The most average shounen out there. Does nothing wrong nor anything exceptionally well.

Gonna put a spoiler warning, if you're reading a review, you should expect spoilers, but just in case someone is trying to decide whether or not to watch the show, this probably isn't the review you wanna read. If you are debating on watching the show, you can read my general overview and story section (If you don't mind being a bit spoiled on My Hero Academia too) as they don't provide many spoilers and are more broad, just don't go any further.

So it's been about two months since I watched JJK. Reason being is I wanted to let it settle and really think about the show as it is mainstream meaning there are more people looking to watch it as well as casual viewers who see pretty animation and think that equals a good show. I do want to clarify, I'm not one of those people who bash on people who love amazing animation, I do too. It's the only reason I rate Demon Slayer season 2 so highly. But if a show is trying to be something more than just flashy fights (unlike Demon Slayer 2), then I just see good animation as a bonus to a show, I mainly care about the story and characters. I want to break down these aspects without ranting too much.

General Overview:
Okay, so starting off. Jujutsu Kaisen is the most basic and average shounen I have ever watched. It does nothing great nor horribly wrong either. Except animation, this show's animation is amazing. The story is as basic as can be, the characters are lacking for the most part, the OST besides the OP and ED is unmemorable, etc... I think this show is perfect for casual viewers or people looking to get into anime. It can still be enjoyed by long term anime fans of course, but I think it will have a much harder time distinguishing itself from other shounens for that crowd. And I will get into what two other animes/mangas JJK reminds me of the most. JJK wears it's influences on it's sleeve and doesn't go out of it's way to create something new or exciting. It's just using every shounen cliche in the book which is acceptable but makes for a very predictable experience.

Story: Jujutsu Kaisen is My Hero Academia Seasons 1 and 2 mixed with Chainsaw Man's main premise. As per shounen fashion, a young adult, Itadori Yuuji, is thrust into a new world where he must fight curses after gaining a new power. He is taken under the wing of the strongest Jujutsu Sorcerer there is, Gojo. He undergoes a little training arc while the villains plot their scheme and then returns for a tournament arc where it is attacked by villains. See what I mean by it's My Hero? Deku gains power, trains with All Might, while training, is attacked, then season 2 is the tournament arc. It's essentially the same thing. And how is JJK similar to Chainsaw Man? In JJK, they must gather Sukuna's fingers, in Chainsaw Man, they must gather the fragments of the Gun Devil to eventually hunt it down and kill it. Same premise. There is really nothing interesting or new here, it's just passable. 5/10. With season 2 inevitably on the way, I hope they try something new next season.

Characters: They're robots. The main trio just don't work well together, Fugishuro is given SO much screen time to develop but barely does and when he gains a new power... it's an elephant... next. Okay, fine. He got the most development but still by the end of it, he still feels stale to me. He isn't interesting. Nobara exists to be sucked into portals during fights and then saved. Except during the tournament and final fight where she's quite cool. Character wise, I feel like she bounces all over the place. Is she super serious? Is she goofy and laid back? She doesn't have a clear character and just kind of flip flops to match the situation. Itadori is a basic protagonist trying SO hard to become his own character. There are times where he's unique and feels fresh but then goes back to being the most basic character you can imagine for a shounen.

For other characters, Gojo sucks. Unpopular opinion. Goofy overpowered character who takes on a mentor role. Where have we seen this before? Like 80% of shounens or even other genres, it's a common character trope. The problem with these types of characters is that they suck all tension out of fights as they are just clearly the strongest and no villain stands a chance so it's hard to get invested. Nanami is cool, just not given enough time to become anything more, he serves his purpose then disappears. Maki is good but again, doesn't do a whole lot. She's played up as a badass which is fine, but as a character, her rivalry with her sister feels so cliched and she suffers for it.

My favorite three characters in this show were Miwa, Todo, and Sukuna. Sukuna is not a good character, he's just a complete jerk and I found him funny due to that. Todo is Gojo, aka OP, but not so much that his presence removes all tension from the scene. He also has his own motives and doesn't just do what he's told such as in the tournament arc where the grandpa tells them to kill Itadori. Miwa is the same way, but weak instead of OP. Instead of just going along with the plan to kill Itadori, she's too weak to fight against the idea, but at least we hear her inner dialogue and see that she's reluctant to do so.

The rest of the characters fail to stand out in any meaningful way. Even the villains. Mahito just kinda exists and serves his purpose... I guess. Mahito's a pretty bad villain if you ask me. And then there's Junpei. Who genuinely believed he was gonna survive? I see people everywhere saying they were shocked by his death. I've seen that trope of innocent character gets with villain, villains eventually backstabs character and says they were "curious" or using them for an experiment to try and create a sad scene that forces the MC to develop too many times. Junpei by the end felt like such a worthless character. Characters as a whole: 3 or 4/10.

Animation: Nothing really to say, it's amazing. Mappa knocks it out the park here. 10/10

OST: The OPs are great and the EDs are just... okay. That's personal preference of course, I just don't like that genre of music. The other songs in the show, I remember none of. Except the final fight song that had lyrics, that song was great and really elevated an already pretty cool fight even more. But the show's OST as a whole: 5/10. The two OPs, the first ED, and the final fight song are the only songs worth mentioning.

Misc: Just a random category where I want to say that the power system in JJK is great. It's very grounded and believable compared to other shounens.

Conclusion: JJK is just okay. I'll give it extra points for the animation. The story was just far too basic and the characters just lacked any personality or compatibility. Nothing in this show stood out. I switch my scores on this show pretty often, but it's usually at highest a 6.5 and lowest a 5/10.