Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 10 [Pandemonium]

Welcome all, to a late episode of Jujutsu Kaisen! Sorry about that, new season is starting and I have a lot of things to write, this sort of just fell through the cracks. Going to see if I can squeeze it in here before the wave that comes on Saturday. So without further ado, lets dive into the episode!

So production wise this was a decent episode. Some nice shots, good animation, nice composition, etc etc. In particular I really liked the body horror and existential dread that comes up anytime Mahito uses his power. The facial expressions of some characters and transfigured humans were great, as usual. The only issue I can see is less on the visual side and more behind the scenes. More and more this past week I’ve been reading about terrible conditions at MAPPA, of how absolutely horrid this production is. While I won’t get into any moral grandstanding about treating your employees like people, that should be a given, I will wonder about how this will end up affecting the final product we get down the line. Will Jujutsu Kaisen hold together until the end? Or is a collapse somewhere on the horizon? I dunno, but it’s something to think about moving forward.

Shifting into the actual narrative, this week was largely the aftermath of Gojo getting captured. Of him talking to Geto before the prison closes, weighting it down from the inside with his abilities, the cube processing him, etc etc. It basically sets up the real conflict for the rest of the arc: Can we get to Gojo? Can our team fight through all of the Special Curses and evil sorcerers before the cube finishes processing him and Geto just fucking leaves? To be honest, this isn’t a bad thing. It gives our heroes a slight bit of hope, something to fight for. Rather than plunging them into an unwinnable situation they now have some agency. Plus the way Jujutsu Kaisen presented it was pretty good to, with all of the sorcerers having different reactions, such as Itadori being gung ho and Nanami kind of fatalist.

As for the villains, they had some fun and engaging conversations this week. The whole thing around whether or not to kill Itadori was great. It not only reminded us of their motivations, a world where Curses can be who they truly are, but really humanized Gojo in my eyes. All he wants is a world where curses get to live peacefully. His survival is not a requirement for that. He doesn’t care if he dies, if he’s around for it, so long as that future is ensured. That’s why Sukuna, someone we all know would be more than willing to kill them, was his backup plan. As I said, I really liked this. I like anything that humanizes a villain, making them more than just pure evil. Because while pure evil villains can work, such as Sauron, they never really leave an impact with me.

Shifting back to our heroes, this episode also sees the return of Mechamaru. This is an odd one to me, as I still don’t really care for him and his appearance here is little more than a plot device to move characters around. In fact if I’m being honest, it feels a little awkward. With a bit better planning Jujutsu Kaisen wouldn’t need him to get everyone in the right place. Maybe something interesting comes out of his return, where he gets to talk to Miwa again, but even that wouldn’t be particularly interesting. Just a cheap shot in the feels before he disappears for the final time.

As for why he’s moving them around? Well it’s setting up some meetings and a bunch of fights. Curses are coming out, some additional sorcerers, Mei Mei has something in a tunnel while Itadori is bee-lining for Mahito. Meanwhile Mahito and a few others are bee-lining for Itadori, which will inevitably bring Fushiguro and the other guy into the conflict as well. It’s basically going to be a free for all soon, meaning there probably won’t be much in the way of actual “narrative” to discuss and more just “Dude that fight was kind of cool. A shame, but that’s just how battle shounen go. So long as the fights are hype it won’t be a problem either, because why else are we watching Jujutsu Kaisen?

So yeah, all in all a solid episode. Not to much to say beyond that, production looks nice even if it’s falling apart behind the scenes. Narrative is basically done, Gojo is on a timer and a bunch of fights to decide the outcome are all getting setup. There are a few things that don’t make much sense to me, like how Gojo is apparently the lynchpin keeping all the cursed spirits back? This guy was born like 25-30 years ago, what did society do before then if he is single handedly the reason everything hasn’t gone to shit? Surely society can fight back a bit. That’s just me nitpicking though, and ultimately not the biggest issue. Like I said, overall it was solid.