By Cathy Li

Image credit: Pixabay user TRIFEX.

Jujutsu Kaisen, a twenty-five episode shonen Japanese anime series, won the Crunchyroll 2021 Anime of the Year Award. Compared to previous years’ winners, such as Made in Abyss or Devilman Crybaby, views on Jujutsu Kaisen winning the award vary among fans.

From the very first episode, Jujutsu Kaisen isn’t much different than a typical shonen anime. A hot-blooded teenager saves his friends but also becomes a host to an ancient, powerful being. Just from the plot, I thought this anime was a typical shonen, and after the first episode, I decided to drop this show for a few weeks.

Indeed, the shonen stereotypes in this anime scream out to me: exaggerated to a point of almost being irritating and annoying; the main protagonist having some sort of secret or special talent from the start; and, so common to a point of obnoxity, always screaming out the name of the attack.

However, one thing kept me intrigued: the fight scene at the end of the first episode. The style had a dark overarching theme that overshadowed the curses that appear. When the fight scene happened, the cuts were clean and fluid, with camera views from all different angles that thoroughly depicted the shake during an earthquake.

One could debate about the cliché beginning, but there’s one thing that is indubitably original: the creation of the Jujutsu world. “Jujutsu” translates to “sorcery” from the Japanese, and the author created a world where curse division artists train to fight against curses. The shows authors created an entirely new world. 

As the show progressed, my opinion of the anime changed: The scenes are top-notch anime quality, with perfect transitions and high attention to details that is less apparent in similar shonen shows, such as One Punch Man and Naruto. One has to agree that anime production company MAPPA Studios, the creators of Jujutsu Kaisen, has really poured in the money. 

The show has plenty of fans. One commenter on the website Crunchyroll said, “The best of [shonen] have solid and fluid animation, epic fight scenes, awesome openings, quirky dialogue, easy to follow plot, entertaining characters with exaggerated but fun expressions, etc. In just one episode, JUJUTSU KAISEN showed all those qualities indicating we might be witnessing the next hit shonen.”

Compared to Naruto or One Piece, where there are 1000 episodes and many filler episodes, I think that Jujutsu Kaisen’s soaring popularity from the start is for a reason. I actually thought the first few episodes were too basic, but the anime quality made up for it. In fact, I don’t think I have seen a better quality than this one.

However, as beautiful and artful the fight scenes are, one issue from any shonen anime show is lack of character depth: everyone exists to serve the main character. Itadori Yuji’s grandpa only serves as an emotional trigger to prompt the main character. Compared to previous Anime of the Year winners, such as Devilman Crybaby, the basic plot in Jujutsu Kaisen is an unfortunate weakness.