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Following the release of Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 episode 14, the anime received a lot of criticism for seeming poor-quality animation. The Episode Director, Hokuto Sadamoto, responded to such criticisms and broke down on X while revealing the tough conditions he had to work under at MAPPA.
MAPPA has a reputation for pushing out anime. Due to this, they tend to get criticized whenever fans would notice any minor error in the episode. While initially it was the animators who would get criticized, with time, fans have come to an understanding that it is the senior executives who are at fault.
Jujutsu Kaisen Key Animator breaks down and reveals MAPPA's poor work conditions
Following the release of Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 episode 14, the Episode Director Hokuto Sadamoto came forward to respond to fans' criticisms. From the get-go, he was seemingly unhappy with what he had helped produce. This was because he was tasked with finishing 250 cuts in just two weeks.
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Additionally, he was led to believe that he was not going to be credited for the episode, allowing him to save face. Unfortunately, a leak revealed to fans that Hokuto was the episode director, following which he started facing criticism for the episode's animation and storyboarding.
The Jujutsu Kaisen episode director apologized to fans for trying to run away from taking responsibility for the episode. He revealed that he wasn't satisfied with what he had released and promised to make it up to fans through future work. Until then, Hokuto Sadamoto was ready to live his life as "the worst animator who has ruined a masterpiece."
Fortunately for him, fans were no longer harsh on him and went after the anime studio MAPPA for putting its employees through such terrible working conditions.
How fans went after MAPPA
Following the Episode Director's breakdown, Jujutsu Kaisen fans revealed how it was not just Hokuto Sadamoto but several other staff members who complained about MAPPA's poor working environment.
One animator revealed how they weren't paid after they happened to lose the contact information of the production team. Meanwhile, another animator revealed that there were several directors for the Jujutsu Kaisen anime, basically one person in charge of directing each episode.
Upon seeing all of this, fans began to criticize MAPPA online. One fan even asked others to no longer praise MAPPA for any animation or episode. Instead, the fan asked them to praise the Jujutsu Kaisen team. Considering how the anime studio was treating its staff members, fans did not believe that the studio should receive any credit for the hard work of staff members.
Lastly, some fans decided to point out the irony of the Jujutsu Kaisen situation. When the anime depicted one of Satoru Gojo's scenes differently from the manga, the animation team was criticized for it. This may lead one to believe that fans wanted accurate panel adaptations for the anime.
However, this wasn't the case either as Toji Fushiguro's scene in Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 episode 14 was animated accurately as shown in the manga, nevertheless, it received hate from fans.
Fans even pointed out how sad it was that the animators had to respond to criticism online. Despite the fact that the staff members had little to no control over the situation, they were criticized for their work, which caused them to break down, all while risking future work opportunities.
