(Nitsuj): Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. It’s the final week Aniween and we’re wrapping it up with part 2 of Jujutsu Kaisen.
(Seras): Last time, Yuuji was killed by Sukana and came back to life. Rather than reunite with the others he went on a special mission with Nanami, made a friend, lost said friend, and fought to a draw against a curse known as Mahito. Not bad for your first week on the job.
(Yume): What new challenges and dangers await Yuuji in the next half. Let’s continue the review to find out.
Opening and Ending Theme
(Yume): The opening for the second half is “Vivid Vice” by Who-ya Extended. Now as much as we praise the first opening this opening is also great as well. While not as loud as Eve, the song is still meaningful and shows a bit more growth and maturity in the characters as a whole. The visuals are also more well-thought out here as compared to the original. The transitions, the characters, you can tell MAPPA is playing the long game and preparing for future seasons, but not forgetting to focus on the present and the impending danger that Mahito and his faction will bring.
(Nitsuj): For the second ending we have “Give it Back” by Cö Shu Nie. A radical change from the first ending which was energetic, jazzy, happy, and made you want to dance. This song is slower, calmer, relaxing, and makes you want to sit down and reflect on everything you’ve been through. The visuals also contribute to the song as Yuuji is making memories with everyone. He’s not just watching people live he’s becoming a part of their lives. This whole ending feels like a nostalgia trip for Yuuji as he’s remembering everything he’s been through with his friends before his execution.
Episodes 14-17
(Seras): The second half starts off with Yuuji excited as he’s finally going to be joining the others and just in time for the student exchange event. However, Gojou wants his return to be just as dynamic as Yuuji wants it to be. We then cut to the others where the Kyoto students have arrived. We have Mai, Aoi (Nitsuj: We met them before, nice folks), Momo (the loli senior), Mechamaru (Nitsuj: Looks like Mokujin from Tekken if he was in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure), Noritoshi (the only respectful one in the group. But his eyes are closed which means he is secretly dangerous), Miwa (who is a huge fan of Gojou. (Yume): Everyone is) and their teacher Iori. Gojou arrives where he presents gifts to the Kyoto students and then reveals Yuuji with Megumi and Nobara not impressed with his return (I daresay they’re peeved that he kept quiet for so long. Scene here: https://youtu.be/Xu-FP490jWQ). The exchange event begins with the wacky cursed spirit exorcism race. The first team to exorcise a second-grade curse spirit wins. Other cursed spirits will be in the area as well and if they can’t exorcise the second-grade spirit by sundown, the team that exorcises the most spirits wins. The event starts at noon, so everyone has a little downtime to come up with a strategy where Gakuganji orders his students to kill Yuuji.
Alright, they start us off on a high note in episode 15 as the student exchange event begins with Yuuji and Aoi fighting each other (Nitsuj: Got to give the people what they want). Yuuji quickly becomes Aoi’s brother when he says he likes a woman like Jennifer Lawrence (Nitsuj: I can understand that. She’s pretty. Glad to see Yuuji is a man of culture. Scene here: https://youtu.be/IBVcE0s27uA). Just when you think they’re one on one fight is about to get interrupted by the rest of the Kyoto students who surround Yuuji and try to kill him, Aoi tells them to piss off as this is his fight (scene here: https://youtu.be/On3QAE1o0NY. (Yume): Don’t interfere in a fight between siblings). The Kyoto students back off and continue on with the task of finding the curse and eliminating it where Noritoshi and Miwa fight against Megumi and Mai, Nobara and Panda fight Momo up in a tree, and Imumaki continues to search for the curse. Both Yuuji and Aoi continue to trade punches with Aoi impressed with Yuuji’s toughness and transition from move to move but isn’t all that impressed with his divergence punch.
Episode 16 focuses on Panda vs Mechamaru (Nitsuj: Man I am getting some Tekken vibes from this match up. It’s like Panda vs Mokujin). During this fight, we learn that Panda isn’t an actual panda but instead a cursed puppet. He was created by the principal of Tokyo’s jujutsu school to be the ultimate cursed puppet (Yume: Well mission accomplished because I honestly thought that was a panda). Mechamaru is also a cursed puppet being controlled by a jujutsu student whose body is just damaged beyond belief. The two fight where Mechamaru tries to destroy Panda’s core as all cursed puppets have one and while Mechamaru succeeds in destroying the core he failed to destroy the other 2. Yep, Panda has 3 cores with the other two belonging to his older brother and sister who reside inside of him. The core of Panda’s older brother takes over who is a gorilla (rip and tear! Rip and tear) where despite Mechamaru’s best efforts at trying to destroy his core, he fails and winds up getting his body destroyed to the point that he’s unable to fight anymore giving Panda the win (scene here: https://youtu.be/u5ZNtUOaOdM).
