#i have A Lot of issues with JJK when it comes to story and pacing and that but i really love the characters

[doctorsiren]

sorry i haven't been active the past week (i've been enjoying family time)

here's a JJK oneshot I typed up today because we finished S2 yesterday and i need to pretend i'm okay :')

[hinamie]

i normally don’t contribute much of my opinions on chapter content n themes bc a. i think my role in fandom spaces is that of a fanartist and I want to keep my art at the forefront, and b. I am Insecure about how little of the manga I have actually consumed and don’t think I have a solid foundation on which i can offer any coherent arguments or insight. generally I like to leave the long meta 2 people who have been genuinely invested in delving into the manga with the intent of analyzing it . y'all do gods work u are the reason i am not flying through this series completely blind

that being said, i am not here to give criticism on pacing or story cohesion bc quite simply, that is not my wheelhouse. i do, however, want to offer my 2 cents on the concept of choosing to live for others as someone who (like a lot of people is the vibe i’m getting) also struggles w depression and self-worth issues and sees aspects of themselves in megumi as a result. i want to reiterate tht this is not an analysis, these r just my gojo voice personal feelings n u r allowed 2 feel differently based on your own experience :)

let me just say first of all that I can 100% empathize with people wanting to see megumi choose to live fr himself after a lifetime spent in a system notorious fr stripping people of their agency and turning them into tools. i think in a perfect world he Does come to the realization that he’s worth living for. but i also think that him /not/ having crossed that bridge yet is also a very valid n realistic outcome. he's a kid, he's just had the worst experience of his life, he's traumatized and then some -- i only have a bachelor's in psychology and god knows i'm no doctor but personally i wouldn't call that a mental space where self-love is likely to stick

it’s hard to claw yourself out from rock bottom. to expect someone to immediately be able to make the transition from being in the worst mental state of their life to realizing that they are worthy as a person is a tall order that i honestly don't think many people wld b able to fulfil. /I/ certainly haven’t been, and living for others has honestly been what’s kept me going for a long fucking time. even when I’m not necessarily at a low point, I still rly struggle w liking myself n thinking i’m a good person, but what’s been a genuine lifeline fr me when i can't love myself is to direct that love Outwards. If nothing else I know that I have things I can create, and things I can offer others. I've spent countless hours forcing myself to acknowledge that, no matter how much i don’t believe them, if the people around me insist that they see something of value in me or in my work; something tht makes them love me Despite, then that alone is worth staying alive for.

i personally (although i can see how others wld disagree) don’t view the 'living for others' frame of mind as waiting for someone to save you, but rather as holding out hope that there is More out there than your own self-loathing will let you believe. For megumi, it wld seem that his something more was the people he cares about. Yuuji gave him the agency to choose whether or not to keep living, and megumi made that decision of his own accord, which fr someone at their absolute lowest is still a huge achievement! there was agency in that decision, there was selfishness--regardless of the underlying motivation it proved that he /wants/ to live. little side note but i think that megumi Making a selfish decision to live for others' sake should also give a bit of hope that he does have it in him to eventually be able to b equally selfish in the value he places on himself.

anyway that's what i got source: i'm depressed . n look i get that with so little of jjk left, it Is frustrating that we probably Won't see megumi come to the conclusion that he's worthy and that he should live for and love himself. but at the same time i don't think that his decision to keep living for others should b condemned either, bc as someone who has also yet to cross that bridge, sometimes that rly is the first step

[exo-raskreia]

hi as a jjk fan, do you have any issues with the writing from gege? if so, what do you think are wasted potential in terms of characters, bonds. i think that there is lack of emotional impact or expansion fo characters sometimes. for instance animes like mha have alot of meaningful character arcs and backstories. It's a bit hard to express how I feel becuase jjk is an amazing story but i am just a bit disappointed of the wasted potential with female characters and like shoko and utahime. and the world building. yes i am fellow gojohime shipper ;).

(Oncoming long RANT 😅)

If you ride on Gege's coattails, this may not be for you.

I actually do have issues with Gege's writing, so I agree with you. JJK has an interesting premise with hidden lore & I would recommend it to anyone wanting to get into, or already into, anime/manga, but it could be so much better if Gege just cared enough (which I sometimes feel like he doesn't? It just feels like he wants to hurry up & finish it so he can start on his idol manga... 💀). He skips so much, it honestly feels like he's going off a checklist, especially in the latest arc.

Compared to other battle shounens, namely Naruto, Fairy Tail, MHA, & even Gintama, JJK is severely lacking in several areas. It's unfortunate because the premise & characters are full of potential.

I will go over some of the issues. A lot of these were obvious from the start but they've only gotten worse over time.

