Jujutsu Kaisen – 47 (S2 Fin) – World of the Future

It seemed like Tsukumo Yuki had come to save the day, but she only buys a little bit of time, which turns out to be pointless, as “Getou” has already accomplished everything he needs to implement his grand scheme. Yuki still wants to rid the world of cursed energy, but “Getou” wishes to optimize it. That means changing the world into one big cursed energy laboratory.

Using the Idle Transformation he just gained by absorbing Mahito, “Getou” remotely changes two types of non-sorcerers (those with cursed techniques and those who have consumed cursed objects) into sorcerers, dramatically shifting and complicating the balance of power. He’ll have these two group kill each other so he can learn more about cursed energy.

“Getou” asks Yuki to consider that he just unleashed a thousand malevolent Itadori Yuujis. In any case, even he cannot predict the chaos that will ensue, which is the whole point. Even though Yuuji and the others are freed from Uraume’s ice thanks to Chousou’s poison blood, there’s nothing for them or Yuki to do.

“Getou” tells Yuuji, Sukuna’s vessel, he has high expectations for him; he then declares that the world of the future will turn back the clock to the Heian period, which in this universe was the golden age of jujutsu. After unleashing a horde of cursed spirits, he snatches up the Prison Realm with Gojou still inside, and slinks away.

What follows is a montage (or if I’m less charitable, a slideshow) documenting the non-sorcerer world’s reactions to the Shibuya incident. There’s a power vacuum in Japan, but those still ostensibly in charge are going to reveal the existence of cursed spirits.

Jujutsu sorcerers like Yuuji were trained and sworn to protect the ordinary people from cursed spirits, but now there aren’t enough sorcerers to go around. As such, ordinary individuals, groups, couples, and families going about their lives are now potential targets at any moment. It’s hunting season.

These developments really kick up the bleakness level of a season that was nothing but devastating losses for the “good guys.” When a little girl who is apparently on her own is chowing down in an evacuated store, she’s beckoned by a cursed spirit to run outside.

This girl’s reaction is almost serene as the immense monster that nearly swallows her whole is killed by a sorcerer with a katana. That sorcerer is Okkotsu Yuta, and while he’s not precisely the cavalry, he’s not about to let a little girl die on his watch.

Title cards lists five new declarations from Jujutsu HQ: Getou’s death sentence is reinstated, Principal Yaga is sentenced to death, Gojou is exiled from jujutsu society, Yuuji’s death sentence is reinstated, and Yuta is dispatched as Yuuji’s executioner.

These announcements could have been made with visuals, but weren’t; I can’t tell you if this was an intentional creative choice or made out of necessity due to the tight studio deadlines that have plagued the whole season. All I know is it feels like the latter, and that’s not great.

In fact, from the moment “Getou” leaves Yuki, Yuuji and the others in the lurch, this entire episode felt like an extended preview for a confirmed sequel. My three and a half star rating is a product of my mixed feelings about this episode. It was wonderfully bleak, unrelenting, and at times downright creepy. But it was also little more than an ellipsis when I was hoping for more closure after twenty-three weeks.

Jujutsu Kaisen – 46 – Who’s the Boss?

Before getting back to “Getou” interrupting Yuuji’s defeat of Mahito we check in with other parties still breathing after this ordeal: Kusakabe and Panda (now in Gorilla Mode), Meimei, who is in Kuala Lumpur with Ui Ui telling a friend to divest from Japan, and Chouso is skulking in some subway crawlspace.

Yuuji’s plan is very direct, and dumb: Run as fast as he can towards “Getou” so he can punch him really hard. This doesn’t work, because “Getou” is too clever, and has all of Getou’s tricks up his sleeve, including cursed spirits that make Yuuji think he’s falling into a massive chasm that doesn’t exist.

“Getou’s” battle with Yuuji is suddenly interrupted by Mahito trying to grab him. Instead, “Getou” turns Mahito into a tangle of ribbons that are absorbed into a glowing orb “Getou” identifies as Uzumaki, a Supreme Art that enables him to compress many spirits into one dense attack. In the time it takes “Getou” to explain all this, he and Yuuji are surrounded by members of Kyouto Jujutsu High. The cavalry has arrived.

After Momo gives the signal, Kamo and Mai unleash their ranged attacks, while a Kasumi who just may have revenge on her mind comes in close with her sword. “Getou” shatters her blade, and prepares to unleash Uzumaki on her, but she swept away to safety at the last moment by Kusakabe, Utahime, and Momo. Kamo and Panda prepare to press their attack to get Gojou back.

The battle is interrupted unexpectedly once again, this time by Chouso. Under the influence of those weird grainy dreams of halcyon days that never were, he declares Yuuji his little brother and swears to protect him. He also enlightens everyone by identifying the entity within Getou’s body: one Kamo Noritoshi.

No, not that one; apparently another Noritoshi who was disgraced and would be 150 years old. He’s been extending his life by taking Getou’s body, and there’s every indication Getou wasn’t his first host and he’s a lot older than 150. Chouso unleashes the full power of his blood manipulation, unfazed by the arrival of Uraume, who is apparently on “Getou’s” side as well as Sukuna’s.

