Jujutsu Kaisen is a popular anime, I have loved reading the manga and especially loved watching its anime adaptation. It’s an action-packed, adventure-filled, gorey-festival, and serious-themed fun for all people who love dark shows. So I decided to do an entire review on every single episode I could get to, 1 episode at a time.
Be warned, however, this review contains massive spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen and will be overall summaries of each episode from the first ever episode to the most recent one before the school year ends. Now without further ado, this is my full opinionated review and overall summary of each episode from Mappa’s Jujutsu Kaisen anime.
Episode 1.) Ryomen Sukuna
The episode starts with us seeing Itadori Yuji, the main character, having a phone call with his terminally ill grandfather. His grandfather seems like a rude and stubborn man, just from the fact he told Yuji to stay home and not visit him. From Yuji’s response, we can tell how kindhearted and borderline cocky he is. Yuji runs off to school right after telling his grandfather he’s gonna visit later and hanging up.
Cut to the school, Yuji is seen performing some sort of ritual with an Ouija board with his friends from the Occult Club. A student council member then busts down the door and tells them to disassemble the club immediately because it does not have any real activities and does not have enough members. The Occult Club leader then shows them the reasons they’ve been performing, a foreshadowing event. She tells us that the rugby field had been getting its players mysteriously sick, and she says, “This must be the case of a cursed spirit!”
The student council snaps back saying it’s just some bug infecting people, completely shutting down her idea of a cursed spirit presence. At the same time, a young Jujutsu sorcerer named Megumi Fushiguro walks onto the school campus and notices a cursed spirit in the rugby field. We then cut back to Yuji telling them how they at least have enough members for a club, to where the sports team coach bursts in and tells Yuji that he was signed up for the sports team cause of his skills. The coach then says, “If you can beat me in a shot put competition, you can stay in this stupid club.”
To which Yuji blindly agrees. Cut to the field, Megumi watches in the distance as he receives a call to search for a special-grade cursed object, to which he agrees as he understands how dangerous these things can be. At the same time, Yuji takes on the coach and throws the ball full force, launching it into the side of a soccer goal, destroying the coach. He groups back up with his group members and they congratulate him with a small box they want to uncover the secrets of it later tonight. Yuji and co’ do not know this but the box contains a special grade object known as Sukuna’s Finger. The leader of the council gives this to Yuji but he decides to keep only the box and says she can keep the prize inside, which they’ll uncover later. With that, Yuji decided to stay in the club and realized the time. He says his goodbyes and heads off to visit his grandfather in the hospital. As he runs by, Megumi senses a massive cursed energy from Yuji and decides to follow him.
As they reach the hospital, Yuji puts flowers in a pot next to his grandfather and his grandfather shouts at him for it. Yuji tells the old geezer to relax and this encourages his grandfather to tell Yuji one last thing before he dies. Yuji’s grandfather tells Yuji that he is a “strong kid” and to help people whenever he can. He goes on to tell Yuji to make sure to be surrounded by others at his time of death and to not be like him. Yuji, startled, stares at him and asks where that came from, to which no response. Yuji’s grandfather has died, causing Yuji to cry and acknowledge he is now alone in the world. Yuji informs the nurses and they take his grandfather away, leaving Yuji shallow and with some paperwork to fill out. They apologize and Yuji just smiles saying, “I can’t cry right now, I’d get an earful from the old geezer if he saw me like this.”
The nurse smiles but it’s soon interrupted by Megumi calling for Yuji. Yuji exclaims how he’s in mourning right now but Megumi blows it off, ordering Yuji to hand over the cursed object immediately. Yuji tells Megumi his leader has the dumb object and tells him to leave him alone. Megumi warns Yuji about how dangerous the object is and warns him that his friends will die if this is not saved. Yuji’s eyes lighten up, remembers what his grandfather said, and runs off with Megumi to the school. At the school, the occult Club leader and another member open the ancient seal wrapped around Sukuna’s finger. This massive amount of cursed energy causes small curses to be born within the school and attempt to kill both of them. Yuji and Megumi arrive at the school and Megumi informs Yuji to stay outside, while he runs in alone. Megumi enters the building and summons his two demon dogs, shikigami cursed techniques. These two dogs representing ying and yang run with Megumi through the halls, eliminating whatever curse stands in their way, until eventually reaching the 4th floor. There they see the two members being eaten alive, to which Megumi says, “Damnit, I’m not gonna make it!”
Right before they’re eaten, Yuji smashes through the window and punches the curse, grabbing both his friends and sliding off into the other hallway. Megumi takes the chance and kills the curse, complimenting him on his good work. Megumi then tells Yuji to hand over the special grade object, to which Yuji agrees. Right as the handoff is about to begin, another cursed spirit’s hand comes from the ceiling and attempts to grab it, splitting up Megumi and Yuji. Megumi gets smashed through the wall and Yuji soon follows them outside. It seems like Megumi is about to die but Yuji attempted to fight off the curse. Megumi yells at Yuji to run and escape, but Yuji insists that Megumi deserves a proper death, and not die to a creature like this. Yuji then loses grip on Sukuna’s finger and catches it with his mouth. Megumi thinks to himself, “If he eats that finger, he. ‘ll die. But there’s a 1 in a million chance…”
His thoughts get interrupted as Yuji swallows the finger whole and gains cursed energy, turning into the Curse Of Spirits himself, Sukuna. Sukuna easily blows away the cursed spirit and exclaims how happy he is to be alive. At the same time, Megumi finishes his statement, “1 and a million chance for this to turn into the worst possible outcome. The curse reincarnates within someone.”
Sukuna then turns to Megumi and expresses how bothersome Jujutsu sorcerers are, telling him how his death will be slow and painful. Megumi then makes two fists and puts them at a Vertical angle of each other, which foreshadows a major event in the second season of Jujutsu Kaisen. However, before Megumi can continue anything, his sensei and world-proclaimed “The Strongest Sorcerer” Saturo Gojo steps into the fray.
Megumi tells him how Sukuna is reincarnated and Gojo takes a look at Yuji. To Megumi’s surprise, Yuji has gained control over his vessel and suppressed Sukuna, to where Gojo asks if he can switch bodies with Sukuna at any given time. Yuji says, “I’m pretty sure I can, but are you sure?”
Gojo replies with, “Don’t worry, I’m way too strong for him.”
Then their fight begins, with Gojo completely out-maneuvering Sukuna and knocking him out. Gojo tells Megumi to report back to Jujutsu High with him where they can debrief Yuji and find out more about this strange boy. And just like that, the first episode concluded.
Overall this episode does a very good job of establishing Yuji’s reasoning for fighting and makes him a loveable character from the start. It also does a good job ith showing how scary curses can be and what the audience is expected to witness throughout the remainder of the anime. My favorite part for this entire episode, however, has to be Yuji smashing through the window and doing a spinning punch to the cursed spirit. It shows his abnormal athletic capabilities and also shows his bravery, making any future fight without a hero much more action-packed because of how he’s able to move so well. A close second for my favorite part would be how Gojo stunted Sukuna the entire time, completely overpowering him and showing us a fine good reason to believe he is indeed the strongest, while also making us ponder how a fight with Gojo being serious would differ from when he’s not serious. Either way, that was episode 1 of Jujutsu Kaisen and I’m very happy with the result. Thanks for reading!