• The fast pacing (speed running at this point). It's battle after battle, no downtime, big arc right after big arc, etc. Us readers & the characters themselves barely have time to process things before he moves on to the next thing. He skips so many things, so much happens off-screen/off-panel (can't forget how he skipped Yaga's fight with Gakuganji that lead to his death, skipped Gojo's entire month after his unsealing then "kills" him off-panel a few chapters later, I could go on...)

• The lack of character emotions, development, backstories, etc. We barely know anything about the characters, like their hobbies & interests? (This is why I have a hard time making up headcanons & potentially writing a fic for our ship... How can I keep them in character when I barely know stuff about them? 😮‍💨). We barely see any of them training (training arcs/chapters are typical for battle shounens); the Tokyo students preparing for the Goodwill Event would have been a fitting time to showcase this, for example. There's little to no mourning shown for character deaths (like Yaga? Nanami? Mai? Mechamaru?).

Yuta has such a cool CT & we didn't get to see how he discovered it & all. Like, come on 😔. Also, it would've been nice to see the Goodwill Event from his first year when he beat the Kyoto students, especially Todo... (Gege simply tells us about it. Like he tends to do for a lot of things 🙄).

Gege could've done more build-up to Gojo's sealing in Shibuya by showing his upbringing & development from his arrogant teen self (tho already having shown hints of caring for others & not liking the higher-ups) to the sensei who loves his students & strives for a better Jujutsu society. His past arc should've been longer imo. Needed more slice of life & character interactions, bonding. Heck, Toji should've gotten his whole backstory there too before he died. More build-up to Gojo's "death" too, as Gege skipped that whole month after his unsealing 😒...

• While on the subject, the lack of character interactions, bonding. We haven't seen most characters interact with each other despite being in the same circles, vicinity. Tokyo & Kyoto students, GjHm with them, Gojo & his colleagues (esp more Uta), the Zenin clan (like, wish we could've seen how GjHm interacted with Naoya. Imagine the drama 😫), Gojo & his elusive clan, I could go on... Would've loved to see Gojo interact with Kashimo, Higuruma, Choso... 😮‍💨

As such, several have died & we never saw them interact with certain others nor even know much about them 😑... The emotional impact of character deaths & bonding would be higher if only Gege cared enough to flesh out his characters more... (At least the Phantom Parade mobile game is giving us some much-needed slice of life content. Wish Mappa would give us some OVA's like that too...)

• Lack of world building. Once again, so much we don't know, such as the clans, especially Gojo's. Apparently, they're still alive, yet we haven't seen them?

Are they not fighters, then? Nothing from them on their clan head's sealing/unsealing/"death". The Zenin Clan debuted & got killed off soon after. Other clans irrelevant. Jujutsu sorcery primarily exists in Japan so other than Miguel, goodbye to the potential of any foreign sorcerers making their appearance...

• Female cast. It's crazy how they were once praised for their potential but now... Now, all they've got is just your typical battle shounen treatment 😒. While Gege has shown he cares little for all his characters (lol), it does seem like the female characters have suffered a bit more from his writing. They've either died (like Mai off-screen? Yuki, the only female Special Grade, had one fight & died?), become powerless (Miwa, thru an off-screen Binding Vow revealed many chapters later? Seriously?), lack screentime (the Kyoto girls? Shoko, the only one who can use RCT on others & closest friend to Gojo?!), or simply haven't done a whole lot, especially compared to the male characters. For some or most, it's a mixture of all these 💀 (like Tsumiki).

Nobara is the main girl & yet her role ended about halfway thru the series. Can't believe Gege did that to her, despite her potential & competence to be the FL of a battle shounen (poor Yuuji still thinks of her. And we don't even know what Gojo thought about her demise? 😮‍💨). Maki seems to have it better, yet some could argue she's just Toji 2.0/female Toji. Unfortunately, I thought about Toji when she was fighting Sukuna; I was like, "If Sukuna's this impressed by her, imagine Toji with his higher experience?" I doubt that's what Gege would want us to think when Maki's shining (or does he? 🤨😒).

• Don't even get me started on Utahime. She's the main teacher of Kyoto, loved by all her students according to Gege, yet we don't get to see it? She's barely relevant? Imagine what she felt as her students kept on dying or becoming unable to fight. Thru her character, such as during her investigation of Kyoto for the traitor, we could've gotten some great insight into how things are over there? We don't even know what the Kyoto school looks like 💀.

