Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – 20

「理非－参－」 (Rihi -San-)
“Right and Wrong, Part 3”

¥250,000 for a shirt is insane y’all. That’s around $1700, Gojo wearing an expensive brand or something. He wearing Gucci and Versace. Anyway, jokes aside, this episode was insane. JJK’s quality just seems to go up and up, there’s no going down. Other than that there are 3 more episodes to go – so let’s just say I have a pretty good idea where the story will end. And it’s a big cliffhanger. So if you’re suffering because of the pacing and watching it week by week, I highly suggest you pick up the manga ASAP, because you’re only gonna suffer more. A third season is bound to happen – or a second part to season 2 – or even maybe a trilogy of movies. With the massive popularity JJK has garnered and the goodwill from viewers thanks to a breakneck story that keeps you hooked. MAPPA has been doing a great job at adapting chapters from the manga and turning them into anime. For example, this episode is around one whole chapter or so.

It seems Itadori is about to lose all hope because he considers himself a murderer – but it’s Todo who shows up, as it seems he has a mutual respect for Yuji. Calling him bro – but Japan is weird and this muscle guy uses brother – and everyone is confused. Why can’t he just call him bro if that’s part of his character? I will never understand. I mean if it’s Gege wanting to be unique, Aniki would have sufficed. But I’m preaching to the choir here as it’s neither here nor there.

I guess Aniki has that Yakuza connotation and maybe Gege wanted to move away from that.

Anyway – it’s a weird feeling because as we near the end with only 3 more weeks under our belt – the animation has been relentless. I bet someone at MAPPA is crying over the cells not being completed on time. Someone is sleeping under the desk and basically, the Christmas spirit has all but left the MAPPA office, and only the smell of burnt coffee and human mildew permeates throughout the building. Animators are crying here guys, let’s have some compassion (per my stipulation and 4 years of a B.A. in animation). That’s basically because through this season we have had no filler – and it’s pretty much adapted the manga beat by beat. And that deserves some type of award. Let’s hope the RC AOTY has something to say about that. 😛

So yeah – the animation is great – and all that – this episode just flew by in a flash – a black flash – hehe – aren’t I funny? No seriously like I pressed play and moments later it was done. Was this 23 minutes? It felt like 5. Aside from the little controversy that happened last week, this time around the episode started with a funny gag featuring the trio – only to cut to the reality of the current situation. A close-up of Nobara. She is dead – KO. The blond guy gives Yuji some hope. It’s not Zero percent that she’s dead. But she’s pretty much dead. Like a bullet pierced her skull.

Why give hope if you already planned to put her out of commission – I do agree somewhat with the comments of last week – yet at the same time I do not. I’m in the minority here as I do think the juxtaposition of a happy scene with the immediate cut to reality is brilliant and good cinema. The same goes for last week. The juxtaposition between her happiness with the sadness of her death makes for a good view. But I guess people don’t see it that way. It is sort of like making Yuji grow in a way. To me, it’s more like they wanted to explore the depths of his despair. How far will Yuji go into madness before he finally breaks? We saw some of that in this episode. But so far the manga has failed to address any type of grief.

Let’s see what happens next week – I’m looking forward to it!

Full-length images: 39.

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