Ao no Exorcist: Shimane Illuminati-hen – 10 – Alone No Longer

Nine Tails is an ancient intermediate demon Holy Cross has never figured out how to exorcise, but the Kamiki clan is a different story. Freed from Nine Tails, Izumo’s mother Tamamo is able to see, stand, and perform the dance needed to dodge Nine Tails’ attacks, and transfer it right back to her own failing body.

This way, when Tamamo dies, Nine Tails dies with her. After years of, shall we say, somewhat shabby parenting, Tamamo comes through as a mother when it counts most: when the choice comes between her daughter’s death or her own, there is no choice. With her final breaths, she tells her beloved treasure that she’ll be okay, because she’s not alone: she’s surrounded by friends.

While this death scene is unfolding, Gedouiin prepares a last-resort device that will transfer Nine Tails directly to his body, with predictably grotesque results. I’m not going to linger on how out-of-left-field this is. Suffice it to say, just when Izumo believes she’s powerless, her fox-brothers Uke and Mike return to her. Turns out Shima “went easy” on them, but they still needed time to recover.

Now that Izumo knows she’s no longer alone and doesn’t have to fight alone, she asks her friends for help fighting off the waves of zombies while she recites the most powerful incantation of her life, one that transforms the foxes into fox-men. Resplendent in golden regalia, she rejects Gedouiin’s assertion that they both hate all humans. She once did, but not anymore. With the slash of her fan, she lets Gedouiin have it.

Shima pops in to grab what’s left of Gedouiin before disappearing, and the other Holy Cross branches arrive to bring the situation under control. Rin & Co.’s mission to rescue Izumo is a success, so it’s off to the hospital to heal the many wounds incurred from their exertion.

Izumo comes to in a hospital, still worried about the fate of Tsukumo, but Takara grants her a magic key that she uses to access Tsukumo’s new home. Her adoptive parents are Takara’s relatives, making her his cousin, but when Izumo appears before her, Tsukumo doesn’t recognize her.

That only makes sense, as she was only three when they were last together. Even so, Tsukumo remembers the fox doll Izumo returns to her, as she was told she had had it since she was a baby. It’s a bittersweet experience for Izumo, who returns to the hospital room she shares with a now-awake Shiemi.

For so long, Izumo had feared the worst had happened to her sister, but she was safe and sound all along. It’s a lot to process, and as a result Izumo starts to bawl her eyes out, while lashing out at Shiemi. But Shiemi’s smile is undefeated, and she’s relieved Izumo is able to cry, and be angry, and laugh. They cry it out together, and when Izumo hears Bon, Rin, and Koneko talking in the hall, she unleashes her foxes to playfully punish them.

After paying her respects to her mother’s grave, vowing not to feel sorry for herself any more, Izumo returns with her friends, has a tearful reunion with Paku at the train station (that also makes Shiemi cry, natch), and the whole gang (sans Shima) heads home together.

Despite some crosswinds, Ao no Exorcist managed to land the plane with an emotionally resonant and satisfying end to the Izumo rescue. While Gedouiin is still out there somewhere and the threat of Lucifer remains, all is well where it counts: in this circle of friends, and in Izumo’s heart.

Ao no Exorcist: Shimane Illuminati-hen – 09 – Cry for Help

Gedouiin, who I’m thoroughly sick and tired of because he’s such a pathetic joke of a non-character (he’s just evil incarnate), fills in our baby exorcists on just how freakin’ evil he is, getting tourists hooked on drugged food and then using them for human experimentation. But things take a turn for the bleak when they actually parade Izumo right out in front of Rin & Co., and when he rushes in to save her, she refuses to be saved.

We know Izumo’s deal: not only is she going through with this on the slight chance it saves her sister, she also doesn’t believe she deserves to be rescued. Instead, she believes her only path is alone, specifically in a one-on-one battle against the Nine Tails. If she can manage to dominate and control it, she can rescue herself. Dressed to the nines and outfitted with a special “Mask of the Chosen”, Izumo begins what might be her last dance.

The dance brings the Nine Tails out of her mother, but just as she’s steeling herself for the fight for her body, in her mind’s eye she’s impaled from behing by several giant claws. The claws are only in her head, but she undergoes pain unlike anything she’s ever experienced, and boy howdy does Kitamura Eri ever sell the agony. All the while, Gedouiin is barking at her to go ahead and die so the Nine Tails can take over.