Her scar has several implications & yet we don't know how she got it? How has she dealt with being a scarred woman in Jujutsu society, especially considering Momo's words about such a thing during the Goodwill Event? Utahime could be a great role model to the girls, especially Maki now, & yet... 😮‍💨 (I'm telling you, she should've been the main adult female of the series, just like Gojo's the main adult male)

She's one of Gojo's friends, has known him for 10+ years, & is one of his few most trusted allies, yet we haven't seen how they got to this point? Their comedic interactions make us wonder how they built that deep trust. I NEED to know what happened between them during the timeskip!!! 😫

Her CT buffs herself & others. Why has she not been a part of any on-screen fight prior to the Shinjuku Showdown? There were a couple instances where we almost saw her in action & yet... Why did Gege gatekeep her CT for so long? To showcase her CT for the first time for Gojo & Gojo ONLY. He's insane. They can't beat the package deal allegations. So, does this have any meaning? Can we hope for more-

• I sometimes wonder if JJK would be better as a seinen like I once heard he intended for it to be... There are definitely elements of that... How much darker could the story get, since sometimes Gege pushes the boundaries of Shounen Jump (I know he wants to, lol)... How much more fleshed out could it be if he was writing it the way he wanted to originally (supposedly he never intended for a school setting but was forced by his previous editor?)... Maybe we could even get a Tokyo Ghoul:re style chapter with GjHm during the timeskip if y'all know what I mean-

So, to sum up: JJK is interesting & I would recommend it, but there's a whole lot of wasted character potential, terrible pacing, & lack of interactions, development, & world building. There's so much we don't know & Gege wants to end it already? He's sitting on a gold mine & yet... 😑😒

No idea how things will end but I can at least hope for an open ending that leaves us with some hopeful possibilities... Uh, right?

Also... GOJO WILL RISE ✊️

[dyaz-stories]

Welp, since you gave the go sign, when and how did you start shipping Kagome and Gojo? And what inspired you to make your story?

Loool I'm glad to answer that, it's a very funny story to me actually.

Because when I started shipping them, I wasn't even in the JJK fandom. Like I hadn't read the manga and I hadn't seen the anime. I had one friend who was involved in the fandom and who'd talk to me about it, and I think I'd started seeing edits on TikTok. So I knew about Gojo's Vibe™ and I had a pretty clear, if not really defined, idea for the kind of person he was.

And yeah I was just lying in bed scrolling when I started to think about how Kagome is kinda THE character for crossovers and suddenly I had to get up and start pacing because I had the Vision of Kagome/Gojo and I was like oh wow oh wow oh wow. So as you do I looked them up on Tumblr and Ao3 and was delighted to find some stuff, and decided This Is My Ship Now.

(this is one of my favorite posts for the ship it's absolutely excellent)

So it was love at first sight for me, basically. I think there was something about the idea that Kagome could get through all of Gojo's barriers, literally and figuratively, that really spoke to me. Also, the fact that they're so similar in their roles and yet so different? Chef's kiss. Match made in heaven.

As for what inspired me for the alchemy, it's kinda convoluted. It wasn't the fic I'd planned on writing, and I actually had ideas for two other fics, one of which I'd started working on. I can talk about it in more detail elsewhere if you're interested or want a quick rundown, but the problem I ran into was that they required heavy plotting, and I was in the middle of a time-consuming internship without having read JJK at that point, so I couldn't devote my time and energy to that.

I still wanted to write though, so a low-effort, low-plot fic would have been fine. I came up with the idea for the alchemy in a roundabout way though. Shibuya is the focal point of the manga for me, so it came up a lot when I was thinking about fics.

But when I came up with the starting point for the alchemy, I was thinking about writing a Nanami/Kagome one-shot. Basically they're together without knowing of each other's powers, until Shibuya happens and Kagome, worried for her boyfriend, ventures in. Obviously, she saves him (either from Mahito or by busting everyone out of Dagon's domain expansion).

The problem was that after that, she'd, again, obviously, go on to unseal Gojo. And then we ran into an issue, which was that I realized that the moment she met Gojo, it'd be over for her and Nanami.

Now that is just in my mind and everyone is free to feel and write about them however they want lol. But for me, I realized that the instant, mutual fascination between Gojo and Kagome would be so strong and so intense that they would just gravitate towards each other. Kagome wouldn't necessarily realize what was happening right away, but Nanami would. It would just have been sad, and not what I wanted to write.

(I could come up with another Nanami/Kagome story where that wouldn't be an issue mayyyybe but in those circumstances, there just wasn't a way out for them I'm afraid)

(actually it is angst I could get behind, but at that point I didn't want to write it) (no actual cheating involved, but Kagome would fall in love with Gojo while still with Nanami, and he wouldn't be able to do anything to stop it from happening despite knowing it's happening and seeing it unfold) (he'd think he should leave her but wouldn't be able to bring himself to do it and eventually she'd be the one to go) (I think Gojo would never make the first move in those circumstances)

Buuuut the idea of Kagome coming in the Jujutsu world via Shibuya did stick with me. It started out as just a one-shot, ending where chapter one ends basically, and then I got attached, which I should have seen coming tbh, and now here we are lol.

