REVIEW: ‘Jujutsu Kaisen: Hidden Inventory / Premature Death – The Movie’ Earns Its Victory Lap

No matter the lengths that MAPPA goes to, there will be no surpassing Jujutsu Kaisen: Hidden Inventory / Premature Death. The same can be said for its theatrical release, which is now accompanied by the “The Movie” tag. Based on the manga series from writer and illustrator Gege Akutami, this is, without question, the series’ peak. For all of its spellbinding spectacle, there’s no emotional equivalent in the series to the story of the doomed friendship between Satoru Gojo (Yūichi Nakamura) and Suguru Geto (Takahiro Sakurai) and the youth that’s viciously ripped from them. 

In many ways, the beginning of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 was the beginning of the end. First, there’s the obvious. Throughout the Hidden Inventory and Premature Death arc, we learn about Gojo and Geto’s backstory and how they ended up on opposing sides. In that opposition came a domino effect that caused ripples through the modern story, where Gojo would once more stand off against, at least, the visage of his old friend. And, in that stalled standoff, he set off even greater doom for his students and coworkers, including the protagonist, Yuji Itadori. 

It also signifies the end in a more ephemeral, emotional sense. Gojo and Geto are doomed by the narrative, destined to become adversaries. Yet the original storyline, and now Jujutsu Kaisen: Hidden Inventory / Premature Death – The Movie, beautifully depicts their dynamic and how close they are. And, how, ultimately, the longevity of their companionship was always out of reach. Because the moment Gojo ascends is the moment Geto plummets, both affected by their mission to protect Riko Amanai (Anna Nagase). 

A curtain call on the springtime of their youth. And it’s devastating. 

But, perhaps most crucially, the arc and, now, Jujutsu Kaisen: Hidden Inventory / Premature Death – The Movie signifies the end of the best days of JJK. While we’re invested in Yuji’s story and there are certain supporting characters we care about, none of them compare to the magic of these two mini-arcs, both of which pack such explosive, potent, emotional urgency that the story sticks to us like glue, even throughout the high-strung misery of the Shibuya Incident. 

Despite some refreshed animation and transition shots that help blend the film together, making the stitching less evident, the storyline remains the same. Jujutsu Kaisen: Hidden Inventory / Premature Death – The Movie follows sorcerers Gojo and Geto, still students, as they’re tasked with protecting Riko, a student who has been designated to be sacrificed, seen as the new Star Plasma Vessel, targeted for assassination by many Curse Users. 

Adding to the deep and overwhelming sense of mournful melancholy, Riko is also a doomed character. While she begins as a girl who puts on a brave face, welcoming her role as the new vessel for the powerful Tengen – an immortal Jujutsu Sorcerer who reinforces the barriers in place protecting both Jujutsu High locations – she, in the end, reveals her vulnerability. She wants what should be a given. The simplicity of living life. To outgrow adolescence and explore the world and the many opportunities that life offers us. 

Riko is doomed in Jujutsu Kaisen: Hidden Inventory / Premature Death – The Movie.

As many fans are aware by now, this doesn’t come to pass. What makes the film so interesting, and ultimately heartbreaking, is the crossroads this moment presents for Gojo and Geto. Gojo is at his most inhuman, in touch with a godlike stature, ready to kill those who may applaud Riko’s death. Meanwhile, it sees Geto at his most vulnerable and empathetic, prepared to risk it all for a teen girl who wants nothing more than another tomorrow. 

The writing is never stronger than it is in Hidden Inventory / Premature Death. It earns the emotional moments because we truly invest in Gojo and Geto’s story. And, in just under two hours, the series does more for their friendship and the effect the two have on one another than an entire two seasons do for the relationships at the core of the modern storyline.

Through the expressive voice acting, the minute character animation details (look for Gojo’s enraged eye twitch when he learns of Geto’s most heinous acts), to the playful direction that shows them occupying the other’s space, the story bottles spirited youthfulness before letting the glass shatter. Directed by Shouta Goshozono (Ranking of Kings, Chainsaw Man), the film hones in on that cataclysmic beauty that the story gracefully deals with, presenting us with an unmissable tragedy that damns the rest of the series. 

