Highlights
- Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 faces its final battle with the most hated character, Mahito, in the last three episodes.
- Episode 44 had interesting details, such as changes in the opening and some of the coolest panels in all of Jujutsu Kaisen.
- The female cast of Jujutsu Kaisen is criticized for being underutilized, particularly Miwa, while the male cast, especially Todo and Yuji, continues to impress.
Warning: The following contains spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen Episode 44, “Right and Wrong, Part 3”, now streaming on Prime Video.
With only three more episodes to go, Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 faces the last main battle featuring everyone’s most hated character, Mahito. If the cursed spirit didn’t compile enough merits to be hated during Season 1, surely, after the last couple of weeks, the damage is now irreversible. Luckily, Todo’s unique character and superb cursed technique came to save the day when Yuji, as expected, was at his lowest.
Episode 44 had a great number of interesting details. For instance, some changes were made to the opening; a big hole in the map referring to Sukuna’s aftermath. The cast was now missing, since all of them were defeated or are dead. The ending was removed to prolong the fight while the music and credits played. Overall, it was a good episode but not without its fair share of issues.
Not The Usual Intro
The first five minutes of the episode had it all. Starting with a slow-motion shot of Nobara’s death, quickly cutting to one of the cutest scenes in all of Jujutsu Kaisen. The cheerful shirt story almost makes you forget what just happened, and they were aware. From the panel with the three of them surrounded by warm colors to Nobara’s body, enveloped in a cold color palette. The now famous shot from inside a hole, although this time the hole was in Nobara’s face.
This was only the beginning of their attempt to play with the spectator’s feelings. Yuji was ready to give up, to roll up and die. It wasn’t just Nobara. Nanami and the hundreds of people that died at his own hands. That’s why it was the perfect time for Mahito to connect his first black flash while he kept trying to demoralize him even more with a discourse on what they fight for.
“You are me, Itadori Yuji.” Mahito’s logic makes Yuji and everyone doubt for a moment. One indeed kills without a second thought while the other saves people without a second thought. It is also true that none of them keep a kill count on the other species. Yuji was ready to die, Mahito was ready to kill him and eventually forget him. That’s when Todo showed up to save the day.
Keeping A Promise
Starting on such a high note inevitably leads to some drops later in the episode. While most episodes and series move on an upward trend, episode 44 showed a style that has become popular in recent times, starting high and ending high, placing the less spectacular moments in the in-between. The story needed to slow down at some point, and it did for two reasons.
The first one was to get Yuji back on his feet. If Mahito’s speech served to create despair and confusion, Todo’s pumped out Yuji to the fullest, while being rather nihilist. In the end, it was about accepting what it means to become a jujutsu sorcerer and carrying on the will of the fallen. For Yuji, it obviously felt close to home. He just heard Nanami tell him to “take it from here,” as Nobara asked him to share her feelings and outlook on life.
This was also a chance for the animators of the episode to include some of the many amazing panels contained in this episode. Beautiful designs all over the place, episode 44 is arguably the best in that department, from beginning to end. The multiple shots of Nanami and Nobara, or Mahito’s black flash even before, are truly magnificent. However, it can’t all be great.
How To Waste A Great Character
Gege has been facing a lot of criticism in regard to the female cast of Jujutsu Kaisen. The main reason is that it started off being one of the best in all shōnen, but kept fading away until reaching a critical point in the manga. One of the characters that suffered this phenom the most was Miwa, and her downfall started with the Shibuya Incident Arc. For a sorcerer with such unlimited potential, she was constantly held back.
Her potential wasn’t just about sheer power in the Jujutsu Kaisen universe, but a great chance for spectacular fights that always help in any combat-based shōnen. This time, she was directly cut out of the fight alongside all the other Kyoto students besides Todo, and even Utahime, another great example of misusing the female cast. The premise for this was not great either.
Mechamaru made sure they were all away from Shibuya on that day. The reasoning was that they were weak and in need of protection. It gets even worse with Miwa, because he loved her and wanted to protect her at all costs, even against her wishes. While they are on a train to Tokyo, it’s just too late to make an impact. Even at this point of the story, there is no one left from this female cast who wanted to be iconic other than Yuki Tsukumo, who also, for some reason, wasn’t in Shibuya from the beginning.
The Best Duo
At least since the female cast went south, the male cast has kept getting better and better. And among all of them, there is no better duo than the brothers from a different mother, Todo and Yuji. Early on in the season, it was Yuji’s great chemistry with Megumi that caught everyone’s attention. But like last season, and also at the end of a decisive fight, the real duo of jujutsu sorcerers is the black flash brothers.
Todo’s technique makes for the best hand-to-hand combat in recent times but also leaves some room for mistakes. During the time that Mahito tries to isolate him and take him out, he somehow claps while holding Mahito’s blade, or in other words, he claps without his hands. This mistake has been received rather well by the community as there is one interpretation which leads to never ending memes.
Yet what was the most impressive about this episode wasn’t their amazing chemistry or combos using Todo’s cursed technique. It was the great design for their respective black flash hits, especially Todo’s. They went overboard to create an amazing scene for his first black flash, even though it was completely useless since he couldn’t hurt Mahito’s soul. Another scene added to the list of spectacular moments in Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 that will look even better in the Blu-ray version without the ghosting, and the perfect way to close the episode and move the battle outside, where it will take it up another notch next week.