Jujutsu Kaisen - Kaikai Kitan Analyzed | What's in an OP?

jujutsu kaizen is the most exciting new shonen anime since demon slayer and until chainsaw man it moves along in a mile a minute zipping between intense action scenes zany dark comedy and surprisingly poignant drama without ever missing a beat all while blending together some of the best ideas of its predecessors in fun and surprising ways it's op kaikaikitan by eve is much the same setting a distinct vaguely eerie tone with its music while still bringing the all-important hype under the expert direction of shingo yamashita the ed is equally great by the way the song slaps the hero's drip and the fashion show art style is gorgeous but there's a lot less to analyze amid all that stylish minimalism so despite the many many viewer requests this video will be exclusively about the op which has more than enough foreshadowing for the both of them right up to the current arc of the manga and maybe beyond it in fact i will be vague in discussing those points to avoid spoilers but there is one specific enough that i'll have to dip into explicit spoilers to explain it so i'll warn you before we get there and mark the time in the video's chapters so you can skip over it with ease now without further ado you guys have waited long enough for a new what's in an op let's just jump into it kakaikitan opens cold dropping us into the soaking wet shoes of a confused yuji itadori as he's awakened by sukuna's power pulsing through his body and finds himself riding through the tokyo skyline in a subway car half submerged in water a black and white flatfish swims up to his hand and a low shot of his knees both lets us get a closer look at the ripple patterns on its body and confirm that our hero is the car's sole occupant the light flashing through the windows in time with the guitar chords is a nice touch even with 130 chapters of manga under my belt i still can't definitively say what this empty car represents there's only one point in the plot so far where the tokyo subway has had any plot relevance and this doesn't really map to that at all so i have to assume that it's either a metaphor for the forces carrying the unwitting yuji toward his destiny or a literal representation of someone's domain maybe even yuji's though there's a more likely candidate for that i think which i'll talk about later the next shot shows us an overhead view of tokyo at night the subway lines traced by a golden glow that fades to a much more cursed looking red reminiscent of sukuno's tattoos as the title card appears this is mostly just a solid example of stylish motion graphic work but it does suggest that tokyo as a city and the darkness lurking within it are every bit as important to this story as its heroes and the montage that follows introducing us to the students and one faculty member of tokyo's jujutsu high bears that theme out by showing them standing alone in unnervingly quiet corners of the city first we're introduced to megumi fushiguro crouching down in a tunnel with its end shrouded in mist bracing against his knees as though he's about to break into a run he spends a moment contemplating the ground before rising up determined to face whatever lies beyond the fog this shows both his pensive considerate side and his determined nature nobara kugisaki is also in shadow when we first see her though the world around her is much more full and bright she stands on the steps of mori tower in roppongi an extravagant building symbolic of the small town girl's big city celebrity aspirations as we descend the stairs toward her she turns to step out of the darkness glancing knowingly at the camera's new close-up position as the light hits her face in the next shot we see dim fluorescent light playing across toge inumaki's face in a similar manner as he descends an escalator into tokyo's subway system he and the rest of the second years get only one intro shot a piece as they're not in yuji's nakama squad yet now i could swear that yazzie and i have been down this exact escalator but there's a lot of them in this city and i cannot place it for the life of me so if you know tokyo like obsessively well let me know where it is in the comments the next shot's a lot easier to place panda stands watching a panda at the panda enclosure of the tokyo zoo the symbolism is likewise easy to parse as a cursed corpse panda lives in a world of darkness separated from both true humanity and true pandanity as though viewing it through a thick pane of glass and panda's pretty chill about that all things considered just as he is here next up we meet yuji's mentor kento nanami sitting alone in what looks like a fancy cafe overlooking well we can't actually see what's outside behind the opulent interior reflection but that may be the point before he took up the blade to fight curses nanami was a stockbroker and a pretty well-paid comfortable one at that but he felt that that well-paying job kept him alienated from the cycle