Author: Ruth

Jujutsu Kaisen 0: Jujutsu High follows  Yuta Okkotsu, a dangerous and powerfully unstable curse user who is unaware of the world of Jujutu sorcerers until he is taken under the wing of another powerful curse user: Satoru Gojo. Yuta, along with the rest of his class at Jujutsu High (a school for Jujutsu sorcerers), learn and grow together, forming bonds of trust and friendship that are put to the test by evil curses and curse users that strive to gain the power Yuta holds.

As underwhelming as the title may be, Jujutsu Kaisen 0: Jujutsu High was a welcome addition to the world of curse fighting, power wielding sorcerers that is Jujutsu Kaisen.  The movie itself takes place a year before the Jujutsu Kaisen anime begins. This allows audiences that haven’t watched the anime to still be able to enjoy and understand the film. And those who are familiar with the anime are gifted with brief appearances of beloved characters from the anime such as Nanami, to give an example.

I personally loved seeing another side of Jujutsu Kaisen brought to life on screen. A personal favorite character of mine from the series is Inumaki Toge, and because he is Yuta’s classmate I was able to see him shine on screen! Something Jujutsu Kaisen does spectacularly well is create depth within every character we are introduced to. The audience is able to learn so much about characters in an entertaining way rather than through tedious expositions.

Another aspect that makes Jujutsu Kaisen so enjoyable on the whole is the humor. Because it is a darker anime filled with blood, gore, and heartache, Jujutsu Kaisen balances itself hilarious character personalities as well as spontaneous moments that cause frequent moments of laughter for the audience. 

I personally am not the biggest fan of darker anime, but Jujutsu Kaisen balances itself so well that I couldn’t help but fall in love.

I would recommend Jujutsu Kaisen 0:Jujutsu High to anyone who would like to dip their toes into a darker anime. If you haven’t seen the anime or watched the manga, Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is a time effective way to see whether you’d be interested in delving deeper. For those of you who have watched the anime and read the manga, it’s nice to see Yuta brough to life on screen!

I completely and utterly adored Belle.

Now, I must say that I’m biased towards animated films, but Belle managed to make me cry. Any movie that brings forward emotion like that must  be doing something right. That being said, I agree with my fellow blogger Himaja’s comment about the story of this film being a “big bowl of confusion soup”.

Because this story deals with very heavy topics such as loss and abuse, there are multiple moments of necessary flashback instances where the audience is given the opportunity to better understand what certain characters were going through and how these moments impacted and reshaped them into the individuals they are today. Though the flashbacks are important, I felt their placement in the film didn’t make much sense. There wasn’t a fluid transition between the present and past. One moment I was watching the main character Suzu walking home from school and the next moment I was watching her younger self crying in the rain. It was a confusing part of the movie that had me questioning for a moment what was actually going on.

Another side effect of this movie dealing with heavy, serious topics was the need for comic relief. There were a couple of characters that served this purpose (one of whom wears a particularly gorgeous pair of orange crocs. It’s an important side note I thought you should be aware of). These characters are well written and very loveable. However, they hardly appear in the film. When they do appear, it’s almost as an afterthought, as though the scene was pushed into the story.

All that being said, the film was still phenomenal in my opinion. The animation was gorgeous, especially the virtual world of  U that Suzu becomes a part of (fun fact, U was actually designed by  an architect by the name of Eric Wong). 

The music was powerful, very well written, and tugged at my heartstrings. If you’re curious about the soundtrack, I would definitely recommend listening to Gales of Song. Both the original Japanese soundtrack and the English dubbed soundtrack are beautiful.

I think the most important thing a movie can do is send out a message of love, comfort, and friendship to an audience. And Belle did achieve that. The movie allowed you to connect with the characters and I believe everyone can see a little of themselves reflected in Suzu’s eyes. Yes, the plot was a little convoluted, but I think the most important thing is that everyone left the theater feeling a little more joyful than when they first entered.

I would definitely recommend watching the film!

I have to say, I was disappointed by My Hero Academia’s latest plunge into the film industry. My hopes were especially high for the film after recently re-watching the second installment: My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising. That was a film that truly amazed. The quality of animation and the intensity of the battles between our beloved characters and the hated villains was on a level of mastery that I hadn’t seen before in an anime film. Besides that, the development of character relationship between Deku and Bakugo ( which are two of the most prominent characters of the anime series if you aren’t familiar) brought an immense amount of satisfaction.

