Jujutsu Kaisen – 9 [Small Fry and Reverse Retribution]

Welcome to another episode of Jujutsu Kaisen! I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving, what with all the madness going on in the world right now. It’s nice to be able to tune it out and focus on something fun. Considering the content of this weeks episode though, who knows if Jujutsu Kaisen qualifies for that. So without further ado, lets dive in and figure it out!

Now, as it turns out my commenters were right! Building up to this, I have often referenced the “next arc” as the tournament arc. The Kyoto vs Tokyo event that Jujutsu Kaisen has been building up to. Turns out, and you commenters pointed this out first, we have another arc happening first and that’s… kind of nice. In my build up, in my expectation of the tournament arc being the next arc, I often talked about how I thought that a weird fit. That transitioning from the prison and Itadori’s death to a standard tournament felt really weird. I wanted more time for Fushiguro to grieve, more time for all the characters to change as people before they met up again. And this Mahito arc Jujutsu Kaisen is giving us right now is exactly that. It’s dark, but it can ease us into the tournament.

Getting into the actual episode, this week we see Itadori and a new Jujutsu Sorcerer, Kento Nanami investigating the theater. My initial impression is that this is Mahito’s introduction arc, it’s what will set him up as a major villain. Establishing his powers, his personality, all that important jazz. My hope is that we don’t see him defeated, at least not permanently. I really like his design, I enjoy what we have seen of him so far and his powers are… creepy. Awesome, in a body-horror kind of way, but creepy. That said I don’t expect that to be a problem. From his placement in the OP to his casting, Jujutsu Kaisen is putting in a lot of work to build him up, even giving him a sort of mini-plot with Yoshino who I will talk about later.

As for my initial impression of Mahito? He comes off as very imposing. I appreciated how Jujutsu Kaisen took the time to build up his intelligence, his cunning. How he lead Itadori and Kento into traps, the reveal of the “ghosts” actually being people and how he is purposefully playing with them. It really sells how monstrous he is before the reveal of just what kind of negative emotions he represents. Compare this to Jogo, volcano head, who really comes off as kind of a joke. Sure, he incinerated a café. But between his fight with Gojo and the after credits scene, he has lost a lot of menace. Meanwhile Mahito’s power is both mysterious and open ended, while also beautifully horrific. I’m looking forward to the kind of body-horror Jujutsu Kaisen can pull with him and hope it doesn’t hold back in the slightest.

Mahito out of the way, lets circle back to Yoshino, because I am curious what Jujutsu Kaisen will do here. Is Mahito actually taking him under his wing, will he become an evil Jujutsu Sorcerer? Or is Mahito just playing with him? Because of the nature of Mahito’s curse, that of human fear and hatred, I personally lean towards the latter. I’m expecting Mahito to use either abandon him or to train him and throw him at Itadori just for fun. Something about Yahito, either his design or how he is presented, screams of a tragedy to me. And once I look at the OP as well, that sort of happy scene at the end just doesn’t fit him. So yeah, I fully expect this to end poorly for him. Whether or not he survives it though is another question entirely.

Antagonists done with, lets talk about about Kento and the episodes production. Kento is a weird one, but not your traditional sort of weird. He is presented very logically and I initially thought he was pretty dull. A salaryman turned Jujutsu Sorcerer? Where is the fantasy in that? Turns out Jujutsu Kaisen was prepared for this though, because his jokes weren’t half bad. Still anime comedy, so not phenomenal, but it got a chuckle. Both jobs are shit, so pick the one he is better at/is less shit, that sort of thing. Meanwhile his power is relatively simple, but I can foresee it used in creative ways. I wasn’t sold on it until Jujutsu Kaisen showed us the monster’s legs, showing his power applies to individual body parts/objects as well. There’s some real potential for creativity with this power I think.

Finally we come to the production, shocking that I didn’t put it at the top I know. Jujutsu Kaisen continues to be, in a word, consistent. Yeah it has the big flashy moments like episode 7, but so does every Shonen. The real measure of a Shonen’s production health in my opinion is in it’s consistency. How often can it pull those off, how well animated are the small fights or character scenes in between, etc. And Jujutsu Kaisen seems to be very healthy if this episode is any indication. It’s not “blow you away” amazing, but is very solid choreography and animation. I particularly liked the cursed energy effects, with the brushstroke linework. It fit’s the shows aesthetic really well and makes the abilities stand out from everything else. So yeah, tl;dr, Jujutsu Kaisen looks pretty damn good.

So all in all, how was this episode of Jujutsu Kaisen? The best way I can describe it is the same I described its production, solid. Everything about the show so far is solid. Characters, story, animation, the whole shebang. It’s had some slight missteps narratively, but that comes down to personal taste. They aren’t nothing that will ruin the show or impact it in any serious way. It’s similar to Kimetsu no Yaiba of last year in a way, a very solid series and little more. The difference though is that I can feel Jujutsu Kaisen reaching for something. Between the grandfather in the first episode, Itadori’s death in episode 5 and Sukuna, it feels like Jujutsu Kaisen has a plan to be more. I’m just waiting for that moment it all clicks and moves from “solid Shonen” to “new pillar of of Jump” as Horikoshi put it.