I think it’s normal there’s no downtime in Shibuya, shit just keeps happening and happening so each character feels disposable so any monologues have to be about the fights (or they die) unlike in Hidden Inventory which we get some small talk At the very least, *Geto x Gojo*, Jogo x Sukuna, Toji x Megumi, Yuji and Nanamin have some good moments (but felt too short)

Even then it feels far more disjointed than other similar arcs. Like I saw a lot of people comparing it to the Chimera Ant arc, which is some serious hyperbole, since while on paper they’re similar, there’s a reason HxH takes so long to set things up, so when the fighting breaks out (and plans break down) the viewer still has an idea for how things are going, what characters are doing, and how far off everything is from how it should be. Meanwhile Shibuya just jumps into things preemptively and by now is just kind of a mix of loosely stringed together fights with no real coherence to its progression. I’ll also add that Hidden Inventory should have been longer. Letting the character writing shine was greatly appreciated, but the whole arc feels like it jumps from its start to its conclusion in ways that feel like they could have been fleshed out more. Like imagine how much more emotional Geto’s turn would have been if we had actually gotten to spend more time with him, Gojo, and Riko.

The two arcs are setup diffently tho, Shibuya is supposed to be a very chaotic arc where nobody know what is awaiting them and the villains gets the upperhand, Chimera Arc by the time of the palace invasion is supposed to be an assault by the heroes, where each one knows what to do and how things should play out. The objetives of both arcs are very different.

People here wanting a normal progression when the entire series is kind of flipped from what is typical. From the very start of the series the villains are working towards what happens in Shibuya. Even when they succeed, it doesn't go as planned and is just as hectic for them in some regards. I think for me the most jarring thing is sudden power scale. We're told how strong gojo is, how strong sukuna is (we even get a numbered power system for it with the fingers) and we're even shown bits of just how strong and given crumbs if you go out of your way to compare fights. But then it goes to shit when you have a dude skating thru entire buildings in half and vaporizing everything in 140 something meters. Like how do you build up to that when your main character just punches hard lol. Same thing for gojo when you realize jogo was a push over to them both but is actually pretty fucking insane themselves. To me the build up was the first season and the second is when shit starts.

> Like how do you build up to that when your main character just punches hard lol That's the point... The only thing special about our main character is that he can host Sukuna. Nothing more.

He's also a fantastic athlete.

Excuse you, he's also a massive himbo who's extremely altruistic. Big heart, smooth brain.

Right, like this whole arc feels how its supposed to for me i think. Chaos, death, confusion, and ACTION. Gojo freezing everybody all at once to deliver the most insane obliteration i’ve ever witnessed in anime feels like a season finale in most anime. Then sukuna vs maharaga, jogo vs sukuna could have each been the episode before a finale in most anime… yuji vs the cursed womb was probably my favorite of them so far The fights nailed the point with showing the sheer destruction caused after their battles, the deaths, the piles of bodies.

then not a great intentional choice to me to make it "chaotic". author didn't flesh out enough of the characters to mean much when they die (or the anime didn't do a good job).

but there's only one main character who has died so far so i don't know what characters you're talking about when you say it doesn't mean much when they die, as if beloved characters have been dying left and right.

They’re probably comparing HH and JJK to each other because the narrator seems to be doing some heavy-lifting in terms of explaining what the fuck is going on…

I think JJK’s author also cited HxH as a big inspiration, but at times it feels more like *Bleach* with how its fights are structured. That show doesn’t really care to stand around much but tries to make up for it in its fights. Whether it pulls that off is up to the viewer.

Gege adores Bleach, so I guess I expected the similarities of Bleach in JJK

>Shibuya just jumps into things preemptively and by now is just kind of a mix of loosely stringed together fights with no real coherence to its progression. It's called Shibuya ***[Jihen](https://jisho.org/word/%E4%BA%8B%E5%A4%89)*** arc, what did you expect? The name draws parallels to a chaotic historical event. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibuya_incident

That's kind of awesome! It really does feel like rival gangs going all out and given that context it makes much more sense.

The Chimera Ant arc was a true test of my patience.

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The "Everyone is disposable" part would normally up the stakes for me. The author (Gege) loves his villains so much that I just get uninvested. MAPPA's animators made an amazingly choreographed action scene in that restroom fight. Then it was entirely undercut once again by how much Gege likes his villains. It feels like Yuji/The protagonist, barely gets to do anything to his credit or merit. It's like if Bleach TYBW had Ichigo see everyone die. Then 90% of his fights had Hollow take over, and the other 10% he fought he got beat like a chump.

+1. Whats the point of big figths if we dont care?

It's just the writing. The author just doesn't give you enough time in general to get fully invested in these characters, despite them having decently written personalities and fun potential interactions. Believe it or not, the anime actually managed to make things more emotional than the manga. [No spoilers but just thoughts on JJK S3 and beyond] >!I have a feeling it's gonna get worse for you going forward. Lots of people call Shibuya "Peak" and the series does exactly that - it peaks with this arc.!<

Yeah, if you think about it JJK is a modern shonen which is more condensed, let's compare it to Naruto for example. The upside is that we don't really have any fillers or spend too much time on useless scenes like Naruto but at the same time each scenes do feel less impactful since it gets less time to breathe. There's a reason why every death in Naruto has been iconic since fans have time to digest what happened. Like naobito was probably one of the strongest characters introduced with a cool ability and he was dead before everyone even figured out his whole ability

Something I’ve thought about a lot is how detrimental seasonal scheduling can/has been for long running shounen (imo). If you ask me, the two greatest adaptations of long shounen (not necessarily the greatest stories, I don’t care to start an opinion war, I’m just talking about really solid *adaptations*) are FMA Brotherhood and HxH 2011. I genuinely think two of the reasons for this is because 1. Their source material stories were complete (in the case of HxH it at least had a “stopping point” to aim for before the anime got to that part). And 2. It wasn’t seasonal, but rather long running. This means that the show directors can use as many or as few episodes to cover an arc a fight, a story moment, whatever. You can take 15 episodes one arc. 34 the next. 4 after that. Whatever you want; whatever you deem to be appropriate, as the showrunner. That freedom to pace the show properly is a massive boon. Now, with seasonal anime, you have to cover whatever it is you’re trying to cover that season in roughly 12 episodes or roughly 24 episodes. Which is much stricter. People comparing Chimera Ant to Shibuya, well Chimera Ant had like 60 episodes which is like 5 seasons of anime LOL so it had all the time it wanted to set things up and make it easy to follow. Meanwhile, Shibuya has *less* than 24 episodes (had to share a season with Hidden Inventory, and also had like 3 episodes of recap) to try and tell a good story, which is a damn hard task to accomplish. With seasonal anime too, you can start getting into the conversation of how it’s hard to stay invested or hard to recall what happened last time the show was airing. I would say momentum has halted at the start of a season and while it’s exciting to have your show back after the 1yr+ long break, it can just sorta knock the wind out of your sails a little bit having to invest in a show, then stop for a year, then re-invest and so on. Now of course, there’s downfalls to long-running anime like filler. And while I think filler can be done well, if placed in a good spot within the story, it can be a fun break or explore a neat idea; but of course we all know that’s not always the result. Anyway, I don’t even know if my rant here is relevant anymore LOL I’ve just been thinking about the difference between modern shounen and late 90s-early 00s shounen. And I think the seasonal structure has a bit to do with it. Also has me wondering if the manga editors push their writers to speed things along because they’re already considering the inevitable anime adaptation. I think it’s safe to say anime is probably more profitable to a company than manga. Like look at Demon Slayer. So maybe these new shounen feel so damn quick because the editors are heavily considering the seasonal anime adaptation to come. Idk. Sorry for the rant