(Yume): It’s a battle of the ladies in episode 17. The episode starts off hot with Maki taking on Miwa where Maki overwhelms her and even steals her sword to beat her (scenes here: https://youtu.be/A3yQy-zcCD0 and https://youtu.be/iRJANcvp724. (Seras): That’s cold and I love it). After this, we go to the fight between Nobara and Momo where Momo talks about the injustice put on women jujutsu users, how nobody really expects much from them, and how if they don’t have talent they can never start at the line. It’s because of this that Momo holds Mai in such high respect. She faces the biggest aversity out of them and pushes forward (Nitsuj: Don’t give me that sob sorry. Everyone’s got one and yet unemployment still exists in the world). Nobara manages to ground Momo and using a squeaky hammer (did we enter a game of Smash Bros.?) pummels her. Just when Nobara goes in for the kill she gets sniped from afar by Mai who knocks her out (scene here: https://youtu.be/5G6wAnQiUKs. (Seras): And she was on a badass roll. (Yume): Sniped off by a camper and using a revolver no less). This leads to the more emotional fight of the episode, Maki vs Mai (Nitsuj: The battle of the sisters). We do get some backstory into their past where we find out Mai never wanted to be a jujutsu user. She was always afraid of curses and just wanted to stay at the bottom with Maki by her side (Yume: As long as she has her sister, she’ll be fine). However, Maki wanted to rise up. She wanted to make everyone who ever doubted her look stupid and become leader of her clan. Mai wanted to stay by her side, so she too became a jujutsu user. Unfortunately, Mai’s hatred from Maki’s betrayal made her distant herself from Maki and now the two sisters find themselves at odds with each other. Maki does the smart thing and makes Mai use up all six of her shots before attacking but Mai reveals her ace in the hole, a curse bullet. It’s the only amount of curse energy she can generate and she can only make one bullet per day. Mai fires her shot and just when it seems like Maki will be defeated, she catches the bullet (don’t worry, it’s made of rubber) and takes down Mai for the win (scene here: https://youtu.be/P2naa2dYVHY. (Seras): Now who’s the weak sibling, bitch?).
Episodes 18-21
Things start to get exciting in episode 18 (Nitsuj: They were already exciting. (Yume): Okay, they’re about to get even more exciting). It starts with Megumi and Norotoshi fighting each other where we find out that Norotoshi’s mom was a concubine to the head of the family. Norotoshi was never meant to become the next head of the family, but because his sibling didn’t inherit the main power of the family Norotoshi was the next best thing. Their fight soon gets interrupted with the arrival of Mahito, a rogue jujutsu user who likes to turn people into coat racks (Seras: Interesting hobby) and a curse similar to Jougo named Hanami who loves nature (Nitsuj: Gotta love nature) and wants to eliminate humans in order to save the trees (the Poison Ivy mentality). They create a veil which allows everyone else to enter except for Gojou (Seras: He is too badass to enter). Both sides agree to a temporary truce and team up to fight against the curses (Nitsuj: Shame, I was really enjoying these battles. Scene here: https://youtu.be/Of588yI3hWc. (Seras): Also, we get this unexpected cool scene: https://youtu.be/T3nuf37xdJw. And just like that he became one of the coolest characters).
Episode 19 sees the students take on Hanami. Imumaki reaches his limits with his cursed speech as Hanami is so powerful that his speech doesn’t have that much effect on it (scenes here: https://youtu.be/6dFxEHnCgNo and https://youtu.be/vUTnu5sEg7c). Norotoshi gets knocked out leaving only Megumi to fight where Maki shows up and they get a few hits in (scene here: https://youtu.be/5RkPNJkwYGM) before Megumi gets a seed planted within his stomach that grows whenever he uses curse energy. Yuuji and Aoi show up as well as Panda who gets Maki and Megumi to safety while they fight. Yuuji starts off the fight where Aoi says he won’t help out until Yuuji lands a Black Flash move on Hanami. When Yuuji has a chance to hit the move he misses becoming consumed by his rage, but Aoi slaps him to get him to concentrate (scene here: https://youtu.be/tWXlPfLGrqE. (Seras): That looks like fun. Let me try. *Seras slaps Nitsuj* (Nitsuj): Ow! What the hell Seras!? (Seras): Concentrate on this review) and he’s able to deliver the Black Flash an attack that is a distortion of space born from the impact of cursed energy delivered within a trillionth of a second of a blow delivering 2.5 times the normal strike (Yume: In other words, it’s the perfect attack for Yuuji. Scene here: https://youtu.be/oX4TFLIxWNU). Aoi finally enters and Hanami decides it’s time to get serious where it realizes how much fun it’s having fighting against these two.
