Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2

Episode 31

I am using every ounce of restraint that I possess to not simply spend this entire review screaming “JUJUTSU EVANGELION!!” at the top of my lungs, but let it be known that this heavily Evangelion themed smackdown is a goddamned delight. Half of “Evening Festival” is a nonstop action spectacle of the highest caliber, and the crew working at MAPPA should be incredibly proud of all they've done to enhance this adaptation. Seriously, you guys. It's a freaking Jujutsu Evangelion. How was I ever supposed to not love this?

Well, I guess there are a few quibbles I could make with the episode's pacing, but we'll get to the nitpicking later. For now, let's revel in all of the incredible choreography and lush animation that Jujutsu Kaisen has gifted us, this week. If all of the Mecha(Maru) action wasn't good enough, this is also the week where Mahito gets to fully pop off and let his freak flag fly. The one sequence of his body transfiguring into one chimerical form after another while fleeing from Kokichi's attacks is worth the price of admission alone.

The episode also does a good job of making Mahito and Kokichi's back-and-forth into a believably tense showdown even though, from the very beginning, Kokichi's defeat was more-or-less inevitable. As always, the mid-fight banter honestly did nothing for me, but the visual action on display did more than enough to sell the weight of the fight. It helps that we have a lot of badass beats that the sequence can draw on to keep the momentum going, with the single most satisfying cut probably being when Kokichi straight-up impales Mahito by flipping him the bird with Mechamaru's blade finger. It was almost enough to convince me that Kokichi had a chance! Alas…

That brings me to my only major gripe for this week, which is that the complete futility of Kokichi's efforts makes the first half of the episode feel just a teensy bit pointless, from a narrative perspective. Don't get me wrong, I relished the tragedy of Miwa opening up to Kokichi vis-à-vis the deactivated Mechamaru suit after our boy had already bit the big one, and I also get that we need a solid display of our villains' powers before this Shibuya Arc gets started in earnest. Still, I wouldn't have minded if the dying Kokichi would have at least been able to send one final message to Gojo, or even Miwa. I don't even think it matters if the message had been on time or not; contextually, it would have made the transition to the second half of the episode smoother while also allowing us to appreciate the gravity of Kokichi's death.

That's small potatoes, though, and the second half of the episode still does a decent job of hyping us up for all of the nonsense that our heroes are going to be dealing with in the coming weeks. The beginning of the Curse Users' invasion of Shibuya is laden with dread and anticipation, and it's probably good that the show is getting a lot of the exposition out of the way now. We know who is on what team, and where everyone is placed, and it will make it that much easier to jump back into the action next time. Based on how hard this season went with the chapters that were just the prologue, I can only imagine just how crazy things will get once the blood and guts start to hit the fan for real.

Rating:

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.