JUJUTSU KAISEN: Hidden Inventory/Premature Death – The Movie cinematically compiles the story arc of Season 2 of the JUJUTSU KAISEN anime series. It depicts a world full of dark spirits, spirit users and sorcerers. There are some beautiful moments, but plenty of gory animation and explosive battles, too. The movie is presented in Japanese with subtitles, and its language is sometimes coarse.
Back in their simpler high school days, Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto were good friends.
I mean, yes, they were still gifted sorcerers in a world swirling with curses and curse spirits. But back then, they fought twisted evil together. They would use their special spirit-summoning powers and reality-torquing techniques in tandem to vanquish foul things in the world.
That devoted comradery was about to be challenged, however. All because of a young innocent teen girl named Riko Amanai. The friends had been assigned the duty of protecting this girl. She was destined, you see, to be the Star Plasma Vessel, an individual deemed vital to an immortal sorcerer.
However, there were forces that wanted her dead, for selfish reasons of their own. And assassins—curse users and other superhuman killers—were everywhere.
Now that alone wouldn’t shake the powerful friends, Gojo and Geto were very confident of their abilities. But what was about to unfold would shake their beliefs, the things they held as true. Suguru Geto, for instance, had always stood upon the certainty that sorcerers should be devoted to protecting non-sorcerers—those regular people who were unaware of the curses and dark creatures all around them. The non-sorcerers were the vulnerable ones.
But one particular vulnerable innocent, the sweet Riko Amanai, will be instrumental in challenging Geto’s certitude. Her living or dying could lead to a major shift in this powerful sorcerer’s perspective.
And that will change everything.
The world of JUJUTSU KAISEN is a starkly divided place of good and evil. And we see several sorcerers use their powers to battle against the dark side of that spiritual equation. (That doesn’t mean that they’re all great people, but they do have a desire to protect those whom they see as innocent.)
It’s also obvious that Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto are solid friends who care deeply for one another. Even after one of them does something terrible, the other finds it impossible to strike his friend down.
We find out that Riko Amanai’s parents were both killed; since then she has been cared for and protected by an older maid named Kuroi. At one point they must part for the last time and the two embrace, tearfully voicing their love for one another.
Satoru Gojo meets a former foe’s son and decides to save the boy from being sold off to a foul clan.
The spiritual foundation of JUJUTSU KAISEN is based on curses. Cursed energy is essentially comprised of negative emotions, such as fear, hatred and guilt, which leak out of humans. And cursed spirits are the physical manifestations of that collective negative emotional energy. They’re typically invisible to non-sorcerers.
That also leads to curse users, who are able to manipulate those creatures and their powers to their own ends. Toji Fushiguro, for instance is a curse user who possesses immense physical strength and speed; he uses a curse spirit that can swallow and regurgitate anything—from a human body to an arsenal of cursed weapons.
Riko Amanai is somehow designated as the Star Plasma Vessel, an individual who must be “assimilated” by an incredibly powerful sorcerer named Master Tengen. That merger is deemed essential to keep Tengen from evolving into an all-powerful deity who might destroy mankind.
On the other hand, the Star Religious Group (also called the Time Vessel Association) worships Master Tengen. Its members want Riko Amani killed, because they believe her merger with Master Tengen would pollute his purity.
JUJUTSU KAISEN has been described as a modern-day Buddhist parable, since the series explores concepts such as enlightenment and impermanence as well as the nature of suffering, birth, death and rebirth. In this film’s case, for instance, we see a badly wounded Satoru Gojo, who was thought dead, rebounding in a spiritually euphoric moment of “enlightenment” that opens him up to receiving new powers.
There’s a quick image of Riko Amanai lying in a milky bath (key areas covered). And one female sorcerer is fully clothed but very buxom.
Geto uses a large, bulbous curse spirit to hold a killer suspended. The creature licks the thug and says, “Let’s kiss.”
When Satoru Gojo enters a middle school classroom, the gathered girls there gush over his attractiveness. The teacher approaches and secretly tries to give him her phone number, noting that teachers don’t often get a chance to meet young men.
An attractive sorcerer asks Suguru Geto what his “type” is in a flirtatious way. We see a man standing naked in a shower from a distance. His back is to us.
Various battles feature characters with superhuman speed, strength and spiritual abilities. There are also a wide variety of curse spirits in the flesh-rending mix here as well.
The opening scene, for instance, showcases a ghoulish-looking creature that’s gorily devouring the flesh of a fallen human victim in a deserted alleyway. A sorcerer then magically transforms that curse into a ball and eats it, saying that it tastes like “swallowing a dirty rag used to clean up sh– and vomit.”
Explosive scenes involve massive attacking beasts and slashing weapons. Men get hacked at and impaled by large blades, resulting in gushing blood and spattered gore. Several victims are left splayed open with large wounds while lying in their own bloody pool. A man greets a large room full of non-sorcerer humans and demands their allegiance. Some of them object, and the next scene we see is covered and smeared with the opposers’ blood.
A young girl gets shot in the head, and the camera watches in slow motion as she falls to the ground with a gushing wound. A powerful combatant is hit with a blast of energy that rips a massive hole in his torso, obliterating his left arm. In shock, he reaches over to the open, gore-dripping wound. A number of hand-to-hand battles feature bloody hits to the face and broken, dislodged teeth flying. Someone is hit in the crotch with a broom.
Someone spares two small girls and then kills a village full of screaming villagers (offscreen).
The dialogue is in Japanese with English subtitles. Accordingly, we see the subtitled profanities “bull–it,” “d–n,” “b–tard,” “h—” and “jeez” several times each.
Several characters smoke occasionally. One waiting character sports an ash tray full of cigarette butts.
Someone vomits up a small curse spirit he was hiding in his stomach.
JUJUTSU KAISEN: Hidden Inventory/Premature Death – The Movie is a huge mouthful of a title, even in Japanese. It’s also an anime film designed exclusively for people who already know the anime series pretty well and who simply want the joy of seeing and hearing it in a theater.
The film is pulled directly from the second season of the JUJUTSU KAISEN series. It lays out, in a flashback story arc, the early, high school relationship between Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto. These powered-up young sorcerers were once great friends. And this movie details how they went from devoted, curse spirit-destroying besties to, well, archenemies. (Think X-Men’s Professor X and Magneto.)
And if it’s not clear already, JUJUTSU KAISEN is populated by curses, spirits, and sorcerers who wield immense powers. Oh, and myriad nameless human masses generally end up as messy pulp in between.
In a theatrical setting, this anime film is sometimes artistically beautiful to behold. It’s joltingly emotional in spots. And it’s gushingly bloody and gore covered. You’ll also encounter some Eastern religious nods, as well foul language delivered in Japanese with English captions.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
