(Nitsuj): Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Throughout the month of Aniween we’ve been reviewing some great anime and I can think no better to bring this month to a close than Jujutsu Kaisen.
(Seras): The hit manga and newest/former king of shonen made a splash with its first anime followed up by a movie and now a second season.
(Yume): Done once again by MAPPA, there was a lot of hype around this season as it would be covering the Shibuya arc, one of the greatest arcs in manga history. Despite receiving some major backlash from the treatment of its animators, the anime was still praised as being one of the best animes of 2023.
(Nitsuj): Let’s end Aniween on a high note. This is Jujutsu Kaisen S2.
Opening and Ending Theme
(Seras): The opening is “Ao No Sumika” by Tatsuya Kitani. It’s a beautiful and heartbreaking song that does a good conveying the feelings of Gojo and his relationship with Geto. Two friends who unfortunately got further apart from each other because of what they believe. Just like Eve rose to fame with the first opening, Tatsuya also rose to fame with this opening. He had his fans but this song really put him on the map.
(Nitsuj): For the ending we have “AKARI” by Soushi Sakiyama. This was an ending that became more effective the more the anime went on. If the opening is about Gojo’s perspective then this ending is Geto’s perspective. A man who believes that what he is doing is right even though everyone around him says otherwise. It’s heartbreaking and sung beautifully.
Episodes 1-4
(Yume): We start the season with two sorcerers named Mei and Utahime investigating a haunted building where people have reportedly gone missing. After investigating the building they figure out that they’re in the barrier of a curse and trapped inside (Nitsuj: Reminds me of the infinite floor from Chainsaw Man). Utahime manages to break the barrier just as Gojo arrives (and even back then she couldn’t stand him. (Seras): Even back then he was a hottie) along with Geto and Ieiri (looks like Nobara). They capture the curse but the collapsing building doesn’t go unnoticed by the public since no one cast a veil (Nitsuj: I’ll get the MIB neuralyzer). Once they return to the school, Gojo and Geto are given a big assignment to escort the Star Plasma Vessel who will be assimilated by Tengen in order to counter a curse within his body that will stop him from being human (Or as Gojo describes it: https://youtu.be/gEE1PUYvTPM?si=B5ILQqvI6jWOEjRj). The vessel is a girl named Riko who is being hunted by two groups. The first is Q, a group of curse users who want to upend the Jujutsu society. The other is the Star Religious Group, a group of non-curse users that worships Tengen and believes him merging with the vessel would make him impure. Once the two sorcerers go to the vessel’s location, they get attacked by Q with Geto saving the vessel.
Episode 2 starts off on a funny note with Gojo and Geto defeating the members of Q. In fact, they beat them so bad that they left Q which would result in the complete collapse of the organization (this is why you don’t put all your eggs in one basket). Riko regains consciousness and accuses our two boys of being terrorists out to kill her (in her defense they look untrustworthy) but her maid, Kuroi, clears up the misunderstanding. We also learn about Geto’s curse technique, curse manipulation. He can absorb and manipulate curse spirits to his will and use them to fight (Nitsuj: Think Kirby crossed with Pokémon). After introductions are over, Riko heads to school to enjoy what little amount of normalcy she has now but a hit gets placed on her in the dark web and sorcerers from the underground come after her. Geto takes out one of the sorcerers and we even get to see Kuroi show her skills and prove she’s not dead weight (scene here: https://youtu.be/RLCi_3JoAHc?si=9XWMitNna6xAUoFn). Gojo secures Riko (scene here: https://youtu.be/M2oaLq8hfjE?si=7TI10R_i5YRBiCa4. (Seras): Sure are a lot of thirsty girls in that school) and escapes all while being hunted by a sorcerer. Gojo defeats the sorcerer (Seras: In impressive fashion) but Riko receives a text message showing a captured Kuroi.
