(Nitsuj): Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. So last week we took a look at Kimestu no Yaiba’s second season. Despite half the season being a recap of the hit film, it was great and delivered. Still, one has to wonder, with the manga ending at the height of its popularity what did its fans migrate to? What manga did they flock to, to sate their thirst for demon-slaying? Well they didn’t have to travel far because the manga they were looking for was in the pages of Shonen Jump and called Jujutsu Kaisen. Released in 2018 and written by Gege Akutami, Jujutsu Kaisen quickly rose up the rankings of Shonen Jump becoming one of their most popular works.
(Seras): It would also go on to start a new form of shonen manga.
(Yume): I agree.
(Nitsuj): Seras? Yume? What are you guys doing here?
(Yume): Helping out on the review. You’ll need it for a series like this.
(Nitsuj): Well I could use the extra help. Also, what did you mean by a new form of shonen manga?
(Seras): Well, together with Kimestu no Yaiba, Attack on Titan, and to a lesser extent My Hero Academia, a new wave of shonen manga was taking over and it’s what I like to call, dark shonen. Shonen stories that didn’t take place in these bright and colorful worlds and would instead focus on dark and mature themes that you would see in seinen manga, but since the characters were young teens and not adults, it counted as a shonen series. These themes would vary from story to story and could be about anything from bullying, abusive parents, or serious issues currently going on in the world. Basically, dark shonen was taking current problems, fears and issues in real life and presenting them in a story that readers could relate to and understand.
(Nitsuj): And Jujutsu Kaisen is one of these dark shonen stories?
(Yume): Indeed. After Demon Slayer, most of their readers started to check out Jujutsu Kaisen. While both mangas involved demons, they each told their stories differently and bared no resemblance to each other whatsoever. They were each their own thing and readers became fans of both. Jujustu Kaisen would rise to the top and be the next one to dethrone One Piece and become the new king of manga thanks in large part to the anime.
(Nitsuj): The anime came out in 2020 and was done by MAPPA (Terror in Resonance, Zombie Land Saga, and Yuri on Ice) who at this point had cemented themselves as a powerhouse studio and had fans excited for the anime. The anime would go on to be one of the highlights of that abysmal year and just like Kimestu no Yaiba gained worldwide recognition thanks to the anime, so too did Jujutsu Kaisen and today we’re gonna look at it to close out this year’s Ani-ween.
(Seras): Let’s get ready to enjoy demon-slaying in the modern era, this is Jujutsu Kaisen.
Opening and Ending Theme
(Nitsuj): For the first half’s opening we have “Kaikai Kitan” by Eve. By God was this one of my favorite openings from 2020. Not only are the visuals and transitions excellent, but the song is just great. Eve always brings his A-game when it comes to his songs, but he really knocked it out of the park here. This was the song that pretty much put him on the map and got him a ton of fans in the anime community. All I can say is I need to hear more of Eve’s songs in anime.
(Seras): “Lost in Paradise” by Ali feat. AKLO. If you love the opening then you’re going to love the ending even more. This song just embodies vibing. Was it unexpected for an ending? Yes, but at the same time you really didn’t seem because of how good it was. The song is just so catchy to listen to and has so many moving parts that come together to create an excellent ending that people are going back and listening to it.
