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Sep 28, 2024
I point to this series as a dictionary definition of failure to stick the landing. Jujutsu Kaisen went from being a series I couldn't wait to read weekly, to something I did out of obligation rather than personal interest. I love the series from the beginning through chapter 236, but after that it feels like there was no plan for ending the series. it felt like every chapter would begin with some new hope for victory only to have it dashed by the end. While this can work, it loses any impact it could have had after the tenth time it happens. part of what
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makes arcs like The Shibuya Incident so compelling is the things they set up. Seeing the characters at such a low point made me want to see how they were going to overcome it. Now that I know the answer I wish I could go back to being in suspense and it makes recommending this series impossible based on my experience with it. I still want to watch the anime and see if the ending can be done better, but I am fully expecting to relive the greatest fall off I have personally seen in a work of fiction.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jul 4, 2024
This series knows exactly what it wants to be, and does a perfect job of being that. The series is incredibly funny, and it uses manga as a medium to create bits that can't be done in any other format. My favorite bit is probably when they take a shortcut over the gap between panels to get to work on time. Continuity is also a surprisingly important part of the series. Some bits are promptly discarded, but many others keep coming back and reward you for your attention to detail. The finale is a payoff of things that came before it in a way
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I wish many modern shonen authors would seek to emulate.
Nick and Lever doesn't feel like a series that would be made by a master of something, but Miyata Kyougorou shows they know their shit through this series.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Apr 4, 2024
Skip season 2 if you are not here for an oppressively bleak series. This is really good. It is such a natural continuation of what season one established Jujutsu Kaisen to be. It really feels like everyone involved in the production of this season was putting everything they have into making this season an absolute banger. It's truly a shame that MAPPA treated their animators they way that they did in the production of this season because it is so good even with the problems that caused.
This season is split into two arcs. Hidden Inventory is the first, and it's pretty good. It's really held
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up by how likable the characters are, and creates a great foundation that leads into the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 movie, and the Shibuya Incident arc. Hidden Incentory is great from a technical standpoint, but it lacks sauce in my opinion. There isn't anything incredible about it that makes me love it on a deeper level.
Then you get to the Shibuya Incident, and this arc is a banger from the op. SPECIALZ is one of my favorite anime openings ever. The song and the sequence work in perfect harmony to set the tone. It is moody and sullen. With the opening of every episode you are getting a warning: things are going to be bad. And Shibuya delivers. Characters in this arc are changed forever. Many characters die in this arc, and the survivors are left scarred forever.
The voice performances are somehow better than they were in season one. I singled out Gojo and Sukuna's voice actors then, and this season has too many incredible performances for me to single out a few. The fights are gorgeous once again. Some of them have unfinished rendering because MAPPA was overworking their animators and setting deadlines that they could not meet with the quality their animators wanted - which is a prime example of why better labor rights are needed in the anime industry. However, they were still incredible to watch, and they have redone many of these scenes for the blue ray release of season 2, and they look incredible from what I have seen.
In my review of season one, I talked about the theme of institutional failure, and this is the arc where this comes to the forefront. Last season showed us that jujutsu society isn't all that, and it kinda sucks. Shibuya shows us that it cannot solve the problem. The jujutsu establishment is more interested in preserving itself than solving the issues curses pose. It is because of this that they are unequipped to address the disaster curses. It is incredibly grimdark, and while it will not be for everyone, I thoroughly enjoyed this ride. I cannot wait for Culling Game to get animated because those fights should be incredible when brought to animation. I just hope MAPPA quits abusing their employees so I can justify watching it myself.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Mar 22, 2024
Season one of Jujutsu Kaisen is a superb introduction to the series. It nails the auditory and visual elements of the series to such a degree that it is easy to overlook the actual plot and characters those components serve. The only reason to avoid this story so far is if you can't handle more grimdark settings. While this season has bleak moments, it pales in comparison to what is waiting in the later arcs.
When I give a series a ten, it's because it does something perfectly for me. Jujutsu Kaisen is an example of perfect casting. The Japanese voice cast for this series is
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so fucking good. In particular, Yuichi Nakamura as Gojo and Junichi Suwabe as Sukuna are incredible in bringing their characters to life. They play characters who see themselves as the strongest, and they bring that cockiness to life in a way that transcends the language barrier. The rest of the cast is also incredible, but these two steal the show for me in this season.
On top of the voice acting, MAPPA does an incredible job with the fight scenes. The movement is incredible! Cursed techniques come to life in a way that the manga can only dream of. The fights are so good that it's kind of a shame because I have seen so many people say that the fights are all this show has to offer.