Izumo eventually becomes (somewhat) numbed to the intense pain, as she lies on the ground covered in necrotic lesions from the process. Now she has longer nails, fox ears, and those telltale tails. She remembers Shima saying he was “tired” of his friends and family, and Izumo feels the same way: tired. She tells herself she always hated the people who surrounded her. And yet, at the same time, she was sad to see them argue. She finally tearfully accepts that maybe she liked them after all.

She asks somebody, anybody, for help, assuming it’s far to late for anyone to hear. But Rin hears her, escapes from the fleshy prison of a berserk chimera, and crashes down to where a shocked Izumo lies. Rin gives Gedouiin a punch that sends him flying, but honestly I’d have preferred a swift decapitation.

Instead, he’s only wounded, and decides to buy more time by dumping hundreds of zombies into the area. Izumo urges Rin to take her mother and leave her, but that’s not happening. After several episodes of mistery and hopelessness, things are finally looking up. Rin just has to hold out long enough for the others to arrive, and then they can all save Izumo together …  because it’s never too late to ask your friends for help.

Ao no Exorcist: Shimane Illuminati-hen – 08 – There’s No Going Back

Gedouiin may be the Absolute Ruler of Illuminati’s Far East Laboratory, but in the presence of a temporarily conscious Lord Lucifer he devolves into a blubbering, idolizing supplicant. He wants nothing more than to help his lord accomplish his goals, and more importantly, that he is more important an asset then the “sow” commander or anyone else.

There’s just a small hiccup: despite him reporting that Kamiki Izumo is extraordinarily compatible with the Nine Tails, extensive testing has revealed that in fact she has a 99.92% chance of dying instantly during the transplant process. Gedouiin is going to run with those terrible odds, because he has to, but just in case Izumo dies, he at least wants to report to Lucifer that he was able to subdue the Spawn of Satan.

Yet, even on that front Gedouiin fails, at least this week. While the chimeras he keeps locked away are the stuff of nightmares, even Konekomaru is able to escape their jaws when he snaps out of his state of panic and anxiety and remembers what his friends told him he was capable of. He lures his chimera to a hatch and once the hatch is smashed open, he slips out of his cell and reunites with Kuro, who is very hangry. He also checks in on Yukio, who was able to subdue his chimera by literally stitching its body to the ground.

Bon initially tries to use his Dragoon’s bazooka, but when he realizes the chimeras can not only speak, but his chimera in particular wants to “go home.” He learns he’s dealing with an entity that still has a shred of humanity. Summoning a mirror of water, the chimera sees itself and collapses in distress. Bon then uses his Aria skills to help the poor wretched creature pass on in peace. I couldn’t help but thing of poor Mitty after Bondrewd’s experiments in Made in Abyss.

Shiemi is saved by Nee, who breaks them out of their cell by growing a huge tree and turns their chimera to dust. At the end of the ordeal, Rin can tell Shiemi is shaking with exhaustion and exertion, but still won’t give up on saving Izumo and Shima, if its the last thing they do.

Konekomaru is troubled that Rin, their ace in the hole, still won’t commit to using killing force against even things that were once human but can never be human again. Of course, if Rin does start killing humans, even to save his friends, it puts him on the path to losing his humanity.

But just as the chimeras can’t go back to their human lives, neither Rin nor anyone else in this lab can go back to who they were. Shima knows Rin’s weakness all too well, and as he counsels an increasingly desperate and unhinged Gedouiin, he’s counting on Rin’s inability to kill humans as the lynchpin in the fight to defeat True Cross and make Lucifers plans a reality.

Rin & Co. have escaped their cells, but they’re still deep within Gedouiin’s twisted madhouse. Things are likely to get much uglier before they start looking up, while the life of Izumo, who is probably feeling more defeated than ever after the loss of her fox-brothers, now hangs by the thinnest of threads.

Ao no Exorcist: Shimane Illuminati-hen – 07 – Mall of the Damned

Now that we’re up to speed on the horrific circumstances of her past and torturous circumstances of her present, what does the future hold for Kamiki Izumo? Can she, like, maybe catch a fucking break at some point? The last couple weeks have made clear that she’s not just a prisoner of the Illuminati, but also convinced she is the only one who can and must bear this awful fate.

As she’s walked in cuffs down a long hall to her eventual doom, All Izumo can do is laugh and try to mess with Mr. Pink Hair, asking if he’s enjoying this. When he says there’s a chance she can walk away from this if everything goes well, she tells him there’s no hope for her: she’s a dead girl walking regardless of the results.

Her nihilistic attitude only lasts as long as the corridor, for when they reach Gedouiin she makes such a big loud outburst she’s able to swipe the pen from a guard, stab them with it, then cut herself with the spring and summon Uke and Mike.

