Jujutsu Kaisen

Episode 16

“-Group Battle 2-” is a kickass episode of Jujutsu Kaisen that picks up a lot of the slack that we were seeing in the action department last week, bringing plenty of oomph and rumble to each exchange of fists, feet, claws, and robot laser beams. It is also an episode that indulges in one of my least favorite battle manga tropes, where seemingly endless reams of exposition are dumped on the viewer by every character in nearly every scene. No battle strategy is left unexamined, no power is left unexplained, no relative power scale ranking is left unanalyzed, and no character motivations or backstory are left un-monologued.

In the case of Aoi and Yuuji, this exposition comes in the form of a handy lecture from Aoi that teaches Yuji how to better harness his cursed energy without relying on the delay of his physical strikes, which is a tactic that will only slow him down in fights against special grade opponents. I'm not entirely sure I understand the actual mechanics of what Aoi is teaching here – outside of Yuuji just needing to, like, be one with the earth around him, man – but the whole conversation works because of the humor and joy that comes from seeing Aoi vibe so goddamn hard with his newfound very best friend in the world.

This episode isn't really about Aoi and Yuuji, though. It isn't even about Nobara and Momo (though Nobara gets in some pretty sick mean mugging, all things considered). No, dear readers, this week is almost entirely dedicated to the showdown between one Mr. Ultimate Mechamaru and his esteemed ursine opponent, along with the supremely important lesson that the robot boy learns as he gets his metal ass soundly handed to him in the fight: Panda is not a panda.

I'll be honest, while I'm totally down for the content of each character's backstory and whatnot that we learned throughout the Robot V. Panda bout, I'm not as jazzed on the execution. Mechamaru's whole deal is decidedly grim and honestly pretty fascinating: He was born with the cursed power to expend his energy and possess “puppets” from vast distances, but at the expense of a wrecked and dangerously frail body. He is actually confined to a bloody tub filled with gore and machine parts that hook him up to his robot avatar, disfigured by a condition that leaves his skin prone to blister and burn even in moonlight. This has naturally led him to be a bit of a grouch, understandably, and to regard the likes of Panda with malice and disgust.

The thing is, did we really need to include his whole entire mini-arc about learning to value the friendships he's made with the Kyoto class, not to mention becoming bros with Panda himself by the end of his smackdown? Don't get me wrong, I was plenty emotional seeing Mechamaru resigned to defeat, only to have Panda be a good ol' bear bro and offer up his digits, but it seemed like this emotional journey might have been better served over the course of multiple episodes, so we would have time to appreciate the contrast of Mechamaru's outlooks pre/post Exchange Event. Also, while I definitely dig how Panda is revealed to be a “cursed corpse” with three different cores that can switch forms and power sets at will, his backstory is a lot to take in over the course of just fifteen minutes. I'm still not entirely sure how Principal Yaga's powers allowed him to create a fully-living cursed organism that is capable of housing multiple souls, growing as a living being, and so on. I think I might have actually preferred it if allowed itself to revel in the strangeness of the fight and spread out the exposition more over the course of the next few episodes.

Does it sound like I'm being down on JJK this week? I sure as hell hope not, because let me be clear: There is literally no universe that exists where this episode isn't an absolute blast to behold, and any complaints I have about the clunky writing are small potatoes compared to getting to see MAPPA flex their muscles on a badass fight between a Magical Shapeshifting Panda/Gorilla/Mystery-Soul Buddy and a Motherfucking Robot Who Shoots Motherfucking Lasers Out of His Face. And did you guys see little Baby Panda with his panda-themed baby clothes, doing little practice punches with his Curse Daddy? I hope to god Jujutsu Kaisen doesn't start licensing Baby Panda merch any time soon, because I will surely become bankrupt on account of purchasing all of it.

So, while this wasn't a perfect episode of Jujutsu Kaisen, it absolutely kept the hype train rolling in the right direction, and I'm eager to see where things pick up from here. By the looks of the preview, Round 3 of the Wacky Cursed Spirit Exorcism Race is going to have the ladies of the teams duke it out all at once. If that means there's a chance to see Best Couple Nobara and Maki tag-team it up and use their deadly claw-hammer/polearm combination attacks to whoop some Kyoto Tech ass, then by all means, sign me right the hell up!

Rating:

Odds and Ends

• This week's Jujutsu Stroll was…okay? Basically, all of the Kyoto girls end up relying on Mechamaru for favors because the boys in the class are too stupid/scary to be easily approachable. It's kind of cute, I guess, but it doesn't have a drunk Takada-chan noshing on good eats, or Goujou pestering Nanami with crude drawings of dicks, so it gets a C- from me.

• Nobara gets this week's best line when she calls out “that bitch Mai, the watered-down version of Maki”, which is such a devastatingly accurate and cruel bit of trash-talk to toss at a perpetually shitty sibling like Mai.

• Did I miss a line or some pop-culture reference with the whole “Pepper-chan” bit that Nobara was doing? I didn't get it, but I'm almost too afraid to ask about it, since I'm sure it'll seem stupidly obvious once someone explains it to me.

Jujutsu Kaisen is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.