3 weeks, 3 good episodes of Jujutsu Kaisen! This week we meet the final member of our trio, get some THICC shots and end on a cliffhanger I can’t believe is real. All that and more in this weeks episode! So lets dive right in.
As always, we start with production, because this way I can put all my spoilers after the break. For only being 3 episodes in, Jujutsu Kaisen has had some pretty fantastic cuts. Whether it be running down a hallway or a dynamic camera following a fight, its looked good. This week though we see Jujutsu Kaisen slow it down a bit. Nothing bad, there isn’t a serious drop in quality or anything. Its just clear that MAPPA is in this for the long haul, saving the big animation for the big moments. As while it looks fine, there are no big standout “wow” scenes. We did at least get some cute little chibi reactions to fit with the lighter mood, and I like those a lot! They are very expressive. No, the only noticeable issue this week were some inconsistent backgrounds at the station but that gets left behind quickly.
Moving on past the break, now we can talk spoilers, and I am going to admit to something right here: I’ll simp Nobara. If you have followed me for any amount of time, you know I have a thing for badass women. And so far, Nobara fits this to a tee. Just look at that image up there, that’s some serious “I will step on you” energy. Combined with the thicc, a willingness to kick ass and a slight country accent and I am sold. Degeneracy aside, I did enjoy her chemistry with the other two this week. It feels similar to God of Highschools main 3 except… better. Itadori has actual motivations from his grandfather, Nobara is clearly trying to escape from something even if its just the country and Fushiguro is done with it all. It’s a bit early to lock them in, but I enjoy them.
As far as her powers and such go, I like them. They stand out compared to the others and I am looking forward to how Jujutsu Kaisen uses them. Cursed voodoo dolls have been a part of popular media and such for a long time, at least in the west. I’m sure Japan has their own connotations/religious meaning to them separate from Louisiana voodoo. But as a southerner, that’s what I first felt when I saw them, and it was pretty cool. The whole “Nail the doll and a body part for a direct hit” can make for some cool strategy, allowing them a chance against stronger opponents. Its like a hard to setup “I win” button. Combine that with hammers to smack bitches and nails to… nail bitches and I think Nobara is going to have some interesting fights.
Out of all of that though, I think what I am looking forward to the most is her backstory. We get a little bit of it, how her friend from the city was run out of her country town, etc. It feels a bit weak on it’s own, even if it does explain her personality. The whole “I love the big city” and trying to escape the country, etc. But the consistent shots of the closed bridge across from her house, along with the underlying tone of this being a series about curses and the dead, makes me think theres more. After all, how/why did she become A jujutsu sorcerer? I’m hoping there is more to this and that we build on it as we go. It doesn’t have to be tragic, but I like this romantic relationship angle it’s playing here. Oh, and did I mention she’s thicc?
Getting to the rest of the episode, Jujutsu Kaisen did a good job of slow rolling todays plot. Of starting off light hearted and slowly building up to the cursed building. But I think the highlight of this is that Jujutsu Kaisen knew it couldn’t go to dark. It couldn’t go from a happy meeting at a train station to a kid dying or something. It ramped up slowly to a regular shounen situation, then used the cliffhanger to carry that tension over to the next episode. Effectively using the entire episode as a lead in to the next. Its basic stuff, but I see a lot of series go for the shock value of killing random characters to tell the viewer “this is serious”, despite how it wasn’t properly lead into at all.
A big example of how Jujutsu Kaisen did this well is Goto this episode. He is already established as a bit of a troll. Someone who is able to have fun with situations, purely because he knows nothing we have yet met is a threat to him. He can afford to clown around. So using him for jokes, for teasing the leads, and then using those jokes to transfer us to the cursed building worked well. The whole “Tour of Tokyo” turning into an “abandoned building” feels like something Goto would do, and we have only known him for 2 episodes. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t the height of comedy, I never really laughed at any of the jokes. But I also never felt any tonal whiplash as the episode progressed. And I think that’s kinda cool.
One last thing before we get to the cliffhanger, its small but I enjoyed how Goto calls out Itadori’s mental state. How jujutsu sorcerers are all messed up in the head to be able to do what they do, Itadori especially so. It’s a small thing, but it’s something a lot of shounen don’t properly make note of. The fact that most people just mentally can’t keep up with what MC’s do. When you look at it from a macro scale, most shounen MC’s actually seem like psychopaths. Jumping from fight to fight, killing people etc. Even if the ones they are killing are evil, its still going to mess you up. Even participating in my boxing matches, I always had to reconcile the fact that I was about to seriously hurt someone just for a show match. So however tiny it is, it’s refreshing to see it called out.
