Don’t go eating fingers you picked up off the ground…
Streaming: Crunchyroll
Episodes: 24
Source: Manga
Summary: Yuuji is a high school student with an enviable amount of strength and ability in sports, but rather than join a sports team, he’d rather hang out with the Occult Research Club. It means he can leave school grounds at a reasonable hour, which is important because he spends that extra time visiting his dying grandfather in the hospital. One afternoon, after beating the track-and-field coach at his own games, he rushes away to buy flowers and put them in his grandfather’s room. His grandfather gives Yuuji some advice – do what he can to help people, or else end up dying alone. Unfortunately this fate comes to pass for his grandfather, who then passes away.
As he’s leaving the hospital, Yuuji is cornered by a man named Fushiguro who’s been hanging around the school grounds in search of a cursed object that he believes Yuuji might have. Unfortunately, Yuuji gave it to the upperclassmen in the Occult club, and they’re unsealing it as they speak. They rush to the school, but it’s too late – a lower-level (but still dangerous!) curse has discovered their folly and is now attempting to supplement its own power by consuming the cursed object. Fushiguro tells Yuuji to stay behind, but Yuuji feels he has it within his power to help his friends, so he rushes into the fray. Though he’s able to save the other club members, he finds himself about to be eaten by the creature. He then pulls one last, desperate maneuver and gives himself the finger – by literally eating the cursed finger. This gives him the power to destroy the curse, but has the added terrible effect of turning him into one. Will Fushiguro have to take him out?
Impressions: Screen captures are taken using the official legal stream of the series, when available.
Out of all the new series this season I wasn’t already familiar with, I think Jujutsu Kaisen is the one I’ve been hearing about the most. Riding high on some well-regarded source material it seems like an ideal story for this time of the year – some cool action, grotesque, spooky monsters, all coalesced around a likeable male hero (and his body’s new demonic interloper, maybe). But it’s easy to get into the mood when the leaves are falling outside and the neighbors are all doing their best to decorate in the Halloween spirit. Once the spiders and skeletons are put away and the snow stars falling, will this kind of creepy anime series still be entertaining?
My prediction based on this episode is, thus far, yes. The series seems to have more than just demons and darkness at its core. I think one of my favorite things about how the series establishes itself is that the first episode puts its early focus toward the emotional core of the story. Yuuji’s grandfather is a memorable character despite the fact that he’s not on screen for very long; his curmudgeonly nature is revealed to be more than the typical comic relief when, just prior to his death, he tries to convey his regrets to his grandson. His message of helping others becomes a motif that carries through to Yuuji’s confrontation with the curse late in the episode. While Yuuji doesn’t otherwise dwell much over his grandfather’s death during the episode aside from some inner-monologuing about his own fear of death (though I suspect his grief might show up more later) it’s still made very clear how much he may still be influenced by him.
I think this message of “doing whatever is in your power to help others,” something that sounds simple on its surface, is likely why I enjoyed this episode beyond just the surface level appreciation for its visuals. I think that there’s a lot of selfishness in the world that’s been manifesting in ways that are undeniably harmful to many people, especially as we enter month 153 of this pandemic situation (well, that’s how long it feels to me…). I think it’s easy to fall into a trap of despairing over all the bad things in life that feel impossible to change, when in fact so much positive change can be accomplished by people making the choice to do right by others and help in ways that they’re able. Though shounen anime gets dumped on a lot for sometimes lacking in nuance, I think it’s good to remember that simplicity and straightforwardness can convey important messages as well.
Having said all that, this episode demonstrates Yuuji’s expression of this idea through his willingness to do anything, even to the point of extreme danger, to help his friends in the Occult Research Club. It’s the second part of the episode where it demonstrates its other major strength, which is its interesting and exciting action direction, and great animation. Coming off of the uneven (but often exhilarating, I hear) God of High School, director Sung Hoo Park demonstrates a good sense for conveying some of the extreme things that happen while Fushiguro and Yuuji battle the curse. Yuuji in particular does some crazy flying around, and when he eats his fateful snack, the distortion of his face is suitably affecting. There’s no denying that this show has a very cool look and promises to be an exciting ride.
If I’m to be critical at all, I’d have to say that, despite having an emotional connection with the early themes of the episode, I’m not sure that I have a lot of interest in the show itself. It’s a difficult feeling to explain, but I had a similar reaction to Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – I liked the characters and the show looked really cool, yet I found it a chore to actually watch it at times (I still haven’t finished it, though I intend to at some point). I have a lot of positive feelings toward this episode, and yet it took me two tries to watch it all the way through and several days to figure out how to talk about it. I think there are just some cases in anime fandom where a series is missing some indescribable “X” factor that makes it compelling to a particular person, and I have a sense at the moment that this series might be lacking in a way that would keep me enthusiastically tuning in from week-to-week.
There’s also a brief, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment that I was originally reticent to comment on, but on further thought I decided it would be important to mention. As the curse is attempting to consume Yuuji’s classmates, the multi-armed entity appears to grope his female club-mate. The cut is maybe a second or two long (about 18 minutes in) and I think it’s easy to miss, so there’s maybe some sense of plausible deniability. However, it was obvious enough to me that it mentally snapped me out of the moment, and having gone back to confirm that I wasn’t completely mis-remembering something I thought it prudent to mention for those like me who aren’t interested in that kind of material.
Perhaps as the ensemble cast expands and we get some more information about what exactly is going on in this episode’s cold open (I’m definitely intrigued), I might feel a little more compelled to become a regular viewer. That aside, I can see why this show was so hotly-anticipated, and for those who have the distinct luxury of watching anime without my kind of hang-ups and baggage, it looks like this will turn out to be one of the more popular viewing experiences this season.
Pros: Good animation and exciting action scenes. I enjoyed the theme of choosing to help others.
Cons: Currently seems to lack an “X” factor that would really make it stand out.
Content Warnings: Violence. Body horror. Character Death. Very brief groping.
Grade: B
