REVIEW: ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’ Episode 41 — “Thunderclap Part 2”

Having barely survived his recent battles, Megumi Fushiguro (Yuma Uchida) summons an untamable shikigami with the resolve that, if he is to die, he’s going to take Shigemo (Wataru Hatano, Super Crooks)with him. But what Megumi unleashes will destroy far more than he ever thought possible when it clashes with Sukuna (Jun’ichi Suwabe) in Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Episode 17, “Thunderclap Part 2.”

This episode opens with a brief flashback to Yuji Itadori (Junya Enoki) with his dying grandfather at the start of season one. In it, his grandfather asks Yuji to help others. This brief moment is a key element of Yuji’s personality, as fulfilling his grandfather’s last wish is one of his great motivations. Its presence here foreshadows that something is about to happen that will impact this aspect of Yuji in Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Episode 17.

From here, the story jumps to Megumi as he struggles to hang on after his recent injuries. Taunted by Shigemo, Megumi begins summoning a new shikigama that no one has ever been able to tame. The episode explains that by doing so with Shigemo present, he has included him in the taming ritual, making them both targets for the powerful creature. It looks like they are about to die when, thanks to a stroke of luck delivered by Shigemo’s curse technique, Sukuna arrives before the pair can be killed and decides it’s in his best interest to fight the creature.

Until the final minutes of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Episode 17, the episode follows the two combatants as they lay waste to entire city blocks as each strives to get the upper hand on the other. As the action shifts from hand-to-hand combat to far grander scaled attacks, MAPPA does an excellent job of building up the scope of the battle. This escalation peaks at the end when Sukuna unleashes his domain expansion technique.

While many of the moments during this fight scene are truly spectacular to behold, there are points when the bombast crosses the line from being dazzling to becoming noise. So much is going on that frequently elements of the fight only partially make sense. Eventually, it just becomes random chaos. This doesn’t dull the end result of the battle. Seeing numerous blocks in the heart of Tokoyo simply gone is a terrifying image. Still, it makes the journey there less impressive than it might have been if a touch of restraint had been shown rather than simply pushing the fight to be bigger than the battles we have previously seen.

Once the shikigama is slain, Sukuna drops Megumi off, where he will be found by those who can save him. Sukuna mentions that he needs Megumi alive for an undisclosed reason, so his rescuing the character is for his own ends.

Once this last task is complete, Yuji reassures control of his body, locking the malevolent Sukuna away again. The special grade curse manages to get one final jab in at his host as he makes certain that the first thing he sees is the wasteland caused by unleashing his domain in the heart of the city.

While Yuji has shown remorse for the loss of innocents in the past, this new scope of death that he views himself as being responsible for hits him like nothing else in the series to date. The terror that grips him is palpable as the animation skillfully delivers the character’s reaction to the viewer. In the episode’s closing moments, Yuji resolves to continue fighting so he may be more than a murderer. I pity whoever catches the first punch Yuji throws, as it will have a ton of weight behind it.

So, while Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Episode 17 succeeds in delivering some emotional moments, the episode allows itself to get carried away with its core battle. Gorgeous explosions only bring so much before they become simply more noise for the show to get lost in.

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 is streaming now on Crunchyroll.