When they tell her that people from the Order are coming to rescue her, she doesn’t want to hear it. The only one she’s relying on is herself and her foxes. She’ll escape, find Tsukumo, and get her to safety. It’s a terrible plan with little to no chance of success.

Pheles leaves the operation in Yukio’s hands, promising backup at some point but unable to tell them when. Inari Peace Town is full of brainwashed people who eat all day, like the pigs in Spirited Away. They’re then bussed off to a mall, for some unknown purpose. While Rin and the others ate food from Inari Peace Town, they’re saved from its effects thanks to Shiemi’s medicinal herb sandwiches.

Once they get past the first few guards and infiltrate the creepily deserted mall, they learn what happens to the people bussed there: They become Gedouiin’s experiments. The ones that fail become zombies, and he’s unleashed those zombies onto Yukio, Rin, & Co.

While the general zombie mall atmosphere is pretty creepy, it can’t really compete with, say, Jujutsu Kaisen, especially when the spooky zombies in question are lame CG models, some of which have identical blood splattering on their tunics. Some hand drawn stuff would pack more of a punch.

When Gedouiin learns that Rin and Yukio are among the Order intruders, he changes up his strategy, ordering the floor of the mall opened and all the intruders shunted into the foreboding-sounding “feeding area.” Feeding what fell beasts, I ask?

Izumo, flanked by an Uke and Mike determined to protect her they disobey her orders, try their best, but Shima is able to summon a demon that not only disperses the fox spirits, but eliminates them. Just like that, the foxes Izumo thought of as brothers are gone from her life.

Her spirit newly-crushed, Izumo is re-shackled and her long walk to her doom continues. As for Shima, if he wasn’t before, he’s truly an irredeemable villainous scum now, right?

As if the zombies whose head wounds healed wasn’t enough, now the exorcists are separated in different dark places, next to some kind of horrendous beasts that are excited for food. Rin recalls Shima telling him he’s going to have to be okay with killing humans if he’s going to have any chance going forward. The time for wavering and half-measures is over.

Saving Izumo means Rin will have to do a lot of horrible things and will have to live with himself. Even then, so as long as Tsukumo is in the enemy’s clutches, Izumo doesn’t even want to be saved. It’s just a big old downer. The good guys need a win somewhere in the worst way. Hopefully they can score one next week.

Ao no Exorcist: Shimane Illuminati-hen – 06 – Outfoxed

This week is given over entirely to the story of Kamiki Izumo’s childhood—if you can call it that—and it’s a tough watch, even during its more comedic moments. At no point does anyone in this episode treat Izumo like the child she is. We open with her ostensible mother, Tamamo, crying on her shoulder about Souji, Izumo and Tsukumo’s father. Meanwhile, all of the household duties are handled by the foxes, who love Tamamo unconditionally.

That’s because no one in the long line of Kamiki Tamamos throughout the centuries has performed a more powerful or beautiful dance of appeasement before the Killing Stone, where the Fox of Nine Tails dwells. Even Izumo is in awe of Tamamo when she’s doing her dance, even if the rest of the time she’s a complete train wreck of a mother unable to subordinate her forbidden love of the high priest Souji for anyone, even her daughters.

Tamamo takes every opportunity she can to pawn Tsukumo off onto Izumo, who must serve as a surrogate mother while she hangs out with Souji. When Izumo is at school, she has to leave Tsukumo in the care of other priestesses, who consider the girls bastards who sully the shrine. She’s made fun of and isolated at school for being able to see fox spirits. It’s a lot for a little girl, but this is Izumo; even she smells something shady-af when reps from Illuminati roll up to ask her some questions about the Killing Stone.

Even so, Izumo takes the business card of Illuminati’s Yoshida Maria, just in case she needs advice from someone else who can see what they call “demons.” As for Tamamo, she is responsible for appeasing the Nine Tails, a job that requires extreme emotional focus and stability. All that is destroyed with a few words from Souji, who as high priest should’ve really known better. When Tamamo asks if he’ll visit their children, he says he doesn’t want to, and if she keeps bringing it up, he’ll stop letting her visit him.

In the present, Izumo can’t stop blaming herself for everything that happened that has placed her and her sister in such a predicament. But she’s wrong. This is the fault of one person, and one person only: Souji. He sent Tamamo over the deep end, and eventually the Nine Tails took advantage of her heartbreak, anger, and despair, and possessed her, and transforming her into a murderous demon. That night, it’s all Izumo can do to run off while the foxes protect Tsukumo from Tamamo. She doesn’t even have time to put shoes on.

