Culling Game

The Legal Crash Out: Hiromi Higuruma

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Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Ep 8 Review

Crash outs. Moments where people hit their rage-breaking point and proceed to commit acts that can be considered violent, reckless, or stupid. Jujutsu Kaisen has already given us a prime example of how dangerous a crash-out can be thanks to Maki’s purging of the Zenin Clan. Though in that case, it was justified by the fact that they were already planning to kill her on top of the years of abuse. However, Yuji and Megumi’s efforts to stop the Culling Game have led them to look for someone else who not only crashed out, but is in the middle of it: Hiromi Higuruma. And we get to see firsthand what happens when a good person hits their breaking point and proceeds to crash out.

No Bullying EVER!

Now, Yuji and Megumi have gotten separated after entering Tokyo Colony No. 1, but their ultimate goal remains the same: finding a Culling Game player with the points to add rules that will allow them to play without killing anyone or giving unwilling players the chance to tap out. Their first target is a guy named Higuruma, and while both find someone who claims to know where he is, Megumi is being led into a trap. That girl he met is bringing him back to this player whose powers I think have to do with receipts. Am I worried? No; it’s Megumi. He’s got his shikigami! It will work out!

Yuji, on the other hand, is being told the truth. The guy whose leading him is someone who knew him before he became a sorcerer. He was this guy who hung with bullies and did what they said because it was easier than making himself a target. One day, though, Yuji showed up and beat the bullies up, and this guy realized he had been a coward and decided to clean up his act.

This is why I love shonen protagonists so much. Whether it’s Goku, Luffy, Naruto, or Yuji, they have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to people abusing their power for evil. It doesn’t matter if they’re stronger than them, or higher in status, or even if they’re a god. If they catch you doing wrong, they’re gonna throw hands. And more often than not, they bring them to justice in one form or another.

What Happens when a Good Man Crashes Out

Justice, by the way, is something that needs to be mentioned. Because justice, or the lack of it, is what defines the man whom Yuji came to find: Hiromi Higuruma. And it’s why this man chose to crash out.

Interesting fact about the Japanese criminal justice system: it has a successful conviction rate of 99%. That’s not because it’s just that good, but because it only pursues cases that it already thinks will end in a guilty verdict. That might sound efficient, but there’s a flaw to this line of thinking: what if the defendant is innocent? Then the prosecution will look stupid and ruin their careers. Even worse, though, is being the defense attorney. How are you supposed to do your job when everyone else thinks it’s a waste of time since they already decided the person is guilty? That is not good for one’s mental health, and nowhere is this better shown than with Higuruma, Defense Attorney.

Higuruma is a man with an incredibly strong sense of justice. If he thinks that a client is innocent, then he will raise hell to prove it. He genuinely wants justice to be enacted, no matter what society thinks. But a society that’s already decided the defendant’s guilty will use everything it has to make sure it wins. And then when his clients are still found guilty, they blame him for giving them false hope. He knows that they’re only doing this because of how desperate they are, but it still hurts!

Case in point, there was latest client accused of murder. He didn’t do it, and was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and despite the mountain of evidence proving his innocence, the justice system wouldn’t take the L. So they appealed the verdict, and despite not finding any new evidence, they still convicted the man. And that was enough to make him finally crash out and awaken as a Jujutsu Sorcerer.

This has to be one of the coldest moments in the entire series, and for good reason. There are people online saying that Gege Akutami consulted with actual defense attorneys to make Higuruma as authentic as possible. If that is true, then he managed to write an absolutely scathing critique of his country’s justice system, because Higuruma is a man who has reached his limit with the law. And when the law fails a good person too many times, they may crash out and take matters into their own hands. In Higuruma’s case, he manifests a Shikigami and forces a retrial…but not for the defendant.

Spoiler alert: he ended up killing the judge and prosecutor. And by the time Yuji meets up with him, he’s still in the middle of a crash out, as he doesn’t care about helping Yuji. And when Yuji presses the issue, he hits back. Hard.

This is gonna be one Epic Fight!

This is one of the best moments of the entire season for me. Not only is the animation as smooth as butter, but it also shows just how powerful Higuruma is. He’s only been a Jujutsu Sorcerer for two weeks, and he’s already got a Domain Expansion. Do you know how insane that is? It’s so impressive, it’s actually scary! And now Yuji has to fight this guy in a courtroom-style fight. The next episode cannot get here soon enough, you guys!

If what I have seen with all the gifs and memes about Higuruma online are any indication, this is going to be a fan favorite episode. Higuruma is in the running for the crash out hall of fame, and I can’t wait to see his technique at work!

I Give “Tokyo Colony No. 1 – Part 2” a 4.5/5

Yuji and Megumi enter the Culling Game!

