Let’s Dissect IGN’s “Horrible” Jujutsu Kaisen Review

For some reason, I find Jujutsu Kaisen really fun to bully. I don’t know why.

Some of you are probably aware of IGN’s recent review of Jujutsu Kaisen’s Shibuya Incident Arc and how they gave it a 6/10. Twitter is trashing them for it. Reddit is agreeing with them for it. Most people don’t give a shit because who the fuck cares? It’s just one reviewer and only a few thousand people even know about the review, which is nothing compared to the reception a WholeWheatPete video combining Jujutsu Kaisen with Pokemon creates. And that’s one of his lesser viewed videos too, although the Youtube algorithm in general hasn’t been kind to his channel lately.

But how’s the actual review? Well let’s start from the very headline.

Cool fight scenes can’t make up for a meandering story.

I’ve said this many times, but Jujutsu Kaisen is one of the few shows I’ve seen where the cool fights do make up for it’s narrative, which I still state is barely existent. People keep talking about how it delves into themes like the darkness of humanity and the curses and all that, but I could say the same for the demons in Demon Slayer and how they’re born of the issues that existed in Taisho Era Japan. They do exist yes, but they’re so far in the background that it’s not worth thinking about them much. Anyways, I can’t speak for the manga, but there are a lot of action movies I like more than Lawrence of Arabia despite mostly being spectacle showcases, so it’d be hypocritical of me to say that anime couldn’t do the same. It’s just most anime can’t because they don’t have the action camp necessary to pull it off.

Anyways let’s continue with the actual review now.

The much-anticipated adaptation of the Shibuya Incident Arc has finally ended, and it delivered non-stop action, shocking deaths, and huge changes to the world of Jujutsu Kaisen. But is that enough? Though the fights are handsomely animated and there are some moments of visual brilliance, the arc ends up being nonsensical fight after nonsensical fight without much emotion in the storytelling. There’s a cheapness to many of the deaths, and even though the story arrives at some big changes, it does so after a meandering story.

Wouldn’t really say many of the deaths were cheap, but I think anyone who felt emotional about Nobara’s death at the very least just doesn’t watch much fiction in general. How could you possibly not see that death coming? When has a character getting so little screen time and not being established as a particularly strong fighter jumping in to fight one of the major bad guys at the last minute result in anything other than death? I didn’t hate it as much as RTTV did, but that death was the epitome of cheap. Obviously it didn’t ruin the series, but that episode wasn’t great aside from the short time Nobara was actually competent.

Also, the big changes don’t feel great because they came after a meandering story in my opinion. It’s because I know it’s going to get brushed aside for more fights later on, even if I didn’t read the manga.

The first season of Jujutsu Kaisen had a great mix of comedy and action with horror influences that gave it a unique aesthetic. Then the first half of the second season came in with devastating character drama that deepened the world and lore, and made what was a relatively small villain into a fascinating and complex character. The Shibuya Incident Arc, unfortunately, seems to misunderstand that it wasn’t the action alone, but the sum of Jujutsu Kaisen’s parts that made this show great. The problems begin with the awkward chronology of the arcs: It’s been four years since last we saw Yuji and his friends, and the moment we are reunited with them, they’re separated into dozens of teams sent to respond to a full-scale attack by cursed spirits in the Shibuya ward of Tokyo.

This will always be what separates me from other Jujutsu Kaisen fans. I don’t think the previous arcs were great. I’ve said this many times now. I think the action alone is what makes JJK so fun, everything else is just a support for that, and trying to insert JRPG storytelling into the mix just makes it hard to take seriously.

The character drama in Hidden Inventory was decent, but the problem was that Toji, Geto, and Gojo were the only ones who actually mattered in that arc and everyone else might as well not exist so it was weird when devastating things happened to them and I was supposed to react with more than “well that happened”. Riko pretty much existed to get her head blown off and I don’t know much about her otherwise. When there’s constant action though, I can ignore the fact that the supporting cast of Jujutsu Kaisen is utter shit because I’m an action junkie at heart. I understand not everyone will feel that way and prefer something like Mob Psycho 100 mixing more story with the action. And while I do like Mob, I’m not blind to the fact that because the show did that, the villains ended up being utterly forgettable.

