Jujutsu Kaisen’s Shibuya Incident Opening Made it Even More Brutal

Warning! Contains spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2!

Jujutsu Kaisen‘s Shibuya Incident was an incredibly brutal arc, but its anime opening actually made it even more devastating. This is one of the rare instances where an anime adaptation has actually improved on its source manga. However, when looking at the amount of care that went into all aspects of the show it is not surprising that the opening would be used to serve this purpose.

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2’s second opening does a great job of featuring the important characters of the arc and hinting at major fights and twists to come. This even includes epic scenes such as Toji’s resurrection and shocking moments like Nobara’s death. This already made it one of the best openings of the year, but what elevated it to another level were the changes to the opening as the arc went on.

Initially, the opening ended with Yuji looking at a large group of his allies. But after Sukuna’s rampage, the final shot changed to a destroyed city, reflecting the brutal body count the arc had.

Jujutsu Kaisen‘s OP Change Is Just One of Many Improvements To the Manga

This is a very clever use of the anime format to increase the quality of an already great story. It is also one of many such elevations of the source material done by the staff at studio MAPPA over the course of this season. This includes more standard changes such as additional scenes fleshing out some of the characters and plot, but it also covers some more creative additions, such as using its ending to increase the brutality of Riko’s death in the Gojo’s Past arc. The opening music was also used after Sukuna’s fight with Mahoraga to underscore the destruction he had caused.

That scene featuring the opening song certainly hints at one reason why the OP is so powerful. The song SPECIALZ by King Gnu is an insidious earworm, sung from the perspective of the villains of the arc. This makes the shot of the destroyed city at the end of the opening feel sickeningly triumphant, showing that even if most of the antagonists in the Shibuya Incident perished, Sukuna and the sorcerer possessing Geto still got what they wanted in the end. It also hammers home the shocking nature of the arc in a way that even manga readers couldn’t predict, as the opening is entirely anime original.

More Anime Should Learn From Jujutsu Kaisen‘s Opening

OPs that change over the course of a season are somewhat rare in anime, but Jujutsu Kaisen shows how effective it can be. It even changed its opening to include a reference to Yuta solely for the finale. All of these innovative changes serve to enhance the already excellent Shibuya Incident arc and prove that more anime should take Jujutsu Kaisen‘s creative approach to its OP.

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