Highlights
- The fight scene between Yuji and the Grasshopper Curse in episode 32 of Jujutsu Kaisen was disappointing at best.
- The episode explores the theme of the value of a life, with Satoru Gojo being morally ambiguous and making the choice to play along in the battle instead of ending it instantly.
- The plan to seal Satoru Gojo is explained, involving the use of veils, domain amplification, and a powerful cursed object called Prison Realm.
Warning: The following contains spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen Episode 32, "Shibuya Incident", now streaming on Crunchyroll.
The downward spiral continues, and hopefully, reaches the bottom. Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 has with certain frequency divided its episodes into two halves almost completely opposed in tone, pace, or even animation style. And for most of it, it has been a good choice. Truth is, the season itself is starting to feel like those halves that are completely different.
It started out with Hidden Inventory and Premature Death, two stories that were clearly polished to the maximum. The new direction of the anime adaption gave it its own unique feeling, separating from the Jujutsu Kaisen manga. For the first three episodes of the Shibuya Incident however, it has been getting worse and closer to any other anime adaption. Episode 32 marks the biggest contrast in terms of quality.
Worst Fight Of The Year Candidate
The problems with ghosting became evident in the battle between Ultimate Mechamaru and Mahito, the difference though, that was a good fight. For most of the episode, the story is centered around Yuji and Mei going to the Meiji Shrine Station, where another veil has been set. Here, he encounters a brand-new Special Grade Curse, the Grasshopper Curse, a character known for being incredibly annoying.
To be fair, the curse played his part to perfection. A detestable character from beginning to end. What made it worse was the fight scene between Yuji and him. Itadori seems to be on a completely different level power-wise, after the massive growth he endured during the attack at Jujutsu High. Yet, the struggle goes on for way too long, especially considering that in most scenes you can hardly see what's going on.
The voice acting wasn't precisely memorable either. Between the ghosting, the music, and the voice acting, the scene where they exchange blows One Piece style is almost cathartic but not in a good sense. This whole interaction at least serves the purpose of believing that it can't get any worse, it's only a way up from here.
Just Non-Sorcerers
Not everything from this episode was atrocious, but it also wasn't great enough to eclipse what came before. At least it freed the fans from an unimaginable full episode about the locusts plague. Towards the end of the episode, they finally continued from the ending of Evening Festival. A few seconds of Satoru entering Shibuya to begin the episode didn't help this case. Regardless, his battle with Jogo, Hanami and Choso kicked off.
At this point, the show continues exploring the topic of the value of life. This omnipresent conversation has been brought from different perspectives, a society composed entirely by sorcerers by exterminating everyone that isn't, the same scenario but with curses, a choice of powerful and weak, gifted and not or how the life of a sorcerer weights more heavily than any other. A common theme in shonen, but especially interesting from the perspective of the Jujutsu Kaisen world.
The first strategy to contain Gojo was to surround him with all the people trapped in Shibuya and without hesitation launch attacks that kill indiscriminately. To avoid killing people with his own techniques Satoru contains himself and limits his powers to defense. He won't even flinch about the constant deaths, but yet, instead of ending the battle as instantly as he could, he decides to play along. The layer of his persona being morally ambiguous and basing his few beliefs on Geto's influence makes the situation more complicated. Why shouldn't I kill them all? He might ask. At the end of the day, they are just non-sorcerers, and once again their frivolous deaths are being used to support the plot.
Satoru's Contention Plan Explained
On the other side of things, and also towards the end of the episode, the plan to seal Satoru Gojo has been more or less explained and so far is working smoothly. Through some creepy scenes, Geto narrated the necessary steps, from the veils to the type of attacks, the time limit, and the use of a cursed object to succeed.
The veils, thought to later use people as shields in a tight crowed space were the first necessary measure against him. Knowing that he would come alone to fix the problem since other sorcerers would get in the way. Once he falls into the trap, your best fighters need to come at him after making sure the first requirement is set. However, they can't win in a fight of domains, so they learned a specific technique that would allow them to hit Satoru: Domain Amplification.
The Domain Amplification is an anti-domain technique in which the user envelops themselves in their own domain. Thanks to that, they can neutralize any cursed technique or domain expansive they come in contact with. However, while it's active the user can't activate any innate technique and have to limit themselves to hand-to-hand combat. It was essential just to break through Gojo's Infinite and be able to hit him.
Of course, not even this technique was enough to beat him. The ultimate goal was to keep him occupied for about 20 minutes. The special grade cursed object Prison Realm, was the final piece of the puzzle. A barrier so powerful that it can seal anything. The whole facade Geto orchestrated in Shibuya was just so he would have enough time to set up Prison Realm, a card that guarantees victory if kept a secret.