“Jujutsu Kaisen 0” is one of the most anticipated anime movies of this year. After the show “Jujutsu Kaisen” won Cruncyroll’s Anime of The Year award, fans were super excited after they heard of that a movie was coming out. Even now, the “Jujutsu Kaisen 0 Movie – Official Trailer 2” video on Youtube by AnimeHypeアニメ日本 has a view count of around 5.8 million views. The animation company, MAPPA, was also one of the main reasons for the hype. They did a phenomenal job on the series and they are famous for their other works: “Attack on Titan: The Final Season”, “The God of High School”, and “Dororo”. After watching the movie, all the hype and anticipation surrounding it was definitely worth it.

The story centers around high schooler Yuta Okkotsu and his time at the Jujutsu High School. The movie starts off with Yuta’s curse, Rika Orimoto (a former human), killing 3 of Yuta’s bullies. After this, Yuta is captured by Satoru Gojo and sent to Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School, which is a school meant to teach people who want to kill curses. He then meets fellow students Maki Zenin, Panda, and Toge Inumaki. He gets taught how to use cursed energy and how to control Rika. With this knowledge, he goes with both Maki and Toge to exterminate curses. After these events, the audience is introduced to the main villain Suguru Geto. Suguru Geto is quite similar to Marvel’s Magneto, Suguru is a cursed user supremacist who wants people who can’t use cursed energy to die. After he finds out who Yuta is, he decides to start a war with the entire jujutsu association in hopes of killing Yuta. After the fight between the association and Geto’s army, Gojo successfully kills Geto and Yuta finally gets rid of his curse.

There are 2 factors of this movie that really stand out: story and animation. The story had a great premise and it featured a lot of character development for the main character. Watching Yuta grow into a character who finally accepts himself was an enjoyable thing to watch. The fleshing out of the other characters was also great. Seeing the backstories of both the main characters and the villains really made them seem human. The amount of funny moments was also a nice touch.

MAPPA’s amazing animation style, while usually great, especially comes into fruition when it’s in movies. The amount of fluidity and color has been so great that a certain amount of anime fans expect it in almost every anime. The Yuta vs Geto and Gojo vs Miguel fights were so great that watchers could feel chills go down their spine. If there happens to be another movie, MAPPA would most definitely be hired again.

My only two criticisms for the movie is that the first part was a little fast paced and Panda didn’t really have a fleshed out character. While you understand what was happening, it seemed that the Yuta and Toge section happened a little bit too fast. I also wish that Yuta and Panda had their own section, but I can understand why they couldn’t.

The movie was an amazing experience and prequel to the “Jujutsu Kaisen” brand. After watching, a second season to the show is most definitely expected. Both the anime and manga fans would be looking forward to it. The movie gets a 9/10 from me.