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Jujutsu Kaisen S3 Ep 7 Review

It’s time, everyone. The Culling Game has been underway for a while now, and the longer it goes on, the easier it will be for Kenjaku’s insane plans to be fulfilled. With Yuji and the others having gathered their allies, they’re ready to enter the Game. Which, at this point, I’m basically considering to be the JuJutsu equivalent of Fortnite.

Ironically, Yuji, Gojo, Nobara and Megumi are already in Fortnite.

Hakari Wants in On the Future

So, after getting Hakari and Kirara to calm down and listen to them, the former has the same reaction as the latter when they learn Gojo was sealed. To be fair, though, hearing that their strongest has been sealed would make anyone react like that. But now that Hakari knows that there backs are up against the wall, he’s willing to help them out. But he’s not just doing this out of the goodness of his heart! He wants to make a deal!

The short version: now that the existence of Cursed Spirits is public and the leaders of Jujutsu society are gonna need to be purged, things are going to need to be reformed. And Hakari wants to make sure the new rules will benefit him and his money-making schemes. Megumi agrees to the terms, since he’s the head of the Zenin Clan now. Seeing Hakari start sucking up to Megumi after he hears that was pretty funny. What makes it even funnier, though, is that the next day, Maki wipes out the Zenin Clan, making it a moot point.

Even if Megumi can’t really flex that clan power anymore, though, I think Hakari has the right to be involved in rebuilding Jujutsu society. I didn’t mention it in my review of the last episode, but one reason he got ostracized is that his Cursed Technique is more modern and tech-based. And the jerks in charge are so old-fashioned that they look down on it. But no society can improve if it keeps the same old ways forever, and if its leaders resist that notion, get rid of them. And after what they have done since Shibuya, Jujutsu HQ is going to be burned to the ground once Gojo gets out.

But enough of that: it’s time to enter the Culling Game, especially Yuji.

Let the Culling Game begin!

So, it was previously established that entering one of the colonies of the Culling Game makes someone a player by default. Since the group hadn’t entered yet, they thought they had time to prepare. However, they overlooked one possibility: that Sukuna might have agreed to take part in the Game in the past. Thanks to that, Yuji is already a player and can’t put off entering any longer. Thus, the group heads to the Tokyo Colonies.

Their plan is simple. To ensure that Megumi’s sister can get out of the Culling Game, they want to find players who already the points needed to add more rules. They figure that if they persuade them, they can add two new rules: one to allow points to transfer between players, and another that lets players tag someone else in to take their place. This way, they can make it through the Game without killing anyone. Yuji and Megumi go into one colony to find a player who has the points, while Hakari and Panda take the other to find Angel, the only one who can unseal Gojo. However, no plan survives first contact with the enemy, and this is no exception.

Firstly, the second Yuji and Megumi enter the colony, they find themselves separated. This was a rule that the barriers added so players would spawn in at different points without any control over it. It’s like PUBg or Fortnite in that regard. And unfortunately for Yuji and Megumi, the game already has players pulling off toxic gamer moves, like spawnpoint camping.

As a gamer with years of experience in online multiplayer, it disgusts me to see people using spawnpoint camping to earn points. That being said, I can’t help but find it funny seeing Yuji get jumped by two random newbies and turning the tables on them. They shouldn’t have messed with the main protagonist. And as it so happens, their third member is someone Yuji used to go to school with and knows where to find one of the hundred-point players…or so they say.

Someone is Sus

Meanwhile, Megumi runs into this woman who’s trying way too hard to play up the weak and helpless damsel routine, which sparks plenty of red flags in my head. She also claims to know where this player they’re looking for is, but she gives him a different location. Which means one of them is being lied to, and will thus be getting an ass-whooping later. Sadly, we will have to wait at least two weeks to find out. The anime is going to be on break.

I don’t really care that much that the anime will be on break. Months of One Piece going on break for recap episodes have gotten me used to the idea. Plus, the next episode is going to be absolute fire, I just know it! In the meantime, what I’m more interested in is Hakari’s English voice actor. I assumed that it would go to Chris Sabat, but Yuri Lowenthal was not someone I was expecting! People from my generation are probably already saying how he’s delinquent Sasuke. To be fair, though, Sasuke was a delinquent for half the series.

I Give “Tokyo No. 1 Colony, Part 1” a 4.5/5

Why are Cursed Techniques so Confusing at Times?

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JuJutsu Kaisen S3 Ep 6 Review

Well, that didn’t take long. Yuji, Megumi, and Panda infiltrated the underground fight club run by their jujutsu senpai’s, Hakari and Kirara, to recruit them for the Culling Games. Unfortunately, they’ve been made! Now, since they’re not going to do this the easy way, they’re gonna have to do this the hard way. Which is fine by me, because it gives us a chance to see how our protagonists measure up against their senpai’s. That, and we got confirmation that Megumi is ripped as they come!

