While anime isn’t a newfound category of TV and film, it has grown exceedingly popular in recent years. This could be due to the success of various anime such as ”Attack on Titan,” ”My Hero Academia” and ”Haikyu,” amongst others. One newer anime that has also earned high acclaim is “Jujutsu Kaisen.” The first season ended on March 26.

After being published in 2018, the “Jujutsu Kaisen” manga became popularized after the release of the anime adaptation in October 2020. The anime’s ratings were stellar, leading to the show winning anime of the year at Crunchyroll’s fifth annual anime awards.

“Jujutsu Kaisen” follows the story of Yuji Itadori as he accidentally joins the world of Jujutsu Sorcerers in an attempt to protect society against powerful curses derived from the negative energy from thoughts and feelings. Itadori begins his journey as a typical highschooler and eventually gains the abilities of a powerful curse called Ryomen Sukuna in order to protect those around him. 

Now a threat to the sorcerers and humans, the sorcerer community wants Itaori executed and the highschooler seems oddly resigned to his death, but before his execution, he plans on helping as many people as he can, along with defeating the powerful curse he is now host to. 

Right from the start, the thing that drew me in was the likable nature of the main character, Itadori. Quite often, protagonists are unbearable to me, they almost ruin the show in its entirety, but not “Jujutsu Kaisen.” Despite his morbid fate, Itadori remains good-natured and hilarious throughout the whole season, which is a nice contrast to the dark themes of the show. 

The show successfully combines the dark aspects of humanity with comedy, which is mainly due to the spunky highschoolers that the show revolves around. Besides Itadori, the main trio includes Fushiguro Megumi, a stoic and calculating boy and Kugisaki Nobara, a wonderfully brash and self-confident young woman. The trio all have personalities that complement one another while also allowing their individual ability and personality shine through without being overshadowed. 

Along with the main characters, the supporting characters have no issues becoming fan favorites, which makes the show exciting to watch, even if the main trio aren’t present. The show draws viewers in with intriguing characters, giving them multi-dimensional personalities, making viewers even more crushed when a character dies or gets hurt, which is a sign of good writing. Nothing feels as great and sad as getting attached to a fictional character. 

Everyone has unique abilities that transfer to the animation wonderfully. The fighting scenes are animated smoothly with contrasting colors to bring focus to the different cursed abilities and fighting styles of the characters. Satoru Gojo and Kento Nanami have my favorite scenes in terms of animation. Their powerful abilities on top of the seamless animation are so fun and gets everyone hyped up for the episodes. 

The animation studio, MAPPA has also worked on the popular series, ”Attack on Titan“ and one of my personal favorite anime, “Terror in Resonance.” 

While there has been mainly positive reviews of the anime, some deem the show basic for following typically used troupes such as a trio of heroes being the main characters, powerful mentors and supernatural antagonists, but I think that the show does a fantastic job of making these overused tropes still entertaining. Another aspect of the show I adore is how it doesn’t force romance between Nobara and her male companions. It isn’t a boring case of a love triangle or forcing two of the three characters to end up together. They are able to form their own character arc outside of their friendship. 

As a sucker for good animation and eccentric characters, I was a huge fan of the first season of the show, and since the manga is ongoing my hopes for next season are growing. The animation studio also plans on making a prequel movie of the series before the release of season two, which I have no doubt will be as fun and heart wrenching as its first season.