of human life and thus chose to do something that actually helps real human beings this empty cafe could symbolize that turning point in his life or it could simply be where he goes to relax after clocking out from his exorcism gig at six on the dot every day speaking of numbers i just noticed as i was watching this video back that there are seven lamps in each of the lighting fixtures above naomi's head a pretty obvious nod to the mathematical nature of his curse technique lastly we're introduced to maki zenin as she stands cleaning her glasses in the cobblestone courtyard of a tokyo park the wide space in front of her in the frame leading us to expect that something will appear there i'm not sure which park there are a lot of those in tokyo too when i asked folks on twitter they suggested that it might be shinjuku gyoen garden the setting of garden of words but we couldn't find any photos of this specific spot if you know where this is i would love to get an answer in the comments below though i don't think it's super relevant to this analysis what happens when maki's done cleaning her glasses definitely is though in a pov shot her special lenses reveal a curse crawling its way out of the pond toward her our first glimpse into the hidden supernatural world of jujutsu sorcery the implication being that similar evils were lurking at the periphery of the other normal shots of tokyo that we just saw invisible to our mundane eyes and with these lenses now on we're about to see some [ __ ] though before we do i'd just like to take a second to appreciate the refraction effect and the nose pads and frameless rims of the glasses themselves that is some impressive attention to detail courtesy of key animator koki fujimoto as the op winds into its midpoint we find ourselves swirling high above satoru gojo balancing nonchalantly on the top railing of the sky tree the pinnacle of jujutsu's sorcery and quite possibly all of humanity standing in his rightful place at the pinnacle of tokyo's skyline the camera spins and fades in closer giving us a clear look at his cocky grin but as it pulls in two flashes of light cause it to progressively slow down almost as though it's hit some invisible barrier that barrier is the literal infinity that stands between satoru gojo and the rest of the world and if you were anywhere near this untouchable you'd look just as smug as saturu does here we cut back to yuji in the train car power poles zipping by the window while the city glides by in panorama off in the distance then in a flash the train dips into a tunnel and sukuna's wicked grin is reflected back at us through the darkness every bit as smug as gojos itadori doesn't notice though he's too preoccupied staring at the fish as it swims between his legs the water around it glowing a soft yet sickly green so that he can see it even through the darkness this inattentiveness lends credence to the idea that the train might symbolize the forces carrying yuji toward his fate with sukuna lurking in the literal shadows guiding his unwitting actions now i wouldn't want to give you guys that kind of nasty surprise so i'll warn you now that we're approaching that spoiler i mentioned earlier which should no longer be a spoiler by the time we reached episode 12 or so but if you're not there yet use the chapters to skip over the next few sentences spoilers inbound in three two one we flash cut from yuji's dour face to a shot of his friend junpei silhouetted against a glowing jellyfish this of course represents the toxic shikigami that the bullied young boy summons to attack his classmates under mahito's manipulation which in turn makes sense of what we see next our vision darkens as a bubble grows around the fish distorting its shape just as majito molded junpei into an inhuman monster when he was done playing with him and just as he did in that terrible moment sukuna pops out of yuji's cheek to laugh at his paint from there the op really starts to pop off we next see yuji out in the real world from a very low angle as he charges past an apartment block into battle in the next shot he rockets up from the ground to bring his fist crashing into the slug-like face of a massive cursed spirit knocking it for one loop with his physical power and then another when the cursed energy of his divergent fist catches up with the blow as yuji passes over the creature's head this attack sends it reeling and sets it up for a finisher from nanamin who leaps in from above and brings the backside of his bandage-wrapped blade down on a weak point in its bloated gut sending the creature's blood spilling into the street high above the streets we then see satoru gojo wind whipping through his hair charge up and fire his curse technique reversal red at some unseen threat in the sky whatever his mark is or was we watch the blast find it from the streets below sending red sparks flying forward above the power lines while a massive purple shock wave shoots back implying that gojo has