I had expected for that character relationship  growth to continue in World Heroes’ Mission. However, this wasn’t the case. In fact, I’d say that Bakugo’s character might even have regressed, though that might have been due to how little screen time he had during the film. Nevertheless, Bakugo’s dialogue mostly consisted of variations of the phrases “shut up” and “don’t tell me what to do”, which is fine I suppose. It does align with his character, but I couldn’t help but want more. Bakugo has evolved so much over time that his character deserves better than to be handed irritated one liners for the majority of the film.  Though again, there’s only so much to be done when the majority of the plot doesn’t revolve around him.

What the plot does revolve around is the budding relationship between Deku and a new character named  Rody Soul as they make their way across the country in an effort to escape both the  local authorities and the villain group known as Humarise; a terrorist group bent on ridding the world of any and all quirk users. Both Deku and Rody slowly get to know one another as they race to save the world. It’s a unique relationship in the fact that Rody is a morally grey character, used to doing whatever he can to survive in order to provide for his two younger siblings. Seeing him challenge Deku’s selfless motives while struggling with his own inner conflicts was very endearing to watch. It was also hilarious to see how Deku responded to Rody’s poor life decisions. In that way, Rody quickly became a favorite of mine. And his quirk  is one of the most unique and utterly adorable abilities that I’ve seen yet.

In fact, I almost forgot how disappointed in the movie I was while watching Deku and Rody grow into fast friends.  But I was quickly reminded of my disappointment when Bakugo and Todoroki rejoined the main plot. It was time for the final fight scenes after all. And yet, the battle sequences fell flat. There was a messiness to them and a lack of climactic build that just seemed to make them drag on and on and on. It was the complete opposite of the emotionally engaging battles that are in Heroes Rising.

Despite that, the film is still worth watching, just for the sake of Rody and Deku’s friendship.

Well, despite the critics attempts to “splat”  Eternals as a movie not worth watching, I have to say that I respectfully disagree with their professional opinion. And as I suspected, most of the audiences that have seen Eternals agree with me. As of now, the audience score on the Rotten Tomatoes review site is at 81%, a stellar percentage rate for any movie.

Granted, Eternals isn’t without its flaws, but they’re largely insignificant in the grand scheme of things. To begin, the story started off a little weak, speckled with subpar acting and action sequences; action sequences that would have been impressive opportunities for the cosmic powered eternals to display their abilities. But the amount of super powered punches and energy blasts it took to take down a couple measly Deviant monsters brought about the impression that the Eternals really weren’t all that powerful. To make matters worse, the eternals seemed to be “showing off” their powers, seemingly self satisfied with their performance despite the fact that some poor child’s father got eaten because they showed up late.

Despite that unfortunate beginning, the movie progressed on very well. Despite such a large cast of characters, there was a surprising amount of time spent developing them as individuals. This was something I was very appreciative of due to the fact that it can be fairly easy for movies with large casts to ignore  the individual development of characters that is needed for the audience to truly care about film and it’s progress. If you don’t care about the characters, it’s hard to care about anything happening on screen. And I definitely cared about these characters. In fact, it’s safe to say that I was close to crying at one point.

I think the strongest aspect of Eternals was the casts chemistry. The relationships and friendships that evolved with these characters were unique and very real to watch. And the diversity that was shown through this film was amazing!

If you haven’t watched the film already, I’d truly advise it! Take the critics reviews with a grain of salt. Eternals might follow certain expected MCU film consistencies (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing by any means), but it also holds a uniqueness all its own.

Also, the after credit scenes caused quite a lot of screaming in the audience, so now you have even more reason to go. But don’t worry! I won’t spoil it for you. No doubt the internet already spoiled it for you.

Well, Eternals is now being dubbed the MCU’s worst rated movie with it’s rotten tomatoes score rating having dropped below 60%. However, I still have hope for the film! In my experience, the audiences opinion usually reflects a different view of the film than the professionals who critique it. And I’m usually one to side with the audience. I’ve absolutely adored films that were hated by the critics. And how can I not be excited for such an amazing diversely casted film? On top of that, one of the  Eternals characters named Makkari is debuting as the MCU’s first deaf superhero!!

If you’re the least bit interested in exploring the lives of ancient beings with incredible powers living on earth in secret, get movie tickets to see Eternals. At the very least, support the films diversity!

I can’t wait to see what MCU Easter eggs lie in store!