What’s The Significance Of The Shibuya Incident Arc In Jujutsu Kaisen?

Between the hours of 7PM and midnight on Halloween of 2018 in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, Suguru Geto and his cohorts are planning to cause a commotion that lures the primary focus of their plans in Jujutsu Kaisen, Satoru Gojo, out into the open with the intent to kidnap him.

Sealing Gojo within the Prison Realm isn’t all that happened in Shibuya that night in JJK, though – your other favorite characters have been fighting for their lives, and not all of them make it out alive. Here’s everything you need to know about the Shibuya arc in JJK.

This article contains major spoilers for the events of Season Two of the Jujutsu Kaisen anime. The Shibuya arc encompasses volumes nine through 16 of the JJK manga.

Leading Up To The Attack

We’ve already watched Geto and his legion of special grade cursed spirits planning attempts to find Gojo, as they view his immense strength as a critical roadblock in their plan to destroy humanity and let curses roam the earth freely instead. The group knows a war is coming between them and the Jujutsu High sorcerers, but Geto tells them that they don’t stand a chance at succeeding before they can take Gojo out of the picture. As such, they spend the first season of the show trying and failing to get to him.

Geto has the Prison Realm at his disposal, however, a cursed object capable of completely sealing anyone inside without chance of escape, and he plans to use this to capture Gojo when the time is right. The attack during the Goodwill Event in the first season gave the group a chance to grab several cursed objects from Jujutsu High, which they’ll be using during the attack in Shibuya on Halloween. He uses opposition to the plan to emphasize Gojo’s power, and the group spends the next several months recruiting other cursed spirits to their cause.

One of their recruits becomes a spy, infiltrating Jujutsu High as a student under Mahito’s Idle Transfiguration to feed info back to the group of curses. As such, Geto and the group are fully aware of the sorcerer’s plans and preparations since the Goodwill Event.

The Jujutsu High Team Splits Up

When Geto begins the attack on Shibuya on Halloween night of 2018, the barrier he creates is rather large. This barrier not only traps any jujutsu sorcerers inside, but it blocks communications between inside and outside the barrier’s walls, preventing them from sharing information as they learn it. The civilians within the barrier horrifyingly ask for Gojo by name, and Gojo heads there alone to figure out what’s going on, hoping to minimize any civilian or sorcerer casualties.

Jujutsu High, however, also sends out a few teams to stay outside the barrier, just in case something should happen. Teacher Kento Nanami leads the team of himself, Megumi Fushiguro, Kiyotaka Ijichi, and Takuma Ino (a Grade Two sorcerer associate of Nanami’s). Naobito Zen’in brings Maki Zen’in, Nobara Kugisaki, and assistant manager Akari Nitta. Mei Mei stays with Ui Ui, and Yuji Itadori goes with them. Finally, Panda and Atsuya Kusukabe, a Grade One sorcerer from Jujutsu High, team up to go by themselves.

The teams disperse into the areas around the barrier, staged at critical points to allow easy access should they need to assist. Inside the barrier, Gojo detects that the barrier is being created from the lower floors of the train station and heads down to B5F for the Fukutoshin Line, well aware that there will be a fight when he arrives. With Gojo inside and the teams stationed around the barrier, the event is ready to kick off.

Sealing Satoru Gojo

Team Mei Mei In Harajuku

At a different station, Meiji-Jingumae in Harajuku, Yuji and his team are sent to check on a secondary barrier that’s appeared, and they’re told that a secondary barrier has been erected to prevent any other sorcerers from getting down to the floor where Gojo is fighting. The group deduces that whoever is casting the barrier is outside of it, risking their safety in exchange for extra power, and set off to find them despite the transfigured humans they’ll likely need to deal with along the way.

Mei Mei uses her crows to gain intel on the situation in the station below, and she works out that the caster is between the first and second basement floors, preventing them from going much lower. Civilians on the fourth floor are trapped, being either killed or transfigured and sent down to the fifth floor to try and slow Gojo down. She and Ui Ui go downstairs to go for the fourth floor to try and help the civilians stuck there, while Yuji explores the floors along the way.

Itadori finds and exorcises a curse that looks like a grasshopper eating a civilian, and figures out that he’s protecting a cursed object that’s maintaining the barrier, killing the grasshoper effortlessly. However, after he regroups with Mei Mei and Ui Ui, they realize that Mahito has filled a train with transfigured humans and is on the way to Shibuya Station to join the fight against Gojo.

Gojo versus Geto

When Gojo gets to the fifth basement floor of the Fukutoshin Line, the battle begins almost immediately. Hanami, the special grade cursed spirit who manipulates land, creates an obstruction that Gojo can’t break with ease, given the number of civilians he might injure if he does. Unbothered by the thought of killing innocents, though, Geto and the special grade curses slaughter plenty of folks milling about on the crowded platform, but not before using their mind control to fill the area with more civilians before the attack, trying to block Gojo’s progression into the station.

