Jujutsu Kaisen‘s director opened up about the difficulties of bringing Satoru Gojo‘s best scene in the anime to life! The debut anime season for Gege Akutami’s original manga series has been one of the most successful releases since it first dropped last Fall, and it only continued to impress further throughout its run. This was especially true for the fan favorite character, Gojo, who made an impact in the first cour of the season, but didn’t really show off what he could do until the Kyoto Goodwill Event arc in the second half of the season.
The fights and abilities depicted in Akutami’s original manga are already visually distinct enough on their own, but series director Sunghoo Park revealed that there were were some aspects of these fights that were a little more difficult to depict in the animation. As recently revealed in an interview with Crunchyroll, Park admitted that Gojo’s initial Domain Expansion scene in the season was a particularly tough one to get just right.
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The first season revealed that when Gojo removes his blindfold, it was like removing a limiter on his power and was the key to fully unleashing his Domain Expansion, Infinite Void. As Park explained, Domain Expansions were already tough for the anime team, “[T]he domain expansions were also difficult to animate,” Park began, but noted how Gojo’s expansion was memorably tough to produce even with consultation from series creator Gege Akutami himself.
“In the original manga, those scenes are still images in black and white,” Park continued. “…[W]e had to consult the author, Gege Akutami to outline a more detailed image for us. I remember Gojo’s domain expansion, ‘Infinite Void’ was especially difficult to produce.” Gojo’s expansion bent space and time in a way the other ones did not, so the anime team needed to fill in those blanks with more input from the creator.
Based on fan reactions to the anime’s depiction of Gojo, the Domain Expansions, and the action of the series overall, it’s fair to say they succeeded in bringing Akutami’s original vision to life in a new way. It’s why fans are clamoring for an eventual second season, and why they are looking forward to the debut of the first feature film in the franchise, Jujutsu Kaisen 0, hitting theaters in Japan this December.
What did you think about the way Domain Expansions were brought to life in the anime? How did you like seeing Gojo’s in action? How do you feel about Gojo in the first season overall? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!