Uraume uses ice-based techniques to freeze everyone in place, but Yuuji isn’t affected (probably due to Sukuna) and frees Chouso. Momo, who was airborne, joins them, but Uraume simply uses a even more powerful ice technique to immobilize them.

They would be goners were it not for the timely arrival of one more player: a woman we haven’t seen since the Star Plasma Vessel arc: Tsukumo Yuki. If she’s confident enough to blow “Getou” a kiss, she must be pretty powerful. We’ll see how she and the others fare against him.

Jujutsu Kaisen – 38 – Mollusk Melee

When we left Mei Mei, she had been sealed in a coffin and buried under a giant gravestone within the domain of one of Fake Getou’s cursed spirits. While she’s able to break out of the coffin in under three seconds, thus avoiding her guaranteed hit of the disease curse, she knows she can’t keep it up indefinitely.

She determines that the attack targets the greatest concentration of cursed energy, so she momentarily diverts all of her cursed energy to one of the two crows in the domain. Then she asks Ui Ui if he’d die for her, and of course he will, because he’s infatuated with her, so he makes his cursed energy loud while Mei Mei turns hers off.

As a result, the spirit puts Ui Ui in a coffin, but in the moments before he’s buried and killed instantly by the disease curse, Mei Mei uses her remaining crow as a kamikaze bullet. In both Ui Ui’s and the crow’s case, putting their lives on the line is rewarded with a boost of cursed energy.

Mei Mei and Ui Ui make it out of Getou’s cursed spirit’s domain, but their reward is having to go up against him directly…but that’s for another week. The balance of the episode deals with Nanami, Maki, and Naobito doing battle against an octopus cursed spirit named Dagon.

Initially, it seems like a weakling. Nanami and Maki are certain the drunk Naobito will be of no help, but are shocked as he makes the first move, sealing the diminutive octopus in a flat frame and tossing him across the platform. A swole octopus man emerges from a great rush of water. The little guy was still in a larval state…but now he’s all grow’d up.

Naobito then exhibits his other superpower: being able to talk someone’s ear off. He has a particular axe to grind about the default settings of 4K HD televisions, specifically the “soap opera mode” that eliminates motion blur and the like. As someone who immediately turns all that shit off when I buy a computer, I felt seen. I like this guy.

But his ranting is germane to the battle, because his technique involves splitting seconds into 24 frames and being able to track and move within and through those frames. Contacting Dagon places him in the same time space as Naobito, only without the tools to operate. In this way, Dagon mops the floor with Dagon.

Unfortunately, Dagon isn’t damaged, either by any of Naobito’s attacks or Nanami’s, despite the two of them being Grade 1. When they and Maki try to launch a three-pronged pincer attack, Dagon uses Domain Expansion, which is appropriately a tropical beach.

Within this domain, Dagon can summon virtually infinite stream of sea creature shikigami. Naobito is able to hold out longer than the others with his anti-domain technique, but eventually all three end up mobbed by the shikigami feeding frenzy.

Maki manages to escape the first wave, already ashamed that Naobito had to save her earlier. But it’s okay, Maki isn’t Grade 1, after all. She’d be a goner a second time were it not for the timely arrival of Megumi, bursting through the wall of the domain and giving Maki a three-section staff to stay in the fight.

As Megumi fights to keep his domain within Dagon’s domain active, he’s an easy target for Dagon’s shikigami, but fortunately Nanami takes care of them for him. He’s missing his glasses and most of his shirt, and Naobito lost his right arm, but both are still able to fight, and do.

Nanami feels good about the current state of affairs, but he knows it won’t last. That’s when Megumi tells him his actual goal isn’t to play tug-of-war with Dagon’s domain, but punch a hole in it, large enough for Nanami, Maki, and Naobito to escape.

Lacking any better options, Nanami makes Megumi promise he won’t leave himself behind alone, he beckons for Maki and Naobito to hurry over. Before Dagon can respond in time, Megumi makes a hole in his domain. But before anyone can jump into the hole, someone else emerges…Touji. That’s…certainly not ideal!

With Yuuji KO’d and in Nanako and Mimiko’s hands and now this situation, the battles keep getting tougher and tougher. A lot will depend on what becomes of Yuuji and how well Mei Mei fares against Fake Getou, because I don’t see a battered Team Nanami being able to make a much of a dent in Touji.

Jujutsu Kaisen – 36 – Hammering In My Head

Mei Mei and Ui Ui had no trouble at all with the curses they fought, while Yuuji and Megumi have to catch a KO’d Ino out of the sky. He’s alive, so Megumi will stay with him while Yuuji heads back to the station. As for the people who did this to him, Granny gets her comeuppance when it turns out Touji’s soul was able to overpower her grandson’s body. She ordered him to kill sorcerers, and Touji starts with her.

