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When it opened on Dec. 24, Jujutsu Kaisen 0 bought over 1 million tickets and earned greater than 1 billion yen. Over the weekend, the prequel to the favored anime collection Jujutsu Kaisen, primarily based on the manga by Gege Akutami, almost tripled its field workplace, giving the record-breaking Demon Slayer movie a run for its cash. This was no Christmas miracle. Jujutsu Kaisen 0 earns its success by doing what so many prequels fail at: telling a satisfying story that connects to and enhances the primary collection whereas additionally welcoming newcomers to the franchise.
Set in a world the place people emanate Cursed Vitality that may create eldritch creatures referred to as Curses/Cursed Spirits, the Jujutsu Kaisen anime focuses on Yuji Itadori, a excessive schooler who turns into a vessel for Ryomen Sukuna, one of the highly effective Curses in existence. Following this, a gaggle of Jujutsu Sorcerers — individuals who can management their Cursed Vitality to battle evil spirits — enroll Yuji within the Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu Excessive Faculty to assist him management his energy whereas maintaining a tally of him. That’s the barebones abstract of the anime collection that aired from October 2020 to March 2021 … and the essential synopsis for Jujutsu Kaisen 0.
The prequel tells the story of Yuta Okkotsu, a excessive schooler who positive aspects management of an especially highly effective Cursed Spirit and will get enrolled within the Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu Excessive Faculty by Jujutsu Sorcerers to assist him management his energy and control him. Yuta and Yuji are two very completely different individuals, with the previous beginning out as a timid, gloomy, bullied child, and the latter being a hyperenergetic extrovert with the sort of energy and stamina that may make Batman jealous. Nonetheless, the similarities between the setups of the TV collection and Jujutsu Kaisen 0 can’t be neglected. It’s virtually just like the film is each a prequel and a remake. A premake? Requel? No matter you wish to name it, 105-minute film hits lots of the identical notes because the present by utilizing a residing weapon outsider character to introduce the viewers to the world of Jujutsu sorcery and Cursed Spirits and many others.
Picture: MAPPA/Toho Ltd.
There’s loads to take pleasure in for longtime followers. For one, Yuta Okkotsu shouldn’t be a brand new character, having been talked about within the collection a couple of occasions however by no means making an look till now. And he’s given a superbly tragic backstory, because it seems that the highly effective Curse that latched on to Yuta is his childhood love, Rika. After dying in a site visitors accident, the mild and caring woman reworked right into a snake-haired, fang-faced monstrosity that won’t have probably the most disturbing design on the market however makes up for it by the best way she acts. When the cursed Rika talks to Yuta in a baby’s voice about how a lot she loves him or kills individuals who bully him with out seemingly feeling unhealthy about it, the juxtaposition of her horrifying look together with her candy however generally additionally capricious, child-like demeanor ends in one of the memorable Jujutsu Kaisen cursed spirits ever.
The film additionally offers extra screentime to its villain, Suguru Geto, who has been a relentless presence on Jujutsu Kaisen, although principally using backseat to the resident Large Dangerous Mahito. In Jujutsu Kaisen 0, although, Geto is given heart stage, which he proceeds to eat up with a lot gusto. Geto is an especially enjoyable antagonist with a larger-than-life persona that’s lastly on full show within the film. You’ll be able to actually see why Curses and different sorcerers would gravitate in direction of him, and the way his happy-go-lucky perspective whereas making an attempt to commit atrocities would infuriate the movie’s predominant characters.
This ends in a terrific battle between him and Yuta. With the digital camera motion making an attempt to copy the sensation of a regular-sized character shifting with lightning velocity in opposition to Geto’s gigantic Curses — together with a Blob kaiju made up of fats demon infants — the battle is moreover enhanced by Yuta’s sudden rage, including an entire different layer to the expertise. However that’s to be anticipated from battle scenes overseen by director Sunghoo Park, whom you would possibly bear in mind from The God of Excessive Faculty anime collection and its spectacular battles. It’s greater than sufficient to maintain Jujutsu-heads happy through the 105-minute run of the film.
Picture: MAPPA/Toho Ltd.
However newcomers will get probably the most out of Jujutsu Kaisen 0. The prequel is principally the essence of Jujutsu Kaisen trimmed all the way down to its most accessible parts, which isn’t stunning provided that the film is predicated on a manga that really precedes the Jujutsu Kaisen comedian. First revealed as Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical Faculty within the 2017 difficulty of Soar GIGA, this standalone brief collection about Curses and Jujutsu Sorcerers was meant to conclude after simply 4 chapters. But it surely quickly gained sufficient recognition for Gege Akutami to broaden its premise and the world he solely hinted at within the authentic comedian, in the end culminating within the creation of Yuji Itadori and the story that took the world by storm.
Jujutsu Kaisen 0 may be very easy, focusing totally on Yuta, his trainer Satoru Gojo, Suguru Geto, and the second-year college students of the Tokyo Jujutsu Excessive Faculty that followers know from the TV collection: Maki Zenin, Toge Inumaki, and Panda. Most of them get a adequate rationalization that enables whole novices to comply with the story, and which can persuade them to later plunge into the deep waters of the anime. For these much less acquainted, Jujutsu Kaisen considerations itself with Yuji making an attempt to offer individuals a “correct loss of life.” To first decide what a correct loss of life is, although, the anime spends numerous time determining what a correct life means. By way of the characters of Kento Nanami, the present explores the worth of serving to others over cash, whereas Maki’s arc is the story of going in opposition to the move and the consolation of being a part of a gaggle/household and doing your individual factor. Even the cursed wombs from the final episode of the TV collection discover the “correct” solution to reside because the characters are literally touching examples of the significance of household.
There are traces of this theme within the film; one can interpret Yuta’s arc as a lesson about letting go and shifting on. His selections round Rika are stirring however the anime collection goes a lot deeper into its philosophical messages. That’s alright, although, as a result of by retaining issues easy, the film makes you need extra, gently main new followers to the TV present. And any media that manages to introduce extra individuals to a present that’s redefining shōnen anime is unquestionably doing one thing proper.
So whether or not you’ve been following Jujutsu Kaisen for years or are simply listening to about it for the primary time now, try Jujutsu Kaisen 0 should you ever get the prospect. It’s the sort of uncommon film that really has one thing (superior) for everybody.
Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is out now in Japan. The film at present doesn’t have a U.S. launch date.
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