Jujutsu Kaisen S01E23-24 Review

Episode 23:

• I do like the setup for this arc. I did remember being a bit confused in the manga because I had assumed that the bridge curse was the third member of the Death Paintings, but it's made perfectly clear in the anime that it's two completely different reasons. There is a bit of a tension early on when it's not clear why these two sentient curses are running around attacking the domain of a curse that Megumi is trying to exorcise... but the explanation is easy and ties into what's so far the big fetch-quest plot of the series... the Sukuna fingers. 
• Kechizu is the most monstrous of the three Death Paintings, looking like a lumpy green ogre with a smaller face on top of the gigantic roaring beast-face that takes up much of his body, and he spits out corrosive blood. The fight between Kechizu and Yuji is pretty well-animated and snappy, as usual, but that clearly isn't the focus of this episode at all. 
  
• I do find it fun to see Nobara and Megumi just basically playing whack-a-mole with the wacky, squeaky extensions of the bridge-curse that keep popping in and out of the holes. 
• I also really like that Megumi's analysis is that the bridge-curse (if it wasn't a special-grade) is something like a min-maxed character in a video game, where it's got an expanded cursed technique, a large number of victims and a barrier, meaning that it's main body will be weak. 
• Of course, the other Death Painting, Eso, shows up through a shadowy portal and draws Nobara through it. I do like that at least the writer has the self-awareness to realize that poor Noabra always gets the short stick in most of her action scenes, though this shorter arc is a bit of a subversion in that Nobara actually gets to do something amazing. 
• 
  Yuji and Kechizu also follow out, and we get to behold the majesty of Eso, who's like a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure character crossed with a One Piece character in how flamboyant he is. They actually censor his outfit from the manga a bit, though they kept most of the weird stripper-BDSM gear intact. Is this the guy that Mahito force-fed while naked in episode 22?
• We do cut to the fight outside a couple of times, where basically we get to see Eso's back-face and his ability to use 'Wing King' to create a mass of wings made out of blood vessels or something, but the majority of the fight is still within the domain where Megumi fights against the true form of the bridge curse -- a Sukuna Finger. 
  
• This also solves a minor question that's been bothering Megumi -- why did the bridge curse simultaneously activate in such a recent time, when the victims have graduated from that high school years ago? It's because elsewhere in Japan, a different Sukuna finger became super-powerful when it merged with Yuji. 
• And then the Special-Grade Sukuna Finger (which I'll just call 'the Finger' from now on) manifests in a form similar to the Demon Womb curse, and Megumi's attempts to fight back with Divine Dog ends up in him being trounced. A pretty cool sequence with the Demon Dog trying to speed-blitz the Finger, but ultimately Megumi gets overpowered.
• I do like the confirmation that Divine Dog was just dispelled, not destroyed -- can't kill off all of Megumi's shikigami this early on in the series, after all. 
• And then we get a whole lot of Megumi flashbacks, and I really do think that this episode does a great job at really solidifying Megumi's character development, particularly after witnessing Yuji's intense growth when he's off away from the rest of the first-years. It's a much less 'toxic' version of what people like to compare to the 'Sasuke arc', because Megumi's really throwing himself into trying to improve himself as quickly as Yuji is. 
• And as scatterbrained as Gojo acts, I do really like that his advice to Megumi is interesting -- Megumi always wants to break himself, sacrifice himself for the greater good... but 'dying to win' and 'risking death to win' are two different things. 
• And then Megumi abandons all of his previous calm and goes for a gloriously manic grin and smile. This expression has been memed to death thanks to this season's popularity, but I really do like how Megumi's really trying to break his limits. Sometimes it looks ugly, sometimes you giggle like an idiot when you discover the little 'secret' of being a bit nuts. 
• And sometimes... you RYOIKI TENKAI: KANGO AN'EITEI.
• Chimera Shadow Garden is technically still incomplete, but I really was surprised that he was able to do this when I first came across this scene in the manga. I don't know why I was so hung up on 'he's a human but he can do Domain Expansion', when one of the first Domain Expansion users was Gojo himself? I guess I just assumed it's because I was rather taken with how Jogo, Dagon, Hanami and Mahito are all embodiments of certain aspects of nature that they have a 'domain', and lumped Gojo Satoru there with them?
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  We get a fun sequence as the Finger has to fight against hordes of shadow frogs, multiple Nue, and Megumi zipping around and jumping in and out of the liquid shadow to finally tearing down the Finger alongside with Divine Dog. 
• Again, the Finger being more or less the same kind of creature that so easily beat Yuji and Megumi earlier this season really does show the power boost that the Domain Expansion and Megumi's inherent training has given him. 
• And as Megumi lay victorious but exhausted, we get a final flashback to Tsumiki. The two's bond and how they interacted at school is pretty typical sibling bickering, but then we also get the revelation from Gojo that Megumi's father is a member of a Zen'in clan, who married Tsumiki's mother and vanished without a trace, giving Megumi to the Zen'in clan as 'price'. This does explain the constant talks from Noritoshi and Maki about how Megumi's related to the Zen'in clan. 
  

