The Big Picture
Jujutsu Kaisen is a smash-hit anime series that revolves around the life of Itadori Yuji (Junya Enoki), a normal kid that gets pulled into the world of curses and jujutsu sorcerers. The series follows his trials in trying to reassemble the disparate parts of the insanely powerful curse called Sukuna so that it might finally be destroyed once and for all. All while Itadori and his schoolmates try to defend themselves from the increasingly powerful curses and ill-intentioned, excommunicated sorcerers. The new film Jujutsu Kaisen 0, however, has nothing to do with Itadori. In fact, the film takes place a year before Itadori even begins to become involved with the supernatural. Instead, we follow Yuta Okkotsu (Megumi Ogata), a 16-year-old with a powerful curse attached to him. The curse lashes out at anyone who means to do harm to Yuta, and we later learn this is because the curse was formed from the remains of his childhood best friend/sweetheart, Rika Orimoto, after she was violently killed in a traffic accident. So where was Yuta during the first season of the anime show? You might have missed it, but they do mention the character briefly. First, though, let’s take a closer look at our new protagonist.
A boy swallows a cursed talisman – the finger of a demon – and becomes cursed himself. He enters a shaman’s school to be able to locate the demon’s other body parts and thus exorcise himself.
Release Date October 2, 2020
Cast Junya Enoki, Yuichi Nakamura, Yuma Uchida, Asami Seto, Robbie Daymond
Genres Animation, Action, Adventure
Rating TV-14
Yuta Looks To Free Himself of Rika’s Curse in ‘Jujutsu Kaisen 0’
The film starts with Yuta being offered admission to Jujutsu High by familiar face Gojo Satoru (Yuiji Nakamura). And from there, Yuta, along with his fellow first years Maki Zenin (Mikako Komatsu), Toge Inumaki (Kōki Uchiyama), and Panda (Tomokazu Seki) (all familiar faces from season 1, just a bit younger), train to get strong enough to take on curses of their own. Yuta hopes to become strong enough to free both himself and Rika from the bond that has tethered them together for years. Her power has always been tremendous and has hurt people against Yuta’s will, his hope is to dissolve the curse not just for their own sakes but to protect others as well.
All of this is occurring while we also get more backstory on a character frequently seen but rarely elaborated on in Season 1 of the anime, Suguru Geto (Takahiro Sakurai). His ability allows him to manipulate cursed spirits. By defeating and consuming them, he can manipulate their power to his own will and use the curses as he wishes. With a curse as powerful as Rika out there, he wants nothing more than to take that power for his own and use it to further his agenda. He hopes to invoke a new evolution of humanity through jujustsu sorcery. Much like Magneto with the mutants, Suguru views curses and sorcerers as the sort of next evolution for humanity. And he wants to provoke that evolution by invoking a trial through fire. Humanity will evolve or die by his hand, and he wants to use Yuta to gain Rika’s power for his arsenal.
After many trials, tribulations, and attempts on his life, Yuta is able to exorcise Rika and give them both peace, at least in this one regard. His school faced the wrath of Suguru Geto’s most powerful attack but the students and teachers are for the most part still standing. However, as it’s a prequel story, we are all keenly aware that this is only the beginning and there will be much more difficult battles ahead — not just for Yuta but for the characters we know will soon be thrust into this world like Itadori. Fans of the anime series will of course be aware of the fact that Yuta Okkotsu, despite being the center of this prequel, is noticeably absent from the first season of the anime. But why is that?
Yuta Is Briefly Mentioned In ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’ Season 1
There’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it exchange when the second years introduce themselves in Season 1 wherein Megumi explains that “There’s one more, Okkotsu-senpai, who’s the only one I can openly respect, but he’s overseas right now” and that’s that. He gets a few offhand mentions but nothing enough to illuminate why he’s abroad or just how important he is. But all of these were hardly remarkable on the first watch-through when few of us were even aware of Yuta’s true significance yet, like one exchange from Gojo Satoru wherein he compares Itadori’s potential to Yuta’s but without the context of knowing who he was, it barely registered. We don’t get explicitly told why Yuta is abroad but by examining his curse techniques and context clues, we can extrapolate that it’s kind of a Jujutsu High version of studying abroad. Yuta’s technique involves him copying the techniques of others as well as having an abundance of cursed energy left under his control from Rika. Thus, we can extrapolate that he was refining these skills and gaining more techniques (which is corroborated by his display of power when he returns in the manga).
While the details of his trip are incomplete, one thing is for certain: Yuta will come back incredibly powerful. His return is on the horizon and likely to occur in an upcoming season of the anime. With him, we will likely be seeing much more of the main villain of Jujutsu Kaisen 0, Suguru Geto, as well. Yuta Okkotsu’s possible return in the second season of the show is sure to signal some major changes for Itadori and the others going forward.
Jujutsu Kaisen is currently airing weekly on Thursdays on Crunchyroll in the U.S.
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