Jujutsu Kaisen Zero and Good Stories

In my last blog, I wrote about a bad movie. Today, I watched the Jujutsu Kaisen Zero anime movie, which was in my opinion a very good movie. A new character, Yuta, was introduced as the protagonist, and we got to some him grow, become stronger and more confident. There was humor, horror, action and other things that made the story very good, along with awesome animation. The villain had a particular motivation that uses that villain logic that is not totally untrue, but morally and ethically dangerous. All in all, it was just a good story in about two hours utilizing a movie platform.

One thing that I am seeing more these days is complexity in stories that I do not feel always has to be there (that and a myriad of reboots). A villain cannot just be bad or evil, and not everything has to be in some moral gray area, for example. I am finding that simplicity in telling stories has been one of the better practices as of late, with substance over style, especially when we are seeing so much style over substance. To its credit, I think that Jujutsu Kaisen Zero blended well the substance of the story and characters with the style that the series is known for.

I suppose that it is good to watch good stories and bad stories. There is a lesson in what not to do with bad stories, and obviously, a lesson in what to emulate with good stories. Understandably, this is easier said than done as what is in my mind that I put to paper seems like a good idea, but I do not know if an audience will accept it.