REVIEW: ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’ Season 3 Episode 4 – “Perfect Preparation”

Devilishly stylish and overflowing with impressive, immersive innovation, Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 4 bruises with excellence. Breathlessly bloody as Maki (Mikako Komatsu) disposes of her family with destructive brutality, “Perfect Preparation” is the perfect example of an anime that understands its format, elevating the source material with greater playful homages and specific musical cues. Maki’s deliverance is razor sharp and emotionally distant as she leaves a trail of wreckage and slain bodies. And yet, amidst this cacophony of bloodshed, there’s still the reminder of one crucial flaw of the series. 

The writing. The writing, the writing, the writing. Because yes, goodness gracious, the animation is simply spectacular. Directed by Shōta Goshozono, Risa Suzuki, and Yuusuke Sunouch, this extra-long episode from MAPPA is a glorious display of how they bend the medium to create something unfathomably cool. This is ‘stare at your screen and point, “how the hell did they pull that off”‘ stuff. This is fun, show-this-clip-to-other-friends-to-make-them-understand-the-appeal-of-anime stuff. 

But the writing remains the bane of the series’ issues, even as it tries to dizzy you into looking beyond it. Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 4 is Maki’s episode. She is the vengeful hero, the bride, the forgotten, scorned daughter. And she earns her moment throughout because we see how she transforms as a fighter over the course of a single episode. But boy, it would have hit harder if she were better developed beyond the hints and interesting hooks we’ve gathered in the past. 

There’s one flaw that plagues the world Gege Akutami has created. 

Currently, Maki works best as an interesting concept. The type of female character we wish to see in these shonen series is often relegated to supporting roles. But she never feels more than an outline of a cool character, eschewing actual development for impactful moments. 

There are several major moments in Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 4 that directly impact Maki’s life. And yet, despite this, the emotional resonance is hollow. We know we’re meant to feel something, and the animation does a lot of work tugging on the heartstrings. Still, the real impact comes when the fight ensues, because we don’t know or feel enough about the characters at the heart of this story to truly connect emotionally. 

Maki makes her way back to the Zen’in clan to find the cursed weapons, but is soon running into family members looking to stop her. And, for a moment, it looks like they’ve succeeded, leaving both her and a wounded Mai (Marina Inoue) in a vault, left to be eaten by curses. Mai, in an effort to let Maki reach her full potential, uses the last of her strength to create a replica of Toji’s katana. She knows that, alive, she’ll forever be hindering Maki’s true strength.

Maki meets her ascension. 

According to the rules of Jujutsu Kaisen, cursed energy treats twins as one soul. So, when Mai dies, the cursed energy that still reverberated in Maki died with her, allowing Maki’s Heavenly Pact to work to the degree it was always meant to (having godlike physical power at the expense of having zero cursed energy). And she does become that godlike figure, first in her battle with Ogi as he experiences fear for the first time since his fight with Toji, and then in the massacre against the elite sorcerers who go up against her. 

The transformation is impactful as we watch her skills and prowess become something of finesse and brutality, adopting an executioner’s approach to any who stands before her. But in the midst of this, Mai’s death is an afterthought despite being the piece in the puzzle that pushes her forward.

There’s certainly some stunning imagery – such as the two encircling one another as they seemingly bleed out, and Mikako Komatsu is genuinely heartbreaking when she yells out for her sister, having awoken. But it all loses its emotional vitality by the time that Maki slices her father’s skull clean open. 

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 4 is a stunning work of art.

This all probably sounds like unnecessary griping and nitpicking. They are! There is absolutely no arguing that Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 4 is anything less than a stellar, exemplary episode of television. It just comes down to the constant issue with Gege Akutami’s shallow writing. There are so many engaging ideas that rest at a surface level when the possibilities and wealth of exploration seem limitless. 

But again, it all seems rather pointless with an episode as viscerally evocative as “Perfect Preparation.” In her final send-off, Mai asks Maki to destroy them all. And that she does, reinforced by the Heavenly Pact and the ferocity Toji brought to his own combat. There’s a thematic richness to the idea of Maki having been engulfed in flames at the end of Season 2, only to be reborn, riddled with scars, and ready to fight with everything she has left. 

The combat animation stuns with a necessary level of cohesion to keep our attention on the right beat and step throughout, no matter how much room Maki traverses. The world bends and warps based on how she moves and who she fights. From the interior battles with hordes of sorcerers to the one-on-one between her and Naoya (Kōji Yusa), there’s an extensive utilization of the setting in how it molds itself to the speed at which she moves.

The faster she goes, the softer the linework gets, highlighting swift, sharp movements. And the nods to Kill Bill are playful and well-executed, from the shift to black-and-white (aside from the splatters of blood) to the Spaghetti Western musical homages. 

The fight animation is a sight to behold.

But more than anything is how the animation captures Maki’s physicality through her strength and speed, notably in her final fight with Naoya. Naoya, whose ego makes him believe that there’s no way in which Maki might be able to beat him.

His penchant for abuse and misogynistic perspective makes his defeat all the sweeter. Not just because of the bone-shattering violence of it, as his face crumples under the force of Maki’s fist. But because, in the moment, all the buildup to his attack is handled as if it didn’t bother her at all to intercept it. That he was, in the end, just another easy opponent. 

His death isn’t quick, as he drags himself over the compound in search of her, finding only death in the hands of Maki’s mother, who finally admits to some sort of pride for her daughters. But it’s bittersweet and too little too late, with one daughter dead and the other in search of more bloodshed. It highlights the foundation of misery that so much of the series is based on. Yes, there’s humor and action that sweeps us up in its artistic brilliance. But that tragedy clings to the edges of each frame, whether flooded in blood or not. 

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 4 delivers animated excellence. The stylistic flourishes are simply astonishing, demonstrating an anime’s ability to adapt from page to screen in a way that elevates the material into something cinematic and grand. While it’s a shame that the characters aren’t better fleshed out, at this rate, it’s almost easy to brush off. Because the artists at MAPPA are producing incendiary work, yes, we should have a greater emotional investment in the characters. But we’re hooked either way, might as well be happy to be along for the ride. Especially when it looks this good. 

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 4 is available now on Crunchyroll. 

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