---
title: 'AN INCONSISTENT START | Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episodes 1-2 Animation Breakdown'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=bpTXkbq6M6k'
video_id: 'bpTXkbq6M6k'
date: 2026-06-14
duration_sec: 1252
---

# AN INCONSISTENT START | Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episodes 1-2 Animation Breakdown

> Source: [AN INCONSISTENT START | Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episodes 1-2 Animation Breakdown](https://youtube.com/watch?v=bpTXkbq6M6k)

## Summary

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 returns with a visually ambitious but inconsistent start. The first two episodes showcase director Shota Goshozono's unorthodox compositions and creative animation, though minor polish issues and some clunky storyboarding choices are noted.

### Key Points

- **Season 3 Return** [0:00] — Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 is back after a couple of years, with episodes 1-2 being as good as ever, showcasing creative direction and animation.
- **Staff List** [1:03] — Both episodes storyboarded by series director Shota Goshozono, with him directing episode 1 and Yusuke Takada directing episode 2.
- **Animation Directors** [1:42] — Episode 1 had two chief animation directors (Hiomini and Yusuke Ajima) and a small key animator list with many second key animators. Episode 2 had four CADs, 7 ADs, and a longer KA list.
- **Animation Quality** [2:15] — The episodes are solid animation-wise, with multiple approaches to movement, including weighty kinetic sequences and hyperdynamic fights.
- **Minor Issues** [3:01] — The level of polish wasn't as high as expected, possibly due to advanced screenings or scheduling pressures.
- **Episode 1 Opening** [3:31] — The opening shot uses cinemascope aspect ratio, multiple background layers, and volumetric lighting to create a dynamic composition.
- **Animation Wonkiness** [4:15] — Some shots have inconsistent lines and off-sync sleeves, but overall fine.
- **Takafumi Mitani's Work** [5:08] — Mitani animated the first section, including a shot with 3D background and dynamic composition.
- **Body Mechanics** [6:08] — The animation conveys heavy, impactful body mechanics with consistent weight and volume.
- **Stiff Shots** [6:27] — Some shots, like Yuji's head movement and jumping out of a window, appear stiff or janky.
- **Curse Animation** [7:06] — The curse is well-drawn, but some background layers break the illusion of three-dimensionality.
- **Goshozono's Resourcefulness** [7:18] — Goshozono uses still frames and simple looped effects to create long shots without awkwardness.
- **Okuda Sequence** [7:43] — Ambitious storyboards but less stellar animation, with stiffness and occasional melt.
- **Symbolism in Framing** [8:22] — Complex framing in the Zen clan scene symbolizes power struggles, with animated shadows adding depth.
- **Yuji's Stair Climbing** [8:50] — Symbolic isolation represented by Yuji climbing stairs repeatedly, with reused shots and decent animation.
- **Masahiro Tokumaru's Sequence** [9:23] — Tokumaru animates a technically impressive 2.5-minute sequence with kinetic motion, 3D backgrounds, and consistent weight.
- **Long Continuous Motion** [10:32] — The action uses smooth, continuous animation rather than stop-and-go payoffs.
- **3D City Model** [11:25] — A bird's-eye view of the city was modeled in 3D for a few seconds of footage.
- **Storyboarding Issues** [12:14] — Some cuts lack flow, like Yuji jumping down and landing without transition.
- **Nya Fight** [13:14] — Animated by Teepeoka, with smooth motion and intentional choppiness to reflect Nya's ability.
- **Uta's Appearance** [13:39] — Accompanied by Shinsaku Kosuma's effects with sharp geometric edges and solid acting.
- **Yuji vs Uta Fight** [14:23] — Animated by Takafumi Mitani, with solid animation but some storyboarding choices that disrupt flow.
- **Ragdolling Issue** [15:24] — Yuji's ragdolling looks stiff and janky with massive jumps between key poses.
- **Episode 2 Start** [16:44] — Smooth walk cycles, spacious compositions, and a spectacular fight with flow-over-form animation.
- **Yakumo Crack's Work** [17:14] — Action scenes presumed to be by Yakumo Crack, with distorted models and intense speed.
- **Fay Hung Sequence** [17:57] — Similar flow-over-form philosophy, with better-executed quick cuts.
