Summary:
An emergency breaks out at a juvenile detention center and Itadori, Fushiguro, and Kugisaki are dispatched to handle it. (HBO Max Summary)
Categories & Grades (English Dub & Japanese Subbed):
1. Opening Scene - Dub Score: 0.75, Sub Score: 0.5
2. Plot & Characters - Dub Score: 0.75, Sub Score: 0.75
3. Dialogue - Dub Score: 1, Sub Score: 1
4. Animation - Dub Score: 1, Sub Score: 1
5. Sound Effects - Dub Score: 0.75, Sub Score: 1
6. Music - Dub Score: 0.75, Sub Score: 1
7. Action & Humor - Dub Score: 1, Sub Score: 1
8. Voice Acting - Dub Score: 0.75, Sub Score: 1
9. Likability - Dub Score: 0.75, Sub Score: 1
10. Wow Factor - Dub Score: 0.75, Sub Score: 1
Final Scores
Dub Score/Grade: 8.25/ B-
Sub Score/Grade: 9.25/ A-
Average Score/Grade: 8.75/ B+
Categories & Comments
Opening Scene:
Episode 4's Curse Womb Must Die opens with Satoru's first year team--Itadori, Fushiguro, and Kugisaki--being briefed on their newest mission Ijichi, a suited member of Jujutsu Tech. He quickly explains the meaning of "special grade" when it comes to curses. In a wonderfully simple slide show, he covers the necessary force needed to take down curses ranked from grade four to grade one, and then special grades: a wooden bat for grade fours, a handgun for grade threes, a shotgun for grade twos, a tank for grade ones, and finally a carpet bomb of cluster bombs for special grades--like the curse spirit Ryoumen Sukuna within Yuji Itadori, who's already ranked special grade after Yuji only consuming two of his twenty fingers. Ijichi warns the team that they've been assigned a mission far beyond their level and that their role is purely intel-gathering, since any fight they enter would most likely result in their guaranteed deaths. Overall, this opening scene did a great job because this new mission has a lot more at stake than their encounter with the Roppongi-Tokyo curse and we finally get a hierarchy of power when it comes to curse spirits, or curses. The woman at the end who cries over not getting to see her son, also adds a nice personal touch due to giving Yuji the specific name of someone to save once they're inside the detention center. I liked the opening scene in English more than Japanese.
Plot & Characters:
In episode 4--Itadori, Fushiguro, and Kugisaki go on a mission way out of their league where a lot of different elements are introduced: curse wombs, windows, veils, innate domains, special grade curse spirits, and domain expansions.
Source
- A curse womb is basically an egg from which curse spirits emerge.
Source - Windows are members of Jujutsu Tech who can see cursed energy but are not sorcerers themselves.
Source - Veils are spiritual curtain or dome that can be summoned to conceal an area from the outside world.
Source - Innate domains are not exactly clear yet but it appears to be the ability of a strong enough curse spirit with tons of curse energy to distort the dimensions of an area, such as a special grade curse, which--outside of strong enough jujutsu sorcerers--require the deployment of a carpet bomb of cluster bombs to be taken down.
Source - Domain expansions are not exactly clear yet either but appear to be the temporary displacement of a jujutsu sorcerer and their target enemy to a pocket dimension where the sorcerer can deploy a devastating attack.
With that list out of the way, we can now focus on other interesting aspects of the episode, such as when Itadori mourns the death of the son of the mother crying in the opener until Fushiguro reveals that the woman's son killed a little girl through reckless driving. He tells Itadori that these aren't exactly good people and even if they survived their job isn't to save them but gather intel. When Itadori asks Fushiguro how he can be so heartless, Fushiguro replies along the lines of, How would you feel if you saved someone and they went on to hurt or kill other people? To which, Itadori looks him in the eyes and asks Fushiguro, Then why did you save me? And then, the action starts--Kugizaki falls into some kind of black sink hole, Fushiguro realizes his white demon dog has been literally murdered into a concrete wall without their knowing, and the special grade spirit from the curse womb shows up and calling this creature's appearance unsettling is a bit of an understatement.
