Add this movie to a growing list of very good anime adaptations making it to the big screen.

What You Are Getting From Watching This Movie

Let’s answer the 2 biggest questions when it comes to anime movies, “is it canon” and “is it good as a stand alone movie?” The answer to both of those questions is a resounding “yes.” If you have not watched the anime or read the manga, then this movie is a good starting point. It’s named Jujutsu Kaisen 0 because it truly is a prequel to the show.

“What about this Yuta character guy? He’s not the beloved Itadori Yuji from season 1?!” I can honestly say that was my sentiment and probably many others as well going into this movie. It was a huge gamble that I think paid off for viewers in the end. The first act of the movie does a really good job building the hero’s journey for Yuta. Really quickly, we understand what Yuta’s struggles are, how he got to this point and his progression in his quest in resolving his cursed situation with Rika. Going into this movie with zero expectations and no frame of reference to the main character, you’d be surprised as to how quickly you get on board and relate to Yuta and his struggles.

If you watched the first season of the anime, then knowing the plethora of characters like Maki, Panda, Inumaki and Gojo helps ease in the story. Even for the viewers that is experiencing Jujutsu Kaisen for the first time, they aren’t missing out on that much context. The movie does enough in giving the lowdown on characters like Inumaki and Maki. If you did watch season 1 of Jujutsu Kaisen, the movie fills in more backstory about a very important character, Gojo Satoru.

Which finally takes us to the main antagonist to the movie, Geto Suguru. This character showed up in the first season of Jujutsu Kaisen, but not much was known about the character. This movie pretty much tells us who he is and what his ideals are.

Animation

If you watched Jujutsu Kaisen’s first season and the Final Season of Attack on Titan, then you’ll probably enjoy the visuals of this movie. Studio Mappa is a pretty big animation studio from Japan with many popular animes under their belt. Keeping the darker tone of the anime, there were quite a few highlights when the climatic parts of the movie mattered the most. Episode 20 of season one was probably their best animated episode. It is safe to say that this movie is on par with that episode, if not better when it counted the most.

FROM THIS POINT ON THERE ARE SPOILERS!

Story

The movie did really well in building up to the climatic ending of the movie. At no point did I find myself watching anything that didn’t feel significant to the characters and the story. One character that really got a lot of shine and provided somewhat as a potential romantic partner for Yuta was Maki. Her brass personality contrasted really well with Yuta’s lackluster stiff beta energy. Opposites attract right? After the event where Yuta releases Rika to save Maki and the little boys, Yuta makes a huge step forward in his character development. These scenes in the first arc of the movie felt necessary and the pacing felt appropriate.

Then, Yuta goes on a mission with Inumaki making this another fun development for both characters. Inumaki is a really hard character to get into because of the lack of ability to build a deep personality by nature of his “cursed speech” power. So, seeing them fight together was another nice advancement to the bigger story arc. Now, we are primed into transitioning into the main bad guy, Geto Suguru.

In the same way, that no one knew anything about Yuta before the movie, Geto Suguru was pretty much in that same boat. It was nice of the movie to show how sinister he can be and just how dangerous his powers are. This is the part of the movie where maybe the setup to get the jujutsu schools to fight all of Geto’s curses and other rogue jujutsu sorcerers may have been lackluster. Geto really showed up with his peeps like “yo, we are going to fight on this day, at this place; be there or be square.” Pardon my sad taste of good analogies, but that was definitely how they setup the 2nd half of the movie.

Action

Although, I may have a small gripe with how the fighting sets up, the fighting in itself was breathtaking. I really felt the sweat in my hands and the intense wrinkle stress between my eyes, once Inumaki and Panda started fighting Geto. As noted earlier, there are quite a few “man-service” highlights of characters from the anime, that provided some some nice added action-animated scenes. All in all, they built the last fight with Yuta & Rika vs Geto Suguru as the best animated and climatic scene in the movie. It was the best ending I think we could have gotten with the story they presented so far.

The Takeaways From the Movie

• Yuta is definitely going to be back and he will be a significant character
• Yuta versus Geto could happen again since it looks like Yuta can curse people into a “special grade curse?” They seem like natural enemies since Yuta can create a curse and Geto can absorb curses.
• Maki is semi-waifi material
• Gojo is still badass Gojo

Motivation to Read the Manga

As I do with many shows, I wait to see at least the first season of a show before I get myself invested deep into a story. Like Demon Slayer’s Mugen Train Movie, I think Jujutsu Kaisen 0, provides a similar catalyst for the more casual fan like myself to go deeper in the rabbit whole.

Last Thoughts

The movie was really well done. At this point, Demon Slayer: Mugen Train is the bar for a very good anime movie. How does Jujutsu Kaisen 0 stack up? I believe it’s one notch below. While there are some pretty good elements in the movie, it wasn’t as climatic and epic as “Akaza vs Kyojuro.” The movie did do a really great job in introducing Yuta and making me get emotionally invested in his situation with Rika. Knowing that Geto Suguru and Gojo Satoru were/are best friends, is another wrinkle that’s hyping me up for season 2 and beyond. Pushing all the extra context aside from season 1; in the end, I would still recommend this movie to anyone.