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Background Information
Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie was released on March 19, 2022, in the United States. It’s only been officially released for about seven months at the time of writing this article, but it has made a huge ripple in the Anime world. When it was first teased that this was happening, everyone was freaking out. Jujutsu Kaisen’s first episode came out on March 5, 2018. It quickly rose to popularity when Crunchyroll, the anime streaming giant, premiered an English dub in November of 2020. As of August 2022, the manga has over 70 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time.
I love the show as a whole! Its main protagonist, Yuji Itadori, is such a humble guy even though he has an unnatural level of strength. The show is just a natural upbringing hero plot and it is one of the most popular Anime currently out there.
However, Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is a prequel that is set a whole year before the events that occur during the events of the regular show. The story follows Okkoto Yuta, a boy who is connected to his deceased childhood friend Orimoto Rika, who has since turned into a curse herself. Due to the extremity of Rika’s curse, Yuta is assigned as a special grade student. The story begins with the attack on Yuta’s bullies due to Rika protecting Yuta. This introduces us to the very powerful sorcerer Gojo Satoru (and my hubby so everyone back off). He is a professor at Jujutsu High and the rarity of Yuta’s case caught his eye. After the attacks, Yuta was in a very dark place and was contemplating his own life when Gojo came in and convinced him to use his curse to help those in need. The plot continues on his growth of attending Jiu Jitsu High, a school where students are taught how to fight and maintain curses.
**From this point on, this review will contain spoilers so please, continue with caution**
The Beginning
On the first note, this movie begins with an amazing tone. The audience is shown the problem from the very beginning. It didn’t leave the audience guessing. Yuta and Rika were childhood friends, but Rika passed away due to a traumatic car crash that Yuta witnessed firsthand. Yuta then unknowingly placed a curse on Rika to make sure she stayed with him forever. The animation is a bit graphic, so some moments may be trying for a first-time Anime watcher. However, even if it is a bit much, the animation style in itself is impeccable.
That’s another thing that’s great about this movie. In a lot of other anime movies, you need to watch the show before to understand the characters and the plot. Coming from someone who has watched the show before, I can surely state that this movie can be a stand-alone movie if needed. It effectively covers the basic points of the Anime. One could honestly watch the movie before the show if one wanted to go in linear form.
Characters
The characters are also another strong suit. Maki, who is one of the other students in the school, has a tough exterior, but once Yuta gets to know her better, he sees that she truly just wants to help him and she wants to better herself as well. Panda is an actual panda and is the regular comic relief, which I think is just hilarious. Toge Inukami is a special sorcerer that uses voice commanded attacks, so his speech to his friend is limited. This support group around Yuta allows him to grow into his curse and gain his confidence so he can be more comfortable with himself.
One of the most interesting parts of this story was the antagonist. Geto is an extremist who believes that the powerful sorceress shouldn’t have to hide in the background of the rest of society. He believes that sorcerers should be running the world and that the general population who don’t interact or see curses should be eradicated. He tries to get close to Yuta so he can have Rika’s curse, which is honestly a great antagonist arc. My favorite part is that Geto has his students that he looks after and the relationship he has with them is truly down-to-earth and adorable. I know he’s the villain, but I always appreciate it when the story shows the bad guys as more than just bad guys.
Final Thoughts
All in all, this movie gets a 9.8/10. This is a great all-around movie! It has action, it has love, it has comedy, and it has its share of horror. I wouldn’t recommend this movie as an intro to Anime movies, of course. It does have a lot of gore so I would recommend a more family-friendly one for a first-timer. But if you watch anime and if Death Note, Tokyo Ghoul, and Parasyte are your style, I would recommend this movie.