The first proper trailer of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 is a really interesting one. Today we will take a look at Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 trailer animation breakdown. So as some of you may know that there had a lot of speculations regarding the quality of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2; for those of you who don’t know, a lot of the Jujutsu Kaisen staff overlapped with the Chainsaw Man staff, which led people wonder, who good this show would look, because the scheduled or the same had to be atrocious.
When the staff of the MAPPA animators finished the Jujutsu Kaisen season 1, they immediately Jujutsu Kaisen 0 The Movie and then transferred over to the Chainsaw Man team. Chainsaw Man wrapped up a couple of months back, and Jujutsu Kaisen airs this summer for two uninterrupted cours.
Naturally, the team probably didn’t have much time, so how good this season can possibly look is what a lot of people in the fandom were wondering. Well, thanks to the new trailer, we now have a better understanding of the same.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIbiHE1du6g
Now before we get into the actual trailer, let us talk about the staff changes, and those are some major ones this time around.
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Staff Changes
As many of you already know the previous series director, Sunghoo Park, has left both the Jujutsu Kaisen Project and the MAPPA Studio. He was a crucial part of the production, and he himself animated a ridiculous amount for this show, so with him gone, there was a lot of conversation as to who would replace him.
The name Shōta GOSHOZONO was thrown around a lot, and the key visuals with the fisheye effects only added to those rumors, well we finally know for certain, the new series, Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2, is indeed Shōta GOSHOZONO.
If you don’t know who Shōta GOSHOZONO is, he is one of the most creative minds in the industry as of right now. His directorial works include Episode 8 of Chainsaw Man, Episodes 8 and 17 of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2, and Episodes 17 and 21 if Ranking of Kings, and yes, Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 is going to be his debut as the series director.
In addition to this, Jujutsu Kaisen 0 art director, Jun’ichi Higashi, is now the art director for the second season, and there seem to be a couple of changes in the CGI department as well.
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Trailer Animation Breakdown
The Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 trailer opens up with some really good-looking and aesthetically pleasing backgrounds. You may notice that the character design looks a lot simpler compared to the first season, a lot of the detail in their outfits is removed, and their faces are drawn in a more simplistic manner, with barely any extra line work.
These changes, of course, make the character easier to draw, meaning more of them can be drawn, meaning there will be more movement and animation. The cut-off animation shown in this trailer is always moving, and so is the hypothetical camera. Of course, the camera movement is giving, considering the fact GOSHOZONO is the new director.
Gojo’s head movement in the trailer, and the camera movement accompanying it, makes this otherwise simple cut look really interesting. Geto’s work cycle here looks incredible as well, and there are a lot of frames assigned to that simple movements, in addition to that, the shadow sliding up his face is really well done.
Also, remember what I said about the character design, being simpler this time around, this is more or less closer to Geto’s face, and there is barely any extra line work present, unlike what MAPPA is really, really famous for. Although I do not think that this is bad, in fact, it looks very aesthetically pleasing, of course, it wouldn’t look as good if everything around the character, don’t complement that look, but they do, and so it works.
Again lots of movements in the simple scenes can be seen, which is something I personally love. You can also see the classic fisheye effect in many places, GOSHOZONO loves doing that!!
We then get multiple cuts of actions starting with the Geto scene, also lovely smears on his hand. While yes, the character looks a lot simpler, the curses are still quite detailed, love the thick lines on the curses. The look and aesthetic of the curses if the same as in Season 1, as they should be, don’t fix what isn’t broken!!
However, lots of motion blur can be seen, I hope they calm down a bit with the blurring. More of that signature fisheye effect on the background, with Gojo, and also there is an amazing perspective shot with a top tier for shortening, the shards of glass flying look really good. The particular scene with Gojo is insanely good, it starts off as a hard dutch angle shot… zooms out, and rotates to the side… while being in sync with Gojo’s hand movements.
In addition to that, the debris flying around makes the shot particularly impressive. We then get, probably, the best-looking cut in the entire trailer, Toji… (I won’t reveals his last name) gets this insane action sequence. Right off the bat, you can see some really good-looking background animations, and a fisheye effect on the background, because, of course.
Toji’s moment and the timing of the same are extremely snappy and energetic with really strong smears, and it is also a dynamic cut with Toji occupying a small part of the screening in one frame and most of the screen in the next. He literally leaves the frame at one point and reenters the frame, and swings his weapon at three hypothetical cameras.
Now, most cuts would end here, and this one may have as well. It’s hard to tell, but it looks like the cut continues, and the camera continues to move as well, panning upward and then back down through a lot of good-looking debris. The camera then moves through Gojo’s fingers with Toji in between them.
It’s such a complex cut or a couple of cuts, and you can expect more of these from this season. Also, this is a good place to talk about the digital elements; the digital effects look a lot better than in season one, these digital effects and filters were a major issue with the first season, but this time around, they look a lot more subdued and fit in a lot better.
In addition to that, more of that classic gushes-on-a-fish eye effect. The rest of the trailer is mostly static shots with some character movement here and there, and there are all compositing looks clean minus some motion-blurred abuse, but I don’t think that a one-minute-long trailer can give us a proper look at the compositing, so I will wait for the actual episode, but overall this trailer looked, really really good.
If this is the level of quality throughout the Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2, this will look a lot better than season one. Sunghoo Park, leaving the team has to be a huge blow both to the production and the creative aspect. Park had this hard-hitting gritty martial arts-inspired style of action, which cannot be replicated. You cannot out-action Sunghoo Park, Shōta GOSHOZONO will bring a completely new look to the series, and he will have to.
Although we will not get what we have expected from Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2, I am not worried because whenever Shōta GOSHOZONO directs an episode, he does something really unique, and not only once, but every single time. This is why imagine what is young to happen when he directs an entire series. What kind of visual insanity will be a witness, you can’t help but be excited right?
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Release Date
The Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 will adapt two of the best arcs in the series, although I don’t think they can adapt all of Shibuya in a single cour, to sum it up this season will look insane and, most importantly, different! The very first chapter of the Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 is scheduled to be released on July 06, 2023. It is still months away, but this spring season is almost upon us.
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