On top of the fights, Jujutsu Kaisen has a genuinely fascinating story about institutional corruption and failure and the struggle to finding meaning in a hopeless world. Season one of Jujutsu Kaisen does a really good job of setting these themes up. Yuji becomes a sorcerer not really knowing what he's in for. He wants to save people, or at least help them have decent deaths, but this season repeatedly tests him on that by showing him how much easier said than done that goal is and Yuji changes as a result of it. Yuji feels like one of the most underrated characters when it comes to the depth of his writing, and it is so incredibly disappointing.
Beyond the characters, the world is genuinely fascinating. Jujutsu society isn't some fantastic world you want to enter; it's rotten to the core. The show reveals this explicitly through Gojo basically saying he became a teacher to lead a revolution, but it's also more implied through things like Maki's rank. Jujutsu society is a caramel onion. You could look at it and think it's sweet, but quickly learn that this couldn't be further from the truth when you bite into it, and the later arcs can't wait to rip it open and show that things are worse than you ever imagined.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Mar 11, 2024
Bocchi the Rock is probably the best comedy anime I have watched. It's portrayal of social anxiety is so over the top I couldn't help laughing out loud regularly as I made my way through it. The animators switch styles - most often for her anxiety episodes, and it works so well for driving the comedy home. There is a bit where they use an unfinished 3D render of Bocchi to drive home her anxiety about things going wrong that is one of my favorite bits in a series ever.
While the comedy is the show's greatest strength in my opinion, the emotional stuff is great
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too. All the members of Kessoku band have unique dynamics with each other that really help me get invested in them. The way they interact with Bocchi and each other really distinguishes them from each other and makes them feel like their own characters instead of extras who only exist in service of Bocchi's arc. It got me invested in them even when their motives may have felt weak or ambiguously defined. I don't remember Ryo having a strong motivation that the series points out, but we can see that she is clearly a fan of music, and rock in particular. Kita starts out wanting to get closer to Ryo because of her crush, but as she spends more time with them it feels like she stays because she genuinely wants to be there.
Bocchi's arc is particularly compelling to me. As someone who experiences no shortage of self doubt and struggles to socialize with strangers, I loved seeing her come out of her shell more as she became more sure of her own skills. Hobbies have been the easiest way for me to overcome my own social ineptitude, so I am a sucker for stories that show others being able to do the same. While Bocchi's issues are quite overplayed for comedy, I still love this series and highly highly recommend it to anyone who likes more slice of life stuff and good rock music.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Mar 5, 2024
This series is carried by its big dick energy. The narrative feels very messy, but it's hard to be bothered by it in the moment because every fight just goes so hard. The series doesn't get good until the Soul Society arc begins, and unfortunately it never quite reaches the same heights after this arc. Soul Society delivers on everything I want from a series. The stakes are high. You want to see the good guys win. There is a really good twist that comes at the end of it. If you don't know anything about Bleach before starting this series, try to keep it
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that way because this twist turns everything you thought you knew in Soul Society on its head. Characters become stronger, and it feels earned. Every now and then something completely comes out of a character's ass, but it feels more reasonable in this arc than it will later in the series.
While I still enjoy the Arrancar arc, it feels much less competent than Soul Society. The enemy being fought is established as incredibly powerful, and it seems like they should outclass the protagonists pretty handily. Fortunately for the good guys, Kubo seemingly forgets that the Arrancars are supposed to be extremely powerful, and the good guys end up on equal footing without any explanation that I recall. The twist here is much less satisfying. Rather than setting up new directions for the story to go in, this twist helps resolve the arc. It is justified retroactively, but there is not significant reason to suspect it will develop the way it does until after the fact. So much more tension would have been present if it had been foreshadowed better since you would be second guessing everything you see until you finally get the reveal that answers your question. Despite the flaws with this arc, I still enjoyed the ride.
Bleach would probably be an 8 for me if it had ended with the Arrancar arc. Unfortunately we get Lost Agent and Thousand Year Blood War. Lost Agent walks back some developments of the Arrancar arc, and it really undermines the decisions made there. If I ever decide to reread it, moments just won't hit as hard because I know that nothing is truly being lost there. Lost Agent expands the world in a way that could be interesting, but feels like its abandoned too soon for the arc to leave a long impact on me. And then we come to the arc that makes this series a 6.
Thousand Year Blood War is the arc that made me realize the big issues I have outlined with this series up til this point. The bad guys overpower the good guys so dramatically at the beginning of this arc that it is inconceivable the good guys will win. However, this all changes through the power of asspulls. I accept this in one and a half cases. Kenpachi solving every problem by hitting it harder is never not fun for me, and Kisuke having a plan for everything feels right for his character, but there are a few solutions he brings that just didn't quite work for me. I can't really identify one reason why this is, but it just be like that sometimes. This also features a twist that is introduced too late to be effective for me. Once again, it contributes to the protagonists winning instead of setting up new room for the narrative to explore. If we had reason to suspect things would play out that way sooner, it would be much more effective, but it doesn't. To give some credit this is set up sooner than it was in the Arrancar arc, but it still comes too late for my liking.