Finally, Maki sends Nobara back up to street level with Nitta Akari to assist Ijichi, after word came down that supervisors were dropping like flies. They encounter the kid with the creepy hand-sword and blonde ponytail, whom Nobara assumes got to Ijichi. But the kid is sharper than he looks, and sends his familiar-like cursed tool after Nitta and handles Nobara with relative ease.

I’ll admit that watching Nobara get jobbed in the first time in forever we’ve even seen her fight is not the coolest, nor is watching blondie repeatedly stab poor Nitta in the leg and backside. But at least he pays dearly for these heinous actions when Nanami struts in, ready to rumble. He has no patience whatsoever for word-sparring, and instead just bashes the kid into oblivion when it’s clear he has no useful intelligence.

With the veil that was keeping sorcerers out lowered, Mei Mei and Ui Ui’s next opponent is a bit tougher: Getou, or as Mei quickly realizes, the fake Getou. She’s ready to fight him, but he summons a Special Grade Disease Curse called Smallpox Deity, who is able to use Domain Expansion to shut her in a coffin.

Mei Mei gets a kick out of having her life be seriously threatened for the first time in years. Nanami prepares to head down, and brooks no argument from Nobara when he tells her to stay put: she’s not Grade 1, which is the minimum level needed to fight the guys down there. That includes Choso, whom Yuuji runs into when he arrives at the otherwise eerily deserted station. Nothing’s going to come easy from here on out.

Jujutsu Kaisen – 34 – The Taste of Regret

A word from Gojou and the remnant of the real Getou’s soul still within his body starts to choke the person currently controlling the rest of his body, Fake Getou is impressed, but is able to regain control. The Prison Domain closes around Gojou and shrinks to slightly larger than a Rubik’s Cube. Unless Gojou kills himself (fat chance) the Domain is unusable as it only holds one.

One of now-dead Muta Koukichi’s “Insurance” devices drops into Yuuji’s ear and reports that the device would only be activated if Gojou is sealed. Mei Mei is initially skeptical, but Koukichi manages to convince her. She sends Yuuji out to warn the other sorcerers, holding off two high-grade cursed spirits closing on their position. Meanwhile, the three standby teams start to head into the first veil.

A pair of special grade cursed spirits roam Shibuya with the goal of killing all the assistant supervisors, i.e. suits. Yuuji emerges from the Veil, sees a horde of transfigured humans, and makes quick work of them, saving a handful of non-sorcerers.

He then climbs to one of the highest points in the district and shouts out a warning to everyone at the top of his lungs: Gojou has been sealed. As soon as Nanami hears this, he switches up the plan: he, Ino and Megumi will rendezvous with Yuuji.

As the Prison Domain processes all of the information that comprises Gojou Satoru, the cube is rendered too heavy to hold or move, making it vulnerable. Thanks to another Mechamaru device in the station, Koukichi is able to tell Yuuji that Gojou is immobile…but that likely won’t remain so for long.

Getou has to stay with the cube, so Mahito, Jougo and Choso all head out with one goal: kill Yuuji. Of the three of them, only Jougo wants to awaken Sukuna; the others just want to kill him. There’s also the matter of Mimiko and Nanako asking the Fake Getou to release his body, something he tells them he’s not going to do; he made a promise to them, not a binding pact.

Team Nanami meets up with Yuuji, and Nanami leaves Yuuji and Magumi in Ino Takuma’s care. Ino lays out the stakes: if Gojou dies, not only will the Gojou clan die with him, creating a massive political free-for-all, but the balance of power between sorcerers and curses will be upset, meaning the age of humans in Japan will be over.

One would hope Japan wouldn’t have to rely on one goddamn person to maintain its existence, but here we are. It’s up to Yuuji, Megumi, Nobara, and all the other sorcerers stationed there to rescue Gojou from the Prison Realm, or die trying.

Jujutsu Kaisen – 33 – Thirteen Orphans

Not gonna lie, while it was fun to watch Gojou have a little squash match—literally squashing Hanami into a thin paste on the wall—it was also a little unnerving.

For much of the battle, Gojou is sporting a giddy smirk usually worn by villains when they’re doing villainous shit. He’s enjoying this a little too much. And he’s also operating under the assumption that his enemies are underestimating him.

But as was mentioned last week, the reason they’re even there fighting him is because Getou is properly estimating Gojou and his power. He discusses the length of time and the amount of space within which Jougo & Co. have to keep him confined. Jougo thinks it’s crazy to think they can do that.

But Getou has this all figured out. While Hanami is lost, Jougo and Choso are able to keep their distance until a train finally arrives, from which Mahito and roughly a thousand transfigured humans alight. The crowds of people are slaughtered wholesale; those who fought to get to the front of the door first are killed first.

Mahito then destroys Hanami’s confining roots to allow another mass of people to fall to the level below, and Mahito and Choso combine abilities to tear them to shreds. There’s a method to this massacre: to further back Gojou into a corner where he can no longer logically calculate “acceptable losses”.

