Highlights
- Get ready for Maki Zenin’s epic evolution in Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 – a battle that will rival the Crazy 88 scene in Kill Bill.
- The Perfect Preparation arc delves into Maki’s family conflict with the Zenin Clan, revealing hierarchy and dark traditions in the Jujutsu world.
- Maki’s character shines as she faces her past, her limitations, and her clan in a showdown that promises to be a visual masterpiece.
Warning: The following contains minor spoilers for the Perfect Preparation arc of Jujutsu Kaisen, which has not yet been adapted. The anime is available to stream on Crunchyroll.
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 was a lot, and whenever Season 3 finally comes out, there will be no shortage of story moments worth getting excited about in animated form, but here’s just one. Following the Shibuya Incident arc’s end, one of the earliest milestones worth discussing is also one of the most earth-shattering within the context of the lore, and it centers around Maki Zenin.
It’s no surprise why Maki is a beloved character; despite not being able to wield cursed energy or even see cursed spirits, she manages to be one of the coolest, most capable fighters in Jujutsu Kaisen. Her limitations and the way she works around them add much to her character, and the Perfect Preparation arc doesn’t shine a spotlight on these qualities so much as it takes them to their peak.
Maki’s Full Potential, Realized
Jujutsu Kaisen tends to explore its worldbuilding through characters with similar abilities, but who operate at far different levels. For instance, it’s through Noritoshi Kamo that the audience is first introduced to Blood Manipulation, but it’s only after Yuji’s incredible fight with Choso that the viewer sees what these abilities are capable of at an advanced level. The same is true of Maki Zenin and her relative, Toji Fushiguro.
Toji and Maki are both under a heavenly restriction, a pact of sorts forced upon someone at birth, in which their relationship to cursed energy is much different from standard sorcerers. Cases vary, such as Kokichi Muta, who can manipulate cursed energy at great distances at the cost of his severe handicap, but Toji and Maki’s restrictions are of the opposite extreme. They can’t wield cursed energy at all, though even between the two of them, there are key differences.
How Season 3 Will Level Up Maki
Whereas Maki requires special glasses to see cursed spirits, Toji can see them clearly, and his strength is at an even higher level compared to Maki’s already impressive displays of athleticism. The reasons for this will be explained in the Perfect Preparation arc, but the simple explanation is that while Maki is under a heavenly restriction, she’s not completely cut off from cursed energy. In Episode 29, Yuki Tsukumo explains this to Suguru Geto as so:
By completely casting aside cursed energy, [Toji’s] body drew a hard line and actually gave him great resistance to curses. He truly was superhuman.
Consider just how formidable Toji was during his debut in the Hidden Inventory arc – how he managed to defeat the strongest sorcerer of the modern era, Satoru Gojo. Even if he lost against Gojo during the rematch, his strength was of a unique breed that could seldom be replicated, until now that is. Think of Maki Zenin’s forthcoming evolution as the second coming of Toji Fushiguro and that should offer a pretty solid idea of what to expect.
Confronting The Zenin Clan
Maki’s backstory illuminates part of the hierarchy present in this series, as well as the corruption inherent to this world. For all its awesome strength, the Zenin clan represents the archaic and often discriminatory traditions that persist through generations and make victims of women like Maki and her sister Mai. It’s for this very reason that Maki left and, as a consequence, why Mai was forced to meet the family’s expectations of her, creating resentment between them.
The Perfect Preparation arc is not a particularly long one. If anything, it is the prologue to the Culling Game, where the characters prepare themselves for what’s to come, gathering allies and dividing up their forces. However, it’s far from a calm before the storm. Whether she likes it or not, this arc forces Maki to confront the family she has long held disdain for, and which has thought nothing of the power residing in her, much to their misfortune.
Meet the Zenin Clan
Just as Maki is plunged deep into conflict with the family she has avoided, the audience will get to know the family’s hierarchy. Naturally, there’s Ogi Zenin, Maki and Mai’s father. There’s also Naoya Zenin, who possesses the same projection sorcery as his late father, Naobito. Then, the Kukuru Unit, comprised of fighters lacking innate cursed techniques but trained in martial arts. Finally, above the Kukuru Unit, the Hei, comprised of sorcerers semi-grade 1 and up.
A Battle Begging to be Animated
As stated in the beginning, there are a lot of moments to come in Jujutsu Kaisen that fans understandably cannot wait to see done justice in animation, but this is a special case. As a character moment, as an event within the world of the story, and as a sheer display of action spectacle, Maki’s confrontation with her clan could rank up there with the best episodes.
Furthermore, looking at the film influences behind this arc, the anime has the chance to elevate the arc even further beyond. Ever since this arc occurred in the manga, Maki’s assault has been compared to that of the Crazy 88 fight from Kill Bill Volume 1, which presents so many possibilities in animation. This is especially exciting considering that the directors MAPPA has enlisted in the past tend to hone in on such film influences.
A Love Letter to Cinema
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2’s production staff ended up having a lot of familiar names from MAPPA’s previous major project, Chainsaw Man. Director Ryu Nakayama made a conscious effort to pay homage to author Tatsuki Fujimoto’s love of cinema, hence the realistic style and the opening which recreates many popular film shots, including a few from the works of Quentin Tarantino.
Obviously, production details for the new season of Jujutsu Kaisen are slim and there’s no word on who will be directing it, but a director with a similar fondness for film would be stellar. Shota Goshozono, the director of Season 2, would be a welcome return, especially after such incredible work on the previous arc and the Chainsaw Man anime. With that said, given MAPPA’s track record for losing directors, it’s best not to keep our hopes up.
Regardless, if done right, Maki’s upcoming character development has the potential to be to anime what the Crazy 88 sequence from Kill Bill was to film. It’s a gorgeous and gratifying display of vengeance by one of Jujutsu Kaisen‘s fiercest ladies that will hopefully be even more exhilarating to watch than it was to read.
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