The series is a good time. If you just wanna watch some hype fight scenes, this series will deliver in spades. If narrative and worldbuilding are what you care most about, this series might not land as well. I know people who this series worked for, but it just didn't quite deliver on what I wanted. I still recommend checking it out, but there is definitely a different version of this story I would have liked much better.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 5, 2024
This movie has a pretty good premise. The 1A kids getting hands on hero work experience by helping a smaller island community is kinda brilliant. The total lack of oversight by any pro heroes doesn't make the most sense since the provisional licenses they have are to do hero work with direct supervision from pro heroes, but I can overlook that. The kids needing to protect a small island after things go wrong during an internship has so much promise, and this film completely squanders that potential. If this film could be redone by a team with more talent, time, or money I would gladly
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see it. As is however, this is quire possibly My Hero Academia at its worst.
One of the biggest issues I run into with anime movie tie ins is that they aren't canon. It often leaves them feeling out of place within the broader narrative it exists in, and/or forces the movie to leave the status quo unchanged. When the entire story of the film just returns to where it was at the beginning, it leaves the time spent following that journey feeling pointless. The climax of this film involves Deku transferring One For All to Bakugo. It is a huge thing for Deku given what that power means to him. But this can't be left in place. So how does the film reconcile a decision that completely changes the entire trajectory of My Hero Academia's narrative? One For All decides it doesn't want to transfer, and Bakugo gets amnesia so he forgets that it even happened.
This might have been more forgivable if the film had at least been competently paced, but you feel how long this film is. It reaches the climax roughly halfway through the run time. The rest of it is just a drawn out slug fest of all the 1A kids fighting 9 and his lackeys. While there were some cool moments within this, they aren't nearly enough to keep me engaged, so I felt just like Deku waking from a coma when the movie decided it had run for long enough.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Feb 29, 2024
I want to like this series because I enjoyed the pre time skip stuff as a kid, and know lots of people who love it, but this series just doesn't work for me. Any time it began to move in a direction that was interesting to me, it ended and went back to stuff I do not care for. The greatest strength of this series is the fights. Kishimoto draws them very well; I can follow fights between panels without rereading them 5 times, and this is not a common experience when I read black and white manga. But fights are among the least important
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things to me when reading a manga. I care much more about the world, narrative, and characters when I read, and Naruto leaves lots of room to be desired in these areas.
Naruto's world is half baked. We don't get to spend much time in villages outside of the Leaf Village, and this makes the world feel samey. The Village Hidden in the Sand and The Village Hidden in the Rain are the two times we get a decent look at other ninja villages, but we don't get to explore them as locations in depth. They are really cool set pieces, but without learning about them as civilizations, they never feel like more than set pieces. This would be more acceptable if the conflict between the villages weren't an important plot point, but it is. Instead of seeing the differences between the villages that lead them to butting heads historically and currently, we are just told that they don't like each other for vague reasons like power.
Additionally, the timeline feels incredibly jumbled. The villages feel like these very old institutions that have existed for generations. In actuality, they can't be much more than 50 years old. It just feels wrong. Characters feel mythologized in a way that implies they've been dead for generations and had time for their lives and accomplishments to be exaggerated, but they were alive within the lifetime of what should be a third of the population or something. The story Naruto is trying to tell wouldn't be hurt if the history of these villages were 200 years old instead of what they actually are, but they aren't. This often left me feeling confused since things just felt wrong.
The narrative of this story just does not work for me either. Naruto is about a social outcast becoming accepted by his community. This has a lot of potential, but it doesn't work for me. Naruto feels like he gets over his outcast status pretty quickly. He's bullied by his classmates, but this stopped being something I really felt after the land of waves. His peers still like to give him shit, but they'll still work with him, and it feels like there is a level of mutual respect. Without getting to see him interact with normal people in the village, it is easy to forget that people are supposed to hate him for reasons beyond his control. When Naruto was starting to feel conflicted about his newfound acceptance following the Pain arc, it felt out of place. I didn't really get why he was so conflicted because I wasn't really buying his status as a social outcast.
There are the additional issues like the late inclusion of new lore about the tailed beasts, Kaguya, the nature of chakra, and the sage of six paths. They all introduce big concepts late into the series without significant time to explore them in an interesting way. Naruto and Sasuke being the reincarnations of the Sage of Six Paths sons wasn't a satisfying or interesting twist. It also further undermined the idea that Naruto was someone who came from nothing, although his extra chakra reserves from his Uzumaki heritage, and being the son of one of the most powerful ninjas of all time had already started that. Making his power partially resultant from winning the genetic lottery like he did really undermines earlier themes like his battle with Neji, but I was already pretty checked out of the series by that point, so it didn't harm my experience too severely.
