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Jujutsu Kaisen S2 E14: Fluctuations
694 Plays1 year ago
It may have been a team up episode, but it's going to be a rare solo podcast! Join in on the ramblings of Andrew about everything beautiful, colorful, and absolutely jaw dropping about this episode. This is after one of the best episodes of the season so be sure to make sure that you give this one a watch!
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Transcript
Introduction to Episode 14
00:00:02
Speaker
On another exciting entry of the Animation Deliberation podcast, it is time to evolve into something more with Jujutsu Kaisen, Episode 14, Fluctuations. Right after these ads, we have no control over.
00:00:17
Speaker
Sing along if you know the words. One, two, three, it's time for animation deliberation. A conversation and a celebration of our favorite action animated series. Yeah. And welcome back to another fine entry of the animation deliberation podcast, podcast where we take action animation and cartoon seriously, but not too seriously. I am Andrew Rogers and, uh,
00:00:44
Speaker
Yeah, that's it. I am going to be flying solo this week because currently my usual cohort, Zuhair, is flying across the world. He is in all sorts of weddings throughout the summer, and he is currently at one right now, so I wish him and all of those party guests the best. But because of that, we don't want to get too far behind this week.
Solo Hosting Challenges and Listener Engagement
00:01:02
Speaker
I'm going to go for this one solo. I've never done something like this before. It's going to be interesting because I don't really have someone to bounce off of to get more insights out of this.
00:01:12
Speaker
I don't know how long this is gonna go i don't know what is gonna sound like also i don't have editing experience so anything that i say is just going to stay in this because we're gonna fly this through i don't wanna have to make you here do any work when he gets back just to edit a one man rambling show.
00:01:29
Speaker
So yeah, I'm going to do this one by myself. This would be a great time to say I would love to have more listener feedback because this would be an awesome time to answer questions, talk about what your guys' thoughts are, read those things out here on the show, and or listen to the voice recordings however you do it. So there is that little plug out of the way. As always, you could reach out to us, animationdeliberationpodcastatgmail.com. If you have any thoughts, theories, questions, you just want to know more. We want to hear it because we love hearing from all of you.
Battle Scenes: Mei and Dagon
00:01:57
Speaker
I'm gonna jump into this episode now because there's nothing else to do as always with a synopsis here of episode 14 fluctuations
00:02:08
Speaker
Mei Mei battles the smallpox deity Curse Spirit, just barely avoiding her death by its guaranteed hit attacks. Using Wiwi and her crows as a distraction, she is able to catch the curse off guard and defeat it, freeing them from the domain and ready to fight Sudogetto. Elsewhere, Nanami convenes with Maki and Naobito
00:02:28
Speaker
informing them of Gojo's concealment. They encounter the cursed spirit Dagon, who reveals itself to have been a cursed womb evolving to a significantly stronger state. Naobito uses his curse technique, projection sorcery, to put up a good fight until Dagon activates his domain expansion, trapping the three in his domain. Nanami and Naobito are consumed by a horde of Shikakami,
00:02:52
Speaker
Well, Maki barely avoids it. Megumi enters the domain and starts a domain clash in an effort to keep Dagon distracted.
00:03:01
Speaker
Nanami and Nobito survive their pileups and Megumi reveals he's discovered the exit to the domain, which they are about to use to escape. However, before they can, Toji suddenly emerges through the passage. And there's one thing that this synopsis neglected to mention. He emerged through that passage smiling so, so sinisterly, absolutely heart crushing and just wrenching moment where you felt uncomfortable
00:03:30
Speaker
just because like he is uncomfortable in his happiness to be destroying such things. I like I love him as a character. He's a great villain. It is going to be a wild ride now that he is fully in the picture. But gosh, was it bad? And it really crushed me. Because I thought it was Toto coming through that portal. I saw the two hands and I was waiting for them to clap together. And everyone teleport switch places. I was like, Oh my gosh, Toto arrived at the fight. We didn't even know he was gonna be a part of this. Yes, yes, yes. No,
00:03:58
Speaker
No, no, no, that's that's really the answer to what happened. Because gosh, toji and now it's gonna be toji with megami there because megami just happened to show up. Oh, it's just piling up.
