Let’s say there is a fearsome immortal being. It works on the side of the “good guys,” and protects innocent people from curses. However, due to its own curse, this entity is at risk of becoming something else entirely. It will reach “Evolution” and change into a godlike being with no individual will. Allowing it to evolve is a risk, because who knows if the new god will be interested in protecting humans? There’s even a chance it will start cursing people.
This being is known as Tengan, and it is approaching its “Evolution.” In order to stop it, Tengan must take over the body of a human with whom it is compatible. The human will presumably lose its original sense of self, becoming “Tengan.” Unfortunately, the human vessel for this generation is an innocent little girl. This is the opening plot of Jujutsu Kaisen season 2. Gojo and Getou are assigned as bodyguards to Riko, the Star Plasma Vessel who will be taken over by Tengan. My thoughts on the first two episodes are below.
Episode 1: Hidden Inventory
The story begins in the time when Gojo was in highschool. Utahime and Mei – also highschoolers – are sent to explore a cursed location and exorcise whatever is haunting it. Several victims have gone missing near the haunted building. Mei and Utahime enter the building and explore it only to find that it’s a cursed barrier that traps people inside it until they are picked off by the curses. Together, Mei and Utahime figure out how to outwit the curse and get free. At that moment, the entire building is destroyed in a sudden explosion. The ones responsible for the explosion were Gojo and Getou.
Gojo and Getou are there with their teammate, Shoko. All three of them are powerful sorcerers, though Gojo is still the strongest by far. However, Gojo is also a troublemaker. This time, he forgot to put up a veil to contain the explosion. As a result, normal humans heard the explosion and had to deal with the aftermath. Luckily, no one was hurt. The professors at Jujutsu High are angry at Gojo for his carelessness, but they can only stay angry for so long because they need him for an important mission.
Gojo and Getou are assigned to the mission of protecting Tengan’s next vessel until it’s time for her to be assimilated into Tengan. The “vessel” is a middle-school girl. Several sects are out for her life, including the curse user group Q and the Star Religious group. Both want to make sure Tengan doesn’t assimilate the girl, each for their own reasons. Gojo and Getou will guard the girl until it’s time for her to be “erased.” When Gojo and Getou go to pick up the girl from a meeting hotel, they are attacked by two sorcerers from Q. The battle begins.
This first episode was highly impressive in terms of both audio and art. The visuals were very cinematic and fluid. For some scenes, the frames per second rate seems higher to me. Every time I see Gojo’s eyes, I feel almost awestruck by their beauty. As for the audio, the opening is “Ao no Sumika” by Tatsuya Kitani, and it’s a cool song for sure. I also really liked the ending theme, “Akari” by Soushi Sakiyama. The singer has an unusual voice and inflections, but I love the way he sounds. The melody of the chorus is great, too.
As for my thoughts on this episode, the main thing that came to mind was concern for the girl, Riko. We still don’t really know the nature of Tengan and the bodies it assimilates into itself. But it sounds like the human girl’s individual identity will have to die. That’s pretty tragic if you ask me. I understand that preventing Tengan’s “Evolution” is top priority. But if Yuuji or one of the more idealistic characters knew about this, they would surely be against the plan. Why should an innocent girl have to die? There might be other options. I’m looking forward to the anime addressing the ethics of this.
I’m excited to see how this season will play out. The characters Gojo and Getou are equally interesting to me. I also love the Japanese voice actors for both of them. It should be interesting to see how Getou ended up becoming an evil Jujutsu sorcerer.
Episode 2: Hidden Inventory 2
The two evil sorcerers from Q were quickly defeated by Gojo and Getou. When the girl, Riko, regains consciousness, she reveals her extremely assertive and confident personality. She knows that she is the Star Vessel and she seems to be agreeing to it. She also believes that she will retain her own identity and she will become Tengan and Tengan will become her. Next, Riko insists on going to her middle-school for the remainder of the day rather than being taken back to Jujutsu High for better protection.
Gojo agrees. He and Getou chat with Riko’s only family, the faithful maid Kuroi, while Riko is at school. Meanwhile, Toji Fushiguro is also out for blood. He puts a bounty of 30 million on Riko’s head. The result is that several evil Jujutsu users try to attack Riko at school. Getou, Gojo, and Kurou hurry to to save Riko. Getou encounters an enemy in the school hallways and fights him using his curse powers. Kuroi runs into a big man in a paper bag mask who is out to kill Riko. As for Gojo, he finds Riko in the chapel doing choir practice.
There are a few humorous moments where the school-girls (and the teacher) dote over his handsome appearance, but then Gojo gets serious. He takes Riko away as he is pursued by the enemies in paper bag masks. Getou defeats the old enemy in the hallway easily. He then reunites with Kuroi, who succeeded in bringing down one of the enemies, too. She’s a bad-ass maid. The enemies, who are all clones of each other, continue attacking Gojo. Before long, he defeats them. In the process, he tried to use his red orb power, but it failed. Apparently, Gojo doesn’t have full control of all his powers yet. At the end, Riko receives a message on her phone telling her that Kuroi has been kidnapped. To be continued.
Here are some random thoughts on episode 2. I’m glad Riko sees the assimilation as an honorable destiny, but I still feel concerned for her. Kuroi the maid is really cool and bad-ass. I loved when she hit the enemy in the nuts. I noticed the voice actress for Riko sounded vaguely familiar. I looked her up and she’s the same seiyuu who did Ushio in Summertime Rendering last year. She’s very young and just starting her career. I think she’s doing great. Speaking of voice actors, Takahiro Sakurai is one of my favorites. He plays Getou. All the voice actors are great, including the veteran VA Takehito Koyasu as Toji Fushiguro.
Back to the topic, I wonder exactly who Toji Fushiguro is and what he’s after. If I’m not mistaken, he is the one who goes on to create the cursed wombs (or maybe he has already?) by impregnating a woman with cursed energy. But other than that I know nothing about him. Also, Gojo’s power is really cool and all, and he’s a very interesting character. Still, I hope he becomes a bit less arrogant over the course of this season. I didn’t think he was quite this bad as an adult. Anyway that’s all for today.
Thank you for reading~
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