I Don’t Get Kirara’s Power

So, while Yuji was upstairs talking to Hakari, Megumi and Panda were trying to sneak into the fight club in case things went south. Unfortunately, they were spotted by Kirara (who we will use they/them pronouns for). They think the two are working for Jujutsu High’s higher-ups (who are toxic conservatives), so they alert Hakari. That leads into Hakari throwing hands with Yuji as we saw at the end of the last episode, and now things have to be done the hard way.

To Kirara’s credit, Megumi and Panda are from Jujutsu High, but are just choosing not to follow the higher-ups orders. And even when the two tell them that they sought their help because Gojo was sealed, they don’t buy it. If we hadn’t seen it for ourselves, I doubt the viewers would believe it, either! But the only reason that this happens is so that the story can show off what Kirara can do with their cursed techniques. And it’s…pretty complex.

I love the shonen genre; I’ve always loved it. However, one thing that’s always bugged me is how some series have power systems that can be downright confusing to understand. The biggest offender is JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, especially in the later parts, but JJK can be just as hard to understand at times. Case in point, I had a hard time wrapping my head around Kirara’s Cursed Technique. The basic idea is that it marks people and items based on the stars in the Southern Cross constellation. You have to approach each mark based on its order in the constellation, I think. And if you don’t approach in the correct order, you get repelled like being Force pushed.

I’m sorry, but that kind of power just doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest. It’s too confusing to wrap my head around and I think that saying Kirara could repel things they touch would be simpler. It’s only thanks to the show’s superb animation that I was able to maintain my interest. It doesn’t really matter, though, because Megumi and Panda win and convince Kirara to hear them out.

Hakari, on the other hand…is too fired up to listen as he and Yuji come out of the monitor room in a fist fight.

I Respect Hakari’s Love for Passion

Here’s the thing about Yuji as of this moment: he’s not in the best mental headspace. He was talked into coming back with his friends and half-brother, but what happened in Shibuya is not something he can get over. He already put little value on his own life, but after Sukuna’s rampage and what Mahito did, it’s devolved to the point where he sees himself as a cog in a never-ending war. His only purpose is to kill Cursed Spirits and help his friends, and nothing else. As much as I like seeing people act selflessly, though, there’s a point where it becomes detrimental to one’s well-being. And it’s this way of thinking that gets on Hakari’s nerves the most.

Unlike Yuji, who’s entire reason for living is to help others, Hakari embodies the concept of putting one’s own interests above all else. He’s passionate about what he loves, and likes seeing that kind of passion in other people. It sounds selfish and greedy at first glance, but when you think about it, everyone wants something more than anything in life, even if it’s something selfless. He wants to see a world where people are free to do what they love the most, which is why he initially can’t stand seeing Yuji think so little of his own existence. To put it bluntly, it pisses him off.

Ironically, it’s this very mindset of Yuji that gets Hakari to finally hear him out. Yuji Itadori’s so determined to stop the Culling Game that he tanks every one of Hakari’s punches, which just makes him angrier. It gets to the point where Kirara calls out how riled up Yuji’s resolve has gotten him. By his own logic, Yuji has passion.

The timing couldn’t be better. A new rule has been added to the Culling Game by one of the players: players can see the status and location of all other players. This rule was added not by them or any of their allies, but by one of the players who’s already at work. To make it worse, it’s one of the Sorcerers who was brought back by possessing someone else. Their name is Hajime Kashimo, and judging by what he says in his first appearance, he’s a real blood knight. The whole reason he added that rule was so that he could track down and fight Sukuna.

I repeat, this reincarnated Sorcerer actually wants to fight Sukuna. And he’s not Gojo! You have to be next-level crazy to want to do that!!

If this is the kind of enemy that’s in the Culling Game, then Yuji and the others are gonna need all the help they can get. They need Hakari!

Next episode, we’re finally joining in on the Culling Game, and it looks like we’re starting off on the best foot possible.

I Give “Cog” a 4/5

LET THE CULLING GAME BEGIN!

Aside Roderick J "Jay" Friz Anime, Anime Reviews, Crunchyroll , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jujutsu Kaisen S3 Ep 3 Review

My fellow Jujutsu sorcerers, Jujutsu Kaisen is back! Well, it’s been back for about a week by the time I’m writing this, but I didn’t write about the first two episodes. There was no need to, since I had already covered them in my review of the compilation movie. But now that they’re out, I’m free to cover everything going forward as we get into the Culling Games. I’m going into this basically blind, but from what I’ve heard, and based on how crazy the new OP is, this is going to be absolute chaos!

