Welcome to Jujutsu Kaisen, an anime filled with great animation, horrendous characters, and an average shounen plot.
Over the time the show aired, it gained massive attention and critical acclaim, rivaling even Demon Slayer in terms of commercial success. However, just like Demon Slayer, I see no reason to enjoy the show other than for its animation. In fact, many criticisms I have with the show are similar in line to criticisms that I had with Demon Slayer. Let’s start out with the thing that people have been talking about the most with the show.
(Spoiler warning of course)
“The animation in this series is incredible,” is what
...
I would like to say. However, the animation isn’t always as amazing as most people make it out to be. It still is amazing at certain parts, especially when it needs to be, but a lot of the time the animation is just above average. For many scenes which involve a lot of talking, the animation becomes very run-of-the-mill. These scenes have very little animation, usually only the characters moving very slightly. Of course, it’s unrealistic to expect all of the scenes to look that good, however, these scenes take up a majority of the show. People focus too much on small chunks of the show and completely ignore the bad elements.
I must say though, when the animation hits, it REALLY hits. In almost every episode, there’s at least 1 scene of sakuga. The action scenes, regardless of the characters participating in them, the plot importance, or any other reason, look amazing. The number of different cursed techniques characters use in the show allows for the action to elevate to even greater levels. There’s tons of variety in the fight scenes. My personal favorite is the action scene in the final episode. The way the animation matches up with the music makes the scene that much more engaging. Seriously, that scene was like a flash of brilliance in an otherwise mediocre show.
To touch on the openings (even though it doesn’t affect my score at all), the animation is some of the best I’ve seen. Even better than the show's high points, the animation is on another level.
Now time for the thing keeping the series from being good, the characters. Almost all of the characters in the show, including the main trio, are insufferable.
Yuji Itadori is just like a standard shounen protagonist in many ways. TvTropes defines the average shounen protagonist as “big hearted, energetic kid heroes, with a natural gift that blows others out of the water.” This definition fits Itadori down to a tee. Now the problem with his character is not the fact that he fits within this trope, it’s the fact that he leans heavily into the negative aspects of the trope.
He seemed like a promising character at the beginning of the series. Although simple, his motivation with his grandfather and his whole “proper death” thing seemed like an interesting idea. The problem is, they did nothing to his character after the first 5 episodes. He becomes a completely stagnant character. He doesn’t have any meaningful interactions with other characters, we don’t get to explore his psych at all, and most importantly he doesn’t change. This is sort of a problem with most characters in the series, but we’ll get to that later. Basically after the first fourth of the anime he’s dedicated to 3 things: showing off how cool his powers are, making just plain awful or tone breaking jokes, or furthering the plot.
Megumi and Nobara I have less to say about, since they’re also basically trope characters. Megumi is ‘Serious Guy’ and Nobara is “Mean Girl.’ They have some flashbacks in the earlier episodes that give their characters some background information, but, just like with Itadori, they serve no narrative purpose after the first 6 episodes.
Gojo is also listed as a main character on this site, although I don’t see him as one. He’s easily the most interesting of the four, however that still does not make him a good character. His cheerful and laid back attitude despite the circumstances he’s in is interesting, but sometimes can be tone breaking.
As for the side characters, they’re a little better. None of the other Jujutsu Tech students are anything special. They consist of another “Mean Girl” trope, a talking Panda, and a person who can only speak through onigiri flavors. They also get some small characterization but nothing ever comes from this. None of them serve any importance to the plot.
One major problem I have with the characters is their quirkiness. Most characters seem to be very exaggerated with their personalities, making them seem unrealistic. Lots of characters are completely one dimensionally, and their entire character hinges on a single quirk that they have. The worst example of this has to be Toudou. His entire character is centered around the fact that he likes women who are tall and have a big ass. He is quite possibly one of my least favorite characters in anime ever. All he does is ask people what type of women they like and fights them if they don’t agree with him. In a comedy anime, his character could have been at least bearable. But in Jujutsu Kaisen, a show with lots of blood and death constantly happening, his character seems to be so out of place in the show. Every time he appears on screen I get whiplash from how at odds he is with the rest of the show.
As for characters such as Nanami, Mahito, and Junpei, I actually like them! They’re the best characters in the show, and make the Vs Mahito Arc the best arc in the series by far. All of their motivations are great, they get lots of characterization for how little time they are on screen, and each one of them has an impact on the plot for the arc they’re in.
The most asinine thing though is that they completely get shafted from the narrative after that arc. Junpei ends up dying, and there is not a single mention of him after the fact. When Itadori’s talking about what a proper death means right after Junpei dies he’s not even mentioned. Nanami completely disappears, never to be mentioned again, even after the slight connection he and Itadori made. Mahito is the only one to actually be mentioned or show up later in the series, but even then he says like two lines, and could have been swapped in for another character for when he appears.
Basically, the character writing in this series is awful. Like...REALLY awful.
One gripe I have with the show that is completely subjective is the comedy. Of course, humor is subjective, so I can’t really go into why I don’t like the comedy of the series. To me, the humor in the show is very standard shounen humor. Anime slapstick never works with me.
The soundtrack is a mixed bag. The action music is good at most points, however the OST during the slice of life sections is horrendous.
Jujutsu Kaisen falls into many holes that standard shounen shows fall into. Overall this show is massively overrated. Points of it are enjoyable enough, however those sections make up very little of the show. I hate giving out number scores but if I had to give this show a score it would be a 4/10. The animation is the only thing holding this show up.
Story - 4
Art - 8
Sound - 6
Character - 2
Enjoyment - 3
Overall - 4
Jul 11, 2021
Jujutsu Kaisen
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Welcome to Jujutsu Kaisen, an anime filled with great animation, horrendous characters, and an average shounen plot.
Over the time the show aired, it gained massive attention and critical acclaim, rivaling even Demon Slayer in terms of commercial success. However, just like Demon Slayer, I see no reason to enjoy the show other than for its animation. In fact, many criticisms I have with the show are similar in line to criticisms that I had with Demon Slayer. Let’s start out with the thing that people have been talking about the most with the show. (Spoiler warning of course) “The animation in this series is incredible,” is what ... 
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