REVIEW: ‘Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 9’ —”Tokyo Colony No. 1 – Part 3″

From the moment he was introduced, it was clear that Hiromi Higuruma (Tomokazu Sugita) was poised to be an excellent playhouse mirror, reflecting and refracting the tragic sincerity of Yuji Itadori (Junya Enoki). Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 9, with its profound, even subtle, character work and dazzling animation rooted in intricate fight choreography, drives this point home. They’re not so much foils as they are two sides of the same coin, battered and emotionally bruised by a system they’ve both seen the worst of. But while one has taken justice into his own hands, the other seeks retribution through the laws in which he’s found himself a cog. 

As has been the case with everything involving the Culling Games, Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 9 proposes a lot of information. Information about Higuruma’s Domain and his shikigami, Judgeman. We learn that despite his affinity and steadfast approach as a defense attorney, those abilities pale in comparison to his natural ease and skill as a sorcerer. His natural prowess is apparently on par with any first-grade sorcerer despite not having undergone any training. 

Yet, in another miraculous move, “Tokyo Colony No. 1 – Part 3” sidesteps the frustration of incessant info-dumping and narrated exposition thanks to two key components. The first is that, as has been customary in Season 3, it looks phenomenal. It’s truly cinematic. Second is the character work, with Yuji further giving emotional weight to his condemned existence through someone who believes that, if he were to spend too much time in his presence, his own faults would be illuminated. 

Tomokazu Sugita and Junya Enoki deliver pitch-perfect performances. 

That, as well as the layered and intensive performances from Tomokazu Sugita and Junya Enoki, further strengthen Yuji’s moment on trial. Enoki has always been the guiding performance of the series, instilling Yuji with the right amount of pathos underscored by innocent jubilance in the face of anything new or confounding. It’s shown in Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 9, when he’s first put on trial for trespassing at a pachinko parlor while underage. 

The character designers strip away any rough edges, even his facial scars, making them cutesy and cartoonishly smooth as he dances around his decision. It’s a funny gag that helps induce the whiplash once Judgeman declares him guilty, with Yuji caught in the lie. His cursed energy is confiscated as a result, leaving him more vulnerable in the wake of Higuruma’s attack. 

What follows is exceptional. So exceptional that, if you’re watching it with subtitles, you’re going to want to go and watch it again since the onslaught of the exposition threatens to detract from the onslaught of the fight. The red compositing continues to play a vital role in some of the most dramatic standoffs, and the moment we’re out of Higuruma’s domain, and he moves forward with his first attack, it envelops the stage in an overwhelming vibrancy. 

The direction highlights the need for cohesion for expressive fight scenes.

There’s such a powerful personality that punches through the fight so that we see every desperate movement, every cocky flourish (such as Higuruma fixing his tie while his gavel is tossed back at him) that makes up the individual beats of the fight. That detail is critical because it would be so easy for the series to get lost in the sheet spectacle and submit themselves to the flurry of the fight—no doubt something the series has done before. But something that Jujutsu Kaisen has always done well and has only gotten better at in Season 3 is highlighting the footwork. 

Or, in this case, the crab walking footwork as Yuji scrambles away from the relentless attacks. But the direction isn’t afraid to go low, taking in not just pure movement but the intent behind it. It gives the attacks and the evasion much more nuance and cohesion. With the fight confined to one room (albeit a large one), the camera and choreography take pains to keep track of each character’s location. 

Directed by Teppei Okuda and storyboarded by Shōta Goshozono, the hand-to-hand combat is bruising, with palpable weight, thanks to the choreography’s use of the surrounding elements. From the thud of Yuji’s body hitting a chair to the physicality of Higuruma’s kicking the gavel to give it greater momentum, and the acrobatic way the characters move or how Higuruma tosses the gavel between hands, the visuals are stunning. There’s so indomitable a prowess in how these characters dance across the screen that even the most stagnant moments soar.

Bleeding hearts and blood-soaked hands set the tone for the Culling Games. 

The lighting, too, is a standout in Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 9 and not just through that aforementioned red. There are spots of blue as Yuji flees, and he’s consistently tagged with a spotlight running with him, a visual nod to him being held under scrutiny, a one-man judge and jury. The use of these colors is deliberate and meaningful. They help emphasize the moment a critical shift happens. 

The first shift is when Yuji is nearly crushed, holding out solely through his innate athleticism and willpower. Symbolic of his Season 3 plight for atonement, where he can only stave off the immense guilt he feels through the act of saving others, he bears the weight of the world on his shoulders while trying to figure out how to best fight back against Higuruma’s Domain. So, he asks for a retrial. 

Then, we’re out of the reds and back into the blinding spotlight as Judgeman charges him for mass murder in Shibuya. It’s a breathless moment, and the oxygen is further sucked out of the room when Yuji, with zero hesitation, admits to it, taking on the full blame. His moral compass is, without question, the key figure of his character.

His spirit might be shaken, but his sense of right and wrong remains sturdy. This admission of guilt rattles Higuruma. Even as the Judgeman, with some truly chilling voice acting and animation as blood gushes through the bars of its eyes, sentences Yuji to confiscation of his cursed power and to death through the Executioner Sword.

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 9 understands the thematic weight of Yuji Itadori’s innocence. 

In the moment of admission, Higuruma learns the truth. Yuji, despite having taken on the immense burden of survivor’s guilt, isn’t guilty. It was Sakuna’s doing, and Yuji, meanwhile, was just a puppet for his carnage, an unwilling participant in the mass death and devastation wrought. The lights again flicker, taking us back to his days studying to become a defense attorney, and filtered with his increasing cynicism and belief that all people are “Weak and ugly. No matter how much you long for them to have noble souls.” 

Yuji’s soul is neither weak nor ugly. Higuruma realizes this, releasing the sword just as Yuji’s blow strikes him. The character animation does great work with a blink-and-you-miss-it moment where Yuji, too, realizes this. Something is striking and subtly emotionally poignant, too, about how, as Higuruma blinks in and out of the past into the present, the transition moves from the sun’s view to Yuji’s. There is innocence, still, even in such a warped, cruel, ugly world. There’s blinding goodness and the need to champion those who fight the good fight to ensure others get peaceful futures. 

Higuruma tells Yuji he’s innocent – that he didn’t kill those people. Then he gives Yuji the 100 points to ensure the new rule about trading points can work, while they both process the fact that they’ve killed people, and the way it haunts them, and the narrative.

MAPPA reaches new, exceptional heights in the standoff between Higuruma and Yuji.

To end on such a simplistic note of compassion and the ease with which Higuruma relents, able to see that, in this instance, he was wrong, is beautifully done. Plus, a score that strips away the more heightened elements, leaving something more melodic and melancholy. It speaks to the dynamic struck by the two main players, even if, for now, Higuruma doesn’t seem keen on sticking around. Because, in his words, he may grow to hate himself more if forced to be in Yuji’s presence. 

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 9 stuns with animated excellence and potent, emotional character work. For all the griping over the series and the writing’s preferred state of indulgence, the animators at MAPPA ensure that each episode delivers some breathtaking sequence to remind us that, at least visually, it’s one of the most exciting battle shonen anime in ages.

But the reason “Tokyo Colony No. 1 – Part 3” is such a profound accomplishment, along with the other Season 3 standouts, is that it remembers that to make us care about the story beyond the easy-to-clip, highlight-reel moments, we need to care about the characters. Yuji has always been easy to root for, and pairing him off against Higuruma, a vital addition, enriches the story with the mirror of someone who fights for the innocent, and the innocent fighting for the many. 

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 9 is available now on Crunchyroll.

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