- **Kichiro Watanabe's Sequence** [18:21] — Outstanding animation but ruined by excessive red color, blurring, and dimming, making it hard to see.
- **Black and White Aesthetic** [19:37] — A cool black and white negative film aesthetic that doesn't bury the drawings.
- **Dialogue Scenes** [19:45] — Goshozono's storyboarding keeps dialogue scenes engaging with outstanding compositions.
- **Overall Verdict** [20:22] — A great start to the season with inconsistencies, but any new Goshozono is good Goshozono.

### Conclusion

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 episodes 1-2 deliver creative direction and impressive animation, though minor polish issues and some clunky storyboarding hold it back from perfection. Overall, a promising start.

## Transcript

We are back, Jiujutsu Kaisen. Bros, we
are so, so back. It's been a solid
couple of years, but JuiTutsu Kaisen,
one of the most refreshingly creative-l
lookinging anime led by one of the most
refreshingly creative characters, is
finally back. And I'm glad to report
it's as good as ever. The first two
episodes of the highly anticipated
Jiu-Jitsu Kaisen season 3 were exactly
what you'd expect them to be. They were
textbook examples of creative people
ditching the textbook and doing their
own thing, of creative people being
creative, and I wouldn't have it any
other way. They were wonderfully
directed. They were well animated. They
were eye-catching in all the right ways.
They were amazing. Minor issues and all.
As such, as always, and as expected,
let's break down the visuals. Make sure
to subscribe. If you like this video,
chances are you'll also like the 17,000
more Juutsu Kaisen videos I'll upload in
the coming weeks and months. So,
subscribe. You can also become a member
of this channel. Members get at least
two exclusive videos per month, custom
badges and emojis, shoutouts, and more.
Just go down there and press the join
button. As always, let's start with the
staff list. Both episodes were
storyboarded by series director Shota
Shazono with him doubling down as the
episode director for the first episode
and assistant director Yusuke Takadada
taking on that role for episode 2. Now,
it's practically mandatory for me at
this point to suffix the name Shotoshono
with something along the lines of one of
the most creative minds in the industry,
which he is. And as you'd expect from a
Shoison production, the episodes were
filled with unorthodox composition
choices, highly competent animation and
an oxymoronic sense of familiarity in
its sheer refusal to do anything
familiar, or in other words, the
direction and storyboards good for the
most part. Over on the drawing front,
episode 1 had two chief animation
directors in the two character
designers, Hiomini and Yusuke Ajima, two
animation directors, a small but stacked
key animator list, and an entire army of
second key animators outnumbering the
key animators 7 to1, which is just
tradition at this point. Episode 2,
meanwhile, had four CADs, the
affforementioned two alongside JJK
regular Sotaya Yamazaki and Mitsu Mori,
7 ADs, a longer KA list, and a slightly
smaller second key animator army.
Overall, not bad by Mapa's admittedly
low standards. The episodes themselves
were extremely solid animation-wise.
They were wild in a methodical sense.
Let's put it that way. Setting aside the
respectable amount of movement, the
episodes didn't shy away from having
several different approaches to
movement, which if that's not your cup
of tea, I'm afraid this season is not
for you. Depending on the situation, the
animation took on many different forms.
Be it the weighty kinetic sequence of
Yugji fighting the curses, the
spectacular unrestrained fright between
Choo and Na or the unorthodox
hyperdynamic Yuji versus Uta, the show
isn't afraid to, for lack of a better
phrase, filter out some of the normies
with its visuals. A bold choice given
the series's global popularity, but an
unsurprising one given director Goshono
and the rest of the team's track record
both with this very show as well as
other titles. It is however worth
mentioning that these episodes weren't
perfect. They had issues, minor issues,
but issues nonetheless. Of course, I'll
get into the specifics in a bit, but
basically the level of polish wasn't as
high as I had expected from the first
two episodes of a production of this
caliber. I wonder if it's because
they're trying to give the latter
episodes more time or because they had
to rush the first two episodes a bit
because of that advanced screening
thing. Perhaps a combination of both.