[thescrapbookingscientist]

Bimonthly Media Roundup

- Columbo (TV) - Got interested in the second hand lore I've heard and finally decided to watch the show. I do already see why it was such a phenomenon, Columbo himself is instantly likable in his fake haplessness and annoying relentlessness, and the reverse mystery of seeing the murderer desperately try to cover their tacks from the detective is a neat twist on the genre that produces some high tension. The length of the episodes as well as their stand-alone quality means I'll likely be watching this occasionally rather than binging it, but its definitely a fun time.

- Pluto (Anime) - Very Interesting so far, though I'll save any thoughts until I'm farther along.

- Bridgerton (TV) - I was interested in the news of potential lesbians, as skeptical as it is that it will happen. Anyway I suggested this to my sister as a watch, honestly I'm not enjoying the first season that much, I like the outfits and a couple side characters but mostly the drama is very manufactured and the characters unlikable with the most first world of first world issues. I understand that the high class setting is part of the charm, and in a series with more likable characters this kind of stuff wouldn't bother me, but as it is the constant miscommunication and spiteful actions towards eachother is more annoying than anything else. Still I hear the other seasons are better so we'll see.

- Jujutsu Kaisen (Anime) - Hot off of OP, my sister and I thought we might as well jump into the more recent Big shounen darling. So far I would say JJK is a mixed bag though it leans more towards the positive. For the good stuff obviously the animation is top tier, the plot, while pretty standard, has enough intrigue to keep you interested episode by episode, and I surprisingly like a lot of the character interactions, they can be pretty fun and charming. I'd say the characters kind of vary between being likable but general archetypes and just unique enough to make them more than an archetype, like Fushiguro being a bit too much of intentionally funny loser to be just the angsty strict rival type or Maki being too self-aware of how her off-comments affect others to be the cool aloof girl. For the negatives I do like the protagonist though he at least at this point doesn't have anything super interesting going for him, kind of just a likable plucky hero who's nice to people. More importantly the battle system is kind of a mess, mostly in execution rather than by design. Having curse demons be the enemy and people utilizing person specific abilities is fine and all, but more often than not the abilities are overly complex and are only explained by the people fighting each-other info-dumping the specifics of how their technique works to the person they are fighting, which is pretty silly and really slows down the pacing. They try to justify this by claiming that "explaining your ability to the person it's affecting makes it work better" but come on, that's a total cop out, I'd rather receive no explanation than that one. I can't help but think there's better ways to integrate the techniques into the story, either by having the teachers do individual tests on the students to explain their abilities, or cutting to other uses, or just trusting your audience to understand what they are seeing. All that being said this is still pretty fun, I'm enjoying it.

- Community (TV) - I like the quick witted writing. Not enjoying the weird Annie/Jeff stuff. Maybe just keep the camera on Troy, Abed, and Shirley actually.

- The Witch of Mercury (Anime) - Cool that they started a company as the politics of keeping up a business is to me a more interesting story than robot battles, though despite the general charm of the characters there's still not a big hook keeping me invested. I enjoy it when I'm watching, but am in no hurry to click the next button. Still I'm only in the first half, so lets see where it takes me.

- Paper Mario: TTYD (Video Game) - Release of a classic, one of the best and most charming Mario games. Been slow playing it as I've been getting more into Genshin lately, but it's good to have it again.

- One Piece (Anime/TV) - Yup.

- Genshin Impact (Video Game) - This will probably be here the whole year, let's be real.

Listening To: Hope by Akano, Tounges & Teeth and Metaphor by The Crane Wives, HateKiller by WON, Dream Girl Evil by Florence + The Machine, The Red Means I Love You by Madds Buckley, Promiseland by MIKA, Waiting For Love by Avicii, Bonjour Au Revoir by Joyce Jonathan, You're In Love by Betty Who, Most Girls by Hailee Steinfeld, Lay All Your Love On Me by ABBA, Song of the Dead by Kana-Boon.

[ultfreakme]

#go on#i’m listening#reading…#you got what i mean#kagurabachi#jjk @hardieworth

I gotta preface this by saying, this is not gonna look good for JJK. I'm a JJK stan(see: Geto pfp, a frankly abominable number of itajun fanart, stsg meta, etc), but it fails in a lot of places Kagurabachi has weirdly done well in.

