Warning! Contains spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 episode #11!Jujutsu Kaisen is no stranger to disturbing imagery, but one episode of Season 2 has completely pushed the boundary on what’s acceptable to show in a Shonen anime. It perhaps shouldn’t be surprising that a show as dark as Jujutsu Kaisen would push the envelope when it comes to horror and gore. However, it is hard not to be shocked when watching the scene in question given how gruesome it is.
In episode #11 of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2, the evil sorcerer Awasaka reminisces about a time before Gojo’s birth when he could be free to act however he wanted. He fondly remembers burying living people in the woods until only their heads poked out of the ground and then graphically tearing their faces off. The anime doesn’t just imply this while cutting away from the act itself like any other Shonen featuring something this dark would do. Instead, it shows in full detail as Awasaka makes an incision in the back of his victim’s head and reaches his hands under their face, peeling it off.
Jujutsu Kaisen is Pushing the Limits of Gore in Shonen Anime
This is by far the most disturbing scene in a Shonen to be animated in such detail. This isn’t the first time that the series has featured such a gruesome subject of course. Jujutsu Kaisen‘s anime even made its villains more disturbing by implying they killed children. Other series have featured some pretty gruesome scenes as well, such as Hunter x Hunter‘s infamous brain surgery scene in the Chimera Ant arc. However, in general, those scenes are not very graphic, more implying the horror as opposed to fully animating it. This Jujutsu Kaisen scene hints that that approach to displaying disturbing content in Shonen may be changing.
This could be the culmination of a growing trend towards darkness in new Shonen series. Jujutsu Kaisen is a member of the so-called “Dark Trio” that includes Chainsaw Man and Hell’s Paradise, all of which are Shonen Jump series that are considered darker and with a more mature approach compared to their predecessors. However, the rising acceptability of gore and dark themes in anime can arguably be traced back to Attack on Titan, which became a megahit despite featuring large amounts of graphic violence that could turn away more squeamish viewers. Appropriately, the studio animating Jujutsu Kaisen is also responsible for Chainsaw Man, Hell’s Paradise, and the end of Attack on Titan.
Jujutsu Kaisen Sets A Violent Example For Future Shonen to Follow
The fact that Studio MAPPA animates all of those shows could imply that it is the only studio willing to make Shonen series that dark and graphic. However, this would ignore the broader trends in the genre in recent years towards more grotesque imagery. Thus this Jujutsu Kaisen scene featuring the sadistic Awasaka is likely a harbinger of future Shonen scenes to come as the genre’s boundaries continue to be pushed beyond its former limits on gore and graphic violence.
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 episode #11 is available to watch on Crunchyroll.
