Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2
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v1cious
 Posts: 6216 Location: Houston, TX |
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I guess I have terrible taste, because so far I love this season. Maybe it's cause I'm coming off the awfulness that was Demon Slayer season 3, but so far I'm quite enjoying it.
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Sekaro
Posts: 383 |
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Geez... This thread is as dreary & moody as the arc it's trying to discuss. In times like this, what we really need is to play some light-hearted music like Specialz to lighten the mood
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FionaBun
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I'm enjoying the heck out of this arc. I like the unrelenting pace and chaotic action. It's clearly a cataclysmic event where no one has a chance to collect themselves or take stock of what's going on, only react. I like that the usual plot armour afforded core characters in shonen has seemingly been disregarded. I like that the villains feel utterly unhinged and like real threats. And I think we're being spoiled with just how consistently amazing the fight scenes have been episode after episode. I just wish it wasn't coming at the expense of a ridiculously overworked studio of people who have been pushed so far beyond their limits that it's a wonder this show even exists, let alone in the form that it does.
Reading this thread however, reminds me of how I felt when I was loving the Chainsaw Man anime and everyone was dogging on it for not looking enough like the manga, but worse. I just enjoy the show. I don't need it to be anything other than what it's been, which is entertaining. And like I said below the twitter post for the latest review, the world is awful right now and something like JJK, something I can just *enjoy* is a welcome distraction. It'd be nice if we could just enjoy something without it always spiraling into exposition about how a piece of entertainment failed to do exactly what we expected it to. JJK is a good show with fantastic animation and I'm happy to have it to look forward to each week, for as long as Mappa can hold together. |
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Gnarth
Posts: 175 |
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There's nothing wrong with enjoying something, and you're absolutely free to ignore all the people dragging it down, whose opinions shouldn't hamper your enjoyment. However asking people in a review talkback thread to "just enjoy" uncritically is very silly for obvious reasons. And while a lot of complaints (in general, not specifically here) can be boiled down to "it's not what I wanted", there's also a lot more to that in analysing media: those critical of last episode, including myself, have explained their reasons for why Nobara's narrative handling is not what they wanted, and it involves incomplete character arcs, wasted potential, missed opportunities, unsatisfying conclusions; mainly throwing away a great and promising character who brought a lot to the series and had still a lot of potential in a way that only provides shock value and nothing else. |
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malvarez1
Posts: 1975 |
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To be fair, this sequence is a lot faster in the manga, where it felt more like it all happened too quickly for her to dodge. The anime slowed the scene down for dramatic effect. |
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Allison Addams
 Posts: 120 |
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While this arc is still moderately entertaining me, I can agree wth others in thinking this has probably been the weakest arc thus far. The storytelling is kinda all over the place feeling aimless, and the "shocking" parts are mostly cheap. You can't divorce the situation at MAPPA when it comes to criticizing it so I know they're trying their best, but my main issue is just these story beats of the manga they're following.
This arc has now progressively stripped away a lot of things that were more interesting and worth caring about. Geto and his whole deal, is apparently gone, erasing the interesting potential conflict that could have brought. Geto was a great villain, but he's been dropped in favor of a talking brain I've yet to really get to know thus don't give much of a crap about. While I don't have a problem with a show killing off my favorite characters, it hasn't been done very well. And aside from my favorites, they have killed off other interesting characters regardless that had so much more potential now wasted. At this point Shibuya hasn't given me much reason to care or be as invested in the things that are all left over after these less than stellar moments thus far. So all that's left for me now is to just hoping the payoff is worth it when more things are actually defined. But we'll see. It feels like people have mainly hyped this arc because of its chaotic nature and bleaker tone, but it's really not done that well. I still enjoy JJK sure, but it has been dropping the ball and that's unfortunate. |
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N V
Posts: 76 |
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I'm not interested in arguing with you on a response forum like this is Twitter, I'm not sure why you are. I could easily dispute your silly "No he actually loves the series! He just hates everything it does and stands for - don't look at the popularity surge, it isn't real, I know better what makes this show good!" but I won't because that would be spammy and dumb. I posted my response to the review, you just do the same alright? Last edited by N V on Mon Dec 04, 2023 4:09 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Stelman257
Posts: 299 |
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Couldn't have said it any better. It's such a shame because I even on rewatch I still love everything about S1 and the first arc of S2, which might be my favourite content from JJK in general, so it really is sad that I feel so disappointed by everything it's doing with itself now. |
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Iron Maw
Posts: 495 |
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While I wouldn't quite go as far to call it aimless myself because i still remember the primary goals of each side despite deluge of battles, the pacing and extraneous events have definitely dragged things down. Like I think back to Toji's sudden appearance which was pretty cool development even if how happens kinda of nonsense and how little came out of it outside separating Megumi from Nanami's group. You think such a major figure with strong connection to one of core cast members would bring about a significant personal revelations for Megumi. But no we just get (a very neat mind you) fight scene made worse by banana head's presence leading us yet another cool but ultimately pointless battle between Sukuna and Megumi's super shikigami that goes on too long. It just feels like some weird fanservice nobody asked for. This kinda of fluff is interspersed throughout whole Shibuya arc which only purpose is just to artificially extend it. I love big showdown arcs like this whose main aim is shake up status quo of the narrative but execution of it post Gojo containment has been much more messy than I expected. Still overall I'm enjoying it enough, if simply for the spectacle & the few surprises its had, but I do wish there was a bit more meat here, |
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NeverConvex
 Subscriber Posts: 2458 |
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Man, I'm still bitter over the use of Toji. Why have him speaking coherently when he first comes back only to have him become a lobotomized zombie before actually meeting Megumi, or, heck, even any of the rest of the cast? His return was really unexpected, but the more I thought about it I was completely cool with it -- up until it turned out there wasn't really any satisfying narrative plan he'd been revived for.
