Jujutsu Kaisen – 39 – Murder Machine

Rather than escape Dagon’s beach domain through Megumi’s hole, Touji enters and joins the party. Only he’s not quite himself; the Old Lady’s technique was left on after she was killed, so he’s in a continuous state of murderous frenzy, drawn like a guided missile to the strongest one in range—in this case, Dagon. He “borrows” Maki’s staff then gets to work.

It’s a pretty fun (and very wet) battle, but we all knew it would end with Dagon gone and the beach domain with him, and what seemed like a temporarily alliance would break down. After all, this version of Touji likely wouldn’t join forces with the Zenins if he was in his right mind. He isn’t, and his next target is Megumi, apparently the next-strongest.

Just because he tosses Megumi out onto the street and joins him there doesn’t meant Nanami, Maki, and Naobito are in any better a way. In fact, this just isn’t their arc. Were it not for Touji, Dagon would have killed them all. But now that Dagon is dead, Jougo shows up to mourn his comrade’s death, then burns Nanami, Maki, and Naobito to a crisp. Then he senses Sukuna, or rather one of his fingers. Sure enough, Nanako and Mimiko are feeding one to an unconscious Yuuji.

Jougo shows up in a hurry and burns the girls, but they survive thanks to Nanako’s cameraphone. Jougo feeds Yuuji ten more fingers, so Sukuna can be temporarily awakened while Yuuji’s body takes time to repress him. It works, and Sukuna’s first act is to cut Jougo’s arm off then slice off the top of his head for not bowing low enough before him.

The Nanaba sisters raise their heads when ordered to and make their case: if Sukuna kills the fake Getou, they’ll give him another finger. This displeases him, and he beheads Mimiko in an instant. When Nanako screams in anguish, and prepares to attack him with her phone, he slices the top half of her head off, then cuts her into a gory fine dice.

RIP Nanako and Mimiko, trapped between allowing the fake Getou to continue desecrating the man they loved, and having to ask Sukuna for help. I guess they figured it was better to at least try with Sukuna. He wasn’t interested in helping them, but he tells Jougo he’ll fight for the cursed spirits if Jougo can score one hit on him. Like the sisters, Jougo prepares to go for it, because what the hell else is he going to do?

The Ancient Magus’ Bride – S2 17 – Stop and Smell the Tomatoes

With the sudden influx of students being sapped of their magic, Nurse Alex puts Chise to work filling gathering stones with her massive stores of it, the magical version of donating blood. Chise’s Sleigh Beggy has given and taken many things from her, and she wonders if she’s good for anything else.

Like any good teacher, Alex encourages her to search far and wide for a new skill or talent, if that’s what she wants. But then an ill student enters the infirmary, grabs Chise’s hand, and starts to drain her magic. He had woken from a dream where he saw a strange hand, and for a brief moment Chise sees it too.

Quillyn separates the possessed student from Chise, but the damage is done. Chise hasn’t lost all her magic, but has lost enough that she doesn’t have enough to share with a still severely magic-deficient Lucy, who passes out. At Elias’ urging, Quillyn drops a pile of candy bars on Chise so she can build her magic back up through calories.

Quillyn, Elias, and Chise ponder what just took place. From what she experienced, it’s possible that the book is manipulating its user to attack students. The user seems to be unwilling to kill anyone, but the attack on Chise suggests the book is growing impatient.

Chise’s magic recovers enough for Lucy eventually come to, and then Jasmine and all the other ill students suddenly wake up feeling much better. Quillyn decides to inform the entire student body of the stolen book and attacks, and the rumors start to fly.

After her exertions, Elias flags down Chise and suggests she take a day off and pick tomatoes with him. It’s a lovely scene, especially when a smiling Chise playfully tosses two tomatoes at Lucy and Seth; it’s also good to see the two have become closer. Eventually everyone else shows up to enjoy the tomatoes.

It’s a gathering and a mood Chise wants to cherish and not forget, but not everyone participated. Rian is off on his own, trying in vain to get to an increasingly reclusive Philomela (the cat dorm mother won’t let him near the girls’ dorms). As the students continue to undergo magical combat training under Fabio and Sigrid, Elias has another conversation with Alcyone.

The subject is the roles people play. As Elias is still getting used to being a person and Alcyone doesn’t consider herself a fully constructed person, needless to say it’s an interesting discussion. Just as Alex encouraged Chise earlier to expand her horizons if she wishes to, Elias encourages Alcyone not to dwell on her perceived “adequacy” and take on the role of a parent.

When we reach the month-and-a-half mark since the College was sealed, “Kevin”, whom I’m sure had lines in previous episodes but whom I just don’t remember, wants to “kill time” by searching for the attacker. Lucy tells him he’s asking to be killed full stop, and he accuses her of being the attacker and takes a shot at her family.

I thought for sure Lucy would get up and pummel the sonofabitch, but it’s Chise who drops whatever secret woodcraft she’s working on and grabs Kevin by the scruff, taking him to task for saying “things that shouldn’t be said.” Eventually everyone assembled urges Kevin to apologize, but Lucy doesn’t want an apology. Then she pummels him with a clean right hook to the chin.

Chise knows that if Kevin saw what Lucy and her have seen, he wouldn’t be so quick to thoughtlessly leap into harm’s way. In any case, I love the bond Chise and Lucy have formed, even if Lucy is pissed she jumped into her fight. I wish I could say the same of Philomela, who Chise desperately wants to help, but feels selfish for wanting that.

Veronica is the only one to visit her, and brings a sandwich, correctly presuming she hasn’t been eating well. Mela can only manage a single bite before retching and vomiting. At the moment, “everything is terrifying” for poor Mela, and that closeup of Veronica is ambiguous as hell. My first thought was she’s just being nice, but there could well be something else going on…