Movie Review: The Punisher (1989)

The Punisher (1989)

So in my bid to attempt to review all of Marvel's older comic-book movies, there was a series that kind of fell through the cracks. Before the Spider-Man and X-Men series, before the Blade trilogy, before Daredevil or Ghost Rider or Fantastic Four or Iron Man, there was... The Punisher, in 1989, starring one of the symbols of that era's action movies, Dolph Lundgren. And it's so interesting to realize that this is Marvel's first superhero movie. Sure, cartoons and low-budget TV shows have been made about other Marvel properties... but ol' Frank Castle is the very first Marvel comics superhero to grace the silver screen.

(It's also the same year that Tim Burton's Batman hit the theaters, making it very interesting that the other side of the coin went for a completely different direction with their superhero offering).

And... and I think one needs to really keep in mind when you watch this movie. It's less a movie that tries to tell Frank Castle's origin story, or an iconic arc in the comic books, or even to properly give a 'modernized' adaptation of the Punisher... it's just taking a comic-book IP and applying it to an action movie. And for better or for worse, the Punisher was one of the least 'superhero' of all the superheroes. He doesn't have spider powers or comes from space or has a deal with the devil or uses wacky gadgets or shoots laser beams out of his eyes or any of those stuff. Take away his skin-tight skull bodysuit (and take that away, they did) and the Punisher is just a psychotic, vengeance-driven man who's burned by the world and is trying to drive 'punishment' to the gangsters and criminals and the scum of the Earth that evade the law. 

And... and it's so interesting to note that so much of Frank Castle's comic-bookiness is glossed over and told to us briefly in the news reports leading up to the cold open, and a brief flashback and a very well-scripted monologue that Frank (buck-ass nude for some reason) has before the whole gangster storyline begins. There is some bit of the comic-book character that seeps through with Frank's interactions with children recalling his own, but it's very superficial. They even changed the origin story (I had to look up if the change originated from the comics) from being a Vietnam war veteran to an undercover cop whose family was killed in a car bomb meant for him. 

And I think it is intentional. The movie doesn't really go out of its way to identify any of these guys as superheroes, and the 'Punisher' is a moniker that actually feels like a nickname instead of a superhero pseudonym. The entire plot of the movie comes off like a regular action movie between several somewhat-colourful factions -- the mafia boss Franco and the incoming yakuza led by Lady Tanaka. Both have stereotypes associated with the portrayals of their respective criminal gangs in full display, but Tanaka gets to be a bit worse since she goes around kidnapping the children of these other mafia bosses, leading Punisher to go through his mid-movie character development where he realizes that his 'punishing' has led to some innocents getting caught in the crossfire, leading to him going on the reactive crusade to save the mafia kids from the yakuza. 

While all of this is going on, we've got a B-plot of Detective Jake Berkowitz, who was Frank's old partner, who goes around trying to solve the crimes and bring Frank back. Berkowitz works with a plucky new sidekick, but while I do praise the acting of Louis Gossett Jr, the entire subplot was kind of there just to give exposition to Frank's backstory more than anything; and to give the police a role in the movie. The movie kind of grinds into a halt any time the police are arguing about the Punisher and Frank Castle and whether he even exists -- which is a huge shame since this subplot really should be about Berkowitz either realizing that there are some criminals beyond the scope of the law (giving a morose justification to why the Punisher needs to exist) or something along those lines. 

Wrapping up the cast (aside from the annoying kids and wacky sub-boss enemies) is 'Shakes', probably the movie's most 'comic-book' character in that he's basically one of those sidekicks that has a single personality trait and says it over and over again. In Shakes' case, he's a wacky hobo that yells a lot of Shakespeare, and it really does get a bit old. 

And... the movie is fine. The plot is straightforward and is more of a vessel to deliver us some action as the Punisher guts and murders his way through the criminals. There's, of course, some bizarre sequences which I think has been meme'd around a lot, like how the Punisher, in this incarnation, inexplicably takes a page out of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and hides in the sewers, driving around in his pimped-out motorbike through the sewers as the reason why he's able to avoid the police for so long. There's the repeated scenes of the Punisher meditating, buck-ass nude, as he mentally recites the otherwise pretty cool comic-book narration. There's the scene where he uses a remote control to give Shakes a bottle was also rather bizarre. 

But I felt like the Punisher was more of a reactionary character for a good chunk of the movie, just ducking in and out of conflicts done by the Franco/Tanaka war until children gets kidnapped, Shakes yells at him a bit, and Frank Castle finally decides to storm the bad guys' base to save the kids, if nothing else. It's simple, and it gets a bit cheesy at times with the action scenes, but there was some reasonable effort put into this even if it does feel like they're perhaps trying a bit too hard to make this a 'serious' movie. 

The climax is, I think, pretty all right. There wasn't too much buildup into it and the child actor that plays Franco's child isn't the most compelling one, but after teaming up with Franco to fight against Lady Tanaka and wipe out her forces, Franco ends up pulling his gun on the Punisher and the two of them fight until Punisher has to kill Franco in front of his own kid... and gets the kid to hold the gun towards his head in a cool -- if utterly psychotic -- move. 

Ultimately, I did enjoy this movie for what it was... a 80's action movie with Dolph Lundgren in it, working off as best as it could with a 'we're doing an adaptation but not really but kinda'. It's hardly essential watching, but I did enjoy the one and a half hours I spent watching it. 

Jujutsu Kaisen S01E18-20 Review

A couple more episodes of Jujutsu Kaisen! These ones are pretty action-packed, so I'm hopefully going to be a bit faster in making these.  

Episode 18:

