, I must admit.
Unfortunately, Mahito didn't appear enough during Shibuya, I would have liked to see more of him, and anyway I know how it will end.

Now let's talk about the secondary characters.
Meimei, Nanami, Maki, Panda, Inumaki (?) etc.
Ugh. Except for Nanami who had his ending moment, the others are almost useless. I'm not even going to dwell on them (and even less on Meimei, what a disaster).
I'm not going to talk about the Kyoto students, because there's no point in doing that, even if we're going to see them again in 2 episodes. But that doesn't change the fact that they are very uninteresting and useless (and not just Miwa).

Now, the protagonists.

For Megumi, I know that we won't see him again this season, but that he will make his return in season 3.
To put it simply, even though he didn't have a huge amount of screen time, I liked his performance against his father. It didn't last long, but Toji's final words made me feel a few things.
I can't wait to see him again, since he is one of my favorite characters in the work.

As for Nobara... I don't even want to talk about it. Such a waste. You need to explain to me why killing her is a good choice. There's nothing good about killing her except making me feel like Gege didn't know what to do with her. Like... I felt absolutely nothing and that's normal, I didn't have enough time to get attached to her. And to be honest, I found her fb very boring both in the manga and in the anime. There's no point in doing that, I'm not going to get attached to her thanks to a fb that lasts a few minutes. Gege handled this very badly.
Her performance against Mahito was pretty good, but I really think her death is a huge waste, and Nanami's death was enough for Yuji's development.
Ultimately, the character didn't say much...

Itadori.
Well, I liked his treatment during Shibuya, there was a lot of focus on him, his view of the world and excorcism completely changed. I loved his treatment, his moments of doubt and his suffering. It was well transcribed into anime.
Too bad for the future, we're no longer going to focus on that (the death of Nanami and of Nobara, apart from a few small moments).
This character is very touching, especially in the anime.
But that doesn't change the fact that he was put aside a lot because of Gojo, unfortunately.


I could go on, but I think that's enough, I said what I had to say while minimizing it as much as possible, because there is still a lot I would like to say about Shibuya, but it would take me some time.

People love Shibuya because of the shock value and the huge fights between very strong characters. That's all. There is no great character writing, nor great development, that's what I criticize about JJK in general.


I still think I had a little fun watching this arc. Sometimes it's good to put your brain down and watch something just for fun. What really drives the note up is clearly Gojo's flashback part.

Rating: Gojo's FB: 8/10

Shibuya: 5/10

Overall: 6/10

Jujutsu no Kaisen is a twisted naruto like anime ...

The randon Naruto like character (the one hyped with the power of a monster inside ... that sometimes lose control to help the mc), team up with the op kakashi (the Op teatcher, that is cool and considered a genius and overpowered), the random sasuke (quiet not so friendly friend ... that is kinda op and more or less try to keep up with the power of the mc, and have some kind of family problems ... and a family member that is op too) and the randon sakura (The support female character ... ... that is weak as fuck ... but sometimes help the team) ...

Anime is kinda cringe ... not bleach cringe but cringe ... Kinda like how elfen lied is a masterpiece for kids ... you know , decapited, death and blood and cool poses sell pretty well for teenagers.

The history is not good ... but is ok ... evil enemies (they are evil cause they are, their motive is meh) plot a huge plan to take down the socie., kinda like two countries, villages or nations fighting cause they can´t live togheter ...

Well ...

History wise 0/10 ... Not original ... harrypotter,naruto,bleach etc alike ...
Animation 8/10 ... pretty good ... but not fate good nor evergarden good ... The same season of the akiba ark got 4 or 5 animes with better animation than jujutsu.
than jujutsu ... and their studio dindnt treated their employees like slaves ...
Soundtrack 6/10 ... is a pass ... i remember the intro theme ... can´t remember the outro and can´t remember the music inside the anime. The japanese dub is really great btw.

Overall is a nice one to see ... fights are cool, some characters too. Anime is ok, but don´t live the hype.

So far I am not liking the animation style and direction. I was very excited about this arc, but so far just disappointed after every episode. It feels like there is a lot going on but at the same time nothing going on. The fight scenes are very choppy and slow. Those clean fights we loved in the first season, full of fluidity and continuity did not translate over into s2, even the basic small fights from s1. It is clear that they took shortcuts in animating these fight scenes with tricks such as only showing one side and again, just very slow choppy movement. ... Also, I hate that they added a narrator who randomly pops up throughout major fight scenes (it is clear that tactic did not work on Record of Ragnarok, why bring it up again), it adds dialogue and time that could have been more efficiently used elsewhere. A narrator isn't even needed in a fight, voicing the thoughts every once in a while of the protagonist and enemy throughout the fight was effective before (NO OUTSIDE NARRATOR NEEDED!). Overall story is interesting, was super excited, but it really does feel like shortcuts were being taken and everything is subpar. I keep hoping it gets better, but it just looks like the studio took strategies from everything bad about record of ragnarok and put it into this anime.

