Jujutsu Kaisen: Shimetsu Kaiyuu - Zenpen

In short, the only good episodes were EPs 1-2 and 12. For a new viewer, these are the only good episodes you should watch with the addition of EP 9. The rest are skippable and not only add nothing but deduct from the overall experience. For a complete overview of the story of the Culling Games, we are better off with the source material. So we have 3 good and 1 acceptable episodes out of 12. The rest are in terms of tonality and pacing, a complete joke. How did this happen? The more the season went on the more obvious it became that the director Goshozono actually just took a massive spiteful shit on JJK in order make the 1st Part of the 3rd season his "artsy" directoral portfolio piece before fucking off from the studio after his contract expired. The weird "movie-like" angles, shots, the agony inducing "kill bill" scene, forced "funny" moments all scream of a pretentious wannabe creative millennial going rampant and just doing whatever he wants without any oversight. Obviously this makes the end-product feel like a disjointed mess, most notably in tone. Mappa has partial guilt by giving this animal full creative control rather than controlling him like during the 2nd Season (Shibuya Arc) . There should have been several other people next to him at all times to slap the pen out of his hand whenever he wanted to put his own bullshit in. At the very least the damage he has done is minimized to the 3rd Season 1st Part and the fans can have a directoral reset for the 2nd Part of this season.

Fight me on this, but what MAPPA has achieved with the third season of Jujutsu Kaisen outclasses not only Ufotable’s work on Demon Slayer, but also its own prior attempt at cinematic adaptation in Chainsaw Man season 1. The difference lies in approach. Ufotable excels at amplification. With Demon Slayer, what exists in the manga by Koyoharu Gotouge is often abstracted or compressed; the anime expands it into fully realized spectacle through choreography, lighting, and compositing. It is an elevation of presentation, a refinement of surface. But rarely does it challenge or reinterpret the underlying structure. MAPPA, on the other hand, operates as a translator rather than an augmenter. With Gege Akutami’s Jujutsu Kaisen, there is little need to add. The source material is already dense to the point of friction. Pacing is precarious, information is overloaded, and action often borders on disorientation. These are not shortcomings as much as they are symptoms of a mismatch between medium and intent. Because the truth is, Jujutsu Kaisen in manga form has not fully met its own potential. Akutami’s strength lies in kinetic energy, in movement, escalation, and split-second decision making. These qualities resist the stillness of panels. What emerges instead is heavy exposition, abrupt dialogue, and action that can feel fragmented rather than fluid. This is where the anime becomes essential. Not as embellishment, but as realization. Season 3, more than any installment before it, understands this. It does not overwrite the material; it releases it. Moments that once felt compressed now breathe with intention and clarity. Maki’s arc gains a sense of cinematic inevitability. Megumi’s tactical thinking unfolds at the speed it demands. Yuji, often understated on the page, finally carries weight in both voice and motion. The result is not simply a better-looking version of the same story, but a more complete one. At its peak, the Culling Game arc reveals something else. Through its tournament structure, cliché as it may be, the world is forced open. Systems collide, rules are stress-tested, and the narrative gains a playground large enough to match its ambitions. It is controlled chaos, and in that chaos, Akutami finds a distinct kind of authorship. This is where i can make a comparison to Quentin Tarantino. Not in style, but in sensibility. A willingness to play within genre while simultaneously bending it. A rhythm that prioritizes tension, release, and sudden bursts of violence as punctuation rather than spectacle alone. A sense that the creator is actively engaging with the form, not merely operating inside it. By contrast, Chainsaw Man, despite being marketed as the cinematic anime of its generation, feels more constrained. Its direction is deliberate, even impressive at times, but also self-conscious. Where Jujutsu Kaisen thrives in momentum, Chainsaw Man lingers. Where one liberates its source, the other imposes a lens onto it. That difference is everything. At this point in the story, it feels fair to say that Jujutsu Kaisen has reached the peak of Akutami’s writing, not just because of what is being told, but because of how completely it is being realized. And in that realization, MAPPA has done more than adapt. It has uncovered the version of the story that the original medium could only suggest.

