REVIEW: ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’ Season 3 Episode 8 – “Tokyo No. 1 Colony, Part 2”

Led by director Yōsuke Takada and chief animator Yosuke Yajima, Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 8 is the best the series has to offer. Displaying an absurd amount of high-quality animation through layers of movement and a profoundly effective character introduction, “Tokyo No. 1 Colony, Part 2” is a gorgeous, textured, and expressive delve into our latest Culling Game player, who is poised to be an excellent parallel and potential foil for our protagonist, Yuji Itadori  (Junya Enoki).

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 8 opens with a prolonged, confident, swaggering stroll through the internal fissures of public defender, Higuruma (Tomokazu Sugita) – your new favorite character. In the opening sequences, we watch him grow increasingly fatigued and disillusioned with Japan’s justice system, which results in most criminal trials ending in guilty verdicts. Higuruma is persistent in his belief; however, he does not avert his gaze from injustice. He actively seeks cases to defend those who were wrongfully accused, despite how many result in emotional devastation for his client and himself, as he bears his client’s accusatory, disappointed gaze. 

This all comes to a head, however, when his most recent client is found guilty after multiple retrials despite substantial evidence proving his innocence. It’s here that his cursed technique awakens, a shikigami appearing behind him, as he demands an immediate retrial. Each part of these sequences is gorgeous, making use of every trick of the trade to create something distinct and cinematic. 

Higuruma is immediately intriguing. 

Scenes such as Higuruma’s co-worker speaking with someone in a cafe as the world hustles around them, with three direct lines of motion as civilians pass in and out of frame, serve as a visual reminder of how injustice persists despite others’ everyday lives. That there’s rot in a world even as a mother pushes her stroller by. Higuruma’s story douses itself in the color gray, evidence of the looming, darkening cloud of discontent and emotional damage. Add to that the reference work on how the characters move, and the result is brilliant. 

So much of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 8 operates from a pulled-back vantage point. We’re observers in Higuruma’s descent. And so much of his character works because he’s not strictly a pure-hearted do-gooder in the obvious sense. Yes, he seeks justice, but mainly because he believes, as a matter of fact, that it is his role. To uphold Lady Justice, he must refuse to avert his gaze. 

Which all makes the moment when his gaze becomes pivotal all the more striking. Because with so much of the episode adopting a fly on the wall direction – take, for instance, his and his co-workers’ familiarity in moving around the cramped office together – to finally be close up is effectively jarring. The mask is dropped even if, ironically, he spends so much of his time with his mouth hidden, his eyes left to do the talking. 

Yuji’s storyline and belief system run parallel with Higuruma’s introduction. 

There are two instances in which, while his mouth is covered, his eyes roll to the side to judge whoever is speaking, and they are genuinely breathtaking moments. Both in the animation and in how expressive the artists make his face, we can fully grasp his intent and internal monologue without actually listening in.

Not to mention the obvious visual balancing work of Higuruma covering his mouth, opposed to Lady Justice’s statue covering her eyes. All of it is just so intelligent, so cleverly rendered and paced, and it showcases how these internalized moments of personal despair and rumination can be just as visually potent as any fight scene. 

And, perhaps more than anything, there’s the thrill in how Higuruma is set up to work in opposition to Yuji. Yuji, who also sees his function as a “cog” to jujutsu sorcerers, as a matter of fact, an obligation. To do what he can, when he can, with his strength, when so many others are unable to. 

It’s telling that the other flashback we get in Jujutsu Sorcerer Season 3 Episode 8 is of a middle school Yuji refusing to stand by as another kid is bullied. We see it from Amai’s (Soma Saito) perspective, who witnessed the incident, though Yuji doesn’t remember their first meeting. 

The intensity of the Culling Game continues to rise. 

The fight in question demonstrates Yuji’s pre-existing inhuman physicality, as he easily deflects a group of upperclassmen’s attacks. The sequence, once again, pulls back to highlight the full extent of the action, well-choreographed with grounded, weighted-down movement to suggest the give-and-take of any punch or fall. 

The moment doesn’t just highlight Yuji’s strength but also his eternal refusal to stand by. He can try to convince others that he’s a mere cog, but he’s always also refused to look away from injustice, big or small. Something that Amai, seemingly, is conflicted about, as he leads Yuji to the theater in Ikebukuro where Higuruma has been staying. 

It answers, at least, the question of just who was lying in Episode 7. Meanwhile, Megumi (Yuma Uchida) is led to Shinjuku by the sorcerer Reggie Star (Yutaka Aoyama), who is looking to fight stronger opponents. However, considering Megumi’s knowledge of Kenjaku (Takahiro Sakurai), Reggie changes his tune and instead expresses that they work together. We don’t get much of Megumi’s story this time around, but his interaction with Reggie offers an interesting parallel to Yuji’s with Higuruma. Both players they face seem to think there are hidden elements to the Culling Game or that the rules aren’t entirely forthcoming. 

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 8 is a spectacular display of dynamic artistry. 

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 8 ends on a note of explosive animation sequencing. Yuji finds Higuruma, submerged in a tub in the middle of a stage, lamenting over being in an era of trying new things. Yuji asks for his help in creating the new rule, but Higuruma refuses. In his eyes, the Culling Game offers a more exacting, favorable form of justice. And, considering his years of dealing with watching justice be flagrantly ignored, he’s not willing to relent on his new attitude. 

As Yuji challenges him to a fight, already aware he’ll need to be on the defensive and doubly so when his shikigami appears, the animation and direction once again shift as Higuruma opens his domain expansion, a caged-in style court. The sequencing stuns, with the sound design striking discordant, pounding tones that give his gavel a pummeling, thunderous effect. The music from composer Yoshimasa Terui is equally well-executed, operating on a stranger, more discordant level than what the show typically does. 

The detailed character work, the subtle animation that leads into the explosion of domineering power caked in oppressive reds, and the way in which Higuruma and Yuji’s lives parallel make for an intoxicatingly thrilling ride in Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 8. The opening, in particular, is about as near-perfect a series can get, and the team at MAPPA, under the guidance of Takada and Yajima, has crafted an absolute all-timer with the steady hands of artists who understand how to utilize the medium and its cinematic intricacies to the fullest. 

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 8 is available now on Crunchyroll. 

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