Jujutsu Kaisen 2nd Season

I suggest anime-onlies to keep giving Jujutsu a chance because s2 is SIGNIFICANTLY better than S1. Shibuya arc is the highlight of JJK as far as I've read. It's also a strong improvement over the anime and Hidden Inventory is sooooo good. It did the manga even better in making Getou a good villain with depth and you can really empathize with his reasons and see the reason he turned out the way he did. It also does its explanations better than the manga too lol, and gives the characters more time (though in Mechamaru's case, too much time... yo no one cares about mechamaru...)

S1 ... didn't go that in-depth into the plot because the plot in JJK doesn't start showing itself until later, but I promise it goes deeper, you just have to stick around to actually find out about the rest of the worldbuilding, plot, and jujutsu world history. Gege-sensei rooted all of it in the Heian period, and the plot will go back centuries. (this isn't a spoiler this is mostly info since s1...)

Sidenote, the thought that Gojo would be the main staple this season is h i l a r i o u s. Nah, Yuji's the main character, Gojo could never be, for the simple reason: Gege-sensei dislikes Gojou and doesn't understand why he's so popular. (RIP)

Protip, do some reading on Tortoise & Achilles before you go into ep 3 or so, or skip if you don't care how the math in Getou's Limitless works, but mathematicians have articles on it regarding the anime. Also suggested you review how Red, Blue, and Purple works from S1. (Unless no care... I mean, even if I read them I forget them in 5 seconds flat so lol, they are math concepts that are difficult to grasp as an ability.)

The opening for the Shibuya Arc incident is a banger and stylistically soooo suave, dark, and sexy, and has me incredibly hype for what's to come. This season's a real visual treat. Makes me sweat buckets wondering if the animators got any sleep lol (probably not.)

For those that think: "It's supposed to be dark and depressing and only 1 person dies in s1 :/" That's 1) not even true, 2) ...just keep watching, lol. 3) Sure, more people could die, but this isn't Berserk. S1 is like the (big, long) appetizer before the meal. You ain't seen nothin yet. It'd be like complaining about how Naruto is only ever loud and annoying with no big character development..... pre-Shippuden. Now if anyone needs me, I'll be meowing in that box over there. If you know, you know.

I suppose the only other thing to keep in mind is uh. Yeah, MAPPA does not have a good track record with how they treat their employees. Just be socially aware, I suppose. But to be fair, neither does the majority of the anime industry. People do not get paid living wages in this industry on functional, healthy working hours. So when you can, don't let them think we've forgotten, yeah? (I just mean respectfully reminding/pushing them to keep working on changing anime distribution models/paying workers so animators can actually survive.)

Now, is Jujutsu Kaisen the best shounen ever? No. Is it the worst of modern shounen? I think the people who think this without any additional nuance are contrarians, kinda. I think we remember the oldies with rose-tinted glasses. Bleach was always crap, especially past a certain point. Naruto was a huge disappointment with what happened with Boruto (but pre-Boruto, yes, it's imo rather solid). Oda is um..... a can of complicated worms. Shaman King had a lot of slow moments. Nobody remembers Toriko even though it was momentarily a new big three. AoT turned very, very controversial, and on top of the political issues, it went out of its way to hurt and betray its readers on purpose. Tokyo Ghoul turned into a nightmare for almost everyone I knew into it. Name any older shounen, I'm sure it wasn't as good as we remember. Sure, back then we had better, harder hitters, like HxH. Jujutsu, as with anything, had its slow moments, just as Naruto and HxH did. But JJK also has its highlights, and so do other modern shounen sometimes. I don't think we'll get another hard-hitter like HxH in the next 5 years, but to be frank that's not a good reason to instantly dismiss any newer work just because it is different from what we remember. Is JJK S2 worth watching? 1000% absolutely. (Just make sure MAPPA keeps working on their HR issues lol.)

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.

I honestly do not understand the hype. This anime is everything wrong with modern shonen. God tier animation being wasted on a crappy, basically non- existent plot. I honestly do not even know what is going on in this anime, even from the first season. And the second season is even worse.

The whole "find- fingers" plot is basically burried under constant 'cool- overpowered' characters fighting. The 'story' itself is a choppy mess of almost non- stop fights, and random things happening inbetween. There is no build up to anything, no stakes whatsoever, and pointless 'powerful characters' being intoduced left and right for some reason.

As for ... the character themselves. From the first season you get the feeling that its meant to be a Naruto- team Kakashi style ripoff, but is instead failing horribly at being that. The characters are haphazardly put together in a team and meant to work together because the plot demands it. Theres basically no team building chemistry happening because all the characters immidietly start working together as if theyve known eachother for years. And Kakashi rip-off..ahem Gojo, might as well be the MC because he is basically the strongest character in the anime. You can forget pink- haired whats -his -name even exsists because Gojo is everywhere, and is able to fix everything, with no consequences on himself, anyway. The second season solidifies that even more.

Two seasons in and I still do not understand how cursed powers even work. And every time they try to explain anything related to this, it just becomes an even worse jumble of nonsense. Take our god and saviour Gojo senseni for example...like what is even going on there, I dont...

If you wanna go brain-dead infront of the sceen and just watch cool-looking characters beat on eachother, then this is the anime for you. If youre looking for the plot, you will go brain-dead trying to find it. I'm only giving this any points because the animation itself is God- tier...to bad its being wasted like it is.