Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Well guys, Aniween has come and gone, but hey that doesn’t mean I still can’t talk about Jujutsu Kaisen. I mean how can I not talk about this series? It’s so good. Thanks to the anime, the manga really took off here in the west. While it hasn’t reach that same fever pitch as say Kimestu no Yaiba it was still getting attention. People were checking out the manga, buying the shirts, and liking what they read. Naturally, it only made sense to keep the momentum going. We all knew this series was going to get a second season, but since it would take a minute for it to be completed they had to give the fans something to hold them over. Enter Jujutsu Kaisen 0. Written by Gege Akutami themself, 0 is the prequel to Jujutsu Kaisen. It was released in 2017 and was originally called Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School. Akutami goes on record saying they had no intention of making this a full-on series, but with the success of 0, they were inspired to write a full manga with 0 serving as the basis. This manga didn’t have any major themes and was just Akutami drawing characters with a cool appeal. Riding the success of the anime MAPPA decided to turn 0 into a movie where it made almost $200 million worldwide. People everywhere were praising this movie calling it one of the best and once it appeared on Crunchyroll I got curious and decided to watch it. What are my thoughts? Well take a seat and I’ll tell you. This is Jujutsu Kaisen 0.
We begin the movie in a classroom with our main character Yuta voiced by legendary voice actor, Megumi Ogata (Shinji from Evangelion, Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho, and Yugi/Dark Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh) getting picked on by some bullies. Before the beating and abusing could begin the bullies get attacked by Rika an overprotective curse that clings to Yuta (pretty sure there’s a Jojo reference in there somewhere) and is his childhood friend who he promised to marry one day (so the curse is yandere? Might want to reconsider that marriage). Sadly, she was killed in a car accident and overwhelmed by her and Yuta’s negative emotions which turned her into a curse. Anyone or anything that tries to harm Yuta, will get attacked by her. He gets taken in by the Jujutsu Society who think he should be executed because his curse is too dangerous, but Gojo (yayyyy~) steps in and convinces them to send him to their school. At first, Yuta says no as he wants to die but Gojo convinces him to attend the school and use his powers for good. On his first day he meets Maki (man, I never imagined her pulling off the long socks look), Inumaki (he had longer hair back then), and Panda (hasn’t changed at all) who immediately attack him because of Rika’s overwhelming curse energy (scene here: https://youtu.be/KbBeD8Y8euw). After introductions, he and Maki get taken to a school to eliminate curses and rescue some kids who went missing. Things start off well, but go south when the two get eaten by a giant curse. They do manage to find the missing kids in the belly of the beast, but they’ve already been infected by the curse and could die at any minute. Even Maki gets infected which leaves only Yuta to save them. He finally mans up (stop playing the victim) and activates his curse willingly to destroy the curse (it’s pretty terrifying. So terrifying that you have to laugh at how absurd it is) and rescue Maki and the children (scene here: https://youtu.be/cae9DzaCnO4, not bad for your first day on the job).
After this, Yuta resolves to break Rika’s curse and set her free. He begins training learning how to use a katana and imbuing it with curse energy as well as training with Maki (scene here: https://youtu.be/-V7ZlnUvVKY and https://youtu.be/Yxa3LyJ5ruE). Three months pass and Yuta goes on another mission with Inumaki (where they once again establish just how overpowered he is). Inumaki makes quick work of the curses in a rundown shopping district only for an even stronger curse to arrive, but Inumaki and Yuta work together to bring it down and grow closer as friends (scene here: https://youtu.be/uNU-dtRz6PM). We also learn about the monk who’s been hanging around Mahito. His name is Geto, he’s a special-grade sorcerer who was banned from the school after he cursed over a hundred normal people. He was also Gojo’s closest friend until they pushed each other away because of their beliefs. Geto looks down on non-Jujutsu users, calling them monkeys and extorting them to get money and other curses. He wants to build a utopia where jujutsu sorcerers rule the world with him as their king (he’s got the Magneto mindset). He and his followers declare war on the school and say that they will unleash a thousand curses in Tokyo and Kyoto on December 24th to eradicate all non-Jujutsu sorcerers.
The 24th of December arrives where we find out that Geto’s real target is Yuta. He plans to kill him and take control of Rika to turn the tide of war in his favor. The plan works as all the major sorcerers are out and about and leave Yuta behind unguarded (aside from Maki. By the way, I ship her with Yuta. They’ve got this alpha and beta romance going on. Sort of like Beth and Jerry from Rick and Morty except Yuta is likable and doesn’t have all the terrible traits Jerry has. Scene here: https://youtu.be/P0RXmbdz8_k). Gojo figures out what’s going on and sends Inumaki and Panda back to the school to protect Yuta and Maki. The final third of the movie gives us what we’ve been waiting for, great action with excellent animation (scenes here: https://youtu.be/ZSB_oCPK3Ho and https://youtu.be/UeOTYQwlUtA). Geto easily takes down Maki, Panda and Inumaki (scene here: https://youtu.be/uYrW8sKj5kI) leaving only Yuta to fight where we get an amazing fight between the two (and even see some similarities between them, Yuji and Mahito). Yuta and Rika are working hand in hand with each other and they manage to beat Geto with the power of love (Baron: Every time I close my eyes. I wake up feeling so horny. Scene here: https://youtu.be/5xZ4_r_TMFM). Geto retreats and his army of curses and followers lose, but they all managed to escape except for Geto who gets killed by Gojo (scene here: https://youtu.be/fvnEfFYINzA). Back with Yuta and the others, the curse on Rika gets broken and she reverts back into her human form. Gojo comes in and explains that it was Yuta who cursed Rika all this time, accidentally. He wasn’t ready to let Rika go and cursed her to stay by his inside (that was a little selfish of you. But that’s love). After he promised his soul to her, he managed to break the curse setting her free. Rika says goodbye and tells Yuta to live a fulfilling life before joining her (farewell, my first love). So now that Rika is gone, does that mean Yuta is done being a sorcerer? Nope. It turns out he and Gojo are distant relatives from one of history’s most powerful sorcerers meaning he’s had sorcerer powers all along (Rika just gave him an extra boost in power). After the ending credits, we see Yuta in Kenya where he gets approached by Gojo to end the movie (scene here: https://youtu.be/TFK9vnXa_z4).
Final Thoughts
This movie wasn’t the major blockbuster hit I was hoping for, but it’s still a great movie. I do like Yuta’s character and how he was handled. He goes from being this timid boy wondering if he has the right to live to a swordsman badass able to hold his own in battle and take control of the situation. His friendship with Maki, Panada, and Inumaki was endearing and watching them all grow closer as the movie progresses was nice. Like I said I ship Maki with Yuta. I think they make a good pair and I look forward to when he meets Yuji in the anime. Speaking of Yuji, I did like how the two characters have a few similarities between them. Both of them are trying to live a meaningful life for the ones they love and have rivalries with others they curse and hate. Yuji can’t accept Mahito’s ideas and Yuta can’t accept Geto’s ideas because of what they’re willing to sacrifice to achieve their goals.
The animation is great. The final third is where the animation really starts to show off and the action in the final third is awesome as well. I’m just mad we didn’t get to see more of it. A big shoutout to the music in this movie as well. I liked this soundtrack more than the anime’s soundtrack.
Final Score
The score for Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is an 8.5/10 with a must-watch stamp of approval. If you liked the anime definitely check out this movie as you’ll like it just as much as the anime. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.