The fight between the best bros and Hanami continues in episode 20 where we discover that Aoi’s power is being able to swap his position with his opponents. Using this power, the best bros overwhelm Hanami (Nitsuj: With MAPPA showing off with their amazing animation. (Yume): At this point, they might as well be telling everyone to get their shit together) with both bros getting a chance to shine especially Yuuji who hits four Black Flash moves consecutively (scene here: https://youtu.be/bSQsgMmjYk8, record matched). Despite being backed into a wall Hanami does seem to be enjoying herself and going all out to face them. Sadly, their fighting comes to an end thanks to Gojou (normally I’d be upset about this, but it’s Gojou, he gets a pass. That man could spoil the latest movie and I would still love him) who took his blindfold off and destroyed the veil. He takes out an evil jujutsu sorcerer named Juuzou without even touching him and then unleashes a powerful attack in the hopes of taking out Hanami who was trying to escape (Yume: Did he get her? (Nitsuj): With a blast that powerful one would think so. Scene here: https://youtu.be/dykME7rGjKM).
(Nitsuj): At the start of episode 21 we see Hanami is barely alive after getting hit by Gojou’s attack. We also see that Mahito snuck into the school and stole the 6 fingers of Sukuna the school was holding onto as well as a special grade curse object called Cursed Wombs: Death Paintings, 1-3. As the teachers review the damage that’s been done some of them think the student exchange event should be canceled but Gojou says no. After a quick day off, the students continue the exchange event by playing Japan’s favorite pastime, baseball. We get some good laughs here such as Mechamaru being the pitcher for Kyoto and just being a pitching machine (Seras: I’m pretty sure that’s not Mechamaru, but it is funny) and Maki intentionally walks Aoi much to the delight of everyone. In the end Yuuji wins for Tokyo by hitting a homerun in the bottom of the ninth (scene here: https://youtu.be/_Arz1hnZGjI).
Episodes 22-24
In episode 22 Yuuji, Megumi, and Nobara are back on the beat. The three are investigating a string of murders caused by curses. The three victims all died in different locations but died the exact same way: multiple stabbings at the entrance of their apartment complex complaining about the auto lock not working correctly (Seras: That’s what you get for calling customer service). The only clue they have to go on is that all three victims went to the same middle school, so the gang is heading to speak with someone who knew all three victims. Once they arrive, they see that he’s dead as well dying the same way the other victims did (and he didn’t even call customer service. (Yume): That’s what you get for not rating us). They go to the middle school of the victims where we find out this was the same middle school Megumi went to and he’s a legend because he beat up every delinquent single-handedly (scene here: https://youtu.be/VuYdLoyeOIM. (Seras): Haha! I knew there was a reason why I liked him). They talk to a staff member where we find out the victims hung around Yasohachi Bridge, a notorious suicide spot that was said to be haunted. Back in the day delinquents used to bungee jump off the bridge late at night (that was stupid of them). Apparently, the victims were found at the bottom unconscious but still alive not remembering what happened the night before. They go to the bridge and investigate, but find nothing out of the ordinary (not even a dead body). While at a rest stop, the group gets approached by a girl who went to school with Tsumiki the sister of Megumi. She along with Tsumiki went by the bridge as well when they were in middle school and for almost one week now, the girl has been experiencing strange things. Megumi pieces together that the curse is on some kind of time delay which means he still has time to save his sister and other victims who passed by the bridge (Yume: Still confused why its killing them at the front door. (Nitsuj): Nobody likes a bloody house). Not wanting to get the others involved, Megumi decides to go alone and investigate the bridge where he figures out they have to go through a number of steps in order to enter the curse’s domain. Yuuji and Nobara catch on to what he’s doing and join him on his quest to save his sister. They all enter the domain of the curse where the domain is incomplete (Seras: Must these curses do everything half-ass?) and find the curse. Before they exorcise that curse, another curse arrives courtesy of Mahito and Yuuji steps up to fight it alone (scene here: https://youtu.be/lUp38lSkGcU).