Izumo calls the only person in the world she can call: Maria, who takes her and Tsukumo to Illuminati, while her Nine Tails-ified mother is captured. Maria promises they’ll all be taken care of and protected from Holy Cross, who will want to eliminate Tamamo on site. But Maria isn’t in charge of Illuminati, and even though Izumo eventually comes to trust her a little bit, Maria never had the power or authority to make any such promises.

When Maria learns how mistaken she was about what goes on here, how much torture Tamamo is undergoing, and how Gedouiin plans to experiment on Tsukumo next, she make another unilateral call and has Tsukumo whisked away for adoption. When she did that, she automatically ruined any chance of Izumo trusting her ever again, no matter how good her intentions. Izumo asks if Maria will keep her cell door unlocked while she’s gone. She does, and Izumo leaves the room and is caught.

Once again, Izumo is subjected to sights and sounds a child should never see or hear, as Maria is beaten and begs for her life, only to be injected with an experimental immortality elixir that kills her after a few moments of unspeakable agony. The grotesque mad scientist Gedouiin is fearsome in his anger, and drunk with the absolute power bestowed upon him by Lucifer himself. Gedouiin doesn’t mince words with Izumo: submit to him entirely and he’ll leave Tsukumo alone … for a bit.

It’s a shit deal, and even young Izumo probably knows it, but she also knows it’s the best deal she’s going to get from this true demon in human skin. If becoming the next Nine Tails vessel will keep Tsukumo safe for a year, a month, or even just a day, she’ll do it.

Because if there’s one thing she learned in these hellish few weeks of her so-called childhood, it’s that she can’t rely on anyone. Not her mother, not Tamamo, and not Shima or Rin or Shiemi or Yukio. The gang rescuing her from Gedouiin and the Illuminati is one thing. Freeing her from the soul-crushing belief that she’s on her own in this wretched world, and always will be? That’ll be a far tougher task.

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead – 11 – Warring States of Being

Kencho manages to track down Anju, thank goodness, who went after her dog, the only family she has left, but the older baddie ends up cornering them atop the roof of a barn, and intends to push them off. Bea is headed to the water wheel but is knocked off her horse by the female baddie, who engages her in a hedge-trimmer/katana duel.

When the old folks tell Shizuka they can’t run, she throws risk analysis out the window and heroically lures the zombies away. Akira uses a farmer’s hoe to cut back the zombies descending on his parents and the three city survivors he befriended. Our group may be completely split up, like the bad guys, but they’re not really alone.

Akira’s dad is clearly keeping some kind of terminal illness a secret from his son, but even if he wasn’t about to keel over from that, he’d probably still tell his son to stay inside and let him handle the zombies. He may never be an astronaut, but he still has a son with dreams he isn’t interested in outliving.

We get the sob stories of the old baddie, the fat baddie, and the female baddie, and honestly I didn’t even have the energy to break out the world’s tiniest air violin. These three suck. In contrast to our four heroes, they’ve only ever cared about themselves. They have no one to blame for their miserable lives than themselves.

Our heroes don’t usually have to try to reason with their adversaries (because they’re typically mindless zombies), but I like how they try here, starting with Kencho perfectly outlining all of the little ways the old bad guy messed up with his relationship with his wife.

When that doesn’t work Kencho goes Full Kencho (i.e. nude) and dives head-first into the cesspit. The zombies lose his scent and surround the old bad guy, who runs into the over-electrified fencde. When Kencho emerges he is now entirely pixelated (thank goodness) and Anju warns him in no uncertain terms he’s not to come near her until he’s bathed thoroughly.

With the girl and her dog safe, we head back to the house where all the elderly villagers are holed up. Old Man Hiko, typically bedridden, asks where his late wife Akemi is. When they tell him Shizuka is using herself as bait, he asks them what they’re still doing there.

The fat bad guy is armed with a pistol and chasing Shizuka to French kiss her, but Hiko, a sharpshooter, manages to intervene, and mustered the other older villagers to protect Shizuka and beat the crap out of the bad guy. Shizuka, shedding tears of relief and joy, thanks them from the bottom of her heart, but she earned their help by being so kind to them; by becoming a part of the community.

The female bad guy’s axe to grind is that people resented, hated, and mocked her for her unbending, my-way-or-the-high-way attitude towards everyone. Beatrix lists all the ways Germans do things that differ and may even seem ridiculous to the Japanese, but insists there is no perfectly right way to do things.

Beatrix then demonstrates that there’s more than one way to deactivate the water wheel, by leaping onto it and using the weight of the zombies attack to wrench it free. She then balances herself on the wheel and crushes the zombies one by one … but doesn’t crush the woman. Instead, the woman is surrounded by zombies an meets certain doom.