combined the red blast with his blue power of attraction to unleash his devastatingly destructive hollow purple ability i don't think there's much meaning here beyond showcasing these signature powers but holy heck that showcase looks cool according to sakugaboru nikaya onsen animated this whole sequence from yuji running up to gojo's explosion which is just plain nuts for one guy to handle and what's even nuttier is that he kept that solo effort up for the next even more insanely detailed montage which introduces the group of special grade curses who serve as the series primary antagonists first we fly through the volcanic hellscape of jogo's domain which is surprisingly three-dimensional and looks absolutely stunning for something we only see for literally a second especially the glow of magma playing against the cherry blossoms that i presume represent hanami's power the camera moves straight between the forest spirit sinister grin and the more serious grimace of the earth spirit making it feel as though these two frightening creatures are closing in on us in the very last frame though jogo's mouth drops open as if in surprise or maybe fright perhaps this reflects his reaction to being hopelessly outclassed by satoru the next shot of the montage is a lot more relaxed showing us the adorable ocean spirit dagon just sort of chilling above a coral reef in his own domain shadows and ripples distort his body into a blur below the water suggesting that there's more to him beneath the surface after that iyashi k moment we see normal humans milling about on some side street in tokyo all animated in impressive detail likely with some rotoscoping help and all wearing masks thank you jujutsu kaizen that won't save them from what's coming though one passes by the camera the scene shifts to black and white and all of a sudden every person in the street has been replaced by a grotesque cronenberg handcrafted by mahito who stands in their center he brings a blood-stained hand to his mouth licks it and then paints his lips red with his tongue i can think of few more effectively creepy ways an anime has cemented a villain's face in my mind but as we learn when we zoom into the black void of his cold grey eye it's those hands you really have to watch out for from there we cut to kugisaki who kicks off a montage of the jujutsu high student showing off their own curse techniques with a snap she brings her cursed nails to bear against some unseen foe in what i think is shibuya's doganzaka alley i'm pretty sure that the next few shots of the tokyo school students maki spinning her cursed naginata toge unleashing his cursed words and panda parkour also take place in shibuya at night each of these shots is remarkably fluid in its animation especially panda's movement which again appears to be rotoscoped and is composited seamlessly into the moving 3d background seriously impressive animation work there and the op keeps that up from the subtle smile that plays across meewa's face as she turns to see handsome strong boy satoru gojo barging into the waiting room to taunt principal yoshinobu to my boy the man owie toto reveling in the joy of battle muscles rippling shit-eating grin gleaming as cursed energy flows around his fist sorry don't know what came over me there i just i love him a lot bahi jd put his considerable animation talents to work in several of these shots doing the gengas that is the original paper drawings for inumaki's face reveal and the layouts for kugisaki and maki's hero moments but it's subjectively clear that he put the most passion into animating toto's detailed full body movement because toto's just that important you'll see why the animation in the next shot where mai rapidly reloads her revolver is somehow even more impressive in its meticulous mechanical detail and fluidity you can thank animator pebble jang for that particular flex after that we see more cursed energy swirling around megami as he falls into a very bring it on pose i think this is from his fight with sukuna though with the dark murky background it's hard to say after that the op starts to wind down with some less combat focus though no less gorgeously animated shots yuji and junpei sit laughing together at a riverbank under the setting sun hands appear in mahito's eerily detailed mouth forming signs to unleash his domain megami's sister tsukimo smiles warmly at us against an indistinct backdrop a very young kugisaki stands behind her teenage friend salary on the train platform in their small town cherry blossoms dancing around them and last in the montage but certainly not least tsuguru ghetto human ally of the cursed spirits leans against the shutters of a traditional japanese room wine and apples on the table in front of him while behind him an amorphous shadow likely a curtain blots out the outside sky notably he doesn't appear to have the stitched forehead that defines his character design in the present suggesting that this is a moment from his