Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution is a movie of two parts: the first half is a poorly stitched recap of the events in Jujutsu Kaisen’s second season; the second half are the first two episodes of the show’s third season. Both contain ample blood, dismemberment and death, partnered with demon-like “Cursed Spirits” wreaking havoc on Tokyo.
It was only a matter of time before the bomb went off.
The bomb in question? Yuji Itadori. Long story short, in an effort to protect his school friends from monsters, Yuji ate the dismembered, cursed finger of Sukuna—the King of Curses—and unwittingly became the Cursed Spirit’s vessel.
Well, the leaders of Jujutsu Society—those with the ability to harness humanity’s latent Cursed Energy to fight Cursed Spirits (as I said, long story)—didn’t appreciate Yuji’s actions. After all, Sukuna is the worst entity around; and now that he’s got a vessel, it’s only a matter of time before he uses Yuji’s body to enact destruction upon the world. The easiest way to prevent that? A good ol’ execution, which would prevent Sukuna from using Yuji’s body.
But Gojo, considered the most powerful jujutsu sorcerer among their society, stays the Jujutsu Society’s hand. He reminds them that killing Yuji now wouldn’t fully stop Sukuna: Since the entity has another 19 cursed fingers still out there, any other sorry sap could eat one and unwittingly become Sukuna’s vessel, too. Instead, Gojo convinces the leaders to delay Yuji’s execution until they’ve found and fed him the other 19 fingers first. In other words, Gojo wants to trap the whole of Sukuna’s essence inside one single vessel—and in breaking that vessel, they’ll break Sukuna, too.
That was the plan, anyway. Gojo took Yuji under his wing and taught him how to become a jujutsu sorcerer. For a time, Yuji and others went out and defeated Cursed Spirits.
But then an ancient evil sorcerer decided to launch his own plan: He captured Gojo, locking him inside a cursed object. And with the most powerful sorcerer out of the way, he unleashed Cursed Spirits on Japan’s Shibuya in a horrific attack.
The attack resulted in the deaths of many and Yuji’s capture. Hoping Sukuna will side with them, the attackers feed Yuji 10 of Sukuna’s fingers—allowing Sukuna to overpower Yuji and take brief control of the man’s body.
Tick. Tick. Tick. Boom.
Sukuna uses the time to utterly destroy Shibuya—as well as any Cursed Spirit, human or animal who got caught in the crossfire. Yuji awakens to see a crater where the once-bustling ward lay.
The Jujutsu leaders take the incident as proof that Gojo’s plan was too dangerous. They demand Yuji’s execution immediately—and they send another one of Gojo’s students, Yuta Okkotsu, to do the job.
And just like that, it seems everyone, both Cursed Spirit and not, wants Yuji dead.
One character, Choso, believes that it is his duty as an older brother to ensure his younger brothers are protected. Choso explains that if he goes down a bad path, he can use his experiences to discourage his brothers from following in his footsteps; but if he goes down a good path, he can likewise encourage them to come with him. He wants to be the first into the unknown to make sure it’s safe for his kin.
Someone says that it’s Yuji’s nature to protect others, no matter what. Plenty of humans sacrifice their lives to defeat the Cursed Spirits.
If you’re reading this review, chances are you’ve already seen a bit of Jujutsu Kaisen, the animated TV show, since this movie covers events from Season 2 and a little of the upcoming third season. But if not, here’s the spiritual rundown:
In the lore, all humans emit “Cursed Energy” throughout their lives, spiritual energy which comes as a result of negative emotions. Eventually, this energy coalesces into Cursed Spirits, creatures who embody those negative emotions and can perform attacks based around those feelings. (For instance, one Cursed Spirit is the embodiment of humanity’s fear of volcanoes and shoots flames at his enemies.)
While most humans cannot control this energy, Jujutsu sorcerers can, harnessing their own Cursed Energy into unique, innate attacks. This energy likewise can inhabit tools, imbuing them with special properties.
We’re told that Sukuna’s soul is fragmented, with one piece in each of his 20 fingers—which is why executing Yuji after he consumes all 20 fingers would theoretically destroy all of Sukuna, too. Cursed Spirits also have souls, according to some dialogue.
One Cursed Spirit can manipulate the souls of those he touches, which in turn causes the victim’s body to contort or explode.
Someone claims that trying to find meaning in a person’s death can dishonor that person. One sorcerer, Yuka, is haunted by the ghost of a long-dead childhood friend, who protects him in various situations.
A man comments what he thinks about a woman’s breasts. A muscular man fights shirtless. We see a flash of women in bikinis. A woman asks someone what type of women he is into. Someone asks a man if he’s having trouble with women.
The first half of the movie summarizes the epic Shibuya battle, which took place over much of the show’s second season. As such, we see a whole lot of violence and death:
A Cursed Spirit uses his power to obliterate others, distorting his victims’ bodies in graphic style. In one case, his mere touch causes a man’s top half to explode into chunks, leaving only the lower half behind. Another attack blows the side of a woman’s face apart. A man, realizing his hand is about to suffer a similar fate, opts to chop it off to prevent greater damage; we later see him clap his hand on his bloody stump to reactivate his power.
Someone pops off the crown of his head to reveal that he’s actually a brain with teeth that’s controlling a corpse.
Humans cut through plenty of Cursed Spirits, turning them to goop. Some humans attack each other, leaving each other bleeding. Someone gets stabbed in the chest. Yuki gets stabbed through the hand. A variety of Spirits and humans alike showcase devastating superpowered attacks.
We see plenty of innocent men and women turned into splashes of blood as superpowered people fight past them. Buildings collapse. One power causes fire to obliterate all of Shibuya in a moment.
Note: We reviewed this film in its original Japanese with English subtitles.
There are four uses of the s-word, as well as uses of “h—, “b–tard,” “tits” and “d–n.”
None.
None.
Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution is made for fans of the anime who just can’t wait for the third season to come out.
And to be honest, I hope they like it. Because when I watched the movie, it seemed like a sloppy cash grab.
Half of Execution is dedicated to events fans of the show have already seen before. It summarizes the bloody, gruesome events of the show’s Shibuya Arc, the battle where plenty of Cursed Spirits and humans alike met grisly ends. The biggest moments within that arc are stitched together what I can best describe as “tonal whiplash.”
The other half of the film offers the first two episodes of the upcoming third season, which continue that violent streak and set up future events from the manga.
Worth the watch? If you aren’t a fan of the show, you’ll have no idea what’s going on—and there’s a lot of content to wade through besides. And if you are a fan, well, content concerns aside, it might be better to just save your money and wait for the show to release in full.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He’s also an avid cook. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