The show took a nose drive from low orbit to the bottom of the mariana trench, haven't seen a show deteriorate this severely since young justice. It is worse than berserk 2016 and OPM season 3, those 2 are infamous for bad animation but the music, tone, themes, pacing, story telling remain consistent, none of that can be said about JJK season 3 part 1, it's not only objectively god awful compared to seasons 1 and 2, it is the single worst season of anime I personally have ever seen -It's mostly filler, you can watch episodes 1,4 and 12 and not miss a single narrative beat - ^ On top of being almost entirely filler, there are entire episodes where there isn't a single second of entertainment to be found, entire episodes where a character serves as exposition.mp3 to blabber on for 20 straight minutes without saying a single damn thing -Most of the established, popular, relevant characters get zero screentime, this is not hyperbole, literally not a single frame or even have their names said a single time - None of the events that season 2 culminated to get wrapped up or even mentioned - ALL of the characters involved in season 2 finale are randomly spread out with zero explanation, all the mercenaries, curse users, regular mortals caught in the crossfire, sorcerers, absolute nothingness, season 2 may as well not have happened for how irrelevant it is treated. - The tiny number of relevant characters who do get screen time get their entire arc rushed, there are multiple events in this part that are supposed to be tragic, but they happen with zero build up, zero dialogue so they have zero weight, zero impact and zero emotion, there are 30 second tv ad's that do a better job of evoking emotion than this season. - The animation is awful, constant intentional bad camera angles and lazy long shots in a paper thin attempt to try and hide the fact that neither characters or environments have any detail to them - The action sequences are appalling, yuji vs choso in season 2 or literally any fight in season 1 had more effort, time , thought, choreography and frames go into them then all 12 of these episodes combined -The premise, if you can even call it that is this " Geto had everything he needed to enact his plan with the culmination of the season 2 finale, but instead of doing it he has decided to start an arbitrary battle royale where irrelevant characters with no motivations, no personality, no backstory, no explanation at all for their participation, no explanation at all for their connection to geto, engage in said battle royale so that Geto can pursue a plan he already has all the pieces to complete" It's so piss poor, you could put a pen in the mouth of a comatose patient, hold up a pad to their face and the scribblings on the pad from their machine assisted breathing moving the pen would create a more developed and sound narrative.

If I had to describe JJK this season, it would be like that girl who is so insecure about her lack of personality and depth that she decided to put on an ungodly amount of makeup to compensate. This season of JJK is one of the worst seasons of any shounen that I’ve ever seen. It is rare for a high-budget show produced by a reputable studio like Mappa to be this atrocious. Watching this show is a literal assault on all of my senses. Episode 3 is by far the worst episode that has ever been produced by any studio in recent years. The entire episode features characters standing around explaining the “rules” that are so mind-numbingly convoluted that I tuned out of the show completely. The exposition is not even done in a cool or unique way. They flash black text on a white background that occasionally moves, shift angles, and switch colors from white to black. Absolutely riveting stuff. I swear, One Punch Man season 3 has more animation than this pathetic excuse of an episode. At least, the animators can catch a lunch break or two before slaving away on another slopkuga episode. Speaking of slopkuga, I gave up on learning about the rules in episode 3 and hope that maybe the fights could be fun, just to be hit with another atrocity committed by Mappa, this time to animation in episode 4. After watching Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc and seeing its meteoric rise to mainstream success, I felt that something was very wrong. I couldn’t put my finger on it at the time, but now I understand. Mappa this season has adopted the chaotic mess of the sakuga action in that movie and applied it to most of the action sequences for this season of JJK. The action is so incomprehensible that it is nauseating to watch. The constantly changing camera angles, characters defying the law of physics and launching themselves into empty subdimensions, overuse of effects and impact frames, and character posing for no reason while fighting make every fight virtually indecipherable and cringe-inducing. It's like they make fights to get clipped and views on TikTok. The reason why iconic anime fights like Asuka’s fighting against the angels or Spike Spiegel vs Vicous are so well-loved and talked about is that they are not only easy to grasp but are also well-executed with a lot of careful attention to details and choreography in every frame, not this visual hellscape. On top of that, in later episodes, they do exposition in the backdrop of several fight that contains pseudo-intellectual garbage the author found on Google or convoluted explanations of their powers. It is a literal stinky bukkake of visual and audio noise. One thing I have to give props to them, though, is that this animated abomination has given me several seizures to pass through it quickly. Thank you, Mappa. For the OST, I couldn’t think of anything more off-putting than a jazz-rock fusion, happy-go-lucky soundtrack with a harmonica section on top of somebody murdering an entire clan of people. Maybe it’s just me, though. The only saving grace for the OST is the OP and ED, but mostly because of my predisposition towards J-rock, and some of the dramatic tracks are relatively well-composed. In the last episode of the series, they even try to insert the OP track in the middle of an Avengers Assemble moment with a PowerPuff Girls-inspired transition to conceal the fact that most of the fight was composed using PS3 CGI graphics. A shounen with bad characters and power systems is a failed one. Power system is one of the core concepts of a shounen, and this show can’t even do it correctly. Everything has to have a one-page set of special rules and conditions. The author didn’t know how to make actual interesting abilities that have simple to understand gimmicks, but creative utilization like Nen, so he resorted to adding convoluted and artificially complex mechanics to all of the powers. He also loves to insert random numbers and nonsensical jargon into their power to make them seem “cool” and “interesting”. As for the characters, Maki is terrible now, that’s great. In order to turn her into a Fushiguro clone and make her exude “aura”, they decided to make her kill her entire clan. Maki hates the clan because the orthodox, or whatever, is evil for killing her sister and causing her and her sister to choose to exact violence against EVERYONE IN THE CLAN. Because turning her into an irredeemable, hypocritical, and vengeful killing machine is surely gonna make me sympathize with her struggle. Higuruma is the only serviceable character in this show. In my interpretation, he basically wants to protect the weak who couldn’t defend themselves against the unjust law system that forces them to admit to false charges while protecting big corporations. During his fight, he wants Yuji to deny the claim against himself, but Yuji is earnest about his weakness. Higuruma wants to protect the weakness that humans possess to bring the light of truth to an eternal world of darkness filled with corruption and avarice. He wants the rules of the culling game to be about protecting the weak. That’s a pretty decent character. However, I have a hard time understanding him because he’s talking while flinging doo-doo at Yuji, and the narrator lady keeps on rambling about absolutely nothing. His characterization is so buried deep within the exposition, legalese, and fight animation that I legit couldn’t make out what this character was about, even after rewatching it multiple times. I can only infer after pausing and slowing down the episode. Everyone else is forgettable or cringeworthy. Their dialogues are unnatural, filled mostly with just exposition. This show is trying so hard to be unique and quirky that most of its characters are caricatures. The jokes are unfunny, and the comedic timing is so awful that I want to give them a pity chuckle from time to time, but I can’t even muster the strength to do that. Also, have you seen some of these character designs? Some of these outfits are hideous-looking. I wonder if I am watching JJK or those horrible avant-garde fashion shows. In summary, my complaint for this show not only stems from it being horrible, but it is also a symptom of a much bigger crisis approaching the anime industry. New shows are going to slowly get turned into the next Hollywood or Blockbuster superhero films because Mappa is pumping out slop every season while overworking their animators, masking it with their budget. I want them to make shows simpler and focus more on substance instead of style.

