Summary:
Itadori, Fushiguro, and Gojou head out to meet up with the third first year, Kugizaki Nobara. Thereafter they head to an abandoned building where Gojou tasks Itadori and Kugizaki with exorcising the curses lurking inside. (HBO Max Summary)
Categories & Grades (English Dub & Japanese Subbed):
1. Opening Scene - Dub Score: 0.5, 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: 0.5, Sub Score: 0.75
8. Voice Acting - Dub Score: 1, Sub Score: 1
9. Likability - Dub Score: 0.75, Sub Score: 1
10. Wow Factor - Dub Score: 0.75, Sub Score: 0.75
Final Scores
Dub Score/Grade: 7.25/C-
Sub Score/Grade: 8.75/B+
Average Score/Grade: 8/B
Categories & Comments
Opening Scene:
Episode 2's opening scene is nice because we get to see Satoru, Megumi, and Yuji in the bustling cosmopolitan setting of Tokyo full of color and crowds of people. Immediately the third member of their team who they're meeting, Kugizaki Nobara, is established as a short-tempered sassy country girl with plenty of personality.
Plot & Characters:
Episode 2's plot is pretty simple, Satoru takes Yuji and Megumi to Tokyo to meet their newest member, a girl named Kugizaki Nobara, and then sends Yuji and Nobara to exorcise a curse from an abandoned apartment building in Roppongi-Tokyo. Nobara's abilities are introduced. They involve the use of a hammer and nails to attack curses using a voodoo-like technique.
Dialogue:
Nobara's sassy comment about Yuji and Megumi are funny but her narration of her quick flashback backstory was the best due to its strangely poetic solemnness--she's excited to finally be in Tokyo because as a child she befriended a city girl named Saori who was very kind to her before being driven out of Nobara's village due to their insecure prejudice.
Animation:
I'm very critical when it comes to scenes with large crowds of people in them due to the use of copy-paste repeated animations and mechanical movements but the crowd movement felt natural and other inclusions involved blurred out stills that didn't stand out as odd at all. Yuji's and Nobara's fight scenes were great. The show's animation is tremendously good, done-so in a way that it looks like the audience is looking through a camera that's rhythmically spinning around the action and zooming in on different objects and characters.
Sound Effects:
The gurgling noise the show uses for the curses is super creepy and even more so in the Japanese subbed where sound effects are louder and clearer. I found the sound of Yuji's blade cutting through the curse that looked like a pray-mantis very impressive, along with that of Nobara's hammer and nails.
Music:
The music during the fight scenes was good but what caught my ears most was the haunting tune playing during Nobara's narration about the childhood friend of hers, Saori, who was driven out by the local village's insecure prejudice of her being from the city.
Action & Humor:
Yuji and Nobara had some good action fighting curses in this episode but I'm still waiting for something on par with Satoru's sparring with Sukuna while Yuji allowed himself to be possessed for ten seconds. Nobara's short temper and sass allow for a nice stream of funny comments which is great since Satoru isn't always around and Megumi is kind of quiet. Still looking for a fight as epic as Satoru vs Sukuna but this episode was still good and very promising of what's to come.
Voice Acting:
English dub was good and so was Japanese subbed. There wasn't an instance where I thought Nobara's English dub was better than Japanese subbed, although I do prefer Satoru in English over Japanese but is role in this episode was too small to count.
Likability:
Overall, good episode. Decent action, with a little bit of humor. From a supernatural aspect, I'm still the most curious about Yuji and Satoru, but on a more grounded realistic level I was intrigued by Nobara's backstory the voodoo-like nature of her ability and look forward to her hopefully reuniting with her long-lost friend. This episode really set up the dynamic of the team: Satoru's the goofy but formidable older brother, Megumi's the emo brooder, Yuji's the carefree golden child, and Nobara's the short-tempered source of sass who keeps the last two in check.
Wow Factor:
The introduction of the voodoo-like element of Nobara's abilities was impressive. It came off as something very useful in a fight where they're hacking off the limbs of not just curses but potentially human opponents in the future.