Amidst the controversy surrounding Mappa, Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2’s animation remains top-notch. However, Jujutsu Kaisen Episode 17, despite having a “god-level” animation, fans are unhappy with the little narrative that Sukuna received.
Jujutsu Kaisen Episode 17 Did Not Do Justice With Sukuna’s Narrative
Despite the controversy surrounding the poor working conditions at Mappa Studios, it is both inhumane and remarkable to say the animators did a great job with Jujutsu Kaisen Episode 17. While the episode, as fans have given their verdict, has surpassed Episode 16, it still failed to clear out the point of view of Sukuna. The fight has been complained about by anime-only viewers for not having enough narrative to explain the techniques displayed in the episode between Sukuna and Mahoraga, and manga fans believe this fighting sequence could have been done better.
I wonder if they had even planned for Sukuna’s monologue since VA’s record lines in the middle of production using rough cut storyboards. No need to match mouth flaps either bc it’s just Sukuna thinking. Maybe they wanted to show how confident/intelligent Sukuna is through his battle actions? I think the only line they didn’t have Sukuna say is “if i’m understanding this correctly.. it’ll stand up” but not too sure
u/studyoasis
In Jujutsu Kaisen Episode 17, to save Megumi and interrupt his ritual summoning Mahoraga to kill Shigemo, Sukuna fights the Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila. The fight scene seemed smooth throughout the episode, featuring havoc in Shibuya surrounding a particular area. But there were fewer dialogues for Sukuna explaining his tricks to fight Mahoraga.
I’m anime only, but the few slides from the manga explained it much cleaner. Was to hard to follow Sukunas monologue while it felt like 1000 frames per seconds were shown. So much happening within seconds and it was to much for me to comprehend tbh.
u/Smog2701
The manga readers feel that there was a lot of potential to explain Sukuna’s Malevolent Shrine Technique and how he used that to defeat Mahoraga. The scenes show that while Sukuna used that domain expansion technique, it turned every living non-living thing into dust, but the lack of narrative of Sukuna during this destruction couldn’t clear this technique for the fans.
Few fans have complained about the unpolished fight scenes in the anime, including Mappa’s unnecessary dimming of the scenes which made it even more unclear for viewers. They observed that many scenes were edited off abruptly and lacked detail and that Mahoraga appeared less “monstrous.” It’s not just the fans who are upset; the episode’s creators have also tweeted that it’s incomplete.
“I worked on those cuts until yesterday…I wished I was faster and could have done a better job…thank you for the kind messages…”
-@NobiliRoccia (One of the animators of Episode 17)
Not just the scenes, fans are highly disappointed with the subs that Crunchyroll has rolled out. Malevolent Shrine became “Makora Kitchen.” However, it has been corrected and updated for the fans to follow. Many fans are currently demanding that the same episode be re-released, but this time with corrected details.
This episode was a noticeable drop in quality. It was hard to tell what was really happening and the animation was clearly unfinished. The subtitles(atleast on Crunchyroll initially) were wrong. The episode was apparently only finished hours before it aired in Japan.
u/kdot2014
Read the complete Reddit Thread here:
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 – Episode 17 [[Manga Readers Discussion]]
byu/Takada-chwanBot inJuJutsuKaisen
The fans’ fear that the quality of Jujutsu Kaisen episodes will deteriorate has come true, and the quality of future episodes remains a cause of concern. If this mistreatment of the Mappa animators continues, the legacy of the Jujutsu Kaisen series may eventually lose its impact.
