Jujutsu Kaisen: Hidden Inventory / Premature Death – The Movie – Review

Most anime fans already know how this story ends. Jujutsu Kaisen: Hidden Inventory / Premature Death – The Movie may sound like a cut-and-paste job, simply rehashing the first five episodes of Season 2 of the anime series, and technically, it is. The 2023 material has been broadcast, streamed, clipped, fan-edited, and dissected at length but seeing it unfold on the big screen still brings a sense of justification, – not just because series protagonist Suguru Geto (Takahiro Sakurai, Demon Slayer, Blue Lock) spends half the runtime consuming cursed spirits, but he finally gets to swallow them in full theatrical detail and because the experience has been restructured into something far more cinematic. 

What was once a segmented weekly release now plays out as a continuous, emotionally driven arc, with tighter pacing and narrative cohesion. There are no title cards, no eye-catches, no episode recaps in this 110-minute tale that condenses five episodes into a single, uninterrupted spiral toward a friendship’s inevitable collapse and for fans who already know where it leads, watching it happen all at once again hurts in a different way. This is further enhanced by a remixed soundtrack and a remaster of the voice acting from the anime. 

It helps that Jujutsu Kaisen, about a high school student who joins a secret organisation of sorcerers to eliminate a powerful curse, is no ordinary shonen (a genre targeting young boys and adolescent males, often featuring themes of friendship, perseverance, and action). Since its 2018 debut in the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, Gege Akutami’s manga is regarded as one of the leading shonen titles of today, holding its own alongside global juggernauts like Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (2016 – 2020) and One Piece (1997 – present). The series draws its energy from human emotions, such as regret, grief, and resentment, and pits sorcerers against grotesque manifestations of those feelings.

While the manga was popular domestically in Japan, it was Studio MAPPA’s 2020 anime adaptation that propelled the series into a worldwide phenomenon. The renowned Japanese animation studio, founded in 2011 by Masao Maruyama, has a track record of stylish, ambitious productions (and with it, intense production schedules…) across a wide range of genres, producing global hits like Yuri on Ice!!! (2016), Chainsaw Man (2022), and Attack on Titan: The Final Season (2020 – 2023).

With Jujutsu Kaisen, the studio struck gold again, delivering the same high quality, slick fight choreography, intense cursed energy battles, inventive power systems, and just enough angst for your favourite characters to hook anime and manga fans alike.

Part of its appeal lies in the way it juggles timelines and characters without losing momentum. The series opens with the main protagonist, Yuji Itadori (Junya Enoki, Honkai: Star Rail, Ron Kamonohashi’s Forbidden Deductions), a reluctant hero thrust into a deadly world of curses set in present time but it’s the relationship between his teacher, Satoru Gojo (Yuuichi Nakamura, My Hero Academia, Haikyuu!!), and Gojo’s best friend, Geto, that gives the series its emotional spine.  It’s this shared past, shaped during their time as students at Tokyo Jujutsu High, that takes centre stage in the Hidden Inventory / Premature Death arc.

While the core storyline detailing Gojo and Geto’s time as students at Tokyo Jujutsu High remains intact, the movie reimagines these episodes into a single, seamless narrative. Enhanced with upgraded visuals, refined animation, and cinematic-quality audio, the theatrical release amplifies the intensity of the battles and the emotional weight of the characters’ journeys, making it a more immersive experience for both longtime fans and newcomers alike.

Cinematic horror is often about control – what you hear, what you see, what you’re forced to imagine in the dark and Hidden Inventory / Premature Death – The Movie takes full advantage of that principle, especially in its haunted house opener. What once felt eerie on a laptop screen now lands like a gut punch when viewed in a pitch-black cinema, where every creak in the floorboards and every flicker of shadow is amplified tenfold. The claustrophobic atmosphere is heightened by the film’s upgraded surround sound design, which traps the audience in the same cursed space. It’s an early reminder that Jujutsu Kaisen has never simply been about fast-paced fights or flashy cursed techniques – it knows how to unnerve, too.

That emotional intensity carries through the rest of the film, thanks in no small part to the stellar voice cast. Veteran seiyuu (Japanese voice actors) bring a precision and weight to each line that’s especially noticeable in the theatre. With crisper mixing and remastered audio, even familiar dialogue feels charged with new energy. Geto’s confrontation with Toji Fushiguro (Takehito Koyasu, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Attack on Titan) is a clear standout: when Toji coldly announces that he’s already killed Gojo, the room falls silent, and not because the audience is surprised, but because Suguru’s reaction is not an explosive one; it simmers. Audiences can hear it in the breath he holds, the steel in his voice, and the fury buried just beneath his composure. It’s a performance built for the big screen, where every nuance hits just a little harder.

Unfortunately, not every moment lands with the intended impact… at least, not in Singapore. Due to the film’s NC-16 rating, two of the arc’s most viscerally brutal scenes are censored by desaturating them into black and white. One involves Toji in an especially gory display of precision, and the other is a major turning point that shapes Suguru’s eventual descent. In the original cut, both scenes are drenched in blood and consequence, but here, both feel noticeably muted. The monochrome treatment may soften the visual blow for rating boards, but it dulls the psychological experience for audiences. When a story like this hinges on how violence warps ideals and transforms people, every missing detail counts.

To compensate for the scenes softened by censorship, the film slips in a few surprises of its own – choices that speak to its understanding of emotional pacing. Instead of tacking on the Juju Sanpo mini-anime at the end as the anime does, the film opens with it. The usually breezy, comedic segment serves as an unexpected prelude, an intentional tonal misdirection that casts a spotlight on the innocence and camaraderie Gojo and Geto once shared. It’s a bold structural choice, one that softens the audience just enough before the film plunges into the emotional abyss of their unravelling.

And just when the final battle’s dust has settled and silence starts to creep in, Jujutsu Kaisen: Hidden Inventory / Premature Death – The Movie delivers one final blow. Tatsuya Kitani’s (Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, Oshi no Ko, Rurouni Kenshin) “Where Our Blue Is”, the track that once underscored the start of each anime episode, is reborn here in a raw acoustic rendition. Stripped of its percussion and cinematic punch, it’s no longer an anthem of youthful swagger, but a farewell. Paired with new visuals crafted specifically for the film, the song doesn’t just tug at the heartstrings; it reframes everything that came before it. Moments that once felt like victories now echo with loss, and jokes once shared feel like ghosts of a friendship doomed to fracture.

As the lights come up, what lingers is the quiet tragedy of watching two people grow into the kind of sorcerers their younger selves would have never recognised. Jujutsu Kaisen: Hidden Inventory / Premature Death – The Movie may be a reconfiguration of already-aired episodes, but it proves that context and presentation can shift the emotional impact entirely. For those who already know how Gojo and Geto’s story ends, this theatrical revisit makes it hurt all over again. And for those seeing it for the first time? Welcome to the heartbreak.

Amanda

Amanda tries her very best every single day… to complete her dailies in five gacha game titles, three of which are made by HoYoverse. She also tasks herself with IRL dailies: watch anime, read manga/manhwa, study Japanese. Buy her a bubble tea when you see her.