Finally, there’s Higurashi, the ringleader. His three comrades may be defeated, but he proves he’s real boss asshole material by plucking up Akira’s dad, who is on his last legs, and threatening to toss him to the zombies unless Akira lets himself get zombified.

I’m gonna go not very far out on a limb and predict that the MC of this show is not going to kick the bucket in episode 12. Between zombies and his health condition his dad seems like a more likely victim. Maybe our now-dreadlocked recovered salaryman will find some way to talk down or outfox Higurashi. Or maybe he’ll get a last-minute assist from friends new and old.

Jujutsu Kaisen – 44 – Brotherly Love

JJK twists the knife one more time to open this outing, showing us a random but beautiful memory of Nobara spilling coffee on Gojou’s $1,700 shirt, then hard-cutting to Juju looking down on Nobara’s lifeless body, a gaping bloody hole where her left eye once was.

Yuuji is, as you’d expect, extremely torn up about this, to the point he loses all will to fight or even dodge Mahito’s blows. Mahito, who has already well outstayed his welcome this season, starts waxing philosophical at the top of his lungs while beating Yuuji to a pulp.

His main point is that this is a war, whoever wants it more wins, neither of them have counted the ones they’ve killed, and eventually Mahito will even forget Yuuji. But before he can deliver a fatal blow with an arm-blade, Mahito hears a “clap” and suddenly Yuuji’s on the other side of the platform. His big brother, Toudou Aoi, has arrived.

Yuuji tells Toudou how not only Nobara, but also Nanami died, and he himself killed countless others as Sukuna; so many that he may never be able to save enough people to even it out. His convitions turned out to be nothing but an excuse.

Toudou, accompanied by first-year Nitta Arata (probably Akari’s brother), tells Yuuji what he needs to hear: the two of them are Jujutsu Sorcerers, not bound by “sin” or “punishment” like ordinary folk. And even should their comrades die, they are never truly defeated as long as they keep fighting.

Buoyed by Toudou’s inspiring words and partially healed by Arata (who also “freezes” Nobara in her current condition, telling him she has a “non-zero” chance of surviving), Yuuji snaps out of his funk and joins the fray, delivering Black Flash body shots to Mahito while Toudou keeps the two of them clean with clap switches.

Whither Miwa, Mai, Kamo, Nishimiya, and Utahime? Mechamaru made sure they were on a mission south of Kyoto on the day of the Shibuya Incident. He tells Miwa this while she and the others are on a train (presumably headed further away from the battle). In the last moments his device is still activated, he essentially tells Miwa he did what he had to do to protect the girl he loved. Now that he’s gone, he wants her to find her happiness anew.

Then we’re back to the beefy Toudou (who naturally shed all clothing above the belt) and a revitalized Yuuji continuing to go at it with Mahito, whom I am now on record as being completely and utterly done with. I’m just so sick of any and all attacks seemingly having no effect on him.

At least we hear his thoughts as he assesses the situation: Toudou’s at full strength, Yuuji’s around 10%, and he’s down to 40%. So even if he doesn’t look it, he’s in pretty bad shape. Of course, that’s when one needs to be most on guard against someone as crafty as Mahito. Toudou rises to the occasion, using a Black Flash for the first time (though it apparently doesn’t affect Mahito’s soul).

He decides to take things up a notch, summoning a whole damn train made out of transfigured humans, eventually forcing the battle to the surface right by the 109 building and coming at Yuuji and Toudou with a many-headed monster. Here’s hoping we can wrap this up soon.

Jujutsu Kaisen – 43 – Harder to Be Strangers

Outside the veil, outside of immediate danger, an injured Nitta insists that Nobara heed Nanami’s words and stay put. But Nobara was never one to stay away from danger; of all the callings she could have pursued, she chose the life of a jujutsu sorcerer, likely the most dangerous job a mortal human could have.

And as long as her two friends Yuuji and Megumi are still in there fighting and she can still fight herself, she’s going back in, leading to her duel with Mahito’s double. As an anime-only viewer, I didn’t know she wouldn’t be coming back out.

Nobara fights with calm focus, her eyes always locked on her foe, and her nails are always probing for weaknesses and strategies for victory. All of her careful preparation and diligent execution pay culminate in the use of her special skill, Resonance, which not only wounds her Mahito, but the one about to kill Yuuji, who had messed up and was on the back foot.

Nobara allows herself a wry grin at the discovery that this is not Mahito, but only a double who can’t use his full repertoire of techniques. In this scenario, one could imagine Nobara doing pretty well in this battle, as a double of Mahito isn’t on the same “special” level as Mahito Prime.

