Season two of Jujutsu Kaisen is broken up into two major arcs that act as definitive turning points for the overall series. The limited edition set itself only comes with the second half of season two, the Shibuya Incident arc, but we will also be reviewing the first half of season two, which does fit snugly in the limited edition box, even if it needs to be purchased separately. What I like overall about season two of Jujutsu Kaisen is the fact that it arguably gives me, as a fan, everything that I wanted after finishing season one. We get more backstory about the overarching villains and their ties to Gojo. We get more of Gojo's past with almost the entirety of the first half of the season acting as a flashback into Gojo's student days in general. It almost feels like part one of season two is there to establish more character-driven world-building while also letting us spend more time with arguably one of the coolest anime characters in the past couple of years.

This first half is all about laying down the foundation because by the time we get to the second half of season two, everything feels like it turns up to eleven. We get major confrontations with villains set up in season one, we have stakes established with major character deaths. The impact these curse spirits have on the human world hits a level that honestly feels rather bold. Season two of Jujutsu Kaisen very much feels like The Empire Strikes Back of the series, and while the level of bleakness that's established gets to a point where it genuinely feels hard to watch at times, I commend the anime for sticking to its guns and showing just how serious things are getting. It makes those few moments of catharsis, where our leads finally take down the enemies, feel all the more emotionally satisfying, and all of this is wrapped up in probably one of the most consistently good-looking shounen series to have come out in the past couple of years.

Or should I say the series looks consistently inconsistently good. There are a couple of moments where it feels like there are too many different stylistic shifts in the presentation, which could result from many digital artists and animators working on the series. I would've liked it if the show looked more stylistically consistent. Still, I can't deny that when the action gets good, it does get very good. I wish the music were as memorable outside of one or two tracks.

Oh, and Yuji is here too! I'm kidding…a little, but this does lead into one of my biggest complaints about season two, and that's how our main lead is barely present in it. Even when he is, he feels the least interesting person in the room. When Yuji was first introduced at the beginning of the show, he was very much a fish out of water and our eyes-in character. We saw things as he did, but now so many different perspectives need to be juggled. This season tries to highlight things at their darkest hour by putting Yuji through the ringer towards the end of season two. This would've hit harder if he were more present throughout the season. It almost feels like he's just here to get traumatized, and then this season ends. This is an issue that I feel like a lot of shounen have run into, where so many characters and plot points will get introduced to the point where even our main lead gets lost in the shuffle a little bit. But just because it is now seemingly becoming a common trope doesn't necessarily mean it is a satisfying narrative choice.

Speaking of potentially unsatisfying, the Blu-ray discs themselves are rather bare bones. You won't find much on these discs outside of the episodes, one or two promotional videos, and the creditless openings and endings. There are no commentaries, no bloopers, or any behind-the-scenes stuff. If you order the discs on their own, you'll be disappointed as barely anything constitutes an extra.

The limited edition box tries to make that up with more external inclusions. We got some art cards, some character stickers, and a nice-looking keyring. If you're a diehard fan, I can see these being desired or put on things like your laptop or notebook. However, these additions feel more like extras than selling points, as they are mostly pretty superfluous and don't seem above the quality of what you typically find at your local anime convention.

The biggest selling point of the limited edition set is the art book for season two, although calling it an art book feels misleading. While the book contains some nice-looking still shots and breakdowns for season two episodes, I would argue its main appeal comes in special cast interviews. There are interviews in this art book with almost the entire main cast of the show with all of them answering different questions about what it was like working on the show. Junya Enoki, Yuji's voice actor, gets the most spotlight as he is paired up with other actors for joint interview questions and gets a whole section to himself. Interestingly, he has more presence in this art book than Yuji throughout season two.

As someone who loves behind-the-scenes stories on anime production, getting different perspectives from the different actors on what it was like approaching specific scenes was the biggest highlight of this box set. Almost all of the interviews are filled with charm and a real reverence for the material. You also get the sense that the actors paired together for the joint interviews actually like each other and bounce off each other well with plenty of banter thrown in there to keep things light. Even if you are a casual Jujutsu Kaisen fan, it is worth a read. My favorite part during the interviews was when Enoki talks about quoting Geto and being creepy with his friends whenever they play video games together.

While a bit contentious and not without flaws, I recommend checking out season two of Jujutsu Kaisen if you finished the first one. There is a lot of good material and things to appreciate here. If you're a diehard fan, chances are you're already thinking of buying season two to add to your collection. If that's the case, I see no problem checking out the limited edition set. A lot of the extras are rather superfluous, and it would be nice to have more extras on the disks themselves. The art does a lot of heavy lifting and the overall presentation of the box will make it look nice on your shelf.