Things are very likely to be super-busy for the next couple of months, but I do have some backup content to tide you over -- these were actually written in November-December ish, but I never had the chance to finish writing the reviews until recently.
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Now I have read the manga. I'm somewhat familiar with what goes on, and I think I last left off at somewhere around the very early chapter 100's? But I'm definitely not caught up to it. Anyway, it's been a manga that's been pretty hyped-up, and with good reviews for the anime, I do want to watch it a bit.
Since the first season is 24 episodes, I'll do three episodes instead of five per 'review'. Again, to those that haven't seen my One Piece and MHA anime content, this is less of a review, and more of a reaction, if that makes sense? We'll see how I feel once I finish this and maybe go on to season 2.
Also note that I have much less encyclopedic knowledge about JJK than I do One Piece, My Hero Academia or JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. This is technically just my first 're-read'!
Episode 1:
- I do really like the anime's version of the in medias res opening, with Yuji already bound with seals and shit while Gojo Satoru sits like a dork on a chair and taunts him about a secret execution.
- Reordering the scenes to put Yuji's argument with his grandpa, which is nice and heartwarming and establishes his good heart; as well as Megumi's investigation earlier on, does help to make the first anime scenes feel a lot more... oomph compared to seeing Yuji's school life.
- Also love the double-take as Yuji closes and re-opens the wooden doors.
- The club is, of course, an occult research club with ouija boards. The council president is weaker than a clione! I know that's a Phione!
- I also love the very deadpan and rapid-fire tick explanation. That's fun,
- I really do find the world-building and the occult occurrences around the rugby field to be a pretty interesting hook for a more... episodic anime or video game! I don't really remember the occult research club being all that relevant after this opening arc, but it is nice to see Yuji's civilian life. There's a very... old-school shonen vibe of the very energetic coach rewriting Yuji's club application so they can win some a competition prize for the school.
- I have very low opinions on schools that force high school students to compete insanely in sports to the exclusion of their other school activities, so I really was rooting for Yuji's stated desire in the occult club to win out. Even if he's just there to be a 'ghost member', it's his own choice and doing it as a favour to the two senpais.
- And, of course, the reason being that he wants to visit his sick grandpa is an even better reason to play hooky on after-school clubs.
- Also, love that grandpa really just wants Yuji to enjoy his school life instead of wasting time in the hospital.
- There's also a neat way to tie in the typical heroic 'save people at all costs' mentality when grandpa tells Yuji to try and surround himself with as many people before he dies... and he just straight-up dies after having that friendly argument with Yuji. Great moment, though. You really can tell from the dialogue and facial expressions that the two are a good family.
- I also love that this manga very quickly notes that a good death isn't anything to fear. It's something to get sad about. But being murdered or devoured by demons is definitely something to fear.
- Megumi explaining about curses to a very skeptical Yuji is pretty funny, and... considering how Yuji spends most of his free time with the occult club, you can really understand why he didn't take it particularly seriously.
- I also really do like the little world-building aspect of using a cursed object to ward off curses, but these cursed objects end up getting stronger and stronger over time. The visualization of a spider and a centipede also works pretty well.
- Okay, I really do like the... bizarre and different-looking curses, and the iconic one that swims around the soil that Megumi meets while scouting the school is iconic... but special mention has to go to the pillbug-looking thing that snaps shut around the guy senpai's head.
- GYOKUKEN! I love the idea of using little hand gestures to summon spirits.
- I really do like the ominous wailing OST as Yuji thinks about just what he's afraid of.
- Yeah, the way the flesh-mass curse demon thing is holding the female senpai, versus how it's just nom-nom-nomming the male senpai is... uh... rather disturbing. Thankfully Yuji comes in with a rider kick and punches the flesh-curse monster right in the face. Er, one of the faces, anyway.
- I love that once the hostages and the cursed object is out of the way, Megumi just one-shots and blows up the curse, and then while he's doing some exposition with Yuji, his shikigami dogs are just eating some munchies in the background.
- And then suddenly the big curse from the beginning of the episode shows up and attacks! I do love that this happens with like 4 or 5 minutes to go, which lulls the audience into thinking this might just be exposition instead of fighting an enemy.
- And Yuji swallows a finger. Man, the real miracle is how it doesn't get lodged in his throat.
- Oh, I love that the curses bleed literal curses, as in negative words.
- ...and Yuji eats the finger, and gets possessed by Sukuna. It's really interesting that unlike many of its other shonen brethren that feature a superpowered 'berserk powerful' state, this is a manga where we learn the origin of said berserk state in literally the first chapter.
Episode 2:
- I do really love that Gojo's first technical appearance is to show up, carrying some shopping, and just casually taking pictures of Megumi to show the other students.
- I do love just how even Gojo is caught off-guard when Yuji explains that, yes, he ate the curse.
- "Don't worry, I'm the strongest." God, the sheer confidence radiating off of Gojo.
- We don't know the sheer strength of Sukuna yet at this point, since all we have to go are the original nameless curses, but damn, the sheer jackassery on Gojo to just casually sit on Sukuna and then toss him around while joking about showing off. Also, another very smooth action sequence.
- Yeah, that lariat-style punch leading to a gigantic explosion shockwave that sends Sukuna flying is pretty cool!
- "This guy actually went to buy souvenirs! When people are dying!" But it's not souvenirs, because it's actually a train snack for Gojo.
