Jujutsu KaisenSeason 3 has a big problem ahead, but Jojo's Bizarre Adventure showed how this can be overcome. Jujutsu KaisenThe manga and anime have already been praised. It's almost redundant to say that the anime will make the manga more accessible and digestible, because that's usually the case. To that end, I wrote the book (or, technically, the article) about why it's a great idea to read the Jujutsu Kaisen manga instead of waiting for the adaptation. Jujutsu Kaisen It's phenomenal as it is, in every way.
But it could be better. There's one major problem that a lot of battle shōnen have in common – and I can't help but worry that it hurt the expectation of Jujutsu Kaisenupcoming third season. Things in Jujutsu KaisenAnime is at a vital moment: Jujutsu Kaisen 0 centerpiece Yuta Okkotsu has just been tasked with executing Yuji, all of Jujutsu High's friends are either dead or hopelessly in the trenches, and worst of all, Gojo is in The Cube. The upcoming season will probably be slower, but I think fans should be excited for what's to come.
The selection game arc mostly consists of fights – for better and for worse
The third season of Jujutsu Kaisen will be very intense in combat
The cornerstone of Jujutsu KaisenThe next season will be the Culling Game arc. Its premise is that in order for him to achieve his goal of realizing the “full potential” of cursed energy beyond sorcerers and cursed spirits, Kenjaku begins a ritual called the Slaughter Game. The idea is that different districts are established and everyone within them becomes a player in a deadly game. The arch is home to some of the Jujutsu Kaisenbest fights.
It sounds exciting in theory, and MAPPA has had no problems in the past taking Jujutsu Kaisenfights and extracting every last drop of enthusiasm from them. The problem is the structure of the Culling Game arc. Despite having fantastic fights, the Culling Game arc gained an average reputation with Jujutsu Kaisenfans. Because the fights are mostly disconnected and many new characters are introduced, the arc can feel like it's dragging – at worst, loaded with filler. I have a hunch, though, that this is just something that comes with the territory of the manga format, and that Jujutsu KaisenThe third season will be much better than some fans can imagine.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and the Problem with Battle Manga
Battle manga fight due to an important problem: reading (how, actually)
Battle-centric stories have gone hand in hand with manga since the early days of modern comics, more or less. The problem is that battle manga tend to suffer terribly from pacing, by nature. In some ways, battle manga present unique advantages: in a manga format where things are still on the page, internal soliloquies about a tactical decision can make a lot more sense than their animated counterparts, where asides can seem unnaturally long. in the heat of battle. battle.
Ultimately, though, the battles are still stuck on the page. The fluidity and natural progression of battle can be somewhat lost in this format – not to mention the clarity of what is being portrayed. If you've ever tried to capture a good freeze frame of a quick event, you'll know what I mean. Think of a skateboard kickflip: in motion, it looks sick. Trying to capture a still image is extremely difficult, especially because a kickflip at many points also looks like an ollie, a heelflip and any other series of tricks. The issue is that IIt's hard to distinguish things that should be moving.
Even if someone is exceptionally skilled at interpreting manga panels, they will still look much less impressive – and the interpretation of the story may suffer as a result. JoJo gave me two main examples of this. One of them is the difference that color can make in this interpretation process. When I first read Jojolionit was in black and white – I didn't like the paper and would say for years that it was overrated. A few months ago, however, I started rereading it – this time, the colored version. The difference in definition and greater clarity in what was portrayed made all the difference, and the piece quickly became one of my favorites.
The other is more relevant: Stone Ocean. I was one of the fans who chose Jojo during the early part of the pandemic, when it had only been lively until Golden Wind. Having fallen in love with the franchise, I was eager to continue with the manga. Stone Ocean It was my first experience reading a Jojo manga, and even in color, it was rough. I didn't realize it at the time, though.
I came away with a lot of opinions and Stone Oceanthe animation blew them all out of the water. Some fights that seemed to last forever in the manga were satisfyingly brief in the anime: Dragon's Dream and Heavy Weather were two great examples. On the other hand, at first I found the ending lackluster – it was just motion, with colors, voice acting and OST (JojoThe OSTs of are excellent both by default and by rite) that I realized how epic Stone Oceanthe ending is.
MAPPA will make the selection game arc bigger than it already is
The animation brings a new dimension to the manga, even if the font is already great
A battle manga must balance its pacing intelligently; battles and non-battles need to fit together well. Today, any manga that does particularly well can expect to be animated, and while I can't speak from experience, I'm sure there's a temptation to keep that in mind when telling a story. Jujutsu Kaisen might be praised for the relative clarity of its battle panels, but there's still the simple fact that battles to feel longer, less heavy and less significant in the manga format in terms of the story taken as a grand narrative.
With the Culling Game arc essentially being battle after battle, I think fans have unfairly gotten the impression that it's a boring part. In an anime format, the battle and non-battle parts will fit together much more coherently. A battle that previously lasted three chapters might not even last an entire episode after all is said and done.
Even worse, with the introduction of a whole roster of new characters, I also worry that the impact of these characters might be overstated. In a battle-heavy manga, when someone dedicates chapter after chapter to a (usually) small set of characters at a time, the introduction or development of a new the character will inevitably feel slow, exhausting, and laborious. The way the animation brings a certain fluidity and nonchalance to what is a huge emotional and temporal commitment for the manga, I think, will make the Culling Game arc great.
Finally, there's one last thing: MAPPA rarely disappoints. With Jujutsu Kaisen, Spy x Familyand Attack on TitanLast season, MAPPA showed a penchant for captivating animation of things that – frankly – could be animated much worse if we go by direct comparisons between manga and anime. A good animated adaptation can breathe life and breath into static scenarios that elevate every aspect of the experience to a sensory level, and MAPPA is nothing if not a studio that consistently produces good adaptations. With them at the helm, the Culling Game arc – and Jujutsu Kaisen-'s next season will be better than the arch's most die-hard defenders hope.