It’s time to squeeze in a quick modern anime review as the new season of Jujutsu Kaisen is nicely split into two arcs and as this one is only five episodes it’s already ended (in fact it ended a couple of weeks ago, actually…) then it made sense to do it now rather than wait for the official end of the season. That being said it’s despite its short length it’s certainly no less important for it, so let’s take a look!
Jujutsu Kaisen gets compared to Bleach a lot, and while there are similarities in parts of its plot and character designs it’s honestly not any more than any other supernatural Shonen show, but this arc reminded me of the similarly short “Turn Back the Pendulum” arc from Bleach in that its set in the past and explores the backstory of several key characters so the audience is caught up, doing a mini-arc instead of a series of flashbacks. As revealed in the Zero manga / film “cool and powerful mentor” archetype Satoru Gojo and lead antagonist Suguru Geto were once close friends and its here we see that front and centre as the two hang out, wax lyrical about the world and generally have fun as the two stand-out students of the current crop of Jujutsu High classes. Gojo especially due to his family’s lineage allowing him a rare combination of the way-overpowered “Limitless” ability as well as the Six Eyes technique. Geto on the other hand can devour and use Curses but complains of how unpleasant the act is and how much he hates doing it…
“Just so you know, I’m planning on becoming the over-arching villain.”
The two of them are assigned to guard and deliver a girl called Riko Amanai to Master Tengen himself as his Immortality technique would force him to evolve into a state beyond humanity if he doesn’t absorb the “Star Platinum Vessel” every 500 years and randomly she is that vessel (bloody weird lore!) The issue is that two religious groups, the sect known only as “Q” and the “Time Vessel Association”, have found out that Riko is that Vessel and wish to stop her from reaching Tengen, the latter at least because they wish their God Tengen to ascend to Godhood even if he doesn’t want to. The only issue is that the TVA don’t have any sorcerers or Curse users so they hire a hitman known as Toji Fushiguro who also has no Curse energy but has made a pact with a Curse that grants him access to lots of Cursed weaponry, which along with his knowledge and quick thinking make him a deadly foe.
For someone who has to sacrifice her life to a weird God-man Riko is awfully cheery… until she’s not.
As you can probably guess Gojo and Geto become attached to Riko and after fighting off several enemies and going on a little holiday they end up deciding not to sacrifice her to Tengen if she doesn’t want to die, a decision she does eventually make but before anything can be done in that regard Toji actually manages to take down Gojo and seemingly kill him (you know, if this wasn’t a prequel and we know he’s still alive after this) and come after Geto and Riko next…
I’m happy to say the break hasn’t stopped the anime crew from delivering high-speed but brutally impactful fight scenes with smooth animation, so Jujutsy Kaisen isn’t one of those series that will take a noticeable dip in it’s second season, thankfully!
Overall Thoughts:
For such a short-lived villain Toji made a hell of an impact on the narrative…
Hidden Inventory / Premature Death is a good mini-arc, there are some fun fight sequences with the insane powers both duel protagonists and antagonist possess, and the final episode gives us a good glimpse into just how Geto found himself tumbling down the road to villainy.
To my surprise Riko is suddenly and brutally shot in the head by Toji, leading to Geto and him fighting but the latter also lost to the non-Cursed human. On his way out, happy about his total victory, Toji comes across Gojo, who has managed to use his abilities to heal himself and is now on something of a maddening high after being so close to death allowed him to use even more of his insane abilities and kill Toji with little effort, though he agrees to his opponent’s last wish to save his son Megumi from a similar life as himself (so yes, Fushiguro wasn’t just a coincidental surname!). Geto, who was similarly healed, arrives at the church belonging to the Time Vessel Association only to see Gojo walk out with Riko’s body. Geto really wants to kill all the smiling and laughing cultists but Gojo tells him it would be a waste of time, especially as they’re just regular humans and therefore not what they as sorcerers should be dealing with…
Gojo in the midst of power-using ecstasy.
We then skip ahead a year to find Gojo so powerful he’s being sent on high level missions by himself, leaving Geto feeling isolated and weak. Geto talks to a Special Grade Sorcerer called Yuki who talks about wanting to rid the world of Cursed spirits and Geto takes her plan of killing Cursed spirits and turns it around, that Cursed Spirits only come about due to energy given off by non-sorcerers and therefore if he killed all humans who have no curse energy then Curses themselves would cease to exist. One of those “technically true, but…” situations… He doesn’t put his plan into action until a short while later when Geto finds two young sorcerer girls abused in a village and decides to kill everyone in the local area, the vision of the smiling cultists still floating in his head. Geto begins his plan in earnest by killing his own parents and taking over the Star Religious Group (ironically) and although Gojo confronts him about his new goal he can’t bring himself to attack him directly, so lets him walk away…
Hogan Reviews 