Geto believes he’s got a fix for Gojo’s Infinity power that prevents him from being hit, Domain Amplification, and he tasks the other cursed spirits with buying him time to prepare the Prison Realm so they can trap Gojo within. Gojo, however, removes his blindfold to use the Six Eyes, but doesn’t activate Limitless while engaging them in brutal hand-to-hand combat.

By striking a weak point when Hanami stops using Domain Amplification, Gojo takes control of Hanami’s fate – his power will overwhelm Hanami the next time Hanami or Jogo try to stop Gojo’s Infinity, which will completely exorcise the special grade cursed spirit. Gojo continues the assault on Jogo, and since civlians can’t see curses and think Gojo is a problem, them hiding gives Jogo fewer places to hide from their fight. When it begins to look like the tide changes in Gojo’s favor, Mahito arrives on the train from Harajuku and regroups with Jogo and Hanami.

With Hanami’s root barrier dispelled, civilians flood down into the lower floors of the station, and three of the special grade cursed spirits – Jogo, Mahito, and Choso – realize Gojo will not harm civilians if he can help it, despite knowing the curses will be killing innocent people during the battle. Gojo manages to overload the civilians with a brief flash of Unlimited Void, and he uses the time to take out the transfigured humans.

This time, however, is just what Geto needed to finish preparing the Prison Realm, and he appears beside Gojo to stun the powerful sorcerer for long enough to let the Prison Realm fully take hold. This is where it’s revealed that Geto was Gojo’s best friend in his youth, who was killed in another battle some time ago, and Gojo recognizes that it cannot be Geto before him.

We learn that the ancient curse user Kenjaku is able to transfer its consciousness into dead bodies, and he’s been controlling a deceased Geto for the entire show so far. He reveals that he’s currently in the form of a brain. The stitching on Geto’s forehead was from re-sealing himself inside after taking over Suguru Geto’s corpse.

Gojo is stunned just long enough to be trapped by the Prison Realm, and Kenjaku tells him the seal will last for 1,000 years. However, Mechamaru’s contingency plan listening device from before he was killed has overheard this and feeds the information back to the sorcerers by telling Yuji that Gojo has been sealed. He informs the group of the different barriers around the station and instructs Yuji to gather everyone to try and rescue Gojo.

The Counter-Attack

Shibuya Station

As the number of civilians dwindle, the teams standing by go on the offensive instead. Nanami recognizes that the group of attackers can’t have left themselves without a plan for after sealing Gojo, and he instructs his team to save civilians while he tries to find the curse responsible for the barrier keeping them from getting too cose to the situation at the Shibuya station. Ijichi remains outside the barrier and tries to regroup the other teams, but he’s stabbed in the neck by Haruta Shigemo, the curse user with swift sword skills, while on the phone trying to share the news.

Meanwhile, the antagonist team of curses can’t agree on whether they should kill Yuji or let him turn into Sukuna, deciding to choose based on which cursed spirit finds Yuji first. Kenjaku stays behind to guard the Prison Realm while the others go out to search for the sorcerers they’re sure are coming to rescue Gojo, while the others split up to begin looking for Itadori.

Mei Mei allows Yuji to slip back out of the curtain to spread the news of what happened to Gojo, but with the Zen’in group inside the barrier at the time Yuji reaches a rooftop and calls out for the other teams, they’re unaware of what’s happening inside the barrier with them, with the cursed spirits quickly approaching. Maki has a bad feeling and tells Nobara and Akari to go back outside of the barrier, as they believe something happened to Ijichi based on the abrupt ending of the call.

It’s here that they encounter Haruta Shigemo, the one who killed Ijichi, and Nobara tells Akari to pretend to hide while secretly escaping as she distracts Shigemo. She underestimates his abilities due to his mid-ranged weapon, and his sword has a tracking function that finds and wounds AKari while Shigemo pummels Nobara. Meanwhile, Nanami finds Ijichi and has taken him back to headquarters to try and get him some help.

Nanami returns just in time and finds them fighting Shigemo, who Akari barely manages to escape from. Nanami, enraged by what happened to Ijichi, questions Shigemo and pulverizes him until he admits to not knowing anything of use before Hanami kills him effortlessly. He tells Nobara and Akari what happened to Gojo but prevents them from joining him as he heads deeper into the subway station to join the fight.

The Skyscraper Battle

Yuji gathers with Megumi and Ino to try and get inside the barrier that prevents sorcerers from entering, deducing that the caster of the barrier must be nearby. They find Granny Ogami with Jiro Awasaka and her grandson, using Megumi’s Nue to fly to the top of the skyscraper where they figure the group is hiding to get the best view of the chaos they’re creating.