Episodes 1-4
(Yume): The anime starts with our main character Yuuji voiced by Junya Enoki (Jack from Beastars) waking up and tied to a chair in a room full of seal marks (Seras: Well this is a lovely wakeup call). In the room is man named Satoru a teacher at the secret school known as Jujustu High. We get a flashback where a little more about Yuuji. He’s your normal carefree high school student who is extremely athletic and spends most his free time hanging out with the unofficial occult club with two other students named Saki and Iguchi (Nitsuj: Not gonna lie, he feels like a protagonist from the 90s. Doesn’t take anything too serious, isn’t whining or wimpy, caring and kind, cooperative, and knows how to use common sense). The council president finds them annoying and pointless. In a funny bit, Saki tries to justify the club by talking about how the rugby field was cursed by a spirit because of a dead body being buried there (well that’s morbid), but the president says it was ticks (Nitsuj: Spoon~! (Yume): No, not those ticks). A few minutes later, we see an apprentice exorcist named Megumi voiced by Yuma Uchida (the younger brother of Maaya Uchida) investigating the field looking for a lost relic where he reveals that the field is cursed, and a spirit (or curses as they like to call them. Let’s be honest, they’re demons really) is living on the field. After club activities, Yuuji goes to visit his grandpa in the hospital who have a love-hate relationship (Yuuji loves grandpa, grandpa yells at Yuuji). In a rather abrupt moment, Yuuji’s grandpa dies but not before telling Yuuji to always help others without expecting gratitude, so that he won’t end up alone like him when he dies (scene here: https://youtu.be/_8Omp0f2CUo). Yuuji takes his grandpa’s death rather well and gets approached by Megumi who sensed the relic he was looking for on Yuuji. Yuuji admits that he and his friends found the relic and took it to their club which was bad because that relic acted as a lightning rod for people trying to curse each other meaning all the curses (and spirits) are sealed within the relic and if it’s unsealed, spirits will be released and attack people. We cut to Saki and Iguchi who snuck into the school and managed to peel the seals off the relic revealing it to be a finger resulting in curses being released and attacking them. Megumi heads into the school to save them where just before Saki and Iguchi can get eaten alive (Nitsuj: Well Iguchi will be eaten, I’ve seen enough dark hentai to know what they’ll do with Saki), Yuuji comes flying in to save them allowing Megumi and his familiars to destroy the curse (scene here: https://youtu.be/TBMNOf0NLtY). However, a bigger curse arrives and captures Megumi with Yuuji fighting back to help him. Despite Yuuji’s best efforts, he’s no match for the curse as only other curses can destroy curses (Nitsuj: Evil magic must defeat evil magic), so Yuuji does the one thing you should never do with a curse relic, he eats it (eww~). This feat of insanity should have killed him but instead, it didn’t. Rather than kill Yuuji, he gained the power of curses and used it to defeat the curse in front of him (scene here: https://youtu.be/TreW5zRtzKE). However, he soon became possessed by a curse himself who took control over his body and was going to destroy the city. Thankfully, Yuuji quickly regained control of his body like it was nothing and Megumi turns against Yuuji as he has become a curse and needs to be destroyed (scene here: https://youtu.be/jH2UZyjZcSo. (Seras): He saved your ass, dick).