Pacing and Fight Scene Analysis
00:04:12
Speaker
I gotta say I really miss you here this week. Not just because I don't have anyone to talk to besides all of you. But largely because I feel like this episode is a
00:04:23
Speaker
very good example of what we've been talking about throughout the season. There's been some comments about pacing and where everything's been going. Last week was an amazing fight episode. And then this week was an amazing fight episode just back to back this episode slapped when it came to pacing on the entirety of the main fight with we we at the beginning was
00:04:45
Speaker
pretty much a cold open I think it was like five six minutes before we even hit the uh opening intro and theme song like that in and of itself just tells you how much they wanted to go through that like it almost felt like a footnote that hey this is happening you you remember how she had to fight this powerful demon guess what she's going to do it in minutes and who I I don't know how I feel about me though um her just
00:05:12
Speaker
willingness to get the job done at any cost like I know we got the revelation that asking someone to give their life up for you expands their cursed energy and makes them more powerful like that's how she makes her crows as super powerful as they are which is really cool her asking her little brother to
00:05:34
Speaker
die for her and then literally putting him on the line. I didn't like it. It felt like she was just straight up like gaslighting him into it because of the way he was like, Oh my god, I could do that for you. Like, I'm gonna be so great. Thank you so much. Like, one of these days, you're gonna die kid. And that's not gonna be that's not gonna be pretty because she just made you think you were always gonna be safe. And I'm scared for what that looks like. But I didn't
00:06:00
Speaker
on the flip side of that really like oh we we has a purpose because this whole time he's just been there like carrying her axe and she even joked like oh what you thought he was just here to carry my stuff probably pointed that one at the audience I suppose but
00:06:15
Speaker
Yeah, him being there to handle domains make her essentially more powerful by doing that, being a distraction and helping to take down these super powerful beings. It makes her so much more of a threat. We know she is at that upper echelon of sorcerers, but having a basically a sidekick that can do so much extra work for and with her really was a cool thing to see.
00:06:42
Speaker
it felt like they definitely wrote off what was supposed to be one of the most powerful curses we've seen in as a while as like, all right, this is just a blockade to get to Sudogetto. But I think it was a perfect instance of flushing out their powers, getting us more of what they can do and also probably weakening them because now they're not going to be at 100% as they walk into that fight.
00:07:06
Speaker
I'm hoping that they're not alone, hoping that Gojo can get out or someone can get away from the fights, but our characters are converging a lot more than I thought they will. Because, yeah, we'll jump to the other main fight. Nanami meeting up with Maki and Naobito was... That was fun. That was really cool. We got the timestamp basically just telling us, hey, this is after the fight that Choso had with...
00:07:34
Speaker
It's a Dory. So that was a big part of why that timestamp was there. That wasn't anything important. But now we got to see the little squid guy for so long. I have wondered what and who this squid character is like. They've just kind of been there hanging out, doing all sorts of things in the background as we had a pseudo ghetto and Mahito and just all the main bad curses.
00:08:01
Speaker
just kind of existed there and didn't really know what it was. And as I joked at the top of the episode with the Stinger, found out that they can evolve. Apparently curses are like Pokemon now because he was just like, little baby curse didn't have too much power. And then boom, basically Cthulhu, like the wings, the tentacles coming off the face, it was so
00:08:25
Speaker
I'm just bizarre to see, but I loved learning more about this character because I was always just like, who is this weak little squid guy? It's so, so funny looking, but apparently not too weak because they have eaten a whole lot. But that's probably why they were able to evolve from the curse womb to become
00:08:44
Speaker
what is honestly a top-tier cursed spirit, like, feels like it is on the level with all of these others that we have seen in, you know, Mahito, Keto, Togo, Toko, all of their friends, pretty much, like, to come out and become that powerful. Even Nanami mentioned, like, he's against two first-grade sorcerers and holding their own,
00:09:12
Speaker
And there's also Maki there. So it's just so much power that they are completely emitting. But this fight, this fight was so good. I loved so, so much of this. Just like, Nabito having that monologue about like, oh, how are you going to move? Or all around you, you have that water shield to just a perfect needle drop, quintessential anime fight music as all three of them converged.
00:09:41
Speaker
It just made you want to root for them so much like obviously these are our heroes obviously we care about them but like who's now we to we've never really seen this guy we know he's the leader of the zen and clan but like our zen and clan but we've never really gotten to interact yet you were still 100% rooting just because of the way that the music
00:10:00
Speaker
Drew you into every move that they were making every little instance of what this fight could be so Absolutely top tier with the music and then now we tow just being awesome He's officially part of the animation deliberation dream team here because he's an animator at heart getting
00:10:19
Speaker
not only getting the revelation of what his powers were, but a perfect explanation. We didn't have any questions. One of the coolest powers in like the 24 frame per second projection sorcery breakdown. But again, I wish Sue Hare were here to get his full thoughts on this. A perfect example of not stopping and not slowing down too much to explain things to us, but instead doing it during the fight
00:10:47
Speaker
letting things stretch out before us and explaining them as they are happening. Perfect examples of trusting the audience, letting us know we're smart enough, and just bringing us in on all of the powers that now Beetho had. And it was just the fact that this old man is the second fastest sorcerer only to Gojo. Who would have thought like we knew they were powerful, but to find out exactly how powerful
00:11:13
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's a lot it's surprising but that just the whole first part of that fight So clean so good watching their powers come together and again them also trusting each other um now be till freezing in the like almost playing card the setting that happens when people don't abide by his technique to then toss it and Expect that Nanami was going to come down and use the seven tenths and cut him obviously it was stopped and blocked but like
00:11:41
Speaker
you have to have a lot of trust to know that someone else is going to have your back when you throw them an enemy this dangerous and this powerful.
