After watching episodes 16 & 17 of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2, you have thought these are the best anime episodes of the year and that these are the best episodes of Jujutsu Kaisen or Mappa so far.
However, have you ever wondered what is going on behind the scenes while creating episodes like these? If not, let me tell you that there has been a lot going on in the past week behind the scenes for animating the episode.
Many animators and directors of Jujutsu Kaisen are coming out and speaking about the situation they are working under. We have already covered the outburst of Jujutsu Kaisen’s animators, so in the article, we will be taking a look at the director’s tweet about how working for Mappa Studio led him to break down.
The Director of Mappa Animation for Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Leaves Cryptic Message After MAPPA Production Meltdown
Like I said earlier, the last few episodes of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 have been one of the best episodes delivered by Jujutsu Kiasen. But there is currently a meltdown taking place. And when I mean meltdown, I’m talking about the episode director of this episode having a meltdown on social media.
Talking about how they feel absolutely worthless, and coming back to work on anime, mainly Jujutsu Kaisen, delivered the final blow to him, and basically, they feel like there isn’t a place for him, and he feels like a scumbag.
It’s disheartening, and this is legitimately disheartening news and something just to read because we have to put it in perspective here. This is the staff that worked on the episode and all that. The individual was doing different main segments of the episode.
The storyboarder was Hokuto, and also the episode director. They had a pretty big job since they were the episode director, so he had to supervise everything, making sure everything was on track, correcting things that they needed to, and then also storyboarding the entire episode.
The actual episode director/storyboarder literally broke down and had a meltdown saying that they ran away from anime and to a game company and then came back real quickly.
They were glad they did it because they gave them a death blow, and they realized that they’re probably not cut out for anime, so they feel worthless.
The director of Jujutsu Kaisen would unironically have a meltdown on Twitter due to the schedule catching up with them this episode. He would repeatedly apologize for wrongdoing that he ascribed to himself, saying he had done a job that no one would appreciate.
He even went on calling himself a coward, saying he got everything dirty. He said that everyone is not trash like him, so he knows that everyone’s sympathy and encouragement must be from the bottom of their heart, but right after releasing something he is not satisfied with, that kind of thing will have the opposite effect.
So, for now, he just wants us to leave me alone. He told everyone that he would make up for it in his future work, and until then, he would live his life as the worst animator who has ruined a masterpiece.
As we can see, the director went on to say he is the worst animator, which is obliviously not true. I don’t know for how long this is going to hunt him and if he will overcome this trauma.
But is it really Mappa’s fault for the Director’s breakdown?
Well, of course, Mappa is the key player in the director’s breakdown by not giving him enough time to complete his work, but the ones who come next to blame are us fans of Jujutsu Kaisen itself.
Like I said earlier, this was after episode 14 of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2. The episode in which Toji comes inside Mugumi’s domain at the end of the episode. I have seen many fans tweeting that Mappa’s animator ruined the epic moment from Jujutsu Kiasen.
But that only works to a point and they've found the hard limit. There comes a time when you can't conjure an episode out of nowhere. And it's not these creators' fault that it has fallen apart – it's *thanks to them* that it has taken so long to happen. Blame the right targets
— kViN 🌈🕒 (@Yuyucow) November 14, 2023
Kevin makes it very clear here that people need to direct their anger towards the right people and not the people who are overworked and are breaking their back working on these shows.
Kevin wraps up by saying if studio Mappa and other Animation Studios only trample over their artists and take advantage of the pride that they have in their own work and they only care about the money that is coming in, then they shouldn’t be surprised if animators are now putting them on blast publicly.
Some Jujutsu Kaisen fans on Twitter are saying that they hope that episode 17 looks great, but they hope that the anime staff can take a break for the rest of the season. But unfortunately, I don’t think that this is going to happen.
today's Jujutsu Kaisen episode is fucking astonishing. something like this made with an abysmal schedule must have been a special kind of torture. and boy, did it deliver. of course, i would like to say my thanks to every animator who worked on this despite the tight deadline…
— ThatMemeArtist (@thatmemeartist) November 16, 2023
Why Mappa is Barely Meeting Deadlines?
There are so many cogs and logistical issues that come with delaying an anime production. So, a comment from a user called Mihaza under this Reddit post highlights what is going on with Studio Mappa.
So, Mihaza says that this situation of the animators having a meltdown is the fault of Manabu Otsuka, the CEO of Studio Mappa. Now the issue with this individual is that he has immense greed, and he wants immediate quick growth for his company.
He wants Mappa, which is a fairly young Animation Studio, to grow very big in a short amount of time. This is why he’s been swallowing up all of these popular Shonen Series in the anime industry, like Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man, Hell Paradise, One Punch Man, Attack on Titan, and Vinland Saga.
The amount of work that this studio is taking on is not normal. There are way too many anime productions occurring in a short span of time, and it leaves the anime spread thin across all of the productions that they are constantly churning out.
I mean, look at how much has come out from Studio Mappa in the last three years. Some fans would blindly assume that this is Studio Mappa being the goat and delivering once again, but they fail to understand the issues behind the scenes of Studio Mappa just taking on so much work.
So before an anime is even thought about, production committees need to come together in order to secure sponsors as well as schedule when the anime is going to be released so that they can tie together all of their marketing and merchandise with the release of the anime.
This post then goes on to say that Jujutsu Kaisen Season 1 took one year and a half to make, while Chainsaw Man Season 1, which ended in December 2022, and the hidden Inventory Arc airing in July 2023;
This meant that from the two years that the production committee had given to Mappa to animate season 2 Jujutsu Kaisen, the CEO of Mappa, had only given the animators six months to work on it.
This is what has led to animators working on current episodes of the Shibuya incident arc hours before they air. Well, of course, animators have issues for every single studio that they work for. The issues that come with working for Studio Mappa are exponential; this is because of the terrible leadership behind the studio.
What We Can Do in Such Crises?
While it’s normal for fans to get possessive and defensive of the anime that they are following, you need to understand the situation that is going on behind some of the Productions of these anime.
What studio Mappa is doing is not right, and it’s coming at a massive cost, and the well-being of animators is paying a massive price for it. In order for real change to happen, more fans need to be aware of what is going on and the conditions under which these animators are working.
I don’t know what more there is to say other than I hope that fans support these animators, who are voicing their concerns.
I mean, the best-case scenario would be that the production for Jujutsu Kaisein Season 2 is delayed, the production committee ends up taking the hit for Studio Mappa’s greed, and the animators who are working on Season 2 of Jujutsu Kaisen get the time that they need to release a quality product.
