Hi there people, and welcome again to Mistaken Each Time. Right now we’re making an attempt one thing a bit uncommon, as we drop in proper in the beginning of Jujutsu Kaisen’s third season. Although I’ve truly watched Jujutsu Kaisen’s first two seasons, I haven’t actually written about them at size, for a reasonably easy cause: I didn’t like them, and it takes rather a lot to encourage me to write down about issues I’m not having fun with. Shortly panning a film for a Week in Overview publish is one factor; writing a completely destructive piece on one thing somebody cared about sufficient to fund is all the time a horrible feeling, and one thing I attempt to keep away from typically today.
Nonetheless, my patron is effectively conscious I haven’t loved Jujutsu Kaisen to date, so I’m taking an opportunity on this one. As for my normal impression of the present to date, I’ve been fairly impressed by among the animation, however in any other case don’t really feel I’ve something to seize onto right here. The characters really feel superficial and grating, the worldbuilding feels ill-considered, the narrative lacks sturdy trajectory or momentum, and the fight system is basically Calvinball – an try and make a Hunter x Hunter-like system with out understanding the checks and balances inherent in such a system, which thus inevitably results in contests of characters “going larger” with none rhyme or cause. There may be nothing concerning the supply materials that grabs me, and even in adaptation, it feels just like the present typically falls into the shiny, weightless spectacle of one thing like Demon Slayer. As I mentioned, I’m not a fan, however I’ll do my greatest to handle season three by itself deserves, even when I lack the emotional attachment with which one ought to actually be approaching a 3rd season. Let’s get to it!
Episode 1
A quietly ominous opening, as we stare by means of hanging beads right into a kitchen the place the sink is operating, the whole scene oddly smeared like moist chalk
It seems our boy Yuji is trying to clean the blood off his palms, a basic metaphor for inescapable sins going all the way in which again to Woman Macbeth. I think about this can be a dream sequence then, with the smearing of coloration and protracted racking of focus meant to evoke the fog-headed unreality of strolling by means of a dream. It’s an efficient trick!
We then leap to a different presumed nightmare, as Yuji wanders the ruins of Shibuya as extra huge fiends stalk the town
Positively some enjoyable monster designs amongst these cursed spirits. Additionally evocative, clear integration of digital lighting, one thing this manufacturing has usually been strong about
The primary season was fairly dangerous about integrating characters into prerendered backgrounds (the school-on-school arc was a visible nightmare), however the Shibuya arc did a strong job of making a way of voluminous house, notably for standout moments like Yuji’s battle towards the blood laser dude
This sequence is cool and all, however it does typify one in every of my points with JJK – it’s all simply empty imagery, impactful visible ideas with out the dramatic heft to provide them which means. The background artists and animators do an amazing job, however the supply materials simply can’t assist their ambitions
That’s to not low cost the imagery, although! That Shibuya arc OP was certainly cool as hell
This OP is much less targeted, however completely full of cool visible prospers, from moments portrayed as watercolor work to morphing sequences clearly animated by whoever dealt with that wild Megumi-summon sequence from Shibuya
Hah, they’ve even acquired a shot painted within the fashion of Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss. I bear in mind when Elfen Lied pulled that trick! God I’m outdated
We open post-OP with the potential new head of the Zen’in clan spewing misogynist rhetoric about Mai and Maki, because the outdated clan chief approaches his loss of life. Villains on this story are usually not probably the most delicate of characters
Some good work with the shadows and angles right here; the mixture of those desaturated colours, heavy shadows, and high-angle compositions efficiently evokes the look of a basic samurai drama
The slight fisheye impact additionally emphasizes the sense of disorientation within the wake of the lord’s loss of life, in addition to the claustrophobia of this chamber, which in flip echoes the metaphorical problem of three proud inheritors being pressured to share the identical house. Their egos can barely be contained by this chamber
As anticipated, the creep Naoya is inheriting the clan
The need options separate provisions within the case of Satoru Gojo’s loss of life. Gojo seems like a double-edged sword for this narrative; his “coolness” appears to be an amazing a part of the present’s enchantment, however he’s simply so highly effective that the narrative has needed to awkwardly stroll round him from the start, and so one-note in his enchantment that I can by no means take him significantly. He himself is one in every of this narrative’s greatest shortcomings, an try and make a Kakashi-like character that goes wholly overboard in defining his powers, a alternative that in flip underlines the superficiality of this entire area system
There are positively methods to make an attention-grabbing narrative that includes a Superman-level hero who can technically beat everybody up, however Jujutsu Kaisen by no means appears to interrogate him past “isn’t Superman cool?”
