Welcome everyone to another week of Jujutsu Kaisen! It’s been an exciting week this week as Toji gets to play and Sukuna finally makes an appearance! We have a lot to talk about so let’s get into it.
To start, let’s talk about production. Jujutsu Kaisen had a pretty rough time last episode, I don’t think anyone can deny that. So I was quite nervous watching this episode. Luckily, even though their scheduling and production seemed to be behind the scenes, MAPPA regrouped for this film. It looks great. Toji had to pop out. The only criticism I received wasn’t even MAPPA’s fault, but rather the broadcaster and their legally mandated anti-blurring and ghosting practices. That, more than anything else, is what held this episode back. Jujutsu Kaisen fans should look forward to the Blu-ray where all of that goes away. Besides the animation, this was also one of the first episodes I really paid attention to the OST. There were a lot of great songs this week that fit well with their scenes, from Toji to Sukuna’s appearance. In short? The episode was a fun time.
Going into specifics, it’s becoming more and more clear to me that Toji is the MVP of the season. In every appearance, he is just a force of nature. Someone appears, dominates whatever scene they’re in, and then leaves. Look at what he did to Dagon, for example! This was a Special Class curse who had entered the bodies of two level 1 mages + Maki. However, Toji appeared and immediately turned the situation around. Partly because Dagon underestimated him, yes. But he also shows us how lacking heroes are, how to use something like Playful Cloud to its fullest extent. And as he does this, we get to watch the rest of the cast slowly figure out who he is and how superior they are. Dagon, effectively, worked to remind us that Toji is overpowered. And now Fushiguro must deal with him!
At the same time, Jogo arrives just as Toji leaves, not giving our heroes any rest. This is interesting, because so far the only person Jogo has ever fought is Gojo. So in comparison he always seemed pretty weak. Yet here he was, taking care of all three even faster than Dagon, all without his Domain. It’s an interesting case of Jujutsu Kaisen effectively creating a fight between 2 groups of workers just to set up bigger fighters for both sides! It’s great. Let’s say it sticks. And by stick, I mean at least Nanami, Zenin and Maki should be pretty miserable after being burned alive. I wanted them all to die or die during the arc, because otherwise Jujutsu Kaisen would lose all sense of consequence. But one of them surviving in a bad state is also acceptable.
Returning to work, Dagon assigns Toji to prepare for the fight with Fushiguro while the witches assign Jogo to prepare for an upcoming war Sukuna fights. And this… This is great. Honestly, I forgot who Sukuna fought in this arc. Set him against a cursed soul? Someone whose death we, as an audience, can accept? Just to show off Sukuna’s power in some 3 character long job string? That’s funny and a little clever. Plus, we all know that even though Jogo could never defeat Sukuna, the rules of the fight at least give him a slimmer hope of victory, which is important. is to make us invest. I guess what I’m saying is that Jujutsu Kaisen did a great job of taking a meh fight with Dagon and transitioning it into two much more interesting fights.
As for Sukuna himself, I quite liked his introduction. Like Toji, he’s very much a stylistic villain, not someone who can really be overcome. The way he immediately takes an arm just to touch him, or the way he tells them to lower their head and then immediately passes it across their chest to get anyone to slow down to listen. Jujutsu Kaisen also does this amazing thing with Jogo’s resilience by having him just kneel instead of kneeling with both knees, showing off his own arrogance and that Sukuna is fully intent on killing Surname. Add to that how generous he acted towards the girls, only to kill them on a whim as soon as they tried to barter/ask him to do anything. It shows how moody he is and I love it.
So overall this episode is a step up from the previous episode in basically every way. The battles are better, the storytelling is better, the characters are more engaging. Against Dagon in a 3-on-1 match, I never really felt like any of them were in real “danger.” Dagon is not an important character, Nanami and Maki will not die because of him. But Jogo? Toji? Sukuna? These are much more important characters, with a lot more weight behind them. I can believe that the named characters will die or be seriously injured. They can really move the story forward in ways that Dagon isn’t equipped for. So when they appeared, I was much more excited to see them on screen. And I think Jujutsu Kaisen is aware of that, because it doesn’t waste any more time than necessary. That’s great.