Currently one of the best-selling manga series of all time, with more than 80 million copies sold, “Jujutsu Kaisen” also continues its successful run as an anime, in a season, that is actually much better than the first one in terms of context, as drama becomes a crucial element of the narrative.
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The first episodes take us back to 2006, when Satoru Gojo and Geto Suguru were in high school and actually the best of friends. One day, they receive a mission from a key figure in the sorcery realm, Tengen, to “guard” and “erase” for a girl called Amanai Riko, Tengen's match “Star Plasma Vessel”. The two set off to complete the escort tasks, but a “jujutsu sorcerer killer” named Fushiguro shows up and the consequences of his appearance are rather dire, sending the two all-powerful sorcerers to completely different directions in their lives.
After a few episodes that implement extensively, the rather annoyingly pedantic comedy, including the ‘silly faces”, usually met in anime, the series sets in its main arc, with a rather intricate attack on the Tokyo underground and Shibuya, which brings all the ‘good guys' in rather difficult situations, as Mahito, Jogo and Geto eventually emerge as the main villains.
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Allow me to start with the negative, which are essentially the same issues almost all shonen face. There are too many characters in the story, and the inclusion of their occasionally clashing backstories confuses rather than adding more depth. Furthermore, it seems that the majority of them are separated into two categories, the ones who die easily, and the ones that take a number of episodes to be beaten, if even, while one could also say that there is a third, of those who seem to die but eventually reappear. This aspect, particularly in the last two categories, does become annoying after a fashion, with a number of villains whose power seems to be on a certain level just to prolong the series via the action scenes. The Mahito one in this case is the most evident sample. Thirdly, and in direct connection with the aforementioned, the desperate effort to prolong the battles with flashbacks to the past or change of setting, in a way that definitely becomes annoying after a fashion. Fourthly, the ‘loans' each series takes from the rest of the shonen category end up making a number of them largely cliched, with “Jujutsu” evidently following the “Naruto” path. Lastly, the comedy does not work at any level, with its style lingering between the silly and the pedantic.
As such, it is quite interesting to check how Shota Goshozono and the rest of the crew of “Jujutsu Kaisen” manage to move beyond these issues. Regarding the first, it is probably where this season truly thrives, with the death of a number of characters that seemed to be crucial both toning down the specific issues, and adding a very appealing sense of drama to the series, which is also heightened by the despair the people left behind feel.
The second and third are actually toned down by the spectacular action scenes, which, particularly in the last part, are among the best we have ever seen in a shonen series, truly raising the bar for any other title in the category. Particularly the way the flames and fire and general is implemented, the scenes where a number of creatures and/or characters are together on screen, the speed of movement, the unprecedented massacres and the overall brutality are a true wonder to watch, in a way that also adds to the drama, in one of the most meaningful, intricate, and entertaining approaches to action we have ever seen. The drawing of the backgrounds and the coloring, as much as the animation by MAPPA is truly astonishing, with the scenes of utter disaster definitely being the ones that stay on mind.
Lastly, regarding the comedy, thankfully it is quite toned down here, essentially restricted in the first episodes, with the exception of some awkward, but also quite brief moments in the last episodes.
This review would not be complete without mentioning the character design by Sayaka Koiso and Tadashi Hiramatsu, who have come with a series of truly unique characters, all of which stand out despite their number, including the various monsters that appear throughout the series.
“Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2” is much better than the first, a true audiovisual extravaganza and probably the best shonen series of the year.