past and indeed all of the shots we've just seen speak to a past regret of one of the main characters or another in response to ghetto's appearance gojo lifts his blindfold and while we only get a one frame look at his surprisingly full lashes if you speak anime then you know that means shit's about to get real which it does though in a different context that doesn't involve him so uh one more awkward pause this op changes from episode to episode and after i wrote and recorded this i went and caught up on the newest ones where we do actually see gojo's eye in this shot and it is very pretty he got them baby blues anyway we cut to yuji's first battle with a special grade cursed spirit in the juvenile detention center which isn't going super well for him as the overwhelming power of his foe strips the flesh from his fingers and increasingly desperate face the smearing and defects work in these cuts is absolutely impeccable sakugaboru has it attributed to weylin zhang but since i haven't seen him credited as a key animator on this op and any other source i'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that this was actually done by moang who's previously produced similar work for fate grand order maiden abyss and black clover as yuji is about to die his mind wanders to his grandfather's last moments and we see the old man smile as he passes away knowing he's passed on his most important advice to the boy and that he'll probably turn out okay the next shot shows his dream for his grandson coming true eugene surrounded by friends at an idyllic cherry blossom picnic as the series has gone on and his support circle has grown more and more friendly faces have been added to the crowd in this shot but junpei's always been there beside him and at the end the camera always focuses in on the two of them smiling together before cruelly ripping that happy moment away with a creepy glitched out transition to sukuna's domain given the way this edit associates these two spaces and how personally important the vision of that picnic is to yuji i have my suspicions that we may have just seen his domain which would be big if true since that hasn't even been revealed in the manga yet though maybe it would be too cheesy for a shonen protagonist to literally physically manifest the power of friendship either way i'm just speculating and the meaning of the next few shots is a lot more concrete and obvious considering it follows yuji's first death at the hands of that cursed spirit this is his confrontation with sukuna where he makes the deal that lets the king of curses take over his body for one minute at a time in exchange for his revival yuji tries to resist but no sooner does he have his fighting glare on then we cut to a shot of a cursed finger sinking into the water of the train car this is the moment when yuji is defeated his memory is erased and the deal is set as the finger sinks leaves begin to sprout from it suggesting the seed of some great future evil has just been planted and at last we return to the same shot we started on where sukuna's curse fades from yuji's face and he falls back asleep this i think confirms the train car's symbolic significance it's the vehicle carrying yuji along toward whatever sukuna has planned with that deal allowing the ancient demon to steer its course unseen by his host spooky stuff and a stark contrast to the heroic group poses that typically close out shown in anime openings like this kaikaikitan is one hell of an op with stunning animation that doesn't let up from beginning to end just like what we've seen of the show so far and impressive compositing and lighting that almost make you feel like you could reach out and touch its tokyo backdrop it easily stands alongside the greatest of the great shonen ops and i'm confident that we'll be able to say the same about the anime itself in due time for now though i just want you to say who your favorite jujutsu sorcerer is and why it's toto in the comments below while i've got you here consider checking out my recent video on the power of spooky shonen battle series like this one or my recent deep dive into the performance artistry of v tubers and the vibrant creative community that surrounds them if you don't think vtubers are for you check that out it may change your mind i'm jeff though professional [ __ ] bag signing out from my mother's basement

Channel: Mother's Basement

Views: 567,335

Rating: 4.962707 out of 5

Keywords: Mother's Basement, What's in an OP?, Anime, Anime Analysis, jujutsu kaisen, jujutsu kaisen op, jujutsu kaisen opening, kaikai kitan, kaikai kitan eve, anime opening, sunghoo park, gege akutami, Shingo yamashita, shounen jump, Crunchyroll, chainsaw man, Satoru Gojo, Yuji itadori, sukuna, mahito, jjk, jujutsu kaisen anime, sorcery fight, kaikai kitan op, jujutsu kaisen opening 1, eve, jujutsu kaisen opening full, anime op

Id: h8DJwFib0iY

Length: 20min 28sec (1228 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 28 2020