• The first part of this episode focuses on Megumi fighting against Noritoshi. I know it's been a couple of years since I've read this manga, but man, I really have very little memory of Noritoshi. 
• It is interesting that Noritoshi initially seems to be a cursed weapon wielder like Mai, Maki and Kasumi, albeit one with supernatural Bullseye-style ricocheting arrows, which in Megumi's words 'ignore the laws of physics'. 
• There is also some talk about inherited techniques from the Big Three Sorcerer Families, with Megumi's Ten Shadows Technique being something from the Zen'in family. Meanwhile, Noritoshi inherited blood manipulation techniques. 
• It's... it's honestly something that I felt wasn't particularly developed, at least not in these earlier stories? I don't remember if we get more expansion on the big sorcerer clans and the inherited jujutsu skills. 
• We get a fun little action scene as Noritoshi overpowers and breaks Megumi's tonfas, and turns out that Noritoshi can also manipulate his own blood. He thinks he's doing Gear Second, but Megumi just compares that ability to doping. Ha!
• There's a hilarious scene of Kasumi just singing pathetically to herself about her lost sword and how useless she is. I really like Kasumi. 
• To add insult to injury, Toge calls her with Mechamaru's phone and orders her to sleep. Is this the first proper usage of Toge's ability after so many characters have foreshadowed that the kooky guy who keeps saying 'bonito flakes' is actually a badass?
• We then cut away to a flashback as Principal Gakuganji considers a powerful cursed spirit that he assigned to the bloodthirsty Noritoshi, some kind of hideous, tentacled thing with humanoid features. It really does fit with the Kyoto faculty being pretty dead-set on killing Yuji. It seems like Toge is about to encounter this thing, with the creature's head peering out of the back of a tree... and then it's revealed that it's already been sliced in half and is being held by Hanami. Oh shit!
• And I actually really like this. One thing that does make Jujutsu Kaisen feel a bit frenetic is how quickly Yuji seems to continue to encounter the high-level enemies, the equivalents to the Akatsuki or Espada or Shichibukai. And when he's about to play around in a tournament competition, it's interrupted immediaetly by Hanami arriving to kill everyone. At least Orochimaru had the decency to wait until Naruto beat Gaara in that one tournament, and Piccolo actually entered the tournament!
• Mahito is also there to hang around... with a random new character, Juzo, who literally appears out of nowhere and keeps ranting about his desire to turn Gojo Satoru into a coat rack. I really did feel like they could've at least added a little explanation that Juzo is not supposed to be someone the audience is supposed to recognize, considering the fast pacing and whatnot. 
• We then get Noritoshi's backstory, about how he was born as a bastard son to a mistress, but ended up earning the respect and aduration of everyone because he inherited Blood Manipulation. All of this is pretty... all right, I guess? I really didn't quite 'get' Noritoshi as a quasi-sympathetic antagonist the way that Mai and Mechamaru were posed to be. Maybe because Noritoshi himself just acts so smug? Eh. 
• Megumi, meanwhile, doesn't give two shits about the whole Sorcerer Family or inherited curse techniques or whatever. Megumi doesn't care about who's right or wrong, he just wants to follow his conscience to save others. "If we can't agree to that, then we can only agree to curse each other."
• He really keeps trying to bring his hands together, huh? Nice foreshadowing. 
• I do think Megumi himself not being as invested in the conflict the way that Panda and Maki were (with the similar parallels between all three pairings) really does help for me to also not be invested in Noritoshi's characterization. 
• We get a fun sequence of Megumi summoning several spirits in quick succession. A toad distracts Noritoshi from behind, Max Elephant gets summoned and creates a giant geyser of water (animated like water from a traditional painting, which is nice!) and then my boy Nue slams in and zaps the shit out of Noritoshi.
• Noritoshi does a cool thing where he lobs a little hospital blood pack, which explodes into wires that wrap up Nue like a bird in a trap. 
• And then as Megumi and Noritoshi are about to clash again, a gigantic wooden forest appears in the distance!
• A very cool sequence is the monitoring room and all the talismans exploding in red flame -- and the fact that we actually did spend some time about the exposition of the function of these monitoring talismans does help to give this some oomph.
• There's also mention of Tengen even this early on, which is some fun foreshadowing. 
• Toge is running away from Hanami and the giant tree, and I do find it rather hilarious that he has to spend his voice magic to tell Megumi and Noritoshi to run away from the giant demon tree crashing down on them. 
• I also love that Gojo actually drew Jogo and Hanami in scribble form, but even more hilarious is that Megumi actually recognizes Hanami from it. 
• The villains summon a giant forcefield that seems to block out the teachers... but as Gojo Satoru talks about how powerful it is, turns out that the barrier has a condition -- it can keep Gojo out but allow others to go in. Gakuganji and Utahime enter the barrier to rescue the students. 
• Gakuganji encounters Juzo, who is creepily ranting about wanting to turn Gojo into a coat hanger, or to cut out the woman. Gakuganji stays behind to fight Juzo... and in one of the more unexpected sequences, the old, very-traditional looking geezer... pulls out a goddamn heavy metal guitar, and is ready to rock! This single high-contrast choice of design is really what made Gakuganji turn from a generic anime old man into a far more memorable design. 
• We get a confrontation between Megumi, Toge and Noritoshi against Hanami, and... it is kind of interesting that throughout this initial sequence Hanami kind of... lets them talk a bit? Before smashing the phone and chasing them around? There's the implication in the next episode how Hanami is trying to learn to enjoy a battle, so is this pause less 'battle shonen characters doing battle shonen tropes', and more about Hanami trying to learn something?
• Hanami also speaks in his (her?) upside-down speech, but since he's doing so telepathically the humans can understand her meaning, while still hearing the upside-down speech as the audible words, I think? 
• And then Hanami gives the badass, lunatic speech about time, the planet, healing...  and asks the sorcerers to 'die and become sages for the earth!'

Episode 19:

• The first part of this episode is a very frantic chase as Hanami pursues the three students, which I really do like for the relatively snappy animation in contrast to the scene's (lack of) importance. 
• Toge keeps using his speech magic to stall Hanami momentarily, Noritoshi uses (very well-animated) blood spears to take some cheap shots, Megumi summons Nue (always welcome to see) and we get some pretty fun wooden bombs and spikes from Hanami. None of these action scenes are particularly necessary to feel this explosively speedy -- especially since the actual proper fights happen later on in this episode -- but good on the animation team for doing it anyway.
• However, just as it seems like the boys found out that Hanami's weak points are the trees that grow out of what passes for eye sockets for Hanami, Toge's throat gives out and he coughs up blood. I'm sure the manga explains this a bit better, but I don't think it's too much of a 'wah wah it's not explained' for us to get that the guy with the very powerful power-word abilities has some cooldown or backlash from using his techniques too much. 
• And then Hanami just rampages, taking down Noritoshi (it looked painful!) and forcing Megumi to jump around and try and save the other students. Toge does one last blast away to knock Hanami away, though it still doesn't beat the insanely tough tree-man. 
• And then Maki comes to fight alongside Megumi and this whole sequence is actually pretty fucking cool. I know Black Flash happens later on in this episode, but I actually found Megumi and Maki summoning cursed weapons out of their shadows, tossing and swapping their weapons sa they slash and hack and charge Hanami to look so insanely fun. 
• Oh, and the fused version of Megumi's Cursed Dog spirit, with the one killed by the Sukuna-finger Special Grade pooling and inheriting its abilities to the next shikigami, is pretty neat! It makes its debut here. 
• I also kinda wished that we spent just a bit more time describing why the Playful Cloud cursed tool is so badass and whatnot, and this is when I kinda hoped that instead of a 'Juju Stroll' gag we have a bit more of an explanation in the post-credits scene, but it's a small complaint. 
• However, after that pretty cool sequence where they seem to break Hanami's Zelda boss weak point, Megumi gets incapacitated by a parasitic energy-sucking bud, and poor Maki gets skewered with a wooden spear. Hanami gives a proclamation about how humans always leave themselves open whenever an ally is injured. 
• And then BOOM Yuji and Todo Aoi show up in an explosive, manly dynamic entry, saving Maki. 
• Momo also shows up to save Toge and Noritoshi on her broom, and Panda takes Megumi and Maki away with what he calls "PANDASH", which made me giggle. 
• However, Todo is still treating the whole thing as a bit of a training exercise. He tells Yuji to use the 'kokusei', or Black Flash, which the audience and Hanami initially have no idea what it's all about. 
• Yuji gets pissed off when he realizes that Hanami is connected to Mahito, and his anger at what happened to Junpei, as well as Megumi, causes him to fail in doing Black Flash. 
• Todo smacks Yuji over the head and tells him to calm down and focus, pretty expected anime-training stuff... but I do like that Hanami is baffled at what he thinks is infighting. 
• We get a description of 'Black Flash', which is a distortion in space created when cursed energy is applied to a physical strike within a trillionth of a second, and Todo talks up about Black Flash and those who has experienced it to be like heaven and earth. I guess Yuji got his 'kamehameha' special technique at last.
• I like Todo's later description about how Yuji has been doing the equivalent of 'cooking without ever tasting the ingredients', and now that he's realized what it means to use Black Flash, it's going to change how he fights. 
• And Yuji uses Black Flash, and... I think the anime wins out in the depiction of this by the sheer surprising speed and the flashing frames on the screen. The manga's thick inks, I remembered, was pretty distinctive too. 
• Yuji and Todo prepare to smack Hanami down... at which point Hanami takes off the cloth covering his left torso and reveals his left arm, which is differently coloured and looks ominous. 
• And then we get a whole ton of dizzying action scenes, which I felt looked cool. Still like the Maki/Megumi sequence better, but it's still really fun to see all the whip-like tentacle vines lash around while the two humans run around and jump on it, running up to attack Hanami's central core...
• ...at which points the roots and branches that they've been using as a boss fight arena just disappears, and I do like that both humans realize they've fucked up, underestimating Hanami's skill. He's not manipulating existing plants, but conjuring it from his own cursed energy. 
• We then get the pretty cool 'my friend!' sequence as they kick away from each other to avoid the giant stabbing wooden pillar that Hanami shoots down. 
• And at this point Hanami finally gets some characterization. He recalls a conversation with Mahito, who has been encouraging Hanami to tap into his inner desires as a curse and to actually let himself run amuck and enjoy himself. And as Hanami trades blows with the humans, he thinks to himself how he's actually enjoying this fight. The episode's cliffhanger is Todo about to finally show off his own cursed technique, separate from his monster strength...

