We’re Celebrating a Lot of Wins With This Weekend Anime Round-Up!
We have truly been blessed
MEGUMI FUSHIGURO FANS HOW WE FEELIN’?
SK8 THE INFINITY FANS HOW WE FEELIN’???
Welcome to the weekend anime round-up, fellow anime enthusiasts, and GYAH OMG LET’S JUST GET INTO IT THIS WEEKEND WAS SO GOOD TO US!
Sidenote: unless if you watch Attack on Titan, apparently? I watched a quick summary video and OOF that fandom is really going through it right now. I’ve only watched season one of the series and have been hesitant in picking it back up because, quite frankly, it makes my heart hurt.
Friday, March 19
Jujutsu Kaisen episode 23
Where to watch: Crunchyroll
Have you ever, as a manga reader, gotten to a chapter and said, “Damn I can’t wait for this to get animated.”
Hi. Welcome to my feelings for this episode of Jujutsu Kaisen.
As our trio (Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara) deal with the curse at the bridge AND, unbeknownst to them, Mahito’s curse from the death paintings, they get separated. Since Nobara continues to be a badass, she tells Megumi not to worry about her and to handle things with the curse under the bridge. Megumi tells Yuji to go after her since she could be in real danger, especially since the curse from the death painting mentions having an older brother, and that’s who’s responsible for grabbing Nobara. Megumi says he can deal with the situation at hand since it’s basically like a demonic game of Whack-a-Mole, but things take a turn when it turns out that there’s a much stronger curse, stronger than what they faced at the detention center way back when.
Megumi thinks back to when he asked Gojo to train him after their baseball game. Yes, that fun little bit of the kids playing baseball serves a purpose. Megumi’s problem is he’s constantly holding himself back and would rather sacrifice himself to push his friends further instead of fighting to win. Gojo’s not the only one who’s pointed this out to Megumi, Sukuna did too back at the detention center, pointing out how Megumi ran when he very much could’ve fought, and as this episode proves, he probably could’ve won.
So Megumi let’s go.
And it is such SPECTACULAR animation. Like. How does MAPPA just keep animating like this?! The creative ways Megumi uses his powers, how feral he looks when he shows up to fight for real, it’s no wonder why Sukuna’s been interested him since the beginning (which the series reminds you of, because yes, Sukuna is pleased with this battle). Megumi ends up defeating the curse which was, by the way, stronger than the one at the detention center. The curse had been in possession of one of Sukuna’s fingers, which is what the curses that Mahito sent are after. We don’t get to know too much about them yet (that’s for the next episode) as the second half of the episode gives us some backstory about Megumi and how he’s come to think the way he does.
We get a flashback of Megumi at the junior high he attended. We see how he beat up all the delinquents because they kept picking on the other students. His sister, Tsumiki, scolded him because he said he wouldn’t fight anymore, but Megumi fought them because they were bad people. While Megumi couldn’t stand bad people, he also couldn’t deal with good people because they always forgive bad people.
Tsumiki was a good person.
We find out that, back in first grade, Megumi’s dad and Tsumiki’s mom hooked up then disappeared. Megumi’s dad was from the Zen’in clan and left them to have Megumi and use him as a trump card against the clan. Megumi was sold to the clan, or at least, that was the plan, but the sale was interrupted by a certain white-haired jujutsu sorcerer (Gojo) who promised that Megumi would work as a jujutsu sorcerer instead.
When Megumi started ninth grade, Tsumiki was cursed, along with several others across the nation. No one knows what caused it, but she’s been in a coma ever since. I should note that this has nothing to do with the challenge at the bridge and the curse Megumi was fighting there, that was just something different that posed a threat to Tsumiki since she’s been unconscious this whole time and, therefore, wouldn’t be able to defend herself.
Back story done! Time for Megumi to meet up with his friends… or pass out. Looks like Yuji and Nobara are gonna be dealing with these brothers on their own.
Normally, I’d end the recap here, but it’d be in poor taste to not highlight THE BEST JUJU STROLL after-credits bit OF ALL TIME!
Yuji runs over to Gojo and Nobara who are exhausted from the heat and unwilling to put up with Yuji’s nonsense. None of that matters, though, because Yuji has pressing news: Megumi is being hit on! The three rush to the scene, Gojo telling them to get in Formation B, and ALL the characters proceed to claim Megumi as theirs, going on about passionate nights with him, and violin lessons with such hits as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
Turns out the woman was just asking for directions, though. Crisis adverted. Megumi’s still single and shippable with the main crew, as he should be.
But damn, Yuji, if you want the boy to stay single just say so, no need to call on a tactical battle unit. Just how many formations are there?
Saturday, March 20
SK8 the Infinity episode 10
Where to watch: Funimation
How does so much happen in ONE episode about boys who like to SKATEBOARD?!
Deep breath.
Here we go.