Who knows? Anyway, with all that being
said, let's finally go through these
episodes scene by scene. Starting with
episode 1. The episode opened up with
some trademark Goshono storyboards. This
opening shot, for example, it was so
eye-catching. Besides the cinemascope
aspect ratio, you had the first
background layer, the character cell,
and another background layer on top
making the composition feel dynamic and
spacious. Also love the compositing
head. The volutric lighting, aka those
streaks of light meant to represent the
reflective nature of the glass coupled
with the bloom effect looks perfect and
the light rays changing position gives
the illusion that these things are
moving despite the fact that they are
part of the background layer, meaning
they are entirely [music] static.
Animation wise, the scene had very
little going on, just a tiny Yugji
moving in the corner, but it looked
amazing regardless thanks to the clever
composition and compositing. Moving on,
the animation in this shot is a bit
wonky. It's hard to tell given the
blooding, but the lines don't appear to
be particularly consistent, and even the
sleeves are slightly off sync, but it's
fine overall. Nitpicks aside, there are
so many unique compositions here. Too
many to go through. Once again, Goshono
is a master of framing. He knows exactly
how to draw the viewers's eyes towards
whatever he wants their eyes drawn to.
He knows exactly how much visual
information to convey in each shot,
ensuring the viewer is neither over
stimulated nor bored. He is insanely
good. Plus, the shots conveyed a ton of
intent. The whole idea here was to
convey Yuji's mental isolation and
self-hate. And Goshono portrayed that
perfectly. Him washing his hands, but
the blood refusing to come off, his
eyes, aka the most human part of a
character being blocked out. Genius.
More about the animation. This entire
section and the scene that followed,
basically everything before the OP was
animated by Takafumi Mitani, which is
particularly cool because he also
animated the first scene of Jiu-Jitsu
Kaisen season 2. And while not perfect,
his work was really impressive. This
shot was insanely fun and a perfect
example of Koshaono's dynamic, spacious
compositions. The background layers form
a horizon and the curse is placed behind
it except its arm which is actually in
front of the horizon with a strong for
shortening effect since it's closer to
the camera with the effect getting
stronger as it gets closer. Now, most
sane directors would end the short hair,
but not Goshono. Yuguji starts running
and the camera pans backwards revealing
that the background is actually 3D.
Brilliant. Absolutely breathtaking piece
of background art here with some solid
creature animation and again every
single shot is incredibly complex and
layered. This one for example, you have
the super super background sky, the
super background building, 2D effects
over it, another background layer in the
windows and stuff, and a second cell
layer of Utah. So that's five layers of
visual information. Wow. By the way,
don't let my obsession with the
storyboards fool you. The actual
animation was really impressive as well.
The body mechanics felt heavy and
impactful with every action being
consistently drawn to convey the maximum
amount of weight. The background work,
be it 3D or otherwise, and the motion
bluring helped with that. Things weren't
perfect, though. This shot looked stiff.
I don't like how Yuji's head went
downwards and just froze. Also, him
jumping out of the window was quite
janky. And I didn't like how we saw him
running towards the window in one shot
and halfway in the air in the next one
without any visual indicator of him
jumping. Shortly afterwards, we had this
shot where the curse is clearly damaging
the buildings by brushing against them.
But when the smoke clears, the buildings
are intact, obviously, because they're a
background layer. This makes the shot
look flat, hindering the illusion of
volume and three-dimensionality that
Goshono loves to convey. None of this is
significant, of course, but the first
episode, which on paper should be the
most polished. Having issues like these
isn't exactly a good sign. Anyway, the
curse itself was quite well drawn. Also,
shout out to the random 2D bowls. I
appreciate the effort. It was good.
Just, you know, small things here and
there, things most fans won't even
notice. Another thing about Goshono is
that he's excellent at making a lack of
movement feel intentional. Near the end
of Mitani's sequence, we had a 20 second
shot of the camera panning up a still
frame followed by another 20 second
still frame with some simple looped
effects near the end. So that's around
40 seconds that needed just two
character drawings, a small amount of
looped effects and some compositing
tricks and it didn't look awkward
whatsoever. That man is a genius. We
then got to Okoda sequence and once
again we had ambitious, dynamic and
meaningful storyboards and less than
stellar animation. The acting had a
certain amount of stiffness to it with
some occasional melt. It was ambitious.