Unfortunately, their battle is cut short just when she declares it to have just begun, as Mahito’s double skitters away. Nobara follows him underground, where he crosses paths with the real Mahito that Yuuji is chasing. Mahito’s double lines up his pursuer perfectly to be in the direct path of the Real McCoy. Yuuji and Nobara spot each other, but it’s too late. The real Mahito places his hand on her face, I knew it was all over for her.

Appropriately, Nobara’s life flashes before her, and thus our eyes. Specifically, we go back to when she was just a first grader in her tiny village. Told from the point of view of a bullied girl named Fumi, Nobara likes her blue backpack all the other kids hate, and beats up her bullies. Nobara and Fumi become fast friends, and soon Nobara introduces her to Saori, an older girl who is a newcomer to the village who serves them tea.

The more time the two younger girls spend with Saori, the more Fumi notices a change in the gender-creative Nobara, no doubt due to the older girl’s influence. In the parlance of former times, she gets a little more girly. But one day they arrive and Saori’s house is covered in graffiti and intentionally buried in snow. Saori’s family eventually leaves town. Fumi holds Nobara’s hand, and witnesses her crying for the first time. Not just crying, but bawling her eyes out.

Some years pass, and Nobara is the next to leave the village to attend high school in Tokyo. Nobara puts up a brave face that initially has Fumi worried she wouldn’t cry for her like she did for Saori. It isnt until Nobara turns around just as the train doors close that Fumi sees the tears welling up; tears followed by her own as her best friend is bourne away from her.

Back in the present, Saori is now an salarywoman working long nights by the glow of her computer. When a co-worker hands her some tea, she reminisces about the younger girls who used to visit her when she lived in a tiny village (her mom was apparently a spiritualist kook who was run out of town).

Just as Nobara was changed by spending time with her, Saori, an only child, regarded Nobara as her little sister, and as such acted in a more mature manner. She wonders what Nobara would think of her if she saw her now; if she’d be disappointed in what had become of her.

The present Nobara finds herself in a white void filled with chairs, most of which are empty. But Yuuji, Megumi, and Gojou are sitting on a couch being their usual selves, and high-school age Fumi is looking at her with the last expression she saw: on the verge of tears.

Both of them revert to kids, and Nobara apologizes for not being able to fulfill her promise for the two of them and Saori to reunite someday.

Nobara, who knows full well what it means to have been touched on her face by someone like Mahito, uses her final few moments to smile back at a petrified Yuuji and say “I’ve had a pretty good life.” And then that life ends.

Two things I’m comfortable saying I hate: when a non-male character dies simply to fuel the flames of motivation for a male character, and when a character who didn’t get their due finally receives a backstory right before being killed off.

I’ll also admit that, due to carelessness, I learned just before watching this episode today, and not before, that Nobara would die. And I should have hated everything about this episode, but I couldn’t. My cynicism melted as soon as I saw young Nobara’s brightly smiling, then sobbing face.

JJK was able to introduce Amanai Riko, get me to care about her, and make her demise resonate deeply, all in just the space of a couple of episodes. Meanwhile, we haven’t seen or learned nearly enough of Kugisaki Nobara for my taste in the past forty-two episodes, but I saw and learned enough both throughout those and here in “Right and Wrong, Part 2”, that her unfair, premature, heartrending, noble end hits that much harder.

RABUJOI WORLD HERITAGE LIST

Jujutsu Kaisen – 42 – One Mahito, Two Mahito

As voices from the past go through Yuuji’s head as he wanders Shibuya Station in search of another battle, a half-burned Nanami also shambles along, both in the station and in his Happy Place: a pristine Malaysian beach. When he finds a huge mass of transfigured humans, he pounds them all into jelly, and then Mahito shows up, just moments before Yuuji does.

Unlike countless humans he’s transfigured and used as tools and weapons, Mahito actually gives Nanami a relatively clean and quick death, perhaps in deference to their previous fights. But yeah, that’s the end of Nanami Kento (RIP), whose last words to Yuuji are “Take it from here.” Yuuji is certainly game, but he’s also a hothead, and Mahito knows exactly what buttons to push to throw him off balance.

A battle against Mahito is a battle of millimeters, so any adverse change in balance can get one killed. Fortunately, a Yuuji apparently healed and energized by Sukuna’s brief awakening manages to keep up with Mahito’s grotesque nonsense, enduring being pushed against one wall by another wall made of flesh, and Mahito even leaning in for a kiss only to shoot his mouth out like a deadly blade.

