Jujutsu Kaisen – 12 [To You, Someday]

Welcome all to another week of Jujutsu Kaisen! Apologies for the slight delay, I was a tad busy yesterday and wasn’t able to get around to the episode. But oh boy what an episode it was. We had murder, anger, conflict and maybe even a few emotional moments. All that and more in this weeks episode, so lets dive in!

Starting off, lets talk production! There were a lot of fun shots this week, both in terms of animation and stills. Animation wise, Mahito continues to be a treat. His malleable body and fighting style lend itself to some really creative sequences. Whether it be his arms flailing about or the ripples in his body from Itadori’s punches. Add on his exaggerated manic expressions and you have some fun stuff! Meanwhile with stills Jujutsu Kaisen once again went the heavily stylized route, to great success. Although it has minimal movement, Sukuna and Mahito’s mocking laughter and the display of their faces above Itadori was incredibly striking. I love hos Jujutsu Kaisen continues to prominently display the characters teeth for scenes like this. It almost works like a caricature, bringing out important facial features to more clearly communicate things to the viewer. So yeah, all around, this episode looked pretty good!

Production done, I want to talk about something that came up in the comments last week: The portrayal of darkness. There is a fine line between “dark” and “edgy”, one that every series has to ride. Darkness can be good, we need stories that look at that part of life! Buy edge is… edge is bad. Its dark for darks sake, with no actual message in there. Jujutsu Kaisen has had an interesting time straddling this line. For instance, I would say that the series crossed over into edginess with Yoshino’s backstory. The amount of repetition and escalation with the bullying wasn’t necessary, the point was already made. But what about the rest of the show, does it have good examples of darkness? I think so. I quite like its portrayal of death and responsibility with the Grandfather or with Fushiguro’s display of grief after Itadori’s “death”. But what about Mahito?

By establishing Curses as manifestations of human fears, Jujutsu Kaisen gave itself a little bit of lee-way with Mahito. His acts of incredible cruelty, and the joy he takes in committing them, slot right in to what he is: A representation of human malice. The way he uses people as weapons, toying with them for his own fun, all of that slots in well as well. No, the only thing in question this episode is how his betrayal of Yoshino was depicted. There were no punches pulled here, not softening the blow, Jujutsu Kaisen full on tried to redeem Yoshino, who has really only ever been the victim, and then tore it away. I can see some as thinking this is “edgy for edge’s sake”. Well I disagree.

Jujutsu Kaisen did a great job establishing Mahito and Itadori not just as natural opposites power wise, but personality wise as well. Mahito, as we said, is human malice and cruelty. Itadori though has come to represent humanities selflessness, to an almost concerning degree as noted by Kento. Itadori is always ready to understand, he doesn’t want to hurt humans, even ones transformed by Mahito. And thats the rub, because Yoshino was “transformed” mentally before he was physically. Mahito had been gaslighting Yoshino the whole time, setting him up for this, effectively pushing him to the brink. And he waited until Itadori tried to pull him back from that brink, tried to understand his grief and invite him to a place of friendship, to rip it away. It might seem like a bit much, but its setting up a core conflict for the entire show in their first meeting.

That tangent over, lets continue with the story! I continue to like how Jujutsu Kaisen is treating Sukuna. The guy continues to feel like the biggest villain/asshole in the series, and he hasn’t shown up for 7 episodes. Having him appear here just to say “No” and “Lol your friend is dead” is great. He continues to be this antagonistic force and because of his circumstances there’s no silly questions like “Why don’t they just fight” etc. The scene of both Mahito and Sukuna laughing over Itadori was fantastic and it really sold the rage we see in Itadori in the next cut. Really put us in his head and justified the emotions he was going through. This wasn’t just “I’m the MC, I get to be mad”, people were actively pissing on his ideals. Honestly, just give me more Sukuna. I love him.

Moving on to the actual fight, it was cool! I said it above, but Mahito’s power lends itself to some creative action. Whether it be turning his arm into a bladed whip or shooting spikes out where Itadori grabs it. I like that Jujutsu Kaisen didn’t shy away from just how hard fighting him would be. Meanwhile, it makes sense that Itadori is Mahito’s counter. The whole “two soul” nature and how he fights with the cursed energy makes sense. At least insofar as it can make sense, but its in-universe consistent. Perhaps the most interesting bit here though was Sukuna once again appearing, this time telling Mahito to fuck off. It was simultaneously a good way to give Itadori an opening, once again establish how strong Sukuna is, and why Mahito can’t modify Itadori’s body/soul. All in all, it was a good fight and there’s more to come.

So, at the end of the day, how was this episode of Jujutsu Kaisen? I liked it! My monkey brain got some action, my human brain got some emotions. There was a good mix there, though I can understand if it was a bit far for some. I do still think the pseudo-philosophy with Yoshino, about hearts/souls, and all that is sort of… silly. My hope is that it’s some kind of translation error, a concept that is more difficult to explain in English. But barring that it feels like some kind of highschool “Philosophy 101” stuff. What makes me excited for next episode though is the sneak peak we got from Jump Festa Friday night. You can go ahead and find that here. It looks like the fight is only going to get wilder, and I can’t wait. See you then!