The story took a turn I never expected. Compared to that generic ass first season, this feels like a completely different story. I’m all in for that.
Now I see why so many people pleaded with me to watch it. This just kept getting better, never hitting the ceiling. Here’s hoping the third season keeps it up, especially with the character work. In the first season, I didn’t connect with a single character. Why? Because I didn’t have a reason to care. They all seemed like black or white characters who existed only to further the plot. I don’t know how, but the mangaka learned to write good characters after the first season’s arcs. The Gojo arc starting this season alone made me more invested in the cast than the whole first season. And that was only a handful of episodes.
I’m not saying that it has given up its roots; I still feel alienated sometimes by the choices the story takes that feel awfully shonen-esque. But as a whole, I like it.
I hope I’m not the only one, but I hope Kugisaki stays dead. If she’s revived, there better be a good reason or else I’m putting this in the same level as that Reincarnated as a Slime season that came up with random bullshit to bring back a character who was clearly dead for reasons that hurt the whole story more than not. But we all know she ain’t gonna be dead for long…
Then there’s that second OP, goddammit. That in itself is a masterpiece. Nothing less. The colors, the animation, the transitions, the foreshadowing. Everything is spot on. Near the end of the series, when I completely understood all the symbolism in the visuals, it made me appreciate it even more. If I were to critique, I would’ve asked for a better song because it far downplayed how epic the visuals were, but I’m just asking for too much at that point.