Absolutely. I'm sure Goshono's
storyboards didn't make life any easier
for Okuda, but I wouldn't exactly call
it polished. This shot, for example,
there are unintentional distracting
jumps between the poses giving it that
stiffness I talked about. Negativity
aside, I love the complex framing hair
and the drawings kept up. The room
feeling claustrophobic because it's too
small for all three of them. symbolism
for the power struggles within the Zen
clan was a brilliant idea. By the way,
don't make the mistake of thinking these
shots were stills. They weren't. The
characters might be static, but the
actual shadows were animated back and
forth constantly. Also worth mentioning
some meticulously animated shoe tying
here. As you may know, small movements
like these are held to animate. So,
props to the team. A very fun scene
overall. We then had this section. And
while there wasn't much going on
animation wise, the drawings, Yoskeima
corrections, I believe color use and
background art was insanely good. We
also had more of Koshazono's Hall of
Fame tier resourcefulness. Yuji climbing
down the stairs only to end up at the
top over and over again had symbolic
meaning. It represented his isolation
and it allowed the team to reuse the
same shot by chopping it up. Two birds
with one stone. By the way, the actual
stair climbing was quite well animated,
albeit slightly melty. I know I said the
scene didn't have much going on
animation wise, but this was nice. Also,
a really well-drawn fist curl hair. And
speaking of hands, a tremendously
well-drawn pair of hands then brought us
to the most technically impressive part
of this episode in my opinion. Unpopular
opinion perhaps, I don't know. This
entire section was animated by Masahiro
Tokumaru. And even if you aren't
familiar with that name, chances are
you've seen some of his work before.
Remember those intricately choreographed
fights from the anime Vivi? the ones
that were plastered all over the
internet back in the day. Well, most of
them were bent by Tokumaru and more
recently, he did a ton of work for the
sports anime Oblivion Battery, animating
many of its highlights and directing and
storyboarding the most impressive
looking episode of it. Needless
biographies aside, the point is Tokumaru
is excellent at kinetic motion at
weighty body mechanics and he loves
using 3D in his workflow and both of
those skills were visible throughout
this entire sequence. The scene started
with this large scale shot that I've
talked about before in a trailer
breakdown. The sense of
three-dimensionality was off the charts
and the three-tone liquid animation
complete with these vertical lines
looked amazing. We then got this cut
with those classic Tokumaru effects. The
liquid had tons of organic individually
animated shapes, lineless ones of
course, because how cool is that? A
thing I loved about this entire section
was its use of long continuous motion.
The action didn't hide behind stopand go
payoffs. Not that there's anything wrong
with that. Instead, it kept moving. The
curses, for example, their movement was
so smooth and had this weird sense of
weight and flow because they never
stopped moving. Also, the drawings
themselves were incredibly consistent
and volutric, which added to the
three-dimensionality of this shot.
Speaking of the third dimension, I'll be
honest, the 3D bridge does look a bit
clunky, especially in this wide shot.
But the unorthodox camera placements and
Eugi's top-notch body mechanics more
than made up for it. There's so much
weight behind Yugji's run, jump, and
subsequent freef fall. Again, it's not
stopand go motion. Rather, it's smooth,
continuous animation made possible by
Tokumaru's excellent draftsmanship. The
placement of every single frame is
methodical with the goal of making the
curses and Yuji feel like actual
physical bodies with consistent weight
and volume. We then got this bird's eye,
or rather this curs's eye view of the
entire city. Meaning, yes, they modeled
the entire thing in 3D just for these
few seconds of footage. a luxury most
other shows can't even think of
affording and it was worth it in my
opinion. Also, a lot of these curse
insights were either 3D or 3D assisted.
Again, Tokaroo loves his CGI, but they
didn't look out of place given the
consistent character animation.
The framing throughout this entire
section was absolutely topnotch. Here's
an example. Why frame Yuji simply
hanging from a balcony when you can add
an extra building with broken walls that
reveal parts of the interior? But wait,
what if that's too much? What if the
viewer doesn't know where to look? Well,
fear not because one, the relevant
building is lit while the rest are dark.