Once Gojou reaches that state, he unleashes his Infinite Void, instinctively only using it for two tenths of a second. For those two tenths, each and every man and woman around him will be in the hospital for two months…but they won’t die. It only takes Gojou 299 seconds to eliminate all of the roughly 1,000 transfigured humans. It’s Gojou going full Neo.

When he’s done, he’s out of breath and looking pretty haggard, and that’s when Getou gets him, revealing the proverbial “Thirteen Orphans” (his hand in the Mahjong game): the Prison Doman. The conditions are met, and Getou is in deep doo-doo. There’s just one problem: while the man before Gojou certainly looks and sounds like Getou Suguru, Gojou can tell it’s not really him.

Sure enough, “Getou” removes the crown of his head to reveal a brain with teeth; Getou’s body is only a host for that brain, and the person it belongs to. So that’s something. Even so, the brain’s owner is able to use all of Getou’s abilities, which is why he was able to checkmate Gojou here.

While still with Mei Mei and Ui Ui, Yuuji hears from a little Mechamaru earpiece that Gojou has been sealed. And since Gojou is the strongest of the sorcerers, it likely falls to Yuuji and his impressive potential to defeat the strongest alliance of enemies he’s ever faced. We’ll see if he and all the others can really make up for the loss of Gojou.

Jujutsu Kaisen – 32 – Between the Veils

Gojou arrives at B5 of Shibuya Station as requested, and sees that there are two distinct veils in operation. Waiting for him on the tracks are Jougo, Hanami, and Choso. We then switch POVs to Yuuji, the only one whose whereabouts weren’t established last week. He’s with Mei Mei and her relative Ui Ui near Meiji-Jingumae Station. Mei Mei gives him a choice: fight scores of humans transfigured by Mahito, or one big Cursed Spirit.

Yuuji picks the latter, and ends up facing off against a giant locust Cursed Spirit. He’s powerful enough to have limited speech, and claims to be “clever”, but while the destructive power of locusts in general is quite colorfully laid out by the narrator, the bottom line is that this guy is no match for Yuuji even before he gets properly warmed up. After a flurry of cursed energy-charged punches, the locust is out for the count, and the outer veil is lifted.

Hanami bars Gojou’s escape with roots, but Gojou has no intention of going anywhere lest they kill the hundreds of hostages in the station. Jougo shows off just how damn joyfully evil he is by killing a few hostages anyway. Jougo has set things up this way after Getou provided advice about how to deal with Gojou: he’s strongest when he’s alone and has space to do his thing. If he’s confined in a small space packed to the gills with non-sorcerers, he can’t go all out without severe collateral carnage.

After Choso distracts him by shooting a blood beam straight at his face, Jougo and Hanami rush in with their fists and domains, but Gojou is able to slip away, lowering his mask and asking if that’s the best they’ve got. He doesn’t seem to know that Jougo & Co. aren’t trying to give their best, nor are they trying to outright defeat him. They’re buying time for the boss, who said he needed twenty minutes before coming in with his Prison Domain. Gojou might just break a sweat at that point.

Jujutsu Kaisen – 31 – Imminent Domain

Roughly two thirds of this week’s JJK is given over to the battle between Muta Koukichi in his Mechamaru Evangelion and Mahito, who is a slippery little punk who can expand his appendages and take the form of many animals. This results in an unrelenting feast for the eyes and ears, packed with beautifully detailed and fluid movement and concussive impacts.

However, because Mahito is so nimble and tough, even an Evangelion powered by literal years of Muta’s cursed energy has trouble pinning him down. When Mahito takes off the kid gloves and expands his domain, it looks like that’s all she wrote for Muta, but he has a number of trump cards, including a “Simple Domain” that overwrites and shatters Mahito’s.

It’s a very spirited back and forth, with Muta going full Shounen mecha pilot with his battle cries that synch up with Mechamaru’s. He became a mole so he could get this close to Mahito and Getou, all to protect everyone back home, most importantly Miwa Kasumi, for whom he clearly has a thing. Just as Kasumi voices her interest in visiting Mechamaru to his  dormant doll, we see that Muta has lost to Mahito, rendering her desire impossible.

Because Muta doesn’t prevail, he isn’t able to warn Gojou about the semi-titular Shibuya Incident to take place during a boisterous Halloween festival. Thousands of ordinary folks are gathered near the most famous intersections in all of Japan, when suddenly a giant 400-meter radius barrier comes down, and a large number of the bystanders are sucked up like “water going down a drain”.

Many of the people are made to demand that Gojou Satoru come to save them, even if they have no idea who that is. Grade 1 vets lead small teams of younger sorcerers being eval’d for promotion, including Megumi, Nobara, Maki, Panda, and Takuma (but not Yuuji). They’re on standby outside the barrier, while Gojou steps inside. If Getou’s mood days earlier is any indication, Gojou may wish he hadn’t answered the summons.

Jujutsu Kaisen – 30 – Transformations

It’s been just under a month since the last JJK episode aired, and now we’re back in the present with Yuuji, Nobara, and Megumi. We’re eased back into the “normal” side of their dual lives they lead—the dumb high school kid side, rather than the jujutsu sorcerer side.