Animation and Artistic Style
00:11:49
Speaker
Absolutely amazing. We got some great little anatomy scenes throughout this episode like not quite as Jojo's level of Hulk animation But there were still a couple of those moments where they zoomed in on his face and he just had that strong look that is just so much fun seeing all of the Greatness that has come out of those scenes as fanservice as they were for us with what not me had its
00:12:17
Speaker
It's great to see him continuing into this fight. Obviously, you don't want to lose any characters, or you don't want any of them to be sidelined during these fights. But I was really worried Nanami was only going to have that one episode, so to know that they are still a part of the greater scale, I'm here for it. I'm ready for it. Give us all the characters, because again, I was not thinking they were going to converge this much. And here we are with four major characters and sorcerers all fighting together.
00:12:47
Speaker
So that was awesome. But they're not all here yet. That was only when they were transported and onto what seemed like a beach, actually not a transport. It was the domain expansion of Dagon, which also I didn't even mention. We found out Dagon's name. I was referring to him as Little Squid Boy earlier. Yeah, Dagon being the name of this curse spirit and
00:13:11
Speaker
I love, what I'm assuming is a revelation here, that the beach that Sudogetto and all of them were planning on this whole time, we were like, why don't people find them on this beach? Did they murder everyone? What actually happened to get them here? It was probably just in his domain. The whole time Dagon was just domain expansion. Let's chill out by the beach. This is great, isn't it? And then they would go back into the real world and do whatever, which also,
00:13:38
Speaker
great way to hide unless someone like knows that you have done your domain expansion so super cool to see was definitely a harsh moment to see all of our characters just caught this wildly off guard um but yeah the then this fight just continuing onward the onslaught of the fish monsters that were just thrown at them i mean again
00:14:03
Speaker
It's a show of pure power that we haven't seen Dagon fight before. They just, quote unquote, evolved whatever that really means. And they just took out now betos arm like during this fight without missing a beat is able to lay on such hard hits that they are taking down a sorcerer that we know is this powerful.
00:14:24
Speaker
absolutely unheard of, absolutely amazing show of what they have. And as speaking of amazing shows, we had an amazing insult in just Octobitch being the way that it was called for that insult. So good. So funny. I actually lost it when Maki just came out of the woods like you're gonna one shot me? Are we gonna do this right?
00:14:45
Speaker
absolutely incredible and i really go back to the music again on this fight it was so rampant so cool and the colors throughout all of this just stretching across so many of the backgrounds just zooming in the like moving colored lines it was it felt very much like old school anime um i was getting like
00:15:07
Speaker
Dragon Ball and Naruto and Hunter Hunter, just like these old action set pieces. I don't know what it was about the beach and the colors, but it just did something for me that felt very reminiscent of things that we have seen in the past. So credit where it's due when you're making a watcher evoke the great names, even if Zuhair is going to always be convinced that I don't like Naruto.
00:15:33
Speaker
Deep down, I know that it's always going to be one of the greats. It's one of the big three. You know, it's there for a reason. But to be just making me think of that is super, super great credit to MAPA's direction. And I got to say, coloring department, it always astounds me when I see manga panels and am reminded that all of this is done in black and white. Just pen on paper. They only color the color, only color the covers.
00:16:02
Speaker
So, so much of this, they are coming up with, well, what color did the artist, you know, intend for this to be? What is going to look the best and the most striking for all of this? So, it just, it looks so, so good this episode. I was really happy and it really, you know,
00:16:22
Speaker
made an interesting set piece that we had this happy beach with the sun, with the colors. It makes you really have these happy-go-lucky feelings, and we are watching people just take it brutally in this fight. So really, really fun piece. And like I said, old-school fight vibes is great. And getting to see everyone hold their own Megumi coming in and giving Maki the weapon back that has the...