This is a Japanese version of a Western animation. Not anime. It's a box of expired wasabi. This anime isn't so bad it's good; it's so bad it's offensive. The plot, about a sentient garbage heap in a dystopian future, sounds quirky but is executed with the grace of a dumpster fire. The protagonist, a whiny can of soda, delivers dialogue so flat it makes cardboard seem charismatic. Animation is choppy, with backgrounds that look like MS Paint scribbles. The action sequences are repetitive, and the "emotional" climax is a recycling PSA that falls flatter than a stepped-on soda can. The only thing more wasteful than the recycling subplot is the time you'll spend watching it. This is the anime equivalent of a participation trophy—meaningless and utterly forgettable. Skip it.

Honestly, my expectations were sky-high for a sequel that’s been three years in the making, but thanks to the sheer sloppiness of the production, it’s a total disaster. If the creators couldn't be bothered to put in the effort, I’m certainly not going to exhaust myself trying to break down every single flaw. This season feels like filler, though calling it that feels like an insult to Bleach’s filler arcs—at least those had some effort behind them. We’re served meaningless episodes clearly designed just to drag the series out. The music choices felt completely disconnected from the narrative, failing to capture the right atmosphere. The pacing is a mess; the show wastes entire episodes on trivial nonsense, yet when it finally touches on canon material, everything feels rushed and "blink-and-you-miss-it." I’m not some mindless action junkie, and I’ll admit the Yuta and Maki segments were actually quite good. However, a few solid character moments aren't nearly enough to carry an entire season. At the end of the day, I believe this lack of care will seriously dampen the hype for future seasons; it’s hard to stay invested when the production value takes such a massive hit.

Bro this season is actually so ahh and stupidly overrated The whole season is so gray it makes me think I'm colorblind The animation is pretty good but there are so many frames and smooth movements it makes it look uncanny There is no character development and emotion in the entire season The direction is so poor You can't keep track of anything At one moment they will be talking peacefully ten seconds later they are fighting Last episode was fire ngl but it doesn't deserve to be like higher than 8.5 if being generous, I'm sorry but I don't like this season the first two seasons were good especially the second one it was full of energy but this season sucks

