Spoilers Ahead!
This is the one episode of Jujutsu Kaisen that I have been waiting for for the past three weeks, and it absolutely delivers. This is 23 minutes of some of the best animated fighting I have seen. It is all about Higuruma vs. Yuji, and it absolutely delivers on the hype leading into this fight.
This fight opens with Yuji trapped in Higuruma’s domain expansion, which is that of a courtroom. The design of this is just so interesting, and the fact that Yuji has to try and prove his innocence or else he gets his cursed energy stripped from him, it is just an incredibly cool concept that completely works. The shikigami “Judgeman” that controls Higuruma’s court is so creepy, and I always find the little bits of horror in Jujutsu Kaisen to be one of the really intriguing aspects.
Once outside of the domain expansion, Yuji has none of his cursed energy due to being found guilty. This is when the real fight begins, and the hand-to-hand combat is breathtaking. It is redundant to keep saying how good the animation in this show is, but it is truly incredible week after week. They say some episodes have a higher production budget than others, but it is impossible to tell with Jujutsu Kaisen.
Because Yuji doesn’t have any cursed energy, he is forced to call a retrial, where it is brought up that he killed millions due to the Shibuya Incident last season. What makes this episode so good is that while it is all still a fight, it doesn’t sacrifice any of the character moments. They did a really good job of still humanizing Higuruma as he figures out that it was really Sukuna who committed the Shibuya murders, as we know. The episode ends with Yuji beating Higuruma, who gives up and awards one of his points to Yuji.
So the first part of the plan to stop the Culling Games is done, and next week Megumi fights Reggie as the Culling Games rapidly approach the end of part one, with only three more episodes until the end of part one. As exciting as the end of this part will be, I have a hard time believing that any set of episodes will top the last two.
10/10