Episode 20:

• We start off with a nice little flashback for Todo, who, as you could probably infer from all the depictions of him... he doesn't really have a lot of friends. We get to see his mentor (whose name I don't think I've encountered in the manga? I am out way behind) which leads to the whole 'what kind of woman is your type' credo he keeps saying. 
• And Todo finally uses his powers, "Boogie Woogie"... which we saw a bit back when he was stopping his classmates from interfering with his fight against Yuji. 
• And... a good chunk of this fight involves Todo clapping and changing locations with Yuji and Hanami, frustrating the Curse. I think I've rambled on a fair bit in the previous episodes about action scenes so I won't really do a whole ton here, though obviously as with any action scenes with rapid-fire teleportation, this works a lot better in animated format. Todo's constant clapping and funky noises also makes Hanami's frustration come off a lot more clearly.
• I have been praising a lot of the animation in the Jujutsu Kaisen anime, but there is a somewhat noticeable drop in the movement around the middle portion of the Boogie Woogie fight? The original activation of the techniques is nice, and the end of the battle is nice, but there was a point where it looks... it doesn't look bad, just worse than the usual quality of this series' action scenes. 
• We get a couple of cool sequences, most interestingly is a flashback to Nanami noting that even for someone like him, using Black Flash four times in a row relied on luck... and then Yuji just unleashing Black Flash four times in a row. 
• Admittedly, I've always found this sequence to be a bit of a shrug both in the anime and the manga. The music and the voice acting is cool, of course, but since we just learned about Black Flash last episode it really feels kind of... not as impressive that he's doing it four times compared to him unleashing it once? I dunno. 
• I honestly found Todo bamboozling Hanami by lying and making fake claps that causes him to get surprised when teleportation doesn't happen to be much more impressive. I do really like this -- it's something not a lot of manga tend to do where it's the villain that's trying to figure out the hero's abilities and getting befuddled by it. It also makes complete sense, by the way, that not all claps lead to teleportation.
• I also really like the brief rundown of Hanami's abilities (almost like a J-RPG boss!) where Todo gets tactical and thinks of all the abilities that Hanami has displayed and how he, muscle-brained Todo Aoi, would be able to counter them. This leads to the badass split-second choice to deactivate a Cursed Energy barrier after realizing that the cursed buds Hanami shoots had drained Megumi's energy. 
  
• And finally, Playful Cloud comes back in as Todo teleports Yuji with the discarded weapon, whacking Hanami right in the face. A nice little way to get Maki and Megumi (via his intel) to contribute to Hanami's ultimate defeat. 
• And then... Gojo Satoru arrives onto the battlefield. 
• We check in with the other fights, including Utahime facing off against another randomly-introduced curse-user, Shigemo Haruta, a half-naked ponytail man with baggy clothes. He's holding a sword with a hand for a handle. Nobara and Mai show up and we're about to seemingly get a three-way beatdown of Haruta... but then the barrier disappears and he bugs off. 
• We get to briefly see the POV from Gojo Satoru's eyes, as he takes note of Yuji's growth and Todo's mentoring... before zooming down to the Gakuganji/Juzo fight and instantly takes out Juzo with a single motion. This happens so insanely quickly that I really did get the feel that if Gakuganji didn't blurt out "don't kill him!" Gojo would've squished the entire curse user into a ball or something. Instead, only his limbs got fucked up. 
• And then Gojo combines his two Cursed Techniques -- Blue and Red -- into Hollow Technique: Purple. The animation for this looks cool and has been parodied endlessly. But it is still pretty cool and there's no denying just how awesome it looks at a gigantic energy blast of purple wave just slices the terrain. 
• And... well, Hanami is taken care of. He's not dead, and Todo lampshades that they can't confirm his death or his body... but with all of the villains seemingly taken care of, we flash away to Mahito, having killed two guards and having stolen Sukuna's fingers and a bunch of other cursed items. 

Ultimately, I do really like this. This whole Tokyo/Kyoto Goodwill Event really was the highlight of the first season for me! I do think that the hectic pacing of Jujutsu Kaisen really could've worked with either less characters or more time for the secondary characters... or at least to develop the bond between Yuji, Megumi and the other Tokyo students... but as a display of these characters and their backstories and the world-building, I did think that this is fun. It's a nice way to show off the power of the 'big good' characters like Gojo Satoru against the prominent villains while still keeping them on the table -- though I honestly do still think that Hanami probably should've been taken out here. We'll see! We've got three or four episodes left in this season, most of it relating to the Death Painting arc, and then we're done with the first season! 

Reviewing Fan-Pokemon: Pokemon Infinite Fusion, Part 5

I do think Infinite Fusion is such a great thing for me to do on my off-time and save as a 'backup' post since it really is just me talking about something I know pretty damn well -- Pokemon -- and just kind of ramble on without not much structure. 

This one is actually a collection of other "oh, this is cool, I want to talk about it" fusions that I am collecting while I'm working on other articles. The next one'll be our first laser-focused one on Porygon, and I think I'll do a Mimikyu one after that. But hey, for now, enjoy the results of random ecclectic shuffling! 

Again, copy-pasted from the previous parts: I did a more in-depth explanation of the fusion process in the first review. Basically, the Infinite Fusion calculator has two different combinations, with one Pokemon as the body, and the other Pokemon as the head + colours, and vice-versa. But the most interesting ones are the crowdsourced custom sprites for the fusions, the bulk of which is what we'll be talking about here!

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And we're starting off with two very cool ones! Both Tentacruel/Victreebel fusions here are so fucking weird! I've always considered the two of them to rank very highly among 'favourite Pokemon from the original 151'. The blue one on the left has more Victreebel than Tentacruel, having the giant pitcher body as a bell. I love that you can see the upside-down fangs as an actual lower jaw, though, now that the leaf that covers the pitcher is replaced with Tentacruel's entire jellyfish 'hat', complete with eyes. There are some red tentacles going on, but the one most distinctive feature has to be the transplantation of Tentacruel's two giant fangs into horns that jut out through the two faux-eye orbs. I'm not sure how this biologically even makes sense, but it looks fucking cool. 

The one on the left is a bit more subdued, but only in comparison. We put Victreebel's pitcher-mouth on top of Tentacruel's jellyfish head, and put Victreebel's colour scheme onto Tentacruel. It's cool! Yellow demon jellyfishes look as cool as blueones! But I like that they turned two of Tentacruel's tentacles into leaf-tipped vines (almost like a squid's capture tentacles), but also randomly added two more vines on either side of the 'cap' which end up, from a distance, looking like an almost humanoid silhouette. 

Mew/Paras here just looks so... wacky. I'm not sure what I like the most about this. Is it Paras's monstrous bug-mouth under Mew's adorable anime eyes? Look at those angry eyebrows. Is it the fact that Mewras here still maintains Paras's cicada nymph body, but just with a tail that extends below it? Is it the shade of purple they use for Paras's mushrooms? The end result even looks like a weird floating psychic dream-scorpion, which I thought was a nice little side-effect of combining the two designs. 

