Summary:

Itadori is placed in charge of investigating Yoshino, so he turns to his assistant supervisor, Ijichi for a plan.
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Final Category Scores & Grades

Dub Score/Grade: 8.5 / B
Subbed Score/Grade: 9.2 / A-
Average Final Score/Grade: 8.85 / B+

Opening Scene:

Episode 10’s Idle Transfiguration opens with Yoshino discussing a horror movie series with some fellow movie club members at school.

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I can’t help but feel bad for him every time I see the large bangs covering half his face, hiding the cigarette-burn scars.

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Unfortunately bullies show up again, different ones since the previous three were murdered by Mahito’s cursed technique.

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The bullies demand to have the room so the other movie club members get up to leave. Yoshino does so as well but sees one of the bullies stepping on a movie of his.

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He asks them to move so he can pick it up so the bully kicks him in the face, probably breaking his nose. The other movie club members flee and the bully tells the others to close the door. We see the anger and fear in Yoshino’s eyes.

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And then the camera focuses on the movie-club room sign, while we hear Yoshino get brutalized by bullies again.

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I don’t think I’ve seen a more logical route toward evil than Yoshino’s backstory—alone, abused at home, abused at school, then a charming murderer dispatches some of his abusers and hints at a secret power and world that makes him feel special for once. He sounded so happy to talk about movies with the other club members. He looked happy. I thought maybe these were Yoshino’s friends, that he wasn’t a loner but they flee and abandon him to another beating.

Plot & Characters:

This episode furthers Yoshino’s descent to the dark side with Mahito. He’s beaten up again. Mahito explains his ability very casually which seems to desensitize Yoshino to the monstrosity of turning people into unwilling monsters. Itadori is the golden boy who while searching for answers will most likely save Yoshino from Mahito’s influence.

Mahito showing Yoshino an enlarged cursed human.

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Yoshino looking at the shrunken cursed human Mahito let him hold.

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Mahito explaining the mechanism of souls, represented as gem-like shards or crystals.

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Nanami standing over the bodies of cursed humans he’s slain.

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Mahito confronting Nanami from the shadows.

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Mahito revealing his despicable cursed technique: Idle Transfiguration.

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Yoshino’s teacher mistaking his bullies for friends.

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Yoshino’s internal monologue about his teachers cluelessness.

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Yoshino remembering the bullies/"friends" forcing him to eat bugs and burning his face with lit cigarettes.

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Itadori interrupting Yoshino.

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Itadori getting rid of Yoshino’s teacher by pulling down his pants and running away.

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As this arc continues, I can’t help notice how strangely chill and upbeat Itadori always is. Seeing Yoshino’s life, his emotions, and circumstance, I can’t help feel that Itadori’s relentless positivity seems bland and unrealistic at times. Other than that moment in Episode 4 where he thought the special-grade cursed spirit was going to kill him, we don’t get a lot dramatic emotion from the guy.

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Dialogue:

A lot of good dialogue this episode. Yoshino talks to Mahito about the adage of indifference being the opposite of love and how’s it incorrect. He corrects it saying, the opposite of love is hate but in Japan the word love isn’t used a lot so they replaced it with fondness since it sounds less extreme.

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Mahito expresses that life is meaningless and so anyone can do whatever they want but it just feels like him pushing Yoshino closer to the dark side. When Yoshino sees his teacher outside his home, he accurately points out the man’s shortcomings of being a big dumb child stuck within the failing system of school where a teacher couldn’t tell the difference between bullies and friends.

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Animation:

This episode had some nicely animated fighting. Not as good as Gojou and Jougo in Episode 7’s Assault but a little better than last episode.

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The way Mahito sends out and reshapes his cursed humans through Idle Transfiguration is disturbing—like they're made of soft clay.

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Sound Effects:

Battle sound-effects we’re great but as always louder and clearer in Japanese. Mahito’s cursed humans sound scary and sad all at once.

Music:

Whenever Yoshino and Mahito are hanging out in the sewers, the music is great. In this case, it’s a tense tune accompanied by a violin that feels very foreboding of mystery or disaster to come. The music during the Nanami-Mahito fight is great too, capturing the fast paced and desperate atmosphere.

Action & Humor:

Lots of great action this episode and a little bit of humor.

Nanami holds his own against Mahito but the special grade curse spirit just continues to ramp things up and then calls the tears of a crying cursed human, their “sweat.”

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Itadori pulling the pants down and running away from Yoshino’s teacher was funny.

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Voice Acting:

I prefer Mahito in English because he sounds much more creepy but Nanami sounds too stiff and mechanical in English dubbed, while in Japanese sub he sounds more like a serious stoic. Yoshino sounds like a normal kid in English which is fine but we don’t hear the submissiveness beaten-down tone that we get in Japanese subbed.

Likability:

I liked the episode a lot. We see more fuel for Yoshino’s turn toward evil. The lousy teacher who “mistook” his bullies for friends last episode is addressed.

We finally get to see Mahito in action and that guy is a straight-up menace, pure evil.

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Wow Factor:

Nanami has some serious moves.

(You know it's serious when they show their eyes.)

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Mahito is an impressive fighter and his cursed technique spells a lot of future trouble due to its quick versatility.

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Thankfully Itadori showed up because it looked like Yoshino was about to kill his teacher with some jujitsu that maybe Mahito taught him.

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I like that when Yoshino gets angry, he envisions Mahito giving him permission to kill as if his violence is literally justified by fear and hatred of other people.

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I noticed an interesting parallel between Itadori's and Mahito's close-up meeting with Yoshino. Mahito approaches him from the right, while Itadori approaches him from the left--opposite directions that could be interpreted as shoulder angels/devils warring for Yoshino's soul.

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For some reason, when Itadori said this. It meant two things to me, that Yoshino doesn't know that someone close to him--Mahito--secretly hates him and humanity but also that Itadori has someone who secretly hates him--Sukuna--inside of himself.

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Anime Review for Jujutsu Kaisen, Season 1 Episode 10 - "Idle Transfiguration"