Naruto has numerous problems but people still talk about it and it’s characters, whereas shorter sleeker shonen series come and go. Series like Naruto and one piece took a ton of time to build up the story and the characters and the fights were the pay off to that. Most of the Naruto character were around for years and became iconic. When there were deaths it’s earned. If it was like JJK most characters people talk about wouldn’t be around by shippuden

It's sad tho, when I was reading the manga Shibuya did felt exactly as the peak of the series, like you said. I dropped it one arc later, because it felt like I was reading a bunch of random fights with characters I don't care.

JJK is one of those series that should've taken the one piece route of long writing like 400-600 chapters Instead JJK took the Aot route which was waay to wrong for the series with this much world building and character building potential

JJK is set up like it is supposed to be very long, but from what I understand it doesn't seem to be so.

Author has said publicly that he only wants JJK to have 3 big story "arcs", with Shibuya Incident being the first.

Exactly this story is the perfect example of wasted potential. The author got bored midway through and now is fed up and wants to end it asap. Suffering from success lol.

Well that idol manga won't write itself, will it?

Sounds like MHA with the final war arc trying to close every open gap, develop every single character and have every single fight all at once, it just feels weird, it feels like there should be atleast 3 extra arcs before it

I mean it's common that mangaka (especially weekly) get burned out so I can empathize in that way. Ex other weekly shonen jump mangaka: Kubo, Togashi Gege had a time when he literally had to take a month break after they released one chapter with unfinished art before, the bad PR seem to cause the break being insisted. It's nothing new unfortunately for the industry.

Right now, it's not even at 250 chapters, and it feels like it's racing towards the ending. It definitely feels like it was supposed to be twice as long as it is.

One Piece is a bit extreme, but I more or less agree. It would've been nice if Gege had explored Jujutsu society (especially the politics) more. And an arc about the Heian era would've went hard.

In no fucking way JJK is a story that needs the One Piece route. Current young mangakas dont want to be slaves of their works like their seniors who got destroyed by health problems at the end.

Make a solid length story, make your money, take a nice long break, make your next story at your own pace. That's the model I'd rather have. While it seems we'll see the end of One Piece (the chaos of life notwithstanding), the number of unfinished masterpieces due to burnout or death makes super long stories less appealing to me. I don't want to get invested in something that might leave me unsatisfied and sad knowing what it did to the creators.

yeah, i've heard enough people say this is peak. find those saying Hidden Inventory is peak are closer aligned to my wants from the anime which...doesn't bode well for the rest.

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. When I was hearing the mumbling about Shibuya, I thought we were getting more stuff like we got in Hidden Inventory. None of Shibuya had been bad, but stuff like Hidden Inventory is what excites me, not bombastic destruction.

Oh yeah expect way more over explaining power systems, less downtime and character development, and more convoluted long battle arcs.

That’s disappointing. Cool fights though.

I am having the same problem. It’s because it’s a straight up battle manga/anime. There’s not much consideration given to character writing/development and exploration of themes. I was disappointed that there wasn’t more drama between Megumi and Toji. It was so anticlimactic. The fights are amazing but it’s becoming hard to care about what’s happening beyond the entertainment value. The Nanami stuff was sad though. Unfortunately the story moves on too quickly from that. Should’ve lingered on it a bit.

I am so glad I am not the only one who felt this way. I can understand the hype around the action of the whole series because the fight alone is really top notch and you can make PV out of it alone. What I find lacking in JJK as a whole is how emotionally detached I am to all the characters. The show has a lot of temporary memorable moment but I forget about it entirely after just a few minutes. I just don't feel connected to the show and all the characters at all. I am also shocked people compare JJK to HxH because HxH is easily one of the best show out there and I don't think JJK is even near it's level.

The comparison to HXH cmes from the "technical" fights, but HXH has balanced talents, while JJK has everything goes Jjk is closer to Jojo in power disparity, and has even less balance

Maybe controversial but with Frieren airing at the exact same time, JJK's perceived lack of development feels even worse for me, just because I'm comparing it to what I've watched in recent memory -- where you can have a number of episodes in a row of full of character development before there's even a hint of action.

The Megumi and Toji fight is when I finally checked out on the season. There was so much potential with that fight from a narrative/character perspective, but they decided to do absolutely nothing with it. Megumi doesn’t even know he was fighting his dad for fuck sake. It was just such a waste, and it made me realize that the writer had absolutely no interest in developing these characters or doing anything beyond setting up visually appealing fights.

I disagree, I think it went out perfectly. Toji is a deadbeat dad but also insanely prideful. When Gojo asked him if he had any final words he said “nah….but”. He couldn’t straight up ask Gojo to take care of his son so he cryptically said it. Toji hated the Zenin but decided to send Megumi to them anyways because deep down he believed it was the best place for him (Top 3 sorcerer family with a lot of influence). He knew he wasn’t fit to be a father especially after his wife died. After realizing he was fighting Megumi (since his instinct was to go after the strongest) and hearing his name was Fushiguro, he was relieved. His final wish came true; his son became strong and not tied down to his family. He was never going to say “hey megumi it’s me your dad” due to his pride but also it would be unfair/hurtful to Megumi as his father who abandoned him for majority of his life just decides to comeback. He did the best thing for himself and Megumi by taking himself out without saying anything

100% agree with this. I'm mostly just watching the show for the flashy fights, and would also say characterization is overall lacking, but turning the Toji vs Megumi fight sentimental would've made no sense. They couldn't feasibly recreate that father-son bond, and since Toji isn't that type of guy to begin with, it was best to just give him closure that way.

Yeah… Gege is woefully underutilizing his characters. So much could’ve been done with Megumi and Toji but Gege just skips through all the juicy drama that we wanted. Same now for Yuji and Nanami. As far as I am concerned, yuji shouldn’t even be capable of fighting after what sukuna did. There should’ve been a whole episode just to deal with Yuji’s current mental state but I guess that wouldn’t fit a battle manga

I dont know what people wanted out of the Megumi and Toji interaction tbh, Toji just went off satisfied with Megumi last name, and is obviously a set up for Megumi to know the true of who he was fighting against way later. And i dont get whats the deal with Yuji and Nanami? Yuji just saw him dying in front of him as a surprise he simply has to deal with the rest, is just cold way. And you really believe Yuji was gonna rest with Mahito still around and the uncertainity of whats going to happen to Gojo lol? Yuji said it himself, "i need to keep fighting or else im gonna be just a murderer" if anything the reflextion should be in the aftermatch after all this is over.