- I do like the black shadow-ink things that Sukuna summons.
- Also find it rather hilarious that Sukuna-Yuji's got a second pair of eyes right below his eyes, on his cheek.
- Again, despite the huge "Naruto/Sasuke" vibes coming from Yuji and Megumi, I do really like that Megumi does really want Yuji to not be executed.
- And that's where we go back to the in medias res prologue, where apparently the past episode (and the first four minutes of this one) is Gojo casually telling the story to Yuji as he's supposed to get executed.
- I also do like the little 'deal' about executing Yuji after he eats all twenty fingers of Sukuna -- when it's really kinda clear that Gojo's using a loophole with the 'elders' to keep Yuji alive.
- Pretty cool premise -- Yuji is a vessel able of handling Sukuna taking over his body due to his... resilience of will or something, and curses die when the vessel they're bonded to die; hence the time limit to his execution.
- It's a rather creepy sequence as Gojo pulls no punches and tells Yuji in front of the crematorium that finding a corpse that's 'merely' been torn apart is one of the most common things that happen when dealing with Curses.
- I do find it rather interesting that this setting has a 'high school' in addition to the general organization. I'm not sure why I found it so surprising, a lot of other shonen anime also have schools? Anyway, Tokyo Jujutsu High School is apparently just one of two Jujutsu high schools.
- Gojo notes that Ryomen-Sukuna is an actual mythological figure with four arms and two faces... but in the JJK world, Sukuna is a human that has grown to be the 'King of Curses'.
- Principal Masamichi Yaga apparently spends most of his time making little dolls. Nice that it's not just a cute quirk, but a cute power.
- Yeah, that kappa doll's face is creepy as shit before it jumps and attacks Yuji.
- I love that one of the first things out of Yuji's mouth is "I like girls that look like Jennifer Lawrence!"
- I do also like that the secret test of character is to really dig out what Yuji truly feels, even if it's something relatively selfish and simple as 'I don't want to regret the way I lived', which translates to 'I don't want to feel guilty while enjoying myself'. Again, I do think it's a nice message that the 'grandpa's dying wish' excuse doesn't actually cut it because Yaga doesn't want Yuji to, at any point, die cursing grandpa.
Episode 3:
- I do really like just how much Nobara is all about that 'I'm finally in a big city!' life. It's a neat little character quirk to latch on... and ends up being pretty relevant to the theme of Nobara being actually a bit too arrogant in her little 'pond' and with her limited experience. And then it ties to her being absolutely pissed off at her own village for driving Saori out. Pretty good flow for the introduction of her personality and backstory!
- Jujutsu High uniforms can be customized upon order, hence the red hoodie on Yuji's uniform. Apparently it's Gojo that randomly decided to customize it, because, uhh... I guess Gojo just wants the main character to stand out, I guess.
- ROOK
- "He looks like a potato. Definitely the type to eat his own boogers as a kid."
- I really don't understand how Nobara went from 'he's a high-and-mighty type' to 'sets seagulls on fire'.
- I absolutely love, by the way, how Megumi and Nobara can both settle into the 'only sane man in a group of kids'. Particularly when Nobara and Yuji get absolutely excited and happy about sightseeing in Tokyo and starts rattling off basically every tourist spot there.
- Yeah, Nobara, hearing that someone swallowed a mummified, petrified finger is definitely going to bring up 'that is so unsanitary, wtf'.
- I do like that it's not cemeteries that actually bring about curses in this setting, but rather the association that humanity has with curses. It also flows in very well into Gojo's explanation later that curses are associated with the amount of people around, and this makes city-curses much more dangerous than countryside ones.
- Absolutely love that Gojo makes Megumi sit this one out, just to make sure if Noabra is just the right type of crazy, so to speak, to be involved in all the nonsense of curse-exorcism. The actual episode itself is honestly relatively simple, more of a showcase for Nobara as a character (as well as the 'city curses are on a higher level of difficulty') than anything about the cursed location itself, but it's fine.
- I do like that Yuji is taking the 'mission' like a little kid, pressing himself against walls and pretending to be like a spy on mission, while Nobara just doesn't give a shit.
- The weird crab-centaur creature is a typical fantasy monster, but its distorted human-molerat faec and the fact that it keeps repeating about 'needing receipts' is really what gives the curse an extra layer of creepiness.
- The mannequin monster is just a mannequin with a bunch of human-looking eyeballs, but mannequins are already creepy on its own.
- And the hostage-taking curse is this... evil Lorax, I guess? Not impressive, but I guess that's the whole point of this curse. It's a low-grade-whatever, and is supposed to just be a loser.
- Very smooth animation of Nobara hitting the two nails mid-air with her hammer, sending them shooting forwards like arrows or bullets in a way that's physically actually very much impossible.
- Oh yeah. The shot of Nobara with the blue energy flowing out of the nail, before she nails down the voodoo doll and causes giant metal nail-spikes to burst out of Evil Lorax Curse? Man, Nobara's got some of the coolest visuals of anything in this series.
- Nobara has some great expressions when she delivers her motive rant to Yuji. The animation team clearly had a lot of fun with her. Her 'apology', the later hamming it up about sushi with Yuji...
- "I've said my thanks, now we're even. NYEEEEH!"
- Nice creepy ending with the little news report explaining the "Cursed Womb" and then declaring ominously that one of the three students dispatched there died. Cool preview!
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