At the start of episode 2, before Megumi can attempt to exorcise Sukana (the name of the curse) he gets stopped by his teacher Gojou (who’s like the more easy-going version of Kakashi from Naruto. Laidback, nonchalant, carefree and knows when to go into badass mode) voiced by Yuichi Nakamura (Tatsuya from The Irregular at Magic High School). Gojou tells Yuuji to give Sukana control of his body for 10 seconds, so that Gojou can show off and see if Yuuji can really control him. 10 seconds pass (Nitsuj: Felt like more. (Yume): Well that’s anime logic for you. (Nitsuj): True) and Yuuji regains control of his body proving that he can control Sukana. Gojou knocks him out where Megumi says he doesn’t want Yuuji to die (geez, flip-flopping back and forth aren’t you, Megumi?) and they take him to their private school (scene here: https://youtu.be/RUOVCMiMIBk). This leads us back to the first scene we saw in the anime where Gojou goes on to explain that Yuuji will be executed, however Gojou got Yuuji’s execution suspended for the time being. Gojou goes on to explain that the finger Yuuji ate was one of 20 fingers that belonged to Sukana (Nitsuj: Wow, he can give the bird in 4 directions at once). Right now, the school is in possession of 6 of them and unfortunately can’t destroy them because they’re so powerful which is where Yuuji comes in. Since Yuuji is a vessel that can control Sukana, they want him to absorb the remaining fingers of Sukana to destroy them and then they’ll kill Yuuji which in return will kill Sukana (wait, wouldn’t absorbing the fingers risk the chance of making Sukana stronger? (Seras): Don’t question it fox, it just works. That’s all you need to know). Yuuji agrees to absorb all of Sukana’s fingers and eats the second finger where he still has control of his body (Nitsuj: I do hope they washed that finger before he ate it). The only thing that does change is Sukana creating a second mouth on Yuuji’s body to speak freely. Yuuji transfers to the Tokyo Metropolitan Jujustu Technical High School (Seras: Damn, that’s a mouth full) where he’s one of only three first-year students (Nitsuj: Wow, and I thought my high school class was small). We also learn that Sukana used to be a human revered as a powerful jujutsu user until he became corrupted by his own power. He transformed himself into a curse until he was finally put down. Yuuji gets to meet the principal of the school who doesn’t like Yuuji’s answers for coming and has him fight against a kappa doll (it’s a lot more threatening than it sounds). Yuuji fights the doll for a bit until he gives an answer that makes the principal happy and he’s allowed to enter the school (scene here: https://youtu.be/cyAMXriAnAs). Yuuji moves into the dorms where his neighbor is Megumi.
(Nitsuj): In episode 3 Yuuji and the guys go to meet the third student of the first years, Nobara Kujisaki voiced by Asami Seto (Raphtalia from The Rising of The Shield Hero). She’s a girl from the country whose main weapon is hammer and nails infused with her curse powers. Right away she doesn’t seem to like Megumi and Yuuji (Yume: They’re not her type). Gojou wants to test the skills of Yuuji and Nobara, so he sends them into a building to exorcise some curses (scene here: https://youtu.be/dBjKYj397LE). He gives Yuuji a knife which he uses to kill a curse very easily (Seras: He’s a natural). We get to see Nobara fight and show her skills where she kills a curse hiding in a mannequin but gets caught off guard when a curse takes a child hostage. While the curse may not be that strong, it’s intelligent which is something Nobara isn’t used to seeing (welcome to the city, country girl). Thankfully, Yuuji breaks through the wall for a sneak attack (oh yeah!) and saves the child but the curse escapes out the building where Nobara finishes the curse by hammering a cursed nail into the severed arm of the curse (scene here: https://youtu.be/6sTTel2eLxE). After this, we get a flashback into Nobara’s past when she met her best friend Saori, a girl who moved from Tokyo. Saori was a sweet girl who was friends with Nobara, but everyone ostracized her because she’s an outsider and eventually drove her away. Nobara soon came to despise the countryside and jumped at the opportunity to join Tokyo Metropolitan Jujustu Technical High School in order to move to Tokyo and hopefully find Saori. After exorcising the curses the group goes out to eat and call it a day.