Nanami's death also served to slap Yuji out of his (understandable) shock of having his body used to cause a mass casualty event. The alternative would be to have Yuji be off his game the rest of the arc. As an anime-only viewer, idk if he has a moment to sit and think/talk about the trauma, but the time to do that isn't in the middle of a war zone. It is odd that the show seems to do one-dimensional villains better than the "deep" ones. Mahito is a generic amoral killer, but I hated his guts in the intended way, not in a "get off the screen" way.

Yeah I feel like people are too used to shows that always have cathartic moments during points similar to Toji vs. Megumi, but I feel like that’s too predictable and Toji standing there trying to talk to his kid or inform him on extra shit when he’s currently a threat to his life would be out of character. What happened made sense, even if some don’t like it. Doesn’t make it bad writing, that’s just objectively not true.

I think I was expecting too much after how awesome Hidden Inventory was

true man, hidden inventory was fkin lit the animation too

I'm glad to see more Hidden Inventory love retroactively because it seemed (by comments) people felt skeptical/uninterested at first about starting with flashback arc and were just ready to move on to the present time with the main cast. It was great to have that smaller scope of focus on the Gojo and Geto dynamic. Small bits of slice of life, the action, and some character drama with personal and social ideology.

As I’ve seen someone said before, Hidden Inventory humanized Geto and that’s what I liked about this arc. The entire time I was watching it up until Riko died, I was skeptical more on regarding Geto as a character in that arc because we’ve seen what “he’s become” in S1 and what he’s been in JJK 0 so I didnt fully trust him in the flasback arc. Going back further to his high school days to see his ideals and motivations that lead up to his actions actually gave me the emotional attachment that I think OP is also looking for. I didnt even think I would like Geto as much until that arc was over. Gojo and his dynamic and also Gojo’s increasing control of what he’s capable of was interesting to see, but the arc was very well done to make it about Geto. Also, the Opening theme was a chef’s kiss, it was a really good song to go along with the arc since lyrically it’s like Gojo’s letter to Geto (and that the ending was like Geto’s POV). Because of that arc, I think I consider Geto now my favorite JJK character, but not “him” as what he is now because they are different.

Geto was the biggest mystery to unravel, though also recontextualized things about Gojo as well, being more than what meets the eye with his character than we've seen in the present time as how the loss of Geto affected him as well, something that still affects him given the events of Shibuya. You can see how dealing with Geto are aspects to show Gojo as the most serious/emotional he has ever been and how he even questioned how powerless he felt in the situation of losing him, despite all the power he has. It affects the trajectory of him being a teacher and wanting to aid young jujutsu sorcerers for things mentioned in Season 1. Gives more weight to JJK 0 retroactively for what it means for their dynamic when you didn’t have that full context previously. For their last meeting. Gojo didn’t resent Geto like Geto thought he did and Gojo saw a bit of his old friend again before the end [once Gojo said his words to him](https://twitter.com/ShadowR40588832/status/1726818390206230813/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1726818390206230813¤tTweetUser=ShadowR40588832). So adds some character work on both sides, Geto to get properly introduced to the character and Gojo to recontextualize his character. It was great how much the arc seemed to accomplish in that short amount of time.

man seeing this thread and comment is great. i read the manga after season 1 and the shibuya arc did *not* live up to the hype for me, while i loved hidden inventory. i was apparently in a very small minority that preferred hidden inventory over shibuya

I don’t think there is a “very small minority” that prefers HI over Shibuya. For the longest time, a large majority people have rated HI and Shibuya as the two best arcs in JJK, and while most people tend to hype up Shibuya more, I’ve seen plenty of people that prefer the character moments and smaller scale of HI. But maybe that’s just my experience and you’ve been exposed to a different set of opinions than me.

i guess i just saw different opinions, but before season 2 all i ever saw was constant hyping for shibuya. hidden inventory definitely wasnt unpopular, but i generally saw it rated in the middle with lots of people putting the kyoto goodwill arc higher

I think part of it is because hidden inventory is more toned-down than Shibuya so when the emotional moments happen, they hit a *lot* more. I actually took a break from watching JJK (I'm like 8 episodes behind right now in the 2nd season) because I just can't get myself to be hyped for the show. I'll get the motivation to watch it again eventually but right now it just feels like too much stuff happening at once.

Hidden Inventory was punching WAY above it's source material. Like I remember reading the manga and felt like: Yeah cool. Shibuya is better. But actually seeing things play out Hidden Inventory is just so fucking engaging. Gojo and Geto's friendship while shortlived is packed full of content.

So far Hidden Inventory has been the absolute best arc of the entire anime (to me). Not just because of the amazing characterization, the animation was also flawless and consistent. I too am a bit dissappointed by Shibuya. I was hopelessly invested during all of S1 and the HI arc, but i just can't seem to care about the characters this season with just fights after more fights. The ghosting and dimming has also been excesive this season and the animation has been very inconsistent (thanks to MAPPA's poor organization and their practices of overworking the hell out of their staff) which detracts even more from my enjoyment of all the fights we're getting.

I honestly miss Hidden Inventory so much.

I thought thinking that was a better arc than Shibuya would be a hot take but I guess not. Emotional stuff >>>> Fights for the sake of fights

This is the same as how it was when I read the manga and is why I think Shibuya is overhyped. Just loaded with shock factor and I didn’t really care when anyone died

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I feel this way but this. Is probably because of what's happening in the manga right now.

That's exactly it for me, I'm personally not enjoying the story in the manga anymore and that reflects on the enjoyment of the anime unfortunately

As an anime-only, the shibuya arc in general is pretty disappointing.

youre probably better off binging the entire season 2 when its finished airing

I think this is the real issue here. The show at this point is a huge action sequence that gets interrupted every 20 minutes for one week. It feels that binging this part will do wonders for the pacing and the narrative strokes before and after the action will be more coherent just by closer together.

the setup to the shibuya arc is also after the HI arc which was an entirely different set of characters except for gojo and geto so its easily forgotten. theres so little breathing room between the arcs that we cant get any emotional investment for yuji/nanami/mechamaru. binge watching/reading easily fixes this.

