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Jujutsu Kaisen Episode 12: Itadori vs Junpei & Mahito!?

Let me say this, Episode 12 of Jujutsu Kaisen is arguably the best episode so far. On the same level as episode 6. The episode starts with a small talk between Nanami and Itadori on call, which goes how one would accept; Nanami tries to stop our hot-headed protagonist and Itadori does what a protagonist usually does, rush into a fight!

He fights Junpei for a bit while holding back, as he knows that Junpei is not a bad person, there must be a reason as to why he’s doing so. 

During this, we also get to know about Junpei’s abilities; that is summoning a large, jellyfish-like shikigami. It used a poison called the Moon Dregs: which can paralyze its targets. 

junpei wylon

It also has two big stingers capable enough to pierce through a human’s flesh.

While his abilities seem to be quite amazing on paper, he is nothing even against Itadori, a relatively new Jujutsu Sorcerer. After a few hits, Itadori finally has a heart to heart conversation with his friend. That’s when Itadori realised why Junpei said that people don’t have hearts, its because he doesn’t want to believe that people’s hearts can be so cruel.

Itadori tries to talk him out of it and get him to join Jujutsu Tech, only to be interfered by Mahito, who captures him. Junpei stuck between choosing a side, falls right into the hands of Mahito, even after Itadori begging him to run away. To understand Mahito’s plan in detail, you can read it here.

The next few scenes are nothing but heartbreaking, as we see Itadori beg Sukuna to revert Junpei to normal, which he declines. While it is not known if Junpei can ever be reverted back to normal, never say never!

He shouldn’t have been able to do this because of their contract but it seems like Itadori really does not remember the bindin vow Sukuna made with him.  It seems that a curse is not obliged to follow the contract if the vessel forgets about it, as he did try to check if Itadori remembered it.

He then proceeds to belittle Itadori and laugh his heart out and is joined by Mahito as well.

goddamn sukuna you mf

The scene of both of these curses laughing is horrifying, you can feel that second-hand embarrassment and shame. Helpless, Junpei faintly says “Why?” to Itadori with tears in his eyes as one of Mahito’s monsters and falls to the ground.

Enraged, Itadori delivers a solid punch to Mahito. While Mahito thought that Itadori’s punches can’t affect him, it seems like our rookie Jujutsu Sorcerer is quite adept at dealing with guys like Mahito, as he not only hits Mahito’s physical appearance but his soul as well.

The next dialogue by Itadori is terrifying in all honesty, as he says “I will kill you”; engulfed in rage. If it isn’t obvious already, this is not something one says seriously, especially someone like Itadori; who has a kind of optimistic nature. He knew Junpei for a day and had such strong feelings when he died, one can only imagine how enraged he’ll be if something happens to his fellow classmates.

Mahito’s plan is working well so far, except the fact that Itadori is his natural enemy

I won’t go on to explain the whole battle, but there are quite a few things I’d like to point out:

MAPPA’s Direction: There is nothing such as “not good” when it comes to MAPPA, the fights scenes are so amazing, with the dynamic nature of the camera angles, movements and the fights. 

enraged Itadori
Enraged Itadori

Mahito’s pov (point of view) as an enraged Itadori tries to pummel his life out was really good.  The animation’s slick and smooth, the movement feels natural, the ost gets you pumped up and Itadori’s words and screams hit you in the feels. What else do you need in a fight?

Moving on to the details, it seems like Mahito has quite a few weaknesses as well, long-distance fights make it harder for him to manoeuvre his soul, for example. We also see Itadori create small shockwaves by hitting the ground towards an enemy and displaying quite a lot of resilience, as he continued to fight Mahito even with a few holes in him.

Mahito tries to use his Idle Transformation technique on Itadori to bring out Sukuna, which proves out to be a fatal mistake; Sukuna leaves him with a warning, as he laughed at Itadori with him. Sukuna’s laid back attitude is quite interesting, he just doesn’t care about weaklings. I wonder how strong he’ll be if he had all of his fingers, could Gojo sensei take him on? I reckon that we’ll find that out eventually.

Going back to the fight, Nanami comes to Itadori’s rescue in the nick of time to save Itadori from receiving a fatal blow. He analyses the situation and they forge a plan to exorcise Mahito then and there.

The next episode Jujutsu Kaisen is going to be even more chaotic, as we’ll see Mahito and Nanami use their full power and possibly Itadori utilise all of his current power as well. While I don’t expect Mahito to die here, we may finally see Getou do something. However, that isn’t quite likely.

This week’s episode is an absolute banger, as we see a small clash of ideals between Junpei and Itadori and the two share some quite emotional moments, Mahito completely pulling Junpei’s strings, leading to an enraged Itadori, only to become a laughing stock for two curses; turning into a massive fight.  This can still be referred to as a build-up or stage one of the fight, as our Grade 1 sorcerer Nanami has finally arrived.

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