And two, the composition itself
naturally guides your eyes towards the
focus. Again, genius. While we're on the
topic, as impressive as the compositions
were, I do have a few issues with the
storyboarding. This section, for
example, Yugji jumps down and in the
next shot, he has already landed,
letting the buildup of the previous shot
go to waste. Then in the very next shot,
we see him mid-run without ever seeing
him get up and start running. We can
figure that part out ourselves
obviously, but it looks clunky in
motion. I'm sure some of you will call
this nitpicking, but I have to point
this stuff out. Anyway, the curses were
incredibly well animated. The weight
behind their movement was outstanding,
especially because many of them had
unorthodox anatomies, the kind you can't
use real life references for. Also, the
untextured 3D backgrounds looked
amazing, and these shots animated on
once looked eerily smooth. Pretty sure
they're not auto in between, which makes
them even more impressive. Tokumaru's
outstanding 2 and 1/2 minute sequence
was finally brought to a close with some
incredible drawings. Yajima productions
again, I believe, and some fantastic
liquid effects. We then got some fun
shorthand drawings followed by the Nawa
fight animated by Teepeoka, which was
really fun. The motion was extremely
smooth. And if you thought Nya's
movement was choppy, that there were
frames missing, well, mission
accomplished, because that's the point.
That's literally what his ability is. As
per usual, the compositions were off the
charts with an unparalleled sense of
space and distance. Even the backgrounds
were heavily warped at times to convey
that effect. The Nya fight was followed
by Uta's appearance, which was
accompanied by Shinsaku Kosuma's easily
recognizable effects with those sharp
geometric edges and some solid acting.
Love the paradax said. As far as I can
tell, the background isn't 3D. It's just
some clever fragmentation of the BG
illustration and panning. Although I'm
not entirely sure. The episodes also
used a ton of these short reverse shots.
At least that's what I think they're
called. Shots where the composition
remains the same, but the camera flips
180°. Koshas only used a lot of those
hair. This shot was cool in concept. I
get what they were going for and I
understand how difficult it is to draw a
shot from that perspective, but in
motion it just looks a bit comical. Not
a fan. Anyway, that brief chase sequence
then brought us to Yuji versus Uta. And
I have opinions. Firstly, it seems like
the entire fight was animated by
Takafumi Mitani, meaning he animated
seven solid minutes around a third of
the episode, which insane. And the
animation throughout the fight was
pretty solid. It's just I don't know how
I feel about some of the storyboarding
choices. Let's go through it in order.
This first exchange looks a bit off to
me. Not a fan of the weird zoom in and
the whole thing seems to lack the sense
of flow it was going for with those
quick cuts. Here's an example. The
energy/buildup hair was stopped dead in
its tracks by this slow motion shot. And
the shot that followed didn't build up
enough energy for the shot that came
after it to feel natural. Does that make
sense? Watch it again. Maybe you'll
understand what I mean. I did love these
long exchanges. The actions made sense.
It wasn't just I'll swing wildly and you
dodge. Every single slash was carefully
thought out. Also, the animation was
really solid. The movement wasn't
particularly tight or snappy, but that
was the intention to convey motion
that's more natural and loose. This shot
looked really mediocre. Unfortunately,
Yugji Ragdolling looked incredibly stiff
and janky with massive jumps between key
poses and a complete lack of energy near
the end. It looked like Yuji rolled over
for absolutely no reason whatsoever,
like it was a video game and the player
had high ping. Even the debris animation
melted a fair bit. Plus, some of the
drawings and movement around it weren't
exactly stellar. We did have more of
Midani's loose natural body mechanics,
so at least there's that. But the issues
were evident. Regardless, really strong
drawings here, followed by a ridiculous
bit of background animation. And the
entire background, including the car and
its interior, was hand animated, which
of course is insane. But once again, the
storyboards were a bit iffy. Goshona
tried to do that thing where you use a
lot of quick cuts and each cut flows
into the next one seamlessly, kind of
like what itsami occasionally does, but
I don't think he got the timing right.