The second season of JJK was kind of poop but I figured I'd keep watching anyway, call it sunk cost fallacy if you want. This season was also mostly poop although for slightly different reasons. The premise is basically that everyone is playing Fortnite and there's this system where you get points when you kill people, and if you get enough points you can add new rules to the game. Yuji and friends enter the game so they can add a rule that allows people to escape the game, and also to search for someone who can free Gojo from the cube. Sounds pretty simple, right? Well, JJK doesn't seem to think so. Episode 3 of this season is maybe one of the worst things I've ever seen in a shonen series. The entire episode is basically a fucking PowerPoint presentation where the narrator explains how the game works, only they do it in the most confusing way possible. I don't think they even explain that it's essentially a battle royale, they basically go straight into rules minutiae, plus they feel the need to explain the motivation of every single character and what their plans are going to be for the rest of the season. It's the type of thing I'd expect to see in, like, Ex-Arm, not a big budget series from a fairly competent studio. Outside of Episode 3, which is pure ass, the season still suffers from several common issues. There are a lot of fights, but most of them suck because it's usually not clear at all what's going on. If you think of something like Jojo, the best Stands are the ones that have clear limits (ex: Mandom rewinds time 6 seconds, that's it, that's the whole ability), this is part of the reason Part 6 is so bad, you've got Stands like Diver Down where you think you understand what they do but then they do something completely new that makes no sense, and then you've got ones like Dragon's Dream where the ability is so convoluted that you stop trying to understand what's going on. JJK is full of shit like this, the fight with the woman that has the star ability legit gave me Dragon's Dream flashbacks with how much time the narrator spends trying to explain how the ability works. Any time domains show up it's the same thing, the narrator starts infodumping you almost as an acknowledgement that none of the shit on screen makes any sense. I think there are also a few different characters in this season but at this point it just feels kind of hard to give a shit about any of them. Yuji is there, I guess. The JJK version of Sasuke is there, too. I can never remember what his name is. Panda shows up. Maki spends one episode going on a Man of Steel-esque rampage that just feels like a bunch of meaningless shit happening. That might be it. There's also the dude from the movie. Just like Shibuya Incident, this is another "serious arc" so we can't have any of the fun character interactions that made the first season entertaining (most of the fun characters got killed off, anyway). Plus, it's another Avengers-level fight for the fate of the world so everything needs to be as bombastic as possible. If entire buildings aren't exploding, something's gone wrong. There are a few spots where the animation looks nice and you can actually tell what's happening, also the opening theme's pretty good. The last episode of the season is the only one that I would say was legitimately entertaining and it barely even feels connected to the rest of the season since it features Movie Guy. You could literally skip the entire rest of the season and watch that episode and not miss out on anything. The stupid narration is kept to a minimum, the powers of all the characters are pretty simple, minimal domain shit, not a lot of CGI outside of the one awful-looking bridge scene. It's not a good episode because of anything set up before it, it's a good episode because it's a dude fighting multiple other dudes and it looks cool. So you know what, that's my recommendation. Skip the entire season and just watch the last episode.

What can I say, this season was entire filler using a poorly written tournament arc. I gave this a chance since I actually read close to where this season ends. I dropped the manga because the rules made no sense and it was far too complex of an idea to even take my interest. I remember reading things like 'if you don't get the power dynamic you're stupid' blah blah blah. In reality, it was funny to see all the memes about the vast majority of people not understanding the rules of the game. I think it's mostly down to very poor writing by the author, who clearly seemed to lose sight of where the story was going (and lost any idea of story telling also). Not only this, but I do think MAPPA could've explained the rules a bit slower, instead of putting them in a 5 second section of a single episode where you'd need to pause to read them, let alone understand them. Couldn't say for certain as someone who's not caught up with the manga, but I reckon you could skip the Culling Game and it would still make sense. Utterly boring and all it has to offer is repeated fight scenes and uninteresting characters. Sorry, but this is a no from me. I really did hope this season was going to make me love the series enough to continue where I left the manga - I was mistaken. I have given it a 4 which is scored purely on animation and studio efforts.

For me personally, this is the worst season so far. I haven’t read the manga on purpose because I wanted to experience everything through the anime mainly for the animation and OST but what we got here feels like a confusing, overly complicated mess. This arc is just not enjoyable. We watch anime and movies to be entertained, not to feel lost or mentally exhausted trying to understand what’s going on. If you don’t understand something, you won’t enjoy it and that’s exactly the problem here. It feels like the author tried to make the story complex just to seem deep or cool, but honestly, it comes off as unnecessary and frustrating rather than smart. This isn’t the kind of complexity that rewards you, like a good mystery or thriller where things click into place. Instead, it’s just overwhelming. There’s way too much talking, too many explanations, and somehow even the explanations make things worse instead of clearer. As for the animation, it’s inconsistent. Sometimes it looks amazing, like peak Jujutsu Kaisen quality, and other times it feels off or weird, which breaks immersion. Overall, this season lost what made the series fun in the first place. Instead of hype and clarity, it delivers confusion and frustration.

I watched this largely in 1.25x speed & highly recommend doing so. Sometimes I’d forget to re-up the speed at an ep’s start & ended up watching half of it at 1.0x w/o noticing. Though fwiw I’d probably rate it a point lower if 1.25x wasn’t how I watched most of it. Also a reminder 1.25 applies to everything so relatively speaking pauses are the same. I liked season 1, was pretty entertaining. Wasn’t a fan of season 2 stretching out (maybe it wasn’t stretched, idk I’m anime-only) one battle/arc for so long, because every episode felt so incremental. So going into S03 I figured it’d be mid, but I was wrong. It was great. They took a bold approach making this slow & artsy & it actually worked. Idk what ppl’re complaining about, but when I think of other shounen that have the MC just droning on and on with constant internal monologging, hyping himself up or putting himself down, this was straight-up refreshing. I can kinda understand how ppl might not like the occasional wall of text, but im used to it from other shows. Just pause if you need to lol. And honestly no idea how they coulda done that scene where they explained the rules & the plan another way w/o making it 2x longer & having everyone “remind each other” of plans/details for the viewer’s sake, which would have been really stupid. I’m surprised I liked the fights so much but these were awesome; nothing felt like it dragged on, & it wasn’t “over animated” like I felt S02 was. The story itself was also great. Mostly not corny, well-explained thoughtful secondary characters & enemies, no random curveball B plot that just feels like filler, dialogue was interesting & didn’t feel like it tried to be funny. It took itself seriously and it *felt* serious. Idk I’m struggling to find what I disliked about the show. Everything felt like it had a purpose. Genuinely confused by people who don’t like the writing, what you want like something that makes you “think” idk why’d you expect that in the first place lol. This felt like a movie to me. It was great. 9/10

