Catching Up With Jujutsu Kaisen: The Shibuya Incident

*Warning! I’ll be summarizing the first three episodes of the arc, as well as discussing some events from later on in the arc. I’ll try my best to avoid major spoilers, as this arc is best enjoyed if viewed completely blind, but it’s almost impossible to talk about it without spoiling anything. If you haven’t watched it yet, go do that before reading. Here’s a link to the Crunchyroll page for the series to do just that. If you want to read anyways, thanks! But you have been warned.*

Oh, look. An Eclipse. Well, at least no one got sexually assaulted this time around.

Ever since the Jujutsu Kaisen anime started, I’ve heard tales and whispers of this arc. “Just wait until the Shibuya Incident,” people said. “I’m dreading the day the Shibuya Incident gets animated,” others remarked. It was spoken of with the same awe, anticipation, and dread as the god damn Rapture! It immediately grabbed my attention. Fans were making some big claims; would the show itself live up to them?

And now, here we are. The end of Jujutsu Kaisen’s longest arc to date. Was it a dud? Or did it live up to the hype?

It starts as all the worst nightmares do: with a teenager trying to act on a crush.

The arc gets off to a warm and wholesome start. After completing a mission, our main trio split up to do their regular teenage thing. Fushiguro heads home, Itadori buys tickets to an awful sci-fi movie (which is the same series of films that he watched with Junpei, because even the nicest scenes in this show have to break my heart), and Kugisaki goes shopping.

Before long, our leading lady is approached by a new character: Yuko Ozawa, an old schoolmate of Itadori’s. When she was short and overweight, Itadori was the only boy in their class who didn’t make fun of her. Now she’s tall and thin and she thinks she has a chance. But naturally, she’s too nervous to act, so she needs Kugisaki’s help.

It’s a sweet, if uneventful, episode. Ozawa is super cute and likable, and her hasty friendship with Kugisaki is a ton of fun. Her backstory with Itadori makes her an interesting member of the cast, and it highlights some of Itadori’s best traits as a hero. Besides, it’s just plain fun to see the main trio acting like goofy teenagers together.

Hope you enjoyed the calm. Now comes the storm.

The Kyoto branch of Jujutsu Tech believes that they’re harboring a traitor. With help from Itadori, Fushiguro, and Kugisaki, Utahime goes to investigate her best lead. Unfortunately, her hunch is quickly confirmed: Mechamaru is the traitor.

Not gonna lie: I forgot that dude existed. It doesn’t exactly make for a compelling plot twist when a) it was hardly foreshadowed in the prior seasons, and b) it focuses on a character that has had, like, ten minutes of screentime.

Hard cut to the man himself. He cut a simple deal with Geto and Mahito: information in exchange for the restoration of his body. Now the deal is done; Mechamaru’s body is healed and Geto’s plan is ready. Now it’s time for both sides to betray each other.

I lowkey love the fact that both sides didn’t even bother pretending like they wouldn’t stab each other in the back. They all knew what they were about.

Mechamaru VS Mahito is a bat shit crazy fight! It basically turns into a Kaiju/Mech anime for two episodes and I love it! Not only that, but this battle went a long way in making me actually like Mechamaru. Dude betrayed all the good guys, including the girl he betrayed everyone for in the first place. But now he’s slamming down an UNO reverse card; he’s determined to redeem himself and prevent the catastrophe he helped Geto prepare.

Given that the rest of the arc exists, I feel I don’t need to explain what happens next.

Halloween. Shibuya. All across the city, regular people party and celebrate the holiday without a care in the world. But some notice something the others don’t: a strange shadow falling over the city. Before they know it, everyone is trapped by an invisible wall. Soon, the trapped denizens shout a strangely specific plea: “Bring Gojo Satoru.”

So naturally, the man himself struts right inside to see what’s going on. But not before the other sorcerers can assemble on masse. Thus the stage is set for the disaster to come.

The Shibuya Incident is a strong reminder of this show’s genre. Sorry, were you enjoying Itadori and the gang hanging out and talking about crushes and bad movies? Sorry, but this is a horror show. Fun’s over.

Some seriously fucked up shit goes down in this arc! Characters get slaughtered by the dozen in the most brutal, bloody, tragic, and shocking ways! Regular people get butchered by the thousand, swept away in black holes, sliced into oblivion by Sukuna, burned to death, devoured, mutated, you name it! Not even our main characters or villains are exempt! Every single person can and likely will die!

I love this! It gives everything that happens in the arc real stakes and tension! Nobody was safe! At no point did I know what was going to happen next! Every single second of it kept me guessing!

Practically every single plot thread and character arc that has been established up until now comes to a head in this arc. Itadori and Mahito’s rivalry. Nanami’s survivor’s guilt. Geto’s followers. Mechamaru and Miwa’s romantic tension. It even temporarily revives a dead character to resolve his fatherly conflict! The show up until now laid out a veritable armory of Chekhov’s guns, and the Shibuya Incident fires just about every single one like it’s a god damn twenty-one gun salute!

And then there’s Itadori’s character arc. Hoo boy, I need to do me another Icons of Shounen soon, because things went from 0 to 100 real quick with this one! Yuuji gets abused this arc, from physical KOs to extreme emotional and phycological torment. There are not one, not two, but three consecutive episodes where his mental state gets torn to pieces. Poor kid can’t catch a break! Our happy-go-lucky shounen meathead grows up the hard way.

While this incident focuses strongly on the horror side of the series, let’s not forget that this is still a shounen. Which means that people have gotta throw hands. How are the fight scenes?

One word: awesome!

There are a ton of them, too! You can hardly go one episode without something awesome, gruesome, or horrifying happening. Sometimes you get all three at once!

There are so many good battles that I don’t even know which to pick. Gojo’s intense showdown with all the Cursed Spirits, with an army of human hostages stuck in the middle. Itadori’s bathroom brawl with Chozo, complete with a Rocky-style rendition of the adrenaline-pumping ‘REMEMBER’ track. Both of Sukuna’s city-devastating divine battles. Fushiguro’s Domain tug-of-war with Dagon. Kugisaki even gets to land a critical hit on Mahito, and god damn does that shit feel good!

Until it doesn’t.

Animation wise, there are definitely some peaks and valleys. Itadori’s flurry-fisted showdown with a Locus spirit certainly can’t compare to Sukuna’s divine battle against Mahagora. But even at its worst, the show doesn’t look all that bad. Considering the absolutely brutal production schedule MAPPA employees are faced with year round, it’s a miracle the arc looks as great as it does at all!

Seriously, fuck that studio. Praise their staff, not their business practices.

The Shibuya Incident is far and away the best arc of Jujutsu Kaisen thus far! It blends horror and shounen absolutely perfectly, giving us some of the darkest moments the genre has ever seen! Beautifully animated, perfectly paced, shocking, upsetting, and exciting, it is a compelling watch right from the start!

In many ways, this arc feels like the end of Jujutsu Kaisen. At least as we’ve known it up unto this point. It makes me wonder: just where the hell is this story gonna go from here?! I can’t wait to find out!

But can my boy Itadori get a break? Please? Just for a day. My boy needs a hug.

And the animators. Give them, like, a year of paid vacation time. Y’know what, make it two. Don’t pretend like you can’t afford it, MAPPA!