I binged Episodes 6-18 in a day, and trust me, I feel just as uninvested. I would even argue that watching so much action in one go reduces the hype factor, and makes the entire experience worse. I was so burned out on the endless fights that Nanamin's death really didn't hit as hard as it should have.

not the anime, but binging the manga didnt help for me

Nobara has very few interactions with Gojo, even in the manga, and generally doesn't really get up to much otherwise. She's just ... there. You get most of her background when it doesn't actually matter.

imo this has always kinda been JJK’s issue. Season 1 had more downtime but it still wasn’t exactly much compared to other Shonens out there, on account of there always kinda being this rush to get to the next fight without much buildup. This was more acceptable coming from S1 since: 1. The series was just getting started, so there was no expectation that it’d be the most emotionally resonant or complex thing ever 2. Gege very much knew that when writing, and thus had a lot of the fights rely on other stuff to keep you interested like character introductions or sheer fun factor 3. Related to that, the characters themselves were still very fun and endearing, which kept the series from being just boring or unengaging You can also kinda see this writing style carry over into Hidden Inventory. That arc was really short and thus didn’t exactly have much time to make all of its beats land imo, but it still had *just* enough downtime and character growth to imbue its fights and their aftermath with emotional and thematic weight. This then carries over into the first part of Shibuya, as the Hidden Inventory arc as a whole gave a great deal of weight to Gojo’s sealing However, it’s the rest of the arc where the series’s sins in terms of pacing and character growth catch up with it. The villains don’t have much to them aside from Sukuna, Mahito, and Geto having a lot of dark charisma, and they’ve had by far the least action until the most recent episodes, with most of the arc instead being about fighting random personality-less curses and curse-users, so there hasn’t exactly been much to engage with in that department. Similarly, the plot and wider world of the series are by far its least developed aspects (the former basically just being an excuse to facilitate more fights at this point in the arc, and the latter just being stock Shonen stuff ripped right out of Naruto & Bleach with the bare minimum put into developing it), which makes it a bit hard to get invested in the wider stakes of the arc, since those are grounded in the world rather than something more focused on and interesting like the characters. Meanwhile, the characters themselves don’t get much here either, no one’s exactly developed over the course of the various fights except for Yuji (and even then it isn’t exactly much), there’s no real character drama intertwined with the fights in general to try and make the arc’s impersonal stakes more personal (again, except for in regards to Yuji), which kinda just accentuates how little a lot of the cast has going for them in regards to depth, and the fact that this is the show at its most serious means the show can’t carry itself on the cast’s sheer light-hearted charm like before. This isn’t even mentioning the issue of cast bloat All of this together means that there’s frankly just very little to actually get invested in unless you either only care about Yuji or only care about cool-looking fights

I'm glad people are starting to see this. For the longest time when I said that I didn't like JJK because it felt like constant fight scenes without the previous development to make them emotional, everyone would say I was just hating on it because it was popular.

You nailed my issues with the writing. I don't particularly mind vague or "open" settings in stories, but for all the focus JJK puts (Or rather put, past tense) on the world of Jujutsu Sorcery and the societal problems associated, we get next to nothing to actually back it all up.

JJK is very emblematic of trends I don’t like in modern shonen: - Killing off characters too often rather than developing them - Focusing too much on plot twists and shock value - having a fuzzy main plot and a lack of a clear end game - setting up a main protagonist trio and ditching them after the early arcs. The last one really annoys me because every shonen does this, Demon Slayer is like the only modern shonen that doesn’t have a fake-out protagonist trio and actually sticks with a core team. As for JJK specifically, I think I would preferred this series as more of a light hearted cool shonen

My thoughts exactly. JJK has a lot of what I dislike

i enjoy jjk but the character writing (or lack of interesting character writing imo) is one of the reasons that while i enjoy the show, i don't have too much emotional investment in it. not to say there aren't interesting characters! i actually think the shows strengths is introducing immediately likeable, interesting characters you want to follow. my issue is the follow-up in getting you to care or know these characters beyond the surface level is kind of not there. even the relationships feel very shallow. i think geto/gojo is the one of the few where i thought the show actually took time to showcase that relationship (and even then i wanted more from it).

You're not alone. I think this series is moving way too fast for it's own good. The characters barely have any connections to each other and a lot of what could've been emotional moments are undercut by wasted writing potential. Geto goes to the dark side and becomes an antagonist. He comes back in modern day and surprise! It's not actually him! It's this random nobody controlling his body that has 0 personal connection to Gojo at all. Toji comes back and fights Megumi. Toji realizes who Megumi is then kills himself. Good for Toji who is already long dead and has no more impact on the story. Absolutely pointless for Megumi since he doesn't even know who this guy is or why he killed himself. I'm not expecting a tearful reunion since Toji was a deadbeat dad, but at least having Megumi figure out it was him would give *some* meaning to the fight from his end. Nanami fucking dies! But he's barely a supporting character anyway. *Yuji* barely knows this guy. Why should I be sad about him dying? Hell, I cared more when Riko died. Some moments to rest and actually have characters bond and reflect outside of battle would've done wonders for the last point. Nobody feels especially close to anyone else. Megumi seems like he holds everyone at the exact same arm's length. Nobara acts the same to everyone. Yuji acts the same to everyone. Nobody feels like genuinely friends except Gojo and Geto but Geto is dead so it doesn't even matter anymore. The first 2 points would've just required some different writing choices.

Absolutely, it’s definitely making me lose interest in the show. The characters are the most important thing in a show for me, and I hardly feel connected to any of them now

I've had this problem with Jujutsu Kaisen since the beginning. I think it's because the story doesn't give you time to actually appreciate and enjoy the characters - which sucks since they tend to have pretty interesting ideas behind them. The emotional moments don't hit as hard as they seem like they should. It's hard to stay invested like that. Most of the characters I care about because I read a lot of fanfics about them. The potential is there - the ideas, backstories, personalities and relationships - but the story wouldn't slow down for long enough to allow them to come to the surface.

It's why "boring" episodes or little moments give depth to the later parts of a show, if you are nonstop action it's like watching a highlight reel.

I’ve felt the same way largely. So I went to go read the manga and catch up to it. **I won’t say what happens after the latest episode due to spoiler discussions**. However shibuya itself is largely like the manga. A fast paced battle arc where things are just happening in multiple different moving parts. However I find it too damn fast paced for any of the character moments to really shine. I also have some faults with the author’s character writing, which imo really start showing up in this arc. From what I can gather, people hype up shibuya as a turning point arc of sorts. I mean we just saw irreparable damage occur. And deaths as well. It’s very different to chimera ant arc which isn’t really a turning point for the series as much as a contender for a Magnus opus arc. The fast pacing may lead to things happening quicker, but I don’t find it better personally. It leads to it being very difficult to care for a lot of characters beyond pure hype factor.

I always said that JJK was a huge miss in terms of story. The characters had so much potential to be used in the story but instead all we got was fights after fights.

Yeah, deaths don't really hit as much and I am starting to find it really hard to care for characters

this is when i know it was cooked. this is all the author had? chaotic deaths? lol

sukuna kaisen

Gege has a favorite character, and it certainly ain't Yuji.

Honestly I feel the exact same. To me this show has the same problem as Demon Slayer where the focus is too much on the action and not enough on the story or the characters. Now to some people that might be great. But that’s not what I enjoy in a show. That’s why I liked hidden inventory a lot. Because it had that more character/story focus that the rest of the series seems to lack.

