To give an idea on how things stood before this anime aired, I'd like to give a summary. Manga readers have been hyping this season of JJK, stating that it is one of the best shounen arcs to ever exist in modern anime (how do you define what is modern anyway?). There are two arcs apparently being covered this season, which was the Hidden Inventory arc that I stated before, lasting 5 episodes. The meat of this season that manga readers mostly hype it for is the Shibuya Incident arc, lasting the remaining 18 episodes of this season and also the arc that manga readers regard as "one of the best arcs in modern shounen anime". Hidden Inventory arc is a half slice-of-life half-action and drama covering Gojo Satoru's past during his days as a student in Jujutsu High. It also serves as a prequel to the whole Jujutsu Kaisen series, as it answers questions viewers have been wondering about after watching both JJK 0 and Season 1, while also leaving new questions in its place.
Now then, onto the actual review. On the technical side of things, animation of this season have been a high point of praise (and deservedly so), barring a few episodes in the middle of the season where it was obvious that MAPPA's horrible treatment of its animators had started to take a toll on its production. MAPPA isn't known to slack on that department, so of course animation has been very good, if not better than Season 1, throughout nearly all the episodes. There have been improvements on its art style as well, where the distinguishing features of characters allow them to shine and stand out among all characters, thanks to its improvements. Because of this, it also sets the mood nicely for most of the episodes, where it's supposed to be a dark or gloomy moment for our protagonists. Music and sound are also very good (love both the first and second OP), which shouldn't be a surprise to be honest, given how good the music of Season 1 was. Voice acting, as always, is impeccable. Nakamura Yuichi's work as Gojo Satoru is always a blast.
Regarding the story, hooohhh boy is there A LOT to unpack. First of all, I loved Hidden Inventory arc. Gojo and Geto's dynamic as friends with almost a brotherly bond allowed them to shine onto the spotlight of the arc spectacularly. The new character of this arc, Riko Amanai, was also a breath of fresh air as while she is the key character that caused the series of events to happen both in Season 1 and in the following arc, she was also filled with personality in an already stacked cast. How she plays with Gojo and Geto's dynamic never feels forced and in fact strengthens their bonds while allowing her to leave an imprint on their lives as the arc later descends to a disaster. Secondly, character development of Gojo and Geto was also widely explored in the Hidden Inventory arc, as for the first time, it actually made me symphatize with Geto's character and explaining how he turned out the way he was in JJK 0, while Gojo struggles with the conflict he has against him. The end of the arc actually made me feel bad that they had to go their separate ways, and their eventual spiral to enemies (as we've seen in JJK 0) had me thinking back on how everything in the movie finally made sense (as well as parts of Season 1), and what a shame it was to see their friendship break up over the events of this arc. At this point, it might not be an exaggeration for me when I say that Hidden Inventory arc is probably the best arc JJK has so far (assuming we'll get another season of JJK since I'm no manga reader).
For the second arc of Season 2, Shibuya Incident arc, I'd say that I'm very much... mixed to low on my opinion of it. I want to get the question out of the way first: is Shibuya Incident really one of the best arc in modern anime? And for that, my answer would be a very high no.
To start with, the animation is still as good as always (despite MAPPA's insistence that its animators are robots). Pretty much everything in the technical side is pretty consistent with what we got from Hidden Inventory arc. The gripes with it that I have the most is very much its storytelling. Shibuya Incident arc has been very good at creating hype and shocking moments and for that I give it credit. However, when the arc relies only on shock value and pretty display of characters fighting each other until one of them gives out due to a bunch of reason or other (mostly nonsense like pulling out trump cards and battles of "You thought you were stronger, but nope I am because I still have my *insert power move here* technique!"), the story becomes rather hollow. I don't like to blame source readers when they're praising the anime adaptation of a beloved source material they've been following for years (after all, nearly all source readers of all anime adaptations are guaranteed to do that), but I want to state that Shibuya Incident arc is an overhyped story arc by its source readers who probably remember this specific arc from the source for its shock factor and "wow moments". This in turn has made me disappointed on what they think is one of the best story arc of modern anime.
Firstly, while there are indeed shocking moments in this current arc, it doesn't really feel like there are any emotional weight or attachment I'm feeling towards to them. For example, a certain mentor character that a lot of people have been loving since Season 1 dies in the second half of the arc, and for me it's just a 5 second moment of shock and then indifference afterwards. Maybe it is just me (opinions are like buttholes after all, we have one), but I feel like we should've spent more time with them before offing them off because I felt like they were killed just to establish that *insert villain who killed certain character* is a force to be reckoned with, which we already knew back in Season 1.
Secondly, I'd like to point out that despite all the hype moments that Shibuya Incident arc has, I haven't been drawn at all to the events nor be interested on everything that has been going on so far. One significant moment in this arc is when a certain character commits a massacre, which is supposed to be shocking to the audience. However, aside from the short moment of shock factor, I find no reason to care nor be interested why I should feel bad for those involved, or how that certain character changes things after committing what he did. Another significant moment is when a certain character summons a character that is able to go head-to-head in battle with another, very strong well-known-to-be-the-strongest-in-the-world character. Source readers hyped it up a lot prior to the episode stating that a certain character is about to go change things in regards to the whole plot. For me however, it didn't really feel like a lot has happened. Sure, we know now that there are two very strong characters in the already-gigantic cast of JJK, but I find no reason to care why I should be interested in that or why his appearance is going to be very significant.
Third and lastly, speaking of an already-gigantic cast, the characters in this season, while being given a time on the spotlight between episodes, don't really feel like their scenes matter because all they have been doing is getting involved in the fights. We already know that the events of this arc will be a bloodbath, and we know they're all going to get caught up sooner or later, but there is just no substance on why I should care this battle is going on between Character A and Character B. There is no character development between them, which I was dismayed with given that Hidden Inventory arc really did well with how they developed Gojo and Geto's characters.
There is also the matter of the fact that this arc has been constant fighting with little to no breathing room. You might complain that "Well duh the events are supposed to show that Shibuya Incident arc is chaotic!", but I want to bring up another story arc from a modern shounen anime that executed a high-stakes constant-battle story arc perfectly: Return to Shiganshina arc, from Attack on Titan's S3 P2. Both are full of hype moments, main characters dying, and shock value, but Return to Shiganshina succeeded where Shibuya Incident failed for me: bringing meaning and weight to deaths of characters without making it feel like a constant tiring battle of fights and fisticuffs, and also paying off audience expectations and adding new reasons to be interested to the overall story of each respective anime. Return to Shiganshina arc had me trembling for the characters involved, not only because their characters were well-developed, but also because it actually gave off massive implications while establishing new plot points on in the story that would come into play later on. Shibuya Incident arc doesn't off give that feeling for me. I can't exactly say what is the root cause of JJK S2's Shibuya Incident arc shortcomings: is it an overhyped arc and I was just pinning my hopes too much on source readers, or is it simply because I just can't vibe with all of the action and fights?
Overall, I'd rate JJK's Season 2 a 6 for "Fine", mostly thanks to the Hidden Inventory arc (again, probably my favorite arc of JJK series so far), and its spectacular animation. I just wish Shibuya Incident arc lived up to its hype of being "the best arc of modern anime". One thing is for sure though, if this is the peak that JJK has to offer, then I am only worried for the next (probably) seasons of JJK.
