Ju-On: Origins is a 2020
Netflix series which reboots the
Ju On film franchise. The series does not build up on the canon of the earlier films, instead depicting a series of events which
inspired the franchise in its universe.
Ju-On: Origins contains examples of:
- 20 Minutes into the Past: The series was released in 2020, but is set between 1988 and 1997. Meanwhile, the incident that started the curse occurred in 1952.
- Notably, this means the first season ended the year before the first Ju-On film was released in the real world.
- Abusive Parents:
- Kiyomi's mother Mina is emotionally abusive to her daughter, and makes her take the fall for her own affair with one of Kiyomi's teachers. This bites her in the ass when Kiyomi coerces Yudai into killing her.
- Yudai himself becomes physically abusive to Toshiki, his son with Kiyomi, until one day he beats him so badly that he sends the kid into a persistent vegetative state. Subverted in that Toshiki was not really his biological son, but a kid that Kiyomi "adopted" from the cursed house. Also the only reason he knows Kiyomi is because he got two girls to help him rape her and her possession by the house made her clingy to him afterwards.
- Adaptational Heroism: While not heroic by any means, the Woman In White is far less violent than Kayako, only terrifying people when she appears to them and is only implied to have killed someone through terror. This is due to the house itself taking greater precedence and other spirits (such as the fetus or the landlord's son) doing more of the dirty work. This is also due to her goals being unknown, as opposed to Kayako's mission to simply lash out at others forever.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Exaggerated with Kiyomi, who after he encounter with the ghost is suddenly clinging to and flirting with Yudai, who had just raped her not long before. The show makes it clear the house's influence is involved in some way with her odd grin at Yoshie.
- Anachronic Order: It wouldn't be a Ju-On story without telling it out of order.
- Asshole Victim: Quite a few to choose from — Yoshie and Mai; Kiyomi's mother; Yudai; Keiichi and Chie...
- Beware the Silly Ones: The ghost in his underwear? Oh, just a murderous rapist who imprisoned a woman in an attic and later tried to murder her. And he's still perfectly dangerous.
- Break the Cutie: Poor, poor Kiyomi. Tricked by some schoolgirls into entering the cursed house so Yudai can rape her, it only gets worse when the haunting gets involved. By the end she's a wreck, her son is in a coma by her abusive husband's hand, she's just killed the husband, and she allows the house to take her.
- Haruka as well. She loses her boyfriend because he was looking for somewhere for them to live together, he inadvertently passed the curse to her, her attempts to help his spirit drags the boy's psychic mother in who is eventually killed by the curse as well, and when Haruka goes to bury the cursed tape at the house she is kidnapped/killed by a ghost as well. The most she managed was to save a pregnant woman and her baby from the ghosts.
- Curse Escape Clause: Subverted in that none of the intentional attempts work, but several characters do try to break the curse or the cycle.
- Tetsuya's psychic mother tries to have an exorcism, and also recommends the pregnant Tomoko not be left along as a potential target. While this does save Tomoko and her unborn child, the exorcism falls apart and does not save her or Yuu.
- Despite everything he goes through, Yuu does not turn violent either against his family or anyone else, and walks out of the house alone. He explodes in the street.
- Haruka tries to end things for herself by burying the footsteps tape that started her knowledge of the house. This fails and she is taken.
- Demonic Possession: Kiyomi encounters the woman in white in episode 2 and apparently becomes possessed by her, turning her into an aggressive and manipulative woman. However, it's unknown how much influence the woman has on Kiyomi, since the latter seems to still have control over her actions. She only gets freed after killing Yudai in episode 5, upon which she has a mental breakdown and allows the house to take her.
- Eldritch Location: The cursed house. Time does not exist there; characters who are separated years if not decades interact with each other without knowing that they aren't supposed to be there.
- In addition, despite the existence of the woman in white, emphasis in the series is much heavier on the house itself as a malevolent force as opposed to the ghosts being the threat.
- Ethereal White Dress: The main ghost is not only this trope, but referred to as the Woman In White such as she is unnamed.
