Jujutsu Kaisen season 2, anime is quite different to watch and, to be honest, great among its contemporary shonen animes.
As you may know, the first season of Jujutsu Kaisen got quite a bit of traction from its viewers but wasn’t much different from any normal shonen anime just had its fair share of darkness.
But as for the second season, it’s a different story, it’s a great watch indeed.
As for the reason for it being so great, we will discuss some points below.
Table of Contents
Dedicating 5 Entire Episodes For Past Story Wasn’t Overkill In Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 is very different from its predecessor, even different from any other contemporary shonen anime by the way it starts.
This installment of the Jujutsu Kaisen series doesn’t start right off the bat, where the story of the first season last left off.
The second season’s story starts with a story of the past before even the first season’s story takes place.
How much of the past you ask, well if you watched it you know, but if you didn’t, let me tell you.
The story is about Gojo’s school days, specifically his junior years.
The entire five episodes are dedicated to past stories, the first four episodes fall under the Hidden Inventory Arc, which is special.
Special, as in how?
Well, this first arc of Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 sets the origins right.
As we know and saw in Jujutsu Kaisen 0, the movie, Geto Suguru, the great antagonist was a batchmate of Gojo Satoru.
What we didn’t know was, how Geto turned out like that, I mean a full-fledged negative character.
The first four episodes revolve around the story of the reason that led to the transformation of the character called Geto Suguru from the social norm of good to the worse in the fifth episode called “Premature Death”.
Besides Geto Suguru, changes in Gojo Satoru were also shown in great detail.
All those changes, we won’t discuss here.
To know about those, you can check my blog posts on Hidden Inventory Arc and the episode Premature Death.
So, those 5 episodes were not overkill to show as they were important to start the real story with some context.
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Focuses On All Characters Equally
Different from most of the other contemporary shonen anime even from the first season of Jujutsu Kaisen, Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 treats its characters very differently.
Generally, in most of the other shonen anime, even in the first season mainly major characters like Itadori Yuji, Fushiguro Megumi, Kugisaki Nobara, and Gojo Satoru were of main focus.
Other characters were described in a way that they may remain at the back of your head but will not leave a mark on your mind.
But in this season, some of the characters are incorporated into the story in such a way that they will make you think about the story more than some individual characters in particular.
There, some important characters were introduced, who didn’t have a chance to appear in the previous season.
Some of those characters were, Zen’in Naobito, the elder of the Zen’in family, Kusakabe Atsuya, a teacher in the second year of Tokyo Jujutsu High, and Ino Takuma, a close assistant of Nanami Kento.
The character debut of Ino Takuma made a place of its own in the entire season, whereas the explosiveness of the character Zen’in Naobito is quite memorable including his jutsu.
Some previously shown characters like Choso, Nanami Kento, and Jogo, are shown with different character depths which wasn’t shown in the previous season.
The character Choso whom we could only catch a glimpse of in season 1, is presented to be a quite dynamic character in Jujutsu Kaisen season 2.
Every action has its repercussions, is have been made clear in This season of Jujutsu kaisen.
None of the characters, were without it, be it some major characters or other important characters.
The difference in strength is portrayed very realistically here, none of the characters become magically strong due to their unwavering conviction, here(except of course Yuji/Sukuna).
It started, from the moment when Mechamaru first retaliated against Mahito and thought about beating him, which was unsuccessful, as Mahito was far too strong.
Zen’in Maki and Zen’in Naobito were also burned to a crisp by Jogo after they fought with Dagon.
There is the matter with Nanami Kento in Jujutsu Kaisen season 2, his death at the hands of Mahito would have been unexpected if there had been some plot armor, but this story doesn’t seem to possess that.
Mahito also did away with Kugisaki when she went chasing him.
No, Yuji or Megumi didn’t magically appear to save her.
All in all, Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 doesn’t treat any of its characters with bias but equally and all of them had their fair share of misfortune in store for them.
Jujutsu kaisen Season 2 Have An Differnt Kind Of Ending
In other shonen anime, at the end of each arc or season, it is generally seen, that protagonist, and tritagonist, working together towards a goal.
They achieve that goal by finally overcoming some obstacles, even though, sometimes some upcoming obstacles are shown at the end.
However, Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 is entirely different in that regard.
The protagonist(Yuji) here doesn’t save a lot of people but is forced to watch them perish as he has nothing to do.
After he recovers from his self-loathing mode, he doesn’t turn into a positive, tomorrow-will-be-bright kind of guy to fight the antagonist.
He becomes a ruthless and cold killer, which is quite logical, given the circumstances, if you ask me.
The antagonist was also not like those typical ones, who are cool until death, Mahito also had a fear of death, especially after watching Yuji turn into a cold killer.
At first, it may seem like, it’s going to have the same kind of ending as other shonen anime after Todo and Yuji teamed up against Mahito, but soon that changed into another kind of ending after Geto Suguru turned up.
The ending was far from a positive one, where Japan, especially Tokyo became isolated, and heroes became hunted as perpetrators, and curses started running rampant.
This kind of ending makes the series more interesting to watch than its other contemporary counterparts, even from its first season.
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Gives Some Perspective To Its First Season
The first season of Jujutsu Kaisen showed an abnormally strong Boy Itadori Yuji getting involved deeply in the world of curses by consuming a cursed object called Sukuna’s finger, but didn’t tell the repercussions.
It only shows him to exorcise curses but not the extremity of the curses.
Whereas, Jujutsu Kaisen season 2, tells a story of how he and his surroundings had to pay the price for his actions, whether bad or worse.
It also shows Yuji faces some real threats that are worthy of mention, which tests his character in the face of danger.
Showing the origin of Geto Suguru was also similar to providing clarity on his terrorist activity in season 1.
In short, Jujutsu Kaisen season 2, gives a different perspective to the simple story of exorcising the curse of the first season thus making it so different from other contemporary shonen anime.
That is the reason, this season of Jujutsu Kaisen is so Great to watch among others.