Everyone knows what time it is, its Jujutsu Kaisen time! I have an interesting week for you here. From Toudou making a friend to maybe, possibly, but not guaranteed, the beginning of the MAPPA melt. Don’t know what that is? Well read on and find out!
Starting off, what do I mean by “MAPPA meltdown”. Well if you were here when I blogged Dororo, review here, you have a pretty good idea. Its when Studio MAPPA falls apart production wise in the second half of the series. When their schedule and working conditions finally give out and the series can’t sustain itself anymore. I wonder this about Jujutsu Kaisen this week because it was… a bit rough, to put it kindly. Composites were all over the place, as if they were trying to replicate Ufotable’s CGI environment style, and general animation wasn’t what we were used to. There was some decent choreography between Itadori and Toudou yes, but outside that this is one of the worse looking Jujutsu Kaisen episodes. Hopefully this is just a one off before their big showcase, but I can’t help but be… hesitant.
Getting into the actual story, Toudou returns! And I am still mixed on him! Just like before, on one hand the dude is sort of fun. He’s simple and its fun how straight Jujutsu Kaisen plays him. Repeating the same question he did with Fushiguro, but this time resonating with Itadori and becoming fast friends. The kind of friends who will beat each other up, but still friends. It’s a fast way to get him into the core group and away from the Kyoto group of students before whatever upcoming raid is going to happen. Plus with his initial introduction with Fushiguro, we know he won’t hold back regardless. But its also… repeating the same things he did with Fushiguro. Its as if Toudou has a one track mind and its here that his simple nature starts to back fire.
I didn’t find the “whats your type” gag to be very funny the first time. So hearing it again, even with the opposite response, still wasn’t that enjoyable to me. Toudou as a character just feels out of place for how mature Jujutsu Kaisen has been as a story until now. Elegantly handling death and grief in ways other Shonen never could. And then we have this muscle bound behemoth running off about tall women with big asses. In a way it fits, because Itadori was like this from the very beginning. Plus Gojo has always been a troll. But both of them have shown depths beyond the jokes, beyond these surface level gags. And until we get the same from Toudou he is always going to be playing second fiddle for me to more interesting, better written characters.
We maybe got a hint of that this week, but it came in a really weird format. This sort of… extended flashback of a possible past, or future, where he and Itadori go to high school together? I get that it was supposed to be a revelatory moment for him. A depiction of what their friendship could be like under normal circumstances, of how close he feels to Itadori in this moment. But it also went on way to long and made very little sense. Had it been cut shorter, been a more concentrated effort, I think it could have worked wonderfully and done a lot for Toudou’s character. As is though, just like I said above, I need something more concrete. Otherwise Toudou will forever be a gag character.
As for the rest of the Kyoto school, they don’t have much going for them. The robot is… a robot, that’s his gimmick just like with Panda and the Witch Loli. The only one beyond Toudou with any sort of meaningful characterization is Miwa, who sort of tries to stay out of it. She tries to avoid responsibility for the whole “killing Itadori” thing and keep it to just a competition. Meanwhile the rest are just sort of there. It’s very clear which characters Jujutsu Kaisen intends to keep around beyond this arc. Which ones it wants to make allies. I fully expect the Witch and the Robot to die in the upcoming raid, if only to add “stakes” to what’s happening. Hopefully I’m wrong, hopefully Jujutsu Kaisen does something interesting here. Because so far this is about as standard as tournament arcs go.
So all in all, how was Jujutsu Kaisen this week? Alright I guess. Definitely one of the weakest episodes of the series, both narratively and production wise. There are a bunch of new characters we don’t care about and I’m very conflicted on Toudou. I can’t help but sit here waiting for the Curse raid to begin and get something meaningful going. Because Jujutsu Kaisen is only at its best when its exploring that line between spiritual and reality. When it’s allowed to get a bit dark and portray grief or explore human emotion. Of course you need these downtime scenes to make the darker ones hit harder. But there were better downtime segments, such as the movie training, or Fushiguro and Nobara moving on from Itadori. The fact that they still haven’t gotten proper closure with the whole thing also still bothers me.
So yeah, not a great episode, not a terrible episode. Hopefully something happens to bring this second half back to form.
You forgot to mention at the end of the episode that Gojou indicated that Miwa is his type, so the show might be setting the pair up given that Miwa thinks Gojou is just awesome.
I’m pretty sure the joke is that the Gojou and Utahime were talking about something else and not who Gojou likes
I played that off as some kind of joke on Gojou’s part, but maybe! I would be down for it! Miwa is a sweet girl though, she can do better than Gojo.
“.. We maybe got a hint of that this week, but it came in a really weird format. This sort of… extended flashback of a possible past, or future, where he and Itadori go to high school together? I get that it was supposed to be a revelatory moment for him. A depiction of what their friendship could be like under normal circumstances, of how close he feels to Itadori in this moment. But it also went on way to long and made very little sense. Had it been cut shorter, been a more concentrated effort, I think it could have worked wonderfully and done a lot for Toudou’s character. As is though, just like I said above, I need something more concrete. Otherwise Toudou will forever be a gag character.”
This flashback thing with Todo is a mystery that’s actively being developed as the series goes.
Though I feel it’s been hurt by the collective decision between Akutami and MAPPA to never use an HxH-style narrator in the series (which is quite prominent in the manga).
In the manga, the narrator explicitly states that this memory of Todo’s is of an event that never happened (chapter 35).
I thought it pretty clear that the memory never happened. It’s an allusion to how deep Toudou feels his bond with Itadori is, using a typical highschool relationship between bros and treating it like something that did take place to try and sell how much it means to Toudou.
The issue is just that it uh… went on for awhile.