Episode 24:

• And this episode acts as the finale for the first season, and... I've always felt that it was a bit weird where this season finishes. I dunno if it would've worked better if it finished at the end of the Tokyo/Kyoto games? Regardless, we finish this fun little three-parter. 
  
• I do really like the initial scene as Yuji picks up Nobara and just runs off like a lunatic into the jungle, with the speed-lines from Nobara's eyes being a particular visual highlight.
• This leads to the rather iconic road fight! A short but very sweet fight. Kechizu blindsides Yuji and Nobara, spewing his corrosive blood over the two of them. Eso also shows up and stabs them with Wing King, and then gives an exposition about the deadliness of their poisonous blood and how it'll cause their flesh to rot. 
• It's never really explained and I just assume it's something similar to Hunter x Hunter, but Eso notes that since he's explained the full scope of his technique to the humans, they'll die quicker because the curse is stronger now. 
• I know that the flower rose tattoos are supposed to be a symbol of Eso's curse, but damn, Nobara in particular looks like a badass with them. 
• We also get a flashback to the origin story of the Death Painting Wombs, where it's involved with the ancestor of the Noritoshi Clan, Noritoshi Kamo... not to be confused with the Noritoshi Kamo in the present day, who's his descendant. Ancient Kamo aborted this woman who is capable of reproducing with curses and took the aborted fetuses to create nine Death Paintings. It's... it's surprisingly randomly gruesome! I don't know how I feel about this.
• More importantly, though, despite their monstrous nature, we get a rather heartwarming moment as their oldest brother Choso talks to Eso and Kechizu how the three of them are brothers and only have each other to rely on each other, even as they ally themselves with Mahito's crew for now. 
• And then in the midst of gloating over their poison, Nobara uses Resonance to voodoo-doll herself with the nails, and invites them to play 'chicken', inflicting them with pain and the artwork on her expressions and the voice-acting done by Seto Asami is pretty on-point here!
• It is a very sound tactical move, though, as psychotic as Nobara's expressions are framed... if they're going to die, might as well as take down the enemies with them. 
  
• Meanwhile, Yuji is inherently resistant to poisons thanks to being Sukuna's Vessel (with a helpful flashback to the incident with Junpei's jellyfish) and we get to see him charge and blitz through the pain to fight. 
• Lots of great shots of Yuji lighting up his fists with cursed energy, as well as Nobara and her nails! Again, the bright-blue warbling energy really is something that the anime does perfectly well. 
• There's a very smooth sequence as Yuji and Nobara goes back to back, spins around and switches partners. Eso realizes that the weaker Kechizu is much more damaged after being unable to block Yuji's initial barrage of punches as well as Nobara's Resonance attacks.
• And... if only he wasn't trying to kill our heroes, you really do feel Eso's panic as he's trying to consider whether to deactivate his blood curse to activate his combative Wing King... and then the bond of brotherhood shines through and he subconsciously deactivated it when Kechizu calls out for his brother. 
  