In episode 3 Gojo and Geto rescue Kuroi quite easily (well that was anti-climatic) and the group makes it to Okinawa to relax and play around. We get a decent montage of the trip with some nice music accompanying it. When the group finally arrives at the school, Gojo gets stabbed in the back by Toji the father of Megumi. He’s here to kill Riko and has been biding his time. He was the one who placed the bounty on Riko’s head and waited patiently for Gojo’s senses to go dull since he’s been using his powers and staying awake consistently for the last few days. Gojo survived the stab reinforcing his body with curse energy and goes to take on Toji while Geto takes Riko and Kuroi to Tengen. In a shocking moment I never thought possible Gojo actually loses to Toji who dismantles him from start to finish. Seriously, he had Gojo dancing in the palm of his dances. Despite not having curse energy, Toji used both his brains and muscles to beat Gojo proving that it doesn’t matter how invincible your opponent may be, as long as you outthink them you can beat them (scene here: https://youtu.be/T3in1O6FLf8?si=iiurI8YDjyaMLEBm. (Nitsuj): Impressive work. I see why everyone likes this guy so much). As Geto and Riko make it to Tengen he tells her she doesn’t have to go through with this. It turns out Gojo and him weren’t on board with the merging. Even their teacher didn’t like this arrangement, but his position wouldn’t allow him to speak out against it. So the two troublemakers made a pact to protect Riko and support her in whatever decision she made. With tears in her eyes, Riko says she wants to keep living but she gets shot (scene here: https://youtu.be/h7SN_-vY7DE?si=WcJ3YlsSLoXOAok5, oh! My heart) by Toji who announces that he killed Gojo (Seras: Stabbed him in all his vital areas).
In the first half of episode 4 Geto takes on Toji. Once again Toji wins by outthinking his opponent and knocking out Geto (scene here: https://youtu.be/cisJmJo5TpQ?si=i_LHu8jeuEVU7vsX). He then takes Riko’s dead body to the Star Religious Group to confirm she’s dead so he can get his reward. After receiving his reward, he takes his leave where Gojo was waiting for him (Nitsuj: Back from the dead, asshole. (Seras): And high as a kite). Using the reverse curse technique Gojo managed to regenerate his body to save his life. While also on the verge of death, Gojo managed to grasp the true essence of curse energy. Using that knowledge and unleashing the secret technique of his clan, Gojo kills Toji (scene here: https://youtu.be/4Jt78n_A7jM?si=7gRVpvaxRhD8r6VC) and then goes to retrieve the body of Riko. Sometime later, Geto arrives and catches up to Gojo who retrieves the body as a bunch of cultists applaud him (it’s like that one ending from Evangelion only creepier). Gojo wonders if they should kill them but Geto says no and they take their leave.
Episodes 5-8
(Nitsuj): We fast forward a year later in episode 5. It’s 2007 (hey, the year I graduated high school and started college) and Gojo has become the strongest. He’s been taking on more solo missions leaving Geto to do solo missions as well where he begins to question, who is he doing this for. The events at the end of episode 4 keep replaying in his mind. As he feels lost, he meets a freelance sorcerer named Yuki who was the one who recruited Aoi (Seras: How do we know this? Because she asked the most important question: what kind of woman do you like?). Yuki’s not a fan of the jujutsu school saying they’re just treating the symptoms of curses (Yume: Maintaining the status quo) instead of getting to the heart of the situation and finding a solution to eliminate curses all together. To do that there are two options. One, eliminate curse energy from mankind. Two, make it possible for everyone to control their cursed energy. Yuki seems to favor option 2 but Geto presents a third option, eliminate all non-sorcerers in the world (Yume: Let the rules of nature commence). Yuki says it’s an option but she’s not crazy enough to go through with it (Seras: Geto on the other). After seeing his kohai die and a bunch of villagers blaming two girls for murders they didn’t commit, Geto finally snapped. He slaughtered an entire village as well as his own family and went on the run. Orders from the top called for Geto’s execution and Gojo confronted Geto where despite being fully capable of killing him he just couldn’t do it (how could he? He’s his best friend. How could anyone be asked to pull the trigger on their best friend and do it? Scene here: https://youtu.be/3Nb1y5rUnWI?si=hutdKk058kvr642M). Geto would soon take over the Star Religious Group and their subsidiaries while Gojo would recruit a young Megumin (Seras: He was way too smart for a first grader). After that, we got Jujutsu Kaisen 0 (Yume: We’re still mad at you for reviewing it without us) then season 1 and now we’re all caught up (scene here: https://youtu.be/qTdQc_FlXsA?si=nWDIAVVlpTudjB2k).