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 has finally finished airing Animation 9/10 Story 7/10 Character 8/10 But I don't really like the CGI background. The manga adaptation to the anime is not 1:1 good enough. Episode 1,2 is a fun episode , Episode 3 Culling game explanation is quite boring. And episode 4 the massacre by maki was very good but not perfect. Episodes 5-10 are slower paced but ok Episode 11-12 improved animation but bad background. Overall 6/10 Can't wait for season 4 The characters' reactions and expressions to the situation are very lacking. The character art style is very good. The story is very mid.

This is the 3rd season of JJK If you're a JJK super fan (probably a new anime watcher), you won't be disappointed. If you're a person who was critical of JJK like I was. This might be your breaking point. The Good: The animation presented here is a solid 8.5/10. Of course, no modern anime with their extremely heavy usage of CGI could receive a 10 from me. This season has some unique art-style direction choices. Some people will like it, some people will hate it. I like unique things, so I like it. What nobody will probably hate is the fights. The actual quality of the fight-animation is extremely good here (though I think the fights are weak overall due to reasons I will cover later). Once you get past the slog of the earlier parts of the season, nothing but cool-looking fights remain. Cool enough, that I'm giving this season a 7 rating (due to the animation) compared to the 6 I gave JJK S1. However, I do think the writing, story, and characters have returned back to JJK S1 levels. The Bad: Honest to God, have you ever heard the statement "You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the victim?" The same logic holds true to a lot of things: "You either die obsessing a hobby, or get far enough into the hobby to become a critic." Shows like Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man separate the connoisseurs/elitists from the tourists. The intellectuals from the average intelligence. The most important part of any story is the plot, writing, and characters. 3 Categories in which Jujutsu Kaisen (in my opinion) almost completely fails. The characters are decent/mediocre. While the overall cast is bad, it does have a few standout characters (3 in my opinion). But the story/plot and writing are just abysmal. The story is so weak in this season. It's the weakest story I've ever seen in a mainstream anime. The plot is so non-existent, it's almost at the level of "God of High School." Literally the only reason to watch this show is the fights. If the fights weren't pretty, this show would be a mega-flop. Don't get me wrong, I'm not holding that against it. The show's primary purpose is to be an action show. But what separates the "excellent" from the "average" is execution. There's a reason games like Call of Duty MW1, COD MW2, COD MW3, COD BO1, COD BO2 are still remembered so fondly. Not just because it was a different time when people could actually trash-talk in the multiplayer. But also because they put serious effort into the single player, and the story was excellent. Go back and play those games, and you'll see that the gameplay, if we're being honest, isn't as good as memory would cause you to believe. But man, the vibes, the energy, the overall experience, the story, the characters, are so bloody good that those games are still talked about to this day. It's not just the gameplay that made those games memorable experiences. It's also the "The Numbers Mason," and the "Remember No Russian," and the "Ramirez," and the "Soap trusted you, I thought I could too," and the "Freedom for you Mason, not for me." Sure, we're playing for the gameplay (animation/art-style/pretty fights), but the story is important. It's what separates the "excellent" from the "average." In the category of story, Jujutsu Kaisen (outside of Season 2) just utterly sucks. And that's why, the show is just not that good, nor was it ever that good. The writing is also bad. Firstly, what exactly do I mean by writing? I mean the direction choices, the fight-direction, and the characters. First regular direction choices. As stated previously, they decided to make some weird decisions with the art style in this season. I appreciated what they tried to do, so I'm not knocking them too hard there. However, this season has some of the most atrocious info-dumps I have ever seen in an anime. Especially for an anime this big, to have such a novice and beginner way of dumping exposition is embarrassing. It's so bad, it's literally become a meme (RDCWORLD JJK). Secondly, the fight-direction. To be honest, it was absolutely amazing in this season. There are a few stand-out fights here that had some really awesome ideas about them. My only complaint is baby-sasuke's main fight. Yes, baby sasuke, I don't even know the character's name, and for reference, I've watched every single Jujutsu Kaisen episode as it has come out since S1 (S1, I think there were 6 episodes out when I started watching). The antagonist in his fight just straight-up ignored his ability and started using it without the necessary preparation. The overall fight-direction for that fight was abysmal, but I can't spoil anything so that's all I will say. And that brings me to the characters. You want to know why I specifically said that "the actual quality of the fight-animation is..." instead of just saying "the fights here are extremely good." It's because the characters in JJK are so WEAK that I literally couldn't give a damn about any of the fights. I'm here for the spectacle and nothing else. Like if somebody handed you NBA tickets and you don't even watch basketball, don't know the team, don't know nothing, and you still went to the game because you had nothing else to do. The fights aren't good, because I'm not invested in them at all. And i'm not invested in them at all, because I don't care about the characters. I literally can't be bothered to remember their names. Even if I don't care about the characters, if the writing was good like it was in S2, it could make me care about the way the characters themselves care about the characters (that's a tongue twister). That is to say, I could sympathize with the characters. But the amazingness that took place in S2, doesn't take place here. The character-writing is back to JJK S1 levels, hell it's even worst then that. In terms of mainstream anime, JJK probably has the absolute worst fight-impact/ emotional investment in the fights. The soundtrack is non-existent; it doesn't have an amazing soundtrack during fight-scenes to amp up the hype/moments. As corny as it is, characters yelling out their attacks really does add something to the experience. The voice actor is able to put an emotion in the voice that allows you to hear the struggle of the character. Like when Vegeta is charging up his attack against Cell, the music plays, and he finally yells out "FINAL FLASH" you hear something in his voice and it gives you goosebumps. JJK doesn't have the soundtrack, it doesn't have the "DETROIT SMASH" or "GETSUGA TENSHO" or "SPIRIT GUN" or "KAMEHAMEHA" or "FIRE-BREATHING FiRST FORM" or anything. The characters are boring and bland, and you don't care about them (or atleast I don't), and due to that, the fights just have absolutely 0 weight. It's pure spectacle, only pixels on a screen, and I don't feel a damn thing while watching it. Due to everything I've stated above, if you're tired of JJK not being an actually good show with good writing. You can go ahead and drop it. As for me, if a show has excellent animation/art-style, that alone I can give a show a high-rating. The fight direction in this season was really good, even if I think overall the fights were extremely weak. So off spectacle alone, I'm giving this a 7, but to be honest, it probably deserves a 6 just like JJK S1.

