Have Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer Spoiled us?
Articlt at a glance:
- While high-quality adaptations like Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen have raised viewer expectations, it’s fair to expect better animation for major shounen releases like Sakamoto Days and Fairy Tail: 100-Year Quest.
- Modern anime, even slice-of-life genres, often maintain exceptional animation quality, setting a new standard that major shounen adaptations should strive to meet.
- The demand for quality should not come at the cost of animators’ well-being, but audiences reasonably expect high-profile series to reflect the production value seen across recent major releases.
Recently, I saw an article about how high-quality anime adaptations like Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen have spoiled us. They have tampered with our expectations, and now we expect every major anime to have that standard of animations, which just isn’t possible. And you know what? I partially agree. Not every series needs god-tier animations. But the thing is, when a major shounen release like Fairy Tail: 100-Year Quest looks worse than an anime about a waifu who speaks Russian, something has gone wrong. And both of them came out in the same season.
So yeah, welcome back to another article, and today we will be answering the question “Have Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer spoiled us?” So come join me, as I give my honest opinion about such a “contagious” topic. Let’s get started.
Are we being Unreasonable?
First off, I want to make one thing very clear: I don’t want an anime if it causes people to literally die, like what was happening during Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 and Blue Lock Season 2. So, please keep that in mind regardless of what I say in this article. I wish for all the animators who work so hard for us to have a healthy and happy life.
Onto the main topic, then, no, I don’t think asking for better animations is an unreasonable ask, especially for high-profile Shounen animes like Sakamoto Days. Shounen animes often make the most money and hence deserve the best possible adaptation. This isn’t the 2000s anymore, where people tolerated the mediocre anime adaptations we got for big shounen animes like Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece back then. Now, it is not just Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer with good adaptations, even slice-of-life shows like Roshidere, Too Many Losing Heroines, or Sound Euphonium get amazing adaptations.
This year, across the board, had at least higher than average animation quality in almost all major releases. With notable exceptions being stuff like Blue Lock Season 2, which was a massive blunder. Heck, Bleach TYBW has been showing us for the past 2 years what a “good” adaptation means. Of course, I don’t expect everything to make TYBW levels of improvement over the source material, but come on, major releases deserve more fervor.
This whole discussion started because of the backlash the Sakamoto Days anime was getting. While I do think the backlash was overblown, I also do think that it deserves to be treated better. Fairy Tail comes back all these years later with the 100-Year Quest arc, and we have the same old animations with no improvements whatsoever. Like, come on, man! These are major releases, we shouldn’t even be having this conversation right now, what?
That is all for now
But yeah, those were my two cents on this whole debacle. Saying that good anime adaptations have spoiled us viewers is just disingenious. Almost every studio has been stepping up its production quality. 2024 exists as proof of that, of course, with a few exceptions here and there. So a manga that has sold millions of copies should, of course, get a good adaptation too. But yeah, with that said, I will take my leave here. See ya!
Also, check out my thoughts on Classroom of the Elite Year 2 here!