In the first half of episode 6 we meet a girl named Yuko who went to school with Yuji in middle school. Back then, she was fat but when she moved to Tokyo the stress and growing up caused her to lose all that fat and become a tall beauty. While out walking she spots Yuji with Nobara and approaches Nobara where they grab a drink together and she confesses that she has a crush on Yuji (middle school sweethearts). He was the only guy in her class who never made fun of her because of her weight and even praised her good features she herself never noticed. Nobara calls Megumi over to confirm that Yuji doesn’t have a girlfriend (even shutting down the shippers for her and Yuji. Scene here: https://youtu.be/8BS9Li0ls6Q?si=_dRk–6mZSoKcx2i). They invite Yuji over to see her where he instantly recognizes her (scene here: https://youtu.be/ZLUEmfDY3dw?si=EYuSnUasaouX7r0d. (Yume): And he just proved he’s boyfriend potential). After this the two just talk and walk with nothing happening between them. Yuko doesn’t confess and it honestly just seemed like she was just happy to see her old crush again. In the second half, Utahime calls in Yuji and the others to help her with an investigation to track a mole in Kyoto’s school. She believes that the mole is Mechamaru and sure enough he is the mole. When they go to confront him it’s too late. Geto and Mahito moved him to a new location. In exchange for giving them information, they would restore his body (Seras: His kingdom for a body). Mahito restores his body and with their pact completed that means they no longer have a need for him and decide to kill him. This is where Mechamaru reveals that he’s a double agent. Getting information about them and what they’re planning. He now has to battle his way out and inform Gojo on what they’re planning. We get a short fight between Mahito and Mechamaru’s army where Mechamaru summons a giant version of himself to fight (scene here: https://youtu.be/mAYSOdV4h6I?si=Xe5hVBbkv5CYDS2x).
A majority of episode 7 is dedicated to the fight between Mechamaru and Mahito (the best way to describe this fight is imagine Evangelion vs DBZ. I know that sounds insane but trust me, that’s only way I can describe this fight). The fight unfortunately ends in Mechamaru’s defeat but give him credit, he made Mahito earn that victory and actually got some good hits in (Yume: Also, Mechamaru likes Miwa. (Seras): That’s kind of cute. Scene here: https://youtu.be/i_A4wdC2Mww?si=NhCVK–k3BJPCQ1H). After the fight we go to Shibuya on Halloween night where a veil has descended upon the area and traps normal citizens inside (Seras: Wow, Halloween in Japan is awesome). Sorcerers are free to come and go as they please and the citizens are safe for the time being aside from some getting sucked down into the station. They send in Gojo to find the veil creator and dispel it while keeping everyone else on standby.
