The state of anime in 2023 could not be worse. Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 is rumored to have halted production after the release of episode 17 this week. It’s unfortunate to say, but there is a darker side to anime, and unfortunately, animators are finally speaking out.
There is no need to shy away from saying this. But there is literally a crisis unfolding within the anime industry with overworked animators and studio Executives profiting more than they have ever done before.
It seems like the straw has finally broken the camel’s back for the production of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2. This is an actual issue with animators and directors speaking out, and it’s something that is not even exclusive to Studio Mappa. Still, it’s an issue with almost every single Anime Studio and every single anime production.
To back up everything, we will be delving into quotes from animators, the decisions of the production committee, and the broader implications that all of this has on anime as a whole. We were all made aware of this issue when several animators from Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 took to Twitter and revealed to us the actual dire situation they were in.
Tweets getting Viral about Animators getting Harrased and Underpaid
These tweets have painted a picture of a production that’s in a literal hell, I mean, episodes are being completed just hours before that air date. A Reddit post, in particular, has started going viral, where an individual, @mango_yogurt10 has compiled together all of these tweets from all of the animators and people working on Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2
So the post begins by saying Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 animators have undergone a collective meltdown over the past few hours on Twitter as they’re talking about the production crash and their poor working conditions.
Staff have requested a delay, but they have been denied a delay by the production committee, and this is the emphasis here, episodes are being completed just hours before they are airing.
This is unfortunate because animators are asking these Studio Executives and the people in charge for more time in order to ensure the quality of the finished work. When it comes to the production committee, it’s composed of entities like Toho and Shueisha, who have made agreements with Studio Mappa that season 2 of Jujutsu Kaisen needs to be released in 2023.
This schedule is set in stone, and there are financial and logistical implications If this isn’t done by Studio Mappa. All the Issues stem from way at the top, and they are trickling down onto the animators, and they are the ones who have to suffer here.
So the post continues on to say that episode 17 will still look good as it has a stacked list of animators, but from then on, it’s not looking good. For those of you wondering, why can’t they take a break for a couple of episodes and delay it?
There are multiple factors at play. Firstly, the production committee is made up of parties like Toho and Shueisha, so unless the majority vote to delayed, nothing is going to happen.
Secondly, it costs a lot of money to delay an anime production, as it means rebooking air slots with the TV channel that Jujutsu Kiasen is airing on, as well as redoing all of the marketing that they have been doing and pushing back Blu-ray releases.
Again, like the poster is saying here, this isn’t justification for why it hasn’t been delayed. This is just stating all of the different cogs that are at play and that are preventing the animators from getting more time to work on the anime.
終わりました pic.twitter.com/lg20uCZzUI
— 皮利克斯 (@cjAus101723) November 15, 2023
Animators of Jujutsu Kaisen Coming Out and Speaking about Their Condition
So the director and storyboarder for Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Episode 13, Aray Kazuto, has also voiced his concerns on Twitter, stating that “bad news has arrived and they are suddenly overwhelmed by the most boring ending that they can think of and the festival is over. Yes, disbanded.”
While the translation by Google is really bad, you can make out that he is emotionally distressed, and just working on Jujutsu Kaisen in season 2 isn’t fun.
Right now, Okubo Shunsuke, director of episode 12, has shared a disturbing image that symbolizes the exhaustion and despair of animators, and it’s a picture of one of the main protagonists of an anime called Shiro Bako, which is about making anime, where the character appears to be trying to hang herself while being visibly tired.
And yes, this female character is, in fact, an animator within the show that he is referencing. I mean, it speaks volumes for the amount of mental distress that the anime production has taken on.
— B (@wuokb) November 14, 2023
Another animator working on Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 is a now-deleted tweet that hints about some complaints he is having regarding the production of an important show he’s working on right now.
This tweet was suspiciously made at the same time as the other animators who were voicing their concerns about working on Jujutsu Kaisen right now.
I mean, this may not even be in reference to this situation, but since everybody is complaining about Jujutsu Kaisen season 2’s production, it doesn’t take a genius to connect all the dots together.
