Jujutsu Kaisen Zero
Okay, this is an interesting solution to the whole 'up-and-coming anime needs a feature film' dilemma that has gripped so many other series before. The thing with non-serialized anime movies is that... at some point, no one really cares if it doesn't matter to the main series. With Dragon Ball Z and Naruto releasing canonical sequels to the original series (which got adapted into the anime sequels), and series like One Piece opting for pseudo-canonical ones involving the main author introducing variants of concepts that will be adapted into the manga later on, we've also got the interesting method where Demon Slayer adapted a short, self-contained arc from the manga into a movie... and then re-packages it into the anime when the season started up again. After all, while movies are a big thing, they do get off the theaters and it's a bit confusing for someone who's just watching through DVD boxsets or streaming services and just wants to get the full experience of the series.
With the relatively large gap between the two seasons of Jujutsu Kaisen, however, I thought that it was a rather clever way for them to adapt the 'prequel' series. Well, it was a pilot miniseries that was concluded at four chapters, but when the rebooted Jujutsu Kaisen was serialized with a different protagonist, the events of "Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School" were marketed as Jujutsu Kaisen 0, a prequel series. And this canonical movie being the focus of the theatrical release is honestly a rather smart business decision that means that the movie team is just still focusing its huge budget on canonical stuff!
The first season (and its manga equivalent) has already given some hints about the hyakki-yako, the Parade of a Hundred Demons, as well as mentions of Okkutsu Yuta and some adventures that the second-years are implied to already have... and I really do think that the core Jujutsu Kaisen series still stands pretty well on its own without having to read/watch 0, even when Yuta reappears into the series. But seeing the context of Yuta's adventures, as well as seeing what Gojo, Maki, Inumaki and Panda get up to during this prequel event is pretty fun.
The story itself is honestly rather simple, since it was initially intended to be just a pilot for the world. There's also a rather evident set of 'chapters' abruptly cutting off here and there before the climax of the movie, though I do feel like it's honestly not that noticeable. Okkotsu Yuta is our primary antagonist, and he's contrasted rather heavily against Itadori Yuji for being... well, a bit more passive, at least initially. Yuta is haunted by a hideous spirit that kills some of the other students bullying him. The constantly-faceless higher-ups in Jujutsu High want to execute him, but, of course, Gojo Satoru ends up adopting Yuta in a way not too dissimilar to Yuji later on.
We quickly learn that the Cursed Spirit allegedly haunting Yuta is called Rika, Yuta's childhood friend and crush who was tragically killed in a car crash. Due to the kids promising to marry each other when they grow up, Rika is seemingly reincarnated into a vengeful, overprotective ghoulish curse that lashes out at anyone that tries to harm Yuta.
We also see that Yuta's brought into a class containing some familiar faces from the first season of the anime -- Zen'in Maki, Inumaki Toge and Panda. And at this point, it is made rather clear why the anime/manga seems to focus more on Panda and Maki, while Inumaki and his cursed voice is treated more of an afterthought and a fancy set of powers to be used in battle -- Inumaki's big focus was already done in this prequel series!
We get two 'episodes' that flow pretty quickly. Maki acts as a prickly rival (and we learn later on that she doesn't have cursed energy and uses a pair of special glasses to see curses) and she is assigned to Yuta on the first mission into a school, where Yuta ultimately summons Rika for the first time successfully in order to rescue Maki and the two civilians from a giant Curse. I do find it interesting that unlike Sukuna, Rika is played rather straight as an unpredictable, destructive but ultimately beneficial-to-the-main-character hidden spirit. And honestly, other than a brief bit where Rika lashes out at Maki when she thinks Maki is getting too close to Yuta, Rika herself seems to be under Yuta's control... albeit with a slightly childish twist to her characterization.
We then get a mission with Inumaki Toge where they fight a demon that's a bit more powerful than usual. This one feels more like a power showcase for Inumaki, as well as Yuta being a bit more confident with fighting and channeling his cursed energy through a sword... and while it's a bit simpler and something that viewers that have watched/read the ongoing Jujutsu Kaisen won't be particularly surprised about, it was kind of built up a bit that Inumaki seemed a bit more... creepy compared to Maki and Panda, thanks to how he keeps speaking in 'kelp' and 'konbu'. Of course, turns out that he's perfectly willing to lie down his life to rescue Yuta, and Yuta does the same for him. It's a theme re-explored with Yuji a bit, and indeed a lot of other shonen battle mangas, but you really do get the feeling that Yuji and Yuta are both gigantic outsiders that are accepted by this gaggle of wacky students. This leads to a fair amount of investment to what's going to come next, even if the conclusion is admittedly a foregone one no matter how well they animated the blood splatters.
