What could've been a great show gets heavily bogged down by a messy plot and a lack of direction.

When watching the first few episodes of Jujutsu Kaisen, I didn’t really have really many strong opinions on it other than it had the potential to become great. It had the right pieces to become amazing, and if the story had a strong enough direction, then the show could truly become something special. My biggest hope was that it wouldn’t become like Demon Slayer, where the series’s writing wouldn’t be completely shallow in every way, with only good animation carrying it. However, as I continued to go on with this show, it started to become exactly that. But I would definitely say that this show endlessly pissed me off more than Demon Slayer, due to how much its quality fluctuated throughout its course. Jujutsu Kaisen is endlessly disappointing due to how much wasted potential it had.

The premise of Jujutsu Kaisen is immediately an intriguing one. Right from the start, it is apparent that the series is going to be a darker take on the shonen formula. Something extremely bold that the series does from the start is that it literally tells you that the protagonist, Yuuji Itadori is going to die. From the beginning, death is set as a pervasive theme that consistently looms over every element in the story. The tragic nature of the series that is set up from the very beginning got me hooked instantly, only to then immediately discard it. The fact that the Itadori is going to die at the end doesn't really get mentioned after it is first brought up. What is even more disappointing about this is that there are many points where this serious tone gets completely thrown out the window in favor of a far more comedic tone. Comedy in a serious story isn’t a bad thing, since comedy can provide levity in dark situations. However, the comedy is extremely obnoxious, and it is overdone to the point of insanity. The singular exception to this is with the arc with Junpei, which perfectly showcased what an arc that actually fits the inherently tragic nature of the show can be. However, it is surrounded by a sea of a series confused about its identity. The pervasive amount of tonal whiplash makes the whole series feel directionless.

Directionless is a word that can describe most of Jujutsu Kaisen. It never really feels like at any point that it has any type of rock solid foundation. This can be seen in the main three characters, Itadori, Fushiguro, and Fugisaki. From the beginning, it is established that these three characters are going to be the main trio of the series. While I thought that their dynamic was pretty insufferable at first, mainly due to the previously stated obnoxious comedy problem, any character dynamic can grow on the viewer if they feel extremely familiar with them by the end. However, after this trio is set up, like many things in this story, it is immediately thrown out the window. Between episodes 6 through 21, I can only count around 2 scenes where the three of them even talk. Out of those scenes, I can only really count a few times when Fushiguro and Fugisaki even really did anything. What makes this choice exponentially more insulting is that the final arc of the season goes back to the style of the very early episodes, where the main trio is front and center. However, it doesn’t exactly matter, because it feels like Itadori has grown separately from Fushiguro and Fugisaki. I associate Itadori far more with Toudou, because the show actually puts in at least a little bit of effort to establish their relationship. For Itadori to just suddenly just be best friends with Fushiguro and Fugisaki again makes everything in the last three episodes feel extremely unnatural and remarkably forced. Something instrumental in most stories with a large cast of characters like this is that they have at least some type of character interaction. In many cases like this one, Jujutsu Kaisen just gives up before it even tries to make an effort.

Well if there is one aspect of Jujutsu Kaisen that everybody likes, it has to be the animation. MAPPA must have the touch of the gods, because the animation of every single fight can impress anybody. However, a lot of fights feel like they lack weight to them, because the setup to those fights can be undercooked at best. This is just a personal thing, but I can’t be swayed by good animation if the setup to that point is pretty mediocre at best. In nearly every single fight, I looked at the animation, thought, “Oh that looks cool”, and then proceeded to not care about anything else that happened. The Kyoto Goodwill Event arc perfectly shows this problem. It consists of absolutely incredible animation in every single moment, but the episodes preceding the arc barely did anything to actually set up the characters.

Another aspect involving the general production is the music. The most obvious examples of music are in the OP and EDs. They are criminally incredible. Despite my feelings about the show that they are attached to, I can listen to these songs over and over again. In direct contrast to this, the actual music used in the show is absolutely terrible. This show must have some of the absolute worst music choices for given scenes I have ever seen. Why there are so many scenes with relatively nothing happening that have songs that directly contrast the mood make me feel like that songs from the OST were just placed at random. It feels like I am drowning in a large ocean whenever there is a low stakes scene with this type of music playing in the background.

Jujutsu Kaisen as a series feels very disappointing. What could’ve been a shonen that stands out from the crowd, becomes a directionless mess of a story that barely stands out. It is purely carried by its flashy animation, but it doesn’t really matter, due to the fact that it doesn’t have substantial story or characters to bring out any emotion in that animation. I consistently tried to give this show the benefit of doubt at every moment, but as its flaws grew more and more apparent, it became impossible for me to find much enjoyment in it. Maybe these issues get ironed out in a potential Season 2, but my expectations are already on the floor.