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!