The Music of Jujutsu Kaisen

 

    Hey! Ever since I wrote my blog post on my experience watching JJK, I've still been interacting with parts of the show on the daily. Whether it be rewatching some scenes on YouTube, looking up funny GIFs to send to my friends who've watched it, or rewatching the series on anime nights with my roommate Wade, Jujutsu Kaisen has wormed its way into my life now. However, none of these have been as ever-present as the soundtrack. Whether it's to motivate myself on my runs, to hype myself up when playing videogames, or even just lying in bed listening to songs, I've realized that I'm seriously infatuated with the music of this anime. So let's look at why!

    I want to get this out of the way immediately since this was a big source of inspiration for this blog post: the other night I had a video titled "Gushing About Jujutsu Kaisen's Soundtrack for 88 Minutes" on my YouTube recommended. Seeing as how I love the music and I had a spare 88 minutes at night, I watched the whole thing! The analysis of the emotional impact behind every song, along with the identification of how different songs are cut up, remixed, and used throughout the series has been really insightful when creating this blog, so I'd really recommend watching this video for yourself, if you want a more thought-out experience with nice visuals.

    Anyone who knows me well will know that, despite not having a musically talented bone in my body, I am a huge fan of leitmotifs in music. Maybe it's the storyteller in me that is fascinated with the idea of telling a story through music alone, but I've always held that leitmotifs are the pinnacle of music for me, since it's such a powerful yet subtle narrative tool in media. It is the number one thing I look for in the soundtrack for any media I like, whether it be games like DELTARUNE, movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, or shows like JJK.

    As you can probably tell, the music of JJK is chock full with leitmotifs- and I ate that up. While some motifs were overwhelmingly obvious to me during my first watch of the show, like Aoi Todo's theme, there were several other character themes that I didn't even recognize. This added new layers of meaning to my rewatch with Wade, as I was now enjoying moments and seeing connections I wasn't aware of before. Continuing with the Aoi Todo example, since it has a very strong, powerful, confident melody paired with the triumphant chorus singing it, I would almost immediately recognize the theme and associate it with Todo's appearance in the scene. However, it was only on my second watch that I recognized his leitmotif in the song HIGHEST JUMPING, which initially sounds like it has absolutely nothing to do with Todo, until I recognized his motif at around 0:31 seconds into the song! Even though it is revealed later in the scene with this song that the scene takes place in Todo's imagination, having his theme hidden in the song earlier is a great way to hint at his involvement, which made me extremely happy to notice on my second watch.

    My obsession with leitmotifs aside, even beyond its use of motifs, the soundtrack proves to be exceptional. Delivering intense, hype-inducing fight music, sorrowful emotional gut-punch music, or conveying the sensation of sheer destruction through sound alone, this soundtrack is successful at tackling every emotional beat it aims for. It feels a little corny to admit to, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that whenever I finished a workout, I would put on If I Am With You, a song that feels like you're ascending past your earthly restrictions. Even without knowing the context of the scene, just by listening to the music you can feel a sense of tranquility and peace wash over you, relieving you.

     Conversely, even without knowing the context behind the song Thunderclap, you feel uneasy, restless, or uncomfortable. I distinctly remember when I was watching the scene this song plays during, the hairs on my arms stood up the moment the choir started singing. And that's the power of good ass music in media: even though I remember the scene, the music helps me remember exactly how I felt watching that scene, tying an emotional response to the memory of the episode. 

    I am a little short on time as I'm writing this, so I'll have to end this post here. But if there is any takeaway from this post you should get, it's to listen to soundtracks more closely. It doesn't even have to be JJK's soundtrack. The moment you start paying attention to the music in media you consume is the moment you unlock a new level of enjoyment from media. Please, don't just hear music, listen to it.