Slugma/Monferno is, uh... an interesting one. I'm slightly uncomfortable with how he looks, but I really like the end result. Slugma's big bug-out slug eyes on a monkey body is cute enough, but they went to some nice effort imagining a monkey with goopy magma dripping off his body. I like that the tail's expanded into a plume of smoke as well. 

Not all fusions have to be super-duper innovative. Darkrai/Horsea is pretty cute, just a nice transplantation of Darkrai's colours onto Horsea. The colours work, and we get enough little details moved here like Darkrai's wispy cloud hair and his ring of red spikes which kind of work on Horsea as a coral necklace or something. 

Magneton/Latios here just looks cool. Real Pokemon tend to really shy away from straight-up 'robot animals', with the exception of recent Paradox Pokemon, but I really like the fusion here. There's not much of Magneton's design other than the colours and the red/blue horn-tips, to be honest, but the spriter used Magneton as an excuse to give Latios some neat-looking electromagnetic gauntlets and neon-blue and neon-yellow lights. Latios already has a somewhat jet-esque design in the first place, and giving him some additional robotic aspects does fit him pretty well!

Cofagrigus/Ivysaur here is pretty neat! Most of Ivysaur's proper body is patterned after the pharaoh coffin that Cofagrigus's main body is made up of, but the head is wrapped up in mummy bandages with creepy glowing ghost eyes beneath. Instead of a vibrant flower, Ivygrigus here has a dead-looking gray flower that looks like it's transported from the underworld or something. There's a bit more of an artistic liberty taken with this fusion, but I mean that in all the best ways possible. 

I don't even know what's going on with Unown/Omanyte here, or if this is even a reference to something -- but I know it looks creepy and I like it. It reminds me of the Las Plagas parasites from Resident Evil 4. 

The other Raticate/Doduo fusion is just a Doduo with Raticate heads plopped on to it. This one is much more cursed-looking, though. We still have two Doduo heads, but instead of sprouting from the same neck, one head replaces the rat face entirely, and the other sprouts from the tail. It's not a groundbreaking design, but the more I look at Raticaduo here the more I am disturbed. 

I don't know why I like this Scizor/Magnemite fusion so much. He looks like an enemy you'd fight in a MegaMan level or, like, a generic 'alien ship minion' in an episode of a modern cartoon. It's single eye just looks so pissed, and I like that Scizor's claws are replacing Magnemite's magnets. 

Another one that looks like a video game enemy is Beldum/Pawniard here, who looks like a fucking ghoul in a fantasy-golem themed game. Pawniard's body gets made a bit stockier and the arms made a bit longer, but it's Beldum's singular eye transplanted in place of Pawniard's regular anime head that completes the look. I also like that the 'spikes' that tend to be Beldum's "afterburners" end up reinterpreted into spiky feet. 

Spinarak/Nidorino is just here as another rather pleasant fusion. Nidorino's body design is already a weird mixture of reptiles and mammals, but you just slap on a bug head on it and the end result just looks so freaking weird. I like it. 

Absol/Pinsir here is kind of a more 'obvious' fusion, but I do like how the fur on Absol ends up covering chunks of the mainly still Pinsir-based body. It's like the creepy fuzz on a moth or something. The head's a pretty neat amalgamation of both faces, but my favourite has to be the very DMC-looking set of blood-tipped horns. 

Kingdra/Mamoswine looks like such a goober! Not all fusions have to look super-cool or super-cute or super-creepy. I love the goofy ones too, and Kingswine here has such a fun head, with the seahorse head being translated as the nose and there being a whale jaw. I guess whales are the elephants of the ocean? Interestingly, neither Kingdra nor Mamoswine has got a visible long jaw!

I've always thought that Corsola was ripe for a regional variant, with the sheer amount of undersea corals. We did get one in Galar with an interesting twist of dead coral, but Corsola/Shuckle here works amazingly well. The pink one on the left is a very pleasant one, since Shuckle is already a design that brings to mind like, pipefish or eels or worms. So combining both designs and making it feel like this Corsockle fused design is like, a colony of eels living within a bunch of pink corals under the sea is just pleasant.

The reverse version on the right (Shucksola, I guess) is a bit more depressing, with the implication that the Shuckle has parasitized the Corsola and has killed it with the x-eyes. The Shuckle seems happy, though. I like the red-and-yellow colours on the coral horns. 

I truthfully started to write a paragraph about Reuniclus/Ninjask here like, two or three times, but I kept stopping because I didn't know where to start. It just looks cool, okay? This just feels like some kind of monstrous, truly alien bugs instead of just "make a spider or a mantis but with more joints". 

Solosis/Mamoswine is an interesting one. It's dripping slimy cytoplasm, and the implication is that almost the entirety of the mammoth body is made out of Solosis matter. But what made me realyl like it is the black eyes of Solosis stretched out to fit Mamoswine's regular eyes. 

Mawile/Volcarona here looks pretty insane! I'm not sure with almost elmininating the bug legs (there are almost stubs on the furry thorax) and giving the wings almost no detail, but I do really like the creativity in translating Mawile's giant set of chompers into a bug abdomen that splits apart. 

Can we just appreciate how cursed Genesect/Lickilicky is? Putting Lickilicky's goofy-ass head on Genesect's body is already wacky enough, but Lickilicky's mouth doesn't survive the fusion. His tongue does, though, and it extends out of Genesect's giant sci-fi bug backpack cannon for some reason. Look at it. Look at how nasty this thing looks. Can you imagine? You're approached by this giant pink bug-creature with baby eyes and no mouth. It's already mean-looking, but then the Transformer cannon on its back starts to lock into place and power up. You think it's going to shoot bullets, or flames, or lightning, or plasma, or something... and then a big gross tongue comes out to lick you.

Hypno/Magikarp here is a bit cursed, and I'm not the biggest fan of that horrifying face, but I love the little creativity of having Magikarp's whiskers be the strings to Hypno's hypnotism pendulums. 

I also just really like Weepinbell/Venonat here. Again, this feels a lot like it's going to be an enemy in like a Metroid game or some other platformer, but I like how easy it was to make Weepinbell's design a bit creepier by giving it Venonat's compound eyes, massive fangs and the dark purple colours. The fuzz around Weepinbell's main body also gives the impression of a particularly aggressive carnivorous plant monster. 

I do find this kinda interesting. Donphan/Spiritomb here interprets Donphan's body as the entire 'Odd Keystone', with the nose being the hole that the Spiritomb entity pours out of. I also assume that the Donphan body is like, a golem? Did the Spiritomb possess a Donphan, or did it happen that the Keystone is carved in the shape of a Donphan? Like the green cracks of fel energy that are visibly seeping out of Donphan's body as well. 

A lot of the Doublade fusions just have the base Pokemon dual-wield the two swords, which is pretty disappointing. That's not a fusion, that's equipping a friend! Krabby/Doublade here got the assignment, though. Krabby's two claws have been replaced with more sword-y ones, he's now only got the single eyeball of a Doublade unit, and the two head-horns taper off into the sword tassels. The end result and the combination of colours are all pretty fetching too!

This is Moltres/Dugtrio. Is it particularly creative? Not really. Does it even make sense that Articuno and Zapdos show up? Eh. But the sprite is cute as hell and I love it and I knew I needed to include it here. 

Most of the Dugtrio fusions that have Dugtrio as the basis have three of the same heads popping out of the ground. But Hitmonlee/Dugtrio go for a fun one by having three Hitmonlee legs stretch out of the ground. 

Right, Tangela also deserves an article of its own. This is Tangela/Nidorina, and I love that the end result looks less like a fusion of the two, but more of a Tangela that's reconstructed its vines to form the shape that approximates a Nidorina. Love that there's only one eye for no real reason. 

Octillery/Forretress just makes it into an organic version of those spider-tanks that show up a lot in sci-fi. I like that! I like that Octillery's tentacles have merged with the chunks of Forretress's armour. I actually do think that this is honestly something taht they could do in the future as a potential Octillery evolution -- you go from a revolver to tank to a walking sci-fi tank.