Within the occasion of Gojo’s loss of life, apparently Megumi will inherit the clan. These situations gesture in the direction of my frustration with how small this world feels – two colleges, one clan, and everyone is aware of one another. It appears clear Akutami didn’t think about how the world outdoors of higher Tokyo may be affected by the existence of cursed spirits
Naoya declares he’ll kill Megumi and Yuji each
Yuji continues to be haunted by Nobara’s loss of life, which was one of many least expensive “kill the lady to lift the stakes” blunders I’ve seen. It seems like Gege Akutami by no means knew what to do together with her character, a difficulty that falls into the extra normal class of him poaching from his influences (city fantasy aesthetic from Bleach, Nen from HxH, the Workforce Seven dynamic from Naruto) with out actually understanding how these influences labored. The OPs and EDs finally featured extra time of the theoretical “major trio” hanging out and constructing bonds than the present itself, and skipping that stuff meant their friendships by no means felt actual
Granted, this present’s humorousness is fairly suspect, so I’m undecided extra low-key actions would truly sort things
Yuji runs into our blood laser buddy Chousou, who urges him to return to high school
They then get to work killing cursed spirits, letting this manufacturing exhibit extra lovingly animated monster designs. I notably like how the variable line weight of those monsters lends them a higher sense of unreality, like they’ve been roughly painted on the world itself, ceaselessly warping in kind
Each strong and doubtful CG integration because the battle takes off. I can’t knock this group for his or her visible ambition – they’re actually pushing the bounds of conceptualizing historically animated fight in a 3D atmosphere. Trendy Dragon Ball does a few of this as effectively, however it doesn’t throw the identical wild, bold punches as JJK
I additionally like these transient moments emphasizing the feel and uniqueness of this metropolis as a fight zone, like Yuji hopping off an exploding spirit and grabbing a close-by fireplace escape
Yuji attracts a complete menagerie value of enjoyable beasties as he races into the subway
Then Naoya arrives. Sensible framing selections right here, as we see him from a low-angle lengthy shot that emphasizes his ominous presence whereas obscuring his face
Naoya blazes by means of them with ridiculous pace. Effective work conveying his pace by means of the shifting angles of his approaches; it jogs my memory of that bravura Mob Psycho sequence the place the group fights a teleporter
Their sparring is stopped by the arrival of Yuuta
Ooh, love this choreography of Yuji and Yuuta combating in an auditorium. A terrific sense of weight and consequence to their actions – you may actually really feel the load of their our bodies in how they spar, and the way every motion carries with it the momentum of their earlier motion. I all the time love this form of animation within the basic Yutaka Nakamura fashion, the solidity and aptitude he delivered to Spike’s actions in Cowboy Bebop
“Sufficient chatting.” It feels grimly applicable that Yuuta solely stops attacking to briefly ramble about how cool Gojo is
Yuji then makes an attempt to append a bunch extra particular guidelines about cursed power activation, none of which may have any impression on their precise battle. As I mentioned, it’s Calvinball – the principles are regardless of the final speaker decides they’re. You want a grounded template to realize one thing like Nen, a body of reference for a way all these powers intersect, and JJK has nothing like that
Enjoyable ink-blot animation for the illustration of their auras, although
Yuji is finally restrained by a monster that appears to obey Yuuta
We conclude on Yuji getting stabbed proper by means of
And Performed
Properly, that was actually extra Jujutsu Kaisen! A lot to understand visually on this episode, from the warped interpretations of Yuji’s guilt to the pleasant procession of cursed spirits. That battle on the finish was a particular spotlight; it’s a tough factor to convey superhuman battles with coherent sparring, and that sequence within the theater actually achieved it. Nonetheless, I mainly really feel as I all the time have about this present – there’s simply no sturdy writing to assist the variation’s visible ambitions, and Akutami’s strategy to fight techniques tends to undercut the motion scenes somewhat than elevate them. All of it seems like groundless spectacle to me, and I’m simply not sufficient of an action-first kinda man to understand that with out characters to care about or narrative/thematic hooks to attract me ahead. Nonetheless, there’s lots of expertise on show right here, so I think about followers have a good looking season forward of them!
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