- "Everybody Dies" Ending: Almost everyone associated with the house dies in some way or other by the end of the first season, the only exceptions being Yasuo and the realtor (who bring more people to the house), Tomoko and her baby (saved by Haruka), and the lead detective and Miss Ariatsu (the former's fate unspecified beyond nightmares and the latter warned to run by Toshiki)
- Frame-Up: Kiyomi frames her teacher for the murder of her mother.
- Ghostly Goals: A running theme, particularly in the author plot, is trying to figure out what the house and-or the Woman In White want. Other than a mysterious "Bury Together" command it's not made very clear beyond interactions with the house only ever leading to more violence.
- The House also leaves alone visitors who may draw more people in — namely the realtor, the author, and the serial killer. It wants to add people into itself for some reason, and therefore leaves alone those whose actions will bring more. Whether or not this ties into "bury together" has yet to be seen.
- Glamour Failure: The Woman in White has this in her final appearance in the first season, where the psychic turns and see her as she really looks — a disgusting rotted spirit who's been trapped in an attic for too long.
- Initially the baby given to a young Yasuo looks normal enough...and then its mouth opens terrifyingly wide in a scream..
- Murder-Suicide: When Keiichi Masaki goes to the cursed house after killing Chie and taking her fetus, he finds Keiko Haida dead in the kitchen with stab wounds on her stomach, while her husband, Nobuhiko, is hanging from a rope on the staircase.
- Nice Girl: Miss Ariatsu, Toshiki's social worker. She doesn't blame Kiyomi for her son's state, only asks he be better cared for, and as soon as she sees Kiyomi's bruises offers her aid as well. She continues to visit Toshiki when he's in a coma.
- Nothing Is Scarier: Many times it just seems like the house influences characters to turn violent, with no monster or ghost around to obviously make them do anything. A notably chilling moment is when Yuu suddenly becomes enraged by Yasuo leaving behind his card in case they need his help.
- Recursive Canon: The show is set in a continuity where the Ju On movies exist but were inspired by a purportedly real cursed house, which is at the center of the show's action.
- The Reveal: Toshiki is not Kiyomi and Yudai's son, but the child of the Woman in White, first given to the author Yasuo as a child and then taken by Kiyomi due to the house's time shenanigans. While allegedly in a coma, he still appears to his parents and social worker in times of danger to warn them to run, at one point saving Yudai's life.
- Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: Not Kayako, as this is an alternate universe. Instead we have The Woman In White, who was held captive and impregnated in the attic by the son of an absentee landlord years and years ago. Unlike Kayako she does very little beyond appear in the earlier episodes, and it's not until later on that we see her interacting with others such as giving them her baby or scaring them to death.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: As in the original movies, time does not work normally at the house, causing several of the stories occurring in different years to intersect.
- Weirdness Censor: The house itself, which is why even finding it takes several episodes for the characters actively looking for it. Even though it is frequently host to horrific incidents, they are all quickly forgotten and the house is resold. The serial killer only put it together that something was wrong with the house due to his habit as a child of reading old news articles—it just kept coming back up, and even with his tip Yasuo only finds it because of the latest incident generating a very brief media storm. The house does not want to be noticeable.
- Wham Shot: It turns out the house does have an option to kill off people who don't turn violent, as seen with both Yuu and Yasuo's father: simply cause them to explode in a poof of smoke before the leave the premises. Yasuo is horrified when he sees it happen to Yuu, just out on the street in broad daylight. This reveal comes out of nowhere in the final episode of the first season, seemingly just to kill off Yuu and Yasuo's father.
- You All Share My Story: Despite their interactions with the house beginning at different times (multiple times in the case of Yasuo) almost all of the plots collide in the final episodes when Yasuo, Haruka, and Tetsuya's mother team up with Yuu and Tomoko to stop the haunting after Tomoko interacts with Keiichi when he visited the house (years in the past). Similarly, Kiyomi interacted with Yasuo both when he was exploring the house as an adult (her first visit to the house) and when he received the child from the Woman in White as a child (when Kiyomi made a later visit as a young adult). Yasuo is the main connecting thread, as someone the house specifically let live to chronicle its doings.
