I Caved And Watched Jujutsu Kaisen

 

    I'm not really an anime guy. Sure, I've watched a couple here and there, and I've read manga like DEATH NOTE, but generally, I never got *into* it. But a week ago I was bored, restless, and needed something to sink some time into, since I was struggling with sleep a lot. At my wit's end, I asked my buddies Blake and Angelo if they had any recommendations on something I could watch and enjoy in a relatively short time (I was wary of recommendations like One Piece, which boasts over 1000 episodes). Curiously, they both had the same instant recommendation; Jujutsu Kaisen, aka JJK.

    I had heard good things about the show, namely its action scenes and characters being well written. Additionally, I knew that this is a pretty modern show, with its second season having just come out last year. So with this in mind, I decided I would start watching the anime the next morning, just to try it out.

    Admittedly, while I could recognize that the show was good quality, it took a few episodes for me to get invested (I think around episode 7 I was locked in). However, the animation, the writing, and the music were all top notch- which I could recognize as being a vastly superior quality than the other animated shows I've watched in the past. I also thought that the magic system of "curses" and "techniques" was interesting enough to be cool but not overly complicated to the point of confusion. So I was pretty happy with the show!

    I'm not great at summarizing the show's story into a simple pitch, but here's my attempt: Yuji Itadori, our main character, eats the severed finger of an ancient cursed spirit called Sukuna, which grants Yuji some enhanced abilities but at the cost of hosting the spirit of Sukuna within his body. When a secret society of sorcerers finds him, they hatch the plan to feed him all 20 of Sukuna's fingers and then execute him, to dispose of Sukuna's spirit forever. Meanwhile, an intelligent group of special-grade cursed spirits simultaneously plot to destroy the world of Jujutsu sorcery in order for spirits to dominate the world.

    While my ham-fisted summary of the show is undoubtedly overly simple and vague, it's the general premise for a show that I feel extends far beyond its central plot. For a show with a pretty large ensemble cast, the show does a great job of showcasing each character's abilities, backstory, and personality, which endears the audience to pretty much every character onscreen. Notably, fan favorites like Satoru Gojo (the strongest sorcerer in the world) win over the audience not just through displays of insane power, but through personality quirks and jokes that make his character more than simply "the strongest".

    I've also just fallen in love with the soundtrack. The album for the show's music jumps from genre to genre, sometimes experimenting with discordant jazz, and other times launching into high-energy techno fight themes. The inclusion of leitmotifs hits me in a soft spot, immediately winning me over as soon as I recognized character themes transcending throughout the soundtrack, implying their influence over scenes of the show they're not even in to add that extra layer of context and implied importance. It's just great in a way I fail to communicate!

    I'd 100% recommend the show to anyone who's even mildly curious about it. The writing and story is well-developed and paced expertly to not feel like you're just being bombarded with exposition and new characters to care about. The animation quality is flat out the best I've ever seen- offering something new to both newcomers like me who don't usually watch anime and to veterans of the genre who have seen enough to recognize how advanced their animation is. Just flat out good stuff, after a certain point in season 2 I literally couldn't tear myself from the screen and ended up pulling an all-nighter to finish it that night. Watch this show!!!