This week’s episode of Jujutsu Kaisen is one of those episodes that you just know will be trending on social media for weeks. Season 2 has been a blast so far, incorporating some of the best performances of anime fundamentals like strong art, fluid animation, beautiful lighting, and breathtaking voice acting . Last week’s episode in particular gave Nanami a chance to remind everyone that he is the sexiest man on the show and also one of the strongest. When adapting this part of the manga, Jujutsu Kaisen had to be extremely careful to balance conveying important explanatory detail with the presence of on-screen action and the amount of information an actual person could digest. received within minutes. Perhaps fittingly, Gojo’s careful and quick movement to defeat enemies while only keeping his territory open long enough to cause minimal damage to the brains of innocents is a microcosm perfect of the incredible work this season has done.
This episode starts right where the previous episode ended. Mechamaru informs Yuji and Mei Mei of where they should best head on the battlefield and Yuji rushes towards Gojo’s (sealed) locations. At the same time, the various cursed spirits in Pseudo-Geto’s group disperse from Gojo, and Mahito, Jogo, and Choso begin a small competition to see who can find Yuji. Choso, who wanted to kill Yuji for killing his brothers in part 1, was the lucky one when he ran into Yuji at the station entrance. And it appeared.
Jujutsu Kaisen spoilers ahead episode 37 Red Scales
Beautiful animation techniques
Before talking about Yuji’s fight with Choso, I want to take a moment to review what happened right before he got there. Yuji’s arrival outside the station exposed him to countless curses and human transformations as they slaughtered innocents. The anime did a much better job of showing the extent of the carnage and how Yuji’s face seemed to allude to Gojo finding himself in a similar situation. Yuji obviously can’t do what Gojo can, but I think it’s good to state his thoughts here. Unlike the first time he encountered transformed humans and couldn’t even bring himself to kill them, he was now making broader calculations about who would win the overall war and was confident that he could save enough people on his own to make the choice a possibility. It’s fun to watch.
The beginning of the fight uses clever camera angles and the music is quite good, with the transition from a close-up of each warrior’s face to an over-the-shoulder view adding to the dynamic feel of the scene. On top of that, I really like how the piercing blood is animated. Regardless of how fluid (literally) the attacks are, Jujutsu Kaisen is trying to capture the shine and sparkle of each droplet as it solidifies and the incredible supersonic speeds it is capable of. was fired. This is also an example in Jujutsu Kaisen where narration is needed to explain a technique, which is handled wonderfully. Even this part of Mechamaru flows smoothly, with the anime making the creative choice to add aspects of his explanation to his surroundings instead of inorganically cutting it to a sort of sketch. something.
The only time we see the blood manipulation technique is by Noritoshi Kamo in the Kyoto Sister-School Goodwill Event. To me, his fighting style is much less entertaining than Choso’ for two reasons. For starters, Noritoshi feels like a much more serious ranged fighter, especially since his weapon of choice is a bow and arrow. Choso creates range when it’s beneficial (especially against a brawler like Yuji) but can clearly strike when he needs to. Second, and more important (which I think the episode glosses over) is that Choso is not at risk of bleeding like a normal person. This is why he can easily and comfortably spray blood everywhere, get it back, and prepare for an additional attack. Choso was just reincarnated into a cursed womb and fought instinctively. It’s a much more purely tactical approach to the technique and has him using a number of extremely adaptable moves instead of traditional and tailored moves.
Highest level direction in Jujutsu Kaisen
Looking now at the bathroom fight specifically, I think many aspects of the episode’s direction and composition deserve praise. First, the music is used brilliantly not only to complement the action but to actually enhance it. The volume of the swelling music will gradually decrease the moment Yuji receives a devastating impact or when either of them is beaten to the point of losing concentration. Many of the synth-focused sections showed a clear Flying Lotus influence and it added a strong energy to the set. Every strike feels satisfying, and like the previous episode, Jujutsu Kaisen is putting more emphasis on something that many anime don’t tend to do: the sound of the fighter’s feet. Every slip, jump from Yuji, slight splash, or move across wet ground brings spatial detail to the parts of their body that we can see. The sound, movement, and sparks of cursed energy when fisting came together better than ever.
Parts of this fight feel like a 2D video game, and parts feel like a great arena game. Every part was incredibly satisfying and I rewatched it more times than I could count. I’ve seen a lot of people online comparing Jujutsu Kaisen to other anime (especially the big three) in terms of the choreography in this episode, and a lot of people reacted with disapproval. Personally, I don’t think it’s good to judge root quality by comparison or through some arbitrary analysis of how the fight fits into the overall story. This fight achieved an incredible outcome to the plot, showing Yuji reaching his physical limits for the first time in a long time, understanding his role as a cog in a machine. is more extensive and triggers some interesting false memories in a curse. Regardless of how strong that work is, I can say that an unimaginable amount of time and energy went into this episode and that in itself deserves praise. Sometimes, one fight that looks incredible is more than enough, and Jujutsu Kaisen delivers an even bigger impact on the plot. This is one of my favorite parts of the manga; it was incredibly rewarding to see it animated. Make sure this series gets the praise it deserves in our weekly rankings.
Image via Crunchyroll
© Akutami Gege/Shueisha/Jujutsu Kaisen Production Committee