Jujutsu Kaisen

Year: 2020-2021
Genre: Action, Adventure, Dark Fantasy, Shounen, Supernatural
Studio: MAPPA
Episode: 24

Synopsis

This is a story of how curse users or Jujutsu sorcerers using their curse power and curse techniques to exorcise the “curses” which are supernatural demon formed by negative emotions. Itadori Yuuji, the main character gained the curse power by accidentally swallow a S-grade cursed object, Sukuna’s Finger. Normally, such action would make the person obtains curse power and is evaded by the cursed spirit of the cursed object. According to sorcerer community rules, such being must be executed. However, unsurprisingly though, Yuuji is a rare suitable vessel to contain Sukuna, and he could take control of his body while hosting Sukuna’s soul. Therefore, he was given a chance to join the Jujutsu High School to consume the remaining fingers before being executed. This is the story of how he grows into a competent Jujutsu and help as many people as he can which is an advice given by his late grandfather.

Story

The story setting is not that much of a “wow” because a group of sorcerers exorcising demon to save the humanity is not a new concept. The element of growth of the main protagonist is very basic for shounen as well. As expected, one of the character (Gojou Satoru) is OP to the top. There is a group of villains who are super strong. Similar to the Hero Association in One Punch Man, the high-ups of the sorcerer community are conservative and corrupted in some ways, which leads to the decision to execution of Yuuji, even though he is the best way to get rid of the S-grade cursed object. Therefore, one of the main characters, Gojou Satoru, has this determination and plan to overthrown the high-ups by training and forming a team from his students. I feel like the first season has been an introduction to the characters and it has been only a quarter of the whole story. There is definitely a long way to go until the finale.

The 24 minutes of each episode flew by when I was watching. This is certainly an important reason why I like this anime. The storytelling builds smoothly while the backstory is told in a natural way. Therefore, it is not boring to look into the past of each character. However, the story development is quite fast. A typical life of a day does not exist in the main part, although they designed a short lighthearted story to fill up this void in the end of each episode, which is somehow quite delightful.

The animation is certainly thrilling. It is by MAPPA. Who am I kidding? The transition of the scenes and the pacing of the fighting shots are no joke. But they still keep the cliché of saying the skill names before making the moves.

Character

This anime has spent so much time on building the characters’ personalities as well as telling their backstories. Each character has unique curse technique, which is hard for me to understand the pattern and logic of how this curse technique thing works. They also dress differently as well and it is actually a setting of the story. It said that the students at the high school can customize their own uniforms, but the main color and the button of the clothes need to be consistent. Not only the clothes are distinctive, their personalities are also one of a kind, which make everyone charming in their own way.

My most favorite character goes to Gojou Satoru. Honestly, he is the reason why I was interested to watch this anime in the first place. The show itself is phenomenon, of course, but appearance is the most important factor attracting me to a show. I might sound shallow when I put it that way, but the story is the main reason I continued watching. However, I did not expect him to be this blithe. He can be humorous, but this is a bit overboard. Well, I guess the writer does not have to fulfill my expectations in every way. Another potentially strong character is Fushiguro Megumi. The story in the first season reveals that he has promising abilities in current level that, with hard work, can be developed into a powerful sorcerer. Let’s not forget about the female characters who are powerful and full of surprises.

Music

I have to say that I love the first opening and ending theme songs so much. The phasing of the opening song complement so well with the animation. It is such a soothing experience when visual and auditory transitions are in sync. The dancing of the ending song really fits with the music as well. I also love the messy coloring animation style they used, and how all the characters are casually dressed. The second opening and ending are nice, too, but they are not as hype to me as the first ones.

Overall

The story is not explosively surprising, but judging from the clues in the first season, the plot is worth looking forward to. With attractive and charming characters, this anime is truly a candy to the eyes and it is exciting to see how each character interacts with each other.

Rating: 5 out of 5