Tag: Jujutsu Kaisen

Welcome all, to the finale of Jujutsu Kaisen season two! Not a whole lot to talk about this week, and I’m a bit preoccupied with all of the reviews, so lets just knock this out and get ready for the next season.

Getting right to it, this episode was… Fine? There’s nothing to egregious or incredible about it. You could tell the production was finally flagging as it relied heavily on chibi animation and still frames, with absolutely none of the character work of previous episodes. That’s not the worst thing, as even failing at the end here Jujutsu Kaisen still never fully fell apart. While I’ll never accept MAPPA’s treatment of animators and their poor scheduling, it’s clear those very same animators worked their asses off to ensure Jujutsu Kaisen finished. So when you talk about the highs, about how good this season was if you enjoyed it, don’t praise MAPPA. Because the studio did everything it could to fuck it up. Instead praise the animators, inbetweeners and myriad of support staff who made the terrible schedule work.

Continue reading “Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 23 [Shibuya Incident – Gate, Close]” →

You know, it’s episodes like this that really show just how much good direction can cover for a melting production. Because make no mistake, despite some well composed shots and good ideas, melt this episode of Jujutsu Kaisen did. From absolutely abysmal proportions to less and less detail on screen, seriously who needs faces, Jujutsu Kaisen is finally starting to feel the burn. Like usual, not all of the issues are their fault. Dimming and ghosting are just the price of doing business on TV in Japan, as much as it sucks I don’t blame MAPPA for that. Everything else though? From Todo T-Posing to victory too those absolutely terrible backgrounds inside the train? Those I do lay at MAPPA’s feet. And while there were some pretty cuts in places, for the most part the episode moved like I do when I first wake up in the morning: Poorly.

Continue reading “Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 20 [Right and Wrong, Part 3]” →

Welcome all, to another week of Jujutsu Kaisen! I’m not thrilled with this episode, not because of any production issues surprisingly enough, its just narratively a mess. Why do I say that? Well lets dive in and talk about it.

So like I said, visually this week was fine. Jujutsu Kaisen is handling its behind-the-scenes melt rather well all things considered. This episode didn’t look great by any means, lots of the same cost cutting measures we’ve been seeing for a while and some rather uninspired shots. But by and large for a production that’s ostensibly falling apart according to its own animators, this episode wasn’t a chore to work on. There’s even some public tweets from the episode director, Naoki Miyajima, thanking the team that are generally positive. And it’s not like there weren’t good shots either, I can think of two scenes in particular stood out during the fights. If this is the worst Jujutsu Kaisen’s production gets, good on them. And by “them” I mean the animators working their asses off to make this production work. Treat your employees better MAPPA.

Continue reading “Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 19 [Right and Wrong, Part 2]” →

Welcome all, to another week of Jujutsu Kaisen! The series has had a rough few weeks, riding that line between ambition and failure, all the while behind the scenes animators are one step away from revolting. And wouldn’t you know it? Eventually something had to give. Without further ado, lets dive into the episode!

To get started, despite that introduction this episode actually looked better than I expected it to. Hearing about the delay for streaming services, the displeasure behind the scenes, I thought this was going to be an absolute mess. Instead? It was only… sort of a mess. Despite clearly unfinished work, and a plethora of short cuts taken to get it out the door, I don’t think the average viewer would be able to notice what was wrong. That doesn’t excuse it, but it does go to show how even with a troubled production Jujutsu Kaisen is making it out the door. Whether or not that will last, there are still 5 more episodes to go, is another matter. But for now at least, it isn’t imploding as much as I thought it would.

Continue reading “Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 18 [Right and Wrong]” →

Welcome all, to Jujutsu Kaisen’s swansong. One way or another this the beginning of the end for the season. Either it stays strong and Itadori saves everyone at the last moment or, much more likely, everything starts to fall apart, visually and narratively. We have a fair amount to talk about, so lets dive right into it!

Starting off lets just come out and say it, this was clearly meant to be an event episode. Something along the lines of Mob Psycho Season 2 episode 5, it was supposed to be a statement. And in a lot of ways, it was! This was one of the most ambitious episodes of the entire year, not just from Jujutsu Kaisen but anime in general. A star-studded cast of animators from Vincent Chansard and Hakuyu Go to Hironori Tanaka and Hayato Kurosaki, as well as many more, contributed to it. And unsurprisingly, that lead to some absolutely stunning cuts and incredibly evocative imagery. Sure it had some standard issues, like ghosting and dimming, but those are just what happen to TV anime, they aren’t MAPPA’s fault. But you know what is MAPPA’s fault? Everything else that held this episode back from being the event it was meant to be.

Continue reading “Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 17 [Thunderclap, Part 2]” →

Welcome all, to another episode of Jujutsu Kaisen! This week was a bit of a banger with 2 fights concluding and villains slowly getting taken off the board. One by one characters are going down leaving us to wonder who will be left by the end. There’s a fair bit to talk about so lets dive in!

Starting off, let’s talk production. As a whole, I would say this was one of Jujutsu Kaisen’s most memorable episodes. The Jogo vs Sukuna fight looked fantastic, heavily stylized in ways I imagine some might not like, but for me fantastic. I love it when animators are allowed to do whatever the hell they want with a scene, and that feels like exactly what we got here. As was mentioned by one of our readers in the discord, Kimjosh, this episode, as well as the Choso one, was apparently done outside of the usual production cycle. This means that, by my understanding at least, they were most likely started earlier and given more time than is usual. Regardless, the effect on the episode was obvious. Literally the only bad things I can say about it, visually, is that Jujutsu Kaisen was once again cursed by Japanese TV anti-seizure laws. Damn you Porygon, damn you…

Continue reading “Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 16 [Thunderclap]” →

Welcome all, to another week of Jujutsu Kaisen! This week is a fun one as Toji gets to go off and Sukuna finally makes his appearance! We have a lot to talk about so lets dive into it.

Starting off, lets talk production. Jujutsu Kaisen had a pretty rough time last episode, I don’t think anyone can deny that. So I was pretty nervous going into this episode. Luckily, as terrible as their scheduling and production appears to be behind the scenes, MAPPA pulled it together for this one. It looked great. Toji got to pop off. The only criticisms I have aren’t even MAPPA’s fault, it’s the TV station and their mandatory-by-law seizure prevention dimming and ghosting. That, more than anything else, is what held this episode back. Jujutsu Kaisen fans should look forward to the Blu-ray where that will all be gone. Animation aside, this was also one of the first episodes where I really noticed the OST. There were a lot of good tracks this week that fit their scenes well, from Toji to Sukuna’s arrival. To sum it up? Episode was a good time.

Continue reading “Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 15 [Fluctuations, Part 2]” →