「変身」 (Pervert)
“Perverted”
Okay, let’s begin! Sorry for the late review, blabla you don’t care, I don’t care. Here it is – deal with it.
This episode was amazing! Usually, battles are stressful – the thrill of not knowing who will come out on top makes our hearts skip a beat. This episode is the perfect show on how to do fight scenes. It’s not just because the series has to get to a specific point in the manga—it can feel like it’s happening really fast. But it’s still pretty much rhythmic. That tension is often dispelled through dialogue. Anime has been doing this for centuries. Think back to any Naruto fight scene and how they suddenly stop and talk. Usually, the writer will do their best to maintain that tension through said dialogue and the fight continues. In this case, the dialogue had a purpose! To continue the story and then the fight scene continues. Mahito finally found his true soul essence and transformed into it. Like the final form of a boss. What I mean by this is that there is no waste of time, every frame is a painting – every frame has a purpose. Must appreciate that. When Yuji and Mahito could have stopped to prolong the show-they started running towards each other and the music started again. It’s great!
However, the series has carried this motif, even more prominently in S2-that Mahito and Yuji are natural enemies. Even Choso admits this. All of that culminates in a tension release so perfect it’s worthy of a chef’s kiss. In the manga, it’s similar except it’s about a page or two long. Here they tried to adapt it into an official series. Based on the motif that Mahito has become so weak that he resembles a rabbit with a broken leg. And Yuji became so strong that he resembled a white wolf. I like that the wolf even has a scar on his face which pushes this idea further. Make sure you, as the viewer, understand the idea this scene is trying to express.
Many things – Mahito loses the battle at this point, Yuji’s heart loses all empathy – essentially become a cold, snowy landscape where nothing lasts for long. And in my head – isn’t this something similar to expanding Yuji’s domain? By its nature, Yuji cannot expand the domain – so perhaps this is a small nod to what it means. Something that never was. That’s why even a simple snow rock hitting his head broke the illusion of the landscape. But Yuji quickly turned back to look at his prey. I like how Mahito went from looking strong to being weak. I like how they animated him there. Then there’s the fact that Yuji’s shadow is longer and has red eyes. Since Sukuna left him in front of the huge hole he left behind. Yuji has never had a moment to let his hair down. And the person who also has hair like that is none other than Sukuna. At that moment Mahito began to fear what kind of person Yuji would become in the future. I’m afraid Yuji is gradually becoming more like Sukuna. Can’t help but wonder what his future is here.
Okay – let’s get that out of the way. There was a moment that was unexpected but perfect for JJK. When Todo drops the pendant with a picture of Yuji and his favorite idol – a J-Pop song starts playing and Todo starts imagining a battle between his favorite idol and him. It was a funny moment but perfect for JJK because it never really took itself too seriously. The lights are flashing, everything is perfect and certain, all these fights and metaphors are starting to get deep. So it’s nice to have a little thing like that every now and then. Seriously, this episode just ended. For some reason, the snowfall scene was done so perfectly that it brought tears to my eyes. Then of course Geto finally shows up and offers to help Mahito.
On a side note, don’t you think Mahitos VA (Shimazaki, Nobunaga) just stole this episode!? Like I was seriously thinking about all the little details he added, like the giggles when Mahito runs headless and when he smiles – all the little onomatopoeia it feels like they’ve been turned up to eleven. In my opinion, Nobunaga-san did a great job. It feels like this is one of the last episodes he’ll be in, hit the home run! And he delivered! Or at least they want to give him more stars because this is a big fight!
Oh-two more episodes to go-and honestly I’m a little scared because let’s just say the manga didn’t do a very good job of wrapping up this arc. Hopefully MAPPA will do a better job of it—but so far the adaptation has been great. So I have hope.
Full-length images: 57.
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