Jujutsu Kaisen Season 1 Episode 16 Recap – Kyoto Sister School Exchange Event – Group Battle 2

Fiery Souls

Todo continues to teach Yuji even as they fight. He delights in seeing Yuji develop new moves to get through his defenses. But when Yuji unleashes his Divergent Fist, Todo blocks it with his forehead and tells him about his cursed energy’s time lag.

Todo explains it will be effective against lesser curses but not against Special Grades. Yuji learns he should direct more energy to his fist to make it stronger. Todo tells him the delay is caused by the flow of cursed energy from the belly. Yuji must not get caught up in it if he wants to improve. He must learn to make his body and soul as one.

Yuji finally understands, so they fight for it. Todo tells him not to die, to grow even stronger.

Nobara confronts Momo for attempting to kill Yuji while also insulting Mai. Mechamaru shoots Panda from the woods and knocks him out. But as he comes close, Panda wakes up and punches his face.

The man piloting Mechamaru seems to be encased in a tub filled with tubes and has bandages all over his body. Mechamaru’s hand turns into a sword, and they fight. He says he‘s a Semi-Grade 1 Sorcerer before blasting panda with an ultra cannon. Panda blocks it and rushes in as the cannon cools down. Panda is a Cursed Corpse created by Principal Yaga and is known as one of his greatest masterpieces.

Puppets

Panda is not a panda but a heavily mutated and adaptive curse. He puts Mechamaru on the backfoot in hand-to-hand combat. He guesses Mechamaru’s pilot must be somewhere nearby. But Mechamaru’s power is actually from a Binding Vow. His body is weak, but he has strong cursed energy, enabling him to control the mech. It annoys him that Panda has an intact body that can freely go outside.

Mechamaru transforms into a larger cannon to strike. Noticing that Nobara is in the line of fire, Panda takes it all in. Panda emerges from the blast, transformed into a larger beast, reiterating he isn’t a panda.

In a flashback, Yaga tells him he has a brother and sister inside of him that will emerge to lend him powers. There are three cores in Panda’s body, and the stronger Gorilla core is now in charge. He punches Mechamaru to the rooftops and damages his head and arm. One more hit could be the end of him. At the same time, Gorilla mode consumes a lot of energy. Both of them are on their last legs.

Panda closes in to have the advantage. They brawl on the school rooftops with Mechamaru blasting away. Mechamaru runs to higher ground and distracts Panda with a tile before swerving away and shooting him.

Panda’s Gorilla core gets hit, but it was only a decoy done by diverting cursed energy inside his body. Panda then smashes Mechamaru’s face. Unlike him, Panda doesn’t envy human beings. Mechamaru’s biggest mistake was underestimating him because he’s a puppet.

Panda tells him humans are all gross and sympathizes with him being an outcast. He tells him they’re not really enemies and asks why he became a sorcerer. Panda doesn’t want to pry, but he wants to help Mechamaru. Mechamaru remembers his friends and connects with his humanity. He asks Panda if he’ll still accept him in his true form. Panda laughs, telling him he’s a panda.

Mechamaru withdraws from the battle.

Elsewhere, Kasumi realizes while fighting with Maki that she’s insanely strong.

Our Thoughts

I love my mecha anime, so when I saw Mechamaru, I was worried he’d be too “wooden”—happy to be proven wrong. Also, I love pandas, so this episode is a win for me. 4/5.