©芥見下々／集英社・呪術廻戦製作委員会
For now, I want to hold off on dissecting the final episode of Jujutsu Kaisen’s second season—because, well, I don’t have much to say about that—and instead, I want to take some time to reflect on the whole thing. this season and its place in the bigger picture of JJK’s legacy. This season can be divided into two parts: The Flashback Arc of Episodes 1-5 and the Shibuya Incident Arc of Episodes 6-23. The Flashback Arc represents JJK at its best, in that it’s filled with excellent action scenes and compelling storytelling, all of which stem from the fascinating diverse personalities of its central protagonists, Geto and Gojo. On the contrary, I think the Shibuya Incident was JJK’s worst. The action is still there, but every fight scene in Shibuya Incident is sloppy and just barely combined with some sketchy elements of empty exposition and chaotic pacing.
Although at least some of the commenters in the talk seem to think so, I don’t hate the movie nor do I think the Shibuya Arc is the worst thing ever (I started my career with by looking at things like Big Orders and Handshake Machines after all). The plot had some major flaws and it resulted in a season that was just average compared to what has been a great show so far this year. After this finale, I honestly started to seriously reconsider whether Jujutsu Kaisen was the show I thought I loved it for in Season 1.
I’m not saying a show shouldn’t suddenly change pace or unleash all the death and drama on the cast. What I am against is sitting down and watching a weekly TV series for half a year and constantly asking myself, “What is the point of all this?” Why introduce all these heroes and villains and spend so much time building them up, only to have their merciless deaths be nothing more than “Oh Snap!” moment for the “real” villain who isn’t even properly introduced before the movie ends? Why spend weeks and weeks showing all these fight scenes that, while interesting, don’t add anything beyond “It doesn’t matter, because the villain is completely new that none of you care about planned this whole thing with his Evil Brain Monster Powers, and our heroes were left out of the jump”?
If this Shibuya Arc had been even half as long as the ending, I might have been able to put aside my disappointment and frustration, as the next phase of the story still has the potential to turn Brain Monster Geto into a worthwhile character, and it could give me some interesting new characters to watch as everyone who’s been murdered, trapped in a plot-convenient box, or imprisoned in Near Future Supporting Character Prison. However, at 17 episodes, the Shibuya Arc becomes completely exhausting to experience, and all the goodwill and anticipation over the past two years that the first season, the movie, and the Flashback Arc earned have been squandered by too many weeks to achieve great success. fat”Nothing!” in return, except more scary fight scenes.
So, with all of that laid out once and for all, how does this final episode of an incredibly disappointing storyline measure up? I’ll give you three predictions.
To be fair, there is exactly one element of this finale that is actually quite interesting and engaging, but to do that we have to get through a solid fifteen minutes of the Brain Monster Geto exhibition and a several barely animated scenes of people worrying about the aftermath of the Shibuya Incident. Like the Shibuya Incident Arc itself, none of this is “terrible”; I just can’t be bothered with any of it. “You say, Brain Monster Geto is powerful and his nefarious plans (which have replaced and neutralized the plans of every other villain so far) are super scary and threatening?” Huh, you don’t say.
Anyway, the really interesting element of all this fallout has nothing to do with Brain Monster Geto and everything to do with the devious and always scheming leaders of the Jujutsu School. You know, the ones who are supposed to be good? Not only did they use all this death and destruction as a convenient excuse to eliminate Gojo by outlawing all attempts to rescue him, but they also revoked the previous amnesty. and put a bounty on Yuji’s head. Wouldn’t it be great to get this information in a more engaging way than showing off title cards? Sure, but beggars can’t be choosers, and I’m desperate for a reason, any reason, to get invested in this story again, and there’s some potential here. power.
Additionally, it just so happens that the Magician hired to do the job of bringing down Yuji is none other than Jujutsu Kaisen 0’s protagonist, Yuta Okkotsu. This is great because Yuta is the type of character I want to see more of because of his personality and conflicts, while Yuji is the type of hero that only comes into play when he’s part of a group of characters. fascinating character because his entire personality can be boiled down to “Is the main character of a fighting anime.” I know that this is wishful thinking, but I would love it if JJK’s next season flipped the script and made Yuta the main character again. Keep Yuji as a glorified plot device or make him a supporting character, which is where I think he would work better.
I’m sure that won’t happen, but this season has proven that JJK doesn’t work as an ensemble show, and if we want to right this ship, we need a proper story rooted not just in a series of sick fight scenes and cool monsters, but in characters we care about with goals we can understand. However, the sequel was just confirmed to be called “The Culling Game Arc”, which doesn’t give me much hope. However, a guy can always dream.
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Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop culture, which you can also find on Twitter his blog and his podcast.
