Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2

Episodes 25-27

Now this is what I'm talking about. After spending an entire season with Demon Slayer just spinning its wheels for eleven episodes straight and thinking nobody would notice if it threw enough flashy sparks and flame effects at the screen, I cannot tell you how refreshing it is to have a Shonen Jump series that knows how to balance incredible and visceral action animation with a story and characters that, you know, matter. Going into the premiere of this new season of Jujutsu Kaisen, I will admit that I was just a touch apprehensive. Not only do we have new director Shōta Goshozono taking over for MAPPA's longstanding action auteur, Sunghoo Park, but we're picking up the six-month-long gap from the release of prequel movie Jujutsu Kaisen 0 with a flashback arc that takes place even further back in the series' chronology. While I am still eager to get back to whatever the heck Yuji, Nobara, and Megumi are up to, I am happy to report that all of my misgivings have been handily swept aside. Jujutsu Kaisen is back, and it's better and more badass than ever.

Given how much their rivalry and motivations seem to be coming to a head in the present-day storyline, it makes sense that JJK would take some time to bring us all back to the glorious 90s so we can learn about what made Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto the men that they are. Given that this Flashback Arc is only about fifteen chapters long in the manga, I can't imagine that it will take up to much real estate in this two-cour season, so it also makes sense that the pair's history is being exposited in the form of a single mission that is doomed to go horribly wrong.

As it turns out, the barriers that keep the Jujutsu Schools safe from curses and assaults of the Jujutsu Sorcerers' enemies are set in place by an incredibly powerful being known as Tengen, who is immortal, but not exactly ageless, as they must periodically absorb/fuse with/consume a person who inherits the role of the “Plasma Star Vessel.” This time around, the Vessel is a feisty young girl named Riko Amanai, and our two heroes have to keep her safe from all of the nefarious cults and would-be assassins headed her way for the next three days until she can live up to her role of rejuvenating Tengen.

It's the kind of straightforward setup that affords us an equal amount of kickass action, funny comedy, and compelling character development, which just so happen to be the qualities in which Jujutsu Kaisen most excels. It might have worked even better as another movie, given the breakneck pacing and efficient storytelling of these first three episodes alone. Still, I don't think the show is suffering by reverting to its episodic format. The first episode gets all of the exposition out of the way while still being entertaining; the second episode helps establish Gojo and Geto's dynamic with Riko and her maid, Kuroi; and this third episode pulls off that wonderful (and incredibly devious trick) of blinding us with funny jokes, sweet character interactions, and a hell of a lot of cool fighting, all so it can pull the rug out from under us with a heartbreaking finale.

It's that third episode that has made it clear to me that Jujutsu Kaisen is back with a capital B, John Wick style. I was already curious to learn what this arc's villain, Toji, is up to, but that was mostly because he's Megumi's ne'er-do-well father and a decent foil to our still very green protagonists. This week, though, we learn how far Toji will go to accomplish his goals. His thrashing of Gojo was gnarly enough, but I legitimately cried out when he straight-up murdered Riko right in front of Geto. I wasn't surprised that she died necessarily—she was going to go one way or the other, and the episode wasn't being shy about playing up her misgivings there at the end—rather, I was more just impressed with how gosh darned effective the whole sequence was. We only had a couple of episodes to get to know Riko, but she was a well-drawn and tragic young woman, and her cruel death will no doubt go a long way toward pushing Geto down the path we know he is bound to. I want things to work out for him and Gojo, but the thing about prequels is that we know very well that they won't.

Still, it's probably going to be a hell of a ride, seeing it all go down.

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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.