Also, it has not been four years. It’s been two. And that shouldn’t matter anyways because you would not be saying this if Jujutsu Kaisen was airing continuously like One Piece, which I’d like to remind you is the format that long-running shows are written for and you could easily watch a recap online if you need reminding of something. Plus the problem would go away if you binge it in the future like most people do with long running shonen. I don’t get why dividing up Shonen Jump arcs into seasons has caused people to be harsher towards an arc when it’s weaker. Weak arcs are inevitable with long-running shonen. That’s what makes ranking them so fun.

And in case people need clarification, the reason I’m harsh towards Season 2 not giving Nobara any screen time despite all the time she had in Season 1 is because she didn’t have any story relevance until the last arc of said season. And she was promoted as one of the main trio, only to have little screen time in a major arc, which is basically the show screaming “She’s going to die! She’s going to die!”

Given just how much weight (and screentime) are devoted to the fight scenes, it’s reassuring that they look magnificent – for the most part. This would be a good time to mention the allegations of crunch and unfair compensation recently leveled against Jujutsu Kaisen studio Mappa, with one animation director going so far as saying (in a now-deleted post) that one Shibuya Incident episode made it to air as “30% of the intended vision.” Some cuts in several of the arc’s episodes do indeed look unfinished, like Todo and Yuji’s fight against Mahito. This is no criticism of the animation team, who give it their all to pull off plenty of visual spectacle. Particularly great is the fight between Jogo and Sukuna, a Shibuya Incident highlight. It has a stunning use of proportions, fiery imagery, and color, giving the impression of a clash between titans that goes beyond our comprehension of physics.

I think it’s fair to mention the crunch in this season. It was pretty unavoidable when it came out. Even my extended family who only watch the popular shit knew about it.

With so much combat and so little breathing room, the action becomes a slog – which is the last thing you want out of your battle shonen. If all you need out of Jujutsu Kaisen is people punching each other through a ton of VFX, this might not be so bad. It’s when you can’t tell what the point of a fight is that’s the issue.

I got the point of every fight, honestly. It’s just that I found a lot of the points to be kinda lackluster. It was not really worth bringing Toji back just to kill Dagon (who was utterly forgettable in Season 1. I don’t know why people insist I’m supposed to remember who he was) and give Megumi some trouble when Megumi doesn’t get much out of it. Like people say Hidden Inventory was required to understand some things in Shibuya, but the things you have to understand are so minor that they could have easily been done a different way. I know Toji probably has more of an impact later on, but just based on Shibuya, the only thing I care about with the dude is that he’s a cool character. Didn’t like him at first, but he warmed up to me.

This is especially true once the body count starts to rise. Several characters die or get put out of commission by their injuries – possibly for the rest of the series. While a couple of these casualties are emotionally crushing and brought upon by character choices, some are used for shock value at best, and mere plot points at worst. It’s not like there aren’t stakes: Just look at the giant hole where Shibuya used to be, or Gojo being imprisoned.

RIP to Ino. I don’t think he even died. He just got bodied and everyone instantly forgot him because he was literally introduced in this season, had two seconds of backstory, and that was it. Oh yeah, and let’s not forget how utterly awful Geto’s henchmen were this season. They did nothing in the goddamn movie and when they come back for Season 2, they pretty much lost any opportunity to ever be relevant. Seriously, what was the point of having them if you could just replace them with random NPCs and lose out on nothing?