The visual spectacle helps us deal with our grief. 

Towards the pivotal midpoint of the film, Geto delivers a heart-wrenching line to the suddenly hopeful Riko: “We will guarantee your future.” In this case, it’s not so much the line of an optimist but of the naive. But it speaks to the series as a whole because, despite not traversing the same path, we’ll watch as both Gojo and Geto do their best to ensure that promise is met. Through the two girls whom Geto saves and takes under his wing, to Gojo finding Megumi after his fight with Toji, and, later, his belief in protecting Jujutsu students, they try to find ways to rectify they’re shared, major failure. 

Jujutsu Kaisen: Hidden Inventory / Premature Death – The Movie, more than anything, is about the loss of innocence. The loss of the belief that, with your best friend by your side, everything will, ultimately, be okay. Because, just for a moment, Gojo and Geto believe they can take on an immortal being, all because a girl changes her mind on a centuries-old belief system. 

Unsurprisingly, the film is visually stunning. Enamored with a cross between hyper-detailed shots and the languid physicality of its characters, this work of contrasts manifests into a jaw-dropping spectacle. What’s most impressive is that it isn’t even the fight sequences that leave the biggest impact.

Yes, Gojo and Toji’s final fight is spectacular, both in its development of Gojo’s character and in the animation. However, the animation of Gojo showcasing his newfound skills by twirling a pencil between nimble fingers, or the haunting imagery of Geto’s slow march towards depression and isolation, is just as effective. 

The movie makes sure to highlight the brilliant work by Tatsuya Kitani.

The textured details, combined with the sheer spectacle, create something entirely immersive. This is why we watch shows like Jujutsu Kaisen – to be transported. And what makes Jujutsu Kaisen: Hidden Inventory / Premature Death – The Movie so precise in its ability to wound is how it builds up these heightened emotions only to tear at them. We care so deeply for the two protagonists that, by the time they split, standing off against one another in a busy Shinjuku street, the inevitability doesn’t matter. It just hurts. 

The animation also has fun with this conflict. The moment they reach their crossroads, the scene splits the two into different shades – Gojo is a glaring red, and Geto is swarmed in blue. A blue that’s come to represent their youth and the days spent with Riko as she sought the boundless possibilities of a life unburdened by sacrifice and expectation. 

But, more than anything, it ties to a particular part of what makes these arcs so impactful. And that’s the first OP of Season 2, “Ao no Sumika” or “House of Blue” by singer-songwriter Tatsuya Kitani. No OP in recent memory has done so much for a series as Kitani’s does. From the moment it begins, both in the series and the film, we instantly succumb to that sense of lost youth, mournful nostalgia, and that very specific sensation of a time that will never be reclaimed. Of an eternity they never got to experience. 

While Jujutsu Kaisen, as a whole, deals in misery, it’s the story of these two figures and their left-behind hopes and desires that becomes the crux on which the series hinges. 

Jujutsu Kaisen: Hidden Inventory / Premature Death – The Movie enhances its biggest strengths and overlooks its weaknesses. 

There’s a lot that frustrates me about Jujutsu Kaisen. From its inarticulate rules about power to the convoluted world-building and a shallow emotional attachment, at its worst, it serves as a hype machine buoyed by overworked animators who produce genuinely showstopping set pieces. But when it gets it right, as it does in Jujutsu Kaisen: Hidden Inventory / Premature Death – The Movie, it earns all of its many praises and more. 

The film dooms the series just as it dooms its protagonists. It’s simply too good with such lovable characters whose plights we feel for as they struggle to find themselves and, in Geto’s case, lose themselves to their innermost demons. 

Jujutsu Kaisen: Hidden Inventory / Premature Death – The Movie stuns. With its heartbreaking story at the center and the shadow cast by the story’s inevitable, inescapable sense of grief, it proves what fans already knew about the two arcs. They were already shot with a cinematic intent, ready to burrow their way under our skin and transfix us. Now we just get to see it on a bigger screen with a bigger gut punch of an ending. 

Jujutsu Kaisen: Hidden Inventory / Premature Death – The Movie is out in theaters July 16-17.