One afternoon, Megumi heads home, Yuuji has plans to see the fourth installment of an…er, earthworm man movie franchise, and Nobara, disgusted by the prospect of said movie, goes shopping. They’re as comfortable going off to do their own things as they are hanging out together. But who is that woman at the crosswalk who spots Yuuji and Nobara?

After officially recommending Yuuji, Nobara, Megumi, Maki, and Panda for first-grade sorcerer, Toudou Aoi and Mei Mei have a spirited (and awesomely animated) game of table tennis as they discuss the younger sorcerers’ progress. Unfortunately for Aoi, those who recommend someone can’t be the one who accompanies them on their first first-grade missions.

The crosswalk lady confronts Nobara, and we learn that she’s extremely tall. She turns out to be Ozawa Yuuko, a middle school classmate of Yuuji’s. Back then she was quite short and stout, but in the last six months she’s grown several centimeters and slimmed down. When Nobara catches on that Yuuko wants to see Yuuji again, she immediately calls Megumi—or rather Megumi’s driver, with whom she’s on good terms.

When Yuuko asks if Nobara has any feelings for Yuuji, Nobara is immediate and direct in her denial. When Megumi confirms that Yuuji doesn’t have a girlfriend and tall girls are his type, Nobara keeps stirring the pot and summons Yuuji to the restaurant with a series of extremely curt but effective texts.

Yuuji arrives so quickly that Nobara has no time to warn him that the tall, slim lady before him is Ozawa Yuuko from his middle school. She’s worried about him not recognizing her, which could be devastating to her, but true to Yuuji’s character, he instantly recognizes her despite her wildly different appearance.

We actually see very little of the interaction between them that follows, only the bookends of him recognizing her and walking her to the station. I find that a bit of a shame, though we do get to spend some time in Yuuko’s head as she remembers hating all the guys but Yuuji, and Yuuji saying her manner of eating and handwriting was beautiful.

He saw in her things others and even she herself didn’t, and she’ll never forget that, but even then she wasn’t someone who would choose someone who didn’t choose her. It’s likely their interaction in the present was simply a brief, cordial catch-up, much to Nobara’s disappointment. But I have to think she’ll be back in Yuuji’s life at some point no?

Yuuko’s dramatic transformation is only the first of two in this episode. The B-Part involves Yuuji, Nobara and Megumi being placed under Utahime’s command as they investigated someone who by process of elimination must be the mole passing secrets to Getou Suguru: Muta Koukichi, the sorcerer who controls Mechamaru.

Utahime’s team believe they have Muta cornered in the basement where he dwells in a tub full of blood, covered in bandages and surrounded by IVs. But in a nice bait-and-switch, he’s actually somewhere else altogether, meeting with Getou and the always lively Mahito.

In exchange for his information, Getou has agreed to have Mahito heal Muta’s body with his Idle Transfiguration. After that, however, all bets are off, as once the pact is fulfilled they can go on being mortal enemies. Getou sits back and lets Mahito take on Muta, who summons dozens of puppets to fight for him. Mahito exhibits his maneuverability and versatility and sheer power in smashing the puppets to bits.

However, that bum rush of puppets was only meant to be a distraction; Muta is now elsewhere, and he blows up the building Mahito is in, sending him flying onto the top of a giant dam, presumably somewhere near Kyoto. There, out of the lake rises a colossal mecha version of Ultimate Mechamaru, with Muta in the panoramic cockpit.

We learn that Muta is actually a bit of a triple agent, as his loyalties remain with Jujutsu High, insomuch as he intends to warn Gojou, either directly or through Kasumi, about an impending “Shibuya plot”. With his giant mech he’s able to transmute the time he spent “bound”—over 17 years—into cursed energy.

In this case, he spends about a year to launch a cataclysmic beam attack on Mahito. Whether it will take him out or simply lift the veil and enable communication, and whether Muta’s new healthy body will hold up, remains to be seen. But I’m just glad we’re back in present-day JJK, whether it’s for the after school teen antics and middle school reunions or the table tennis or giant mech battles.

Jujutsu Kaisen – 29 – Like Cheers in Rain

A year after Riko and Touji’s deaths, Satoru continues to develop and refine his abilities, while Suguru looks worn out. He’s haunted by the Star Religious Group’s applause the day Satoru reclaimed Riko’s body, such that both the shower and rain sound like their horrible clapping.

His eyes narrow and darken as his hatred for non-sorcerers stews within him and he struggles to see the point of protecting them. While we know he’s the big bad in season one, it’s still rough to see the acceleration of his descent, particularly as it happens under a preoccupied Satoru’s nose.

After a lighthearted interaction with his kohai Haibara Yuu, who is headed off on a mission, Suguru is aproached by a tall, mysterious blonde: Special-grade sorcerer Tsukumo Yuki. A Jujutsu High apostate, she has her own ideas about how to solve the cursed spirit problem.

