Highlights
- Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 resumes with the Shibuya Incident Arc, featuring a brand-new opening theme song. The episode adapts the manga's start of the arc and its continuation, showcasing stellar animation and pacing.
- The episode transitions from slice of life to an espionage thriller, showcasing the versatility of the series. It also explores topics such as love, body-shaming, and self-acceptance through heartfelt scenes between the characters.
- The episode reveals the existence of a mole, Kokichi Muta, who betrayed the jujutsu society for personal reasons. His actions set everything in motion for the start of the Shibuya Incident, leading to battles and chaos.
Warning: The following contains spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen Episode 30, "It's Like That", now streaming on Crunchyroll.After a small summer break Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 resumes with the first episode of the Shibuya Incident Arc and a brand-new opening theme song SPECIALZ which manages to capture what this arc entails without giving away too much to anime-only fans. As for the episode itself, it felt like two completely different episodes in one, as it adapted the manga's start of this arc and its continuation that sets the plot of the Shibuya Incident.
Once again, the animation, direction, and pace were stellar, and they didn't forget any of the best moments and conversations between Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara in the first half of the episode. It's Like That goes from slice of life to a spokon, to espionage thriller, to an exciting mecha in the span of 20 minutes.
Romance
Some fans might still be under the massive shock of Hidden Inventory and Premature Death, and that was something that the manga clearly had in mind at the time. The transition from one devastating arc to another that might be even more devastating needed something different a more positive tone, and with the trio of Jujutsu High 1st years as protagonists.
Of course, it's impossible to forget about the first step in this direction, Human Earthworm 4, probably the best movie ever, but what this is truly about, like the fourth entry of the Human Earthworm saga, is love. For that, the character of Yuko Ozawa serves a very specific role, a one-time appearance when the series needed this kind of plot. Her sole purpose is to unlock a series of very heartfelt scenes between the three friends, and between her and Yuji while also showing another side of him from his Middle School days.
It can feel forced because it is forced, but that isn't necessarily negative. Yuko's brief intervention brought the cute texting between Yuji and Nobara, or the conversation about black coffee with Megumi, and even touching topics such as body-shaming, self-acceptance, or playing into stereotypes. It also felt better thanks to being interspersed with Mei and Todo recommending them for 1st-grade sorcerers, followed by a truly eye-opening ping-pong match that definitely didn't need to go that hard.
Either way, shonen anime is often criticized for not showing their character personalities interact in a more day-to-day way which allows them to really show their true colors. It's moments like this, or with Riko in Hidden Inventory that make Jujutsu Kaisen stand out. The fighting and power-ups or training arcs are amazing too but work even better with some regular life context. Yuko's character went by in an instant, but all the moments that flourished around her made her memorable.
The Mole
A cut to black and after that a swift in the tone. Dark clouds give us the first hint. Play time is over and now the precedent of the Shibuya Incident begins. The constant leaking of information was evident but at the same time no one becomes a mole without some assurances or future planning. Mechamaru, or Kokichi Muta the man behind the puppets, fooled everyone twice.
The motive behind his treason lies in a rather common trope, the search of a body that allows him to scape his condition. A natural human restlessness has always come from the idea of a perfect body or a body capable of achieving immortality. In Kokichi's case it didn't need to go that far, all he wanted was a regular human body to share his life with his friend without being tied to the dozens of artificial elements barely keeping him alive. And who was better than Mahito to make his dream come true.
His actions have brought death and pain to the jujutsu society and were born from a selfish wish. It seemed evident that his scission was permanent however his plan had a double agent element to it, as he now wants to warn Gojo about the plan for Shibuya. This act and the battle between him and Mahito with Geto acting as a spectator sets everything in motion for the start of the Shibuya Incident.
An Evangelion Reference?
Neon Genesis Evangelion's everlasting impact reaches a great variety of genres and Jujutsu Kaisen wasn't an exception. Before this episode it's possible to find some references here and there, but not as evident as it was during episode 30. Gege Akutami already mentioned how big of an influence Hideaki Anno's work was in creating a series, talking specifically about Shinji's character breaking the traditional hero tropes or the way he purposely left some things unexplained throughout the show. Growing up being a fan of Evangelion left a mark on Jujutsu Kaisen in a number of ways.
In this case, is more of an aesthetic inspiration rather than a narrative construction idea. Kokichi's secret weapon has a very similar look to the EVAs, specially Asuka's unit. On top of that, his scenes inside the giant machine with a battery time that represents his cursed energy are basically the same as the many scenes of the EVA pilots inside the capsules. For the anime, even the sounds are quite similar. These types of connections and references are always appreciated by the fans, and it does make sense for these two unique shows to have ties.