For episode 4 Yuuji, Nobara and Fushiguro are given the mission of investigating a juvenile detention center. A curse has appeared in the building, 5 prisoners are still inside, and their mission is to find said prisoners and investigate the curse to see if it’s a special grade curse (how bad would that be if it is? (Seras): So bad, that a barrage of missiles wouldn’t get the job done. (Nitsuj):. . .Damn). During this mission we meet Ijichi a normal person who works as an assistant for the sorcerers on their missions. They enter the building where the place has already been distorted by the curse (scene here: https://youtu.be/j756ktvG9ZE) and they find the bodies of 3 prisoners (two of them got turned into a ball). Yuuji wants to take the bodies back out for their families to see (Yume: Oh yeah, I’m sure they’ll appreciate the nightmares), but Fushiguro says to leave them as he had no intention of rescuing the prisoners in the first place (they were in that detention center for a reason, so I get where he’s coming from). This starts a fight between Yuuji and Fushiguro where Nobara gets sucked down a hole and the guys come face to face with the curse who is a special grade (Yume: Prepare to launch the tactical nukes). Yuuji gets one of his hands chopped (Seras: Oh hey, you can see where MAPPA ran out of budget). Yuuji tells Fushiguro to find Nobara and escape from this hellhole. Once the two of them are out, Yuuji will release Sukana and take out the curse. Fushiguro succeeds in finding Nobara and Yuuji barely survives his encounter with the curse as he loses his other fingers and really gets scared for his life. Once Yuuji gets the signal that Fushiguro and Nobara are safe, he releases Sukana (and now you’re dead). We get a funny moment where Sukana tries to screw over Yuuji and team up with the curse, but that plan fails as the curse is so afraid of Sukana that it attacks him out of fear (Seras: Well that thing is screwed now). Sukana easily defeats the curse and retrieves his cursed finger (3 down, 17 to go). In a shocking moment Yuuji doesn’t return and allows Sukana to remain in control as the episode ends (Yume: He’s letting fear control him. Scene here: https://youtu.be/JSrgEl1wvt4).
Episodes 5-8
So in episode 5 Sukana has taken over Yuuji’s body and to make sure Yuuji doesn’t come back, he rips out his heart (Seras: Oh that is some hardcore shit right there). So if Yuuji regains control of his body he’ll die instantly (Yume: We could always turn him into a Tin Man). This leads to Fushiguro fighting Sukana in the hopes of getting Yuuji back (well I didn’t know Megumi wanted to die today). We learn a little bit about his past such as how his mom was cursed and died from it. His good for nothing father (Yume: Who named him Megumi not caring about his gender at all. (Seras): Fucker) abandoned him and made off with some money with his location unknown. Anyway, as you would imagine, Megumi is completely outmatched here, but manages to get Yuuji back by explaining why he rescued him when he didn’t have to. It’s because Yuuji was a good person who didn’t deserve to die in a manner like this. This manages to bring Yuuji back, but he dies instantly (scene here: https://youtu.be/zRSo-EgHmo4. Do it with me now. (Nitsuj, Yume and Seras): If he only had a heart). We find out that this whole mission was set up by the higher-ups who took advantage of Gojou’s absence to get rid of Yuuji. Apparently, some of them weren’t happy about Yuuji’s indefinite execution, so they decided to get swifty and send him on a mission that was too much for him to handle. As Megumi and Nobara try to be strong and not mourn the death of their classmate (should I say friends? (Seras): Ehhhhh~, they weren’t there, yet) they get approached by their upper classmates. First up, Maki, a cursed tools user who comes off as coldhearted and mean (so, basically a bitch), but wants to be nice and caring. Imumaki, a cursed speech user who uses his words to use as curses and can only speak using ingredients of rice balls (I think the author was just hungry when he made this character). Finally, hands down the most interesting character so far, Panda, who is a panda and was actually the main character in a prequel series (scene here: https://youtu.be/54DE8m5hJCI). Maki and the others want Megumi and Nobara to participate in a school exchange event with their sister school in Kyoto. It’s a two-day event where they’ll participate in battles with the other school. Usually, it’s the second and third years, but the third years are currently suspended for whatever reason (Yume: I believe it’s safe to assume drugs and alcohol were involved). Megumi and Nobara agree to participate in the exchange and the second years say they’ll be training them. While that’s going on, in the city, we see a few curses meeting up with some monk who was responsible for the special curse last episode. He wanted to test Sukana’s strength as the curses who have human intelligence want to declare war on human society. According to the monk, the only way they’ll win is if they can dispose of Gojou (which seems impossible. I haven’t known the guy that long, but he just seems too cool and badass to beat. (Yume): You are right to assume that). Also, they’ll need to get Sukana/Yuuji on their side as the monk doesn’t believe Yuuji is truly dead (really? The heart covered in ants would like to debate this).