Simply put, rather than treat the symptoms—killing cursed spirits when they’re born—she wants to treat the cause: create a world where cursed spirits aren’t born. She sees two ways of doing that: eliminate cursed energy from mankind, and make it possible for all of mankind to control their energy.

Fushigurou Touji was an example of a non-sorcerer who could perceive cursed spirits and energy yet his own had dropped to zero. Yuki wanted to pick his brain so that she could try the first method, but he refused, and then Satoru killed him. That leaves creating a world where everyone can control their cursed energy.

Whether Yuki intended to draw it out of Suguru, discussion of this topic and the fact it starts raining outside (reminding him of the clapping zealots) causes Suguru to suggest that killing all non-sorcerers would achieve the same goal as making them all sorcerers. She agrees that’s a way for sure, but she for one isn’t crazy enough to do it.

When Suguru talks to her at length about his current internal crisis: hating both non-sorcerers and the part of him that harbors that hatred and has those dark thoughts. But Yuki tells him he’s neither of those people…yet. The choices he makes in the future will determine which of those possibilities become his true feelings.

That future comes faster than even Yuki might have expected. Haibara Yuu returns from his mission in a body bag—another sorcerer on the growing pile of sorcerer corpses being created out of deference to ungrateful masses. Then he’s summoned to a village where two twin girls (Nanako and Mimiko, his future supporters) are caged and beaten as scapegoats for cursed spirit attacks.

I don’t know if Suguru sees a bit of Riko in the twins’ faces, or just sees two innocent kids being abused for no good reason, but it’s the last straw for him. Rather than “do something” about the girls, he turns his powers against the villager who mistreated them. It amounts to a massacre of 112 people, and when Satoru learns that Suguru is the culprit, he can scarcely believe it.

In this way, Suguru goes through a three-strikes-you’re-out progression. Losing Riko in that awful, awful way (and learning from Yuki that she was essentially expendable, as another vessel ended up stabilizing Tengen), losing his kohai to a stronger-than-expected cursed spirit, and finally the outrageous injustice of the imprisoned girls.

Wanting to kill all non-sorcerers is obviously not okay. Suguru is not a good guy. But unlike Star Wars Episode III with Anakin, JJK did an excellent job showing his downfall and heel turn. Combine that with the fact he and Getou and Shouko were basically shattered as a friend group, leaving him increasingly isolated.

I don’t know Tsukumo Yuki’s whole plan in speaking to Suguru was to give him her tacit blessing to do things she wasn’t “crazy” enough to do to in order to achieve her goal of eliminating cursed spirits from the world, but she definitely seems like a catalyst to get Suguru into that state of mind. Not that discouraging him at that point would have made a difference.

After the deed, Suguru meets up with Shouko in the middle of bustling Shinjuku, and confirms what he did and why: he wants to create a world without non-sorcerers. Shouko calls Satoru, who speaks to Suguru in the middle of a dense crowd of passersby as cars, trucks, and buses zoom past.

When Satoru says such an undertaking is impossible, Suguru calls him arrogant, as he believes Satoru to be very much capable of eliminating all non-sorcerers should he choose to do so. Saying someone else can’t do it when he can is basically admitting he believes he’s the strongest. But he’s not strong enough to execute his best friend.

Tsuguru learns that a new religious group bought the church that was once owned by the Star Religious Group, dons the traditional robes he’ll wear as the big bad of season one, musses the hair of the liberated twins, takes the stage, and declares that he’ll be taking over and renaming the group. When there is an objection, he brings that person to the stage and smashes them into jelly with a cursed spirit. No doubt no further objections followed.

The last scene in the flashback that has occupied these past four episodes involves Satoru meeting a young Megumi for the first time, and being shocked by how much he resembles his father Touji. He also learns that Megumi is extremely precocious, and has no interest in his father, only in protecting Tsumiki’s happiness.

That’s when Satoru wakes up in 2018, with Juuji, Nobara, and a grown Megumi looming over him in his office, having summoned them there before he nodded off. Now that the three co-stars of season one are here, this season can get started in earnest, flush with the context of the tragedies and darkness of the prior decade that drive Satoru to be the best damn sorcerer he can be, and train the next generation to do the same.

Jujutsu Kaisen – 28 – There Has to Be a Point

I’m a little mad at Jujutsu Kaisen. If it were a person, I’m not sure I’d be talking with them at the moment. It digs the hole a little deeper by making us relive the terrible moment of Amanai Riko’s death.

While I appreciate Suguru’s rage, and he clearly knows his way around summoned cursed spirits, his entire battle with Touji seemed futile; pointless. The mission failed, the damage done. Touji even told Suguru he was free to go. But of course, he didn’t go.

But once more, Touji is a tough customer. At first Suguru’s onslaught of spirits seems too much to handle, but then Touji slashes Suguru’s ace, the Rainbow Dragon, right down the middle.

When he summons a spirit that freezes time, Touji overcomes that too, and Suguru is left with a huge, nasty X-shaped gaping wound that doesn’t kill him, but sure as shit puts him out of comission, along with Satoru. It’s also heavily implied Kuroi is dead too.

