Welcome all, to… to the same fight we’ve been watching for a while. Oh god it just keeps going. And going. Why? Oh god he has another form. And his buddy showed up to help. At least Todo is doing something! Oh gosh. Well this is going to be a fun week to talk about, someone is going to get mad at me. So lets rip off the band aid and dive right into it!
So in case it wasn’t obvious, I’m tired. I left this episode feeling fatigued. We’ve been doing this same fight, this same conflict, for so many episodes now. Every time it’s about to come to a close new powers, new strategies, new allies, new ass pulls occur to keep it going just a little longer. I can accept a few, it’s the genre, have fun with it. But much like Wano and the current My Hero Academia arc dragged on, so too has this fight. There comes a point where it’s simply to much, where you want the fight to end and the story to move on. And right here, right now? Jujutsu Kaisen has reached that point. Because every time something cool happened, every time Todo appeared on screen, every time I had fun, I was then reminded we have the same fight to get back to.
It wasn’t all bad, Todo continues to be an absolute chad, the MVP of the past few episodes. Every time he appeared on screen, I smiled. He doesn’t pull out random bullshit we didn’t know he had, nothing that actually affects the fight at least. Instead he’s simply always down to clown, using his power in incredibly inventive ways to gain the upper hand. Clapping against Mahito’s palm to activate his ability after losing his left hand? Fantastic! Proclaiming applause is something that comes from the soul, both metaphorically praising Itadori from the bottom of his heart and faking out Mahito with one of the best bluffs I’ve ever seen? Then admitting Boogie Woogie is dead, telling us it wasn’t a bullshit power spike? Absolutely incredible. I love this man and everything he brings to the series. And that’s not even mentioning what I totally would have accepted as the best domain expansion of the series!
That’s right, I’m talking about the imagination sequence. This was hilarious! The necklace falling and revealing Itadori’s picture inside, right next to the Idol he loves so much, confusing the absolute shit out of Mahito? That leading into an imaginary domain expansion where he beats the shit out of him side by side with Takada-san, his crush? All the while his own theme song is playing? Seriously, this was my favorite part of the entire episode. It was just fun. No stupid edgy “I am you” metaphors that don’t make any sense, none of what I’ve criticized for so long. Just… Some honest to goodness fun. And it was bloody brilliant. Maybe I only love it because it broke up an otherwise exhausting fight, I’ll never know. But what I can say for certain is that Todo will forever be the best character Jujutsu Kaisen has.
As for Mahito, normally I like him. His metaphor with Itadori is stupid, it still makes no sense with how they’ve been characterized. But this episode saw him get his final “power up”, taking on a whole new form, his true form. And it looks absolutely terrible. It’s such a stereotypical “Cursed Spirit” design. One that loses all of the expressiveness and character of his original one. Now his discolored eyes and manic smile are replaced with a flat sheet of armor. His patchwork clothes and skin, a dull blue-ish sort of color. Everything that made him interesting to look at is gone. It’s a rather apt metaphor for this fight, and arc as a whole, to be honest. Of what it has become. And suffice to say, I’m not terribly interest in where it’s going.
Finally we come to Itadori. Once again, there really wasn’t much story progression here. You’d be forgiven for thinking the fight had wrapped up, that Itadori had won, but with Geto showing up who the fuck knows anymore. About the only interesting thing was Itadori rejecting the traditional shounen mindset of “I will not kill, I can save everybody”. That was nice, him just giving in to everything that’s happened and accepting he has to throw away his own principles to protect people. It would be really meaningful if Mahito actually embodied, actually mirrored, him like Jujutsu Kaisen claims. As it is though you’re left wondering why he didn’t do this a while ago, considering we have no evidence of a single “non-evil” cursed spirit. Oh and I guess that wolf hunting the rabbit scene was kind of cool, some nice visuals there. To bad we didn’t get it 2 episodes ago.
So yeah, all in all this episode was simply tiring. I want to enjoy Jujutsu Kaisen, I really do. And I know it’s possible, Hidden Inventory was basically perfect, hitting everything I want. Gege can write when he wants to, when he’s allowed to tell succinct arcs that don’t overstay their welcome. But this? Jujutsu Kaisen hasn’t earned this sort of overly long, single ongoing battle sort of arc. Especially not with how it treats so many of its characters as nothing more than emotional stepping stones for Itadori. This isn’t about time, I’m not saying its “to soon”. Hell, My Hero Academia hasn’t earned this, and it’s doing it right now in it’s huge big battle finale. No, it’s about the characters, and how well developed they are. Nanami? Great, got a lot of good stuff, perfectly positioned for this sort of arc. That’s why his death feels earned, why everyone loves him and will remember his role. Same with Jogo. But Nobara? Maki? Hanami? Dogon? Literally everybody else? They weren’t ready for this. And it shows in the final product.