After the non-stop noise of the Shibuya Incident Arc, it makes sense this season would be a little bit of a breather; what I didn't expect was for this to basically be the Do A Bunch of Chores Arc. Most of this season feels like characters completing side quests, and little of it seems to have much bearing on the continuing plot of the series (I found it very funny how over-the-top and crazy the opening is compared to how much of the season itself is just exposition). I'll admit I really enjoyed the Maki focus episode, as she is one of my favorite characters and it was satisfying to see her come out on top, the Jojo-esque fights with Kirara and Reggie, and the very loud crash-y smash-y finale (though it did feel like it was just slapped in there to have some kind climax to the season). But so much of the rest of the season just feels like talking about rules and goals and plans (god that third episode was miserable to sit through). Yuji continues to be one of the least interesting people in his own show, Megumi continues to be a nothingburger, and Yuta continues to make me sad he's not the main character. But hey, they definitely took some bold swings with the direction in this season! Are they successful swings? Well... they're definitely swings. MAPPA does nothing if not take swings, whether it be in their direction or at their own employees.

First Anime that I register in this web JJK Season 3 is finally here and complete, and unfortunately it's the turn to adapt the starting point of the series decreasing, despite I enjoyed the culling games arc, is clear that isn't an arc with a substantial narrative to appreciate, its the definition of something that stand mostly for the aura and hype moments, and interesting well choreographed fights, but is the part where Gege stop to care about characters introspection (Shibuya lacked a bit of this, but at least delivered strongs points as Itadori breakdown and Jogo fight) but this is in the manga, the Anime adaptation despite not improving the flaws of the story elevate the quality with a bunch of well directed episodes with an overwhelming animation, is precisely what I think everyone talks about Demon Slayer Anime, this is truly an adaptation carried with the animation compensing the lack of characters introspection and development, because at least Demon Slayers provides interesting story arcs along the brutal animation, but this Season of JJK just offers me that, and it's a shame that precisely the worst part of the story is receiving the best animation, even though the first two season where brilliant in technical aspects, I saw an improvement of something that was already great this season, and for me that's a bit sad. But well, I think that is something good for the ones that truly enjoyed this arc, as form me I enjoy the culling games whether is the manga or the anime series, but I'm not as fonded with this as I was with previous arcs, so for me this is just a fairly decent result, an technical achievement that carry a lot the flaws of this part of the series

This is about the series as a whole, no spoilers. If you're looking for a good/interesting plot, JJK is not for you, however if you want great action and cool powers you'll most likely love it. It's generic from the start as almost any other shonen is, but at least shows some kind of promise, up until the second season. From there on, it is clear that the author himself does not know how he wants to progress the plot. It's an almost constant battle royale, characters get introduced left and right, most of them being wasted/killed before reaching a good conclusion, or any kind of conclusion at all. Another problem regarding characters is that most of the interaction that characters get comes from them fighting, be it against or with each other. While season one was solid, the second and especially the third season have bad pacing. Panels are cut out, scenes randomly get cut and it jumps into another scene, this decreases the amount of information you can gain by watching it rather than reading it, making the "story" if you can even call it one, more confusing. Animation 10/10 Fantastic. OST 7/10 Nothing outstanding but it does it's job. Plot 4/10 Can hardly be called a plot... Characters 5/10 A few pretty good ones but even most of them do not get the treatment or conclusion that they deserve. Action 10/10 Very good and interesting power system, definitely up there with the likes of Nen from HxH, if there is one thing the author is GOOD at, it's at making fights. The abilities and their usage is very creative especially in the third season.