Because the cast is separated at the beginning of the arc, we tend to only see some of them right before they die, making them seem like objects to be discarded rather than important, fleshed-out characters. It’s a shame, because Jujutsu Kaisen was always better when focusing on its larger ensemble rather than Yuji himself. Seeing him mostly react to the villains’ plot while his friends drop like flies makes Yuji a worse character, and weakens the larger ensemble, too. Likewise, having the villain get away from a fight right before losing time and time again quickly becomes annoying and tiresome.

Again, this was the big problem with Nobara, and I don’t have anything else to say about that at this point. Yuji I don’t think is a great protagonist either, mainly because aside from having Sukuna inside of him, he is not very story relevant. He didn’t get anything important to do until the very end, and all he did was end the show traumatized, which a lot of Western games have been doing over the last decade and mistaking for character development. Now I haven’t read the manga so maybe Yuji uses his experiences to grow over time. But where he’s at right now, I would not say he’s grown as a character. That’s like saying Tanjiro grew in the latest Demon Slayer season because he slaughtered Upper Moon 4 with none of the sympathy he used to have for demons. He didn’t change in that arc. It’s just that Upper Moon 4 was an unsympathetic piece of shit, so he brings out the dark side of Tanjiro’s kind personality, which is normal because most people would do the same thing.

Obviously I think the ensemble isn’t great because of my low opinion regarding the supporting cast. Todo is good. Nanami is good. Mechamaru got better this season. The rest of the Kyoto students and Mei Mei and Shoko and such were trash. What exactly was fun about focusing on them?

Also, while I understand the last complaint, I can count the number of times Jujutsu Kaisen has ended a fight that didn’t conclude because of some bullshit plot armor or last minute contrivance that either favors the heroes or the villains on the fingers of an amputee patient. If you’re going to address it, at least acknowledge that it’s always been a problem.

In expanding the fights from the manga for visual spectacle, the Shibuya Incident Arc ends up leaving little room for anything else. Though it’s clear with each passing episode that the events of the arc have big and immediate repercussions for the larger world of Jujutsu Kaisen, we are left with only a short montage in the final minutes to witness the reaction outside of Shibuya. The few times the show attempts to deliver information during action scenes, it’s through clunkily delivered, convoluted exposition.

The fact that people defend Jujutsu Kaisen’s exposition is a mystery to me. It wasn’t good when Hunter x Hunter did it either. And it’s just so stupid how a fucking narrator has to explain how someone’s cursed technique works when it all boils down to “it looks fucking cool”. They don’t even do the “explain my move to get stronger” gimmick that they did in the first season. What’s the point of having that gimmick if you’re going to stop using it?

I liked the final episode, but it definitely wasn’t the strongest finale let alone episode that JJK could have had. Also it’s hard to feel sympathy for the larger world when the only characters who matter are Yuji, Megumi, Gojo, and the bad guys. Does anyone even remember that former fat girl who was interested in Yuji?

The Shibuya Incident Arc sees Jujutsu Kaisen at its most action-packed, but the relentless bombardment of fight scenes ends up doing the characters, pacing, and story a disservice. If it’s spectacle you seek, look no further than these episodes. If you want action to service the plot and characters rather than the way around, this arc leaves a lot to be desired.

Definitely prefer the former in what I want from the show so I don’t think it’s a disservice. It’s just what Jujutsu Kaisen has always been and I’m tired of pretending it’s not. We all know at this point that Jujutsu Kaisen is not going to be servicing much plot or characters with it’s action.

In conclusion, the review is fine if you’re not fully onboard with the appeal of the show. But as someone who’s fully entrenched into a side, it’s pretty average and surface-level. These complaints are valid, but you shouldn’t be surprised by what Season 2 had to offer at this point. Where exactly in the previous iterations did Jujutsu Kaisen ever offer storytelling akin to a Xenoblade game? I definitely didn’t see it.

P.S. I’m glad that Jujutsu Kaisen is finally getting the same level of hate that Demon Slayer has gotten for a while now. They have different approaches to being action spectacles, but they’re a lot more similar than people say they are. Also, JJK fandom is what people think Demon Slayer fandom is.