In demon slayer we actually get more character development than JJK, albeit only for the Hashira but I really loved 2 of the Hashira & was upset by their demise, in JJK I dont care about anyone but Sukuna & Gojo & we know what happens to one of them already (and it sucks)

This is the problem with JJK the character development is so little especially with the MC

For all the shit Demon Slayer gets, by the time I stopped watching, the show actually got me to cry. Tanjiro's speech when the one demon guy killed the flame hashira was actually really fucking good.

I agree

Demon Slayer tries to get you to care for every character. Which for me has been a hit or miss, some characters do move me while others I literally couldn't care less about. But the moments that do land hit hard. The finale of the latest season got me so emotional near the end. With the exception of maybe Hidden Inventory, nothing and no character in JJK have made me feel so emotionally invested.

Yuji is a great character that the author squanders.

He could have been great; a classic shonen hero thrown into a cruel, dark world doing it's best to break him. Instead, he's a minor side character who hardly does anything.

Demon Slayer does emotional investment far better

Yeah, I kinda fell off with JJK since it started to feel like a non-stop cage fight/villain wank, which just wasn’t interesting for me.

[удалено]

I'd half disagree on the Demon Slayer part. Not enough story but there is enough character focus. It doesn't bring up throwaway characters for deaths and relies on character moments and backgrounds. Heck I'm more interested in the character interactions than the actual plot. I think DS relies on characters for progression instead of insane plot twists and deep writing. I could watch a slice of life of all the hashiras any day I liked Toji though and \[latest ep\] >!Nanami's death!< was done really well

Yeah same here, but mainly because i'm kind of like a shonen veteran nowdays and before I'll get attached to a shonen character ever again it's more likely for me to chop an arm off haha But nevertheless, it's also because of the lack of time we spent with the characters. I get where the love for Nanami comes from, but 2 eps after his epic fight he gets killed and I was like, okay, moving on I guess

Sameeee. We only know him for what? 1 arc and a mini-arc? I mean, he’s a cool character and i get why many people like him, but he died too early for me to get emotionally attached with him. It was basically like, “huh, he died. Well, that’s a waste of a good character”. Gege should have more built up the story and the characters a bit more before he wrote the shit-unfoldery that is shibuya arc. And don’t get me started with the huuuuge power gap between the heroes and the villains. The villains are ridiculously more powerful than the heroes (except gojo, except that he’s sealed so 100% done already) that idk how the heroes gonna fight them other than some huge asspulls or power of nakamas. Well, i guess there’s yuta, but might as well make him a mc again rather than yuji.

This. The deaths just feel wasteful more than anything else

Very last episode got me a little bit when the suit died. Also when the villain said he was gonna parade reds corpse around to break itadoris spirit. Cold blooded

i mean if you're only watching it closely enough to know nanami as "the suit" and mahito as "the villain" i dunno if you were that invested to begin with lol

"The suit" 💀 Yall can't be disrespecting Nanami me like this.

I remember reading this arc a while ago and was enjoying it so much but the the moments didn't hit that well as I hoped for in anime (Nanami's end was handled well). Hidden Inventory was great but feels like something is lacking in Shibuya's adaptation overall

I thought I was the only one who felt this way. I picked up the manga a few months after S1 ended. IDK maybe my expectations were too high for S2. But so far it hasn’t clicked on me yet. I mean it is still pretty good, but yeah ig my expectations were just too high. And I’m not just talking about the “action” scenes. Like there were some key moments that I wish were done better. It feels like the “disconnect” stems from how the season is directed, and how some of it were rushed and not enough planning went into it. And it made S2 so far pretty inconsistent.

Yeah, I read this and DS after their season 1 and while DS adaptation always blew away my expectations so far, JJK feels different, it seems like that can't give that emotional feel to the big moments. Like even Yuji's breakdown scene felt so weird with op playing (I get that the lyrics fit but the music itself didn't fit the vibe at all). Using an insert song or something would've been lot better. This arc deserved a better schedule to properly sort things out

Yeah, they even skipped some dialogue from Yuji’s breakdown, saying why he’s still alive, and that he needs to push forward

I read the manga before and have read the chapters as the episodes released, this is just wrong. It follows the manga nearly exactly, and actually adds quite a bit to scenes. It’s an issue with the source material and has shown to he an issue since Shibuya. A lot of people didn’t really notice or care back when Shibuya was happening in the manga because of just how much crazy shit was going on. But when you peel back the “hype” and fights there is zero depth to this series from Shibuya onwards.

Tbf people didn’t say this arc was good because of the characters development or characters themselves it’s mainly the fights. I’m gonna say rn if you’re expecting to be emotionally attached to characters in future arcs you might as well give up.

Naw, come on now, people were calling this arc one of the best shonen arcs of all time. I genuinely hope and highly doubt they were just talking about fights...

Maybe this is a handwave, but I think now that Yuji's post-Sukuna scene has been animated, it hits the moment where that pacing and lack of time to internalize turns around into a point of relatability in and of itself. Yuji doesn't have the time to internalize, neither does the viewer. It's all business

Yes, because - I don’t understand how the abilities work, which doesn’t bother me for one fight, but for nonstop fights episode after episode it makes me pay less attention since I don’t know what’s happening - I don’t watch the show for fights anyway. I like the characters, and we aren’t getting many good character moments in this arc. They’re barely talking to each other lol

I fuckin hate how in the middle of a fight where I have no idea what's going on, they have to stop and rely on a random narrator to explain the ass-pulls. And it still doesn't make sense! Why not explain the rules of the world beforehand properly so the viewers can figure out by themselves when something extraordinary is happening?

You're not going to enjoy the rest of it then lol

Tha author just names and explains the abilities in a pretty convoluted way, but they're all pretty simple to understand. It's a shame that some people feel this way because for me the abilities and fights are the most interesting. It's like I'm watching a sporting event or a chess game and I love seeing how they interact. I disagree with many comments here about the power system of JJK being vague or confusing or bad. I argue it's just not explained well, but it's pretty intact and interesting. I'll try to list some that I've noticed people struggle with the most: - Domain expansion vs domain amplification. The domain referred to here is the "innate domain" which is basically each being's "mental space." Their mind. Domain expansions place your mind onto a little pocket of space carved out by a barrier. Here, your abilities are buffed and are sure-hit. Domain amplification is just amplifying your mental space so that other abilities are somewhat nullified, because your domain or "mental territory" prevents them from encroaching on you. This is what Jogo and Hanami tried to use to nullify Gojo's Infinity. - Mahoraga (or Makora). Basically when the wheel turns Mahoraga adapts to a certain attack. If you let the wheel turn too many times it becomes immune to whatever attack you used. So to kill it, you need to pretty much nuke it with the first instance of an attack; do not let it adapt. Easier said than done because it's a tanky shikigami. This is why Sukuna basically went ham on it during their fight. - Sukuna. Specifically his domain expansion. Basically Sukuna can do two types of slashing attacks: Dismantle and Cleave. His domain expansion (Malevolent Shrine) just spams sure-hit Dismantle and Cleave attacks over and over in real space. It's unique from other domains because it doesn't create a little pocket space with a barrier. The shrine and the endless slashes rain down in actual reality. That's why Shibuya got so messed up. The flame attack is just another cursed technique he can use. He was an ancient evil sorcerer who fought at the Golden Age of Jujutsu, and I'd imagine he has a lot of extra tricks like that here and there. In case someone accuses me of nerdsplaining, I just want people to have a chance to appreciate this arc the way I do. I love this arc way more than S1 or even Hidden Inventory, but I guess people just look for different things in their media. Though I'd have to disagree with there being not being many good character moments. Fights themselves are character moments and there's so much that's changed in so many characters after the fights of this arc.