Source
It's this black and white alien humanoid with large teeth, no lips, two bulging eyes, and appears to float from this sack-like pod it later rips to reveal legs of the same athletic musculature of the rest of its body. After seeing Itadori and Kugisaki effortlessly take down the Roppongi curse spirit, it was nice to see the team just completely outclassed. Of course later, Itadori lets Sukuna out once he knows Fushiguro and Kugisaki are a safe distance away, and then we get to see Sukuna additionally outclass the special grade spirit before pulling out one of his own fingers from the creature's body and eat it before the special grade bursts into unnaturally colored flames. In the hierarchy of characters, we are still reminded of Sukuna's strength but also that if he can demolish special grade spirits, Satoru Gojo can obliterate them. We also get to see another of Fushiguro's summonable curses, Nue, a large brown bird-like creature with a furry monkey face. The plot and characters were overall good but Kugisaki did seem pushed to the background rather quick, just after we were introduced to her last episode.
Dialogue:
The dialogue in episode four was good. The hierarchy of curse spirits was informative and the desperate and fearful internal narration of Itadori and Fushiguro in the face of a foe impossible for them to beat was great because Itadori seemed almost overpowered last episode. His internal narration made him feel more realistic and untouchable compared to previous episodes and showed that he actually experienced fear. Hearing him lose confidence and realistically complain about not wanting to die was a welcome sight. After this, we get some great dialogue from Sukuna when Itadori lets him out, where we learn healing is easier for curses than humans, and that no one except Sukuna truly knows what curses really are.
Animation:
The animation was once again great, especially during the initial fight between the special grade curse and the unpossessed Itadori, and then later when he lets Sukuna out. The way the cursed energy glowed around their fists and the energy blasts that the special grade spits out, illustrate its nature of wild potent power.
Sound Effects:
Japanese subbed had much clearer and louder sound effects, which made the fights sound a lot cooler--especially the the destruction of the detention center while they fall ought.
Music:
The music that played when they found the first dead body and when the special grade curse ambushed them created a lot of tension, especially as it changed tone when it became apparent there was no chance Itadori could win against the special grade.
Action & Humor:
We get a lot of action and good tidbits of humor in this episode. The first years find a mangled dead body, Itadori gets his left hand chopped off, the special grade curse hits him with an energy blast that throws him through a thick concrete wall, another blast from the creature disintegrates Itadori's fingers when he tries to block it, and Sukuna makes quick gruesome work of the special grade spirit once Itadori lets him out to play. I laughed when Itadori and Kugisaki danced around and hugged Fushiguro's demon dog when they learned he was able to smell their way out of the innate domain.
Voice Acting:
This episode changed my earlier opinion of Sukuna's voice sounding cooler in English, because his Japanese voice was especially good and menacingly playful this time around. The way Sukuna says, "Try harder" in Japanese, "Ganbare, ganbare" was charming. Also, Fushiguro and Itadori sounded a lot more scared in Japanese when the special grade curse spirit appeared.
Likability:
I have a new favorite episode. Itadori getting utterly trashed by the special grade spirit was fantastic but then the episode outdid itself further by reminding us how dangerously powerful Sukuna is as he played with and tortured the special grade curse spirit. Great action sequences and I loved how smooth and bubbly the healing/regeneration scenes were. Last episode's introduction of Kugisaki was nice but, like Sukuna, I kept thinking--"Ganbare, ganbare" or "try harder," which the show truly did this episode.
Wow Factor:
- The special grade curse spirit beating Itadori like he owed it lunch money.
- The look of panic and terrified internal monologues from Itadori and Fushiguro.
- "Ganbare, ganbare" (Try harder).
- Sukuna simply wiping the floor with the special grade curse and then finding and eating his finger from its sliced remains, like it was a surprise treat.
- The introduction of "real jujutsu" or "Sukuna's Domain Expansion: Malevolent Shrine."