One of the biggest issues with JJK is the balance between character moments and action scenes. As a shonen battle manga, it makes sense for it to be more focused on the battles but from the beginning, JJK has had a tendency to kinda hand-wave the interpersonal relationships.

JJK has small moments where we see the significance characters hold to each other. Megumi-Tsumiki comes to mind, where they don't outright say anything about each other, but we know Megumi treasures Tsumiki. This is well and good if you intersperse the manga with more of these moments. When you're being subtle with your story-telling, you need more time because showing takes a lot longer than telling. Gege always wants to show. Unfortunately, since Megumi-Tsumiki don't have enough page or story space showing their bond to each other.....I don't know it just feels like the reader has to fill in a lot of blank spaces. It leaves you wanting answers in an unsatisfying manner. This level of showing would be fine if Megumi was a side character, but he's a deuteragonist. His relationship to Tsumiki should be as highlighted as Yuuji-Gojo, or Yuuji-Sukuna. Or fuck at least Yuuji-Junpei.

But idk shit about Tsumiki, and it's important to know something about Tsumiki as a character beyond "Megumi's sister" despite her role as a character being an emotional anchor to him because that is how you get the reader to care about Megumi's despair. We need to have some sort of emotional stake as well.

It's not good that people are more depressed over Riko and Junpei's death (characters who our protags knew for a couple of days), but have minimal to NO reactions to Tsumiki's(Megumi's sister who he lived with for YEARS).

Contrast that with Hakuri-Ice Girl. Kagurbachi is pretty much the opposite of JJK in storytelling to me. It's fast-paced, its messaging and themes are very easy to grasp. If JJK is a chisel, Kagurabachi is a sledgehammer. I have no issues with that though, because nobody is pretending this is some intricately woven story. It's fast, it's fun.

Ice Girl serves a somewhat similar role to Riko, Junpei & Tsumiki for our protagonist- force them into action & development. They are catalysts to a change. Hokazono is very straightforward with what role Ice Girl plays in Hakuri's decision to stop the Rakuzaichi. We spend very little time with her, fuck we don't even know her name, but there is no space to doubt WHY Hakuri's devastated about her.

The first emotion pretty much the entire fandom feels with Ice Girl-Hakuri, is sadness. Her death impacting Hakuri makes us feel bad and understand Hakuri better. And this girl showed up for like one chapter. Hokazono clearly is here for the action and the big moments. So he kinda throws subtlety out the window and uses very obvious metaphors and visual storytelling to get across character relationships. eg: Char and food, Chihiro and the scar, Hakuri and Ice Girl, Kyora and Rakuzaichi, etc.

It's bordering into straight up telling, but it's snappy about it and uses the art well so it hits harder despite it being very obvious. Now you're invested, now you know and you care.

I think Gege was doing pretty well with character relationships, but it ended with the Maki arc and the Yuki-Kenjaku-Choso fight. After that, Gege never spent meaningful time with the characters.

Another thing Kagurabachi does well is despite it being so on the nose, it's really sincere about it. Like it embraces its over-the-topness and takes it seriously. You don't see the characters joking around in the serious moments. There's a proper time and place for the humor and it stays there when it comes to character interactions outside of the action. It feels....sincere.

JJK used to do this, but towards the end, especially in 268 and such it feels weird to be laughing it up and joking around. We don't get to sit with sadness. Kagurabachi might 100% slip into all of this in the future, only 50 chapters are out and it's got a long road ahead if Weekly Shonen Jump has a say in it based on sales.

But a lot of JJK's current issues are because of this inability to show proper character moments even in the early days. None of us really know what the bond between Megumi-Nobara is. They're a trio, but these two haven't really hung out or have a definable dynamic with each other despite us being told they're friends UNTIL THE VERY END. Kagurabachi is again, beating me over the head with things, but I at least know Hakuri-Hiyuki's dynamic despite them only having interacted like twice (wary of each other, this works out because they aren't supposed to be friends anyways, just an ally in the Kamunabi for now). Like it knows what it wants to spend time on, and does it.

A lot of JJK right now is falling flat because Yuuji doesn't know half these people, and they don't know him, and the story seems to say "you shouldn't think too much about the bonds" as well, which deflates the tension and emotion from all the deaths. Character bonding is essential for stakes. Let me know these people care about each other somehow. Its how readers will feel relief when our favs survive, and immense despair when they get hurt or die.

Again, I could be eating my words in the future with Kagurabachi's ending, but as of right now, Hokazono seems to know exactly what he wants to do with the story. I think Gege did as well, but something happened in the final 6-7 chapters which completely tanked the rest of the story.

I won't say this is objective, this is just my way of contrasting the stories. Please don't destroy me.