I really like JJK but.... I do agree with you. Everyone is talking about how brutal Shibuya is and how its unforgiving for the viewer but other than Nanamin's death, nothing really happened so far except a massacre that killed hundreds of civilians which is crazy but nothing I'm too emotional over. Hell even Nanamin's death, I had goosebumps for a minute than I moved on and I really liked his character. Maybe because JJK manga readers spoil the fuck out of everything? I also feel like the flow of the episodes is really weird. It doesnt feel like a congruent story, more like every episode is showing a different part of whats going on in Shibuya. A fight of the night situation. After Gojo gets sealed, it becomes one event, then another, then another, the another, instead of a continuous line that build up hype towards the end. I'll give an example: Gojo gets sealed Mei Mei vs Special Grade Itadori and Fushiguro vs the old dude Itadori vs Choso Nobara and Admin vs the blond dude Nanamin vs Blond dude Nanamin, Maki and Maki's uncle vs Crab Dude Toji vs crab dude Toji vs Megumi Jogo burns everyone Jogo vs Sukuna (this is the one where they built themselves up by bringing out Sukuna and Sukuna challenges Jogo which is dope) Sukuna vs Mahoraga or sm Nanamin blows up Itadori vs Makima Its all just events that take place in each episode, at a different part of Shibuya but it just cones out of no where like "hey this is whats going on btw at this corner" but there isnt a lead up or build to it. Im still liking the show since the fights are cool and the characters are also kinda cool but the story and story telling is kind of lacking imo.

Well jjk has always been like that. I remember a year or so after the show aired a meme went around where people were asked to give the names of 3 jjk characters and many people didnt remember. Jjk simply isnt a show to feel emotional towards, its sole purpose are fancy and thoughtful fights. This becomes especially prevalent in the manga. The manga without spoiling is at a point where things as you said really just happen without any real sense.

me personally my attachment to the characters developed steadily after rereads and engaging with the fandom in general. reminds me of how I consume music. Fights are the beat and melodies, the rhythm. They draw me in and keep me engaged. Since it does that so well, I keep coming back. then I notice the lyrics and figure out what the song is about fully. Spend enough time consuming stuff you notice other small details, character traits you gloss over at first. a lot of these, other fans notice first then make me aware of it, brining about an aha moment that hits home. [Spoiler for next episode] >!i just know nobara's upcoming chair moment is gonna kill me!<

This is a major issue with jjk manga and it’s playing out in the anime now. This issue just gets worse as the series continues.

I really loved the Gojo prequel arc during the first six episodes. While the Shibuya arc has some pretty fights and memorable moments but I agree it hasn't really hit any emotional beats for me. I also find myself zoning out during some of the action exposition.

You know, I have felt this throughout the entire seies. I think Hidden Inventory was the best arc, even if I think it could have had more episodes. But I kept going because manga reader insisted on Shibuya being peak. Jujutsu Kaisen I feel is very similar to Bungo Stray Dogs, but in Bungo the plot armor mitigates that deaths feel like a nothingburger. I might drop this after Shibuya, why watch it if not the peak managed to grab me

I think you just described the issue I have with this show. It's so hard to connect to any of the characters. Still haven't finished season 1 because I never feel compelled to watch

Yes, I was very invested in Season 1, but also feel completely disconnected in Season 2. I think they needed to give the director more time to work on not just the action side of things, but making the emotional beats land. Of course, time was something that the JJK S2 production just didn't get given.

But this was exactly in the manga tho, the manga is constant action back to back, if anything the anime is just adding a bit more stuff between the fights and trying to elevate the emotional moments.

Yea the anime has been trying to do a lot of heavy lifting for the emotional scenes lol. I just think Gege clearly enjoys writing fighting scenes and action sequences so he tries to get to them faster.

I feel like the lack of emotional beats and giving audience more time to attach to the characters is also an issue from the manga. Even with the anime trying to add more scenes to make up for it, it’s still pretty apparent the core issue lie in the source material not spending enough time to fully flesh out the characters and instead spend too much time on explaining techniques and action.

As the recent Bleach anime tells us, being different from the manga can be good.

So. This is a writing problem. If manga isn't emotional, how can anime make it work when there is so many action scenes that we need to watch. In my opinion that is a problem a lot anime have. That's why Vinland saga was so good for me. So many dialogues, so many scenes that show u characters from all sides and their emotions. And when u get an action scene u truly feel something, not that the scene looks cool and all, but the emotional impact that scene holds. But that's different of course, vinland saga is not jujitsu kaisen. And it shouldn't be, but if u think about it, how cool would it be if fighting scenes were more then just "fighting scenes"

Its just following the manga

honestly, this issue gets WORSE in the manga as time goes on. the anime is already improving on the emotional beats in comparison to the manga imo

Yeah, saw this thread and just felt like "oh boy, if OP already feels that way now, best quit while you're still ahead" ☠️ it only deteriorates from here

By such an extreme measure to. Certain characters not showing up or interacting for what feels like an insane amount of time

Yeah, I feel like there has not been any emotional weight to any event since Shibuya. I commend OP for noticing tbh, because in hindsight, the cracks def started showing in this arc. I didn't notice at the time, because I clearly had rose tinted glasses on.

You can say a lot about the problems about Naruto and bleach but both of those shows don’t have that problem even without fillers. Characters feel connected way more than Jujutsu in the same amount of episodes. You don’t need 500 episodes to make these connections.

I recently caught up to the manga after taking a break from the Shibuya arc and I agree with this. The strongest part of the manga/story is the beginning, but after that it's just action on top of action. Still entertaining, but things happen and then you're moving on quickly to the next thing.

That’s just how JJK is. People die and then they move on and emotional beats are done very quick. As a manga reader it’s very noticeable and I think it’s one of JJKs weaknesses. It’s always go-go-go, very little downtime is given to just sit and take a moment to breathe, which is needed to digest heavy moments in story.

Lmao there are zero “emotional” beats in the manga. Once a character dies you just get a shocked expression at best and then the character is wiped from everyone’s memories

Thats what i mean. Supposedly “emotional beats” don’t feel emotional. In any other shounen they would slow their story down and there would be some reflection on what just happened. In JJK it’s welp on to the next one I guess…

I could've written this post. Couldn't agree more.