We start episode 6 in the mind of Yuuji where he comes face to face with Sukana and tries to punch him for killing themselves (I really do like Yuuji. We just saw Sukana manhandle a curse like nothing and yet Yuuji could care less and tries to beat his ass). Sukana wants to work out a pact with Yuuji. He’s become interested in Megumi and wants to stick around to see his growth. He agrees to repair Yuuji’s heart on two conditions. One, whenever Sukana says extension he gets complete control of Yuuji’s body for one minute (Yume: Make it 30 seconds and you got a deal). Second, when Yuuji wakes up he will forget all about this conversation and the conditions. Sukana even sweetens the deal and says that he won’t kill or destroy anyone/anything during the time he’s in control (Seras: Unless outside forces demand it. In which case, free game). Yuuji says no to his conditions and punches Sukana in the face. The two decide to have a fight to the death. If Sukana wins, Yuuji has to agree to his conditions. If Yuuji wins, he gets revived and remembers this conversation. Sukana wins easily (I don’t think the fight was even a second long) and Yuuji returns from the dead (with the doctor surprisingly upset. (Seras): She wanted the organs. Scene here: https://youtu.be/TNX8yLI-mcs). Gojou decides to keep Yuuji’s revival a secret from everyone and have him return for the school exchange event. In the meantime, Gojou will teach Yuuji how to use curse energy to enhance his close combat capabilities by having him watch movies and concentrate his curse energy on a sleeping teddy bear that he has to keep asleep or the bear will wake up and punch him. Why movies? Well since energy is built up from anxiety, fear and other negative emotions this is the best way to get them and learn to control them (well if curse energy is all about negative emotions then there’s an easier way to get them. Just show him School Days, Pupa, Ikkitousen, Domestic Girlfriend, Evangelion, Nanatsu no Taizai S3, and the bitch from Shield Hero. He’ll be good to go from there. Scenes here: https://youtu.be/xqz6bMgNdGU and https://youtu.be/o38St4Bs9QU). The episode ends with one of the curses named Jougo who met the monk attacking Gojou who was on his way to a meeting with the principal (Yume: So he has chosen death. (Seras): It is a beautiful night to die).
Episode 7 gives us the fight between Gojou and Jougo (where MAPPA just shows off because they can. (Seras): Who’s gonna complain?). The fight and camera angles are so well done and the animation and speed of this fight are perfect. It starts off with Jougo unleashing a number of attacks and combos on Gojou only to see that none of his attacks have any effect on Gojou because he’s either protecting himself from the attacks or Jougo’s attacks just aren’t reaching him. Gojou finally goes on the attack where he hits Jougo with some damaging moves. It’s clear Gojou isn’t taking this fight all that seriously (Seras: Why should he?). In fact, in the middle of the fight, he leaves to go and bring Yuuji to observe the fight because in Gojou’s eyes Jougo is such a weak curse (Yume: And just so you guys know Jougo is no pushover. According to the monk from last episode, Jougo’s power is equivalent to 8 or 9 of Sukana’s fingers. Which means Jougo is the strongest curse we’ve seen so far in the series up until this point and Gojou considers this guy a weakling). Jougo takes exception to being called weak and drags Gojou and Yuuji into his domain (think of it like a stats boost where you control everything). Of course, Gojou just smiles at this and reveals his eyes (Yume: Sparkling! His gorgeous eyes are sparkling) and cancels out Jougo’s domain with his own domain. In Gojou’s domain, Jougo is completely defenseless and gets his head removed from his body. Gojou interrogates Jougo’s head trying to know who sent him (Seras: Might I suggest the torture dance to get information out of him. (Nitsuj): You are such a dork, Seras), but he gets saved by another curse named Hanami who manages to escape Gojou. The curses meet back up with the monk named Getou and another man named Mahito who tells Jougo never to act on his own again (scene here: https://youtu.be/7LPuK7F0cl8).
