Jujutsu Kaisen S01E12-13

More Jujutsu Kaisen! These are taking a bit longer relatively for me to write than expected. Oops!

Episode 12:

• We get a brief cameo of Takuma Ino helping Nanami beat up the cursed humans, and I think he's supposed to be a minor character from the Zero mini?
• Ijichi isn't a major character in the grand scheme of things, but I really do like his 'responsible adult' nature and certainly not a small amount of guilt after indirectly contributing to Yuji's death in the Demon Womb arc. All he can do is just trying to stop Yuji before he rushes in. 
• And then we follow up with the cliffhanger of the previous episode, with Yuji fighting Junpei and his jellyfish Stand shikigami, Moon Dregs. 
• The fight against the jellyfish is... the fight itself isn't the most exciting thing in this episode, with the jellyfish basically just absorbing and blocking all of Yuji's jujutsu punches. But that's not the point of this conflict, yeah? The primary point is the clash of beliefs, with Junpei ranting about how people have no heart, how morality is a delusion, and no one has the right to stop another one from killing.  
• But Yuji is just... too damn powerful, or determined, or stupid, just punching his way out of the poisonous jellyfish spirit and later on chuck the jellyfish to Junpei. I do like that we get a flashback to Yuji's training, where he is instructed to go after the shikigami user. 
• It is an interesting way to not show us the full training, since we assume Gojo and maybe even Nanami gave Yuji a lot of lessons offscreen, but it'd be boring to watch all of them proceed in real time.
• Then, we get the inevitable bringing up of Junpei's mother -- and the fact that Junpei's trauma stems more from the fact that he can't believe that 'someone with a heart' cursed his mother to death.
  
• But then Yuji allows Moon Dregs to pierce his body, surprising Junpei enough for him to call off the jellyfish. I do really like that Yuji... actually apologizes for being a bit insensitive in their initial ranting. The worst 'talk-no-jutsu' sequences in anime have always been the ones that go "shaddap, NAKAMA!" which might work in a more fantastical setting, but I really do like that one of the focuses of the Junpei storyline has been how no one understands him and just tosses platitudes at him. 
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  And then we get the cruel audience punch. Yuji almost gets through to Junpei, talking about how he doesn't have to be alone anymore, how he can go to jujutsu high, how he can get his revenge against whoever cursed his mother...
• ...and then Mahito shows up, pins Yuji to the wall, and Junpei is absolutely confused about what's going on. Yuji's yelling at him to run...
• And then Mahito just cruelly talks to Junpei's ear and uses Idle Transfiguration to turn him into a raggedy golem-thing that almost-mindlessly fights Yuji, only able to say 'why' and 'help me'. 
  
• And it's... it's pretty obvious in hindsight, but it is pretty surprising for a shonen manga to deny the redemption arc, but to straight-up kill off Junpei in such a cruel manner! That little shot of an imaginary future where Junpei hangs out with the rest of the main trio in a jujutsu high uniform is particularly cruel!
• And I really do think that this arc allowing Junpei to be just killed off by his manipulative benefactor for drama is probably what really got me into this series the first time. I remembered this scene being pretty jarringly sudden in the manga, too. 
• I also really like the scene of a desperate Yuji, with Mahito and Sukuna cackling evilly behind them. Again, I really love the handling of Sukuna. This isn't any of the many 'jackass-but-ultimately-helpful' berserk alter-egos or superpowers seen in shonen manga. It's not a matter of Sukuna not being able to reverse Idle Transfiguration, or that Sukuna won't benefit from it (even Mahito is surprised!) but Sukuna is such a dick and wants so much to torment Yuji that he's reneging on a deal that might give him more freedom out of nothing but sheer spite. 
• And Yuji gets super pissed off... and starts punching Mahito. Yuji's unique two-soul nature and his Divergent Fist allows him to actually hit Mahito's soul. 
• That's a very great line and an amazing delivery, by the way. "The next words I say is so filled with conviction that everything I've ever said before in my life sounds like a lie: I will kill you."
• It is an interesting situation too that Mahito notes that he's not trying to kill Yuji, but rather get him to enter into a binding contract with Sukuna that would allow the curse to gain more power... but now that Yuji can hurt him, it provides some extra complications. 
• The brawl between Yuji and Mahito is very fun to watch (even if the best action scenes are in the next episode) particularly with Mahito constantly shapeshifting his limbs to try and counter and mangle Yuji. At one point he even shoots out a drill-tentacle, showing that it doesn't have to be limited to animalistic appendages. 
• Pretty fun sequence when Yuji grabs Mahito's drill, Mahito grows spikes to impale Yuji, but it just makes Yuji have a better grip to drag Mahito out of the school building to him. 
• Mahito tries to touch Yuji's soul, but we get the glorious sequence of Mahito finding himself within Sukuna's inner domain. Sukuna really doesn't give a fuck to anyone, and Mahito realizes what a huge error he's made as Sukuna makes it clear that the only reason Mahito survives this trespass is that they enjoyed the mocking laugh together. 
• After a headbutting session, Nanami also shows up to back Yuji up, protecting Yuji and I enjoy how they basically go quickly into business, and Nanami realizes that Yuji's somehow able to hurt Mahito and that they have a chance to exorcise this high-grade curse. 