Episode 23 focuses on Megumi. It starts with Yuuji taking on the curse that showed up from last episode and he does a good job holding his own against it. While he’s busy with that, Megumi and Nobara are playing whack a mole (Seras: Or whack a curse) where Nobara gets pulled out by I want to say another curse. Yuuji and the curse he’s fighting leave the domain as well which means it’s up to Megumi to finish the job. He defeats the last mole creature only for the real curse to appear and we find out it has one of Sukana’s fingers (no doubt done by Mahito). Megumi gets knocked out by the curse where we get a flashback into the past where he sparred against Gojou who basically tells him to stop holding himself back saying that he has the potential to be just as strong as Yuuji (Seras: I agree. The only thing holding him back is himself). Following Gojou’s advice, Megumi decides to stop holding back and defeat the curse. He manages to create his own incomplete domain to defeat the curse and retrieve the finger where he passes out (scene here: https://youtu.be/WFE9NUWAEec). This gives another flashback into Megumi’s youth where he didn’t like bad guys because they were always looking down on everyone and didn’t like good guys because they were too forgiving believing that was the noble thing to do (yeah there is such a thing as being too nice). This actually caused him to dislike Tsumiki a little bit because she was quick to worry about others, but would always get angry whenever he hurt someone. However, he now understands the reason she got so angry at him was because she was worried for his well-being and didn’t want him to go down a dark path. We also learn that Megumi and Tsumiki are stepsiblings where Megumi’s dad was a member of the Zen’in clan, one of the biggest clans among the sorcerers. However, they’re a bunch of good for nothings that even Gojou is freaked out by them (wow, that says a lot about them. (Yume): I’ll say. This is the guy who laughed in the face of the strongest curse out there and yet it’s these people who freak him out). Megumi’s dad was planning to sell Megumi off to the clan, but Gojou stopped it forcing Megumi to attend Jujustu high school as collateral and financial aid for him and Tsumiki who were abandoned by their parents. Returning back to reality, the domain created by the curse disappears, but Megumi believes that the curse placed on Tsumiki hasn’t been lifted yet. He believes that this curse was overlapping the one Tsumiki has which means that curse is still out there. Getting back to Nobara and Yuuji, we see that the curse who pulled out Nobara senses the domain is gone and goes to retrieve Sukana’s finger. He hides his back from Nobara, but Yuuji sees his back which houses another mouth which he’s very sensitive about (Seras: Then why don’t you wear a shirt?). With his back exposed, the curse decides to kill them all (scene here: https://youtu.be/KQRnKBrSZsY).
In the final episode it’s Yuuji and Nobara against the two curses who we find out are brothers and aren’t curses. These two creatures are part of the Cursed Wombs: Death Paintings, the objects that Mahito stole when he stole the fingers (Seras: I remember that). They’re not curses per se as they have physical bodies. Supposedly, a sorcerer experimented on curses wondering if they could impregnate women (Yume: Oh my God) and the results were disturbing and messed up. All records of how he did it were destroyed (thank God. There are some things you just don’t want to see in the world) and the paintings became cursed objects holding the resentment of the mother who had her children taken away from her and killed (so basically, these things are like the creatures Mahito created?). Yuuji and Nobara get splashed by their blood which puts a curse on them where their bodies will decompose within the next 10-15 minutes (Seras: That gives us 5 extra minutes to kick their asses). Nobara once again proves she’s one of the most badass women in shonen by taking a nail and driving it through her arm not only hurting herself but the brothers. Now that her body is cursed she is spiritually connected to the brothers and thus they can feel her pain. Thanks to Sukana, Yuuji’s body is resistant to poison so he’s able to move around freely and fight beating up the little brother while the young brother watches. It quickly becomes a game of chicken where the young brother has to decide, does he remove the curse to save himself and his brother or does he hold out for time. Seeing his little brother in pain makes him instinctively remove the curses from Yuuji and Nobara which opens the door for Yuuji to rip the arm off the young brother and Nobara kills the little brother (Yume: Fatality. (Seras): I want her in the next Mortal Kombat game. If she’s not DLC, I’ll be demonstrating my own fatality on the developers). Angered and in no condition to fight, the young brother decides to retreat by hitching a ride on a truck and taking a passenger hostage. Luckily, Yuuji chases him down (he’s in the zone. (Yume): The auto zone? (Nitsuj): No. The zone from Kuroko’s Basketball) and delivers the killing blow. They meet back up with Megumi who foolishly hands the finger to Yuuji and Sukana eats it thus making himself stronger (scene here: https://youtu.be/n19xJsEbev0). After this, the season wraps up with them returning to school and even being nominated along with Maki and Panda to be promoted to first-grade sorcerers.
