Welcome everyone to the penultimate episode of Jujutsu Kaisen! And this week I present to you: Megumi Fushiguro. That’s it. I don’t have anything clever here, this is Fushiguro’s episode and its pretty damn good. So lets dive into it.
As always lets start by first bitching about Jujutsu Kaisen’s production. Or at least that’s what I would say if it didn’t do a great job this week. Everything from the composite and choreography to even the CGI tracking shots were good. Whether it be the intensity of Gojo’s stare during Fushiguro’s flashback or Itadori running and spinning through the domain. It’s frankly amazing how much of a difference changing the environment you are tracking in can help. I’m sure you remember the forests of the tournament arc and just how… bad that looked. Of course part of that comes down to this room being a flat plane compared to complex foliage. But it’s not as if Park didn’t know what the environment would be like in each of these shots before planning them out. So let this be a lesson on using the right tool for the right scene.
Next we get into the story and I have to say, Fushiguro’s whole bit was pretty freaking rad. Before we even get to the Domain Expansion or any of the actual fighting, which we will, I enjoyed all of the callbacks and supporting moments from previous episodes. The way Jujutsu Kaisen managed to incorporate even the baseball episode of all things was great. It took an episode, or at least a sequence, that I really didn’t like and made it relevant. Fitting it into the story much more organically than I ever expected. We also had callbacks to episode 5 with Sukuna, completing an arc set in motion from episode 1. I wish we got a bit more in the tournament arc but hey, that doesn’t change that this worked. Plus it brought my boy Sukuna back in and you know I love him.
Meanwhile the whole thing with domain expansion? Chef kiss, one of the most hype scenes of the show. There are so many layers to this sequence that it’s hard to talk about them all, so for your ease of reading I’m just going to list them:
- Every domain continues to be unique and fitting its wielder, giving us a staggering amount of possible combat scenario’s.
- The incomplete nature of the domain and watching it evolve in real time, adding Nue and shadow clones, was fucking rad.
- Bringing back the same Special Grade design as the prison arc to really drive home Fushiguro’s growth since then. Some might call it lazy, I call it clever design us.
- Where Itadori got the Black Flash, Fushiguro gets Domain Expansion, keeping them at level with each other but still different.
- And finally, Fushiguro’s expressions didn’t fit him at all, yet somehow fit the scene and the emotional tone of it all, at the same time.
So yeah, to say I enjoyed the Special Grade fight is an understatement. I’m still not fully on board with the words that made him snap, to trigger this change. But I am down for it’s results. Good times dude, a good damn time.
That said the one thing I’m not totally sold, or at least wasn’t while watching, was the backstory. It wasn’t bad, I’ve even come around on it while writing this post, its just weird to see Fushiguro in that kind of setting. It feels like something that we should have gotten earlier in the series. To let fester and build up to this point and maybe work it into the Tournament arc a bit to. The way it worked in his “Picking who I save” mentality at the end though managed to make it click for me. This idea that he considered his sister a hypocrite for both caring for him while admonishing his violence against others, only to realize the ridiculousness of that and compare it to his own mess up methodology of choosing who he saved. It made for a nice lynchpin and brought the whole sequence together.
Fushiguro and the Special Grade aside, what about Itadori and Nobara? Neither of these two got to do much, with Nobara actually getting kidnapped again much to my annoyance. Kidnapping aside though she did get a few good licks in. Her whack-a-mole combat along with her back and forth with the new Special Grade were fun. I hope she gets something to put her on the same level as Itadori and Fushiguro though. It’s utterly criminal that she’s only had like… one good showing in a fight so far. As for Itadori, he surprised me. I figured we would get to see some more Black Flashes after last weeks cliffhanger, really let him strut his stuff. Considering that this was Fushiguro’s episode I figure his time to shine is being saved for the finale. But if Jujutsu Kaisen doesn’t end this season on some impact frames, consider me disappointed.
Finally it’s time for the Gojo Satoru fanclub corner because we can’t not talk about this man. I get that Jujutsu Kaisen is going out of it’s way to make him hot but come on. This man and his smoldering, intense lens spike’s are almost enough to make me gay. Credit where it’s due for the color and lighting of that dojo scene because this man is freaking beautiful. And as if that wasn’t enough we also got to see him be a goofball in the flashback to! I’m sure there are some dark character inferences you can make here. Maybe look into how he’s basically involved in child trafficking with Fushiguro or his “jokes” about making money off him. But you know what? I don’t care. This man’s a fun goofball with just enough darkness to give him that unpredictable edge and I want more of it.
So with all that said, it’s pretty obvious what I think of this episode: It was pretty damn good. The setup from last week paid off well, Fushiguro got to strut his stuff and Gojo was hot like usual. Yeah there are things I could criticize and a few I point out above in this post. But none of those go beyond nitpicks in my eyes. “Oh this could have been better” or “I’m not 100% sold on bad boy Fushiguro”, etc etc. But when I push all of that away and simply ask “Did I enjoy the episode” the answer comes out to this: Unequivocally yes. That’s how most of these posts to be frank. I answer that question and figure out the why as I write. And for the life of me even as I wrote those criticism’s I was still smiling. And you probably were to.
I’ll see you all next week for the finale of Jujutsu Kaisen! Let me know what you thought of this episode down below, I’m curious if there’s anything I missed. See you then!
Should note that Gojou was not the one trafficking Megumi he was the one who stopped Megumi’s dad from doing that to him. Well he did not stop his dad he just stopped the deal going through.
I saw that but it also read weird to me in that Gojo got him into the Jujutsu school but got a stipend for both of them off of it? So like… he saved Megumi from the Zenin clan right? But at the same time he’s kind of profiting off of him, in a round about “This is best for you” sort of way? Or did I completely misunderstand that part of the flashback?
I think you misunderstood. To summarise, Gojo told Megumi that his father left the Zenin clan and was planning to sell him to said clan becouse the boy inherited the technique. Teenage Gojo cancelled the deal, but in return promised to the higher-ups that Megumi would become a sorcerer in the future, so Megumi and Tsumiki had money to live on their own. (I think you misunderstood the “money for both of us” as “for Megumi and Gojo”, while actually it meant “for Megumi and Tsumiki”)
Oh ok, that makes sense. I definitely thought they meant “for Megumi and Gojo” and that made the entire thing really weird to me. Like Gojo, you profiting off of kids dude?
Thanks for clearing that up for me.
Last episode’s gonna be gud. Been waiting for this battle for a while having read the chapters that correspond to the next episode.
The post-credits scene, where we get a whole bunch of misunderstandings that lead to comical results was arguably one of the funniest in this entire series. Also one could easily tell that Akutami did the storyboards for these scenes.
Amen, that was a hell of an episode and a beautiful read of how you enjoyed it. For me, the pacing and rawness really keeps me tuned in to Jujutsu Kaisen.