Mahito knows Yuuji has a kind heart, and uses un-transfigured humans to trick him, delivering a blow that stuns him. Meanwhile, we learn that several hours ago Mahito split himself into two, with one going down into the station and the other prowling at street level.

While the former is the one fighting Yuuji, the latter encounters Nobara, who is eager to kill him for Yuuji’s sake. Mahito has other ideas, like dragging Nobara’s lifeless corpse before Yuuji in hopes of breaking his brain for good. One can simply never underestimate Mahito’s level of unhinged depravity.

Jujutsu Kaisen – 41 – My Neighbor Mahoraga

First, I wanted to address the fact that Studio Mappa has been running its animators absolutely ragged and not paying them what they deserve. I’m joining the chorus of viewers and fans in calling for more realistic deadlines and better pay for the staff of massively talented but massively overworked creatives. If that means longer delays between episodes and seasons, so be it. We can’t have animation houses full of Akiras from ZOM 100.

With all that said, what an amazing episode of television this was, especially when it’s likely it was still being drawn hours or even minutes before it aired in Japan, which is just nuts. One fine sunny day, Gojou basically told Megumi that he had the potential to beat him someday, if he was ever able to subjugate the most powerful shikigami in his Ten Shadows repertoire.

That shikigami’s name is Eight-Handed Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga, and this week, stalked and bloodied by Shigemo Haruta, Megumi summons him as a last resort, promising Shigemo that he’ll die first. It’s pretty clear Shigemo is no match for Mahoraga, but when Sukuna arrives fresh off his win over Jougo, he tells the virtually unconscious Megumi that he still needs him for his plans, so he can’t let him die.

That means Sukuna must defeat Mahoraga, which is no easy feat. Every attack Sukuna throws at him, Mahoraga adapts, becoming faster, stronger, and even growing to kaiju size. It must be said that Sukuna looks like he’s having the time of his life fighting Mahoraga, which tracks since he rarely goes up against someone who puts up a fight. Jougo, for all his smoldering flames, was a pushover by comparison.

As the battle progresses and gets more and more insane, buildings crumble to the ground and large swaths of innocent bystanders are massacred. This culminates in Sukuna using his domain expansion, Malevolent Shrine, which is different from other domains in that it doesn’t create its own space, but exists in the regular physical world, thus increasing its range.

In this domain, Sukuna is able to unleash enough attacks in quick enough succession to outpace Mahoraga’s adaptation. Mahoraga perishes in a cataclysmic explosion that creates a huge expanse of nothingness where Shibuya once stood. When Sukuna returns to the ground, a cowed Shigemo is overjoyed to have survived, but even he ends up slice up like a Christmas ham. I won’t miss him.

Sukuna leaves the battered Megumi he saved with Ieiri, then withdraws back into Yuuji, telling him to “savor” the rush of memories of everything Sukuna did when he was in control. Yuuji is overwhelmed with grief and guilt as all of that hideous imagery washes over him and causes him to vomit.

He then resolves to keep fighting; otherwise he’s nothing but a mass murderer. I think he’s being a bit harsh on himself. He’s a good kid, and what Sukuna did while in his body wasn’t something he could have controlled, or even been expected to control. He was caught up in what happens when any system relies on one person (Gojou) to maintain balance.

That said, with presumably no hostages left alive after Sukuna’s battles, this “Shibuya Incident” has devolved into a complete and unmitigated disaster. The only “wins” that can really be derived are that Yuuji, Megumi, and Nobara are still alive, and most of Tokyo still stands…but for how long?

Jujutsu Kaisen – 40 – We’re the Ants

Megumi can’t compete with Berserk Touji’s speed and power, so he tries to use fleeing hares to cover him while he puts some distance between them and formulates a strategy for victory. Unfortunately, Touji is so goddamn fast and so goddamn strong, he’s able to kill every single one of Megumi’s thousands of hares with flung bits of debris,

Kusakabe, who has Panda assigned to him, is absolutely determined not to get into a fight he won’t survive. He abhors a hassle, and thankfully Panda doesn’t know Shibuya well enough to locate B5 on his own, which is the one place Kusakabe is certain they’ll both get killed. Touji and Megumi continue their cat-and-mouse, with Megumi trying to use office sprinklers and Nue’s lightning to zap Touji, to no avail. Worth some style points, however.

Knowing Ieiri Shouko is somewhere on site to patch him up, Megumi decides to push his limits a bit for an all-or-nothing last-ditch attack against Touji. Of course, even with near-perfect timing he fails, but demonstrating his skills jolts the real Touji, whose body is being borrowed by another curse user, back into lucidity. He realizes this is his son he’s fighting, and when he learns his name is Fushiguro (and not Zen’in), he stabs himself in the brain to break the curse user’s link and end their fight.

