If I’m being totally honest, I kinda fell off the Jujutsu Kaisen hype train after season one. I loved the show’s first outing, but for some reason, I just couldn’t be bothered with the rest when we got it. I just kept putting it off for no better reason than ‘I didn’t feel like it.’
Today, I declare no more! It’s time to catch up! I just binged all of the Jujutsu Kaisen I’ve missed, from the movie all the way up to the latest episode of season two! What have I missed? Has the series gotten better? Worse?
Let’s find out! Starting with the most obvious place: number 0!
The film starts with a fairly gruesome scene. A gang of bullies surrounds a small, quiet young man. His head hanging low, the would-be victim begs for it to end, for nobody to get hurt. But he’s not begging the bullies. He’s pleading to someone else: “Rika-chan.”
Too late.
Hard cut. The boy now sits alone in the room, curled into a ball, apologizing over and over again. Blood oozes out of the locker beside him, pooling at his feet. The door swings open, and we see the mutilated forms of his bullies. Cut to black.
Meet our protagonist: Yuta Okkotsu. A quiet and cowardly loner haunted by the powerful demonic form of his dead childhood lover, Rika. While he’s a powerhouse on par with Gojo, he’s such a gutless dork that he doesn’t know how to use it. But he’s got a heart of gold beneath it all, and the determination to become a better person and help his friends. He’s a great character! While he shares a lot of similarities with Itadori, he stands out plenty enough on his own.
Another similarity between him and the series’ main protagonist is the next part of his story. Gojo convinces his bosses to not kill the boy, then recruits him into Jujutsu Tech. Here, he meets his fellow first-years: Maki, Inumaki, and Panda. But he doesn’t make a great first impression. Partly because he is cursed, and partly because said curse kicks all three of their butts.
In his defense, Maki decided not to be polite to him before he even walked through the door. Game was rigged from the start.
The majority of the film is spent showcasing the growing friendship between these four characters. If Rika is Yuta’s yandere crush, then Maki is his tsundere; she pushes Yuta out of his shell, inspiring him to steel his determination. Inumaki offers him a helping hand, guiding him to find his courage. Panda… well, Panda is mostly there to be Maki’s wingman and be nice to Yuta when no one else is. He’s basically a gag character.
Hey, he gets to throw hands (paws?) with the film’s final boss, so he doesn’t get completely shafted.
Speaking of the final boss: Geto. As a villain, he’s basic but effective. Dude is just Jujutsu Hitler, but it works. That alone is enough to set Yuta against him, and their conflict is actually pretty interesting. The man who devours Curses against the Cursed man. Plus, their battle in the grand finale is awesome.
We also get our first hints and glimpses at the next arc, Gojo’s school days. It gives us the briefest peek at the selfless and kind person Geto used to be. It makes you wonder: what the hell happened to turn that kid into the hateful maniac we see in this movie?
Then there’s his ‘family.’ Who do absolutely nothing. They show up again later in the Shibuya Incident, but here? All they do is stand around and fill screen space. Some of them don’t even get to talk! Only one of them takes an active role, and that role is just getting his ass beat by Gojo! We don’t even get a scene of them reacting to Geto’s fate at the end! They just disappear!
The pacing in this movie is a little jarring. The first half is all setup and exposition, the second half is all payoff. There’s very little buildup to bridge the two. It’s all just beginning and end with no middle. Yuta completes his first two tutorial missions, then the final boss comes knocking on his door, they fight, then the movie is over. The passage of time isn’t communicated clearly to the audience; I thought the whole thing took place in Yuta’s first week, yet it apparently spanned whole seasons! It makes Yuta’s jump in power feel abrupt and unsatisfying. One minute, he’s getting his ass beat by Maki in a field. The next, he’s on-par with Gojo and throwing out some of the most advanced Cursed Techniques in the series!
To end on a positive note: the animation is really good. Surprising no one. But honestly, I didn’t think it was that much more impressive than the show. It looks great, don’t get me wrong, but there are tons of scenes in seasons one and two that I found far more impressive.
Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is a fine movie. It isn’t exceptional, but it’s a fine addition to the series as a whole. If you’re a fan and you haven’t watched it yet, it’s well worth your time. I don’t love it, but I don’t hate it either.
Now, we get into the real shit.
See y’all next week for the first part of season two!
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