Kaiji Tang & Lex Lang Interview: Jujutsu Kaisen 0

Jujutsu Kaisen 0 comes to theaters as a prequel to the immensely popular Jujutsu Kaisen manga and anime series, giving fans a new perspective on established characters from the series itself. Fans are given a glimpse of the relationship between Jujutsu High teacher Satoru Gojo and the film’s primary antagonist Suguru Geto through the course of the movie, with Kaiji Tang and Lex Lang reprising their respective roles, bringing the dynamic to life in the English dub of Japan’s highest grossing film of 2021. We spoke with both voice actors regarding the dynamic between the characters, how their work in the main series played a role in their portrayals in the movie, if their previous work together added any wrinkles to their performance, and if the film’s performance overseas created any sort of pressure going in.

Screen Rant: Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is a prequel that gives us a glimpse at the complicated relationship between Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto before the events of the series. Did that provide a unique opportunity to explore that character dynamic in that time period?

Kaiji Tang: Yeah, I would. Absolutely. If you watched the first season, there was not too much made of the past history between these two characters. The history and the relationship is one that is very complex, very fleshed out, and very integral to the story points that happen throughout the series.

Geto is such a huge player in the storyline that it’s really nice for the audience to be able to sort of peek in and see where all of that stems from; where that originates from. I know the show will probably get even more into it in-depth later on but, for now, this is the first peek for people who only watch the anime to really see what is up with these two characters. That was really nice.

Lex Lang: I agree completely. Yeah, that summed it up perfectly.

Lex, without any spoilers, how did it feel to portray Suguru Geto at this point in the character’s existence, compared to the Geto that we see in the main series?

Lex Lang: He’s definitely got a lot more life to him. Because of some flashbacks, you can see the process and the arc that his character has gone through. You can see the different points where he pivoted in terms of his idealism and how he looked at life in general.

This movie does a real good job of throwing out little bits of information that outline that very well.

He was more compassionate early on in his life, and he really wanted to stand for humanity; he really wanted to protect humanity. And because he was disappointed, he lost his faith in humanity and eventually became sort of bitter because of it. I think you can see that progression in the movie as well.

Kaiji Tang: It’s hard to talk about that subject, because the thing that happens to him is a huge spoiler. You have to talk around it every time. It’s like, “…And something happened.”

Lex Lang: Something happens that lets him down severely.

Gojo is someone who’s pretty firmly established at the start of Jujutsu Kaisen, with his motives, leading the students and things of that nature. Did that make it an easier transition to portray the character in the prequel film?

Kaiji Tang: Yeah, that was nice. And the timeline between the film and the series is not that many years at all. It’s a very short amount of time. The Gojo we see in the series is very close.

The blindfold aside – he was still trying to find his fashion sense back then – he’s already very much comfortable in his position as this teacher for Jujutsu High. He’s very much a self-realized person, or as much a self-realized person as Gojo can be. He’s comfortable with himself, he’s very comfortable with his mannerisms, and he’s very comfortable with his position in life.

The Gojo we see in both the movie and the series is this character who’s had this very consistent personality and an ideology, even from a little kid. Because he’s born with all this privilege and power, he’s never really had to change. That melts a little bit into your question, where it’s just a continuation of this childlike personality as an adult and we see it manifest into this not stable but complete picture of who he is. I think it’s very well represented in both the series and the movie.

Did your work on the main series influence your performance in the prequel at all? Knowing where their stories were going to go, were you able to take some of that and retroactively apply that?

Lex Lang: I think, for me, it was such a dramatic difference in where he lives that it I really didn’t have to apply anything from the series going backwards to this. It was more about discovering what was new about the character in the prequel.

Kaiji Tang: Some of the new stuff that I was going through was specifically for the Suguru character. Like I mentioned, we never really got to touch on that in this series. So, whenever Suguru comes around in the movie, there’s always this very somber and dark energy Gojo has.

You can really explore his emotional relationship with this other person, and that was something that was completely missing when I was doing the character during the show. That was something that I really appreciated getting to touch on.

With it being the highest-grossing film in Japan in 2021 and one of the highest-grossing anime movies of all time in Japan, did that add pressure to your performance?

Lex Lang: I knew a little bit about that before we recorded, and it added a certain sense of excitement. I don’t think it added any pressure necessarily, but I felt privileged and blessed to have the opportunity to be playing the character. There was that kind of excitement of wanting to do my best but, as far as pressure goes, I don’t think I felt more pressured necessarily.

Kaiji Tang: I think I said this before, but maybe if I was just starting in voice acting or I’d been doing voice acting for two years and booked this role, I probably would have been crushed under the pressure a little bit more. But I’ve had the privilege of doing this for about 15 years now, so whenever Lex and I jump into a booth for any project, it’s business as usual. You get there, you do the job, and you leave.

But I did know about the movie’s performance, and I was really excited about it. I thought it was so cool that these anime movies have just been smashing records over and over. First, we had Mugen Train, and now JJK 0. It’s been a spectacular couple of yours for anime movies. It was exciting, but I agree. I don’t think it was any more pressure.

Both of you have worked together in the past on different projects. Did that history between you lend itself to an added sense of chemistry in the booth when it came to the characters?

Lex Lang: I think inadvertently it did. I wasn’t conscious of what Kaiji was doing necessarily, like, “This is Kaiji in the booth. I gotta just have that chemistry,” or whatever.

But I think Kaiji is a fantastic actor, so whenever I had a chance to listen to what he had done as part of my dialogue – because we work alone; we’re in the booth alone, and you only get to hear the other actor if they’ve recorded before you. Every once in a while – it doesn’t happen too often. But whenever I did, it was like, “Great! I’ve got a lot to go from.”

So, in that sense, yeah. We’ve done a few things now where we’ve either been rivals or friends, or the combination of both. I was saying to Kaiji earlier, “The Lang-Tang duo is back!”

Kaiji Tang: I’ve been a fan of Lex’s since I was younger, you know what I mean? Anytime I get to work with Lex on anything, it’s a real treat.

Lex Lang: We have a mutual admiration society going on.

About The Author

Lawrence Maldonado
(123 Articles Published)

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Lawrence Maldonado is a writer, editor, and lifelong video game nerd born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He has edited an eBook for a voice actor in video games while also having done work as a Community Editor for a video game company. On the side, he would write articles and blogs about video games and the industry in general, leading him to cover games on Screen Rant as a freelance writer. Currently, he can be found wandering the realm of Eorzea while venturing to be the very best like no one ever was. His favorite video game of all time? The answer changes almost daily.

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