Quagsire/Hypno here is just kind of disturbing. I'm not sure what unsettles me more. The giant pendulum coin that's growing out of his head, that utterly creepy combination of Quagsire's simple facial features and Hypno's tengu nose, Hypno's now weirdly clown/fish-fin shaped neckpiece, or the random eyeball on his hand. 

Paras/Yanmega is a pretty cool fusion. I love the colour of Paras's mushrooms being translated onto the texture of Yanmega's wings. I also like how Paras's two large, stabby forelimbs are also transplanted onto Yanmega, making him look even more predatory. But the one thing that makes this design for me is giving a happy Paras expression. He looks just so pleased to exist and hang out. 

One Piece 1114 Review: The First Pirate

One Piece, Chapter 1114: The Wings of Icarus

This review came in a fair bit late, and... I'm just really busy, so there's not been much time for writing. I do have some older-written stuff that's been popping up here and there -- Jujutsu Kaisen season 1 anime reviews and some Pokemon content -- but things are going to be busy for the foreseeable future. 

______________________________________

But we have One Piece!

And this chapter, if we summarize is, is honestly very simple. Vegapunk talks about a bunch of stuff in the background in his long-winded way. It's essentially a lot of building up hype to follow up on the whole 'the world will sink' stuff, with some notes about how he knew that the sea levels are going to rise... before finally dropping the big bombshell that he's going to talk about the Void Century and Joy Boy, the First Pirate.

But I love it. This is where world-building for 1114 chapters and twenty-five years or whatever pays off, becuase there's such a huge stable of random locations and characters that Oda draws from to show the different reactions to specific aspects of Vegapunk's message. 

We start off in Marine HQ, with a whole lot of Marines being in chaos, and a shot of Akainu in a rather rare moment of simmering pissed-off-ness instead of his usual boiling temper. And then we cut to Mock Town, Jaya, where just like how they reacted to Luffy or the monkey bros, the citizens of Mock Town are just laughing and mocking Vegapunk's message because they are a town with no imagination. We then cut to Water Seven, where the fandom has pointed out as a bit of a foreshadowing for the whole 'sinking world' thing, and we get to see Paulie getting confused because while Water Seven knows all about being flooded, it's not quite the same as the world sinking. 

And then we cut to perhaps everyone's favourite part of this chapter, Doflamingo and Magellan! Doflamingo is just laughing and mocking everyone, and Magellan notes how the sea level rising by just one meter had wreaked some havoc in some cells in Impel Down. Doflamingo notes how a mere five meters would've wiped out so many other cities in the world, before dropping the bombshell about how they should all move to "much higher ground", obviously a nod to how Marie Geoise, home of the Celestial Dragons, is located atop the giant mountain expanse of the Red Line. 

We get a very brief scene to another underwater location, the Ryugu Kingdom of Fishman Island, and everyone's just confused... 

Before we jump back to Egghead. The Marines are still kind of emboldened, yelling about how Vegapunk is lying and shit, but we get shots of the expressions of the Gorosei and I particularly love Ethan's super angry expression here. I like that at least two of them had human faces so we can really tell just how pissed off they are, and they've grown desperate, too, with one of them yelling about how they should just destroy all life-forms.

There's a brief short scene of York running around with like a bazooka or something, muttering about just how much information Stellapunk is going to tell them, before we cut away to Alabasta, and then again to a random shot of Charlotte Smoothie and Mont D'or from the Big Mom Pirates. It's just Vegapunk talking about the aforementioned prediction of the 'earthquake' and the sea-level rising after Lulusia got utterly atomized into nothingness. 

There's a shot of a flooded location which I don't actually know if it's somewhere we're supposed to recognize, but then we cut away to Tonjit! Tonjit from Long Ring Long Land, who's on stilts, and that is also an arc where we had to deal with tides causing huge rises in the ocean levels -- the whole reason Tonjit and his horse was stranded in one of the islands. We get a brief shot of Aokiji also looking pensive. 

And as Vegapunk's words goes into talking about how the earthquake isn't natural, how he only ever wanted peace... we get to see Saturn fighting against the Straw Hats. Lilith's joined in with a pair of guns, and holy fucking shit, Tony Tony Chopper! How tough is that Guard Point? He's clearly straining in that panel, but he's tanked at least two stabs from Saturn's spider-legs! That's just such a fun panel, with brook yohohoho-ing around and freezing part of Saturn's face, and Nami summoning a thunderbolt like a laser beam down on Saturn's face. Robin's even joining in the fight, using her spiderweb to grab her allies, and we get yet another shot of Chopper holding off like three or four legs. God damn, Chopper. 

But Saturn just blasts everyone else apart, it seems, because he scuttles off towards the power plant after a mental discussion with Mars. Vegapunk's narration talks about his 'first sin', about flying too close to the sun as he tries to look for a source of endless, eternal energy. 

As Saturn breaks into the main lab, we get to see the Mother Flame, which is... a giant sci-fi vault with what appears to be a small flame suspended in sci-fi liquid. It's all so fancy like an old comic book, and Saturn just scuttles in, reverts into his human mode and just bashes random computer around with his walking stick. It sure is a revelation, even if I personally think we lack any real context for me to be emotional. 

Oh, the Iron Giant is still being bombarded by the Marines, but it's not budging. Eh. I wouldn't be surprised if the broadcast snail is actually inside the giant, considering the focus we got with Stella Vegapunk interacting with it earlier in the arc. 

As Dorry, Broghy and Luffy escape from Topman... who's on fire and breathing fire for some reason, Vegapunk's message starts mentioning the Void Century, and we get a very ominous cutaway to Imu with the "..." which... yeah, I'm not sure what to make of this. As Vegapunk gives a random talk about the Void Century, the Celestial Dragons in Marie Geoise are yelling and complaining about the very bitch-basic revenge they will do to Vegapunk... but interestingly, attention is drawn on Charlos's sister Shalria for some reason. 

Vegapunk continues to talk about the Poneglyphs, and we get our first present-day appearance of Jaguar D. Saul, going al dereshishishi on some random forest in Elbaf or something. Rock on, Saul. We cut to Orange Town with a little girl reading the history of the world, while Mayor Boodle and the wonderful dog that is Chouchou is just playing around. We get a brief cut to the Kuja Pirates in Amazon Lily as Vegapunk continues to talk about how his second 'sin' was researching everything n the Poneglyphs. We get a shot to Robin also going "..." and a confirmation that all the Straw Hats with her are alive and well. Even Chopper, who isn't even injured or anything. Damn, Tony, that's a bigger feat, relative to my perception of you, compared to anything the Monster Trio's going to pull off in this arc. 

We get a page showing how Edison's did some kind of stuff with the sky cloud generator, extending the clouds so they could reach the seas. This little subplot hasn't really been super interesting with everything else that's going on, but okay, sure.

And we finally cut off to Vegapunk talking about the Void Century, with the disclaimer that he's not going to tell us the whole story (Oda needs something to tell in a Robin-focused chapter eventually, after all) and talks about how this story is about Joy Boy, the First Pirate, born in the Void Century. And we get the first real confirmation that Joy Boy and Nika isn't the same person, but just shared the same characteristics of a stretchy body. As all of this is going on, Luffy unleashes a Gear Fifth attack on Topman and his hand is wibbly-wobbling in pain, while the giants laugh at Luffy's antics, which I think is honestly just so Monkey D. Luffy where he doesn't really care about all the Lore Piece and Politics Piece. He just wants to protect his friends and have fun!

And... I'm not sure if we're going to go on a full Void Century flashback, I really don't. But I am really waiting to see just what we can get out of this. We're finally getting some payoffs to stuff built up for over a decade... and I honestly am just in for the ride!

