
a review by brandotendie

a review by brandotendie
note: i use a 5 star scale, and the 100 scale for this review reflects that. check out my profile for more detail on how i rate things.

Jujutsu Kaisen, or Sorcery Fight, fully lives up to its name.
not only does it fully embody its title's straightforward nomenclature, it also fully embodies the nature of its anime subgenre: battle shonen.

it's a show that's brimming with energy. from its high octane animation quality to the one-two punch one liner comedy to its brisk nonstop pacing to the varied score with new tracks for every new fight, Jujutsu Kaisen is a pure delight to watch.
but it's clear to me that Jujutsu Kaisen is more than just a fast paced seasonal thrill ride: Jujutsu Kaisen is a watershed moment that will forever change the mainstream approach not just for battle shonen, but for the anime medium from this point onwards.

airing directly after the close of a decade that had equal amounts of wild experimentation/the preservation of hand-drawn animation in more niche circles (Mob Psycho 100 and the works of Masaaki Yuasa come to mind) and lucrative derivative creative bankruptcy/the rising over reliance of shoddy CGI in the mainstream (name any of the dime a dozen isekai), Jujutsu Kaisen serves as a perfect middle ground, appealing to the largest audience possible whilst upholding a standard of quality that's heretofore unprecedented in a mainline battle shonen.
reminiscent to 2019's Demon Slayer (which was a watershed moment for the medium in of itself), Jujutsu Kaisen rises above every single one of its contemporaries as a showcase not for the best writing, the best original premise, nor even the best characters (which is not a slight against the characters at all; they're all wonderfully rounded-out, even the sentient Panda).
no, Jujutsu Kaisen serves almost purely as a showcase for the handdrawn animation that explodes across the screen, bringing in its viewers for more doses of animated phantasmagoria every week.

i found myself dumbfounded at the amount of hard work the animators over at MAPPA poured into this, with week after week of sakuga goodness flowing without any seeming end. even small character moments and simple conversations possess detail that most shonen don't even bother with; characters actually emote even in mundane scenes, their hair animated to react to walk cycles or gusts of wind.
but what elevates the animation as well as the show at large is how the writing, pacing, and plot all serve to highlight the animation and the battles themselves.
to understand what makes Jujutsu Kaisen's structure so special, we have to also understand that it's not original; this isn't the first anime to use this formula of prioritizing battles over everything.
the formula of a nonstop battle shonen is something that's been around for a while, most prominently featured in classic manga/anime like Yu Yu Hakusho and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo.




did i mention the animation is fucking amazing?~~~
only time will tell if this show is truly a microcosm of what popular anime will look like in the future (the upcoming adaptation of Chainsaw Man on the horizon is a great sign).
regardless, it's very plain that Jujutsu Kaisen is an instant classic. here's to the future!
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