English Dub Review: Jujutsu Kaisen “Tokyo No. 1 Colony, Part 2”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

While Megumi is tricked into meeting with a reincarnated sorcerer named Reggie Star, Yuji finds Higuruma, a former public defender who once dealt with numerous falsely imprisoned clients.

OUR TAKE

We’re continuing through this initial tour of the Culling Game, and while things do progress from last week, with Yuji and Megumi getting taken to different targets by tricky minions, the most compelling part of the episode is easily something that doesn’t have much to do with any of that: the introduction and backstory of Hiromi Higuruma, which feels like it could be a whole short film in and of itself. For a good chunk of the episode, we’re basically given a harsh crash course of how draconian the Japanese justice system is, where apparently virtually every case eventually ends in a guilty verdict, even if the defendant is clearly innocent. We follow Higuruma as he meets with a client charged with murder and burglary by circumstantial evidence, and while he does everything he can to prove said client is not guilty, and even gets an initial Not Guilty verdict, the case is appealed, and the defendant is convicted, which was apparently what was needed for Higuruma to first activate his Domain Expansion: Deadly Sentencing, which manifests this spirit named Judgeman. The fuck does Judgeman do, besides probably be pretty judgy? Well, we’ll have to wait until next week to find out, but I still gotta fill in a couple hundred words into this.

Usually I’m not super keen on sudden diversions from a story’s ongoing plot, especially when this season has limited episodes left to work with, but GOD DAMN did Higuruma’s backstory hit hard. I live in the United States, where the legal system is not exemplary even on its best days (especially now), but learning that convictions in Japan EXCEED NINETY NINE PERCENT is horrific, and apparently even being charged can permanently damage someone’s social standing, even if they fight and win the case against them. Just sickening stuff, man. Though putting all of that aside, we do learn a bit more about Kenjaku’s plans and the sinister implications of what he may be up to as the Culling Game progresses, with one scene involving him not even including dialogue audio, but that somehow making the scene even creepier. It looks like all episode titles for the remainder of this part of the season will pretty much just be “Tokyo No. 1 Colony, Part X” moving forward, though with as we creep ever closer to the end point of this segment, one can only wonder what they’ll pick to go out on before the mid season break.