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[SPOILERS]

Movie franchises has become the recent trend in the industry. Following the huge success of Dragon Ball Super : Broly, everyone wants their big (especially shônen) IP to have their own box office hit and Demon Slayer paved the way for entire chunks of the canon story to be adapted in feature length form.

Jujustu Kaisen is no exception. Sung Hoo Park, and his team at MAPPA, comes back with a well-crafted piece of animation that feels more like an 1h30 episode rather than a film on its own. Indeed, many of those type of movies fall into the same pitfall : their movies are indistinguishable ... from their TV show counterpart. This may not be that big of a deal for the rabid fans of those franchises, but for a passionate animation fan such as myself, it is rather disheartening to see the path the animation industry is heading towards.

Nonetheless, Jujutsu Kaisen manages to provide some amazing setpieces, and the avan feels like they tried to put a true cinematographic vision into motion, but it sadly only lasts for about 5 min.
Now it may feel like I hated my time watching the movie, but it was actually quite entertaining.

JJK always had solid writing, it rarely enters stellar writing territory, but it was always competent at presenting interesting plotlines and engrossing fights. In this prequel we follow Yuta Okkotsu, a wimpy but kindhearted highschool boy who’s bound to the spirit of his dead childhood crush by a curse. Before going further, I must note that Megumi Ogata is a wonderful choice for the voice of Yuta, as he bears obvious resemblace to EVA’s Shinji.

The movie is in a bit of a weird spot. It’s a prequel but doesn’t feel like one, moreso like a introductory piece for Yuta. The rest of the cast are pretty much sidelined, their development (and especially backstory) being left for later in the story. This isn’t really a problem for some of them, with Inumaki being more fleshed out in the span of 20 min than his entire contribution in the manga, but for others it becomes quite a handicap to the movie.

Suguru Geto, a racist guru and one of the few S-class exorcists, serves as the main antagonist of the story. Those who’ve read the manga are familiar with his backstory and they have a full grasp of his motivations. But in the movie we get none of that. He appears as shallow both in his writing and his combat capabilities. Even if we know he’s supposed to be one of the best exorcists alive, what we see from him in the movie is pretty lackluster, even going as far as showing him summoning a S-rank curse for it to be blasted 20 seconds later.

The rhythm is also all over the place with the entire movie covering one year in universe. I feel like the story wasn’t suited for restricted format like an one-shot and it does bear glaring flaws in the presentation of its story. The entire evolution of Yuta is being presented with non-stop fastforwards, and the fruits of his labor, his incredible feat of strength against Geto, do not feel earned.

We barely see Yuta and Rika interacting which does hinder the emotional investment one could have in their relationship. Unfortunately, the big reveal surrounding the whole Rika incident comes at the end of the story, which leaves no time for the story to offer a compelling narrative with Yuta’s guilt. It would’ve been a great opportunity to show a new perspective on the whole «weight of one’s heritage» theme (one of JJK’s core ones) but instead we only get a cheap emotional conclusion.

The animation was really good as always. Interesting action setpieces, with dynamic camerawork (especially during Geto’s fight), intense and snappy choreography, courtesy of director Sung Hoo Park’s sense for adrenaline inducing action. Some really cool winks to some of first season’s most memorable scenes (e.g. Gojou’s beatdown of Miguel was very reminiscent of Sukuna’s beatdown), and the avan is still a really cool glimpse of what the film could have been visually with a lenier schedule and a true cinematographic approach to the production of the film.

In the end, Jujust Kaisen 0 is a fairly good movie (following a dismal MHA World Elite Mission), with pleasant character interactions and wonderful action scenes, but suffering heavily from the shallowness of the format which doesn’t enable its material to attain the height of its potential.

Following a pretty underwhelming season 1, Uma Musume returns with an upgraded version in all aspects. As per Cygames’ tradition, their media-mix projects tend to have a strong anime adaptation, serving as both a good advertisement for their mobile games as well as a decent anime on its own. Shingeki no Bahamut and Priconne are well regarded adaptation only because their threshold of quality is well beyond the simple advertisement. Uma Musume is no exception to the rule.