In the first half of episode 8 Gojo discovers that there’s a second veil within the veil. Yuji along with two other sorcerers named Mei and Ui are sent to destroy the second veil believing it to be Mahito. The three split up with Yuji fighting against a locust curse who believes he’s clever (clever in the same way Richard Nixion was during his tenure as president). It’s a good fight as Yuji beats the curse with his overwhelming strength. In fact, he didn’t even use his curse energy until the end of the fight. He was kicking this guy’s ass with just his default strength (scene here: https://youtu.be/vFWUfK8Cm9Y?si=iH6vl9ecc9clP7at). After defeating the curse, the veil gets destroyed but they just miss Mahito. In the second half, Gojo takes on Joujo (Seras: Rematch motherfucker), Hanami, and another curse named Choso who seem to have forced Gojo into a corner. Following Geto’s game plan, they surround Gojo with non-sorcerers forcing him to hold back because Gojo is at his strongest when he’s by himself and there’s no one around for him to worry about (Yume: Really? Then how do you explain the first fight against Jouji where he literally held Yuji in his arms the whole fight?). At the first this does seem to hold Gojo back but he tells them they’ll need to do more than that to stop him. However, taking him down doesn’t seem to be their ultimate goal as Geto has another trick up his sleeve (scene here: https://youtu.be/oFTOQtxa6vc?si=2Mx32KAWNWK-5PgW).
Episodes 9-12
(Seras): Gojo’s fight continues in episode 9 as he changes up his strategy by going on the offense. Using curse manipulation and martial arts he takes on Joujo and Hanami with Choso staying as far away from this fight as possible (Nitsuj: He’s got the right idea. I don’t think an MMA fighter would be stupid enough to take on Gojo). He manages to kill Hanami (scene here: https://youtu.be/CARcWG8XoCY?si=KUK1TGVwyZwviO5C) and then focuses on Joujo who hides in the crowd and uses hit and run tactics. Mahito soon arrives with a train full of transformed curses who start attacking everyone increasing the chaos and putting Gojo in a tight spot. Gojo could easily defeat them with his infinite void powers but using it on non-sorcerers could cause them to fall into a vegetated state or face after-affects from entering the void (Yume: When the void swallows you whole you lose all of your senses. Just like an Twitter user). Joujo and others believe Gojo won’t activate the infinite void because his conscience won’t allow it but to their surprise, he uses it but moves two-tenths of a second to eliminate all the curses and save everyone (this is like Flash-level thinking on a higher scale). To give you an idea of how dangerous this is, during their vegetated state, roughly half a year’s worth of information flowed into the minds of non-sorcerers in just that tenth of a second (Nitsuj: It’s like being hit by a train over and over again). Yet, despite Gojo doing everything in his power to hold back it still took people two months just to recover from this experience (scene here: https://youtu.be/7Aw8iCZnOWQ?si=GssOm1nGEZbUGa9c). When he finally dismissed the void, Gojo killed 1,000 curses in 299 seconds (Yume: 4 minutes and 59 seconds. (Seras): A new record). However, this would prove to be his downfall as Geto activates the Prison Realm. This was Geto’s plan all along, trap Gojo in the impossible to escape Prison Realm. In order to activate it, Gojo had to be within the range of the Prison Realm for one whole minute (Nitsuj: An as we all know a minute in shonen time is the equivalent to at least 15 DBZ episodes). As Gojo gets trapped, Geto approaches him where we find out this isn’t Geto but instead someone else. Out of respect for his friend, Gojo didn’t allow his body to get taken in by the Jujutsu High so they could dissect it (Nitsuj: Boo~, that was the whole reason I signed up for biology). This in turn allowed an unknown party to place their brain into Geto’s body, reanimate it, and get access to his powers (Yume: Sheesh, and I thought Ginyu’s body switch technique was messed up. Scene here: https://youtu.be/c5wxJKJPDsw?si=hTvibqOl4m0OTIL3).
At the start of episode 10 we see Mechamaru is still alive (somehow). Well technically it’s not Mechamaru but an insurance spell he left around should Gojo get sealed. The fact that it activated means Gojo was successfully sealed (Yume: Which means it’s time to panic because shit has hit the fan). Mechamaru tells them that they have to inform everyone of the situation and reclaim Gojo (and rub it in his face that he had to be rescued). Yuji manages to get the message to everyone (Nitsuj: By shouting from the top of his lung on a tall building. It matches his character) and everyone rushes over to the underground station. The good news is the seal is still trying to process Gojo so until then the seal can’t be moved (Yume: Sort of like a crappy PC downloading a big game) and everyone knows where they are. He meets up with Megumi, Nanami, and new character Ino who split up to save Gojo and destroy the veil. Meanwhile, the curses are competing with each other on what to do. Choso and Mahito want to kill Yuji while Joujo wants to keep him alive so he can revive Sukuna. The three decide to have a race to see who can find Yuji first and then decide his fate.