What an awful episode. I agree with you on every single point.
No idea how or why anyone’s powers work, no dramatic weight to situations, uninspired demon design, random animation missing/turned the wrong way…
The rabbit metaphor bit was so obviously desperate, but could have been neat if, once again, we’d set it up earlier.
It’s all just writing on the fly. Like a child saying, “And then this, and then this!” What a huge waste of time the last ten episodes have been. Finish up and then never come back, please.
If you and the review guy fuckimg hate jjk why do each of you still watch thjs!!! Seriously every week it is the same fucking thing with you people! There are much better shows you each could be watching right now. You both know that right?
Also to avoid as much spoilers as possible one of the character lenlo mentioned is still alive. I won’t say who but since he claims to have read the man he knows who I am talking about.
I know you all hate pointless deaths but at least Gege is willing to kill off some characters instead of shoving in fake out deaths every chapters. OP did this shit so many times!
You both need to consider the health of gege and how it is affecting the work because like Lenlo said he is capable of great stuff. But being a shonen creator is not easy and so far it shows.
Look you are both free to complain all you want it is your right but at this point you guys should just move on because reading all this negative stuff with little positive is tiring
Yeah, and I’m watching them. I do a weekly post about it! But I chose to blog JJK, so I’m going to finish it. I’m a man of commitment.
That’s fair. Is what Gege doing better than fakeout shounen deaths? I’d say it is, yeah. I’d prefer stakes actually be high and people die than get faked out for episodes on episodes. It’s a big problem with things like My Hero Academia, you’re 100% correct. That said, it doesn’t make how its handled here good. It could still be better. And that’s what we’re getting at.
I am aware, yes. I have refrained from mentioning them specifically to avoid spoilers for people, only talking about the ones that aren’t resolved. They have a decent arc comin up, so that will be worth looking forward to.
Oh for sure. I’ve commented on it before I’m pretty sure, but the Mangaka weekly pipeline is absolutely destroying these series. Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia, even One Piece suffers from it a fair bit. Being forced to put out a chapter a week is murder on these authors. I can only imagine how much better all of these series would be if they were allowed to write and draw at their own pace. Because of that, I try to avoid attacking Gege as much as possible. The guy is doing his best in a shit system. But I am going to criticize the final result, because it’s a product put out there.
I understand you might not like it, and you’re totally free to only read the other posts until this season of JJK is done. For me though, I’ve committed to finishing the series, and I’m gonna do that. Plus I did have hope for it. I’ll say it again, Hidden Inventory was fantastic. I don’t hate the series, I don’t get off on this or go into the episodes looking to not enjoy it. But I’m also not going to lie when I write these posts.
If it’s any consolation, you only have 3 left! Episodes 22, 23 and the final review! Then we’re done. Honestly next JJK season, I might just include it in the weekly catchups rather than full blog selection. I tend to pick it up because it’s the big thing of a season and it drives some web traffic, but you’re right that there isn’t a particularly interesting way to say “This is falling apart” for 2 months. It gets tiring for fans. I’ll keep that in mind next time a season is announced.
I get it. Don’t crap on the blogger, though. Dude’s got this whole website on his shoulders and has always been fair with his reviews while staying true to his personal views on the series.
Meanwhile, I’m just some douche who loves animation and story-telling, and very occasionally sharing my opinion on both. This particular show was so cool-looking at its very beginning–and such a big hit with the larger anime audience–that I couldn’t avoid watching it, and it has also meant that it has been very hard to put down. It reminds me of when I reluctantly dropped MHA in later seasons because of death fake-outs, convenience plots and MC power creep. Or the last season of Haikyuu, because of the lazy direction and reused frames. You get hooked on a series early on and you reeeeally want it to pick up. And sometimes it just won’t.
As far as the mangaka is concerned, I was unaware of his health issues, just as I was unaware of Mappa issues besides what I read in this blog. It seems kind of irrelevant when critiquing the output itself, at least on this level. If one were to write a meta-critique of the anime world and perhaps the industry, which pushes artists and studios to produce faster and better than humanly possible, those concerns are definitely salient.
I think you should call out bad shows for being bad, good shows for being good, and watch and read and disagree with whatever you want. Doesn’t always feel good, but it makes for interesting discussion!