Recently, Crunchyroll released an interview with MAPPA president Manabu Otsuka, TOHO producer Hiroaki Masutani, and screenwriter Hiroshi Seko. In the interview, the three revealed interesting information about Jujutsu Kaisen, and among them are the surprising inspirations from the series. Specifically, Seko was asked about the difference between story composition for a TV anime compared to a feature film. After all, Seko worked on the composition for both the anime series and the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 movie. In response, Seko shared that there are similarities, but for TV anime, the theme for each episode is thought of deeply, along with how each episode flows into the next. Seko then mentioned how he loves watching overseas dramas, including Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead – two shows that he drew inspiration from when writing Jujutsu Kaisen. It’s safe to say that these two shows didn’t inspire the events of the anime. But what these two shows did that Seko aimed to do in Jujutsu Kaisen was to have a crescendo at the end of every episode so that viewers would be keen to watch the next. Aside from these surprising overseas inspirations, the interview also revealed that the anime was a global effort even in the production stage. When asked about the fight scene animation in the series, Otsuka credited the number of animators on the staff who were “eager to draw those great fight sequences.” Otsuka also shared that these weren’t just composed of Japanese animators and that animators from all over the world also contributed to the highly praised fight scenes in the anime. Jujutsu Kaisen is an anime series by MAPPA that’s based on the manga of the same name by Gege Akutami which is serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump. The manga is among Shonen Jump’s most popular ongoing series, with its lifetime volume sales now at over 70 million. Given the manga’s popularity, the anime also proved to be a big hit when its first season was released. The recent film Jujutsu Kaisen 0 was also a big box office hit. A second season of the anime is set to release in 2023.
