REVIEW: ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’ Season 3 Episode 5 – “Passion”

As Yuji (Junya Enoki) and Megumi (Yuma Uchida) look to enlist the help of the expelled former third-year Hakari (Kazuya Nakai), Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 5 delivers an all-timer sequence. In scaling things back in terms of the framing and direction, “Passion” creates a scene rife with character-driven tension, superb, delicately lined physical acting, and a delightful burst of personality that infuses it with a distinctive cadence and motion, making it an unlikely yet unforgettable moment of excellence. 

Yes, the Maki fight was a showstopping burst of creative genius – but it’s this level of subtle character work that truly stuns. With its buzzy, frenetic use of rotoscoping and a confident-to-the-point-of-smug direction that refuses to draw close to the characters’ faces until the very end, letting us linger in the doorway like flies on the wall, the first conversation between Yuji and Hakari is the highlight of the episode. 

Despite an obvious, well-circulated scene, Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 5 is terrific from the jump. And this is largely due to the artistry and voice acting. The different crafts at work help immediately define a character who, up until now, had been largely tertiary. There are no over-the-top emotional declarations or impassioned monologuing. Instead, it’s yet another notch of quiet heartbreak that he began to define the series. 

The burden of curses pushes the narrative of “Passion” forward in unexpected ways.

Masamichi Yaga (Takaya Kuroda) is given a wonderful farewell, even if Panda’s (Tomokazu Seki) relationship to him and his own reaction continues to lack necessary depth (similar to Mai and Maki in Episode 4) But on his own and through these shuttered glimpses of backstory we learn about who Yaga is and how his Cursed Corpse ability led him to being able to imbue inanimate objects with cursed energy. And, in the case of Panda, the reason why in the wake of Shibuya he’s being seen as a threat is that he’s a cursed corpse that can produce its own cursed energy, giving it a will of its own. 

Without Gojo’s support, Yaga is once again perceived as a threat. The only thing keeping him alive is his knowledge in making these puppets, but he withholds until he’s bleeding out at the hands of Gakuganji, the principal of the Kyoto school. It remains unclear why Yaga is reluctant to give away this info, and why, when he does, it’s at the last possible moment. Especially as he seems to see it as not so much passing of knowledge, but passing a burden. 

And perhaps it’s because he knows that he never posed a threat. He wasn’t building an army, but a utopia of lost souls, of lives cut short, in a pocket, fairytale forest of otherworldly creatures protected by Tengen. And now, Gakuganji has to know that his hands are bloodied over someone looking to protect the innocent, but also that the power was being used for good intent. And that any creation of cursed corpses comes with it emotional baggage due to who is still looking and holding on to the soul burning within them. 

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 5 delves into the series’ subtler moments.

He created a family of these cursed corpses – or dolls – including one that helped Atsuya Kusakabe’s sister heal. Their creation is, as always in the case of Jujutsu Kaisen, convoluted as all hell—ten words when five would suffice and so on and so on.

But the effect is haunting, especially given the stillness in which these final moments unfold. From the light flickering in the tunnel as Gakuganji makes his ominous approach to the blood that spools out from Yaga in a world devoid of the light he fostered, Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 5 uses cinematic language to give these subtle moments greater depth. 

Again, the Panda of it all remains emotionally vacant. But he helps link us to the next part of the story, which is a pivot in tone while maintaining the same, shadow-heavy visual language of the opening. As Yuji and Megumi make their way to infiltrate the fight club that Hakari hosts, we’re reminded of two crucial elements. 

The first is that, despite all the bombastic displays of action spectacle, the series thrives in these moments of quiet camaraderie. They’re friends, and it’s a nice reminder that, despite the life and death scenarios they face on a daily basis and the unyielding burden of guilt that Yuji shoulders, their friendship endures despite it all. Their youth is notable, too, as they gather their thoughts and wander the streets, contemplating their next move. 

Junya Enoki is a genuine asset to the series. 

Directed by Masaomi Andō and storyboarded by Shōta Goshozono, the interaction doesn’t dig deep through the dialogue but through its ease. Later, when Panda tells Megumi that Yuji is a good person to interact with Hakari because of his bright personality, we don’t even need it said. It’s clear in how he’s drawn and how he interacts with the world around him that he’s the person to send to recruit someone. 

And that leads to the second reminder: Yuji is a wonderful protagonist made even better by the extraordinary, understated work by Junya Enoki. It would be easy to overlook his work in the more subdued moments (while scenes where he, say, screams in horror over what Sakuna did while controlling his body are more visceral). Still, it’s those quieter, unexpected moments that really let his personality shine through, remnants of the character we met all the way back in Episode 1, before his heart was literally and figuratively torn out. 

His buoyant, expressive acting gives Yuji the necessary boyish charm that informs his scenes going forward. Everything from his “fight” with Panda to gain intel, to his final conversation with Hakari, bursts with energy even if it’s not through shouting. Even his telling Hakari he doesn’t drink because he’s underage has an unexpected, trailing-off lilt that reminds us of his youth. He’s confident in a fight but still dealing with his over-sincerity in a world that asks him to lie. 

Hakari and Yuji clash in a terrific display of artistry.

And all of this boils down to the standout scene in Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 5, as Yuji and Hakari try to understand each other. And casting Kazuya Nakai is a genius move; his gravitas and grizzled performance perfectly counter Enoki’s delivery. The camera pulls back, observational rather than investigative, highlighting their body movements and the dim lighting, broken only by the garish glow of technology. 

This style of staticky-lined animation is such a thrill because, these days, it’s always so much easier to go big and brash, especially in a sequence leading up to conflict. But instead, it draws out the tension by withholding.

Everything we glean comes from how the characters hold themselves, aided by rotoscope animation that better captures body movement and physicality. It all comes to a literal head as the two clash once Hakari learns who sent him, and by then the camera pushes forward to keep both in frame in close-ups, but the work before it stuns with how deceptively minimalist it is. 

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 5 is an absolute delight because it refuses to go where we expect. Instead, by using the subtler gifts of the artists behind the scenes, “Passion” imbues the story with a sense of gravity and weight, even when they’re engaging in staged fights. Pulsating with the unexpected visual, this broad-scale storyline refines itself into something almost veering toward introspection through the well-articulated movements of its characters alone. 

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 5 is available now on Crunchyroll. 

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