Four of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2’s episodes will be theatrically screened for one week in Japan, starting on March 29, to commemorate the fourth and fifth Blu-ray and DVD releases of the “Shibuya Incident Arc.” These episodes are Episode 17, 18, 19, and 20, or Episodes 41 to 44 of the overall series.
Episode 41, which depicts the battle between Sukuna and Mahoraga, will notably feature corrections and additional cuts. The quality of the episode’s broadcast version was the subject of fan discourse at the time of its release. Part of that was due to a viral, now-deleted tweet from animator Roccia Nobili, who is credited on the episode as second key animator, saying that the broadcast product was “not finished” and had “30% of the intended vision.” (A follow-up tweet from Nobili said that the original post was deleted due to misinterpretation, and that the “30%” was not meant to refer to the episode’s completion level.)
Chansard Vincent and Hayate Nakamura, two of Episode 41’s key animators, also wrote tweets that hinted at the troubled state of the production. Vincent said that he went against his intention to never work on a MAPPA production again due only to Hakuyu Go (the episode’s co-storyboard artist and director, as well as one of its key animators), and that “this was the last time” he would do so. Meanwhile, Nakamura referred to the airing of the episode as a miracle.
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 started airing on July 6, with the “Shibuya Incident Arc” beginning on August 31 after a three-week break. The two-cour show recently won a number of awards at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2024, including Anime of the Year.
Jujutsu Kaisen adapts the Shueisha-published supernatural action manga by Gege Akutami, which began serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2018 and has 25 tankoubon volumes as of January 2024. Viz Media describes the manga as:
Although Yuji Itadori looks like your average teenager, his immense physical strength is something to behold! Every sports club wants him to join, but Itadori would rather hang out with the school outcasts in the Occult Research Club. One day, the club manages to get their hands on a sealed cursed object. Little do they know the terror they’ll unleash when they break the seal…
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 saw Shouta Goshozono (Jujutsu Kaisen Episode 17, Ranking of Kings Episode 21, and Chainsaw Man Episode 8 storyboard artist and episode director) taking over as director from Sunghoo Park (God of High School), who has founded his own animation studio (E&H Production). An adaptation of the manga’s “Culling Game Arc” was announced after the season ended.
Source: @animejujutsu