Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 4 [Hidden Inventory 4]

Welcome all, to the climax of Jujutsu Kaisen’s Hidden Inventory arc! Much like Undead Murder Farce, I apologize for this being so late. I was attending Otakon this past weekend and while it was a great time, I’m behind on… literally everything. So enough lollygagging, lets dive into the episode!

Starting off, while this episode wasn’t as visually as impressive I was hoping it would be, thematically I think it was fantastic. Yeah, there wasn’t the same degree of spectacle as say… the ending of Season 1, or Mahito vs Itadori. But in place of that Jujutsu Kaisen managed to tell a story with its fights. The way Fushiguro played with Suguru, explaining himself in such a way as to purposefully mislead him while at the same time powering himself up as per his pact. Or how it communicated Gojo’s mentality in the second half. And none of that is to say it looked bad, it obviously looked great. It was just more… subdued then I was expecting, in a good way. They didn’t go over the top and ruin it with poorly composited CGI backgrounds like the previous seasons forests for instance. Overall I’d say it was… Just right.

Getting into the fights themselves, first up lets start with Suguru vs Fushiguro. Like I mentioned above, I quite liked a lot of the small character moments Jujutsu Kaisen managed to sprinkle throughout this fight. Stuff like explaining what’s happening and how his abilities work to fulfill a condition while simultaneously misleading Suguru as to how to properly fight him. Revealing his “weaknesses”, such as his cursed spirit and how it can be sensed or killed, just to distract Suguru and make him prioritize it over himself. Creating openings on purpose to draw his opponents in. It’s a smart way of fighting in a show otherwise filled with ridiculously strong abilities that make no real sense, like Gojo’s Infinity. I said it before in previous episodes, but it really sells me on how threatening Fushiguro really is.

Plus Jujutsu Kaisen even came up with a good excuse for Fushiguro not to kill Suguru, instead leaving him alive: Because doing so would release all of those spirits that Suguru has taken control of. Could he kill them all? Probably. But it would be a hassle and not really worth doing since he’s already completed the job. Why do more work for no extra pay, you know? It’s a mentality that fits perfectly with what Jujutsu Kaisen has already taught us about the guy, and is a narratively valid excuse to do something villains always do in Shounen, IE not kill the hero. I imagine this kind of pitying defeat, left alive by the enemy, will also fuck Suguru up mentally, contributing to his inevitable turn to becoming a villain.

As for Gojo, this fight was… odd. Gojo’s techniques were flashy, definitely, but it lacked most of the choreography that Fushiguro usually brings. The sort of full-body movements and sweeping cuts/jumps. It felt… Floaty, for lack of a better word. That makes sense considering Gojo’s mental state, the dude’s high as a kite on life right now, basically experiencing Nirvana and realizing not only his place in the world but everyone else’s as well. None of this is bad of course, I think I actually liked it more then Fushiguro vs Suguru simply because it’s a kind of fight Jujutsu Kaisen hasn’t given us before. One where the fight is secondary to what’s going on in Gojo’s head. But it’s certainly an odd one, some might even say anti-climactic with how quickly it ends. Considering what it does to Gojo’s character though? I’m a fan.

What I mean is, I think this experience is what turned his attitude around regarding non-sorcerers. It mellowed him out, made him realize that, jujutsu powers or not, everyone isn’t all that different. Of course I don’t think it made him a super nice guy, he’s more than willing to kill an entire church of nobodies if Suguru asked him to. It’s more like… Jujutsu Sorcerers have been brought down to the same level as normal people in his eyes, IE below him. It’s kind of a terrifying perspective when you think about it. He doesn’t care about normal people because they deserve to be protected from those stronger then them or anything. More that they are just as far below him as regular Jujutsu Sorcerers, so really what’s the difference? Who cares if one ant thinks it’s better then another ant, you know?

Speaking of Suguru, the question remains on how he becomes evil from all of this. How does getting his ass kicked by a Jujutsu Sorcerer, seeing Riko die in front of him, change his perspective? Is it because of the church? Does he view what happened as their fault, and attribute that to everyone? Or did he maybe take the opposite perspective from Gojo’s enlightenment and see it as proof of just how far ahead they are? Considering he votes to not murder an entire church of people responsible for killing Riko, it seems like he’s still struggling with it a bit. Hopefully next episode Jujutsu Kaisen walks us through where he’s at, and his eventual fall, because I really am interesting in how he became our big villain. Especially when he, if I remember correctly, dies in the 0 movie only to reappear in the main series.

So yeah, all in all this was another good episode. Jujutsu Kaisen is landing hit after hit so far, making it one of the strongest starts of the season. Even other favorites like Undead Murder Farce and Ai no Idenshi aren’t this consistently fun. It has good action, showing restraint rather then going crazy, engaging characters, with Gojo and Suguru both growing into their main-story counterparts, and a tragic end to a short and sweet arc to finish it off. Honestly, it actually gives me a lot of hope for the Shibuya arc. I think if they can keep this sort of stuff up, showing restraint and focusing on the experiences of the characters, I can come away liking it a whole lot more then I did in the manga.