Jujutsu Kaisen – 5 [Curse Womb Must Die -II-]

Alright Jujutsu Kaisen, you win this round. For all that I expected it, Jujutsu Kaisen managed to actually keep it’s promise from 2 episodes ago. However long or short it may last, someone has died. So how about we jump right in and talk about that?

Starting off with the non-spoilers, action! Animation! Production! Boring technical stuff, but I like getting animators names out there. Jujutsu Kaisen actually did an alright job here this week. The close quarters combat wasn’t as impressive as the first episode with Gojo, not even close. It often felt a bit… floaty, in that characters where static in movement as the background spun. An attempt to give motion without much actual animation, and it shows. But that doesn’t stop Norimoto Tokura and Shota Goshozono from giving us some pretty great effects work like in this clip here. I love the animation on the snake twisting through the air, or how it explodes into particles down it’s length. It was easily the most stunning shot of the episode and one I hope we see more of. I can only hope that this slow shift isn’t a sign of MAPPA’s production curse starting.

Moving on to the big moment… Jujutsu Kaisen sorta fulfilled its promise? It went with what I expected, that Itadori would kill himself to save Fushiguro. However the manner in which it did so was a nice surprise. By having Sukuna rip out Itadori’s own heart it not only further cements his place as a villain, but also immediately raises the stakes. We know the moment that heart comes out that someone is going to die. That there is no non-bullshit way that both of them get out of this situation. All this while at the same time presenting a trial for Itadori’s character, effectively giving him the choice to live or die. As a follow up to last episode’s fear of death, as spoken by Sukuna, I think it does a great job. Also the heart ripping scene was just metal as fuck, I can’t lie.

Sure, the MC dying is a bit of a cop out since we know 100% he is coming back. It’s hard to have a Shounen battle series with your MC dead. But since Jujutsu Kaisen is based around curses, spirits and the dead, characters coming back was always on the table. The real question is how they are going to come back. If its some cheap “Gather the 7 dragon balls and we can bring you back infinite times”, then yes. Death will lose all meaning in the series. But if Jujutsu Kaisen can present a challenging and meaningful method for Itadori to come back? Most likely involving some kind of deal with Sukuna, or becoming a curse himself? I’d be down for it. So long as Sukuna stays this malevolent force in the background, I think Jujutsu Kaisen has a real shot of making this work.

As for the 2nd half of the episode, since the first was pretty self explanatory… eh? It was alright? The whole thing felt very weird tonally, considering what we just got off of. Jujutsu Kaisen attempts to ease us into this tonal switch by focusing on Nobara and Fushiguro’s grief. The whole “I barely knew him, I don’t cry” bit was nice and I continue to like Nobara. Strong women are awesome! But it feels like they both bounced back very quickly, in typical Shounen style to. Immediately jumping into the “training” arc before the “tournament” arc. Seriously, how do we pivot from main character death to side-character tournament arc? It doesn’t really make sense and is the first real crack in Jujutsu Kaisen’s story structure for me. I was hoping we could stick to this more atypical story structure, leaping straight into serious conflict, instead of this highschool stuff.

Meanwhile these new characters are… again, eh? The one girl with the wake joke was funny, I love some gallows humor and that was right up my alley. I liked how she actually had no idea, pivoting hard on her characterization of “cold bitch” since she didn’t know. It was a nice twist on an otherwise stereotypical character archetype. Beyond that though I can’t say I am to enamored with them. Speech Curse boy seems like a novelty gag and I don’t really expect anything from him, hard to have good dialogue with only ingredients. Meanwhile the Panda is… a panda. That’s about all the explanation Jujutsu Kaisen gives us and it feels really out of place in the story right now. Hopefully it makes the panda work in context to everything else. Right now though he just feels like a mascot in a Shounen story.

Next we get to the new villains! And they are also… eh? I like their designs, the one eyed old man is kinda nice and I think having a human opponent introduces some interesting avenues for Itadori when he comes back. His whole “saving people” thing up against a human he might have to kill. All the while contrasting it with Fushiguro’s “only good people get saved” shtick could be interesting. But right now they don’t really have any presence. All we know is they basically need help with their plan, and it makes them feel like 2-bit villains. Weak and without much threat, since they apparently can’t do anything on their own. Just like the Panda, I am going to reserve judgement until we see them in action. But so far nothing has intrigued me as much as Sukuna as far as villains go.

Finally, there is one interesting thing Jujutsu Kaisen does in the second half, and thats with Gojo. I really liked how the series points to just how out of their league our leads were. In most Shounen, thats expected. They get a ridiculous assignment/fight, somehow win and prove themselves to everyone. Here though it is played for conspiracy. Showing that some of the higher ups in the organization didn’t agree with the stay on Itadori’s execution. The idea of internal politics, of someone trying to send him to the slaughter, was a welcome bit of intrigue. It makes it feel like we have enemies on every front and I look forward to what Jujutsu Kaisen does with that. Hopefully when Itadori inevitably returns it causes a stir, either that or something happens at the tournament to make that more interesting.

So all in all, how was Jujutsu Kaisen this week? The first half was great, I was down for everything that happened. Sukuna is a real presence and one of the stronger Shounen antagonists I have seen in a while. It’s always nice when a series has an excuse to show their villain early and often. A way to get the audience, and the Protagonists, familiar with them. That makes their inevitable final confrontation have a lot more weight, with all those chapters of built up experience. Sadly though the second half was much weaker and felt like it should have been the start to a whole new episode. I have no idea how Jujutsu Kaisen could have done that, maybe there was no way. But it feels very out of place. As if there wasn’t a good spot to split the chapters.

But what did you think? Am I insane, or is the tone fine? Let me know below and I will see you next week!