Hot take, I didn't love this season, and it feels like a letdown to what came before it. While the production value is high, the director's artsy style and editing actively hurt the pacing, making things feel disjointed and, at times, difficult to follow, which leads to awkward pauses or moments that lack visual clarity. The inconsistent pacing leads to scenes feeling more like different clips that have been roughly edited together, when they should feel like a consistent narrative. The tone also feels like it was sacrificed for the new direction style. It feels like the story is being forced to fit the style, rather than the style being used to tell the story. The director seems more interested in creating an art piece rather than something that fits the narrative; at times, it feels like the director is just presenting his college art school portfolio. This results in things like tone-deaf background music that kills the mood and strips away the weight of key moments. Speaking of key moments, I'm disappointed in how iconic panels are being handled. I don't expect shots to be one-to-one with the manga, but they feel tonally off and flash by so quickly that key moments lose their impact. Gojo's awakening in Season 2 is a great example of how to adapt a panel with the weight it deserves; here, they pass by almost unnoticed. While the fight scenes are well animated, I found them surprisingly uninteresting and hollow. Because the plot feels directionless, the action loses its impact. Aside from Maki, the main cast feel stagnant, and the lack of meaningful development makes even the most fluidly animated fights feel like they're just going through the motions. I don't think this season was necessarily bad, but I was definitely let down by how the direction and story were handled. I hope the next season can improve upon these issues and return to what made prior seasons so good.

Season 3 of Jujutsu Kaisen is honestly crazy, but not always in a good way. Like yeah, it’s super intense and all that, but sometimes it just feels like too much is going on and the show doesn’t chill for a second. The story just goes full chaos mode. Stuff keeps happening one after another and you barely get time to process anything. At first it’s hype, but after a while it kinda gets messy. There were moments where I was like “wait what just happened?” because it moves so fast and jumps between things a lot. The fights look insane, not even gonna lie. Some scenes are actually movie-level. But at the same time, not every fight hits the same. Some are super emotional and crazy, and others are just like… cool visuals and that’s it. It kinda feels like they focused more on making it look good than making every moment actually matter. Yuji this season just suffers non-stop. Like I get it, character development and all that, but it’s almost too much. Bro can’t catch a break at all 💀. After a point it stops hitting as hard because it’s just pain over and over. Megumi has some really cool moments, but some of his decisions feel rushed, like they didn’t fully build up to them. Gojo not being around that much is also kinda annoying. I get why it’s important for the story, but you really feel his absence, and sometimes it makes everything feel a bit less exciting. Villains are better than before, but not all of them stand out. Some are cool, some are just there and you don’t really care that much, especially with how fast everything is moving. And the last episode with Yuta… yeah it’s cool, but also kinda overrated. Like his entrance is hype, and if you’ve seen him before you know he’s strong, but it lowkey feels like the show is just flexing him for a bit and then saying “wait for next season.” It doesn’t feel like a real ending, more like a trailer for what’s coming next. So instead of being satisfied, you’re just like “okay… that’s it?” The pacing is probably the biggest problem. It’s either going way too fast or randomly slowing down, and it never really feels balanced. Some moments that should hit hard just don’t because the show already moved on. Overall, it’s still a good season and really entertaining, but it’s kinda messy. It looks amazing and has some crazy moments, but it can feel rushed, overloaded, and sometimes just exhausting. And that ending with Yuta? Cool, but not as amazing as people make it seem.