While S1 wasn’t the best looking TV show by any stretch of the imagination, S2 upped the quality ... by a large margin. With less than 3 years between the broadcast of the first and second seasons, Kei Oikawa and his staff had time to present the best product possible. Tomo Namiki returns as director of photography and delivered wonderful compositing work both during more mundane tidbits and dramatic moments. His work on some of P.A Works’ projects was already wonderful (Hanasaku Iroha and GLASSLIP for example), but his contribution on S2 was a welcome upgrade from the lackluster visual presentation of S1.

The animation was fairly decent with some striking character art in key moments, courtesy of chief animation director Satoru Fujimoto and Yousuke Kabashima who delivered some amazing AD work, with episode 12 being the highlight on that front. Races are more exciting than ever with the blend of 3D and 2D models being utilised a bit better, dynamic camerawork sometimes adapting 1:1 shots from their real-life counterpart (e.g. episode 10’s climax race) and some added effects during high stakes races (e.g. episode 8’s showdown). But those effects could have been more present, when compared to the high-octane, insane races from the spinoff manga Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray, S2’s races can feel a bit slow and underwhelming.

Now it’s no surprise that Uma Musume takes direct inspiration from real life horse races. As S1 told the tale of Special Week and Silence Suzuka, S2 puts the spotlight on fellow Spica members Tokai Teio and Mejiro McQueen. While S1 took a classic approach to the sport genre formula, with an up-and-coming prodigy taking a shot at the title of the best horse girl in Japan, S2 is more focused on the hurdles an incredible athlete faces when circumstances outside of his control hinder his achievements.

It could be argued that S1 wasn’t all that happy-go-lucky, but the material was certainly less drama heavy. S2, on the other hand, is filled with dramatic moments and themes surrounding sports as a whole. How can we keep on going when it feels like the world doesn’t want you to succeed? How can we deal with the mental image of ourselves we forged for such a long time, only for it to be shattered in no time? What does it mean to shoulder the responsibility of your family’s lineage of champions and the expectations of both your rival and yourself? All those themes that, while Uma Musume doesn’t go as deep as it could on some of them, are still well-presented and deliver some gut-wrenching and exceptional payoffs.

This is more prevalent in Tokai Teio’s character as she follows the Homeric hero’s journey, taking us through a rollercoaster of emotions and leaving me with nothing else but respect and admiration at the end of it all. So for those of you who’ve been on the fence at the idea of completely replacing main characters, fear not, Tokai Teio and Mejiro McQueen are an amazing pair of protagonists. Their relationship was beautiful and their rivalry was engaging and uplifting, with some iconic quotes that will forever remain engraved in my mind.

But Uma Musume doesn’t hit a home run for all its characters. While some of the side characters get much appreciated focus (mainly Rice Shower and Twin Turbo) , others get sidelined pretty quickly when they could have added more to the narrative, especially characters such as Biwa Hayahide.

While this season was heavier in tone and mood, Kei Oikawa does not let up with his quips. While his directorial work is attuned to character drama (e.g. Oregairu) , his comedic sense is also finely polished. While he already showcased his ability to deliver gags with an excellent comedic timing on the anime adaptation of Hinamatsuri, Uma Musume S2 isn’t without its fair share of running gags. What I found most amusing was the subtle visual gags slowly progressing through an episode or spanning several episodes, and the most focused viewer will surely get rewarded with really fun tidbits (e.g. Special Week’s cake melting in the rain).

In the end, Uma Musume is an excellent adaptation and a stellar sequel correcting most of season 1’s shortcomings, while providing an engaging and empathetic story about an athlete trying to come to terms with her new reality. While the concept of anthropomorphic horse racing girls may seem bizarre to the non-initiated and while season 1 was mediocre, season 2 stands as one of 2021 Winter anime season’s best offerings and 2021 as a whole.