Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2: Unveiling New Surprises or Just a Marketing Stunt? Our Episode 1 Impressions

News culture Jujutsu Kaisen: Season 2 promises something new. Just a marketing stunt? Our impressions after episode 1

Jujutsu Kaisen is back in force: a unanimous start to season 2!

The wait is finally over! For all fans of Jujutsu Kaisen and fans of the animated version produced by MAPPA, the sound of deliverance sounded yesterday, July 6, around 7 p.m. on Crunchyroll, after more than two years of impatience. It must be said that the first season had won all the votes and that the prospect of adapting the most popular arcs of the manga with new seasons only fueled the excitement of readers and spectators. You can also savor the new opening of season 2 below.

In short, yesterday Jujutsu Kaisen launched its season 2 by starting the arc Hidden Treasure and Premature Death, a series of flashbacks to the past of Gojo Satoru — one of the most beloved characters, if not the most! — and on the missions he performs as a student of Jujutsu High School with Geto Suguru and Shoko Ieiri. On the side of social networks, this cover of the anime seems to be unanimous. There is no shortage of superlatives and we even underline the desire of the MAPPA studio (The attack of the Titans, Chainsaw Man, Vinland Saga (S2)) to sublimate Akutami Gege’s black and white penciled plates. However, did the animators really put their acclaimed paw on this first episode? Yes, there are indeed some differences and here they are!

More than ten minutes of new scenes, the MAPPA studio delights us with the launch of season 2

Readers will have already experienced this. Sometimes Akutami Gege kicks off his chapters a bit point blank, and this arc Hidden Treasure and Premature Death is no exception to the rule. To overcome this, the MAPPA studio has decided to put some form into it. In Chapter 65, Iori Utahime and Mei Mei are stranded in a mansion due to the spell of a powerful plague that has taken up residence there, only to be quickly rescued by the intervention of Gojo and Geto. Here, the beginning of season 2 takes the time, for almost half of the episode, to extrapolate the course of this mission and to animate the adventures of the Utahime-Mei duo, on the verge of extricating themselves from this quagmire. All of this, of course, by highlighting the animation techniques that won over the spectators. And we can clearly say that the work on the anime Chainsaw Man is felt in the beginnings of this season 2!

Transforming six boards into ten minutes of animation: the MAPPA studio clearly decided to delight the fans and did not lie when talking about unseen scenes ! Beyond that, the changes, compared to the manga – here, episode 1 adapts chapters 65 and 66 – are not obvious. What particularly jumped out at us, it’s a scene in particular that takes place during chapter 65. Good comrades, Gojo and Geto can sometimes oppose on certain subjects: in the end, what was a small confusion in a classroom was relocated… on a basketball court. It did not fail to make fans react (positively) on social networks, and it’s a nice wink from MAPPA since we know that basketball is a particularly popular sport in Japan. (Slam Dunk, Kuroko’s Basket, Dream Team, Deep 3). No, really, MAPPA does and has fun with this very first episode of Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 and it only bodes well (and something new) for the future !