Final Thoughts
(Nitsuj): What can we say about Jujutsu Kaisen that hasn’t already been said?
(Seras): It’s awesome!
(Yume): It’s an enjoyable watch from beginning to end that never bores you and keeps you entertained.
(Nitsuj): The story and arcs are great and interesting. They do a good job building on top of each other and progressing the story and growth of the characters. The characters are easily one of the best features in this series. Yuuji is a good call back to shonen protagonists from the 90s. Strong, carefree, a good heart, laidback, and relatable. He knows there’s a high possibility that by absorbing Sukana he’s going to die one way or another, so instead of moping around and feeling sorry for himself he decides to spend his life helping as many people as he can and living. Megumi is straight-laced but serves as the perfect straight man to Yuuji and I like how they hint that he has the potential to be just as strong if not stronger than Yuuji. The only thing stopping him is himself and when we got see him get serious it only fuels the excitement of what he can do in the future. Nobara is a great female lead. She’s not there to be the damsel in distress or the girl for the main character. She’s there to be herself and kick ass. She shows us that you can make your female characters feminine and cute and have them still be a badass who’s not afraid to get hurt, can fight, and hold her own like the boys. Many people have called her the best female character in a shonen series, but I don’t think so. Don’t get me wrong, she’s great but I don’t think she’s the best. She’s one of the best no doubt, but I actually found Maki much better than her. Maki is like the female version of Rock Lee. She has limitations. Each battle is like a handicap for her yet despite this she doesn’t complain and continues to fight. She’s honed her fighting abilities which allows to stand toe to toe with everyone else and then some. Her family wants her fail and die, yet she continues to live in pursuit of proving her family wrong and that they will have no choice but to acknowledge her. The rest of the characters are also great. The second years are strong and funny, the Kyoto students are enjoyable, I love the brotherly relationship Yuuji and Aoi develop, Nanami was cool, and Gojou was hands down the best character in this series. He’s Kakashi only better, he’s the complete package and a good example of how to write a likable overpowered character.
(Yume): The anime does a good job taking the arcs and stories from the manga and adapting them to the anime. Each arc presents the characters along with new characters and lore that’s easy to follow and understand. Nothing ever feels wasted in these arcs or stories as the anime continues to move forward and builds off of what we just saw. The animation is phenomenal here. MAPPA has always been known to do great animation and they really brought their A-game here. The backgrounds look great, the character models look like the designs from the manga, and the curses look creative and threatening. It also knows how to have fun and exaggerate the characters while also being serious and use the colors to set the mood and the intensity of what’s going on. The music is a perfect blend of rock, urban hip-hop, and orchestra. The rock music gets us hyped for the action scenes, the urban hip-hop is good for the normal and comedic moments, and the orchestra music matches up well with the more serious and emotional moments of the characters connecting with each other.
(Seras): Yeah, the characters, animation and music are great, but what about the fight scenes? Well I’m excited to say the fight scenes deliver. They’re shot well, they’re action packed, well-choreographed, and exciting to watch. Each character has their own ability and fighting style that they use and these styles clashing against one another are great. Yuuji is your brawler, undisciplined but has good instincts and his attacks hit hard. Megumi is a more disciplined martial artist incorporating strategy and tactics into his battles to beat his opponents as well as his familiars. Nobara is like a true sorceress, attacking from afar but not being afraid to get physical if she has to. Seeing all of this variety is great and makes each fight feel special as no fights are ever the same as the one before it.
Final Score
(Yume): My final score for Jujutsu Kaisen is a 9/10.
(Seras): I’m also giving it a 9/10. How about you Nitsuj.
(Nitsuj): I’m giving it my highest 10/10 with a must-watch stamp of approval.
(Seras): Woah.
(Yume): Seriously?
(Nitsuj): Yeah, I really did love this anime. I really can’t find any faults in this anime. It delivered on everything I wanted and then some.
(Yume): So taking our combined scores you get 28/30 with the average score being a 9.3 and going by our system that equals a 9.5/10 which is a perfect score for this series.
(Seras): It’s a great shonen series to read and watch. If you haven’t checked it out yet, do yourself a favor and watch the anime. (Nitsuj): Then when you get done watching the anime, pick up the manga because the series only gets better from here. Thanks for reading and we’ll see next time on Project Nitsuj.
(Nitsuj): MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
*Seras slaps Nitsuj across the face which knocks him*
(Seras): Damn fly. It’s been bugging all review.