To commemorate the revival screening of the anime film Jujutsu Kaisen 0 on October 17, comments from Megumi Ogata (voice of Yuta Okkotsu) and Kana Hanazawa (voice of Rika Orimoto) have been released.

Based on Gege Akutami’s manga serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from March 2018 to September 2024, Jujutsu Kaisen is a dark fantasy that begins when the seal of a powerful cursed object is broken, thrusting high school student Yuji Itadori into the world of curses and sorcery. The manga has surpassed 100 million copies in circulation.

The first season of the TV anime aired from October 2020 to March 2021, followed by the feature film Jujutsu Kaisen 0 in December 2021, which became a global box-office hit earning 26.5 billion yen worldwide. The second season aired from July to December 2023, and the story will continue with Jujutsu Kaisen: Culling Game Part 1 premiering in January 2026.

-- What aspects did you focus on or value most when portraying your respective characters?

Ogata:
“Okkotsu grows so quickly that I was constantly thinking about how to express his emotions at each point in his journey, what kind of feeling he should have, and where his mind should be for each scene to make sense. If I didn’t approach it delicately, I might lose the emotional thread and wouldn’t be able to connect naturally to the next moment. I really tried to follow that emotional trajectory carefully so I wouldn’t drift away from his growth.”

Hanazawa:
“When I read the original manga, I sensed that Rika probably didn’t have the happiest family environment and that she must have cherished every moment with Yuta. In the manga, her expressions are limited, but in the anime, I discovered things like, ‘Oh, this is how she smiled,’ or how she could show such childlike joy when she was with him despite being quite mature for her age. I had prepared some ideas in advance, but many things came to me naturally through my interactions with Ogata-san during recording. And honestly, little Yuta was just so adorable. That scene with the konnyaku jelly is incredibly heartwarming.”

-- Do You Have Any Favorite or Particularly Memorable Scenes from the Film or Recording Sessions?

Ogata:
“I’d like viewers to decide for themselves which parts they enjoyed the most. Every scene was demanding in its own way, but because Okkotsu grows so fast, even a sudden change could easily feel unnatural. I had to think constantly about which emotional hooks to use to portray his development in a believable way, and that alone took all my focus.”

Hanazawa:
“Her approach was so detailed and delicate. I wasn’t able to be at the studio all the time, but when I watched the completed film, I thought, ‘It all connects perfectly.’ I could really feel how deeply Ogata-san immersed herself in the role.”

Ogata:
“The sound director and all the anime staff put so much care into the direction. We recorded multiple takes of key scenes in different ways, so I honestly didn’t know which versions ended up being used. Later, when I performed the same scenes again in games or other media, I sometimes couldn’t remember which emotion or interpretation I had used originally, and that was tricky.”

Hanazawa:
“Voicing Rika after she became a cursed spirit was particularly challenging. I didn’t have a clear image at first, but once I got to the studio and saw her new monstrous form, I focused on how uncomfortable and eerie she’d feel in that body. Some of her lines even had diacritical marks, which made her speech sound rough and distorted. I had to produce that raspy voice while still keeping the essence of Rika, the fact that she was acting purely out of love for Yuta, and balancing those elements was quite difficult.”

Source : ORICON NEWS