Random Notes:

• I can't say I'm super invested in it, but the cover story has Kin'emon and Yamato discuss the route that Yamato is going to take through Wano, and she's apparently going to go and lay Yasuie's katana to rest. 
• It's an interesting bit of detail, but Mock Town was ruled by the Doflamingo Family, and the Den Den Mushi has a Doflamingo sigil on its shell. It's not something that's particularly important to anything going on, but kudos to Oda for still including this in a series of chapters that drew his attention to so many parts of his world. 
• I love Doflamingo as much as any One Piece fan, but I've always felt Magellan is underappreciated so seeing him in full really makes me happy!
• Also very convenient that we get to see members of the Big Mom Pirates, but they're in such a close-up that we don't even know where they are. Are they on a ship? Are they in Tottland? 
• I don't think I have the time or energy to review them, but I've been watching some of the Egghead episodes and the animations are super beautiful. 
• Obviously the title refers to the myth of Icarus and Daedalus from Greek mythology, but this gets a bit silly when you remember that we've got a random minor villain from Fishman Island called Ikaros Much, who is also a reference to that myth. But with squid puns, because ika = squid. 
• There are random bits written on the Mother Flame tank, like S-108 (108 being a number very commonly found in mythologies and religions; Zoro references 108 a lot) and A&Mu (some people think this is a reference to either Imu, the lost continent of Mu, or a wordplay on atom/atomu). 
• God bless Orange Town, I love that the pet shop has a giant straw hat on top of the roof, and that the Den Den Mushi has Chouchou's face on its shell. I love the Orange Town arc. 

Jujutsu Kaisen S01E16-17 Review

More Jujutsu Kaisen! This series is proving a bit slower for me to review than I anticipated, but oh well!

Episode 16:

• I really do like this next batch of episodes. A lot of these other characters have been hanging out in the background promising that they'll do something exciting in the episodes leading up to the Friendship Competition, and what a payoff!
• I still really like the sequence with Yuji and Todo, and how Todo is making this fight into a training sequence for his new best friend. Extremely like the hammy, over-the-top dialogue that Todo has about having an 'eye for art' in combat, and how easily Yuji gets swept up in his vibe. 
• And it's interesting that Todo goes from his blissful, almost orgasmic (heh) monologue to a yell at how flawed Yuji's Divergent Fist is. 
• Basically, turns out that Divergent Fist is a flaw, not a feature -- the cursed energy can't keep up with Yuji's superhuman speed, and Yuji needs to apply cursed enery at the moment of impact. 
• Todo gives a whole speech about how there are theories about how cursed energy is tied to emotions, which in turn spreads out from the stomach, but Todo forces Yuji to think of himself as a single entity, mind body and soul. 
• It's a lot of hammy silliness and profoundness all mixed into one, and Todo's voice-acting really does sell it!
• And, of course, what sells it even more is Yuji getting the same 'alternate universe' best friends fantasy as he gets dragged into Todo's pace. Hilarious!
  
• That's just the prologue, but I do really appreciate Todo. The rest of the episode sets up Nobara vs. Momo, but mostly focuses on Panda vs. Mechamaru. 
• There is a reference to 'Pepper-kun', which is this real-life robot from Japan.
• After some taunting of Momo, which builds up the next episode, Panda gets shot from behind by Mechamaru -- and it does initially seem like we're just taking out one of the more joke-y characters on the Tokyo side. But then Panda gets up, fights Mechamaru, and identifies both of them as 'cursed objects'.
  
• And just as it seems like there's an explanation for both of their natures, Mechamaru -- or rather, his pilot Muta Kokichi -- gets super-duper pissed off. Kokichi is shown as being rather sinister looking, a bandaged-up cripple in some kind of sci-fi harness and fluid pool. Creepy!
• We learn a bit later on that Kokichi isn't even crippled normally, but his condition and his missing limbs is due to a 'heavenly restriction'. Holy shit! We've heard of heavenly restrictions with Maki not having cursed energy in her body, but there's a vast difference, isn't there?
• And there's a very fun, almost Sentai/Rider-esque hamminess as Mechamaru goes through a bunch of moves in English. Sword Option. Boost On. Ultra Spin. Ultra Cannon.
• I appreciate them putting in a robot (or a puppet robot) in this anime that's otherwise about sorcerers or melee fighters. It really does help to make these characters stand out even though they do technically fit in the setting with some explanation. 
• Also, the visuals of the Ultra Cannon look impressive as all hell!
  
• And then we get Panda's backstory, where he's the masterpiece Cursed Object creation of Yaga Masamichi, which, again, is somewhat foreshadowed by his usage of semi-sentient dolls before. Panda is fully sentient, and is noted as a 'sudden mutated cursed corpse'. 
• Ergo, 'panda... panda ja nai!' Panda is not a panda, a running line spoken throughout this episode. 
• Panda seems to be obliterated by Mechamaru's Ultimate Cannon, and it's kind of clear that Mechamaru is both venting his frustrations at Panda... but also not seeing Panda as a real person, making this battle actualyl feel a bit more dangeous compared to the o
  ther non-Yuji battles in this arena.
• Oh, so that's why Panda was pounding his chest in the opening! I completely forgot about Gorilla Mode, and that's a badass design. The gorilla arms look threatening, as is the altered body silhouette, but the best part has to be his monstrous, beast-like face. 
• Panda also has three cores -- the balanced 'Panda', the strong 'Gorilla' or his older brother, and an older sister we won't see in this fight because Mechamaru took out that older sister core. A nice way to foreshadow a future 'power up', so to speak.
• And the fight between Panda's Gorilla Mode and Ultimate Mechamaru is fun to see, with, again, this anime's signature fluid motions and a lot of usage of destroyed surroundings.
• I do like that both combatants actually have a relative upper hand -- Panda's wounded with two cores taken to near-death and Gorilla Mode's basically his last-ditch weapon... but the shockwaves caused by his Drumming Beat clearly is destroying Mechamaru's puppet body, disabling many of his weapons. 
• We get a cool sequence finishing it off on top of the roof of the building, with Mechamaru zipping around Panda to seemingly do a sniper shot, only for Panda to reveal that he's created a false energy spot, then grab Mechamaru's hand and palm-thrust him into submission. Pretty smooth animation here!
• And then we get a pretty nice little 'friendship moment' at the end, where Mechamaru lay defeated and Panda just slowly talks to him, saying that he is different from humans, finds them different, but he's never been jealous about them and appreciates whatever differences they have. And then Panda drops the golden moral of this fight -- Mechamaru having a terrible life doesn't give him the right to be a jackass to everyone else. 
• And this leads to a nice little shot of Kokichi realizing that his greatest wish is to get out of the damn bandages, wires and pool to walk alongside his classmates. 

Episode 17:

• We wrap up three fights here, all featuring ladies! Maki vs. Kasumi, Nobara vs. Momo, and finally the epic Maki vs. Mai.
• I do really like that, just like Mechamaru in the previous episode, we do get a fair bit of backstory and explanation about Mai's personality... and we delve not just into why Mai has such a chip on her shoulder, also into the alluded backstory between Maki, Mai, as well as their elitist sorcerer family. 
• We start off with Maki fighting Kasumi in the river, with Kasumi being pushed back to a river. She eventually sets up her Simple Domain -- explaining it quickly in probably one of the more infodump-heavy power explanations we'll have in this fight. 
• Maki then... just fucking breaks her weapon in half, confusing Kasumi because Maki surrenders the reach of a spear.
• And then we get the gloriously animated sequence as Maki launches half of the spear and a kunai, forcing Kasumi to block, block... and take a step back, deactivating her ability as Maki charges in. And there's all the water splashing animation! The animation really does make the speed look explosive and powerful without making it hard to follow, which is highly appreciated. 
  