Episodes 8-13
(Seras): In the first half of episode 8 we find out that the principal of Kyoto’s jujutsu school, Gakuganji, is here and he brought two of his students, Aoi and Mai. Aoi is supposedly a powerhouse who defeated a special grade curse singlehandedly and Mai just happens to be the twin sister of Maki (oh shit, there’s two of them). In the past, Kyoto always looked down on the Tokyo branch and sure enough, Aoi and Mai are looking down on Megumi and Nobara (ironic, seeing as how the Tokyo branch beat Kyoto last year, so really it should be Tokyo looking down on them. (Yume): Well to be fair Kyoto is considered the more spiritual and traditional part of Japan) Aoi fights against Megumi because his preference in women is boring (Nitsuj: I have to agree. (Yume): Really? Then what type of woman do you like? (Nitsuj): Someone who’s smart, independent, cute, a little nerdy, gentle and fun to be around. I guess you and the others are my type of woman). Megumi easily gets his ass handed to him (although in all fairness he’s not really trying), but when he decides to get serious (hey, if you got hit with a German suplex you would get serious too), Panda and Imumaki step in to stop the fighting and shoo Aoi away (scenes here: https://youtu.be/LmLYvr6s-_g and https://youtu.be/dakTNZQ7P84). As for Nobara and Mai, Maki steps in where we find out some interesting facts about them. First off, Maki doesn’t have any curse energy, so she relies on cursed weapons to fight (in fact, without her glasses, she wouldn’t be able to see any curses at all). As for Mai, she has curse energy but the only thing she can do with it is imbue other objects with it (and her techniques are shit). In the end, both are treated as losers by their family and became sorcerers in order to spite their family for looking down on them with the hopes of becoming big shots. Maki shoos Mai away where we see the sisters don’t like each other as they think the other one is the bigger loser. In the second half of the episode we see Gojou confront Gakuganji and warns him that clinging to his old ways won’t work for this new generation of sorcerers who won’t be held back. After that we get a weird transition where Yuuji is with this other sorcerer about to investigate a murder at a movie theater.
We start off with some context on what happened at the movie theatre in episode 9. It turns out the three people who were murdered at the movie theatre were your classic high school bullies (so, no major loss). They were killed by Mahito because they wouldn’t shut up (Nitsuj: A good reason to kill. You know, it’s sad when I’m siding with the villain of the series and can agree with his motives. Scene here: https://youtu.be/kwdmTUgQVg0), but one guy named Junpei who is also a student and got bullied by the students Mahito killed saw him do it and follows after him. This leads to Yuuji being sent to investigate along with a new sorcerer named Nanami a former salaryman who doesn’t care what anyone thinks (scene here: https://youtu.be/yKMJ6cPFIIM. (Yume): I like him. He’s got this honey badger attitude). We get to see his powers which is creating weak points on his opponents and exploiting them for critical damage. We also see that Yuuji has improved as well. He can now produce curse energy, but it accumulates at a slow rate that it can’t keep up with his explosive power. However, this works to benefit him as it creates a divergent punch where whenever he hits someone he’s actually delivering two punches (with the second one being more powerful than the first one). Both Yuuji and Nanami take down the curses, but Nanami discovers that they’re not curses and instead humans. Mahito changed the structure of their bodies with a curse technique (scene here: https://youtu.be/ZrI5VoRiq5M). We cut to Mahito and Junpei where it seems like Mahito has taken an interest in Junpei as he wants to learn how to use curse energy as well. Nanami sends Yuuji and Ijichi to investigate Junpei where he follows him on the streets secretly.
