Inde Navarrette took advantage of her wait for her breakout horror movie “Obsession” to analyze anime such as Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer, trying to figure out why certain stories are stronger than others.
The 25-year-old told The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast that her focus shifted after finishing Obsession but before its premiere.
“I transitioned into studying film and watching movies and asking, ‘Why do I like them?’ …” Navarrette said. ” ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’ I find to be a very fascinating anime, but why is it so different than ‘Demon Slayer’? Why is it so different than other ones?”
She realized the difference lies in how they treat time. Jujutsu Kaisen has a non-linear story, while Demon Slayer is linear, and she tried to understand why this matters.
“I learned about timelines and about storytelling,” she said, “how a person can have a monologue at the beginning of the episode that matters two episodes later or even at the end, and that person’s dead and you don’t learn it until then, and then attaching that to my screenwriting and trying to learn that way.”
These two anime are among the best of the last decade. MAPPA made Jujutsu Kaisen from the manga by Gege Akutami, and it premiered on Oct. 2, 2020. As of Dec. 2025, the manga had been circulating more than 150 million copies.
Ufotable produced Demon Slayer from the manga by Koyoharu Gotouge, and it premiered in 2019. In 2025, the Demon Slayer film “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle” opened with more than $70 million in North America, setting a record for an anime movie.
Navarrette’s study came before Obsession broke records. Written and directed by YouTube filmmaker Curry Barker, the film was made for only $750,000. It premiered in the Midnight Madness program of the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 5, 2025. Focus Features bought it for a reportedly huge amount – $15 million and released it in cinemas on May 15.
Navarrette stars as Nikki Freeman, whose friend Bear, played by Michael Johnston, makes a supernatural wish for her to love him above anything and anyone else, triggering a fatal chain of events.
In August, Obsession became the first original film of the 2020s to gross more than $500 million worldwide. Navarrette’s films have already overtaken every film ever acquired during a festival, and this fall Focus Features has begun an awards campaign for her.
Born in Tucson, Arizona, and mostly grown up in Visalia, California, Navarrette previously starred in Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why. She also played Sarah Cushing on CW’s Superman & Lois from 2021 to 2024. Before her breakthrough, she streamed video games on Twitch.
Her future is already bright. In August, at Disney’s D23 fan event, Marvel Studios announced that she will star as Rogue in the X-Men movie directed by Jake Schreier. Also starring in the film are Sadie Sink, Kit Connor, Christopher Abbott, Samara Weaving, Maya Boyd, and Adam Driver. The movie is expected in cinemas on May 5, 2028.
