Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution - A Frankenstein of Anime Film Format
The latest theatrical compilation/season 3 preview spectacular for Jujutsu Kaisen, titled "Execution," promises an emotionally charged experience. However, upon witnessing 16-year-old Yuji Itadori curled up in anguish over the thousands of lives lost at the hands of the ancient demon that possessed him, it becomes clear that this is a hero on the brink of collapse.
Yuji's emotional turmoil sets the tone for the film, but unfortunately, the execution (pun intended) falls short. The compilation reduces the series' strengths - its relentless and varnished fight scenes - to a supercut, stripping away context, buildup, and spatial awareness. The result feels vapid: forty minutes of condensed highlights without the narrative backbone to support them.
The first half plays like a recap, framing Itadori's guilt and suffering but only gestures at emotion without real weight. The second half shifts into preview mode for Season 3, emphasizing more fights and exposition. Yet after so many battles, the spectacle becomes exhausting, while the dense explanations often delivered in exhaustive internal and external monologues fail to onboard viewers or clarify the convoluted power system at the heart of Jujutsu Kaisen.
The fight scene between Yuji and Yuta Okkotsu, the protagonist of Jujutsu Kaisen 0, is a highlight. Typically stunning with aura farming, hype moments, and flashy choreography, it feels less like grand drama and more like watching a kid do a flip on a trampoline due to the exhaustion from tracking nonstop action.
The introduction of The Culling Game arc is hilariously presented with paragraphs of text plastered across the sky explaining rules at a speed no human eye could read. By then, viewers' eyes have already been exhausted from tracking the compressed action to even parse what they're supposed to be hyped about. The result is a vapid spectacle: undeniably pretty but ultimately a mess.
Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution feels like a last straw for this kind of anime release, suggesting that studios should move away from bringing stitched-together compilations with new content to entice fans to theaters and instead focus on full arcs presented as complete films. While visually impressive, it is narratively hollow, pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle that never quite fits.
Ultimately, Execution is not worth the time, even for die-hard Jujutsu Kaisen fans.
The latest theatrical compilation/season 3 preview spectacular for Jujutsu Kaisen, titled "Execution," promises an emotionally charged experience. However, upon witnessing 16-year-old Yuji Itadori curled up in anguish over the thousands of lives lost at the hands of the ancient demon that possessed him, it becomes clear that this is a hero on the brink of collapse.
Yuji's emotional turmoil sets the tone for the film, but unfortunately, the execution (pun intended) falls short. The compilation reduces the series' strengths - its relentless and varnished fight scenes - to a supercut, stripping away context, buildup, and spatial awareness. The result feels vapid: forty minutes of condensed highlights without the narrative backbone to support them.
The first half plays like a recap, framing Itadori's guilt and suffering but only gestures at emotion without real weight. The second half shifts into preview mode for Season 3, emphasizing more fights and exposition. Yet after so many battles, the spectacle becomes exhausting, while the dense explanations often delivered in exhaustive internal and external monologues fail to onboard viewers or clarify the convoluted power system at the heart of Jujutsu Kaisen.
The fight scene between Yuji and Yuta Okkotsu, the protagonist of Jujutsu Kaisen 0, is a highlight. Typically stunning with aura farming, hype moments, and flashy choreography, it feels less like grand drama and more like watching a kid do a flip on a trampoline due to the exhaustion from tracking nonstop action.
The introduction of The Culling Game arc is hilariously presented with paragraphs of text plastered across the sky explaining rules at a speed no human eye could read. By then, viewers' eyes have already been exhausted from tracking the compressed action to even parse what they're supposed to be hyped about. The result is a vapid spectacle: undeniably pretty but ultimately a mess.
Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution feels like a last straw for this kind of anime release, suggesting that studios should move away from bringing stitched-together compilations with new content to entice fans to theaters and instead focus on full arcs presented as complete films. While visually impressive, it is narratively hollow, pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle that never quite fits.
Ultimately, Execution is not worth the time, even for die-hard Jujutsu Kaisen fans.