One of the most popular and established “new-gen” animes of the decade, Jujutsu Kaisen, follows Yuji Itadori’s story as he navigates a new world of curses and curse users. However, this movie is a prequel to the two seasons of Jujutsu Kaisen, and instead focuses on one of the show’s greatest mysteries: the heavily alluded to Yuta Okkotsu.
The world of Jujutsu Kaisen takes place in a near-modern-day Japan, 2016 to be exact. On a surface level, the world seems very familiar to our own, yet this could not be further from the truth. Curses or apparitions of human fear feast on the negative energy and souls of humans and terrorize the people. However, this is an invisible threat to the human eye, and the deaths of the victims of cursed spirits are written off as disappearances due to the common people’s blissful unawareness. You may ask how there could be justice in a world this cruel and unforgiving to the common man? That’s where the Jujutsu sorcerers of the Jujutsu Society come in. Trained in the arts of cursed energy and the personal cursed techniques through the two Jujutsu highs in Japan, Jujutsu sorcerers fight to protect the common people from hungry curses. Our story takes place in Tokyo Jujutsu High School, where both Yuji and Yuta were trained. All Jujustu sorcerers are not created equal; however, a sorcerer is given a grade of how strong they are, from weakest to strongest, going from 4,3,2,1, and S grades respectively. Cursed spirits’ power is based on the same scale, and the gap in power increases exponentially with each rank. Not all Jujutsu sorcerers work for good, though. Curse users are those who wield cursed energy for ill intent and are the villains of Jujutsu Kaisen.
Our story starts with a sunset scene inside an unnamed high school, where Yuta is cornered by one of his bullies. The bully talks of how “he’s about to graduate” and “wants to get one last slug in” on Yuta. He also says that since it’s their last time together, he “might just kill” Yuta. Fearing for his life, Yuta cries “Rika” as two white, scaly hands appear out of the darkness, grabbing the bully. The screen fades to black, and as it resumes, Yuta is crouched in a corner, repeatedly apologizing like a madman. The camera pans to a locker, blood seeping under the door as a peek of a disfigured face pans into view as the locker door swings open.
Cut again to a dark, yellow-lit room. Those who have watched the series remember this place as where Yuji Itadori met Gojo, a parallel to the character. The voice of Satoru Gojo, a fan favorite and S-grade sorcerer, can be heard arguing for Yuta’s case. It is greatly implied that Yuta has hurt many people unintentionally and that he “turned the tables on three grade 2 sorcerers and a grade 1 sorcerer,” as per Gojo. Gojo successfully postpones Yuta’s execution under the action of taking Yuta under his wing at Tokyo Jujutsu High School to teach him how to control his power.
Cutting to Tokyo Jujutsu High School, Yuta gets ready for his first day. After Gojo’s introduction to his three classmates, Toge Inukami, Panda, and Maki Zenin, Yuta’s backstory ensues. Yuta’s childhood friend, Rika, was tragically hit and killed by a car. Her love for Yuta ran beyond the grave, and her spirit turned into a cursed entity: “The Queen of Curses,” an S-grade curse.
The movie then follows Yuta’s growth as he’s sent on several missions to fight cursed spirits. His innate power helps him to overcome the dangerous situations, but his classmates assist him in tuning his powers.
The movie then focuses on the villain, a curse user and S-grade sorcerer, Suguru Geto. He possesses the cursed technique to swallow curses, creating an arsenal of curses to use. His technique allows him to amass an army of curses that could rival the Jujutsu Society’s power if left unchecked. Geto’s goal is to create a society where only Jujutsu sorcerers exist, and he plans on doing this by killing all normal people. Though his goal is quite frightening, his seriousness is watered down by his blatant disdain to normal people. It’s almost comical how much he hates normal people, referring to them as “monkeys” every single time he interacts with them. He’s not even racist, he just hates everyone. My favorite instance of this is when he calmly sprays himself with a spray bottle, where he states the bottle is “disinfecting deodorant. I don’t want everyone to breathe in the monkey smell,” after an interaction with a so-called “monkey.” It’s just so funny to me how he hates people so much that he has disinfecting deodorant on hand in order to never smell like them.
After Geto’s been introduced to the story and declared war on Jujutsu society with his league of curse users, Geto attacks in Kyoto, ensuing the “Night Parade of a Hundred Demons,” which was alluded to in the show. Anticipating the attack, almost all sorcerers were stationed in Kyoto, but what they didn’t expect was for Geto to personally attack Tokyo Jujutsu High School. His intentions were to kill Yuta and take Rika for his own nefarious purposes.
After defeating Panda, Maki, and Toge, Geto goes straight for Yuta. Yuta and Geto engage in a jaw-dropping fight to the death. The animation in the scenes that follow is some of my favorite from the series and really cements itself as my favorite new-gen anime. Geto is defeated by Yuta, after he unleashed his full innate power on him. He gains control of Rika and proves himself as a worthy S-grade sorcerer.
The movie is a beautifully written piece and a worthy prequel that really sets up the plot for the show. The visuals are stunning, the pacing is perfect, the writing is spectacular, and the score is phenomenal. All in all, it’s worth watching, especially if you’d like to get into the anime scene. Jujutsu Kaisen is a great place to begin, being an easy show to enjoy and really sink your teeth into.