I have so many opinions about JJK and Kagurabahci comparisons that will get me killed but I need to talk about it somewhere

[demoonlady]

Jujutsu Kaisen 0 The Movie

I’VE FINALLY WATCHED JUJUTSU KAISEN 0 THE MOVIE! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED :D Thank you very much to Golden Village Singapore and Purple Plan SG for the exclusive fans’ screening! Absolutely love our merch!

For the JJK fans who don’t know, Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is actually a prequel to the Jujutsu Kaisen main series, and the events took place one year prior. Thus, it’s CANON. Gege Akutami first wrote JJK 0 as a one-shot and published it as Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School in the 2017 issue of Jump GIGA. It concluded after four chapters but because of its popularity, Gege Akutami managed to expand its premise and created the sequel series Jujutsu Kaisen, which debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2018.

Please note that whatever I’m about to write here would be spoiler-free, but if you’d like to read my full experiences with all the spoilers, you can read under the cut “Keep Reading”.

-

1. Character Designs & Animation

I’d give it a 9/10. Stunning visuals and character designs, and MAPPA-mazing animation! I enjoyed the battle scenes, though I feel like it could have been better-animated. In my opinion, the fight scenes in the anime was slightly better. (There was also one particular cut where a character didn’t really move very fluidly, and I didn’t like that. There’s no way you’d miss it when it comes on-screen.) That aside, I absolutely love how MAPPA portrayed every character's facial expressions. You can really feel the emotions radiating through the screen, and I think that was exceptional.

2. Story/Pacing

Sadly, 7/10 for me. The movie runtime is 105 minutes long, and as I had expected, MAPPA chose to skip out one or two scenes which I hoped they would try to expand on. I really wish the movie could have lasted longer; Daewi and I even thought it would be at least 2 hours. Had it been a 120 minutes runtime, I believe they wouldn’t have had to rush the fight sequences, and they could have given more screentime to some of the side characters that didn’t even have a fight scene, and were forgotten. I’m really not a fan of the back and forth sequence that MAPPA did during one of the battles. Not going to major-spoil it, but in my opinion if you’d like to show an important fight between two characters, then you should show the fight from start to finish and not opt to settle them halfway off-screen. Don’t intercut between fights, that’s what I’m trying to say. When you intercut the fight and bring us to a different battle location, it takes away all our excitement from that major fight that was going on, and well, I personally didn’t enjoy it as a result. But that’s just me probably. Another thing I did not like was the insufficient flashback. I appreciate the flashbacks that they have shown, but they could have added a little bit more backstory just to make things clearer for the non manga-readers. I even overheard a fellow audience explain to her friend that Geto was originally a righteous guy but things happened so he turned bad. Had the flashback been given more depth, I don’t think the person would have had to explain. Maybe I’m just selfish, I just wanted them to give us more haha. Anyways, MAPPA did a decent job adding more scenes that were not originally present in the manga so thank you MAPPA for that. All in all, they made the movie more enjoyable and the audience were so hyped as soon as they saw the characters they never expected to appear suddenly show up and flaunt themselves.

3. Music / Soundtracks

Phenomenal! 10/10! You know I’m a hugeee fan of music scores and OSTs, and given that I have listened to the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 OST several times before the movie even arrived in my country, I found myself enjoying some of the scenes a lot more with the soundtracks playing in the background. Yuuta’s and Geto’s themes are really perfect for them. The OSTs that played during all the battle scenes were really spot on, matching the atmosphere and energy of the animation.

4. Voice Acting

10/10. The voice actors and actresses absolutely nailed their roles! I was very impressed with Kana Hanazawa’s performance, she did such a great job at voicing the innocent Rika-chan and then later on blowing us away with her role as the cursed spirit Rika in which she sounded beautifully terrifying. Megumi Ogata did a really good job at voicing Yuuta too, he really was a precious cinnamon roll. Me and the audience, in general, absolutely adored him in the movie. Massive shoutout to Takahiro Sakurai for his amazing voice performance for Suguru Geto! He really made the fangirls melt in the theatre, and while his constant “saru” dialogues might annoy some people, the fangirls found absolutely no issues with it lolol. And yup, the rest of the casts were amazing =D

5. Enjoyment

8/10. Sure I enjoyed every single second of the movie, but it’s hard to give a 10/10 because I have my own displeasure over some scenes. Not even the great animation or soundtracks could save it.

6. Overall Verdict

All in all, my rating is an 8.5 out of 10. It was enjoyable and great, yes, but as someone with high expectations, I feel that the pacing could have been executed better and some scenes could have been more polished.

If you don’t mind getting spoiled, or want to get spoiled, go ahead and read on the slightly more detailed review with spoilers under the cut!

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My Comments (NOT spoiler-free)!

