Before reading this, please note that I don’t watch anime. I have watched One Punch Man and some of My Hero Academia, but that’s about as far as my anime knowledge goes. I’ll be using MHA as a frame of reference for a lot of this.
Also, if you’re reading this in the future, only season 1 existed at the time I wrote this and I have not read the manga.
Part 1: Content Warning
This part is very important. If you’re squeamish about blood, I wouldn’t watch this show. Although it’s not a total gorefest, it’s not afraid to show disturbing things on screen. Something I like about this show is it doesn’t sexualize its characters at all. There is a scene with some non-sexual male nudity, but nothing is shown.
Part 2: The Characters
I don’t have anything to say about them besides “They’re pretty good.” I like most of them despite their flaws. They haven’t gone through much character development yet, so I’m excited to see where they go.
[Part 2 spoiler zone]
If I were to pick one character I didn’t like, it would have to be Gojo. It’s true that he’s one of the coolest characters in the show. However, not only does he kind of mess up the stakes, but his constant absence in order to establish actual tension makes him come off as irresponsible.
Part 3: The Plot
One of my biggest pet peeves is when a show doesn’t seem to know where the heck it’s going. My Hero Academia is definitely guilty of this. Things in the show just sorta happen instead of everything being part of a natural progression towards a goal. Jujutsu Kaisen establishes a goal and a (main?) antagonist fairly early on, but the characters seem to be dawdling a bit. It really isn’t that bad, though.
[Part 3 spoiler zone]
My favorite part of the story so far has probably been the one where Mahito is the main villain. Mahito is so charming yet terrifying, and the kid’s death was tragic despite everything he did wrong.
Part 4: The Visuals
This is by far the strongest part of the show for me. Holy shit. While some corners are occasionally cut during comedy moments, the animators completely go all out during the fights, which there are plenty of. If you hate 3D animation in anime, you’ll be happy to learn that there is almost none, aside from the occasional presumably 3D-assisted background thing. Example (Blink and you’ll miss it): https://youtu.be/NyPf5ipLFkU?t=26 These work really well, though. You don’t even really notice them unless you’re looking for them.
Part 5: Verdict
I give this show a good/10. If you like anime, I’d recommend it to you. This is a nice starting point. The show has the potential to be great, we’ll see what happens.
