---
title: 'PEAK ACTION | Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 9 Animation Breakdown'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=mNS4926bySA'
video_id: 'mNS4926bySA'
date: 2026-07-28
duration_sec: 757
---

# PEAK ACTION | Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 9 Animation Breakdown

> Source: [PEAK ACTION | Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 9 Animation Breakdown](https://youtube.com/watch?v=mNS4926bySA)

## Summary

This video provides an in-depth animation breakdown of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 9, focusing on the staff, storyboarding, and key animated sequences. The episode features a major fight between Yuji and Higuruma, with standout animation from Chinese animator Neon 41 and other key staff.

### Key Points

- **Episode Overview** [00:00] — Episode 9 is praised as a strong entry, showcasing directorial brilliance, studio animation muscle, and minor visual cracks, adapting the second most important fight of the season.
- **Staff List** [01:06] — Directed by Teppei Okuda, storyboarded by series director Shota Goshizono. The episode required 3 chief animation directors, 9 animation directors, 4 assistant animation directors, and 43 second key animators, indicating end-of-season production crunch.
- **First Half Visuals** [02:32] — The A part relied on compositing, storyboards, and drawing quality. Highlights include hand-drawn light flares by Sang-yong Song, water reflection compositing, and a smooth action scene by Zalman.
- **Higuruma's Domain** [03:05] — The domain features a strong yellow glow with paint-like god rays. Drawings are fantastic, with one frame noted for subtle jaw curvature, bold facial features, and three-tone shading.
- **Yuji vs Higuruma Round 1** [04:32] — The start of the fight is stiff and lacks energy, with jumpy frame spacing and a gavel hit that feels clumsy. However, some shots convey decent weight.
- **Neon 41 Sequence** [05:12] — Neon 41's Japanese anime debut features an 80-second sequence with constant motion, excellent pacing, and varied tempo. The animation is heavily corrected to fit Japanese anime style while preserving Neon's distinct style.
- **Neon's Animation Details** [08:46] — The sequence includes buttery smooth strike exchanges, lifelike rag-dolling, acrobatics, and consistent 3D gavel animation. Long shots and quick cuts are used effectively to convey intensity.
- **Post-Neon Sequences** [10:07] — Includes Madi Bengodifa's sequence with liquid effects and weighty fabric animation, followed by a second domain scene with animation-heavy zoom and decent acting.
- **Yuji vs Higuruma Round 2** [10:49] — Features acrobatics, though Yuji's jump seems unrealistic and CGI chairs look funky. Slow, consistently animated turns and rotations are impressive, with effective use of 3D backgrounds.
- **Climax by Daniel Kim** [11:27] — The climax is animated by Daniel Kim, with long lanky limbs, classic shading, and slow-motion shots. The punch has immense impact, and background animation by Tadayadam ends the fight.
- **Post-Fight Acting** [11:56] — Cool acting shots include a difficult basic action and a somewhat broken but cool stair climbing animation.

### Conclusion

Episode 9 is one of the best of the season, with amazing animation, storyboards, and drawings, particularly the Neon 41 sequence. The remaining episodes are expected to be action-heavy, building anticipation for the finale.