The episode starts where the last one left off (before the post-credits scene of Cherry falling asleep at Joe’s restaurant). Joe rushes to check on Cherry, who’s unconscious after Adam bashed him with his skateboard. It’s no exaggeration to say that Joe was more than ready to throw hands, but Shadow shows up to tell Joe that getting Cherry to the hospital is more important. This is true, of course, but I’m mentally writing a headcanon where Shadow shows up ten seconds later than he did so he (and we) can witnesses Joe’s fist connecting with Adam’s face, cracking that discount Vega mask into pieces.
Elsewhere, Langa is still looking for Reki, the crowd in a somber mood over what happened to Cherry. He runs into Miya as he’s getting ready for his beef against Tadashi, Miya handing Langa a majorly large truth pill to swallow: Reki is clearly avoiding him because he doesn’t want to see him. While he doesn’t voice it out loud (yet), Reki not being there is clearly bothering Miya, too, who also has the added hurt of Cherry being injured. Still, he goes up against Tadashi, and everyone notices that the way Tadashi skates is similar to Adam, right down to the dancing.
Here, we get a flashback of how Tadashi introduced Adam to skating. Tadashi is the child of a servant, so he wasn’t supposed to be hanging around Adam. Even so, when he saw Adam crying one night (most likely after being abused by one, or all three, of his aunts) he brought up skateboarding as a way to cheer him up. The two spent their childhood skateboarding together, but eventually, skateboarding was taken away from Adam. Initially, I thought the reason was that he was hanging out with Cherry and Joe. That could still have been a contributing factor, but according to Tadashi, it was mainly because it was a hobby where Adam associated with someone of a lower standing – Tadashi himself. Had Adam picked up a hobby with a more favorable crowd, it would’ve been fine, but skateboarding isn’t seen as a dignified sport.
What surprises me is that instead of Tadashi calling that line of thinking utter bullshit he goes along with it. I definitely think Tadashi wants to take skateboarding from Adam because he’s constantly hurting people with it, but I also think he wants to take it away because he’s been brought up to believe that it’s not befitting of someone of Adam’s lineage, hence his regret of introducing it to Adam in the first place.
Full disclosure: I actually want the final beef to be Adam and Tadashi, not Adam and Langa. I just don’t think Adam should get what he wants with this (a chance to go up against Langa), and honestly, he and Tadashi need to work out their shit.
After Tadashi beats Miya in their beef, we go back to those extremely sad boys Reki and Langa. Reki’s gone so far as to skip school and take days off work so he doesn’t run into Langa. He almost leaves his skateboard at home which, real talk, would’ve completely decimated me. Even if he isn’t talking with Langa he canNOT completely leave skateboarding behind. Meanwhile, Langa’s mother is worried because he’s back to the way he was when his father died and she’s not sure what to do.
This is, without a doubt, an accurate depiction of two boys post-break-up. There is no other explanation for this. It goes so far as to have Reki run into some folks he used to hang out with (note: they were apparently on a team together once upon a time), get beaten up by the group, and be left in an alleyway for his manager to find. Reki’s too depressed to even care that he just got his ass kicked, but as Manager Oka points out, Reki feels like beating himself up right now because he hates himself. Oka says that Langa, and even Joe and Cherry, are different than they are (they being Oka and Reki) but there’s nothing wrong with that. Skateboarders like Oka and Reki can enjoy it in their own way, and that’s fine.
I think it’s important that Reki hear this so he stops thinking that he’s somehow failed at skateboarding because he’s not as good as Langa. He can still enjoy it at his own pace.
The conversation is interrupted because Oka tells Reki that Shadow is in the hospital. Yeah, as Reki was being beaten up by his old group, someone who had beef with Shadow attacked his store manager while Shadow was walking with her. Hiromi (Shadow’s real name) has been doing what everyone else does – separating his real life from his skateboarding persona – but when his manager is threatened he protects her and, I imagine, unleashes Shadow on the attacker. He still has to go to the hospital, though, since he was hit with a bat.
Can I just say that I love Shadow way more than I thought I would? Just… can he PLEASE get together with his manager? Can he be happy, too?
Reki rushes to the hospital, only to leave when he sees that Langa is there. Langa tries to catch up to him, Joe smiling because he’s the biggest Renga (Reki x Langa) shipper there is. Before Reki can leave he runs into Miya, and listen, as sad as this whole thing with Langa has been this scene with Miya had NO RIGHT to hurt me like this. Miya calls Reki a liar because Reki told him he wasn’t gonna go anywhere. This really hit on how close this group has become. Reki promised Miya, back in the third episode, that they were friends and he wouldn’t leave the way Miya’s friends had left. Taking into consideration why Miya’s friends left (he got better than them at skateboarding) and yeah, wow, this entire plot thread of Reki being gone sucks.
That doesn’t mean he should be hit by a car though, damn!
I’m not making that up. Reki gets hit by a car. Fortunately, the car wasn’t going that fast, but STILL! The SAME day he gets jumped by some assholes he gets hit by a car?!
Since things have been a little too sad Reki is brought to a love hotel by Tadashi (who’d been driving the car) in an attempt to pay him off so he doesn’t get his employer in trouble. Reki doesn’t get to find out the employer is Adam, besides, to him the hit was nothing since he’s had harder hits in skateboarding.
