Now’s The Time to Catch Up on Jujutsu Kaisen
Jujutsu Kaisen: The Culling Game Part 1 has finished airing its seventh episode, and with it has taken a two-week break before the premiere of the eighth. Having waited over two years for the long-awaited continuation and evolution of the series’ story, most fans of Jujutsu Kaisen were quick to jump back in either with the individual episodes’ premieres or the Shibuya Incident compilation film in theaters. Though, a new season of the show also invites new viewers to catch up on the story with all that’s released so far before this new season concludes, presumably sometime in April or May assuming this cour contains around 13 episodes. I’m one of these new faces to the series—though my friends did put on Jujutsu Kaisen 0 in the background once when we hung out—and I’m glad to finally be in the know on what about this series makes people come back for more.
Jujutsu Kaisen doesn’t hit the ground running in the first season with how layered its writing and fight scenes later become, but this feels like a strategic way of showrunning in hindsight. A majority of the characters viewers will be drawn to are introduced or alluded to in the first season and early in the second season, letting us get attached before every single one of them are subjected to cosmic-level horrors that leave the streets bathed in blood. The main protagonist Yuji Itadori is a character that especially surprised me in this regard; Itadori starts off a bit clumsy and goofy, but the later events of the show forcing him to take agency and own what he’s become as a jujutsu sorcerer really struck a chord with me. I also find myself drawn to Toge Inumaki, one of Yuji’s upperclassmen who speaks only in rice ball ingredients to conceal his cursed speech abilities.
Later bits of the show have these really effective moments of quiet that make the viewer feel as vulnerable as the human lives at stake in the series. However, moments of loud, violent chaos are always justified, accompanied by some of the most gorgeous fight scene work I’ve seen in a modern anime (though somehow I’ll still find a way to plug the Ranma 1/2 reboot here). The amount of passion put forth in the animation, voice work, and characterization during these segments always gives this invigorating feeling where I want to root for someone to win that much more, and if they lose? That’s where those moments of quiet seep back in, to make things feel as hopeless and bleak as the antagonists make it out to be.
The passion goes both ways. The following Jujutsu Kaisen has grown this decade has been unlike anything I’ve seen in recent memory, an infectious energy with absolutely electric momentum that keeps you watching until your team’s on their last breath. The exposition can get a little wordy, so it’s important to keep your eyes glued and not miss one bit. In a little while, you’ll find yourself in the midst of the Shibuya incident with the team, questioning just where things will go from here. The Culling Game itself is great so far, it reminds me a lot of the World Martial Arts Tournament from Dragon Ball, though closer to the instances Cell and King Piccolo held. If this part of the Culling Game ends with the same ferocious passion both last season and that arc of Dragon Ball had, we’re in for some great TV this spring.
Jujutsu Kaisen – The Culling Game: Part 1 is now available to stream on Crunchyroll.