## Transcript

Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 episode 9 was
very good to the surprise of absolutely
no one. As per usual, it was an
incredible display of directorial
brilliance, studio animation muscle,
minor visual cracks, and a consistently
put together, albeit slightly
inconsistent aesthetic. What's the
technical term again? Goshizono cinema.
The episode adapted what is arguably the
second most important fight from the
season in terms of narrative
significance, and naturally the team
went off gathering many of the usual
guys as well as brand new exciting names
to create a visual spectacle of a fight
despite the fact that behind the scenes,
the show is probably nearing that end of
season crunch production stage as
evident by the staff list. To sum things
up, episode 9 looked amazing for the
most part, and as such, let's break down
the visuals. Make sure to subscribe,
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So, I've made like five of these now.
You know how these work. Let's start
with the staff list and then go over the
actual episode scene by scene. The
episode was directed by JJK regular
Teppei Okuda and storyboarded by series
director Shota Goshizono, which means
yes, he's back on storyboarding duties.
If I had to guess, I'd say the previous
episode 8 was in the oven for so long
being solo key animated and all that it
wasn't feasible for its production to be
on hold while Goshizono storyboarded the
previous seven episodes, and as such, it
was handed over to assistant director
Yusuke Takada instead. Anyway, you know
what Goshizono storyboards are like.
They're either the greatest you'll ever
see or really, really good, but somewhat
tame by his standards, and this episode
was a bit of the latter. Complex
compositions, really solid action
storyboarding eye-catching meaningful
framing, the whole nine yards, but not
the best I've seen from him.
Over on the animation side of things,
the staff list was a bit messy. Like I
said, I think the show is nearing that
end of season crunch and it's starting
to show. The episode needed three chief
animation directors, nine animation
directors, four assistant animation
directors, and 43 second key animators,
or in other words, it needed lots of
people for roles that should ideally
either be limited to a small number of
people or not exist altogether. Not the
end of the world for a major production
like JJK, but definitely not ideal
either and worth mentioning. [music]
Anyway, with all that boring stuff out
of the way, let's finally go through
this episode.
The first half of this episode wasn't
the most animation heavy thing in the
world. We had a few impressive shots,
but overall the A part let the
compositing, storyboards, and drawing
quality do most of the heavy lifting.
>> [music]
>> We started with some cool effects and
hand-drawn light flares animated by
Sang-yong Song. This cool water
reflection-like compositing texture and
a fairly nifty technically action scene
drawn by Zalman complete with a few
smooth run cycles, background animation
with tons of individual shapes and
lines, and this really smooth flowy
punch. The camera work did a fantastic
job of adding to the momentum.
Following that exchange, we entered
Higuruma's domain, and like I said, the
star of the show here was the drawing
quality, storyboards, and compositing.
The screen had a strong yellow glow
brought forth not just by plain old
lighting, but also by these paint-like
god rays. I'm not entirely sure if they
are background assets composited to look
like lighting or actual lighting effects
added by the compositing team, but
either way, they looked great. Yellow is
one of the hardest colors to execute
properly. It's up there with green.
Poorly implemented yellows and greens
tend to look like piss and uranium 235.
Just ask Tananadad for both.
Compositing aside, the drawings
throughout this section were fantastic
with tons of eye-catching frames. I
believe this section was directed by CAD
Hiromi Niwa, and some of the drawings
were genuinely out of this world. This
one, for example, the subtle curvature
of the jaw and bold facial features
visible thanks to the confident lines,
the richly detailed hair, and three-tone
shading make this one of the best
drawings across the entirety of season
3, in my opinion. Besides that stuff,
the storyboarding here was really well
done with complex wide shots, aspect
ratio changes, multiple changes, and
unorthodox angles. Not the best I've
seen from Go-Shono, but definitely
eye-catching and then some.
Of course, this section wasn't devoid of
animation. We had a serviceable amount
of subtle movement as well as a few
particularly impressive shots. This
meticulously drawn thread unraveling
animation [music] and this complex
low-angle cut, for example, cool stuff.
All of that then brought us to Yuji
versus Higuruma round one, and I'd be
lying if I said the start of it was well
executed. Don't get me wrong, we had a
few cool ideas, but the actual animation
was quite stiff. The drawings and
motions simply didn't have the energy
needed, and the frame spacing was on the
jumpier side. This sequence, for
example, looked slow and clumsy and
didn't have that flow and energy
Go-Shono was probably going for.
Similarly, this gavel hit was a bit
stiff. This shot melted quite a bit, and
the red lighting came off as a bit
excessive and uninspired. I did like
this shot, though. Definitely on the
economical side as far as animation
goes, but a decent amount of weight.
Anyway, this was then followed by the
highlight scene, the scene that will
undoubtedly be talked about the most
online, and for good reason, the scene
animated by Neon 41. Now, Neon, as some
of you may know, is a Yutaka
Nakamura-inspired Chinese animator best
known for his work on shows like Super
Cube. Yes, the fight you're thinking of,
and this was his Japanese anime debut,
[music]
and what a debut it was.
Before we talk about his sequence,
though, let me yap for a second. It's
relevant, I promise. Back when his Super
Cube episode aired, I was one of the
people who was very impressed by his raw
animation skills, but took issue with
his sense of timing and flow. I won't go
into detail, but basically his work felt
a bit too animation for the sake of
animation if that makes sense. There
wasn't much directorial intent behind
many of his shots. Controversial, I
know, but that's just the way I felt.
Anyway, with all that in mind, this was
my favorite work from him ever. I loved
it. I thought it was brilliant, and yes,
I will elaborate. From a storyboarding
point of view, the framing and some of
the poses looked similar to his previous
works, which leads me to believe he was
allowed to modify the storyboards if
fair bit. And like I said, it was
amazing, better than his previous works,
especially when it comes to action
