At the post-shutdown box office, some profitable trends have calcified that indicate a new movie will make good money: being a movie starring Tom Holland, being the batman or an equally big superhero property, or being an anime movie from an existing mega-popular series. The first instance of the latter emerged in October 2020 when Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba — The Movie: Mugen Train opened in Japan. In six weeks, it became the highest-grossing film in the country, surpassing made to disappear, Titanic, Frozenand Your name. It landed in the United States in April 2021, when theaters were just opening their doors again, opening at #1 at the box office and eventually grossing nearly $50 million during its run. Now, another new anime film expanding into a massive new series aims to replicate that success by drawing fans in search of a cheerful, white-haired, blue-eyed sorcerer named Gojo Satoru who can alter the fabric of space-time by crossing his fingers.
Jujutsu Kaisen 0a shounen prequel jujutsu kaisen, which began airing in late 2019 with one of the best ending credits in television history, hit North American theaters on Friday. It earned a respectable $17.7 million, second only to the batmanCatching the third week of almost $37 million. While that difference may seem abysmal, consider this: JJK0 beat the next most profitable opening, Ti West’s wild horror flick X, for over $13 million despite playing in fewer theaters and without a fan-favorite distributor (A24) behind it. Instead, it specifically caters to fans who have been dying to see more of the anime about high school students battling curses since its first season ended a year ago.
And for the people who have seen jujutsu kaisen, JJK0 itchy scratches by adapting a fan-favorite manga arc set in the year before the events of the main series and brings the two to a close in a brief post-credits scene that establishes that we shouldn’t be surprised to see a new character which appears in season 2 (due out in 2023). But for those who were swept along as a snap without knowing any of the context, this movie would probably be unnerving, throwing just about every character in the series onto the screen at some point with no introduction. If you’re in a seat, you’re expected to have an intimate familiarity with the ensemble of sorcerer instructors and older students who surround the series’ pink-haired protagonist, Itadori Yuji, on his quest to eat the world’s 20 petrified body fingers. most powerful curse, Sukuna.
But again, JJK0 it has nothing to do with Yuji and his new classmates, the incredibly cool Nobara Kugisaki and the aloof Megumi Fushiguro. In the year before he arrives at Tokyo Metropolitan Magic Technical College, Gojo takes in a different special boy: Okkustu Yuta, a kind of sad sack cursed by his childhood sweetheart, Orimoto Rika, who faces a giant, monstrous and terrifying. he is called the Queen of Curses when Yuta is in trouble, brutally murdering four thugs at the beginning of the film. With the help of the series’ second-year students: Inumaki Toge, who mumbles nonsense words in everyday conversations due to his cursed speech power; Maki Zen-in, who comes from a famous family of jujutsu sorcerers and has one of the series’ standout episodes breaking shōnen conventions; and Panda, literally an anthropomorphic panda made by a ritual called Cursed Corpse Mutation: Yuta must learn to control Rika so she won’t be captured by everyone. jujutsu kaisenThe big bad, Geto Suguru, a former friend of Gojo’s and a megalomaniac intent on killing all non-sorcerers.
Develop Geto and Gojo’s clearly charged backstory, though the reason why is more ambiguous in the series, in JJK0 is one of its most rewarding hallmarks, but the main draws here are the grand melee combat in all its MAPPA-animated architectural splendor, especially during the final showdown between Yuta and Geto as the Rolodex of jujutsu sorcerers removes the 1,000 curses that Geto has been unleashed throughout Japan. Considering the series, it’s not really a spoiler to say the good guys win, but the explosive battle rebuilds the stakes of the previous 24 episodes, which often found time to laugh out loud when Yuji walks into his own. power as Sukuna’s vessel between frighteningly terrible fights with super harsh curses (at least one of which Evil fans will recognize in the Jogo with a volcano head). With Geto plotting his big comeback, those who have seen JJK0 at least he will know that Yuji, Gojo and company. have help along the way, amassing the power of a giant curse with many sharp teeth.