What makes Touji’s easy victory so maddening is that he has absolutely no philosophical horse in this race. He’s simply an assassin hired by the Star Church to kill the Plasma Vessel, and the job is done. He delivers Riko’s body as proof, and it’s clear the church rep who receives it fell off the deep end a long time agooo.

The one single, insufficient consolation we can glean from this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day is that Touji’s mediator straight up declines the offer to take him out to dinner, saying there are only two reasons for him to see him and no more: for work, and in hell. Touji seemed genuinely hurt by that rejection.

And then Satoru appears for round two.

Something’s off, Touji repeatedly says in his mind. This Satoru is different; more serene and unhinged…maybe even high. We learn that, after using the reverse cursed technique to heal, Satoru is currently at a state of being beyond simply seeking revenge for Riko. If he’s high, he’s high on the world itself.

And while Touji knows quite a bit about the Zen’in clan and Satoru’s Limitless abilities, he doesn’t know everything, and that’s why he dies. Satoru has his Red, and he has his Blue, and Touji is confident he can deal with both. But Purple? He ain’t ever seen that, and it puts a gaping hole in him.

With his last words, Touji mentions that the Zen’in will be taking his son Megumi in two or three years, and Satoru can “do what he will” with that info. But Satoru’s primary concern is recovering Riko’s body from the church. When a healed Suguru enters the church, there’s an eerie bluish-white light and constant applause from the brainwashed flock.

As Satoru somberly carries Riko out, he asks Suguru if they should kill everyone there. Suguru considers this, but says there’s no point; these aren’t the bigwigs who ordered a hit on Riko. But as Satoru walks into the blood red hallway, which might as well be hell itself, he asks if there really has to be a point to killing the followers.

Suguru insists that there absolutely has to be. After all, Jujutsu Sorcerers aren’t supposed to harm non-sorcerers. But in his current state, it’s clear Satoru doesn’t care about that, or much of anything.

This was another tough watch, packed with beautiful combat animation which only served to underscore how pointless it all was. Amanai Riko is dead, and for all their combined power, there’s nothing her former protectors can do about it, except grieve her if they wish (or can) and move forward.

Jujutsu Kaisen – 27 – Born Special

When Kuroi is kidnapped by the Star Religious Group, Amanai Riko insists on accompanying Satoru and Suguru to the exchange location. Riko is upset by the prospect that she may not be able to say goodbye to Kuroi before she assimilates. Satoru allows her to come along, and rescuing Kuroi turns out to be such a dawdle that they get to relax and have fun on an Okinawa beach.

Satoru and Suguru even give Riko an extra day on the island, simply to have fun being an ordinary girl for that much longer. The montage of fun activities is as bittersweet as it is beautiful, because all of the things we watch Riko doing will be the last time she does those things…at least in her current form. They don’t feel like death flags because we’ve already known Riko’s chosen fate beforehand.

When the four make it back to Jujutsu High and its protective barrier, it feels like a relief, right up until a katana blade slides out of Satoru’s chest. Fushiguro Touji has made his move, and he’s so goddamn good at what he does, neither Satoru or Suguru even noticed he was there until the blade was in. It’s the first time JJK fucks with our sense of security, but definitely not the last.

While it initially looks like a bad wound, Satoru assures Suguru he’s fine; his abilities offered a measure of protection as the blade was going in, and it missed his vitals completely. He tells Suguru to hurry off with Riko and Kuroi while he’ll handle Touji.

But Touji ends up handling him. With a combination of a cursed spirit familiar, incredible speed and agility, and a complete lack of spiritual energy to sense, Satoru can’t find his opponent until it’s too late. For all of his talent and immense power, it’s like he’s trying to fight smoke.

That smoke takes the form of a cloud of minor cursed spirit “chaff” in which Touji hides, only revealing himself when he’s in position to deal a much more fatal-looking slash. Then another, and another, and another. Touji had been patiently biding his time, waiting for Satoru’s senses to dull. Were they dulled by his sentimentality surrounding Riko?

On the one hand, I know Satoru is in the “present” timeline of JJK (as covered in the first season), so I know he’s not really dead. On the other hand, I’m able to suspend my disbelief in his death for the purposes of this episode. While he certainly doesn’t win his battle, he at least buys time for Suguru, Riko, and Kuroi.

They descend into chambers far beneath Jujutsu High, and the time comes for Riko and Kuroi to part ways. When Kuroi can’t hold back tears over their farewell, Riko takes her into a big hug and tells her she’s always loved her; Kuroi says the same.

Then, when Suguru shows Riko to the core Tengen-sama’s territory and gives her instructions on how to enter his realm so she’ll be protected, he also tells her she only needs to do those things if she chooses to. He and Satoru agreed that they would let her, Amanai Riko, decide if she really wanted to sacrifice herself—and be erased—by Tengen-sama.

