What is the ‘Star Plasma Vessel’ in Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 and why is schoolgirl Riko so important to Toji and the Time Vessel Association?
The battle for control over the Star Plasma Vessel is heating up in Jujutsu Kaisen season 2, but anime-only fans may need a little context to understand Riko’s importance moving forward.
What is a Star Plasma Vessel in Jujutsu Kaisen?
In the world of Jujutsu Kaisen’s second season, there remains a jujutsu sorcerer in the bowels of the high school called Master Tengen, whose job it is to maintain the barriers around both of the Jujutsu High locations.
Master Tengen is over 1200 years old and is a being of immense power, but he isn’t immortal in the traditional sense of the word. Instead, every five hundred years or so as his body begins to break down, he merges with someone called the ‘Star Plasma Vessel’ in order to ‘rewrite his body’s information.’
This refreshes Tengen’s cells and enables him to prolong his life again and again; the problem for whoever is chosen as the ‘Star Plasma Vessel’ is that the merge with Master Tengen is essentially fatal.
As detailed by the Jujutsu Kaisen fandom page, these “are young women who possess the requisite potential to refresh Immortality by merging with the user. Some vessels have more potential than others and they can communicate with each other even if one person has already merged with the immortal.”
There have only ever been two known Plasma Star Vessels in the original Jujutsu Kaisen manga series, Special Grade sorcerer Yuki Tsukumo and the main focus of season 2 of the anime, Riko Amanai.
Who is Riko Amanai in Jujutsu Kaisen season 2?
Riko Amanai is a 14-year-old student at Renchoku Girls’ Junior High and is the Star Plasma Vessel as seen in Jujutsu Kaisen season 2.
A fan-favorite character from the manga series, Riko is known to be outspoken and feisty, but also extremely dedicated to her ‘role’ as the Star Plasma Vessel; believing it to be more akin to an ‘order’ than her own choice, despite being willing to give up her life for Tengen.
This mindset is likely influenced by her childhood trauma; her parents were sadly killed in a traffic collision when she was a child and since then, she has been raised by her guardian Misato Kuroi whom she shares a close bond with.
In season 2 of MAPPA’s Jujutsu Kaisen TV series, Riko Amanai is voiced by Japanese actress Anna Nagase.
Anime fans may recognize Nagase as Ushio from Summertime Render (2022), Hack from Yurei Deco (2020), and as Tsumugi in the Ippon Again series (2023).
Analyzing the Jujutsu Kaisen second season's OP to see the relationship between Geto ,Gojo and Riko.Geto's power is like water, his curses are like sea creatures, and Gojo is represented by the sky and the universe, both seemingly the same, but opposite.#rnjjknote
— 嶼 (@rainmoun) July 13, 2023
Why are the Time Vessel Association and Toji Fushiguro after Riko?
The Time Vessel Association are a Star Religious Group that worship Master Tengen from the shadows and believe that he can survive without merging with the Star Plasma Vessel.
In fact, they think that merging would be such a disastrous event that their goal is to assassinate Riko before she can meet Tengen, thus preventing the absorption for another five hundred or so years.
They hire the infamous assassin Toji Fushiguro (Megumi’s father) to find and kill Riko before the merger; one of the most terrifying villains in the series so far and someone so powerful that he is known as the Sorcerer Killer.
Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 airs new episodes every Thursday on Crunchyroll.
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