The introduction scene, where Yuuta was about to get bullied, was absolutely well-done. The setting was dark and grim, and coupled with the sinister soundtrack carrying the atmosphere, MAPPA didn’t miss at all. It was indeed an eerily wonderful introduction.

If you have listened to the movie OST album, then I’ll have you know that the songs were played almost one after the other with barely any intervals. Perhaps there were like three to five instances where there were no BGM playing at all, but the rest of the time you’ll definitely hear the soundtracks. This isn’t a bad point, in fact, it’s really good because it made the movie more entertaining.

This is a fangirling moment. Apparently, MAPPA chose to stay true to the source material and they buffed Maki up. She’s so smexy and gorgeous and heck yessssssss I love her thighs! Damn, the things I’d do to get squished in between those thighs- Ahem. Panda looked pantastic as always, though I think he’s more chubbier here. He’s the cutest, really. Inumaki-senpai rocked his new first-year design and in my opinion, MAPPA made him even prettier than in the main series. I think his fangirls would love him in this movie the most!

The scene where Yuuta was asked to come into the classroom to meet the senpai trio... SO GOOD. SO GOOD. SO GOOD!!! It was all colorful before he opened the door and right after he did so.. The moment he set foot inside the classroom, the whole atmosphere turned dark and reddish to highlight the menacing aura that Yuuta has! (I can already imagine this was how Yuuji, Choso and Naoya felt when they sensed Yuuta’s creepy/ominous presence!) And when the camera zoomed in on Rika, who’s latching onto Yuuta’s back, I thought the whole frame was perfection. What followed after that was, of course, way better. Maki pierced her spear through the chalkboard as she confronted Yuuta about being cursed. Never have I ever wanted to be a chalkboard so bad in my life.

Lots of hilarious and comical scenes! With Yuuta, Gojo, Panda, Panda and Maki, Inumaki and Yuuta, even principal Yaga! Look forward to their comical scenes! Aside from Panda interviewing Yuuta about his b00bs size preference, I don’t wish to spoil the rest of the funny moments hehehehe.

Suguru Geto has successfully made his own cult here in Singapore. I was genuinely surprised that he has more fans than Satoru Gojo. (Though I must say this comes only from my own experience in the theatre I was in.) As soon as we got a glimpse of his shadow on the floor (an add-on scene), I was shrieking happily but then I realized I wasn’t the only one and that honestly shocked me! When he came on-screen again, though this time MAPPA teased us with a .5-second smirk, even more fangirls screamed. I was one of them too and this time I screamed louder hahahahaha! A while later he made his full appearance, which of course, sent the theatre into exploding cries and cheers. He was really too beautiful. The way he moved as he fought his opponents, it’s almost graceful. Even after Yuuta punched him with Black Flash, the way he landed on the ground was pretty graceful too LMAO. Argh, I wished MAPPA had given us a more in-depth fight scenes with him, but then, that’s just me being selfish. Side-note, his Uzumaki wasn’t what I imagined it to be and I still have mixed feelings about it. I think it was pretty dope, nevertheless. And yes, you’ll see intestine-kun (or worm-kun) with him!

As soon as Nanamin showed up during the battle, the theatre boomed in unison. I was one of them screeching happily and soon, it turned out to be a battle of who cheered the loudest. Lolol. His first appearance wasn’t during the Night Parade scene, though. Iirc, he appeared two or three more times before the Night Parade so yeah, yall better not take your eyes off the screen and don’t leave the seat for a trip to the loo, or you’ll miss him. It’s crucial not to miss Nanami moments! And for real now, the track titled “We Are Stop the Attack” should really be renamed to “Nanami’s Theme”. This track was played during his battle scene against the curses! Pay attention to his Black Flash sequence!

The Kyoto students also made their appearances, along with Shoko, Nitta, Mei Mei, Kusakabe and Ino! Mei and Ino were amazing, please, I appreciate their short minutes of fight sequence! We also got a really good MechaMiwa moment! Heh heh.

Lastly, Satosugu! Now, every single scene with the both of them on-screen was painful to watch. Heartwrenching. Especially during their reunion at Jujutsu Tech grounds, when Suguru just stared, smiling, at Satoru... ARGH!!! How many times I cried- I couldn’t even count. There were multiple emotional moments with them and the ending scene with them would definitely make you ugly-cry like it did me. Also, stop thinking about it, we never heard Gojo’s last words to Geto! HAHAHAHA. I bet it was something like “no matter what, you’re the one and only best friend (or lover :p) I’ve ever had, Suguru.” The real words, unfortunately, remain a secret that Akutami would carry to the grave I guess :(( And oh oh oh, this is something for yall to think about: Gojo can smell Geto’s residuals cursed energy. Hohoho~

The movie also has post-credits scene, so please be sure to sit through the entirety of the rollout credits or you'll miss it!