In episode 11 Ino, Yuji, and Megumi reach the veil that keeps sorcerers out and try to break in. They try punching it but that doesn’t work, so they go with plan B, find the veil users and beat them up. In order to make the veil stronger the veil users are outside of the veil. The trio easily find them (Yume: Their hiding spot was obvious) and fight them to release the veil. Ino takes on two of them while Yuji and Megumi take on one of them. We get to see Ino’s curse technique which is seance. By hiding his face he can become a spirit medium and manifest the power of the four auspicious beasts (Nitsuj: AKA the four holy beasts, the four symbols, and the four guardians). We mostly focus on Megumi and Yuji’s fight where the curse user’s technique is inverse. Basically, the stronger the attack the weaker it is (Yume: It’s the equivalent of loading your game with too many features in order to cover core basics which are crappy). The trick is to use weak attacks to beat him but not too weak. Megumi and Yuji manage to accomplish this just right to take him down (scene here: https://youtu.be/KtudzpcknLk?si=wrUi9OKHt-4w1wrd). Meanwhile, Ino struggles against his opponents which is an old woman and her grandson. In an interesting flashback, we find out that these curse users once tried to assassinate Gojo when he was just a kid (Yume: Even back then he was a brat) but couldn’t. Even as a kid he was powerful. So powerful that trying to assassinate him would result in your own death. This resulted in a lot of curse users going into hiding because they were afraid of getting killed by him. In the past, the schools were too busy dealing with curses to worry about curse users not associated with them, so they were pretty much free to do whatever they wanted (and what they wanted to do was kill people. (Yume): It’s often said that if you give someone power their true personality will be seen).
In the first half of episode 12 we see Ino get defeated by the curse user and her grandson. We see her curse power is conjuring and she used that power to transform her grandson’s body into Toji’s body which was a big mistake. Through curse mumble jumbo Toji’s body managed to overwrite the grandson’s soul and make the body his own. Normally, the curse user keeps the soul at bay to make sure nothing like this happens, but Toji’s body was so strong that the grandson’s soul wasn’t strong enough to control it and lost to it. Toji then kills the curse user (scene here: https://youtu.be/4rUFGmmuCsQ?si=JlWE_7XIcu3BzYP1. (Nitsuj): Glad to see he hasn’t lost his touch). In the second half, we focus on a pissed off Nanami. With the veil keeping curse users trapped gone, they’re able to move freely now and Nanami comes across the bodies of the assistants who were killed by another curse user. Nanami saves Nobara and another assistant from the curse user and just beats the hell out of him (keep in mind, every punch he throws is essentially a critical hit. So just imagine receiving a serious punch to the chest and multiple times from Francis Ngannou. MMA fighter and record holder for the strongest punch in the world at 129,161 units on a PowerKube. (Nitsuj): That’s the equivalent of being hit by a Ford Escort at top speed. Scene here: https://youtu.be/Pv-DOqSyav8?si=KiDG2RzEo1wFEgQe).
(Seras): And this seems like a good place to stop.
(Yume): Tune in next week as we cover the second half of this anime.
(Nitsuj): Thanks for reading and we’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj. MUHAHAHAHAHAHA!
*Nothing happens*
(Nitsuj): Nothing happened? Nothing happened! Woohoo!
(Seras): We have something planned for next week that requires prepping.
(Nitsuj): I’ll let my future myself worry about that. For now, I celebrate.