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Jujutsu Kaisen 0 Review
Image Credit: Toho Animation
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Directed By: Sunghoo Park
Written By: Hiroshi Seko; Based on the manga series created by Gege Akutami
Runtime: 105 minutes
MPA Rating: Rated PG-13 for violent content, bloody images, language, thematic material and some suggestive references
Kayleigh McKee – Yuta Okkotsu
Anairis Quiñones – Rika Orimoto
Allegra Clark – Maki Zen’in
Xander Mobus – Toge Inumaki
Matthew David Rudd – Panda
Kaiji Tang – Satoru Gojo
Lex Lang – Suguru Geto
Keith Silverstein – Masamichi Yaga
Chris Tergliafera – Kiyotaka Ijichi
The Jujutsu Kaisen franchise receives its first theatrical anime release with the new picture, Jujutsu Kaisen 0. Originally published as the manga, Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School, the story is set before the events in the ongoing Jujutsu Kaisen series. The clock has been rewound, showcasing the story of Yuta Okkotsu, a young teenager who has been afflicted by a deadly curse. Fans across the globe will have the opportunity to experience this unique anime feature in theaters starting March 18 for U.S. and Canadian audiences, courtesy of Crunchyroll and Funimation.
In the world of Gege Akutami’s Jujutsu Kaisen, humanity is plagued by dangerous, corporeal beings called Cursed Spirits. Cursed Spirits are created when humans give off negative emotions. These negative emotions eventually build up and create feral, predatorial creatures called Cursed Spirits. Only other humans with a high aptitude for Cursed Energy can see or detect the Cursed Spirits. In other words, humanity’s collective negative, ugly thoughts give birth to harmful monsters capable of devouring and preying on humans.
There are varying grades to these Cursed Spirits. Sometimes, Cursed Spirits are capable of evolving and obtaining sentience and human-level intellect that are ranked as “special grade.” In Jujutsu Kaisen 0, Yuta Okkotsu at a young age witnessed the death of his childhood friend, Rika, whom he dearly loved. The trauma of Rika’s death somehow transformed her into a powerful, vengeful Cursed Spirit, who is still desperate to stay bonded to Yuta and protect him. Some years later, when high school bullies attack Yuta, he calls on Rika for help, and the bullies meet a grisly fate. The incident gains the attention of the Jujutsu Sorcerer community, a group of elite warriors who battle and exorcise Cursed Spirits. Rather than quickly executing Yuta, high-ranking Jujutsu Sorcerer Satoru Gojo decides to recruit Yuta to Tokyo Jujutsu High to train him to become a Jujutsu Sorcerer and find an answer to freeing him from Rika’s curse.
Unfortunately for Yuta, his bond with a special grade Cursed Spirit such as Rika makes him a potential liability to the higher-ups of the Jujutsu Sorcerer community and a target to others. Disgraced Jujutsu Sorcerer Suguru Geto is eager to obtain Rika’s power in his bid to build a new world order.
As an anime feature based on an ongoing manga series, Jujutsu Kaisen 0 breaks from the norm of a typical theatrical release for a franchise such as this. Before launching the Jujutsu Kaisen series, creator Gege Akutami conceived the original manga series Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School. Later, the latter became a prequel story, Jujutsu Kaisen 0. Everything in this story is set within the timeline of the Jujutsu Kaisen series. It simply depicts events prior to Yuji Itadori devouring one of the fingers of Sukuna, the King of Curses.
This is not the typical filler anime feature fans have become accustomed to for some other theatrical anime features for franchises such as My Hero Academia or One Piece. There aren’t any filler baddies or one-offs here. Yuta Okkotsu is a character who has been referenced but largely out of the picture in the main series, and Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is finally a chance to tell his story.
The world that Gege Akutami has created with Jujutsu Kaisen is fascinating. The world-building is in-depth and intricate. The influences of past iconic manga and anime, such as Bleach, can be seen in this story, but Akutami’s supernatural world is different from any past manga. The contemporary Japanese setting is more grounded, making it look more realistic. The world of Jujutsu Kaisen has a modern edge that hues closer to real life.
Akutami is not afraid to show actual dates and times for the story. While a lot of the characters tend to have wacky quirks, they still display genuine, sincere emotions. The sprinkling of real-life pop-culture references adds an extra bit of flavor and attitude to the setting. Jujutsu Kaisen uses just enough of these types of references to make the story come off a bit more authentic and true-to-life rather than ridiculous.
The twist of how Cursed Spirits are born in Jujutsu Kaisen is compelling. It posits the question: What if humanity’s negative thoughts created literal monsters? What if those oppressive feelings that weigh a person down are transmogrified into monstrous entities? The Cursed Spirits of Jujutsu Kaisen are twisted phantasmagoria. They are largely malevolent and dangerous. However, the creatures also experience genuine pain, especially the special grade Cursed Spirits who have gained intelligence. Cursed Spirits are byproducts of negative emotions, and they are sometimes victims who came into being due to misdeeds.
Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is an excellent exemplification of Akutami’s premise through the story of Yuta and Rika. A traumatic event gave way to a curse that Yuta has been forced to live with for years. The presence of Rika’s curse, coupled with being bullied by other students, has only worsened Yuta’s situation, making him feel hopeless. There is an inspiring comfort with Yuta as the underdog protagonist finding the strength to climb out of rock bottom and finding hope after starting his journey in such a dark place.
Since Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is set before the main storyline, it focuses more on the supporting characters introduced later in the regular series. Rounding out Yuta’s new classmates are the Cursed Corpse mutation Panda, the Cursed Speech user Toge Inumaki and the Cursed Object user, Maki Zen’in. It’s nice seeing these characters interact with Yuta, as their dynamics play out differently from the main story’s central trio with Megumi, Yuji, and Nobara. Maki and Yuta especially build an interesting bond throughout the story, and it’s good to see another side of Maki’s personality. Also, getting more of Panda is never a bad thing.
Satoru Gojo also emerges as a nice secondary protagonist for the story. In the main series, most of Gojo’s material depicts him acting like a cocky, arrogant goofball. He largely gets his kicks out of trolling his students. Jujutsu Kaisen 0 shows that there are many sides to Gojo as well, and he is not merely a constant prankster. There is a sadness and heart to Gojo in Jujutsu Kaisen 0 that the main series has not yet completely shown.
One possible drawback of the feature is that even as a prequel, Jujutsu Kaisen 0 might be a lot to take in for first-time viewers. It helps to watch the first season of the anime. People might look at Panda and other characters and become confused. The ongoing series takes a bit more time to explain various concepts and characters, so going into this series cold might be a bit jarring. At the same time, it is refreshing that the feature does not lean too hard on exposition. There is a panda named Panda. It can walk and talk like a human, and it can fight evil ghost creatures. The story simply goes with it.
The work on the anime adaptation by director Sunghoo Park and writer Hiroshi Seko is largely faithful to Akutami’s original manga version; so much so that the original, four-chapter manga series acts as an identical storyboarded version of the anime version. The character models and style largely stay faithful to Akutami’s work. At the same time, seeing these designs and concepts brought to vivid life onscreen is a sight to behold. Park expertly visualizes the Cursed Spirit creatures, which are the stuff of nightmares given flesh and blood.
The Jujutsu Kaisen anime series shows an exceptional level of quality that MAPPA Studio maintains for this feature. The animation work looks fantastic. The characters move with great fluidity. The locales and setpieces, even with traditional animation, have nice depth. Few art forms depict action and combat the way anime does, and the action here is still unlike anything previously seen on screen. The visual artistry on display is far superior to any run-of-the-mill western, CG-animated feature.
The story could have used more time to flesh out Yuta’s time as a first-year student at Tokyo Jujutsu High. There are some time jumps in the narrative that undercut some of Yuta’s overall development. Yuta’s early missions and training are shown, but it would have been nice to see a few more scenes to get a better sense of his overall progression and improvement.
The other issue of the story is that Rika’s characterization and backstory are largely left aside to supplementary material. Due to her importance to the story, Rika warranted further screen time. Granted, the manga does not explore these ideas too heavily, and it could be something that plays out later.
Disappointingly, a major event that is referenced in the ongoing television series and manga does not play out in the feature. Jujutsu Kaisen 0 would have been the perfect format to play out this scene. In defense of the writer Hiroshi Seko, he does not veer off significantly from the original manga’s script. However, a few additional scenes could have added a bit more texture to Yuta’s overall journey and development as a Jujutsu Sorcerer. In the main television series, these references do a good job of adding more depth to the overall world of Jujusu Kaisen. Other important characters are around doing various important things. Still, telling is not as good as showing.
The voice cast does tremendous work for the English dub version of Jujutsu Kaisen 0. Kayleigh McKee’s Yuta and Allegra Clark as Maki were the standouts. McKee shows an impressive gamut of emotions as Yuta, especially the aspects involving Yuta’s depression and hopelessness. These are not easy aspects to pull off in such a format, but McKee does so in an authentic fashion.
Clark was already doing great work with Maki in the series, but there is a great scene where she shows off more warmth and vocal range as the character. The actors fit their roles very well here, and Lex Lang is very much in his element as Suguru Geto. Geto is certainly a megalomaniac, but he is one with aplomb, and Lang reflects that side of Geto incredibly well.
Jujutu Kaisen 0 is a great expansion into the world created by Gege Akutami. It may not be the ideal entry point for new viewers, but it’s worth a look due to its strong characters, unique setting, and high-level animation work by MAPPA Studio.
