Gege Akutami doesn't care about your feelings. If you finished Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2, you already know that. It’s brutal. It’s loud. Honestly, it’s kind of a miracle it even exists in the state we saw it.
The season basically broke the internet twice. First, with the high-school nostalgia of the Hidden Inventory arc, and then with the absolute meat-grinder that was the Shibuya Incident. People were screaming about the animation quality, the production crunch at MAPPA, and the fact that half the cast basically got erased. It wasn't just another sequel; it was a cultural shift in how we watch shonen anime.
The Gojo Past Arc was a Fever Dream
Remember how bright everything looked at the start? It was deceptive. We got to see Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto before the trauma turned them into a god and a cult leader, respectively. MAPPA’s director for this season, Shota Goshozono, pivoted the style completely. It felt like a 90s indie flick. The fish-eye lenses. The cinematic wide shots. It was all so... peaceful.
Then Toji Fushiguro showed up.
Toji is a fan favorite for a reason, but seeing him systematically dismantle the strongest sorcerers was jarring. He’s a guy with zero cursed energy just wrecking everyone with a kitchen knife and some grit. That fight at the Tombs of the Star Corridor? That’s peak fiction. It set the stakes. It showed us that even the "untouchable" Gojo could bleed. And when Gojo finally had his "Awakened" moment—floating in the air, looking absolutely unhinged—it wasn't just a power-up. It was the birth of the loneliest man in the world.
The tragedy isn't that they fought; it's that Geto had to walk that path alone while Gojo became a deity. You can see the dark circles under Geto’s eyes getting worse in every scene. The sound design of him swallowing those curses? Disgusting. Wet. Purposeful. It makes you feel his descent.
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Shibuya Incident: When the Music Stopped
Then we hit Shibuya. It’s 18 episodes of pure, unadulterated carnage.
If you thought the pacing was fast, you’re right. It was a sprint. From the moment Gojo gets sealed in the Prison Realm, the power balance of the entire world flips. Suddenly, the "adults" are gone, and the kids are being hunted by disasters. Hanami, Jogo, Mahito—they weren't playing around this time.
The Sukuna vs. Jogo fight was a literal spectacle. The scale was massive. We’re talking city blocks being turned into molten glass. Then Sukuna vs. Mahoraga happened. That’s where things got controversial. If you watched the broadcast version, some scenes looked a bit "dimmed" or "ghosted" because of Japanese TV regulations regarding photosensitivity. But if you've seen the Blu-ray cuts? It's a different beast.
The animation in the Mahoraga fight was experimental. Some people hated it. They said it looked "unfinished." I disagree. It looked fluid. It looked like two gods fighting at speeds the human eye couldn't track. It was abstract. It was art. It reflected the chaos of a monster that can adapt to any phenomenon.
The Human Cost Behind the Screen
We have to talk about the MAPPA situation. It's the elephant in the room.
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During the airing of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2, several animators took to X (formerly Twitter) to vent. They were tired. The schedules were tight. Some episodes were reportedly finished just hours before they aired. You can actually see the strain in some of the middle episodes where the art style fluctuates.
- Production Assistant notes leaked.
- Animators like Hokuto Sadamoto expressed frustration.
- Fans started a movement to support the staff, not the executives.
Despite the "production hell," the creative vision stayed sharp. Goshozono used a lot of 3D backgrounds with 2D characters to maintain that sense of scale in the Shibuya subway. It’s a technical nightmare to pull off, but it gave the fights a weight that most anime lack. When Yuji Itadori walks through the snow at the end, hunted and broken, you feel that exhaustion. It mirrors the real-world exhaustion of the team that built it.
Why the Ending Changed Everything
Nanami Kento. Nobara Kugisaki.
Those names hurt now. The death of Nanami was handled with such painful grace. The transition from his dream of a beach in Malaysia to the grim, blood-soaked reality of a hallway in Shibuya was devastating. It wasn't a "heroic" death in the traditional sense. It was just a tired man finally stopping.
And Nobara? The ambiguity there drove people crazy. But that’s the point of Jujutsu Kaisen. It’s not a fairy tale. It’s a series about "proper deaths." Sometimes a death isn't proper. Sometimes it's just sudden and unfair.
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The season ended with Yuji in a dark place. He’s not the happy kid who wanted to eat Sukuna’s fingers anymore. He’s a cog. He’s a killer. The "Execution" arc tease at the very end, with Yuta Okkotsu returning, set the stage for a total shift in tone for Season 3.
How to Process the Chaos
If you’re looking to dive deeper into why this season felt so different from the first, you need to look at the directorial change. Sunghoo Park (Season 1) was all about high-octane, traditional martial arts choreography. Goshozono (Season 2) is about cinematography and mood.
Actionable Steps for Fans
- Watch the Blu-ray version: If you only saw the Crunchyroll stream, you missed out on the corrected lighting and extra frames in the Sukuna fights. It fixes the "dimming" issue entirely.
- Read the Manga (Chapters 79-136): To see what MAPPA added, read the source material. You’ll realize how much "filler" action was actually brilliant improvisation by the animators.
- Follow the Animators: Support the actual artists. Look up names like Manyans or Weilin Zhang. Their personal portfolios show the raw talent that survived the crunch.
- Rewatch "Hidden Inventory": Now that you know how Shibuya ends, the blue skies of the first five episodes feel even more tragic. It’s a completely different experience the second time around.
The series is moving into the "Culling Game" next. It’s going to get more complex, more "hunter x hunter-ish" with the rules, and likely even more violent. Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 wasn't just a bridge; it was the moment the series grew up and realized that being a sorcerer is a curse in itself.
Grab the official OST too. King Gnu’s "SPECIALZ" is basically the anthem of trauma now. Listen to the lyrics while looking at the Shibuya skyline; it hits different when you realize the song is written from the perspective of the curses, mocking the humans below. That’s the kind of layer Gege and the anime team love to hide in plain sight.