‘Jujutsu Kaisen 0’ Review
Features the voices of: Megumi Ogata, Kana Hanazawa, Mikako Komatsu, Kōki Uchiyama, Tomokazu Seki, Yuichi Nakamura, Takahiro Sakurai | Written by Hiroshi Seko | Directed by Sunghoo Park
Directed by Sunghoo Park, Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is a prequel to the popular anime series of the same name. As such, it serves as the perfect introduction to the characters and the mythology, and can be enjoyed equally by newcomers and fans alike.
The film is set in a world where dark thoughts and feelings can create monsters known as curses, who haunt places associated with negative emotions (such as schools or hospitals) and wreak all manner of destruction. After an incident involving school bullies, Yuta Okkotsu (voiced by Megumi Ogata) discovers that he has a curse, or demon inside him called Rika-chan (Kana Hanazawa), who’s fiercely protective and will hurt anyone that threatens Yuta.
Help is at hand in the form of sorceror Satoru Gojo (Yuichi Nakamura), who recruits Yuta into the Jujutsu High School, where he can learn to control his curse and use it to protect humanity against other monsters. Alongside his three classmates – cursed tool-wielding Maki Zen’in (Mikako Komatsu), cursed word-utterer Toge Inumaki (Kōki Uchiyama) and talking panda Panda (Tomokazu Seki) – Yuta embarks on exorcism missions and begins to learn more about his powers. Meanwhile, Satoru’s former classmate, the villainous sorceror Seguro Geto (Takahiro Sakurai), is hatching a diabolical plan.
The animation is stunning throughout, from the rendering of the various locations to the imaginative character designs – there’s a variety of monsters on display and they’re all beautifully detailed. There’s a sadness to them too, as befits their origins – for example, a deserted school is filled with colourful shapes that all have several mournful eyes each.
In addition, the action sequences are both cleanly staged and thrillingly inventive, especially with regard to the deployment of Toge’s cursed word power. Similarly, the final battle is genuinely exciting, thanks to pacy direction and the fact that a fair amount of thought has gone into both the choreography and the framing of each fight sequence.
On top of that, the script is packed with original ideas, such as the fact that Toge’s words are so powerful that he has to communicate entirely in rice ball ingredients – “salmon” for “thank you” and so on. It’s also layered with powerful coming-of-age themes, finding a strongly emotional throughline for Yuta’s story, whereby his powers are directly related to the death of a childhood friend.
Ultimately, a large part of the film’s appeal lies in its cast of likeable characters, although Panda lets the side down a bit with some crass comments at one point. To that end, the voice cast are superb, with all the characters given distinctive personalities that transcend the language barrier.
In short, this is a superbly made anime adventure that delivers a potent cocktail of action, chills, humour and powerful emotion. Stick around for a decent post-credits sting (sandwiched between the lengthy Japanese language credits and the equally lengthy English language credits), if you like that sort of thing.
**** 4/5
Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is in UK cinemas now.