Episode 10 starts with Mahito telling Junpei that nothing in life matters (https://youtu.be/E_qvy82U4RE?t=52). After that we see Yuuji and Ijichi get ready to release a low-grade curse on Junpei to see if he can see curses or not. You see Yuuji and Nanami are unsure if Junpei was responsible for the incident at the movie theatres, so they have to test him (Nitsuj: And after spending time with Mahito he might have awakened to some power). As Junpei returns to his house, he gets greeted by his overweight teacher who he doesn’t like (he looks like he belongs in those hentais where the male is an overweight pig and loser who somehow gains special powers and has sex with all the girls who were mean to him. (Yume): That was incredibly specific. (Seras): Don’t make it weird. (Yume):. . .I feel like I should). Yuuji jumps the gun and accidently releases the curse too early but grabs it just before it can attack anybody. Junpei sees the curse, so it’s proof that Junpei has the potential to be a sorcerer and Yuuji doesn’t think he’s responsible for the deaths at the movie theatre (Nitsuj: No, but I’m sure he’s happy about it. As would I. I’m nice a guy, but I do not tolerate bullying and I got no love for bullies). Yuuji sensing that Junpei doesn’t like the teacher pants him and runs away with his pants as the teacher chases after him (this is probably the most running he’s done in his life). Yuuji easily outruns the teacher and meets back up with Junpei so that they can talk (Yume: Let me tell you about the curses and sorcerers. Scene here: https://youtu.be/9SPwH3LmVjA). While that’s going on, Nanami figuring out where Mahito is hiding, goes to face him in the sewers. We get a fight scene and learn about Mahito’s power, idle transfiguration. Mahito has the power to alter a person’s soul by touching them. This results in the deformed creatures we’ve been seeing and he can even alter his own body to whatever he wants if he felt like it. Despite Nanami’s best efforts, his powers are a bad match up against Mahito’s idle transfiguration and he soon becomes cornered by Mahito until 6:00pm rolls around and Nanami is now working overtime (Nitsuj: Oh~, Mahito is in so much trouble. You may get paid more but it’s not worth it).
(Yume): We start episode 11 with Nanami gathering a large amount of curse energy into his fist and then hitting the wall to take control of a bunch of bricks. While Mahito is distracted by this, Nanami slices off one of his legs and then retreats. Leaving Mahito to be crushed by a bunch of bricks knowing full well he’ll survive this, but Nanami lives to fight another day (scene here: https://youtu.be/Y3nJ_prY7Ls). Back with Yuuji, he and Junpei quickly become friends as they talk about movies (Nitsuj: I actually like how they brought that back. It wasn’t just a one-note event to get a good laugh out of us. It helps Yuuji build a connection with Junpei who we saw previously is a fan of movies. This is a great example of show don’t tell). We see that Junpei already knows about sorcerers and curses thanks to Mahito who actually encouraged him to befriend sorcerers. Junpei’s mom (who’s pretty good-looking for her age. I ain’t gonna lie) invites Yuuji over for dinner where he gets a good laugh out of both of them with his stories and movie references (you were right Nitsuj, this is a good use of the movies scene from previous episodes). Junpei’s mom falls asleep just as Yuuji and Junpei are about to watch a movie where Junpei asks Yuuji if he’s ever killed anyone to which he says no (Seras: Bullshit. You killed multiple curses in previous episodes and don’t say it was Sukana controlling your body because that’s a load of crap. It’s still you) and says he wouldn’t want to kill anyone as that would cause him to see the value of life as ambiguous and forget the importance of those he cares about (scene here: https://youtu.be/3SsTGFdkGNk, that’s actually a very mature answer). This answer actually makes Junpei reevaluate his stance on life. Just as the happy moments settle in and Yuuji takes his leave, a curse appears in the house and kills Junpei’s mom (Yume and Nitsuj: Noooooooo~) and at the scene is one of Sukana’s fingers. The curse was drawn to the finger and killed Junepi’s mom because of it. Mahito convinces Junepi that a rich bully from his school left the finger there and so Junpei decides to make him pay (Yume: In blood and tears). Mahito creates a veil over Junpei’s school and waits for Yuuji to arrive so the two can fight one another and cause a rift to form (making Junpei only see Mahito as his only friend). At a school assembly everyone passes out except for a teacher and the rich bully. Junpei enters, shows he has curse powers and begins attacking the rich bully (Rich bully: My father will hear of this~) before Yuuji shows up to end the episode.
