Anime Expo Day 4 started in a big way as Crunchyroll took over the Main Events stage to celebrate Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2. Special guests Junya Enoki (Yuji Itadori), Shota Goshozono (Director of Season 2), and Keisuke Seshimo (Animation Lead Producer for MAPPA) gathered to discuss the full animation process of Season 2.
Junya Enoki on "Jujutsu Kaisen" Season 2
The panel included a live dub by Enoki, storyboard sketches from Goshozono, and a special video featuring the two opening songs of Season 2. Though there were no announcements about Season 3, the team made sure to bring some surprises for fans, including an impromptu fan Q&A.
When asked to reflect on Season 2, two scenes stood out as the most memorable for Enoki. The first scene he recalled was from Episode 21, “Transformation,” during the last battle with Mahito – specifically, the rabbit chase scene. The second was from Episode 17, “Thunderclap, Part 2,” where Yuji vomits after realizing what Sukuna did.
After playing the scene for everyone, Enoki explained that he performed the scene on all fours, taking the same position as Yuji. Though he reassured everyone that he didn’t actually throw up during recording, he did cry. Goshozono commended Enoki for the performance, especially in terms of realism.
To put his acting to the test, Enoki then performed a live dub for a special scene from Episode 20, “Right and Wrong, Part 3.” Nanami fans quietly agonized as Enoki performed the Black Flash scene, complete with a still flashback of Nanami.
The Animation Process of "Jujutsu Kaisen"
Perhaps to lighten the mood, Goshozono took the audience through the animation pipeline by showing key art and storyboards from Season 2. Everyone laughed as a sketch of an indistinguishable face popped up on the big screens. It was then replaced by a nice sketch of Gojo. Walking through the storyboard, layout, and touch-ups, fans saw a glimpse into the full creative process behind making these characters come to life.
Goshozono also reminded fans that anime, aside from being very pretty and an adaptation of a pre-existing story, is a form of visual art. The next visual was from the final episode of Season 2 where Yuji puts his hands together. Goshozono explained that this was a deliberate pose meant to symbolically close the story arc. Specifically, the pose is meant to be ippon-jime, a single clap that represents the end of a party.
Finally, the team displayed key art of Yuta Okkotsu, where there was a note for the artist to make the visual more accurate to the manga panel. When showing the completed frame, Seshimo explained that for these types of talking scenes, only the mouth is animated.
When Enoki asked how long it would take to make one scene, Seshimo replied that one episode can take a few months. Each episode contains about 300 cuts. However, it was hard to estimate how long a single scene would take because multiple episodes would be in production simultaneously.
Exclusive Season 2 Video
The promotional video featured both Season 2 openings: “Ao No Sumika” by Tatsuya Kitani and “SPECIALZ” by King Gnu. Currently, the video shown at Anime Expo cannot be found on the TOHO animation YouTube channel. Truly, this was only for AX attendees.
Using the TV versions of both songs, the video featured iconic scenes from Season 2, including the sparkly Gojo scene from the first half of the season. The second half of the video featured the appropriate amount of Nanami doing cool things.
After the video talkback, everyone in attendance received a promotional JJK-themed deck for the trading card game, Union Arena. Developed by Bandai Namco, the game features cards from various popular anime titles, including BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War, Hunter x Hunter and Jujutsu Kaisen. Union Arena is set to officially launch in September 2024, with the JJK expansion becoming available on November 22, 2024. For now, Bandai Namco is distributing various pre-release decks so anime fans can try the game before it drops.
As a second surprise, the JJK team gave away five posters, signed by the three guests, to any Yuji Itadori cosplayers who could beat Enoki in a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. This was a shockingly efficient way to randomly distribute prizes as a flock of over 20 Yujis was cut in half.
In fact, this was so efficient that the guests had time for an impromptu fan Q&A. Questions ranged from advice for aspiring animators to the most anticipated character of Season 3 (it’s Maki).
Once the event came to a close, Enoki made sure to let everyone know that he was incredibly happy to see so many JJK fans.
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