The third season of Jujutsu Kaisen makes me feel like I need to revoke my anime elitist card, because that season was 90% spectacle, and by god, I ate it up every time. This season’s animation is better than season 2’s, an accomplishment I didn’t think was possible. Colors, lighting, fight choreography, animation quality--it was all the best any anime could possibly offer, every element wrapped up in incredible direction by Shouta Goshozono. Modern movie quality was served to its audience on a platter every single episode. And yes, I’m also talking about the Tengen Exposition episode, because while it lacked flashy fights, it more than made up for that with clever, clean, compelling graphic design that was able to explain extremely complicated concepts in the space of 20 minutes. The flat colors and realistic lighting are gorgeous, though I don’t know much about animation, so I can’t speak to those aspects any more than that. The fight choreography was magnificent. Yes, the big Dragon Ball magic brawls are spectacular in every regard, but I particularly loved when sorcerers just started duking it out fist to fist. Every punch had weight, and the camera work for the hand-to-hand combat sections of any fight was so alluring. My favorite fights this season were Yuji versus Higuruma, Megumi versus Reggie, and Maki versus like 80 guys and Naoya. Each fight could’ve been the best fight of the year, each fight just as jaw-dropping as the last. I really liked how Higuruma moved with his gavel, and how Maki was able to defeat Naoya. There are a few wonky CGI moments, particularly with fights toward the end, but the choreography that surrounded the obvious CGI was so stellar, that complaining about it feels nitpicky. JJK S3’s visuals are able to flourish as much as they do because of this season’s directing. Every visual choice means something thematically. And with a season that’s mostly fights, the little pepperings of narrative we get through lighting, shot composition, and colors, are a welcome addition. JJK S3 looks good, but those good visuals are illustrated thoughtfully. Hell, look at the OP-- it’s a map of the season to follow, illustrated with illusions to works of art. It’s absolutely my favorite OP from JJK, and might be one of my favorite openings ever. I love Goshozono’s work this season, and I’ll definitely be following his work in the future. This season is basically a ton of lead-up to the next part, and as I hinted in the last paragraph, there’s not a whole lot of narrative. However, it would be disingenuous to describe this season as merely a series of fights. We get strong character development in Maki, and character reflections from Megumi, Panda, and Yuji. (This season, Yuta, Choso, and Yuki are mostly there to look pretty and fight well). Maki is the standout this season by far; her arc resolves her relationship with Mai and the Zenin clan as a whole, leading to some heart wrenching moments and easy investment into Maki’s character. Yuji reflects on his involvement in the Shibuya incident, picking up the pieces from Sukuna’s slaughter. Regarding his guilt, Yuji interacts with the supporting cast in interesting ways, particularly Choso, Hikari, and Higuruma--the audience gets to peek deeper into his psyche. We learn more about Panda’s backstory, and his relationship with Yagi, although it’s more of a Yagi-centric story than it is Panda’s. Megumi also gets some moments to himself, but not nearly as sweeping as the other three. Yuuta is also there. While the character moments are nice, they’re sporadic. Maki really only gets 1-2 episodes to herself, before retiring for the rest of the season; same for Panda. As the protagonist, Yuji of course gets more time to shine, though again, his moments of intrigue are peppered in between and during fights. Like the rest of the season, Yuji’s character is experiencing a lot of buildup. He did get deeper moments of reflection in the first two episodes, but moving forward, I won’t just be satisfied with bits and pieces--I want to see him combat the dangerous thoughts whirling in his head. The same can be said for Megumi. The structure of this season necessitated the division of character moments; the story would’ve lost momentum if we stopped and gave the characters time to speak to one another about what they’ve encountered by the end of the season. I’m hoping next season leaves space to breathe; have the characters reach a breaking point of some kind. The fights are magnificent, but you can’t have a compelling fight without compelling combatants. The supporting cast (i.e, people not on Team Tengen) mostly serve their purpose of fight combatants. Hikari and Kirarara, fandom favorites, make their debut to much fanfare. I loved the interesting mechanics of Kirarara’s fight. Higurumu is my pick for supporting the season, as I just loved his fight. Beyond supporting the main characters in their development, namely Yuji, the supporting cast doesn’t do a whole lot in terms of narrative contribution. Gege Akutami is very good at creating interesting characters, but less good at following up on those characters to make interesting arcs. This season I feel JJK’s cast bloat the most; seven people and Panda on team Tengen is a lot, not to mention all of the new culling game combatants, and everyone from Kyoto, who was seemingly left in the dust. While I don’t particularly care for character arcs for Takaba and Higaruma (as much as I enjoy them as individual characters) I’m worried about our already large cast having to share room with the dozen new characters that get introduced every season, then quickly forgotten. JJK S3 is good. There’s not much more I can say about it that hasn’t already been said. It is a solid season of set-up with the best fights anime has even seen, and an okay-amount of character development from its main cast. I’m excited to see what’s in store as we enter the next phase of the Culling Game arc, but JJK needs to either outdo the fights this season, or start having more talking episodes.

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 already feels like it’s gonna ruin my life and it’s not even fully out yet 😭 Like after what Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 did to us, I don’t trust MAPPA at ALL anymore. Season 3 is basically “hey remember your favorite characters? yeah… about that.” This arc is straight up chaos + mind games + suffering. No more “haha goofy school stuff,” it’s just politics, betrayals, and everyone looking at each other like they’re about to start a war at any second. And Yuji?? Man doesn’t even get a break. Bro just keeps catching Ls and then still stands up like “yeah let’s keep going.” Respect, but also… please let him rest for 5 minutes 💀 Also the villains are on another level now. Not just strong, but actually scary-smart. Every time they talk it feels like they’re already 10 steps ahead and you’re just sitting there like “yeah we’re cooked.” And I already KNOW the fights are gonna be insane. Like MAPPA doesn’t miss when it comes to animation, but now it’s not even about hype fights anymore, it’s about who’s gonna mentally and physically break first.