Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Episode 44 Review

The Hero Arrives

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Episode 44 was way better than I expected it to be. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen in this episode. But, I just had a feeling that it wouldn’t be too good. Well, I was wrong.

It’s amazing how adding Aoi Toudou to an episode can completely change my opinion. He’s really the best character in the series. Itadori? No thanks. Gojou? Overhyped. Fushiguro? Bootleg Sasuke. Toudou, however, is awesome. He’s a cool guy and has a simple, yet dynamic cursed technique.

Toudou’s entrance into this episode might have been the best part. After determining that Getou already escaped with Gojou, Toudou changes gears. He decides to save the remaining sorcerers who are still locked in combat. And, he rightfully assumes that Itadori is somewhere nearby. Then, when he finds Itadori, he doesn’t even pay attention to Mahito. What a chad.

There’s no way Toudou couldn’t tell that Mahito was a special-grade curse. He also saw that Nobara was dead and Itadori was about to die. And still, he wasn’t concerned with Mahito. Why? Because Toudou has absolute confidence in himself and his allies.

Even upon learning that Mahito killed Nanami, a grade 1 sorcerer, Toudou’s demeanor didn’t change. As a grade 1 sorcerer himself, Toudou knows what it means to be a sorcerer. It means you could die at any time. And it means that if you do die, your comrades will continue to fight.

Yeah, in case you forgot, Toudou is on par with sorcerers like Nanami and Mei Mei. We know how strong those two are. Mei Mei even exorcised a special-grade curse earlier in this arc. And, Mei Mei was one of the grade 1 sorcerers who recommended Toudou for his promotion.

Reinforcements Are on the Way

Something I hadn’t noticed is that there were quite a few sorcerers not in Shibuya. Specifically, Utahime, Noritoshi, Kasumi, Momo, and Mai. I assumed they were around doing things and that we just hadn’t seen them. But, that’s not the case. They were outside Shibuya.

Why were they away from Shibuya during this major event? Mechamaru made sure they were away on a different mission at the time. He knew the Shibuya event was going to happen and he didn’t want them caught up in it. He assumed they wouldn’t survive.

Was that assumption correct? Unfortunately for those he determined “too weak,” he was probably right. As far as I know, none of them, even Utahime, who’s a teacher at Jujutsu High, are grade 1 sorcerers. So, they can’t be too upset with Mechamaru believing Toudou had a far better chance of survival than they did.

Remember what Nanami said when he ran into Naobito, Maki, and Fushiguro. He said that from this point forward, being a grade 1 sorcerer was the minimum. He recognized that the curses still in Shibuya were too dangerous for lower grades. By then, it was pretty much only special-grade curses left.

So, yeah, things likely wouldn’t have gone very well for these non-grade 1 sorcerers if they were in Shibuya. Nobara and Nanami died. And, we still don’t know the fates of Naobito (who seems to be grade 1) and Maki. I assume Maki is alive.

Oh, and I guess I should respond to Toudou’s partner saying there’s a non-zero chance Nobara survives. I’m going to press X to doubt that one. If Nobara somehow survives, that will undo all the work Gege did to try to get us to care about her death. I don’t see it.

Brotherly Bond

Watching Itadori and Toudou tag-team Mahito was awesome. And, it looks like we’re in for even more of this tag-team action in next week’s episode. Why is this such a good fight, though? Well, the simple answer is that I love tag-team fights.

In a lot of shounen battle series, we don’t get fights like this. Typically, the heroes and villains split up and all fight individual battles. Think about something like One Piece. The Straw Hats rarely fight together. Instead, they each go up against an antagonist with similar skills or a similar “rank.”

Jujutsu Kaisen has been pretty good about giving us tag-team fights, and I love when it does that. But, there’s more to a tag-team fight than having multiple characters on one side. They need to actually work together and complement each other’s abilities. That doesn’t always happen.

If you have Gojou and Getou fighting together, there’s not much complimenting going on. Both of them are strong enough to fight on their own and their skills don’t mesh very well. Itadori and Toudou is a different situation. They complement each other very well and become stronger when they work together.

Obviously, Toudou’s already crazy strong. But, he benefits a lot from having someone else who can hit as hard as he can. In that regard, Itadori is a great partner for him. Without Itadori, Toudou can’t be as aggressive. He can’t land a powerful hit and then swap in someone else to land another powerful hit.

Itadori benefits from this pairing, as well. He’s already a bit more aggressive than Toudou is. And, Toudou’s teleportation allows Itadori to focus more on offense. He doesn’t need to worry about dodging attacks or his opponent getting away from him. Toudou handles that.

Final Thoughts

What do you think about Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Episode 44? Did Mechamaru set a death flag for Toudou by saying he has a 99% chance of survival? Do you think Mechamaru was right in thinking the sorcerers he “saved” would have died in Shibuya? And, are you expecting Itadori and Toudou to exorcise Mahito?

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The review of Episode 45 is available now.