Spoliers ahead! Warning!
This season was split up into two arcs, the first one being a shorter glimpse into the world of Jujutsu in 2006 and the beginning of the story of Gojo and Geto. The second arc of the season, the Shibuya arc, was the most extreme one so far, it really showed that it had now become serious. This arc is acclaimed for its chaos and brutality, I do think that is overstated to an extent though and the arc is somewhat overrated for its visually pleasing fights.
.
.
.
.
.
Hidden inventory:
This arc begins with a simple mission taken up by a much younger Mei Mei and Utahime. It then introduces the younger Gojo and Geto, who we know, that Geto turns evil, as shown in the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 movie.
.
.
.
The main premise for the arc is set up after this. Tengen, the one who set up the barrier which was mentioned in season 1, when Mahito broke it, needs the Star Plasma Vessel to be escorted to him, Gojo and Geto are entrusted with this task. It is also established that assassins would be coming after them. The Star Plasma Vessel itself is actually a girl, Riko, who is really enthusiastic about becoming a part of Tengen. This was a bit unexpected, as being honest, I didn’t expect her to agree to this so easily. It did help the story to get along though.
.
.
.
The main villain of this arc, Toji was introduced too. Toji was introduced as someone who loved to gamble, although while this can be used as a character trait, it simply went to show he was a bit of a deadbeat. At this point, it doesn’t really seem like someone would be able to defeat Gojo, despite him only being a second year at this point, he is still really strong, although this was able to be put into question at one point as he failed to perform a technique.
.
.
.After these introductory points, Gojo, Geto and Riko all went to Okinawa, this really goes to show Riko’s personality and helps us to get a bit of a connection with her character. This segment was probably done in order to create the scene in which Riko says that she actually doesn’t want to assimilate with Tengen, however this also further went to create the scene after of intense shot, as she was shot by a very nonchalant Toji. This nonchalant attitude for Toji fits him so well too and it makes him seem pretty ruthless in this scene, especially seeing that he had seemingly just killed Gojo, although we do already know he lives, so it doesn’t leave much of the rest of the arc in question. He does make a return the next episode in a very majestic way.
.
.
.
Gojo is completely high of the threat of almost dying, and his bloody appearance goes to show that. The soundtrack paired along with the lighting and Gojo’s emotions make for a beautiful fight between Toji and Gojo. Toji was depicted in a bit of a silly manner before this though. He would make jokes or pull a funny expression, while his character seems like a completely serious one. His death was depicted really well though, it came as a kinda solemn scene, in which Hollow Purple had put a hole in his body, but it showed that hole from so many different and creative angles, which made his death scene drawn out to the perfect extent and gave a fantastic conclusion for his character (so I thought when I watched, this does change later though). The mention of Megumi also helps to show that this is a prequel and so this helps to link it altogether, though it did previously seem like Toji didn’t care about him, so I feel it didn’t make too much sense that he changed his mind upon death.
.
.
.
The conclusion to the Hidden Inventory arc is based off Geto’s changing beliefs. Since Gojo had become “the strongest” through his infinity and six eyes techniques, he didn’t work with Geto as much. This isolation was depicted pretty well. Geto’s lack of motivation also called back to the beginning of the arc, and so this made for a nice, rounded conclusion to this arc.
.
.
.
.
.
Shibuya Incident: Gate open:
The Shibuya incident arc began pretty low key. The first half of the first episode of the arc was a bit of slice of life, which really took me off guard, especially seeing the intro for this season. Mechamaru was the focus after this, this being the first serious point of the arc. It seemed that Mechamaru’s dynamic flourished, as he managed to finally overcome the main challenge he had faced, his condition. It was also good to see he wasn’t morally corrupt and was willing to fight Mahito. The fight between Mechamaru and Mahito was really good too, the use of domains in the fight as well as Mechamaru’s Eva-like robot made for a really cool and visually pleasing fight, the motivation for Mechamaru, being Miwa, was really emotional too. This also revealed the date of the Shibuya incident, in which the setup for did seem like it would be high stakes, as a lot of the sorcerers we had met so far were there, meaning the setup was pretty reflective of how the season played out.
.
.
.
The first event of the Shibuya incident being presented like a report, I think this was really good in portraying the themes. As Gojo entered the veil, he seemed really relaxed, people were losing their lives and he simply didn’t care. I was under the impression that Gojo was more compassionate than that, but he seemed to not be, at least not to a full extent. He seemed to be angry enough with Jogo and Hanami, even going as far as exorcising Hanami. Gojo being sealed was presented really well too, I think the new Geto was really creepy and this unnerving sight was also reflected onto Gojo, who was in a bit of shock, leading to him being sealed.
.
.
.