Yeah, I commented on this above. I think it came off even more ridiculous because the show had literally just gone out of its way to make clear that she'd figured out he was a duplicate, and could sense the direction other-Mahito was lurking at. Even leaving aside that her death was an unsatisfying narrative choice, it didn't even make sense in-universe, given everything we'd been told up to that point.
Gojo is so powerful, he was physically holding back the mangaka's worst narrative impulses.
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jdnation
Posts: 2062 |
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Removing Gojo from the board was something I expected to happen at some point. He was too OP, and the JJK world was leaning on him entirely. That would explain why there's so few sorcerers sent to Shinjuku, compared to the JJK0 Movie, where practically everyone was brought out to face Geto. They probably figured that Gojo alone was enough to handle the situation lickety-split, Nanami, Naobito and Mei were there mainly for patrol with lower grade sorcerers brought in to help them train and be evaluated.
As for Toji, I'm guessing there is still more to expect of him showing up before Megumi. a) It makes sense that the sorcerer medium group used him as they were working for Geto and if anything just in case they needed someone powerful enough to face Gojo, and that's Toji from Geto's experience. b) Naobito recognized him for sure. Maki would also be intrigued as to how someone else with zero cursed energy would be so powerful, and she'll be motivated to reach his level, so she'll certainly be asking questions, and it's likely she noticed that Naobito recognized him. c) Megumi is definitely intrigued as to who the heck that guy was, and why he'd asked him about his last name. And then killed himself. While he tries not to care, he's definitely going to be dragged into Zenin clan affairs, and I'm sure Toji and his heritage are going to come up. As for this arc as a whole, we should try to remember that the Shinjuku incident seems to only span several hours of one night's major conflict. It pretty much is the execution of a warzone, that you could pretty much consider this the climax of events in season 1 being the first 2/3rds of a story. Right now it's a warzone, so a lot is happening, but also not a lot... which is understandable if you think of this season as one big climax. It's a bold move to focus on one moment. I guess sort of like how a film like Christopher Nolan's 'Dunkirk' focuses on several hours of one event and hopping back and forth between different people. So I can dig the approach, especially knowing there are more arcs to come that I think will go back to the traditional scope of covering a longer period of time. So in that sense, the decision to go for this might've certainly come at the cost of better story development that otherwise would've been easier with a story that can take place over several days in different locations and events. That said, arguably, a similar thing was done with the Kyoto Vs. Tokyo School arc, but what made that interesting was that new characters were regularly being introduced and expanded on and various personalities playing off one another. It's a dynamic that doesn't quite work here in this context, or rather is missing entirely, as the younger sorcerers are not together most of the time. It would be more interesting if Maki and Nobara were teamed up. The best parts in terms of character dynamics were when Yuji and Megumi were forced together and teamed up. Likewise, it was exciting when Nobara and Yuji were apart, yet together were taking down Mahito. But this doesn't quite work as well with separating the cast and teaming them up with supervisors they have no demonstrated relation with. Like Panda/Sword guy, who were both at least comedic. Nanami/Maki/Naobito likewise didn't bring anything to the table. And Mei and Yuji separated early. It'd have been more interesting to have Maki and Nobara acting together at some point similar to Yuji and Megumi. Essentially Team Battles with the young cast are some of JJK's best assets, and one of the things that made Season 1's 2nd half very good. I'm guessing the Kyoto guys will show up somewhat soon towards the latter end, so that's where things will pick up the most. |
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MyMasterMatthew
Posts: 169 |
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I'm not a manga reader either, but I've heard that Nanami's death wasn't originally planned. He was, supposedly, only meant to lose a limb. If a manga reader or someone familiar with that claim could verify it's authenticity, I'd appreciate it. Unfortunately, it's risky for anime fans to search for things online. I can't tell you the number of times I've been spoiled about something for shows like Attack on Titan, One Piece, Black Clover, My Hero Academia, and, yes, Jujutsu Kaisen. Heck, even the YouTube algorithm has screwed me over (although, it'd be nice if people didn't refer to manga spoilers in their video titles and thumbnails in the first place). |
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yeehaw
 Posts: 484 |
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Someone writing an entire essay about how they asked an AI chat bot if calling an anime episode bad is racist is probably the funniest thing I've seen in the ANN forums since that person who wished cancer upon people in dutch
Also James was extremely right with the writing being amateurish. Like the old lady narrator explainign every goddamn jutsu in excruciating detail and it still makes no sense Anyway I'm really losing interest in jujutsu at this point. Like what's the point of watching it if they're gonna kill all the interesting characters? Geto turned out to just be Krang, nanami's dead and now Nobara! Am I supposed to watch for the guy who only says kelp? Where's Meimei? Give me more of Meimei. But don't kill her!
To me it seemed like she didn't even register either Mahito, she just saw Yuuji and for some reason was really surprised he was there |
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za21
Posts: 43 |
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It was just a few times, but sure. I don't think it's even done that since ep 14.
So...3 characters? Aren't you one of those who say season 1 was soooooo much more engaging. All those characters are still alive. Unless you're saying just those 3 characters made season 1 good lol. |
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za21
Posts: 43 |
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It hasn't been aimless at all actually. Everything has followed a clear sequence of events. Three teams go in to try to rescue Gojo and they encounter different enemies because of Gojo's absence. At the beginning there was a couple fights against some fodder to warm up and to destroy the veil markers to release it so they can actually go rescue Gojo, but then since ep 13 it's been fights against the major villains that concocted the plan. It's been pretty easy to follow. |
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