Review of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2

This is it, this is peak right now fam. If you like action in your Anime, it doesn't get better than this. It happened here in 2024, and it might even hapen again and again in the future from MAPPA and perhaps even their competitors on yet more projects. Which blows my mind and body, because comparing JJK S2 to what else has come before especially in the shounen genre (Naruto, Bleach, HunterxHunter, FMAB, pick anything)... watching JJK Season 2 is a peak experience as an Anime fan. Not only that, it peaks itself harder and harder and harder as the episodes roll in untilall you can do is sit there taking it with your jaw agape saying there can't possibly be any more than this as JJK S2 just goes off anyways. I was entranced. Witnessing a one-off event of unprecedented awe-inspiring importance and value, a UFO shaped like a unicorn running astride a double rainbow across the northern lights during a full solar eclipse in the southern hemisphere. The kind of mesmerizing masterclass where you don't even stop to turn to each other with "can you believe this is happening right now!?" energy, the vibe is beyond that.

The ferocity, at such a velocity, the style and the range on display in the animation and the banger OST with its variety, leaning all the way into the mangaka's penchant for unbridled brutality, checking all the tropes at the door, an exaltation of motion and everything else my visual cortex values, infinite hype that pays off and builds again and pays off and builds again and again! JJK S2 is sublime, the animators who made this possible are goated, beautiful humans with brains so wrinkly they're basically wormholes to another dimension from which they draw upon unrivaled gigachad rizz that is channeled into their tablet pens and pencils. There is no reason not to watch JJK if you have ever been impressed with any animation of anything before. The dazzle itself of something so far beyond is a masterpiece on the merits of just the animation, sound design, art, choreography, and direction alone. Just the technicals, the production values, on their own qualify this Anime as I have described it, a unicorn and peak. It is INSANE that I am not exageratting for effect, that I am just stroking off my precious memories of having experienced JJK season 2 because it is just that far out in front right now and it would not surprise me to see it described as a turning point for the popularity and quality of Anime overall in a few years time.

Not that the story is without its flaws. While this is a masterpiece of delivery, of animating a narrative, accentuating characters, bringing out the maximal dose of cool factor from the source material with near flawless technique, there were aspects that did not suit my taste. While the art direction was masterful, the direction of the narrative elements made debatable choices on several levels as to how to deliver the story to the audience. JJK S2 made a decision to jump around between past and present events in different sub-arcs of the season. The timeline was not linear between the first episodes and later episodes, nor the movie (JJK 0). Like with Netflix's The Witcher season one, the decision to tell the story out of chronological order killed some of the hype here and there although I didn't dislike it. There was also a choice made to rely heavily on backstory in the movie JJK 0 that was released prior to JJK S2, for the Shibuya arc to have narrative weight with the audience - basically, the "why should I care?" of the Shibuya arc that takes up most of JJK Season 2 runtime is found in the movie JJK 0. To me this was especially strange because just by flipping those two, making the first few episodes a standalone movie and starting the season with a few episodes that contain the events of JJK 0, everything would be in chronological order. The movie felt a bit random because it focused more on a new character rather than Gojo, arguably the most popular character in the series, and from the perspective of the narrative elements in the show it might have been better to let the standalone movie contain Gojo's arc from the start of the season. With events presented in chronological order given how that would affect the perception of Geto's character, when we timeskip to the start of the Shibuya incident the hype would have been even more bananas.

There are also parts of this story and decisions made to emphasize elements of the story visually that I did not care to see. Even though the reception was overall positive, Gojo's Ayahuasca-I-am-the-honored-Purple-one scene was over the top for my tastes and Nanamin going zombie mode also seemed like they were taking liberties with the character. The rabbit scene with Mahito over-indulged, same with Nobara's episode, and a couple of the asspulls during certain fights or the "I'm mad" scenes had me half-rolling my eyes at the edge overload. I did not love the many times some annoying no-name straight bodied characters I liked, especially when I would have picked the bodied ones to have taken those fights, because clearly it was at MAPPA's discretion to make the fight seem more one sided and embellish the one-sidedness and that detracted fromt the free-for-all vibe of so many strong individuals and factions clashing and tagging in at intervals. I disagreed with a few of the choices to go into backstory for extended periods of time, especially because it felt like it was overdone and we were being hit over the head with the feels stick just to elicit yet more feels when they were already at a good level.

Speaking of and going meta for a second, it really sucked that MAPPA had been cracking whips on the animators because the animators did such a world-beating job animating JJK S2 that these issues I had with story, direction, character writing, minor pacing stuff, which are usually some of my favorite elements that really polish a show into a hidden gem or ruin an otherwise solid premise/production for me, I just don't care at all from a critical standpoint here. The broad strokes were still deft enough, and the execution of the direction within each episode was masterful. JJK S2 as a package is thicc and juicy and rare. They never forget JJK S2's straws, napkins, plastic cutlery or condiments. JJK S2 is HIM, and we have these animators who were apparently treated like dirt by MAPPA's executives from start to finish to thank. Animators who have built MAPPA's reputation as a goated S-tier studio. It is such a dissapointment, but I am hopeful that the irreproachable quality and impact of their work on JJK S2 will force MAPPA's hand to give them their due respect on future projects.

Whether it is your first Anime or your 400th, make no mistake that JJK Season 2 represents a highlight and a milestone to most people who have seen it. The work is seminal in its consistent technical artistry, the sheer volume of it, getting us there over and over again with an adaptation of source material that goes further beyond. Shounen's "best moments" which many of us have waded through hundreds of episodes including baseless filler to briefly perceive, to experience the possibilities of the narrative weight and that sense of wonder, the strong feels, can be expected in every episode of JJK S2. The show is an absolute monster, it has absolutely no chill and you cannot go wrong experiencing it for so many reasons. One of the coolest things to be done ever, and especially in Anime. What Anime and especially the shounen genre can induce in your brain that other mediums find hard to achieve, JJK S2 delivers in such a compact and powerful format that comparing it to other shounen right now is like comparing the iphone to two cups and a wire. You might think you could find some classic stories out there that are better, some goated bespoke Animes and other basically-Animes like Avatar or Castlevania that have higher highs, cooler worlds, more narrative weight, better character development or dialogue - but nah, JJK S2 would win.