• And then Maki takes Kasumi's sword and just kinda... man, Kasumi's face just looks entirely defeated and bullied, huh?
• We cut away to the teachers, with the debut of Mei-Mei and her questionable braided-ponytail-over-face hairstyle. She and Gojo have a bit of a discussion about promoting Maki and how the Zen'in family is being difficult about it. 
• Mei-Mei, interestingly, is the source of surveillance for the teachers with her crows, and there's a nice bit of acknowledgement as Gojo knows that the crows observing Yuji are intentionally shaky, but he's not confronting Mei-Mei about it. And whie Mei-Mei is clearly helping out the Kyoto branch with disturbing the monitoring, I do like the politics and that she's not entirely loyal to Gakuganji. 
  
• We then go to Nobara's fight against Momo, which is an interesting lead into the Maki/Mai Zen'in clan drama. Momo is a huge Mai fangirl, and gets pissed off the more and more Nobara mocks Momo. I do like this way of giving a bit more insight to the emotionally-charged Maki/Mai confrontation later on, while also giving Nobara some much-overdue characterization. 
• And that characterization is what I appreciate the most about this conflict. Momo gives a lot of stuff about Mai and why she should be 'pitied' after the sheer amount of expectations that she has to deal with, but Nobara's answer falls in line a bit with Panda's "just because you had a shit past doesn't mean you can be an asshole" speech from the previous episode. 
  
• But more importantly, Nobara just doesn't give a shit. There's also the loyalty aspect to Maki and Yuji, but Nobara gets pissed off at all this nonsense about expectations, all this nonsense about 'men and women', and how Maki shouldn't be made to feel bad 'just because she's fortunate', and that fortunate people shouldn't bend over backwards to apologize to the less-fortunate ones -- something that Nobara's bullied friend went through. 
• In a sense, it also applies to Yuji being 'talented' enough to at least have some control over the Sukuna fingers, though we don't dwell on this point. 
• It's also a really nice counterargument against the female characters of slightly older Shonen manga, too, with Nobara not giving a damn about Momo's talk about the expectations of women having to be 'cute' as well as strong, because Nobara isn't just 'a woman', she's Kugisaki Nobara. That's a great reaffirmation of her identity beyond mroe than just labels, and I always love that. 
  
• Momo herself is just flying around with her broom and launching wind, and the action scene manages to be a bit fun because of that while Nobara continues to light up her nails and launch them seemingly randomly at Momo. Appreciate the glowing effects around her nails, and ultimately when Nobara gets to 'curse' the broom, as well as the dizzying effects when Nobara activates Hairpin. 
  
• I also do like that Momo's being fairly distracted with the idea of the super-powerful Toge appearing, musing that the paranoia about Toge is making her antsy regardless of whether he's actually nearby or not. 
• And then we get the over-the-top reveal that Nobara brings along a non-lethal weapon... a squeaky hammer! She bashes Momo in the head with it, and is about to attack again before she gets one-shotted by Mai with a rubber bullet. 
• And it is kind of a rather 'aw, man' moment as Nobara's about to clinch a full victory over a named character, but I felt like it's a nice way to end the battle nonetheless since Nobara had her big character moment and a clear victory, but it's also realistic that these characters would pile on and take cheap shots whenever necessary. 
• But the fight ends up becoming between Mai and Maki in the trees. I do find it interesting that while Maki has been a gigantic bully to Nobara and the other characters, when faced with Mai, it's Mai who goads her on and causes her to flip.
• Of course, we've got Mai slicing up bullets with a sword. Always badass to see. 
• And then, we of course get the flashbacks. How they are unable to use cursed techniques, but Maki was never afraid of the creepy curses they saw as children and just ran towards the future, always dragging her along...
  
• That is a fucking creepy curse, though, even if it's technically harmless.
• Until, of course, when they reached young adulthood, at which point Maki left the clan and fighting verbally with the drunkard Zen'in clan head (their dad, I think?). And being more or less dismissive when the clan leader talks about putting both her and Mai through the gruelling training.
• Of course, there's the whispered line about Mai muttering that Maki is a liar, but if we take what she and Momo said at face value and that Mai didn't really want all of this curse-hunting life then you can see why there's resentment on top of abandonment issues. "Let's fall down this hole together!"
  
• I must confess that I wasn't paying attention to the number of shots being fired because of the dizzying action, but Mai explicitly using a revolver to fool Mai into thinking that she's only got six shots is a great little trick!
• Turns out that Mai is able to use 'Construction', an innate technique that she developed secretly and allowing her to create a seventh bullet. 
• And, again, I mention more about the flashback and the character moment, but it's a pretty amazingly-animated and fast-paced scene that goes on here, culminating in Maki's superhuman reflexes allowing her to grab and catch the constructed bullet mid-flight with her bare hands. 
• And Mai is basically defeated, but I've always found this conflict to be a rather melancholic one. It has a great, explosive climax with a lot of exposition about the jujutsu world and the Zen'in siblings... but other than Maki showing that, yes, she can stand up and potentially reach her goal as the leader of the Zen'in clan, she hasn't really fixed anything between herself and Mai. I really found this very intriguing compared to other 'relatives from a noble family facing each other in a tournament' like the Hyugas from Naruto where one of the siblings are clearly in the wrong. 

Jujutsu Kaisen S01E14-15 Review

I am honestly not sure if this was released as a separate cour, but considering the rather large gap between my reviewing episode 13 and 14; the new opening/ending combo; as well as the fact that episode 13 ended on the conclusion of an arc, I wouldn't be surprised if it was. 

I honestly do think that the opening episodes and arcs of Jujutsu Kaisen is pretty interesting. If I had one complaint, it perhaps would be that I really would've liked at least one or two more scenes of Yuji interacting with Megumi and Nobara before his 'death' because I really did feel like things moved a bit too fast for them to really feel like they have an unbreakable bond that gets resolved here. I wonder if the fake-out death wasn't planned originally until the author wanted to focus a bit more on Yuji personally? It's not that evident in the manga, I don't think, but I really do feel like the anime's more rapid pacing does make this pacing problem a bit more evident. 

We get a new opening and ending, but I really rarely comment on those. They sure are nice visuals, and I do really like the title 'VIVID VICE' if nothing else. 

Episode 14:

• Okay, there is a shot in the opening of a feral-looking Panda standing on a rooftop and beating his chest like he's goddamn King Kong or something. That's cool. 
• I do like the shot of Jogo just chilling in the hot springs, smoking a pipe that's screaming because it's either a transformed human or a lesser curse. That's hilarious. 
• And also we've got buck-ass nude Mahito jumping into the pool.
• I also like the brief bit where Mahito gives some explanations as to why they didn't do certain things during the Mahito arc -- they can't take hostages because the Binding Vows must be done willingly; and Sukuna's also a complete uncooperative lunatic that they must always assume he's not going to cooperate willingly out of spite. They're right!
• Foreshadowing something that'll happen in the future, I do like that they note that their ultimate goal supersedes the very likely fact that Sukuna might just go crazy when he gets his full power and wipe them all out. 
• I like Gojo's acknowledgement that this wasn't what he had in mind when he said 'missions are for training', and they're not even telling Yuji about the fact that a Sukuna finger was what killed Junpei's mother. 
• ...which goes straight into a pretty in-character banter as Nanami turned the finger into the higher-ups offscreen, not wanting Gojo to feed it to Yuji. Ha!
  
