Warning: Vague spoilers for the first 5 episodes of Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 to follow.
After over 2 years of waiting, Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 has finally allowed fans to get to see their favorite heroes back on the screen… sort of? For those who haven’t read Gege Akutami’s manga, hadn’t seen the trailers, or gotten any sneaky spoilers, the jump back in time surprised some of us. Where is the iconic trio Yuji, Nobara, and Megumi? Instead, we got another iconic trio in the form of a younger but nevertheless presumptuous Satoru Gojo, a more morally upstanding Suguru Geto, and a visibly less tired Shoko Ieri. That being said, Satoru and Suguru were the primary focus of the five episodes of the Hidden Inventory arc, especially in regard to how and why they’ve changed into the adults they’ve become in the present time.
Although it is a very short and straightforward arc, it was already a favorite one among manga readers, and now, it has also become a favorite one among anime-only viewers. A pair of insightful anime-only reactors, AutoSave, called episode fifth and final episode of the arc “one of the best-directed and best-paced episodes of an anime,” to which a commenter, @kaisaunders9322, shouted out the director of the season, Shota Goshazono, as one of the main key players in making this return of the highly-anticipated popular anime as good as it is. The fan dubs him “one of the most talented people in the industry right now,” adding that they are “so glad he gets to help express Gege’s vision.” Indeed, it is hard to argue against the quality and creativity of the direction, storyboarding, and production design of this Season (so far).
These five, almost self-contained episodes were a remarkable start to the new season. But where do we go from here? Two years of waiting cannot equate to only five episodes of awesomeness, right?
Is season two over after only five episodes?
Short answer: no way. As has been the case with other recent anime, Spy x Family, for instance, season two of Jujutsu Kaisen has been divided into two “cours.” The first, as already mentioned, equating to the five episodes of the Hidden Inventory arc, served as a long flashback into Gojo’s life as a second-year Jujutsu High Student, which explained some questions left unanswered by the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 movie. The second, will cover the remaining episodes of the 24-episode-long season, 18 in total. The latter “cour” will flash forward back to present time to adapt the Shibuya Incident arc.
Episode six, “It’s Like That,” airs on Thursday, Aug. 31. Before then, however, two recap episodes, one covering Jujutsu Kaisen 0 and another Jujutsu Kaisen Season 1, are airing Aug. 10 and 17 respectively. On a Reddit thread discussing the movie’s recap episode, a fan wrote: “As an anime-only, I enjoyed this episode and it helped me remember the movie and even get some better explanations on the current season so far.” So, in case you need to refresh your memory before continuing Yuji Itadori and his friends’ stories, these two episodes should be enough to get you up to speed.
Jujutsu Kaisen season two, part two, the Shibuya Incident arc, will air from Aug. 31 to Jan. 4.