[minusboy]

okayy fine

vik’s complicated feelings about jujutsu kaisen, the essay (spoiler: i don't actually think it's bad):

to preface this once again i’ve been reading jjk for over three years i have a vague sort of idea about what the hell i’m talking about. and i’m emphasizing that these are my current personal feelings about jjk and are obviously not universal truths. also some very vague spoilers for the entire series so far.

1. “you just don’t get it” gege akutami and painful efficiency

so from the very beginning jjk has been a very fast paced story. we’re sort of dropped into this world of curses and sorcerers with very little preparation and from there it the plot doesn’t really stop to wait for you to gather your bearings. however the pacing in my opinion during the first couple of arcs was handled with grace, still leaving the characters an appropriate amount of time to breathe and interact with one another and to form meaningful connections. the bait and switch with junpei worked because it was unexpected. the hidden inventory arc works for the very opposite reason, as the real tragedy lies in knowing what will eventually happen.

the problems didn’t emerge, at least for me personally, really until after the shibuya arc, right around the extermination arc, but we’ll get to that in a bit.

the shibuya arc takes place over less than 5 hours, and is told over 58 chapters and several narratives and contrary to what you might expect, the shibuya arc is one of my favourite jjk arcs. it’s brutally efficient and leaves you beaten and battered on the floor but again, the rug pull works because it’s something we weren’t expecting at this point in the story, and some of the character deaths left me sobbing on the floor for hours. it’s good storytelling, even if it hurt me tremendously.

however, the pacing takes a brutal turn from that point on. the entirety of the jjk manga is currently 261 chapters and not too long after the shibuya arc (with two relatively short arcs in between) the culling games arc spans over ~60 chapters with the character death count rising even more dramatically, immediately followed by the shibuya showdown arc, which is the current arc, with no real breather in between and only doubling down on the cruelty and Things Happening. people are tuning for every update dreading if this is the day their favorite character gets killed- off-screen if gege is feeling particularly cruel about it.

the reason people are getting tired of jjk and or are upset with gege has nothing to do with the plot being lackluster, it’s not. that’s the point. the plot is so filled to the brim that it’s becoming a bit exhausting.

okay let’s move on to the elephant in the room.

2. “character writer? i hardly know her” having your cake and eating it

it’s obvious that gege is extremely passionate about creating characters with interesting and diverse backstories. i will give credit where credit is due, he does his job and he does it well.

the issue comes with, well. the execution.. see where gege is great at introducing characters, the issue comes with character development. i mean what’s the point when you can just (makes a vague cutthroat motion)

this creates dissonance in the audience. we barely see even the main characters interact in a somewhat normal context, because there simply isn’t enough time between the arcs. i love hunter x hunter and one of the main reasons for this is the way togashi writes characters. the reason i’m bringing this up is because the showdown arc reminds me a lot of the ant arc which, while not flawless, to me managed to accomplish what i feel like the current arc is currently trying to accomplish. another good comparison would be chainsaw man but we’re already getting off topic where was i...

3. "now that gojo is gone, 2020’s gonna be a good year” the case of victor frankenstein

so what do you do when you accidentally create a character that everyone adores but you absolutely cannot stand? well.

the gojo issue has been present since the beginning of the story. gege seems to have realised very early on that creating a character who is basically untouchable creates a lot of issues storytelling wise, hence why he is often conveniently elsewhere or sealed away when he needs to be, even as early as the very first chapters.

when you have a deus ex machina constantly at your disposal how can you write a compelling story without relying on it? you can’t. not unless you kill him. i think gojo satoru is a brilliantly written extremely symbolic character with a lot of complexities… who was born to die. unfortunately this hurts my feelings so i am upset about it. these things can and do coexist.

the ultimate dilemma is as such: the story can’t exist with gojo. the story can’t exist without gojo.

4. conclusion

i love jjk dearly and that's so tragic for me. as i am writing this know that i am ruefully shaking my head and going “what a shame” while sighing dramatically. i do think gege akutami is a phenomenal author and jjk will probably always hold a special place in my heart. however, it took me three years to finally stop and ask myself: am i still enjoying this? so this is basically my breakup letter where i go i love you but this is not healthy for me.

jjk is so. I've watched the first season but I am so wary about continuing it cause. what the fuck. the opinions on it is so wide and varied. It's either considered a masterpiece or good media turned bad/awful. No in between. guys pls. be clear. is it a flop. is it amazing mind blowing stunning. pick one so that i can decide whether to watch/read it or not