My JJK journey ends here as I can't stomach this series anymore and that's not including discussions about it.
Spoilers, naturally.
From my understanding, season 2 splits itself into 2 arcs: Hidden Inventory and Shibuya.
Hidden Inventory IS what makes JJK special. Forget the action sequences (we'll get to that), this is all about how the friendship of 2 close friends fall apart. I'm not gonna do it justice cuz I refuse to give it a second watch for reasons later, but this is the best character work I've seen Gege write. Punchy and emotional while also lowering the stakes to a more personal level. Watching the friendship of Gojou and Geto fall apart cuz they both failed to protect their assignment was actually really sad to see, you can draw comparisons to real life and all that stuff. The girl herself was such a fun character and you see a bond form between the 3 of them. And then a flash of bad luck, Gojou's incompetence built on ego and the mission falls apart. Geto leaves and Gojou confronts the antagonist after, but the damage was done. This arc acts as a standalone as well and the direction shines on top of the animation. The shot of Gojou maniacally laughing will always be etched in my brain, the pinnacle of JJK.
AND THEN SHIBUYA HAPPENS.
What a load of DOGSHIT Shibuya was. I have never seen a mix of emotionally hollow story and character work, poorly staged action sequences and pacing in my life. It's like Gege saw the Red Wedding and was like "I'ma kill off characters as well", but failed to understand that emotional connection is why character deaths mean much to people. Nanami's death was so empty and hollow because we get some flashes of his backstory, but he's never fleshed out. Nobara's death (fuck you, half her face was blown out from the inside, she's fucking dead) with her backstory shoe-horned in there was so disingenuous for part of the main trio. I'm forgetting so many more characters cuz that's just how they are in the JJK universe. And what about the part that everyone was talking about? The fights. I have never seen such piss poor staging and choreography in a mainstream action shounen fight in my life. We're in the fairly massive city of Shibuya and it's hard to keep track on who's where at any point in any of the fights, and that's just the ones in the city. Characters morph into basically random shapes throughout the fight and the only thing keeping consistent is the colours of their clothes.. kinda. The changing colour tones, especially in the marquee fights are just downright embarrassing. I know the animators (both key-framers and in-betweeners) at Mappa work their asses off, but someone's gotta give them more time. This is not a video game, you can't day one patch animation when it goes on air. I've seen some tweaks from on-air to blu-ray release, but this is ridiculous and there should be no excuse. The one thing JJK is supposed to be known for is completely thrown out in Shibuya. The arc that fans hype up, wounding up to be the most overhyped arc I have ever set my eyes on.
Season 2 started off incredibly well with Hidden Inventory, only to crash and burn with Shibuya. My JJK journey ends here.
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