The first season of Jujutsu Kaisen was amazing. It was compelling, had great animation, action scenes and a kicka*s soundtrack. All of these were also present in the prequel movie Jujutsu Kaisen 0, which makes it a compelling addition to the franchise so far.

Synopsis: Yuta Okkotsu has been cursed by the spirit of his childhood sweetheart Rika for six years since her death. Rather than exorcise the curse and execute Yuta, Gojo Satoru invites him to become a student at Jujutsu High to see if he can channel Rika’a powers to protect humans.

Jujutsu Kaisen 0 tells the story of the second year students Maki Zenin, Toge Inumaki and Panda when they were freshmen at Jujutsu High. While they were already introduced in the first season of the anime series, the movie gives them their highlights as beginner sorcerers as well as delves into their relationship with new student Yuta.

What makes Jujutsu Kaisen 0 interesting is that its main character Yuta is so different from JK series protagonist Yuji Itadori. They have far different personalities although they have unique abilities that make them stand out from the rest of their group.

Gojo is as eccentric and you can tell that the guy is hiding layers upon layers of secrets undeneath his gregarious personality. After seeing the extent of his power in JK Season 1, I was wondering if I would see him go all out against his arch nemesis and former bestie Geto Surugu. I was disappointed that this did not happen. Instead, we see Gojo squaring off with a foreigner whose power has the ability to disrupt his own. According to some fans, this will be significant later on in the anime.

Anyways, while there were many great fight scenes that were made even more bad*ss by the amazing OST, I still felt bad that the final attack between Yuta and Geto was not shown, given the level of animation executed by Studio Mappa.

Obviously, when hey finally catch up with each other, Gojo does not kill Geto as he was very much alive in JK’s first season. He will of course, live to regret his choice but it remains to be seen how season 2 will proceed. There’s also a snippet of a post credit scene that you have to look out for to clue you in on what happened after the Jujutsu High attack and to the missing Yuta Okkotsu.

All in all, top notch animation by Studio Mappa. The film also had a great pace and served well to generate excitement for Season 2. I for one, have a ton of questions. Personally, I would have preferred Yuta’s chapter to have been a six or 12 episode series, much like they did for Rengoku’s arc after the Mugen Train movie.