Finally we come to the cliffhanger and boy do I not believe it. Seriously, I will eat my sock if someone actually dies and stays dead next arc. It’s way to early in your stereotypical shounen for a lead character to die. Even Goto hasn’t had enough time to establish himself as the “Wise Mentor” for his death to have much meaning. Personally, my wager is that they introduce a new first year from another school or something and they die. That or some random bystander, or a lead dies but their “spirit” is saved. Resulting in some kind of DBZ resurrection or something. If Jujutsu Kaisen actually commits to killing off one of its lead characters this early, I will be impressed. What do you think? Will Jujutsu Kaisen follow through, or we are getting baited here? Let me know down below
And that’s a wrap for this week! So all in all, how was Jujutsu Kaisen episode 3? While a step down visually from the previous 2, I still think its a strong contender for the season. I’m enjoying the main cast, Nobara is thicc as hell, and if nothing else the cliffhanger has me intrigued. Its a 24 episode series of a still running shounen, so it could very easily fall apart. Especially with this cliffhanger we got and how it will handle it. For now though, I’m game. Excluding Haukyuu, Jujutsu Kaisen is probably my favorite thing airing this season. You probably know from my time with Kimetsu no Yaiba, but I really enjoy solid, well made shounen. I don’t need anything more to be entertained, so when I get more its a pleasant surprised. And so far, Jujutsu Kaisen is pretty solid.
I like Jujutsu Kaisen more than Kimetsu no Yaiba. I was thoroughly unimpressed with Kimetsu no Yaiba and thought it didn’t have much going for it aside from the visuals by courtesy of Ufotable. Tanjirou just seemed like a typical good guy while Inosuke’s boarish nature was very one-note, and don’t get me started on Zenitsu. To me, Jujutsu Kaisen’s setting is more interesting, and I find that its trio of main characters is more interesting than Kimetsu no Yaiba’s.
I think Fushiguro is going to die next episode if that text at the end of the episode is indicating what will actually happen. He has no backstory unlike Itadori and Nobara, who do have one and had stronger introductions than he did.
I would agree. The more time has passed, the less enamored with Yaiba I have been. I’ve actually started to lower my score on it and adjust the prior review a bit to reflect that. I think at the time I overreacted to the crowd of people that hated on it for being standard shounen, where I say a baseline competent one that I still enjoyed.
JJK is, so far, superior. I enjoy the characters and setting ala curses a lot more.
Fushiguro is a good guess. I would still be surprised if he died, just because I don’t think JJK has the balls to actually kill a lead character off this early. But out of all of them he probably has the best chance. That or some “Kill our MC then bring him back 10 eps later” or somethin. I dunno. Its a show about curses and spirits, resurrection ain’t to far out there.
Can’t wait for late 2021, when you’ll lower your Jujutsu Kaisen score after a newer, shinier shounen emerges!
Maybe! Depends on how it goes now. I still stand by Yaiba being a fun show, I enjoyed it and still think its a very competent shounen. An 8 to a 7 aint that big a change and I still think Yaiba is worth peoples time.
A well made Shonen really is a cash cow and I think attack on titan paved the way for shows like Haikyuu, Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen so far. Personally I couldn’t be happier.
Overall I agree with your take on JJK but for me the best thing about JJK is it’s potential for horror. Almost eldritch horror. Anime is such a flexible medium but we’ve never gotten much of that and so far JJK had done an awesome job. Also based on the episode preview the next curse looks downright unnerving.
Im with on ya the horror, but just like how I don’t expect it to follow through on the cliffhanger, I don’t expect it to really dive into the horror side of curses much. It would be a surprise for a standard shounen to do that, but a pleasant surprise!
I have to agree and when the episode preview suggested a first year was going to die I was in no way expecting one of the main four to die [although yes that would be shocking if they did], But at this point I can even take just the visual aspect. There is almost no chance it will go down as dark as Parasyte for example but visually I really, really like the way they artistically convey the curses.
Man that’s the waifu you choose from this season? Jokes aside, I love how they’ve made a female character who isn’t obvious service and has some real personality (albeit maybe a bit off the deep end).
I don’t have many other options, at least from non-sequels. From sequels its Shimizu from Haikyuu all day every day.
There are plenty of Shonen girls with personality. All the girls from Gintama, Nami from OP, Biscuit from HXH, Momo from MHA abd Power from Chainsaw man. That said it sounds like the main girl from Kaisen is a cool heroine.