Execution’ Is All of the Worst Impulses of the Anime Compilation Movie Format

Once you see 16-year-old Yuji Itadori on the high of GKids’ latest theatrical compilation/season 3 preview spectacular for Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution, what you witness is a hero on the finish of his rope, curled up within the fetal place in a crater the place a metropolis as soon as stood, clawing on the floor till his nails bleed, crying in anguish over the hundreds of lives misplaced, circuitously by his palms, however by the traditional demon who possessed him.

Nonetheless, recalling his grandfather’s dying phrases warning him to not die alone as he did, Yuji hopes to both miraculously save as many lives as he feels answerable for taking or die on the spot. It’s quite a lot of heavy feelings you may really feel the comb of, however not the total brunt, and also you hope the upcoming 90-minute movie will provide you with a spot to place these feelings, clearing away the fog of conflict and revealing what’s beneath the floor.

What’s left is a Frankenstein of the anime movie format, already stripped of its luster. It uniquely exposes the sequence’ weaknesses whereas failing to capitalize on its one common declare to fame: relentless, varnished fights. An infinite onslaught of battles that harm the story, which appears to invent itself because it goes, shortly operating off the rails in direction of any significant course. As an alternative, it throws its hero right into a blender of ache and struggling, solely to hurry by means of one chaotic but convoluted battle after one other.

Under no circumstances is that this any fault solely resting on JJK‘s shoulders. Ever since GKids repopularized theatrical anime preview events, seemingly following within the footsteps of Demon Slayer, the chorus has been that it’s truly a film or simply a compilation of episodes stitched together and carted out to theaters. All of which ended on a clumsy episodic cliffhanger, leaving audiences who ponied up the money to not be a victim of FOMO sitting on their palms for a further week till the present correct releases and will get previous the hump that the movie left them hanging on.

Jujutsu Kaisen, having the additional benefit of not being new to the scene with a full-arc theatrical film under its belt and having its sequence (and other compilation films to fall back on), had the potential to have some extra meat on its bones than these different theatrical three-episode tests. Although Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle and, extra so, Mappa’s just lately launched Chainsaw Man: The Movie—Reze Arc include the additional benefit of being wholly novel as movies, showcasing new developments of their story and being organized within the typical arc of a film (even with their endings leaving room for extra to come back), Execution is unfortunately solely a half measure between these two phenomena. The median of a Venn diagram, the place it makes an attempt to do the legwork, rearranging some occasions to present the presence of a movie, whereas additionally being diminishing returns as each a compilation of the very best hits of the previous and a worthwhile preview of what’s to come back.

Jujutsu Kaisen’s power has all the time been its combat scenes moreso than its grander narrative. Sadly, this compilation movie reduces these battles to a supercut, stripping away context, buildup, and spatial consciousness. The consequence feels vapid—forty minutes of condensed highlights with out the narrative spine to help them.

The primary half performs like a recap, framing Itadori’s guilt and struggling, however solely gestures at emotion with out actual weight. The second half shifts into preview mode for Season 3, emphasizing extra fights and exposition. But after so many battles, the spectacle turns into exhausting, whereas the dense explanations—usually delivered in exhaustive inner and exterior monologues that learn like an inventory of names in a posh math drawback with multi-part questions—fail to onboard viewers or make clear the convoluted energy system on the coronary heart of Jujutsu Kaisen. As an alternative of mixing recap and preview right into a coherent movie, it stalls halfway, leaving each halves weaker. In comparison with Demon Slayer or Chainsaw Man, which offer context or full arcs, this feels lesser: not fairly a film, not fairly a recap, not fairly a preview.

The second half of the movie is the place the precise essential occasion unfolds—the preview of recent episodes. That is the marquee attraction, the explanation followers (since anybody else would don’t have any incentive, given the format) are in theaters: the massive showdown between Yuji and Jujutsu Kaisen 0’s protagonist, Yuta Okkotsu. Two heroes of their very own tales are pitted towards one another in a battle to the loss of life.

The combat is typical Jujutsu Kaisen: resplendent with aura farming, hype moments, and flashy choreography. But, its emotional context stripped by the character of the compilation preview that preceeded it, Yuta and Yuji’s battle feels much less like grand drama and extra like watching a child do a flip on a trampoline. The entrance half’s exhaustive chopping of motion leaves the episodic tempo of their scuffle feeling like an exhibition, speeding to ferry us into the following factor—the Culling Game arc that can observe in season 3 of the present.

That sport is hilariously launched with paragraphs of textual content plastered throughout the sky, explaining guidelines at a pace no human eye may learn. By then, viewers’ eyes have already been exhausted from monitoring the nonstop flurry of motion compressed into all 90 minutes of Execution to even parse what they’re presupposed to be hyped about. The result’s a vapid spectacle: undeniably fairly, certain, however finally a multitude.

Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution is a compilation-preview chimera that fails to spotlight the sequence’ strengths and as a substitute underscores its weaknesses. Somewhat than providing a cohesive story, it depends on relentless emotional torment for its protagonist, placing him by means of the blender for 90 minutes and mistaking that for deep, significant storytelling.

As a theatrical experiment, it seems like a final straw for this type of anime launch, suggesting that studios ought to transfer away from bringing stitched-together compilations with a sprinkling of recent content material to entice followers to theaters, and as a substitute give attention to full arcs offered as full movies. Whereas visually spectacular, Execution is narratively hole, pieced collectively like a jigsaw puzzle that by no means fairly matches, and finally higher skipped than handled as important viewing.

Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution is now enjoying in theaters and IMAX.

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