On Yuji’s side, he had an easier task of fighting a grasshopper, which did lack a bit in terms of animation and was overall a lame fight as it was really one sided. Also on Yuji’s side of the incident was Mechamaru, who had died but retained communication, this allowed for him to have a fitting conclusion involving Miwa towards later parts of the incident. The curses then set out to kill Yuji although Jogo wanted to bring Sukuna back, which changed the stakes as usually the goal was to bring out Sukuna, making Yuji typically almost invincible, but he wasn’t anymore. They also made sure to point out that the senior assistants were also being killed, which really adds to the scariness of this plan the curses had created, as well as showing that this incident really did just resemble a slaughter. After this all went down, it progressed to Yuji meeting up with Megumi, this resulted in a fight with Jiro, whose had inverse cursed technique. This fight was dealt with really easily, which I think, again adjusted my view of the extent to the stakes at this moment, as the fight being so easy made it look like it wouldn’t be all too bad. This episode also had a fight with Toji wedged into it, although this Toji was the reincarnation of him through using a cursed technique, so he looked like Toji, and could fight like Toji, although it turns out, since Toji had no cursed energy, it means the technique wouldn’t deplete, so the guy who became him was taken over permanently.
.
.
.
Nobara was finally seen in this arc too, she really struggled to taken out one of the weakest enemies though, and despite Nanami’s toughness, he claimed to be the minimum requirement for fighting in the Shibuya incident, so this really illustrates how dangerous it is going to be from here.
.
.
.
.
.
Shibuya Incident: Gate close:
Choso was the new addition to the team of curses, he was shown as really dangerous at the beginning of his fight with Yuji, but he countered him with some help from Mechamaru. I think the fight from here on out was really good as it was visually stunning, aided by the interesting lighting of Shibuya station. Also, the fight had really good choreography and it was really engaging to watch. The end of this fight was ruined a bit by Choso breaking down, despite defeating Yuji, as Choso realised that Yuji was his brother, although this really sits wrong with me, as Yuji killed Choso’s other brothers, so I don’t think his forgiveness of him is realistic at all and this gives me a bad impression of his character.
.
.
.
The next fight up was Mei Mei which wasn’t really one I cared for, but the fight with the Zen’ins and Nanami against Dagon was cool. Naobito’s technique was shown, and it was one which was really nice and easy to understand. Dagon’s domain also made for a really cool environment for the fight. The first episode with Dagon’s fight left on a cliffhanger, when Megumi tried to escape the domain, instead Toji came inside, and the line describing him as the “one who left it all behind” was really sick. The animation in Toji’s fight with Dagon was amazing, although it does leave his morales in question, since there wasn’t much reason for him to be allying with anyone. After this fight, Jogo burns Nanami, Maki and Naobito in quick succession, Megumi avoids this fate, since he was pushed outside by Toji, who seems to be fighting him now.
.
.
.
The fight between Megumi and Toji was really visually pleasing, although its conclusion was pretty weak as it ended through Toji deciding to kill himself simply off little motivation. It simply doesn’t feel like a faithful enough representation of his character. It also turns out that people like Ijichi were being healed, which kind of takes away the brutal aspect which I had previously viewed the Shibuya incident with.
.
.
.
Jogo and Sukuna’s fight was very visually pleasing, and although being one sided, it had a diverse range of attacks, and this made it so good to watch. Jogo’s conclusion was also quite sentimental, as it did show how Jogo was a very human like curse and also had emotion. The next fight Sukuna had to take on was Mahoraga, this was summoned by Megumi as a final cast before dying, however, Sukuna simply saved Megumi, and took down Mahoraga, although it took a bit of effort for him, showing that there was a chance that Sukuna wasn’t unkillable. I also feel that Mahoraga kind of acted like a plot device in order to cause Sukuna to destroy the city, killing loads and traumatising Yuji.
.
.
.
Nanami’s conclusion was beautiful in a way. It showed how he had lost all hope, and simply wandered through Shibuya, his half burnt body showing the pity we should feel for him in that moment. The thoughts of Malaysia really humanised him and it did make his death pretty hard to take. On the topic of death, Nobara also suffered the same fate, she had a segment in which it seemed like she would finally become really strong, but this was short lived, her backstory was shown, and this led to the scene of her death, which was pretty brutally shown in the beginning of the episode after, as it gave a flashback to some fun which Yuji, Megumi and Nobara had before, and then it cut to Nobara’s body. Her farewell message was surprisingly positive.
.
.
.
To counter the sadness and despair which Yuji felt from Nobara’s death, Todo finally arrived, and as the de-facto mentor of Yuji, he managed to get his spirits back up. After this, the scene with all three, Mahito, Yuji and Todo at 120% latent potential was really, really cool. Todo also had a really funny moment where he hallucinated and the song accompanying made it all the much better. Although eventually, Todo had to back down, as his hand was sacrificed, this setting up the fight between Yuji and Mahito alone. This led to the iconic scene, in which Yuji looks down upon Mahito, and makes a speech to him, showing how far gone Yuji had become during the Shibuya incident. This wasn’t the end of Mahito, but that was instead because of Kenjaku absorbing him.
.
.
.
The end of the season was pretty weak, it mainly just served to set up the culling games and I felt that there was really a lack of a solid conclusion to the Shibuya Incident arc.
.
.
.
.
.
Best Episodes:
- Episode 21: Metamorphosis
- Episode 13: Red Scale
- Episode 20: Right and Wrong - Part 3
.
.
.Best Characters:
- Yuji
- Nanami
- Mechamaru
.
.
.Overall, I think the start of the season, went on to set up many of the events in the Shibuya incident. The incident itself had a constantly changing view of what the stakes were like, this made it pretty unpredictable to tell what would happen next and so led to the feeling of the incident being brutal and unforgiving.