English Dub Review: Jujutsu Kaisen “Curse Womb Must Die”

Overview:

Yuji, Fushigoro and Nobara (played by Adam McArthur, Robbie Daymond and Anne Yatco, respectively) enter a special grade curse’s domain and find more trouble than they bargained for as they attempt to escape for their lives. 

Our Take:

A common tactic used in anime in order to explain to the audience certain rules of a universe is to make the lead protagonist oblivious to them. It’s simple enough and realizing it along with him/her usually brings everyone up to speed without diminishing it’s intent. And because of Yuji only recently being admitted into Jujutsu Tech and becoming a sorcerer, it is only logical. Also because of the humorous and simplistic nature in which the show establishes the power scaling of curses by comparing them to real world weapons, makes it both entertaining and helpful all the same. 

The first special grade curse also makes its debut as the strongest opponent Yuji has faced thus far in the series. The pace and intensity of it in which this episode moves when it appears serves to show just how immensely powerful this type of monster truly is. The design of the curse is also pretty creepy and cool too. It’s nice to see the show dip its toes into horror a bit in the general aesthetic of not only the creatures but with other ways like color palettes and music as well. This is further established by the way in which Itadori is somewhat dismembered throughout this chapter. Taking after Kiyotaka’s examples to Yuji, if this skintight genie looking curse is a carpet bombing, Ryomen Sukuna is an atomic one. He is an utter catastrophe as he so casually plays with the curse just as how, moments before their battle, it was doing the same to Yuji and Megumi. This is an especially exciting development considering he has not consumed all of his fingers at this point and will only grow even more deadly with each one swallowed. It will also be interesting to see whether he will be able to hold a candle to Gojo once fully powered up. 

As the Dr. Dolittle of cursed animals, Fushigoro, rides with the wind at his back in the form of a huge orange trollish bird (with a mask?), there’s another awesome multi dimensional sequence of him dashing down a hallway similar to that of the one in the first episode. There’s also cool, quick scenes of, let’s just call him the genie at this point, getting his arm swiftly removed before one can realize what even happened and being diced into cursed sushi with the razor blade that is Sukuna. 

Also the chemistry amongst the group continues to be endearing and enjoyable even in the most dire of situations. Yuji and Nobara being newbies and petting Fushigoro’s dogs could never not be adorable. Although, unfortunately Nobara feels like an afterthought in this particular episode and is already going to be transitioned out for the next one as well. Her scenes are so brief and we don’t get any battle scenes with her, nor is she crucial to plot momentum either this time around. Granted, the series is building to a pivotal moment that doesn’t require her but it would have been nice to see her get some more screen time nonetheless.