Highlights
- The Shibuya Incident in Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 is a pivotal arc that shapes the overall story and character development of the main cast.
- Pseudo-Geto carefully plans the incident to trap Satoru Gojo and eliminate his strength, allowing the villains to wreak havoc in Shibuya.
- Sukuna's awakening and brutal battle with Jogo results in the destruction of a massive section of Shibuya, leading to a traumatic experience for Yuji and significant character development.
Warning: The following article contains massive spoilers for the rest of Jujutsu Kaisen season 2: The Shibuya Incident.
In the second season of Jujutsu Kaisen, fans are now well into the most important arc in the entire franchise so far. This arc is the one that most fans point to as having the greatest impact on the overall story, as well as containing the most significant character development for the main cast. These moments cement who these characters turn out to be and what the story holds in store for them in the future.
The Shibuya Incident is not just one isolated event. Rather, it is a collection of different things that all take place within the area of Shibuya at around the same time, eventually culminating into a massive incident that works towards the start of the next arc and the future of Jujutsu Kaisen. This arc also contained many deaths for characters that fans simply never saw coming, whether they were good or evil. With all of that out of the way, let's see take a look at the Shibuya Incident!
Going into the Shibuya Incident
The Shibuya Incident wasn't just something that happened by chance. Rather, it was a carefully laid out scheme that was under intensive planning for a very long time at that point by Pseudo-Geto, so that he could get Satoru Gojo out of the picture to further his plans for the future. It started with the lowering of a veil over Shibuya which prevented people from leaving and contained an announcement to call Gojo to their location. As Gojo entered, he went up against the Disaster Curses.
During their battle, Gojo is far too strong for any of them to deal with and it becomes quite clear that they simply cannot match him. However, we later find out that this was never the objective, rather it was to distract Gojo for long enough so Pseudo-Geto could trap him in the Prison Realm. Upon the success of this objective, the Disaster Curses are then free to do as they please, wreaking havoc across Shibuya.
Gojo's strength alone is something that posed the biggest problem to whatever Pseudo-Geto was planning. So, locking him up took him out of the picture. After this, the goal of the heroes in this arc is to free Gojo from the Prison Realm, with the rest of the arc and the crucial events starting properly from this point.
Sukuna Awakens
As Yuji independently makes his way throughout the Shibuya Station to find and free Gojo, he comes across Choso, a Death Painting similar to those he fought with Nobara. This is a fight that leads to Choso overpowering and defeating Yuji but failing to kill him after seeing a memory of an event that never happened, causing him to exit the area in confusion and leaving Yuji knocked out on the floor. This is where Mimiko and Nanako came in.
In a misguided attempt to defeat Pseudo-Geto and free their master, the girls feed Yuji finger of Sukuna. After Gojo's imprisonment, the rest of the villains were free to do as they pleased and since Jogo wanted to usher in an age of curses, he came in and fed Sukuna many more fingers to get the King of Curses to help with this goal. Upon awakening, Sukuna makes a deal with Jogo that if the latter can land a single blow on him, he will do whatever Jogo asks, leading to a massive battle between the curses.
In this battle, however, the difference in strength is quite apparent as Sukuna is able to kill Jogo without any real effort by using a secret technique. After this, he senses that Megumi, whom he eventually needed for his own plans, is in danger. This caused him to hurry to Megumi's location, where he saw Megumi barely alive after having summoned his most powerful and uncontrollable Shikigami, Mahoraga, to defeat Haruta.
This led to an intense battle between the King of Curses and Mahoraga, who was a great combatant against Sukuna due to his amazing ability to adapt to any ability that he went up against. However, at the end of the battle, Sukuna opened his barrier-less Domain Expansion, Malevolent Shrine, to defeat Mahoraga In doing so, completely obliterated a massive section of Shibuya, killing thousands.
This is perhaps the most important part of the Shibuya Incident arc as it is the most infamous and violent moment in the entire arc and had many implications for the future of the series. Just as it was done, Sukuna goes back into Yuji's body, taunting him about what he did. This was an extremely traumatic experience for Yuji as he felt responsible for killing every innocent person there, something which greatly shaped his character development going forward.
Character Deaths
As stated before, there are many aspects that make the Shibuya Incident so infamous among the fandom. The emotional turmoil regarding the attachment fans have to some characters in the series is in full display here as this arc is notorious for toying with their emotions. Throughout the arc, many characters die, whether they are heroes that we have come to love or even villains that we despise.
Before Sukuna's awakening, Nanami, Maki and Naobito make their way to find Gojo in the Shibuya Train Station but come across a Disaster Curse named Dagon, whom they all team against. While they're powerless to stop him, Toji joins the fight and kills Dagon swiftly, breaking the curse's Domain Expansion. Just as this Domain breaks, however, Jogo comes and sets the 3 sorcerers on fire, severely burning Nanami and Maki and killing Naobito. Much later, we see that Nanami has survived but is covered with debilitating burns.
However, he eventually comes across Mahito who then kills him in front of Yuji's eyes after Sukuna's rampage. In the ensuing battle against Mahito, Nobara eventually joins the fight. By greatly injuring Mahito, she is revealed to be a perfect counter to the Disaster Curse due to her Cursed Technique. However, this fight also leads to tragedy as Mahito touches her eye and seemingly kills her, something that sends Yuji into a severe depression when mixed with all that he has seen before.
Now being at the lowest point he has ever been in, Yuji ceases to continue fighting Mahito. However, this is when Aoi Todo makes his much-awaited return to the series, strengthening Yuji's resolve and making it clear to him that none of what has happened was his fault. This makes Yuji remember who he is as he teams up with Todo against Mahito and despite Todo losing his arm and effectively his cursed technique, Yuji eventually overpowers the Disaster Curse.
Striking fear into Mahito's heart, Yuji causes him to run away to Pseudo-Geto, who is waiting for him. However, instead of saving him, Pseudo-Geto exorcises the Cursed Spirit and takes him as his own. This is where the arc comes to a head as many of the previously unseen characters make their comeback to eventually defeat the impostor and end the Shibuya Incident once and for all, only for him to escape along with the entrapped Gojo in the Prison Realm.
With this, the Shibuya Incident comes to an end and the Culling Game arc officially begins. While not only considered to be a singular event in the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, the Shibuya Incident is mostly attributed to Sukuna's mass genocide of thousands of civilians. This arc decides the fates of many characters as well as sets the stage for what the rest of the series has in store!
Jujutsu Kaisen can be streamed on Prime Video.