In episode 12 we get the battle between Yuuji and Junpei (Seras: Friends turned bitter enemies. Just like in Star Wars. (Yume): Really, that’s the reference you go with for this analogy? (Seras): Oh I’m sorry. Was that too Disney for you? Not like I have a lot of choices seeing as how they own almost everything). We see that Junpei has a jellyfish shikigami that he controls and has it secrete poisons (Nitsuj: Can it zap people with electricity?). Yuuji manages to reach Junpei’s heart and finds out what happened to his mom. Yuuji tells Junpei to transfer over to Jujustu Tech and together they’ll find the people who killed his mom, but that plan gets spoiled by Mahito who comes in and transmutates Junepi (Nitsuj: Noooooo~). At first, Yuuji tries to switch out with Sukana but he says no and even mocks Yuuji for depending on him and not being able to rescue a single soul (Seras: That’s cruel even for me). Mahito also joins in on the mocking before Junpei eventually dies in the arms of Yuuji which only angers him more. Yuuji lands a blow on Mahito which causes him to cough up blood (looks like we found Mahito’s weakness) and the two begin to fight all throughout the school. It’s a pretty cool fight scene as Yuuji does a good job holding his own against Mahito and taking in all of his attacks just to get a few good hits in. We see that Mahito’s transmutations don’t seem to work on Yuuji (Nitsuj: That, or Sukana is protecting him), but is still able to hold up against Yuuji. Nanami finally arrives and the two decide to team up in order to take down Mahito (scene here: https://youtu.be/9N7j6qbu5po).
Episode 13 starts off hot with Yuuji and Nanami taking on Mahito (Nitsuj: With some fluent animation) where they actually do manage to figure out the key to him activating his transmutation and manage to gain the upper hand against him (Seras: Beat him like he killed someone). Their advantage doesn’t last long as Mahito activates his domain taking only Nanami and leaving Yuuji outside unable to get in. They do a good job faking us out believing that Nanami is going to die here since he’s literally in Mahito’s palm (Nitsuj: It also doesn’t help that we had two character deaths these last episodes of likable people, so they did a good job conditioning us for his untimely death). We even get to see his past where we find out he ran away from being a sorcerer because he was afraid of people putting their lives in his hands and him doing the same with other people. So he became a white-collared worker and worked for a crappy company that was sucking the life out of him (makes one wonder who the real curses are) until he finally decided to quit and become a sorcerer (scene here: https://youtu.be/wDelQuq4mFU). As Nanami prepares for his death, Yuuji managed to break into the domain where Mahito accidently touches Sukana again and gets dragged into his domain where Sukana hurts him severely. The domain soon shatters and Yuuji goes in for the kill but Mahito escapes and Yuuji’s body has reached its limits as he passes out (scene here: https://youtu.be/dP_jvyVxoHg). In the aftermath, we actually do see a radical change at Junpei’s school. A survey is handed out to students asking if they’ve been bullied or witnessed bullying of any kind and some students actually say yes to the survey. Even that one teacher who visited Junpei’s house recognizes his mistakes and is prepared to face the consequences of his actions. As for Yuuji, he decides to keep moving forward and vows to find Mahito and kill him.
(Seras): And that was the first half of Jujustu Kaisen. A great start that grabs your attention, a good introduction to the characters, and a good mix of action, comedy, and drama.
(Nitsuj): We’re going to stop here for now and take a break. But don’t worry, we’ll be back next week to review the second half. Sign us out Yume.
(Yume): Until then. Thanks for reading and we’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj. MUHAHAHAHAHAHA!
*Nothing happens for like five seconds and then Nitsuj gets hit by a pumpkin and falls to ground*
(Seras): Huh, I guess it only effects Nitsuj.
(Nitsuj): Lucky me.