No need for the Blank Check, Mr. Macintosh.
If you get the reference, congratulations, you’re old like me.
As Tadashi trash talks skateboarding and says that Reki should give it up, Reki realizes that he doesn’t care what people think because he just likes skateboarding. Period. Everything comes together for him as he realizes that, hey, as long as he’s enjoying himself, who cares if there are people better than him.
While this is happening, Langa is in the middle of that part in the romance movie where his love interest’s mother lets him hang out at the house while the love interest is gone? So he gets to look around the love interest’s room and see old photo albums and videos? And he gets to look like this the whole time:
Now that Reki has come to terms with his feelings, he rushes home, just missing Langa. Langa, by the way, has taken one of Reki’s boards to skate on. The two finally run into each other at the skate park, but Reki has no idea what to say, so Langa suggests that they just skate together.
Oh.
My.
GOD!
As they skate, Langa’s heart reacts, his body overjoyed as he realizes that it’s REKI who makes skateboarding enjoyable for him. Langa proceeds to compliment the hell out of Reki to the point that Reki looks like this as he pleads with Langa to not say any more:
But nope. Langa is like:
And I AM SO HAPPY and THEY ARE GONNA SKATE TOGETHER FOR INFINITY (Langa’s words, not mine).
But you know who isn’t happy? Adam. And with all the flavors out there he chooses to be salty, spying on the two boys and frustrated that Langa’s attention is on someone else. With Shadow injured it means that he can’t go up against Adam in the next beef, but Adam thinks he knows who he should challenge instead.
I am HOPING that Reki is just like, “Naw bro. Not interested. I feel nothing when I look at you.” Take the same thing Adam said about Reki back in episode four and flip it, having Reki be the one who feels no inspiration from Adam.
Oh, and if you want an extra serotonin boost with SK8 this week, the dub is on the beach episode, and the dub voice actors for Joe (Jonah Scott) and Cherry (Daman Mills) absoLUTELY play up the Matchablossom (Joe x Cherry).
I MEAN- 😏🌸🍵🌸🍵 #matchablossom https://t.co/o9soJZd5Nj
— Daman Mills 🌸🍵 (@DamanMills) March 20, 2021
Do yourself a favor and watch the dub, too. If for nothing else, to hear Langa hold onto Reki and say, I kid you not, “Don’t worry, bae, I’ll protect you.”
Horimiya episode 11
Where to watch: Funimation
Considering how the last episode went down (the love triangle) this one is a lot more chill. It’s more focused on the side characters again, particularly Shu Iura, who we’ve seen hanging out with Toru but who hasn’t gotten that much attention in the series. It turns out Shu has a little sister, and Toru is surprised that she’s a lot more reserved than her class clown of a brother. However, whenever it’s just Shu and Motoko (his little sister) at home together, he’s a lot quieter than he is at school.
Before we get more details about that, the group focuses on trying to get Akane to loosen up around them more. Akane is always formal with everyone, but everyone just wants him to relax and be comfortable around them. This causes a bit of jealousy with Miya, as Akane is getting more attention from everyone, but Akane reassures him that he’s not there to steal his friends away. Miya completely denies this is the case and runs away, dramatically, when the others try to figure out what the issue is.
We also get the return of Honoka, the girl who has a crush on Hori and who had such animosity toward Miya. She and Miya are on much better terms now, Miya helping her become more comfortable around boys since they tend to frighten her. He has her reveal how she feels about Kakeru and Toru, which goes well enough, but when Shu shows up she freaks out because he’s so loud and boisterous. When Shu gets a sore throat and stops talking, though, she thinks it’s because she called him annoying and she feels bad… until he returns to school, loud as ever.
The episode ends with more of Shu’s relationship with his sister, Motoko, who’s upset because one of her teachers told her that her grades weren’t good enough for the high school she wants to go to. While Shu and Motoko don’t seem to be really close as siblings, Shu is still upset on her behalf and asks Hori if he can tutor his sister to help her with her grades. He also threatens her teacher – not to the teacher’s face, of course, but in front of his sister so she can see that her big brother has her back on this. Both Shu and Motoko hope that the other doesn’t hate them, both trying to figure out how to get closer, not realizing how much their sibling cares about them.
And that’s it, really. Like I said, a pretty chill episode compared to last week’s.
Sunday, March 21
Theatre of Darkness: Yamishibai 8 episode 11
Where to watch: Crunchyroll
One time, this guy crashed his bicycle and broke a Jizo statue that served as the guardian of the village he lives in. I immediately suspected that his life would go into a downward spiral, but I didn’t expect the entire town to gleefully be waiting for the curse to happen. At least, that’s how he sees it. In reality, his friends are confused about what he’s talking about. No one actually wants him to get cursed… right?
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That’s all for the weekend round-up! See everyone again on Friday where I think some series may be on their final episodes!
(Image: Funimation)
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