I mean, there are several other animators who are retweeting all of their prior criticisms of Studio Mappa, suggesting that there has been a long-standing issue with this Animation studio.
One of the animation directors for Jujutsu Kaisen, Roccia Nobili, in a now-deleted tweet, very briefly and succinctly says, it’s over. So, for a bit more background, Kevin from Sakuga Buro has actually discussed the situation in detail.
So these tweets appear to be in reference to Studio Mappa, as Kevin states, “It’s a reminder that if you hire teams of young materially ambitious creators because you want to exploit the bombastic appeal of their work.
It’s not their fault if it becomes impossible for them to comply with the Studio’s pathetic planning as it wasn’t the animators who had ruined the schedule,”
Reminder that if you hire teams of young, materially ambitious creators because you want to exploit the bombastic appeal of their work, it's not their failing if it becomes impossible to comply with your studio's pathetic planning. *They* didn't doom the schedule, it already was
— kViN 🌈🕒 (@Yuyucow) November 14, 2023
Mappa animators working on Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 are literally dying due the terrible working conditions.
Kevin goes on to say that it takes time for animators to hone their skills and bring good quality to animation production. Unfortunately, animators in this day and age are not hired to be efficient. They’re being put into very high-profile projects.
I mean, you have things like Attack on Titan, Chainsaw Man, and Jujutsu Kaisen, all with animation issues. And these highly skilled animators are then being pushed to constantly go all out with fans. Either regularly praising how good an anime is on Twitter or being all too quick to call an anime out as soon as a single issue arises.
I think that we are very lucky that we haven’t had major issues with some of the episodes that have been airing under these conditions, and you know why these episodes even look good in the first place.
They go all out because of their pride as artists, for the sake of their resume, because they want to help friends, and because that's their mindset. It's the damn reason they're there, and what bruteforces episodes that on the surface are very impressive despite the schedule
— kViN 🌈🕒 (@Yuyucow) November 14, 2023
Kevin says that it’s because of the pride of the artists they’re animating on these shows to build their catalog of work in order to secure more jobs in the future, and not to mention they help out fellow friends within the animation industry because this is the type of mindset that these animators who are working on these anime have.
An animation studio will come along and then abuse the hell out of you. This is why many episodes look absolutely incredible despite behind-scenes scheduling falling completely heartily and the animators having meltdowns. I don’t think that this issue has just stemmed out of nowhere. This has been brewing for months or even years.
Kevin even goes on to say that there comes a point where a limit is reached where you can’t conjure up an amazing episode out of nowhere, and the quality is suffering because of the terrible scheduling of the animation studio.
The most upsetting thing is that people online are so quick to blame the animators for these issues. We had this exact issue happening for Core 2 of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Arc, where if even a single moment within an episode looked sober, people were rushing onto Twitter to complain to the animators that they’d created a PowerPoint presentation.
My Point of View on This Situation
Well, the animation studios are definitely the ones to blame, but we also play a major role in the meltdown of an animator. Sure, the studio harrasss them and underpays them, but we are just as bad as them.
Just like Kavin said, the fans instantly go on Twitter complaining about the animation and harassing the animator. Well, it is true. I have seen many of these tweets getting viral these days.
Jujutsu Kaisen S2 Ep 17
EPISODE OF THE YEAR
The biggest hitters in the anime industry when it comes to animation were brought together due to having such terrible scheduling and time management to give us fans the best action packed episode in jjk.#JujutsuKaisen #呪術廻戦 pic.twitter.com/1K84vpF8IQ
— dre (@v2TokyoGhost) November 16, 2023
The most recent one I saw was Attack on Titan Final Season, where Armin and Eren make cringy faces at the end of the episode. It was rumored that Attack on Titan’s final season was being animated till the last week.
Imagine an animator working for months on his project and getting underpaid, then getting harassed by the fans for poor animation. We can’t do anything about them getting harassed by the studios or getting underpaid since it’s their fight, but what we can do is appreciate their work regularly.