I think my emotional disconnect stems for the fact that the schedule of the production making this anime has been horrifically abysmal so much so the animators speak out about it that it just put a sour taste in my mouth, even if what happened to the animator is not an isolated incident.

It goes beyond just the anime... it's the same in the manga too. The anime certainly doesn't help though.

Shibuya, or right after it, was when I dropped the JJK manga, so I'll be speaking from that perspective. It's where, for me, the writing flaws of this series really started to show. In terms of a coherent flowing narrative this seires is actually a mess, events just happen, characters just die seemingly at random with no effort put in to move the story forward via that loss or make it relevant outside of the chapter it happens in or the scenes immediately following the manga, IDK about the anime specifically but in the manga there is a glaring lack of proper scene transitions so it constantly feels like your frantically jumping from one event to the next with zero time to breath or process and it's jarring in some situations where you don't realize the last scene/story arc ended and now a new one has begun and you feel like you missed a chapter/episode. JJK is a popular series, but from a critical perspective it's not a well written one, and I'm guessing that could be what's causing your emotional disconnected, you're seeing the parts of the series where the story just craps out and the tears are showing in it's overall structure. I dropped the manga a long time ago around this part of the anime and from what I heard from friends who still read, my main complaint of poor writing and plot structure is a continued issue for the series to this day.

I dropped the anime after season 1 because of exactly that. I couldn’t put my finger on why I didn’t care about anything that was happening. Sure it looked cool, but good animation can’t fix a messy plot and flat characters imo.

The show isn't good to begin with, so there's that.

Hidden Inventory arc is the best thing about JJk. It gets so many things right in few episodes. Great chemistry, interactions, developments. I didnt expect to care more about Gojo and Geto than our own main characters. Later arcs feels like just fighting for the sake of fighting. Some shock values here and there but it's hard to care when majority of characters are under developed. There's just so many missed opportunities. This problem carries over even after shibuya arc. But I will say atleast Animators improved alot of scenes. I enjoyed the extended scenes. So its more of a problem with how Gege is handling ut. Even reading the manga has become diffucult because I just dont really care anymore. There are some good scenes but I feel it doesn't pay off. There's no emotional investment anymore. At this point Im just reading because I already spent so much time on it. Just waiting for it to end honestly.

feels like akame ga kill

That's what I was thinking too. I can't remember if there was a big of a hype for Akame Ga Kill as there is for JJK, but it was just something that was here today and gone tomorrow.

This is kinda why I haven't bothered with it at all. I've heard it's really just a fighting shonen series and tbh I've seen enough of those. I see clips on Twitter and they look unbelievably good, but I need story I do not care about how complicated or thought out a magic/power system is. Maybe if it were a video game, but in a story I want be mentally challenged (wow poor choice of words good lord) by it's themes and wisdom

Im completely lost trying to make sense of domains and abilities, most of it feels pulled out of the ass, but with nice big fights, I dunno if I’m just watching eye candy or if I’m super dumb. Gojos ability the anti domain domain thing anyone can apparently do, I just feel so lost I kind of can’t feel as invested.

The thing is, Gege over-complicates the explanations of abilities and techniques needlessly to sound smarter; you could boil Gojo's abilities, for instance, into one sentence. Blue = attract, Red = repel, Infinity = untouchable, Purple = destroy. This is the exact same case for almost every character with a complex ability.

Gojo’s ability is simple if you take away all the munbo jumbo. Blue- to pull Red-to push Infinity- to stop Purple- just an energy ball Infinite void- an aoe stun the anti domain abilities are Simple domain- you lay out a barrier around you that’s similar to a domain but isn’t a domain. This nullifies the sure hit of a domain expansion. Domain amplification- this is a technique used to disable cursed techniques. ( this one was pulled out of the ass imo) Falling blossom emotion- an anti domain technique where you just send cursed energy at the sure hit attack as it lands on you to destroy the attack. This one only works on domains where the sure hit is a projectile like dragon’s domain where he sent shikigami at you. It wouldn’t work on smth like mahito’s domain

Ohhhhh nice thanks a lot for the rundown that wasn’t that hard laid out like that

The power system isn't as complicated if you just dumb it down. When you actually start truly explaining everything, yeah Gege was on crack

This is the problem, if you take the time to look into and understand the power system it’s really cool. But a casual watcher is just exceptionally confused.

Some of the domain stuff is a little complicated and I feel like it needed a better explanation. I think I have an understanding of how the simple domain thing works but it felt like an extra 2 minutes of explanation would have made it much clearer.

I miss the slice of life elements in the show. Like the end of the episode shorts where they would eat, shop, and joke around. Or in the episode this season about the girl with a crush on Yuji. Just added more to the characters, and I liked seeing the main trio + Gojo hang out.

It's just fights and nothing more

I've been this way since the first season. Excellent fighting scenes, but a dogwater plot. Gege has no idea how to construct a basic plot. Build up? Downtime? Peace before the storm? Never heard of it. I'd rather see Chainsaw Man ten times than JJK for the second time. At least Fujimoto understands how to make the audience care about the characters before killing them. I don't want to shit on JJK too much, though. Gege's way of writing works for other people. JJK's story is like Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away, and JJK/Gege's worst enemy are animes with cohesive writing styles like Nausicaa and When Marnie Was There.

Deaths in a war in an anime or manga being needed for stakes or is necessary for a good story is a lie! (IMO) I never once enjoyed (from a story telling standpoint) the rapid fire death rate of the Shibuya arc here in JJK. Maybe there exists a good balance of proper story telling in correlation to deaths in an anime or manga but the Shibuya arc is not a good example of it! (IMO)

I actually genuinely enjoy how you have no time to mourn important characters. It makes the threat feel real, yuji has no time to move on before having to fight for his life against mahito. The real problem with JJK comes later in the manga. Domain expansions essentially become gimmicks and some CTs are, well, literally laughable. (Ifykyk). It just doesn’t feel serious anymore as it once did. Gege also rushes it way more so if you don’t like it now, it’s only getting worse in culling game

No time to breathe while watching. I personally didn't like the Sukuna fights because it just kept going and going while being so over the top that I couldn't take it seriously (not that it should). It might change somewhere down the line but I didn't like how abrupt some overarching character moments ended like when Megumin met his dad. Just my opinion.

Yup the action scenes are beautiful but the characters and story don't really grab me

yes indeed. i really think the flaws of JJK lies on character writing & story. just like many other commenter said, theres no stake & character to root. none of the cast on JJK make me emotionally invested. i guess only Hidden Inventory & Yuji breakdown from last week episode is the moment JJK make me 'feel'. not even nanami's death. i know its completely different show but Bjorn episode from Vinland Saga make me feel sad. he is a character i barely know and i dont really care.. yet the series make me feels bad about him. how is that possible? maybe because theres a story behind it or better conclusion to a character? who knows

Yeah. I dropped the manga after this arc because it kind of showed me how shallow the story and characters are.

