Jujutsu Kaisen Animator Meltdown Proves a Fundamental Problem With Anime’s Biggest Studio

For years, Studio MAPPA has received criticism for their incredibly poor treatment of their animators, with Jujutsu Kaisen season 2’s production issues being the most recent and the most publicized. Numerous animators who have worked on season 2 have come out about poor pay and unreasonable deadlines, and season 2, episode #14 was criticized so heavily that the director felt the need to apologize for it on X.

It’s become increasingly clear that Jujutsu Kaisen season 2’s production has been just as disastrous as any other Studio MAPPA anime, if not worse, and the most recent meltdown from the staff behind it makes that impossible to deny. MAPPA animator HoneHone recently commented on season 2’s production to reemphasize their unreasonable schedules and how little MAPPA does to make things better for them,

The worst thing is when all the staff work hard to complete a schedule that would normally be impossible to meet in time, and the people above them look at the results and think, “I can’t say anything!” and fail to make improvements. I guess the cycle started when I completed one movie in four months…

More than that though, they also say that the issues started when Jujutsu Kaisen 0 had to be finished in only four months. That’s a terrible statement of how things are going at MAPPA, and they only get worse from there.

Studio MAPPA Denied Jujutsu Kaisen Animators A Season 2 Delay

The factor that’s been at the center of the recent meltdown of Jujutsu Kaisen’s animators is how Jujutsu Kaisen’s animators were denied a delay by Studio MAPPA. Production has gotten so hectic that animators are only finishing episodes hours before they’re set to air, and when they asked for a delay, they were denied one by the production committee.

One animator, Barikios, commented on receiving “bad news” and called for the team to disband, and another animator, Amphibi, just said “Owarida”, the Japanese word for “It’s over”,

all of which makes it clear that Jujutsu Kaisen’s production is nothing but a mess, to say the least.

As previously discussed, however, issues with Jujutsu Kaisen and Studio MAPPA go back even further than this. Not only did it recently come out that Jujutsu Kaisen staff had to sign NDAs to avoid talking about season 2’s production, but one prominent animator, Itsuki Tsuchigami, has repeatedly expressed disappointment with MAPPA,

with this tweet, in particular, saying that people need to stop praising MAPPA and praise the people who actually persevered to get things done. It’s abundantly clear that Jujutsu Kaisen season 2’s production has long since become unsustainable, and unfortunately, it’s unlikely that Studio MAPPA will do anything about it.

How Jujutsu Kaisen’s Production Issues Will Impact Season 2

With how massive the latest meltdown by Jujutsu Kaisen animators has been, that naturally calls into question how the rest of season 2 will be impacted. Season 2, episode #17 should already be in production, even if recent news has revealed that it likely won’t be finished until the day it airs, so these most recent frustrations from the animators are likely to only impact episode #18, onward. It’s unknown what that would look like, but the rest of Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 will likely be comparable to season 2, episode #14, which was criticized for its stiff and overall lackluster visuals.

That, of course, is not the issue to focus on, only a byproduct of it. As nice as it would be for every episode of Jujutsu Kaisen to look great, that can’t happen as long as Studio MAPPA keeps maintaining such a toxic work environment, and if this most recent meltdown about how terrible production has been is anything to go off of, that won’t be changing anytime soon. Studio MAPPA has long since been at the center of the criticisms of modern anime production, and everything that’s happened with Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 shows that that reputation is unfortunately well-deserved.

Jujutsu Kaisen releases new episodes Thursdays on Crunchyroll.

Sources: IGN India, Reddit, Reddit.

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