At first Riko puts on airs like she’s come to do the very thing she was born to do. She’s always been special, to the point where special felt normal and normal felt special. Now that she’s here, facing the end of herself, she tearfully admits there’s so much more she wants to see and do and experience with Kuroi and her friends. She doesn’t want to go through with it.

Tsuguru accepts her decision and offers her his hand in preparation to leave this place. But as she reaches out to take it, she’s shot in the head, by Touji. Here I was, ready, if unhappy, to say goodbye to Amanai Riko, along with Kuroi and Suguru and Satoru. Then Tsuguru reveals that he and Satoru never intended to make her sacrifice herself, and my hope was revived.

And then JJK ripped that hope to shreds in one single heartbreaking bang, followed by the sound of Riko falling to the ground. At this point I’m not sure I care how badass a form Suguru’s revenge takes, or whether he’s just as incapable of beating or even harming Touji. Right now I’m simply gutted, and I miss Riko, the girl we met only just last week.

Jujutsu Kaisen – 26 (S2 02) – Blue Steel

Suguru uses his curse manipulation to make quick work of the Q agent who attempted to kidnap the Star Plasma Vessel, AKA Amanai Riko. When she comes to in Satoru’s arms, she slaps him and leaps out of them, believing him to be another attackers. It’s only when her minder Kuroi Misato comes in riding one of Suguru’s curses that she lets her guard down.

Amanai Riko is voiced by Nagase Anna, who brings the same raw youthful energy and toughness as she did Summertime Render’s Ushio. Riko is also extremely full of herself, not concerned at all about being lost once she assimilates with Tengen-sama. She will be Tengen-sama and Tengen-sama will be her. It’s not an absorbing, but a merging.

While her haughty brattiness irks Satoru, Suguru comes off looking like the more emotionally intelligent of the pair, reassuring Kuroi that she’s Riko’s family and he knows their real mission is to ensure Riko is not only safe, but able to live a happy, normal school life with her friends as long as possible.

Naturally, Fushiguro Touji is hired to ensure that doesn’t happen. But this week Touji is who we all aspire to be: a sweatshirt, sandals, some rustic grub, and a betting form. Dude may look bone idol to his mediator, but he’s set things in motion to make his job easier.

Rather than go after Jujutsu High kids directly, he instead sends out an APB to all the curse user assassins in the area that Riko is wanted dead or alive for 30 million he doesn’t even have. He’s fine with the dead part and with such a high reward because he knows no one will be successful.

He only wants these cursed bounty hunters to wear themselves out for free making Satoru and Suguru exert themselves so they’re as weak as possible when he comes at them. And we see from the force with which a rando slams into him as if he’s made of solid granite, Touji can handle himself. He just prefers the boat races.

The first of his proxies is an older guy who believes his experience will win out over the whippersnapper Suguru. He’s so busy trying to read Suguru’s mind and predict his every move, Suguru does the same with him and counters them, such that the poor geezer’s life flashes before his eyes before Suguru punches and kicks the ever-loving shit out of him.

Suguru may not be breaking a sweat, but he’s still fighting. Satoru, meanwhile, tracks down Riko, who is in the middle of choir practice. I wish we could have heard her sing a bit more, but I love how hers is the last voice we hear as everyone else stops singing, stares at Satoru for a beat, then explodes in middle school euphoria over the arrival of a stone hottie rushing in calling Riko’s name.

I love the exchange that follows, from Satoru’s poses (man this guy is full of himself), the unified screams and squees of the enthralled young ladies, and Riko’s embarrassment over the whole ordeal. But what’s best of all is their teacher coming in to presumably bring and end to all the disgraceful ruckus, only to catch a look at Satoru and hand him her phone number.

Jujutsu Kaisen has long since proven it can deftly balance comedy and goofy hijinks without neutralizing the underlying danger and seriousness of the narrative, and this episode is a prime example of that. Kuroi gets her own awesome-looking fight scene, only she’s nailing her opponent in the gentleman’s vegetables with a mop.

The thing is, this guy isn’t human; not entirely. He’s a curse user, able to multiply himself. But Satoru quickly deduces the dupes aren’t shikigami, but clones, and when he knows what he’s up against, he knows he can handle what’s to come with his unique skillset that makes his battle scenes beautiful.

From making clones collide in midair to smashing through an office window with Riko in tow and almost firing off a reverse curse “Red” but settling for a knockout punch. All the details are right, from the use of the score to the smooth motion of Riko’s hair as she tries to maintain her sanity while Satoru plays around with the laws of physics.

This makes a nice bookend to Suguru’s scene at the very beginning of the episode, when he’s already pacified the Q agent. While Satoru is floating like a demigod in a cloud of shattered glass and cement, Suguru is a picture of tranquillity, quietly making himself a cup of tea while his curse puts the squeeze on the baddie.

I officially don’t miss the main cast in the present-day timeline. I’m sure they’ll be around before the season’s out. But even if they aren’t, I’m deriving vast enjoyment watching Suguru and Satoru wield their powers so effortlessly. The thing is, they haven’t yet clashed with a legitimately worthy opponent; the arrival of Touji should change that.