Merry Christmas everyone and welcome to the last post of Jujutsu Kaisen for the year! What a bloody episode to end on eh? We had action, we had murder and we even had a bit of self-reflection, and I loved it. So without further ado lets dive right in!
Starting off, god damn that action looked good. I continue to love how malleable/expressive Mahito’s body is and Hironori Tanaka did a fantastic job working with it. It helps that the man was also the episode director as I understand it, but still. The fluid movement, the sharp lines and heavy blacks. The man made even still shots look dynamic and captivating. And none of this is even mentioning the more surrealist bits that Jujutsu Kaisen continues to incorporate. All in all, this episode looked fantastic and made for an incredible finale. About the only thing I can really nitpick here is that the CGI used was very noticeable. There was a bit about halfway through where the blood/Mahito’s body was done in CGI and it sticks out like a sore thumb. Still, 20 seconds amongst this beautiful production isn’t enough to bring it down.
Speaking of surrealist mindscapes, lets talk about Mahito’s domain expansion both because its narratively important and cool as hell. A lot of this is once again due to Hironori Tanaka being amazing. His work on the hands during this sequence was beautiful. But a lot of credit has to go to the mangaka, Gege Akutami, for the original idea. The sequence/formation of this domain entirely out of hands was brilliant. Where Gojo’s inspired awe at his power, Mahito’s inspires terror. Taking these innocent, wholesome images of holding hands and twisting them into these grotesque shapes. The hands morphing and folding over each other. So far, every single one of these domains have been stunning and I can’t wait to see what else they bring.
As for the actual mechanics of the domain, they work. They are built to trap things inside, so the idea that they are easy to break into makes sense. Why would you want to break into a realm totally controlled by your opponent? It does feel like Sukuna basically winning the fight for Itadori again, but this one was setup well. How Sukuna doesn’t like Mahito touching his soul, and how his domain basically forces him to do just that. I do wish it was something Itadori had thought of himself instead of being an accident. But as far as ways to end the fight, it’s certainly not bad and it gave us another stunning sequence with Sukuna. He always dominates the scene and Hironori Tanaka’s animation only enhanced that. It also explains why he can’t use it to instantly beat Itadori in any future conflicts, so it works out.
Moving on, lets talk about what we get inside the domain, specifically with Kento. His flashback was unexpectedly wholesome for such a stoic man. He doesn’t fight because he wants to help people like Itadori or because it’s “right”. To me, it felt like he just wanted his work to be appreciated. To have a tangible effect on the world where his work as a broker before didn’t. Like he said, no one would miss him if his job disappeared. Not like they would miss the local bakery, or say tailor. His job didn’t truly bring anything into the world, it only produced money for already wealthy people. Knowing this, it makes sense he would turn to jujutsu. It’s the only other skill he has, and its something he can tangibly effect other people with. As we saw with the bakery girl, it’s something people appreciate.
This leaves us with Itadori, who is a much more complicated subject. He has “grown” as a jujutsu sorcerer, but is that necessarily a good thing? As we saw in the small fight with the children and as Kento said, he has hardened his resolve. But now that he has killed someone, he can’t ever go back. Those deaths now weigh on him in a way only his grandfathers had before. I really like that Jujutsu Kaisen didn’t actually show the kids deaths on screen for this. It leaves it up to us to notice what happened, and to imagine it ourselves. And for me that it made it work much better than if Itadori had some badass Shonen MC moment with exploding fists and the like. After all, fighting those kids wasn’t badass. It was just tragic.
In fact, Jujutsu Kaisen managed to raise an interesting question this week: What is a proper death? I’m glad it asked this to be honest, I want Jujutsu Kaisen to explore its setting more like this. The entire series is wrapped and themed around death, and its these kinds of questions I want to see. For the question itself, it’s a complex one. As Kento says, no one dies the same death but everyone dies in the end. Is dying in bed to old age or cancer more “proper” than dying in battle? Is there even such a thing as a proper death to begin with? In this I have to agree with Kento. I don’t think there is and the only thing Itadori can really do is try to stop what deaths he can. Focusing on only giving “proper” ones will only bring him trouble in the long run.
And with that, this is a wrap on Jujutsu Kaisen for the year! We won’t be getting a new episode until January 15th so feel free to take a break. I’ll be back then to talk about the series more. As far as first cours go, I think it was really solid. Mahito and Sukuna make great villains and they really dominate the screen. Meanwhile Itadori may not be the most unique MC, the emotions has is wrestling with are. A lot of Shounen are afraid to kill off characters, to make its leads deal with grief or show weakness. But Jujutsu Kaisen doesn’t seem afraid of that and it makes Itadori a lot more compelling than some of his contemporaries. Combine all of that with some stellar production and you have a pretty strong Shonen Battle series. I can only hope the second half lives up to the first.
Oh and P.S, I know there are a few other things I could have touched on this week. Like the follow up to the bullying arc with the teacher, etc. But those felt pretty self-explanatory to me and it’s Christmas so I didn’t want to overload this post. If you wanna talk about them then just leave a comment below! I’m always down to chat.