Awasaka is flung from the building during a fight, but he’s got two stakes maintaining the barriers in his hand when he does, and the battle continues back on the ground. He seems impervious to Yuji and Megumi’s attacks, but they figure out that if they mix strong and weak attacks, Awasaka won’t know how to prepare himself to fight back and become overwhelmed. Yuji manages to knock him out, but Ino’s body falling from the skyscaper distracts them.

Back on the roof, Ino battles with Granny Ogami, whose grandson fights just long enough to allow her to shape-shift him into Toji Fushiguro, Megumi’s long lost father. Toji was born to the Zen’in clan but left, taking up a life of killing sorcerers for pay, and he all but kills Ino before sending him to the ground below, where Megumi catches him and rushes him to get him. Granny Ogami tells Toji to begin killing sorcerers again, and he obeys, beginning with her.

Back To Shibuya Station

While Megumi takes Ino for help, Yuji goes back toward Shibuya and receives assistance from Toge Inumaki in disabling the transfigured humans in his way before arriving at the station, finding Choso waiting for him inside. The pair battle fiercly, both wounding one another, and Choso asks if his brothers (the curses that attaked Yuji and Nobara at the end of season one) had any last words. They didn’t, and Choso is enraged, vowing once again to avenge them.

Choso is a blood manipulator, and Mechamaru tells Yuji in his earpiece as part of the contingency plan that water might prevent Choso from being able to use his ability. Yuji runs to a public bathroom and floods it as best he can, and the water prevents Choso from manipulating blood that’s been diluted. They continued to fight, but Yuji realizes too late that Choso has kept one hand closed. Some blood hasn’t been diluted, and Choso hardens that flood and uses it to pierce through Yuji’s abdomen, stabbing into his liver.

Yuji continues to fight, but Choso uses his blood manipulation to soften Yuji’s blows, leaving Yuji unable to inflict much damage, especially in his severely weakened state. Just as Choso is about to finish Yuji off, he suddenly has a vision of Yuji as one of his siblings, recalling an event that didn’t happen as he knew it. Feeling now that Yuji is his brother, Choso leaves without killing him.

Meanwhile, Mei Mei and Ui Ui are trying with mixed results to fight Kenjaku, who they’ve deduced is not actually Geto. Kenjaku summons a vile disease curse to fight on his behalf, which traps Mei Mei and leaves Ui Ui to distract it, allowing Mei Mei a moment to break from Kenjaku’s lethal attack. The pair escape to Malaysia following the battle, safe from harm. Mei Mei receives advice on selling her investments in Japan from someone on the phone, believing that Japan will fall to the attack in Shibuya.

Nanami joins up with Maki and Naobito, but Naobito has had a lot to drink, which worries Nanami who knows what kind of fight lies ahead. As the head of the rival Zen’in clan, Naobito isn’t upset that someone from the Gojo clan is in peril. The trio come across Dagon, one of Kenjaku’s goons, and Naobito exhibits his battle prowess. Dagon is enraged by realizing his friends aren’t coming and transforms into a more powerful monster, ramping up the battle.

The group is brought into his domain, the beach we’ve seen Geto and Mahito on throughout the show, and commands man-eating shikigami fish consume his opponents. Things look bleak until Megumi’s Chimera Shadow Garden domain interrupts Dagon’s, and he’s able to barge in, tossing Maki a cursed tool and battles Dagon with his domain. Just as they’re about to escape, Toji arrives in the domain as well. He defeats Dagon, but Jogo arrives and attempts to avenge Dagon’s death, burning Maki, Naobito, and Namami while Toji and Megumi escape.

Jogo is distracted when he senses Sukuna is near and rushes off to interfere with the resurrection, but notices the marks on Yuji’s face denoting Sukuna getting stronger and force-feeds Yuji ten of Sukuna’s fingers. This event, combined with what he’s eaten before, brings Yuji to 15 fingers consumed, and Sukuna is getting stronger.

Sukuna takes control of Yuji’s body and tells Jogo that, if he can land one single hit on the all-powerful curse as they battle, then Sukuna will help him kill the people of Shibuya, beginning a battle between these two special grades.

Into The Streets

Outside, Megumi and Toji sense Sukuna has awoken as they’re battling, but Toji gets a good look at Megumi and realizes it’s his son. He recalls having had to sell him off to the Zen’in clan and is delighted to hear Megumi still uses Fushiguro as his surname, killing himself before needing to kill his son. Megumi has no idea this is his biological father and watches in horror before being attacked from behind by Shigemo, who has arrived to fight him.