The editing just felt clunky. The flow
was almost there, but not quite. In my
opinion, the transfer of energy between
shots was imperfect. I don't know. Am I
the only one? And I'm a massive
storyboarding nerd, so I see both what
Koshuna was going for and how he didn't
quite get there. But do let me know what
you guys think. Anyway, some lovely
drawings and curse animation then
brought us to the end of episode 1. Long
story short, a fairly impressive work,
but not one without its issues. Episode
2 started with a couple of really smooth
walk cycles, some spacious compositions,
some insane background art, and this
absolutely spectacular fight. Many of
those action scenes are presumed to be
the work of Yakumo Crack, an animator
who caught my eye with his work on
Shield Hero season 3. Initially, a lot
of people thought those scenes were
animated either by Goshono himself or by
Rui since both have animated similar
shots before. I wasn't the Koshono camp,
by the way, but that doesn't appear to
be the case. It still looks a bit
Goshono to me, but hey, whatever.
Anyway, I've talked about these shots
before. They are a textbook example of
that flow over form mentality that makes
2D animation so special. The idea was to
convey speed, force, and intensity. And
good god, did they succeed. They weren't
afraid to distort and twist the
character models to their utmost limits,
literally breaking them at times. It's
the kind of sequence fans scream
incomplete animation or I can't tell
what's happening at both very wrong
opinions. By the way, as impressive as
the animation was, we need to talk about
the art direction and the compositing.
These Shinyhira inspired pencil lines
added by the latter looked amazing and
the distorted intensity of the animation
was perfectly complemented by the warped
backgrounds. Fantastic work. We then got
Fay Hung sequence which had a similar
flow over form philosophy. Although it
wasn't as over the top. Also worth
mentioning the sequence used that quick
cuts method of action storyboarding that
Yuji versus Uta used but it was executed
better. The flow was flowing if that
makes sense. Some solid character
acting, brilliant compositions, and 3D
background black magic then brought us
to Kichiro Watanabe's sequence. And once
again, I have opinions. Animation wise,
it was outstanding. One of Watanabe's
career best. And think of how much
territory that takes in [music] the
wild, unrestrained motion, the iconic
flowy timing, those trademark effects,
it tremendous amount of background
animation. It was outstanding. I just
wish I could see any of it. What the
[ __ ] just happened here? Why did they
butcher Watanavi's work like this? Why?
The scene was drowned out in red, making
it feel a bit one note and making it
difficult to appreciate the drawings,
which would have been bad enough on its
own. But on top of that, they decided to
blur everything, as well as add this
light flicker and dim effect, which made
the animation practically
incomprehensible.
Don't get me wrong, I don't have a
problem with the movement itself being
difficult to follow. That's the point.
And I don't have a problem with
directors prioritizing the overall
screen instead of the raw 2D animation.
As long as the overall screen looks
better than said raw 2D animation, which
was not the case here. From what I've
seen, the advanced screening didn't have
that obnoxious bluring and dimming. I
haven't seen it, but based on what I've
heard, it didn't, which makes it
particularly bizarre. In the back of my
mind, I can kind of see what they were
going for, enhancing the uncanny nature
of Fatanabi's animation with the
bluring, but I don't think it worked at
all. Anyway, this was cool, though.
Loved the black and white negative film
aesthetic, especially because they
didn't bury the outstanding drawings.
Good stuff. Moving on, we had a lot of
dialogue, but thanks to Goshono
storyboarding, it didn't feel boring.
The compositions were consistently
outstanding, so much so that they could
linger on nearly, if not outright,
static shots for long periods of time
without it feeling awkward. Of course,
we did have a decent bit of character
acting. Some shots executed better than
others, but by and large, it wasn't
exactly a Sakuga fest. Plus, some of the
drawings weren't perfect. The drawing
supervision was a bit inconsistent.
Despite all that though, the shots
looked captivating, which hey, that's
Shota's owner for you. He'll find a way
to make things look interesting no
matter what. And those with the episodes
a great way to start the season in
consistencies and all. As a general rule
of thumb, any new Goshono is good
Goshono and that's doubly true if he
isn't actively being [ __ ] over by the
schedule. So, this was great. I don't
know how well this season will fared in
the long run based on everything I've
heard. The answer should be a lot lot
better than season 2, but you never
know. So, I'll end this video on an
optimistic hoping for the best. That's
about it. A special thanks to N03,
Ahmed, and the Galas 90 for becoming
tier three members.