Episode 13:

• And this whole episode is just a fight scene, and... I'm not going to go through every single motion. But it is glorious, the animation is very fluid and I am particularly fond of how this anime handles impacts and the explosions caused when characters with high force slam and punch each other. 
• Mahito's shapeshifting is also pretty fun, with him growing eyeballs, turning into a giant spike-ball, vomiting out little minions to torment Yuji, turning into a child...
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  I also really like the sequence where Yuji fights the final batch of transfigured humans. It also happens off-screen, which is an interesting choice, but Yuji calmly walking and appearing to save Nanami when he should be dealing with 'oh no I can't kill the transformed humans' is pretty badass.
• The fact that he realizes it's more of a mercy to end these wretched beings' suffering is definitely a great maturing point for Yuji, particularly after all of his conversations with Junpei in previous episodes.
  
•  Ryoiki Tenkai: Jihei Endonka. "Self-Embodiment of Perfection". I do find it interesting that Mahito is implied to have only found inspiration for Domain Expansion in this fight, and couldn't previously do it?
• The manga actually does this a lot better thanks to the detailing on the hands, but I really do find Jihei Endonka to be one of the visually more stunning Domain Expansions this early on. I mean, yes, Gojo's void thing does have pretty psychedelic visuals, but the grisliness of so many hands appearing is pretty creepy as hell!
• Between Mahito and My Hero Academia's Shigaraki, man, so many hands appearing is just creepy, huh? 
• We then get Nanami's backstory -- which really seems to sell that Nanami is going to suffer the dead mentor syndrome. 
• Nanami's backstory is pretty neat, and I've always remembered that sequence where he sees a little minor spirit (the same kind that Ijichi and Yuji used two episodes ago) tormenting a local bakery girl. He gets so crushed by his corporate work and how he only exists to make his bosses richer and doesn't do anything for the betterment of mankind, while his simple action of killing the bakery girl's shoulder-parasite spirit actually makes the world a better place. 
• I... I always found this flashback to be pretty great at expounding on the "I was a salaryman" gag into a backstory that also explains Nanami's own heroism in spite of his clear cynicism.
• Nanami also already prepares to die, realizing that a single hit from Mahito means death for his soul, and in a Domain Expansion it's impossible to avoid a hit. 
• But in a neat nod to Gojo's lesson during the Gojo/Jogo Domain Expansion fight, Yuji breaks through Self-Embodiment of Perfection's dome and enters, something that surprises both Nanami and Mahito since no one would voluntarily enter another one's Domain Expansion 
• Almost like a Yu-Gi-Oh match, this prompts an attack from Mahito, which causes Mahito to touch Sukuna's soul... and Sukuna gets so pissed off at this that he crushes Mahito entirely. 
• A great little display of Sukuna's power relative to Mahito, his ultimate goal with Megumi... but also the fact that despite being a dick, I do like that these episodes have been showing how Sukuna's sheer self-centeredness means that while he's going to be opposing Yuji as best as he could, he's not guaranteed to side with the other sentient curses. 
• Mahito pulls an Imperfect Cell and swells up, and when Yuji strikes it with Divergent Fist, this just causes a huge explosion while the slime-like Mahito manages to escape into the sewers.
• It's an interesting way to end this arc, really solidifying a bastard villain that's simultaneously entertaining but also has such a heavy grudge with our protagonist that we will really be rooting for Yuji crushing Mahito the next time they meet. 
• The epilogue is pretty nice, with Yuji's thoughts about 'helping people reach a proper death' fits in well with his original backstory with his grandfather's death, as well as his own near-death experience when fighting the Special Grade in the Demon Womb. 
• We get a great line from Nanami, how people are complicated, death is unpredictable, but Yuji is the type of person that's going to try regardless. Nanami just requests that Yuji realize his own self-worth and that it's his responsibility to stay alive... even if it's just to save others. 
• We also get a nice little epilogue to the minor characters, with Junpei's old teacher cracking down on the bullies after the incident with Junpei, though it's a pyrrhic victory since Junpei's, y'know, dead.