I love s1 and s2 didn't disappoint me.

From the animation to the way the story unfolds and how it gives off this feeling of fleeting nostalgia, warm and yet cold and distant. Not to mention the fighting scene! So beautifully crafted. I've read some reviews that said Suguru's descent to madness is a failure, and though I do think it's a bit rushed towards the end, I still think it's pretty on point. The abrupt change also feels purposeful, as if to emphasise a contrast. And the arc itself is never meant to be something that drags on. It is just something that needs to ... be conveyed.

It's a bit haunting, that one episode where they did a close-up of Suguru's eyes. It looks empty, lifeless, and devoid of the soft gleam that used to light up his eyes. I love how we get to know better about him and why he turns out the way he is.

I've read the manga, and the anime is just as powerful (esp with the added sound effects and the wonderful va). The visual is beautiful, the animation is great, the storytelling is fast but it pulls you in. It plays with symbolism and subtle scenes that pile up little by little until it reaches the breaking point. (And I almost tear up when I get to hear Yuuji's voice again (just a glimpse tho) I miss him sm😭). Will be patiently waiting for the continuation!!! ESP SHIBUYA ARC, LET'S GO!!!

(One thing that I kinda dislike is how they draw Toji 😭 he's a bit slimmer in the manga but the anime made him super buff. Such a shame bc I look forward to seeing him animated. And no matter what he's still a shitty dad, no one can change my mind.

Another thing is I actually hope to see more moments between the trio, wouldn't even mind if it's a filler or whatever. I JUST NEED MORE FLUFF OK, too much angst is bad for my well-being (⁠╥⁠﹏⁠╥⁠))

After the way Jujutsu Kaisen rose to prominence in it's first season, the way it has only garnered more and more attention with every passing moment following it's release, and the huge amount of anticipation it is burdened with, it seems to be a miracle how decent everybody has been about the new season, well almost everybody-ish. At this point you'd expect a set of people to prepare their pitchforks(which are being readied as we speak), another set to perfect their pikes(sharpened here, there a lick), and another to sharpen their swords(all ready and waiting to pierce) to plunge headlong into the chaos of an ... unruly mess in order to prove a point that has little to no point to begin with. And yet, there is silence! There is civility. And of course there is also MAL. Why?

Well anyway.

Plot: This new season of Jujutsu Kaisen starts off with a flashback arc, and then it will gradually make it's way to the present day ... present time. In order for you to understand why things are such at the present, the story must relay what happened in the past, and by that way help you connect the dots. It gives context to why things are this way and not any other way. And finally culminates with the long awaited Shibuya Incident arc.

Also, be prepared to meet some unnatural and gruesome scenes. If by chance you happen to be a person of unusual attachments to characters, you're better advised to exorcise such notions as soon as possible. There is a barrage of twists and turns coming your way. Another thing, if I understand this correctly there are a lot of Anime original scenes, and extrapolation of scenes which were just two to three panels in the manga, so probably manga readers will find it interesting as well.

Characters: For those of you who are of the more perceptive variety, you may have already realised that baring one or two characters, rest of the cast are virtually unknown to you at the beginning. There is no reason to feel uneasy, both the arcs for this season will amply answer your curiosities. As for the regular gang, they are just taking a little detour before gearing up for the showdown. Also, if among the new characters you observe an uncanny resemblance with original characters, it seems that is a conscious choice by Mappa.

Animation: I'd say the animation style has changed a bit, and so far it is shaping up to be really good. Since there was a change in directors, it's obvious things will change a little, though not in a bad way I hope. The fights look as good as usual, more fluid if anything else but considerably short on details, the general scenes look decent enough, the comic moments look decent, especially the chibi scenes, and it feels like the best is yet to come. Compared to the first season which was more filled with details yet it was no less fluid, which is a speciality of Seong-Hu Park it appears.

On one hand if I may say so, the Flashback arc may be animated in a particular way in order to fit into a characters perspective, or fit into the story arcs perspective and it might change drastically as soon as we are back in present day ... present time. On the other hand, there is a strong possibility the new director may well turn it into a regular feature. But that's something to look forward to. So with cautious optimism sally forth.

Music: An anime like Jujutsu Kaisen will always need a strong OST to further enhance the atmosphere. Because if what is happening on the screen is not smoothly complimented by the music, the best moments tend to fall flat. As early as the first episode of the new season makes you recognise this basic fact accordingly. Just think of the way the soundtrack is used when two certain characters are roaming across a haunted mansion, and you'll get the point. Though, then again two of the three composers from the first season are not reprising their roles. Which makes you wonder whether the music will be as effective as the first. Fingers crossed though.

A special mention to the Opening. Musically it sounds just as good as it can be. The ending theme is also very catchy.

Enjoyment: You'd have to be somebody really special with even more special circumstances and further more perplexingly special mentality to not enjoy even a little bit of this. As such, apart from the ultra rare special individuals, this should be right up your alley as far as enjoyment is concerned. Yes, things are considerably different to the first season, but there is still a distinct fun in it.