Jujutsu Kaisen
Studio: MAPPA
Genre: Fantasy, Shounen, Dark Fantasy
Herllo my friends. Welcome to another entry in my blog.
Well… This is it!!! The great moment! The one in which I finally have enough time to binge some episodes of the Anime of the Year at the Crunchyroll Awards, that anime that I feel it is the equivalent of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, in 2019. And I got this feeling… the feeling that the award was well-deserved.
Let’s take some time to talk about…
Yeah. When I saw the Crunchyroll Anime Awards of this year, I got the feeling that Jujutsu Kaisen will get the award, despite having great competitors as Beastars and Keep Your Hands of Eizouken!!, and… I hoped to be wrong, because I loved these two series so much. Anyway. Now I have done the homework and I am finally ready to talk about My Own Impressions of the Anime of the Year 2021. And I think I have a lot to say, so please… wish me good luck. I really hope that this entry is good enough.
Having said that, let me first ask the typical questions:
Are you guys Ok? Feeling healthy?
If the answer is yes, then I am happy.
Now… on to Jujutsu Kaisen.
PREMISE
Based on the manga written and illustrated by Gege Akutami, Jujutsu Kaisen takes place in a world where supernatural beings live among us, and some of these are born from an energy that comes from our negative emotions, called Cursed Energy, and they are named Curses, whose sole purpose is to create a lot of harm and wreak as much havoc as possible. In order to fight these beings, we have the Jujutsu Sorcerers, capable of controlling the Cursed Energy with very powerful techniques.
One teenager, called Itadori Yuji, receives a mysterious talisman, a rotten finger, whose amazing amount of Cursed Energy attracts many curses. Afterwards, Yuji is confronted by one of these sorcerers, Megumi Fushiguro, and tells about the nature of the Curses. In order to fight them, Yuji swallows the finger and becomes the host of Ryumen Sukuna, one of the most powerful curses in the world. And despite his lack of magical powers, Yuji can effectively control Sukuna, so he joins the Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School, under the tutelage of Satoru Gojo, in order to kill Sukuna once and for all.
Jujutsu Kaisen started publishing in March 2018, and as of April 1st, 2021, it has published fifteen volumes, becoming one of the best-selling mangas in 2020s, with over 40 million copies. And, aside from winning the Anime of the Year award the Crunchyroll, Jujutsu Kaisen also received the Best Antagonist award for Ryomen Sukuna, and the Best Ending (LOST IN PARADISE, performed by ALI, who also performed «Wild Side» from Beastars.
Indeed, Jujutsu Kaisen was the surprise of 2020.
STORY
Ok. Now… Where to start to Jujutsu Kaisen?
I think these four words can describe my experience with Jujutsu Kaisen… Better than I thought. Everything got me hooked from the beginning. The characters, the story, the dialogues, the animation, the plot, and the fight scenes. From episode one, there is something that made me think that this anime is perfect. I mean… everything. But I don’t think I have enough words for the great excitement I felt; but I got convinced by how the series starts building its world, and involves the characters on it on the most natural way possible without forgetting the shounen elements that it’s making it so popular among animegoers.
Honestly, I haven’t felt this since Demon Slayer, because with every episode, you see that every bit of Jujutsu Kaisen is so carefully worked… is perfect. And you quickly understand the story, and once you know what the series is about, you can enjoy every segment of plot and character development, because once the story is solid and the characters are ready to live the journey, you are ready to enjoy everything that this world is about to offer… and to feel the surprises of your expectations masterfully far exceed. And of course… the charm of our protagonists.
Demon Slayer did this pretty well. Fate/Unlimited Works and Dr. Stone worked well because of this. And of course… Jujutsu Kaisen awakes this feeling of adventure and «expect the unexpected» that you always want; and, somehow, every episode manages to do it in this own way.
Also… MAPPA!!! You did it again!!! Well… What else can you except from the ones who did Dorohedoro? One of the other surprises of 2020.
Oh my!! I am having a lot of difficulties trying to be specific about other elements of the story, but there are so many wonderful things that I found that I need more than one entry for speaking about the story. Of course, I am not going to do that. I just started to watch Jujutsu Kaisen anyway, and I still have to see many episodes by myself. But for now, I am very happy that I finally did that because I now truly understand why this anime has become so popular. It has a very gritty plot, but it is adapted in a very broad way, any fan of anime can enjoy it.
And… the battles… What a joy!!!
Or…
I will stop here. Because I want to talk about the…
CHARACTERS
Now. I have really started to love the characters. Yuji is such an compelling protagonist; and like many characters like Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach and Izuku Midoriiya from My Hero Academia, he is driven by the wish to protect others; using his abilities and improving himself in every episode. But the best part… is that sweet spiked hair of his!! (Seriously, it’s like is a tradition on every Shounen story);
Megumi, despite reminding me Sasuke Uchiha, also has enough personality to make him memorable. Nobara, well… she is badass and cute at the same time.
Seriously… I just added her in my waifu list.
Finally, I want to do a very special mention to… Maki.
I simply have grown to adore everything about her. Her design, her personality, her powers, she… is so awesome. Somehow, she manages to become a better character than I thought. And…
Mai… When I saw her on Episode 8, I thought… she is beautiful and dangerous; I am looking forward to see more of her.
And how can I forget about Gojo-sensei. But… Am I the only one who automatically remembers Kakashi Hatake when looking ato Gojo-sensei?
So weird!
CONCLUSION
I really have a lot of fun with Jujutsu Kaisen, it is a really good anime that is worth binge. And I hope those who chose Beastars and Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!! as Anime of the Year at Crunchyroll, can enjoy it as much as I did. I still believe that the latter are two of the best, but I am prepared for what is about to come from this little, amazing shonen series.
And that’s it.
I hope my entry really got the spirit of how many felt with Jujutsu Kaisen. And I hope that you enjoy my entry, as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Have a great day. But before that…
Jainituos Presents 