• And... it really is a huge moment of 'alas, poor villain'. In no way is whatever these two monsters doing going to be good for humanity, and especially not for Yuji and Nobara, but you really do feel that the two of them truly cared for their brothers and there's a sense of huge loss when poor Kechizu got murdered by Nobara's giant hammer. 
• 
  And then we get the very badass rapid flashing back and forth as Nobara and Yuji both activate their techniques and channel their energy through their nail and fist respectively... leading to a simultaneous Black Flash. I'm actually surprised Nobara gets this 'power-up', but it's definitely much welcome!
  
• Kechizu wakes up one last time, but then Nobara snaps her fingers in a very badass pose, causing the energy around her embedded nail to expand into a gigantic blue energy nail and murders the shit out of Kechizu in a shower of blood with 'Hairpin'. 
• And man, there really is a nice little contrast between Eso screaming for his little brother while Nobara goes 'I'll send your older brother to join you soon'. 
• We get one last extended action scene as Eso jumps on top of a pickup truck, holds the drivers hostage, while Yuji uses his superhuman speed to chase after the truck. It's a bit understated with all the blowing up of curses and whatnot, but I did find Yuji chasing down this truck to be rather fun! 
• And while all of this is going on, turns out that back where the fight initially happened, Nobara recovers the dismembered arm of Eso that Yuji blasts off with Black Flash, does one last Resonance, and causes two gigantic nails to erupt out of Eso's chest. And then Yuji delivers the final blow, apologizing to him. 
• We get a brief scene of Choso, Mahito and "Geto" playing, of all things, the game of Life. Hasbro's Life. Whatever that's called. Mahito gets really into stocks! But Choso gets pissed off when he senses the deaths of both of his brothers, setting up a future villain with a grudge against our heroes. 
• And I do like the moment and discussion later on between Yuji and Nobara. Yuji compares this to the three transfigured humans he was forced to kill back during the Mahito fight on top of the school, while this is the first time that Nobara's 'killed' a human. I'm not sure if it really is the act of killing a transfigured human (since the human hosts would be dead anyway) but moreso the fact that Eso and Kechizu actually act like proper, sentient beings. I do like Nobara's line about how they've only got a set amount of 'chairs' to fit with people they care about. 
• And as they recover Megumi, I absolutely love that after all the serious discussion about keeping the finger secure... Sukuna's mouth just comically manifests on Yuji's hand and noms down on the finger. That's a comical little moment!
  
• Also comical is Yuji and Nobara speaking in perfect unison and reacting to Megumi being alive. 
• Oh, right, Akari also exists. 
• We get a bit of a wrap-up. Some interesting minor details like Gojo talking to Utahime and considering who the traitor is. Mei Mei and Gojo having some kind of dalliance, where Gojo sends her 10 million yen to do something. Later on, Mei Mei and Todo recommending all our main characters to be raised to first-class level. We check in with some of the of the other charactesr too like Maki, Panda and Toge, and the season closes with the three first-years called in for a mission. 

And that's it for season one of Jujutsu Kaisen. Again, pretty fun, high-quality first season! I enjoyed rewatching this, as much as it took perhaps a bit longer than that to review. I'll definitely be watching Zero later on, and whenever I watch season two (which won't be for a couple of months) I think I'll be doing it episode-by-episode?

I do really think that the fast pacing of the first initial couple of arcs does help and hurt this series a bit because, like I said, until the Death Painting and the end of the Tokyo/Kyoto games, I really did feel like they could've stood to really emphasized the bond between Yuji, Megumi and Nobara a bit more. As it is, it really did feel like the three of them met each other, just got accustomed with each other... and immediately gets separated during the Demon Womb arc, and then Yuji dies shortly after and gets shunted off to his own training arc. It's not terrible or series-breaking, but it's a pretty fun series to follow utlimately.