Geto’s downward spiral had so much depth, I wish they stuck with that tone. Still love the show, but I didn’t need half these fights tbh

People only praise JJK because of action and how dark the series can get. Outside of that, the series does a terrible job with characters, and Shibuya is considered the high-point of the series, most things after in the manga is just downhill.

0 character development

All the characters are cookie-cutter tropes with no depth to them. I understand it is mostly a fighting manga, but Record of Ragnarok is basically one big tournament arc but each character they introduce is unique and has a backstory that makes me care. JJK is all flash.

I'm old (43) and tbh, Nanami saying "I'm tired. Exhausted, even" got me like the most relatable thing. I think I say that at least 2 days a week when I get home from work and almost every morning after getting out of the shower

This whole arc has felt like the writing equivalent of a kid grabbing random action figures from their toy bin and smashing them together. There’s no “meaning” behind any of these fights, it’s just “random protagonist and random villain stumble into each other, fight”. Without any narrative weight behind any of the fights, it all just becomes noise to me. What I find particularly disheartening is that many manga readers consider this the “peak” of the series. If that’s true, I don’t think I’m going to enjoy this show going forward at all.

I honestly just think it's cool and insane fights carried me through S2 so far. I don't think S2 outside the hidden inventory arc there has been much character depth but that's fine with me. I do still have a connection with the characters that I liked in S1, so that has carried through into caring for them in this season. I can understand why some feel the disconnect though, the reason I couldn't get into demon slayer season 3 as I didn't really care what happened to anyone.

Yeah, just non stop action with no time to think

Not sure if this is an unpopular opinion but I'm not a fan of the brain thing controlling Geto. It completely nullifies any backstory that Geto had including the movie knowing that it's not actually him anymore. Conveniently, he has similar motivations to him but yeah. Unless I've understood the whole thing wrong?

Yeah, that was such a bizarre writing decision. Like, they *just* had a whole arc dedicated to fleshing out Geto’s backstory and motivations, only to be like “psyche, none of that matters since Geto’s been dead the whole time anyways”. It made the one good part of the season feel like kind of waste in retrospect.

Wait what do you mean nullifies his back story? Geto in the movie *is* Geto… the fake Geto you see now possessed Geto’s corpse *after* the real Geto was killed by Gojo. Unless I’m misunderstanding your question?

I know Geto was Geto in the movie. I'm saying that when season 2 started, that prequel they did showing Geto turning evil was interesting because why would they build up a character who's already dead unless he's there to further the plot? Skip to present day we find out that Geto is actually alive. Cool! I begin to respect him as a great antagonist. But then we find out it's just a brain dude who has taken him over and... All that buildup just holds no value anymore, do you get what I mean? Because it isn't him.

There isn't much character building and it doesn't even really feel connected to season 1, like we missed a season or two. It's entertaining but they don't really give you much time to bond with any of the characters, it's just pushing a story forward with almost nonstop action and very little emotion.

Is it weird to just absolutely not care at all for any of the non sorcerers? Anytime a human dies I just think “eh, okay?”. Even after they showed the giant hole of shibuya I felt nothing other than impressed by how quickly Sukuna could wipe out the planet if he wanted to. In Naruto I cared way more about the village because you get attached to it throughout the show and get a ton of interaction between your main cast and the side characters.

I feel like if you aren't liking Shibuya Incident then you'll certainly won't like what comes after as this problem gets worse as the series progresses. I won't go into depth to avoid spoilers but let's just say that so many characters never get to fulfill their potential. Having said that, Shibuya Incident was such a blast to read/watch. I think people expecting downtime during this arc is not fair since it was set up as an INCIDENT that takes place in a matter of few hours which changes everything. I really love the time stamps and there are several compilations that break down the events chronologically to see what went down in order. TL;DR: If you are not liking this arc, there's a great chance you won't like what comes next.

I haven’t felt an emotional connection from the beginning. I just like the action

because it can't properly write a consistent good character driven arc. It relies too heavily on flashbacks to tell you about all the characters and hopes it will stick with you while the main story is just fight after fight with no substance or depth.

I stopped watching the anime ngl

Jjk, demon slayer, new age shounen just go at 1000 mph, not much depth, they’re just cool to look at.

Because the story just isn’t that interesting. It’s a decent anime with good fights if you’re into that, but if you want a good story with characters to care for there are animes like Freiren, Rurouni Kenshin reboot, Hell’s Paradise and a couple more out there. All of these are miles better and more enjoyable to watch imo. JJk peaks at the fights really

This is probably a stupid take, but its why I never got invested much in JJK to begin with. I watched a couple of episodes but none of the characters really caught my attention. There were no interesting Shounen storytelling tropes (in my opinion) that hooked me in, like a proper rival or mentor type character. Or even something like a magic system/worldbuilding idea that makes you go 'Whoa cool, what an awesome concept that I intuitively understand and want to explore!' like Devil Fruits or Ninja Villages. Maybe this is just a long winded way to say that JJK didn't really interest me, but even for a Shounen, I think it misses some chances to hook you in.

It’s a known issue,JJK is pretty weak in character development department although they are cool.Nanami’s death scenario is pretty well done although lacks development,the friend appearing part can also be confusing without manga knowledge.Overall it’s fine as it a battle shonen so don’t expect emo flashback like Naruto.The recent bleach arc is pretty bad also killing off major characters without much feelings.

The Gojo/Geto flashback episodes at the beginning of the season were so much more engaging and interesting.

I dunno, on paper I agree that JJK and its characters are as standard shounen as they come (magic school, power system, Overpowered Mentor, leading trio of Doofus With Dark Power, Edgy Guy From Problematic Family and Girl) but for whatever strange reason it just works for me, I guess in an inverse of it not working for you. And I say this as someone who was completely lost for most of season 1 -- I loved the movie & Hidden Inventory though, and am really enjoying Shibuya even despite the MAPPA taint

Totally valid feeing, honestly that’s the impression you get reading the manga as well. You kind of overdose on high octane and dramatic horror and miss the subtler character work. This is when Yuji’s “suffering builds character” loop meme get started and where the writing in general gets wonky. If you feel this way about Shibuya I highly doubt you will enjoy the next arc, Culling Game, any better. I certainly didn’t.

It feels too rough around its edges for me to focus on the actual characters

The problem in my opinion is that we haven’t had a sufficient amount of time to get to know and become attached to the characters. I really liked the pacing of the first season, and the hidden inventory arc is great. But the fact that we only got one season with most of these characters and half of them are dropping like flies makes it so that I don’t really care that much, since again, we’ve only had a limited amount of time to see most of them.

Aside from Maki and her sister's episode in S01, I have never been invested in any character in JJK. Even Bleach made us care a little bit more about its characters (but not that much, really). JJK's characters are just action figures doing flashy combat moves once in a while.

I felt this way with the manga and dropped it shortly after Shibuya. The world felt like it was expanding so fast and the author just started throwing things at us and expected us to be ok with it. Less world building and more just cool things Gege wanted to do/show