Meanwhile, Panda seeks to head down to the basement of the train station to fight but, being an animal, doesn’t have a sense of direction. Kusukabe doesn’t want to fight what he believes will be a losing battle and pretends to get lost in the station. They’re attacked by curses aligned with Geto who force them into a fight, but they’re interrupted before they can start by Sukuna and Jogo fighting.

Jogo charges his most powerful attack, and Sukuna freezes Kusukabe and the group until just before this attack lands, destroying a good portion of the city. However, Sukuna is still too powerful and avoids this, and managed to reduce Jogo to ashes before finding Megumi and Shigemo.

After a tough fight, Megumi tricks Shigemo into trying to help him defeat the most powerful shikigami yet, Mahoraga, a shikigami that only Sukuna has ever been able to tame. Megumi is knocked into a state of “suspended death” and Sukuna arrives to prevent Shigemo from being killed, since his death would mean Megumi dies to Mahoraga and, mysteriously, prevents this from happening. Sukuna then uses his Domain Expansion to destroy the nearby area and finish Mahoraga. He surrenders control back to Yuji, who is sick but determined to avenge the fallen civilians.

Back at Shibuya Station, we learn that Nanami has survived Jogo’s onslaught, but is viciously injured and dangerously confused, trying to find Megumi who he doesn’t realize has been dropped off at the medical area by Sukuna before the body was given back to Yuji, who is on his way down into the station to continue the fight just as Mahito has Nanami cornered. Nanami offers an inspiring quote to Yuji before being killed right in front of the boy.

Mahito’s Stand

Mahito taunts Yuji as they battle, saying they’re both killers but with different victims – Mahito kills people like Yuji, while Yuji kills curses like Mahito. Mahito gets the upper hand and shows off several new powers as he beats Yuji, including but not limited to the power to split himself into two bodies. Elsewhere in the station, we see Nobara re-enter and disobey her orders, and she comes across Mahito’s double.

Mahito knows Yuji and Nobara are close, and decides that killing Nobara and showing Yuji her corpse will be his final blow in the fight. Nobara manages to land an attack on the double that hits Mahito’s soul, which is what’s needed to injure or kill him. Nobara concludes she’s fighting a copy of the cursed spirit, and the copy flees to try and reunite with Mahito’s other body. The pair find one another in a hallway, with Yuji at one end and Nobara at the other, and the real Mahito touches Nobara’s face, which transfigures and brutally kills her in front of Yuji.

Just as Mahito goes to kill Yuji off for good, we hear a clap from elsewhere in the station, and just before Mahito makes contact, he switches places with Aoi Todo, a student from the Kyoto school, who has been dispatched from Kyoto to join the fight despite Mechamaru trying to reroute his classmates out of the city and away from harm. He instructs another student to try helping Nobara despite her hopeless prognosis and refuses to let Yuji admit defeat. The other student heals Yuji and lies to him, saying Nobara has been treated and will make it.

With Yuji and Mahito both at half-strength, Todo is able to use some fairly powerful moves, and makes smart use of Boogie Woogie to swap places and confuse Mahito. Sick of the taunting, Mahito manages to blast Todo out of the area as the battle flows out onto the streets, desperate to separate the pair and stop Todo from switching all the time. However, Todo fights his way back to Yuji before Mahito manages to land his most powerful attack, Self-Embodiment of Perfection.

The attack forces Todo to cut off his arm, which has been transfigured in Mahito’s attack. Mahito goes to finish the fight, but Todo uses Mahito’s hand to complete a clap for Boogie Woogie and switch places with Yuji, who is ready to strike. This does put Todo out of the fight, but Yuji is ready to finish things as Mahito finishes his final Idle Transfiguration form, Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing.

Mahito taunts Yuji by giving him an opening to attack, and Todo, who remains nearby, makes a clapping sound with his remaining hand to distract Mahito, who is expecting to switch. Boogie Woogie doesn’t activate, and while Mahito is distracted, Yuji lands a Black Flash that decimates Mahito’s soul. Yuji admits to being the same as Mahito, as a killer, and just before he can finish Mahito, Kenjaku arrives and absorbs Mahito using Cursed Spirit Manipulation.

The End, For Now

Choso arrives and reveals that Kenjaku has once been a man named Noritoshi Kamo, a notoriously evil man and Choso’s own father. He deduces that it’s possible Yuji is his brother, since the spirit moves through time in different bodies, and joins the fight against Kenjaku. Special grade sorcerer Yuki Tsukumo arrives to rescue the group from what appears to be an all-powerful attack from Kenjaku.

Kenjaku reveals he’s been marking the souls of anyone he comes across throughout time, seeking to begin chaos beyond even his own control by resurrecting the spirits of the most powerful jujutsu sorcerers throughout history, and these marked reincarnated sorcers obscure Kenjaku’s escape from the scene, Prison Realm still in hand with Satoru Gojo sealed inside.