structure and storyboarding.
The tempo felt exciting. The pacing
wasn't mundane, which was one of my
biggest issues with the Super Cube
episode. The action would speed up and
then slow down and then speed up again
and then slow down again. There was
variation. The pacing wasn't one note.
Plus, the character animation was more
focused with less wasted motion and
unnecessary flailing around of limbs.
Also worth mentioning, the sequence was
pretty heavily corrected and extensively
cleaned up, which helped avoid that boxy
Chinese animation look, which there
isn't anything explicitly wrong about
it, but I'm not the biggest fan. Now,
just to clarify, what I just described
isn't as simple as let's just redraw it,
lol. There's a lot more to it than that.
Modifying the drawings to fit a Japanese
anime without compromising Neon's
distinct style and animation quirks is a
Herculean task that probably [music]
took a lot of work. Hats off to the
animation direction and cleanup teams.
Anyway, storyboards and drawings aside,
let's finally talk about the animation.
Holy
Here's the thing, Neon loves to make
things move. His characters are always
in motion, always doing something, an
effect accentuated by his liberal smear
use. The sequence was around 80 seconds
long, and there was maybe 8 to 10
seconds where the characters weren't
explicitly in motion. Again, Neon packed
a tremendous amount of animation power
into the sequence, and I'm glad he did.
We started with this buttery smooth
exchange of strikes with two constantly
animated characters approaching the
camera followed by a series of quick
fluid cuts that they did fantastic job
of preserving the sense of flow between
them. This section for example, Higuruma
hit the gavel and the energy of the
strike was paid off by the next three
cuts. This close-up and these two wide
shots are all three used this shot as
the build-up. As these gavel throws got
more intense, the number of cuts went up
and the poses became more energetic
giving it that sense of build-up and
thankfully those quick shots were
buffered by these slow-motion shots
helping the viewer fully comprehend what
was happening giving their eyes an
opportunity to rest and making the sense
of impact stronger. I loved this
sequence. The kick had so much energy.
It started with a side profile of
Higuruma's legs as he jumped and the
energy of it was transferred to and
enhanced by the next cut. Higuruma
occupied a tiny part of the screen here,
but a few frames and one and a half
battle rolls later he was all up close
and personal giving the strike a
tremendous amount of energy which was
then paid off by this wide shot. Amazing
stuff.
Again, the characters never stopped
moving. The strike exchanges, the really
lifelike rag-dolling, the acrobatics,
even the subtle bits of acting, highly
consistent three-dimensional gavel
animation and bits of 2D background
work, the whole thing was animated
flawlessly. Plus Nyan and Orgoch Shono,
whoever was in charge did a fantastic
job of using both long shots and quick
successive cuts. The timing on both was
perfect conveying a raw, visceral,
uncontrolled sense of intensity that the
series hasn't seen since its Songo Park
days. Insane work. Also, I'm glad some
of Nyan's animation mannerisms made it
to the final product. His distinct sharp
shading, though somewhat Lego block-like
debris, and that classic partially
clenched open hand, it was all there.
Like I said, there was so much energy
packed into the sequence. The kicks, the
rag-dolls, the the thing felt alive.
Plus some of the visual ideas were
brilliant. The tracking shot of Yuji's
feet, the almost comedic rapid-fire
attacks, the spotlight providing some
much-needed color contrast, amazing
stuff.
I won't go over every shot, but to sum
it up, this was one of the best
sequences across the entirety of JJK in
my opinion, although that might just be
recency bias talking. Neon's incredible
layouts and the animation directors and
second key animators translating them to
anime without compromising its visual
identity made the scene one for the
history books.
The episode wasn't done, though. Some
decent acting, including this impressive
bit of gavel twirling, then brought us
to Madi Bengodifa sequence. I probably
butchered that, which started with some
slightly stiff rag-dolling, followed by
smooth, stylish liquid effects and a
tremendous amount of weight conveyed via
energetic effects and fabric animation.
This was then followed by these amazing
close-ups with tons of lines and
effects, and then by the second domain
scene, which was more animation-heavy.
[music] We had some decent acting and a
solid animated zoom.
After all that, we got a few beautiful
drawings and a solid bit of acting,
complete with intricate shading used to
visualize the depth of Higuruma's facial
features. These shots, besides looking
good, served as the entryway to Yuji
versus Higuruma round two, which, while
not as ridiculous as Neon's sequence,
was quite impressive.
We started with a cool bit of
acrobatics, although it was a bit
awkward when Yuji just straight-up
disappeared. I don't think he jumped
that high. Plus, the CGI chairs did look
a bit funky, and Higuruma floating
through them looked a bit iffy, but it
is what it is. Anyway, these slow,
consistently animated turns and
rotations were incredibly impressive,
and this shot was one of my favorites
from this episode. Goshozono did a
fantastic job of utilizing the 3D
background to make the staging feel
grand and, buzzword alert, cinematic.
Also, the spotlights were the cherry on
top.
The big climax was mostly animated by
Daniel Kim, and it was amazing. The
easily recognizable long lanky limbs,
that classic shading, and the highly
consistent for the most part slow motion
shots. It was insane. I loved how you
could feel the bounce in Yuji drawing
back before the punch. The shot was so
volumetric. Also, the shading and the
drawing's hair looked gorgeous and the
sheer amount of impact in the punch was
insane. Also, also quick bit of
background animation drawn by Tadayadam
to end the fight. Really cool stuff.
After the fight, we got some cool
acting. I was particularly fond of this
shot. Basic actions like these are
incredibly difficult to animate. Also,
cool bit of stair climbing animation
near the [music] end. Somewhat broken,
but cool regardless.
And that was the episode. One of the
better ones from this season. Amazing
animation, amazing storyboards, solid
drawings. This episode had it all.
Really impressive.
Based on what I can remember, pretty
much every episode from this point on
should be action-heavy. So, I'm really
looking forward to all of them,
especially the last one. And that's
about it. A special thanks to Nozawa03,
AhmedTheGallus90, and Shikisan for
becoming tier three members. And until
next time.