The characters just don't work for me. Our core trio is probably my least favorite in all of shonen. Sakura is barely a character. She lacks any sense of agency as all her decisions are made because she wants to impress a man in her life - this is a pretty universal issue within Naruto's female cast. Sakura is just particularly egregious because she's a main character.
Naruto was really annoying to me. He gets the most screen time, and doesn't have a strong regular supporting cast to make up for his traits that I find annoying. He uses a limited number of simple jutsu to overcome opponents more skilled than himself, which I tend to like, but it just as often feels like he's trying the same thing over and over again until he overpowers them with the fact that he has functionally infinite chakra reserves.
Sasuke leans into the edgy badass archetype, which I am typically a sucker for, but he doesn't work for me. It feels like he never gets to let his skill speak for itself. The only fights I can say he unambiguously wins are against Haku in the land of waves, and against Orochimaru right after the time skip, and Danzo after the five kage summit. Haku was well done. Orochimaru was actively dying at the time of their battle. I forgot he fought Danzo until I was writing this review, so while I didn't care for the fight, it is a legitimate win for Sasuke. Besides that, he loses or draws every fight he gets in after the time skip unless his opponent deliberately loses. It makes it impossible for me to take him seriously when his there is such a disconnect between what the series insists is the case and what we see from him.
there were characters I liked - Shikamaru, Jiraiya, and Rock Lee to name a few, but they don't get enough time for my liking. It feels like as soon as their stories get interesting, they leave the story. Jiraiya was especially bad in this regard. We only see him as this tragic mentor figure after he dies. If we had learned about his previous work and the prophecy around him before he died, it would have made his death hit so much harder. As it happens though, it feels like his story ends as soon as it gets good. The same is true of the other characters I liked. They tend to get less development than Jiraiya, and they never get to coma back and grow more after those arcs, which leaves me precious little to latch onto for characters in this series.
Maybe I would have enjoyed Naruto more if I hadn't been reading it as a way to pass the time while One Piece was on break. Maybe I would have been less bothered by the things it does poorly if I wasn't coming off a series that I consider the gold standard in those areas. Nonetheless I feel like this series does nothing exceptionally. If you want deep characters, world, and a compelling narrative, read One Piece or Frieren. If you want kickass fights, Bleach or Jujutsu Kaisen will serve you better there as well.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Aug 10, 2023
My Hero Academia was my favorite anime/manga when I was newer to the mediums. It incorporated elements with strong appeal to my tastes. I am a sucker for characters who overcome some inherent disadvantage they have by thinking outside the box, and cutesy low stakes slice of life stuff. Both of these are staples of the early series, and led me to falling in love with the characters. As I've read more though, three major cracks have become too noticeable for me to enjoy this story like I used to.
My first major complaint is that the author is good at introducing likeable characters, but fails
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to keep them relevant and interesting to the story after they complete their first character arc. Rather than characters overcoming new obstacles as the series advances, old characters fade into the background while we are told to care about different classmates who will ultimately meet the same fate. This could work in a different series where characters can rotate in and out of the main cast, but MHA is not one of these series. We still see characters once promised to be important who will do nothing significant or interesting for the remainder of the narrative.
The second major issue I have is the timeline and competence of pro heroes. Early on pros are established to be considerably more competent than the main cast. They are the end goal that the characters are trying to reach, and this makes sense given the premise of the series. However, as MHA progresses pro heroes start feeling more like clowns who have no right to the title of pro. While I understand the need to show our characters growing, the speed at which they grow feels entirely too rushed when looking at the timeline of the series. The growth these characters have undergone would feel much more natural to me if if the major arcs occurred over multiple school years instead of just one.
My final issue, and the one that got me to drop MHA for a time, is the author's habit of sexualizing minors. Any series whose female cast rarely feel like more than eye candy annoys me, but the fact that these characters are all 15-16 ish years old made me too uncomfortable to continue past the chapter cover of 368. I only picked it back up after my sister begged me because she needed someone to talk about the new chapters with.
To add some thoughts now that the series has ended, Horikoshi really borks the pacing towards the end. It feels simultaneously rushed and dragged out. Character moments will play out way too quickly to feel satisfying, and the fights felt like they were going on for too many chapters. I particularly hated one of the plot developments because it completely robs an important character of agency in a way that feels so inappropriate for the series. There is an argument to be made about it tying into the themes of the series, but the way it undermines what came before makes it fall so flat. The last chapter was pretty good. It had a lot that I loved as a send off to the series, but it too runs into the issue of feeling like it undercuts an earlier plot point that was crucial to the growth of a character in a way that just gives me the ick.
My Hero is so frustrating to me because I know this series could have been something amazing. Horikoshi is an incredible artist, but his writing ultimately turned this series into a whole weaker than the sum of its parts. I can understand why someone would plan on reading this series, but I would put it lower on the priority list if you do.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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