What is the Culling Game?

So, where were we when we last left off? Yuji was a fugitive from the corrupt Jujutsu heads alongside his half-human, half-cursed spirit half-brother. Nagoya “Dbag” Zen’in tried to kill Yuji. Yuta showed up like an absolute CHAD and helped Yuji fake his death. And now all the good guys reunite at Tokyo Jujutsu High to meet Tengen, the immortal responsible for the barriers protecting the high schools in Tokyo and Kyoto. This brings us to this episode, which is more or less dedicated to exposition dumping on what the heck is about to happen.

Which is good, because I’ve always had a hard time understanding the power system in JJK, and I’ve had an even harder time trying to understand what the end goal of the antagonist’s is for the Culling Games.

To sum it up as best as I can understand it, it’s like the Infinite Tsukuyomi from Naruto meets Fortnite.

No, really. The ultimate plan of Kenjaku, the sorcerer who has possessed Geto’s corpse, is to force humanity to evolve by giving everyone access to cursed energy. His plan is to have humanity fuse with Tengen, who has evolved to become less a human and more an abstract entity, granting them all curse energy. To do that, he needs a massive amount of cursed energy be unleashed, hence why he’s been working behind the scenes for a thousand years trying to make the Culling Games happen. He made pacts with ancient sorcerers to have them participate in exchange for bringing them back in new bodies, which he did by feeding people cursed objects containing their souls. He also found people with cursed techniques who couldn’t use them and modified their brains so that they could, using the disaster curses and others to accomplish this. And since users of the Six Eyes like Gojo kept foiling him in the past, he made sure to seal Gojo so the technique wouldn’t pass on to someone else. All of this culiminated at Shibuya, where Kenjaku used everything to awaken thousands of sorcerers, both ancient and modern-day, and unleashed countless cursed spirits across Japan.

Da Rules

So, there a boatload of sorcerers who appeared out of nowhere, hordes of cursed spirits that have formed colonies across Japan, and Kenjaku is forcing them all to fight in the Jujutsu equivalent to Fortnite. All so he can merge humanity for the sake of transcending their current limitations. And to make matters worse, joining the Culling Games is non-negotiable for those picked. There are rules that even say so!

  1. Anyone who gets a cursed technique has to join nineteen days after awakening said technique by entering one of the colonies.
  2. Refusal to join will lead to players deaths by removal of cursed technique.
  3. Non-players who enter colonies become players by default.
  4. Points are gained by killing players and non-players
  5. Point values are determined by game master
  6. Players who gain 100 points can ask game master to add a new rule to the game. No takebacks!
  7. The game master must agree to new rule as long as it doesn’t mess with the game.
  8. Players whose scores haven’t changed after 19 days will die.

And to make sure that the game can’t end if he dies, Kenjaku made it so he isn’t the game master. This Shinigami thing called a kogane is!

Credit where credit is due; as someone who enjoys games myself, Kenjaku really thought this out. A pity that he’s doing this for the sake of evil. And with Gojo sealed in the Prison Realm, and the tools needed to free him destroyed or out of energy, there’s no way for him to stop Kenjaku.

Or is there?

One Chance

As fate would have it, one of those reawakened sorcerers, Angel, has a technique that can nullify other cursed techniques. Which means that she’s able to open the back door to the Prison Realm and let Gojo out. So, if they want to stop this madness, then they’re going to have to find Angel. But since this episode already gave us plenty of exposition, the anime decided to cut us some slack and give us this video explaining the good guy’s plans.

Everyone has their marching orders now, and so everyone must get ready to play the deadliest game of their lives.

Now, some people are no doubt asking why Kenjaku decided to make the rules as they are, let alone give players the chance to alter them or provide an out. That seems counterproductive to his evil plans for forced assimilation. The thing is, he probably doesn’t care if he ends up failing. His only goal is to force humanity to evolve, and conflict has always been a surefire way of seeing this happen. Think of how many leaps and bounds in technology have been made thanks to war making them a necessity. Even if he fails and even if the game falls apart, that won’t change the fact that he’s shaken Jujustu society to its core. They have to change now.

Great Exposition

Personally, I liked this episode. It might have to do with growing up watching Yu-Gi-Oh!, but I enjoy hearing exposition so I can better understand what’s going on. And judging by the comments on that Crunchyroll video, there are plenty who are having a hard time understanding how this whole thing will work. But what I think is my favorite part of this episode has to be the ending as we get our first look at one of those awakened sorcerers. I read about him on TV Tropes, and from the sounds of it (and how he is in the OP), he’s going to be pretty funny. Heaven knows we need that considering what’s about to happen.

I Give “About the Culling Game” a 4/5