• And... a good chunk of this episode is taken up by the reunion scene and the meet-up between the Tokyo and Kyoto students. We've seen Aoi, Mai and (a little bit) Kasumi before, and it's nice to immediately toss the visually-distinct Mechamaru (he's a wood robot!) and the final members of the Kyoto students, Momo (short witch girl) and Noritoshi (eyes-closed cool guy). A neat way to drip-feed these characters. 
• Love the fact that Nobara just straight-up demands souvenirs as the first thing she says upon encountering the Kyoto students. 
• I just 100% forgot Noritoshi existed. I tend to vaguely remember the existence if not the names of a majority of the student characters, but I genuinely forgot Noritoshi. 
• I've always found the reunion scene as Yuji pops out of that box to be rather... what's the word the kids nowadays use? "Cringe"? But it's clearly meant to be cringe-y, and Gojo Satoru just doesn't give a shit. On one hand, I do appreciate that after the end of the Mahito focus arc the reunion isn't played up for drama or 'you betrayed me', and Megumi and Nobara just gets pissed off while holding back tears at the same time. It's not my favourite scene in the series, but it's okay.
• I do like that while the students' reaction are played up for comedy, Principal Gakuganji's reaction is definitely not and this will subsequently set the tone for the early parts of the Tokyo/Kyoto Friendship Match.   
• Megumi is also revealed to be a member of the Zen'in family, which I don't think we knew before this episode. 
• We also get the debut of the scar-faced lady Utahime, a teacher that's clearly pretty damn close to Gojo but is constantly frustrated by him. He teases her a lot.
• I also like that Yuji is absolutely bamboozled by the existence of the more colourful characters. Mechamaru is a robot, Panda is a panda and Toge speaks in food names. We get the reasoning of Toge's quirk here -- his word-magic power forces him to restrict the words that he can say. 
• I also like the little nod to 'Slaughter Demon', the cursed knife that Yuji used for a couple of fights before it was broken by the Special Grade. Of course he blames Gojo. 
• Gakuganji, meanwhile, is absolutely pissed off at Yuji's survival. He's clearly someone we need to root against because he's demanding the literal assassination of a young man, but I do kind of sympathize with him and his students, particularly the latter -- who are following orders. Even the most unsympathetic jackass among them, Noritoshi, at least seems to just subscribe to what his teacher and boss is telling him -- that Yuji is to be considered a curse. 
• 
  Todo Aoi, meanwhile, just punches his way out of the meeting room, being absolutely pissed off at having all of this nonsense thrown at him when all he wants is a good, manly fight. I think this is a trope that I've seen a couple of times in anime (most vividly that wind guy from another school in My Hero Academia); a powerful, brutal brute and a not-quite-antagonist that's ultimately good-natured despite technically being on a rival organization. 
• Momo and Kasumi already raise doubts about killing Yuji, and while we've seen that Mai's a Grade-A bitch, I do like that her concern seems to be revolving around Todo more than Gakuganji's orders. 
• I am surprised that neither Noritoshi nor Gakuganji stop Todo from going off to his idol meet. Noritoshi tries, bless him, but Todo just fucking shuts him up. Pussy!
• Todo is a super-fan. He's going to arrive in person, and rewatch the recording. 
• Speaking of My Hero Academia comparisons, Gojo and Utahime gather together to briefly discuss the potential of a traitor leaking information to the sentient curses. It devolves into Gojo being a dork pretty quickly, but I do like this scene. 
  
• We end this episode with a bro-talk between Yuji and Megumi. Megumi could tell that Yuji isn't himself and Yuji admits that he lost someone, but they get over it and refuse to lose to the Kyoto students. We get a badass pose... before Maki kicks Yuji aside, annoyed that he's taking center stage when she's supposed to be team leader. 

Episode 15:

• The rules of the event -- hunting down curses, including a high-point one, in a jungle -- seems pretty basic anime brutal-game stuff, but it really does take a massive sideline to the chaos happening with the students fighting each other. I do like the acknowledgements and strategy done by the Tokyo students that the Kyoto students are only able to 'legally' kill Yuji if the game is still going on, keeping the game relevant even if it's not the primary focus of the arc. 
• Of course, good ol' Todo Aoi shows up, all brutal warrior and stuff, intent on taking on the entire Tokyo team all by himself. We get a very smooth sequence as Yuji just knees him in the face without any hesitation while the rest of his allies disperse, and we cut to a brief flashback of Maki telling Yuji that he needs to be the distraction since he's the one wild-card among them that the rest of them haven't practiced training with. Do love Yuji's dumb-anime-protagonist response of 'if I gotta fight, I plan to win!'
• We get a pretty cool angle as Todo punches and breaks through a random lesser curse before his fists hit Yuji and sends him tumbling off into the distance. 
• "You idiot, what if you make me even dumber than I already am!"
  
• Todo claims it's okay, because Takada-chan likes dumb boys, and Yuji lets slip that he knows that Takada is an idol, which is kinda funny. 
• And then we get the 'what's your type of girl' personality testing from Todo, and turns out that Yuji also likes tall girls with big butts. Hilariously, despite how much this anime adaptation trims a lot of the extraneous dialogue in the manga, this leads to a gloriously extended fantasy sequence of Yuji, Todo and the idol Takada in the same school and this 'Yuji' being such a good friend that he's helping Todo get over a rejection failure. It's... it's so over the top, it's stupid, but I love this scene. 
• Todo insists that this has forged a connection (and without the extended flashback, this would've felt super-random) between them and constantly calls Yuji his best friend. Like, in English, so Todo spends a chunk of this episode calling him besuto furendo. It's gloriously charming.
• Which, of course, leads to the rest of the Kyoto squadron charging in to murder Yuji, and the first thing that Yuji has to dodge is Mai straight-up blasting him in the head with a handgun. Cold!
• Todo activates his own technique, which swaps the places of everyone in the area, which is a cool little twist on a boring 'teleportation' ability. While Yuji dodges her, we also get to see that Kasumi's jujutsu skills revolve around her sword. 
  
  
• Todo and Noritoshi have a bit of a confrontation, and manages to convince Noritoshi to leave with the other Kyoto students with the condition that Todo actually do kill Yuji... and Todo is such an earnest goon that he says that he never holds back, not even to his (brand new) best friend. 
• Momo, the little witch girl, watches everything from the sky and then surprise Nue attack! I love this. I love that the good guys actually do have an offensive plan and isn't just reacting to the antagonists. 
• We get the Tokyo squadron picking off the Kyoto minions one by one, leading to the customary shonen anime 1v1 fights, but I love that this is a nice little subversion from the Kyoto guys ganging up on Yuji. Noritoshi and Kasumi basically get forced into 1v1 fights against Megumi and Maki. 
• We get a bit more of Noritoshi's personality, and that he's your typical magic-user-clan classist that really hates Sukuna's vessel, although we don't get exactly what his specific beef is beyond that. 
• I also like Kasumi actually apologizing for her class's behaviour, but she needs to do what she needs to do. Because of MONEY, and I have never related to a character quite as much as I do her at this moment. 
• Great reaction shot from Maki, too, who just looks bamboozled. 
• We get a nice little flashback to slightly before when Megumi, Panda and Maki realize that they're being played, and that the Kyoto team are ganging around Yuji instead of going for the game. That's cool, and seeing them quickly make a strategy -- including keeping Toge focused on winning the game -- in response. 
• Nobara and Panda mock Momo, who's stuck in a tree after being attacked by Megumi's Nue, and what shit-eating grins Nobara and Panda have on their faces. 
• Todo and Yuji, meanwhile, has a pretty great little fighting as they basically do a manly fight against each other, punching and punching and stuff. Todo is impressed with Yuji's skills and instincts as he bounces around the environment and trees, but gets so pissed off at his best friend's Divergent Fist... because "it's all wrong!" 
• And I love that this screaming is so loud that the entire battlefield just stops to gawk at the yell.
• Anyway, the episode ends with Yuji and Todo facing off against each other, and it does seem like Todo's going to help 'train' Yuji in the pretenses of his insane manly-man fight. That's fun.