00:16:50
Speaker
most cursed spirit that I think we've seen out of any of them. Nanami enduring the Shigeshami fish monster. We're gonna go with that fish monster just onslaught for over a minute as it turned out only to pop back up and basically just become a protector and a defender once again not wanting to lose any of the life. Absolutely phenomenal to see Nanami just
00:17:15
Speaker
just making himself a fan favorite. I don't know what else to say. He's at least becoming one of my favorites, and I know many others. So just so many of those epic, epic moments coming together as a group, all of them. And yeah.
Episode Reflection and Future Anticipation
00:17:32
Speaker
It brings me to the end of the episode. I know I've just been rambling. I really hope it's not too fast. I've been told by some people that when I present things on my own, I go to break neck pace. So I apologize if you feel that you have to turn me to half speed on your podcast catcher of choice. Hopefully that's not too much, but I'm embodying one of the greatest podcasters Ridiculous Hat. If you are listening out there, you have been a example to me and you are
00:18:01
Speaker
faster talker than I will ever get to so I guess Thanks for giving me that example. But um, yeah, I talked about it all ending on this toji note I don't know where next week is gonna go just because we have so many threads to pull on we did not even see a moment of Isidori in this episode and we had that huge cliffhanger where
00:18:25
Speaker
There's the possibility that him and Choso are brothers, I guess, or what the twins did after they found his body. So, so many notes of where the season can go. And there's other sorcerers and other curses that we could just see take center stage like
00:18:43
Speaker
I don't think any of us really thought that it was going to be a maki, um, uh, now be tow and anatomy centric episode, but here we are. And I have no complaints at that. And we also have the pseudo ghetto fight and so many things in this.
00:19:02
Speaker
I think we said last week one of the best episodes of the season so far. This episode may have taken the cake from that episode. I think it's worth noting they are seriously on an upward trend and were
00:19:18
Speaker
not even half or we're just halfway through the season. We're over it by a bit. But like, there's so much more to tell so much more story. And toji entering the picture. Like we might even get an episode of just explaining to Megami who this is because
00:19:37
Speaker
Whoo, yeah. I was a little upset when I saw Megami enter because I was like, oh, that means Toji isn't anywhere nearby. Nope, that means Toji is on his tail. And who knows if they're even going to get out of this domain? That's a whole other question because like he said he could only make a small hole for so long. Did Toji just clog that right up and take the opportunity away from them?
00:20:01
Speaker
It's gonna be crazy, it's gonna be fun, but I'm so excited for it.
Social Media Promotion and Halloween Tease
00:20:06
Speaker
And yeah, I hope all of you are excited if you have any notes, if you want me to never do a solo podcast again, or you want more of these kinds of things.
00:20:16
Speaker
Let us know, as always, give us the feedback. And as always, follow us on all of your social medias. We are out there on what used to be Twitter, now X, animation to lib1, Facebook and Instagram, animation to liberation, and keep an eye out on the feed. Jay Scottie and myself just recorded what was an astoundingly long
00:20:37
Speaker
a Halloween special. We're super excited about that. It's over the garden wall. If you have not watched it, go watch it because, well, you'll see by the length of that episode that we both had so much to say about that show. It is beautiful. It is fun. It is perfect for the Halloween season.
00:20:55
Speaker
And the music is absolutely phenomenal. It makes the music in this episode look like it's nothing because there's just so much fun to be had with that score. And it is beautiful in a way that is wildly different than what we talk about currently. You know, JJK is real to life. This is very old school cartoon painted backgrounds. Like it's got a cult following if you don't know what this show is. And it has a cult following for a reason because it is
00:21:25
Speaker
so many people's favorite thing once they find out about it so definitely um if you haven't checked out that show check it out if you haven't we do a small spoiler free for i think the first like five ten minutes just to kind of catch everyone up to speed on a lot of what i just said and sing our praises of it so you could totally listen to at least that portion um as always you know download the episodes and leave us a five star rating and review
00:21:50
Speaker
It is the single best way to help out our podcast. If this was your first podcast, please do not just judge it based on my solo ramblings of a madman. I usually have one or two co-hosts to bounce off of every week that we come up with some lovely insights theories and things to talk about when it comes to animation. So.
00:22:11
Speaker
If you liked us, thanks for sticking around. Until next time, keep tuning in, that's T-O-O-N-I-N, stay whelmed, and I don't know when I'm gonna get to do all three taglines again, so let's enjoy this one, muscle, muscle.
00:22:35
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Animation Deliberation Podcast, a proud member of the Strandepanda Network. If you would like to contact us, you can email AnimationDeliberationPodcast at gmail.com or follow us on Twitter at AnimationDelib1. For this and other great shows, you can visit Strandepanda.com or join the great community that is the Strandepanda Chat Facebook group at facebook.com slash groups slash spchat. Tune in next time and remember, stay well.