That’s probably as close as we’ll get to Megumi meeting his father, because there are much bigger fish trying to fry each other. Taking up Sukuna on his offer, Jougo throws everything he’s got at him, but his attacks and defenses are just as ineffective against Sukuna as Megumi’s were against Berserk Touji. That said, two Special Grades going at it certainly makes for some striking visuals as they tear through downtown with no regard for collateral damage.

Kusakabe, delayed by Getou’s secretary Suda Manami, is the first to sense they all need to get the heck out of there, but they’re too late: as Jougo brings a freaking meteor down on top of him, Sukuna insists everyone remain still until he says so. He finally tells them they can go less than a second before the meteor falls on him, but it still misses, and Sukuna decides to whip out his own flames.

The result is academic; Jougo perishes, and meets his departed friends in a white void, lamenting that he lost and that only Mahito is left. Sukuna even invades this void, but not to continue the fight; instead he tells Jougo that in a thousand years, he was one of the more entertaining fights he’s had, so he should be proud he lasted as long as he did. This moves Jougo to tears.

Then someone named Uraume, perhaps drawn to Sukuna’s presence comes to his side, apparently ready to continue serving him. Sukuna seems pleased to see him at least. I’m not pleased to see ponytail guy, AKA Shigemo Haruta, still alive, but after bashing Megumi’s head in it looks like he won’t be for long as he’s being stalked by a hulking (and pissed) cursed spirit.

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?

My Happy Marriage – 06 – That’s Not Me Anymore

Miyo comes to in a stress position, hanging from a length of rope in a storeroom. When the door opens and pours the light of the setting sun onto her face, Kaya and her mother enter, replete with ill intent. They only have one simple demand: that Miyo reject her engagement to Kudou Kiyoka so Kaya can marry him instead.

If Miyo doesn’t comply, well…Kaya and her mom don’t beat around the bush. First Miyo slashes Miyo’s new kimono with scissors. Then she holds the scissors to Miyo’s throat. But crucially, Miyo doesn’t revert to her old submissive self, even in the face of pure evil.

Even when her stepmother smacks her in the face with a fan, Miyo looks back up at her with a defiant look she has never made. I’m reminded of Kei in Classroom of the Elite going through a similar crucible and coming out firm in her resolve not to break or give in no matter what.

This defiance and strength was always there within Miyo, but meeting someone as good and kind as Kiyoka unlocked that power in her, the power that allowed her to  value herself as he does, and to hope that he’ll come for her. And come he does: when the Saimori doors are shut, he blasts through with his lightning. When both Miyo’s father and an increasingly unhinged Minoru attack him, he blasts through them.

Even when a desperate Minoru creates a maelstrom of fire that begins to burn the Saimori house, Kudou Kiyoka, confirmed as the strongest gift-user of his time, takes off the kid gloves and knocks Minoru out with a giant bolt of lightning. As Kouji says, it’s like an adult fighting an angry kid. Minoru never had a chance, which begs the question: shouldn’t he have known that?

Kaya has resorted to trying to choke Miyo into agreeing to cancel her engagement to Kiyoka, but Miyo doesn’t waver, even for a second: she’ll be Kiyoka’s fiancée until she breathes her last. Thankfully, that’s not today, as Kiyoka arrives and catches Kaya and her mother in the act of brutally torturing Miyo. When she realizes he came for her after all, Miyo declares she’s glad she fought, before passing out.

After her mom looks outside to see their palatial home in flames (thanks entirely to Minoru), Kaya tries a feeble last-ditch attempt to convince Kiyoka that she is better suited to be his wife, saying Miyo isn’t even fit to be a proper servant. Kiyoka doesn’t lay a hand on her, but shuts her up with both his words and his icy gaze, assuring her he wouldn’t marry her even if the heavens commanded it.

While unconscious, Miyo meets her mother, who mentions a “power” she has within herself. Miyo isn’t sure what that is, but this confirms that she’s by no means ungifted. It’s just that her gift is either incredibly rare, or entirely unique.

We see a grizzled old man give a younger underling his approval to begin an “operation” to prevent the “accumulation of power”—i.e. a Kudou marrying an Usaba—so the threat to Miyo is far from over, but it’s over for now.

When she wakes up to find a relieved Kiyoka and Yurie by her side, Miyo is again glad she didn’t give up in the face of evil. The old her would have surrendered to the storm, but now she’s someone who can weather it, and come out the other end herself.