Jujutsu Kaisen S2 Prequel eps pulled me back into this story.
Written by Rei Caldombra 8/18/2023
I liked Jujutsu Kaisen when it first came out. The presentation was excellent, and I thought it was at its best when it was just having fun and showing off cool powers. When it came to the story elements and more dramatic angles, I did not feel super invested. I didn't dislike the story or its attempts at being serious, I just didn't feel much towards it. I also did not see JJK Zero, and for clarity I am anime only (If I do not mention the source material at all in a review, please assume I have not read it). Not intentionally, but because I didn’t get around to it at the time then forgot about it. JJK wasn’t an anime that stuck out in my mind strongly. I just thought it was a great show that other people seemed to enjoy a bit more than I did. Not that there's anything wrong with that. The point of this is to say I barely thought about Jujutsu before watching this and remembered very few fine details.
Despite that I absolutely loved it. It's very impressive how much they accomplished in just 5 episodes. These episodes successfully got me reinvested in the grander story, characters and dramatic elements. The rest of this will contain some direct spoilers, especially for episode 5 where I go into the most detail.
As usual the overall presentation is fantastic, not much to say there. The fights look awesome, the characters move very smoothly and with great expression. One of the best-looking shows out there.
The funnier side of JJK is strongly present here, which I appreciate as I did before. For me JJK excels at portraying characters having goofy and interesting interactions. Usually people are like “cmon, get back to the action!”. For me it was the opposite, I wanted the villains to go away so everyone could go back to having fun. The fights that had comedy mixed in were the ones I generally liked the most. I don’t think fights need to feel as if they have life or death in the balance to be engrossing. I love a good high-tension fight too, but my general preference for series I like is having a good balance of comedy and drama. JJK before now was a series I thought had great comedy and decent drama. With these episodes I now know at its best it can excel at both.
Tbh, I barely remembered Geto existed before watching this. But they still managed to make me buy into Geto and Gojo's friendship very quickly. They have a very good dynamic. Which makes what happens later far more compelling.
So, onto episode 5. This is some of the best setup for a villain I've seen. His slow descent into darkness feels very organic and real. Descent into madness was the first phrase to come to my mind earlier but that would not be accurate. He is not insane. He is coming from a place of logic. It's incredibly immoral but comes from sane thinking. I also like how his idea came from a very direct but very casual conversation as well. Him getting tired of basically putting Band-Aids on a massive wound and wanting to tackle the root issue is a very real way of thinking about serious problems in the world. It makes complete sense for both him and the other Jujutsu Sorcerers at the top of the power scale like Yuki consider the ways they can get out of the cycle. He is sane and follows a perspective we can understand, which makes him much more compelling for me. Just the simple detail of having a year pass makes a huge difference. The editing and presentation lend so much to Geto’s declining mental and physical wellbeing. The way they actually had him appear physically unwell during his time of contemplation is such great detail that really drives how much the events of episode 4 impacted him. And this detail strengthens his position even further by having him go back to appearing healthy when he chooses his path. The use of perspective and framing is fantastic for portraying his emotion at various points.
These episodes made me much more interested in the world than I had been before. The way cursed energy works is pretty interesting, and the topic of the scene with Yuki is the perfect situation for reminding viewers how it works. I think these episodes did a good job of re-explaining things for the people who forgot details from S1 (me lol). At times I do think the explanations took away from the pacing of the fights and could absolutely be considered info dumping, but overall they work fine and aren’t a huge detriment. The element of powers being stronger if they are explained helps alleviate that issue and is frankly a stroke of genius by the other so they can more easily get away with info dumping.
After watching these 5 episodes, I am starting to see what elevates this above other shounen for a lot of people. I’m really looking forward to the rest of season 2! I will watch Zero soon and will remind myself of important details from the first season before continuing on, promise! Thanks for reading!
My Patreon: patreon.com/ReiCaldombra
Next JJK post where I am much more negative: https://www.blogunderalog.com/blog-collection/jujutsu-kaisen-shibuya-arc-worker-abuse-and-shonen-bsnbsp?rq=jujutsu