And, of course, we get the first chronological appearance of main villain Geto Suguru, though for people who started with the 'main' series first this acts more of a contextualization of the mysterious dude with a scar that has been showing up throughout the entire series. Geto is revealed/confirmed to be a former student and a close friend of Gojo Satoru. We get to see how he's built a cult, and it's very clearly demonstrated just how much he is a great actor in this regard, pretending to be a nice healer that helps people to get rid of creepy curses only to wipe his hands in disgust at being touched by a human. Geto is actually stockpiling curses within himself, which is a neat, simple enough big bad master plot of this movie.
Geto also brings in an entire squadron of uniquely-designed members, all of whom feel like they should be members of this series' equivalent of Akatsuki or the Espada... but really, other than Miguel, the African man who fights Gojo, none of these guys are remotely memorable. The movie does help out a bit by having the twins have some dialogue with Ijichi, but that really is more of a characterization on Ijichi's part instead of the Geto cult. Geto himself, however, does get a brief but nice little motive rant about how curse-users are all prejudiced against, and the twin girls that Ijichi fights do info-dump their backstory about how they had such a terrible life before Geto came in and rescued them.
The main conflict here is that Geto's plan also hinges on getting Yuta and the utterly powerful Curse Rika on his side, but we get an honestly rather typical 'how dare you insult my friends/bonds!' argument from Yuta. The movie and the miniseries it's adapted from does a great job at showing just how... hard Yuta latches on to his new friends, and they do sell this moment and interaction well.
And then we have the big, climactic fight scene... and it's pretty great! This is where the movie shines, and the format of releasing Zero after the first season is very interesting because we get to see a lot of the 'senior' characters that have already debuted in the anime actually do stuff in Zero. We actually get to see the Kyoto students fight a bit, and a brief glimpse at Todo's one-man rampage (though it's actually a bit less impressive than the flashback we saw of him in the anime). In particular, Nanami and Mei Mei get a fair bit of showing. We actually get to see Nanami's four-consecutive-Black-Flashes event that was only alluded to in the manga, which is cool!
And I really could just go on and on about this fight. Lots of great action scenes. Always welcome to see Gojo unleash another 'Red' attack, I actually really like how even the less-flashy Ijichi's biggest concern is how a bunch of youth are radicalized, I love the giant monsters that Nanami and Todo bring down... but I would be remiss not to mention that badass fight between Gojo and Miguel on the rooftop, which was animated amazingly well.
Of course, the main reason for the impressive war spanning Kyoto is that Geto's using all of it as a decoy. Gojo ends up realizing what's going on, but is held back (mostly offscreen other than that Miguel fight) by the powerful curse-users. Yuta has been forced to stay behind in the school due to the higher-ups (rather understandably) not wanting him in the frontlines, but Geto of course zips in to claim Rika for his curse army. We get some nice, fun action sequences (particularly Panda going gorilla mode and I think using Black Flash!) but ultimately Geto brutalizes Panda, Inumaki and Maki, causing Yuta to go all crazy.
The fight between Geto and Yuta is pretty fun stuff, and we get the climax of Yuta's story where he ends up giving this whole speech about offering himself up for Rika. Receiving a massive boost of power, Yuta manages to break Geto's strongest technique and drive him off, where he's seemingly finished off by Gojo in an alley. We don't get the full context just yet, but the brief flashbacks to Gojo and Geto hanging out together, and ultimately splitting apart due to ideological differences.
The other big dramatic moment of this climax, of course, is the revelation that it's Yuta that cursed Rika instead of Rika being a curse that haunts Yuta, with a panicked, shell-shocked child Yuta basically cursing Rika to constantly stay with him because he didn't want to be alone. Ultimately, Yuta breaks the curse with Rika and allows her to pass on, eventually continuing on to study at Jujutsu High. Oh, in a bit of a little sequel hook, we get the revelation that Yuta and Gojo are related distantly, explaining both of their tremendous cursed energy.
And... again, it's a very enjoyable movie. Admittedly part of what makes it so well-done is that it just simply works for a special movie or miniseries, thanks to both being very self-contained, very simple plot-wise and the movie budget does make the action scenes in the Parade of a Hundred Demons feel extremely epic. This is how you make a movie 'essential watching' for the anime watchers without taking them out of the continuity of the show, I feel.
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