Shota Goshozono: Everything to know about Jujutsu Kaisen's new director

The upcoming sequel season for Studio MAPPA’s smash-hit Jujutsu Kaisen anime series is set to premiere on July 6, 2023, running for a continuous two-cour length. This information, which was revealed at Anime Japan 2023 over the weekend, has reignited the series' fanbase and sparked intense discussion about upcoming events related to the anime.

Jujutsu Kaisen's latest information also came with a notice of some significant staff changes, especially in the series director role. While Sunghoo Park directed the first season of the series at MAPPA, it seems that the adaptation team has decided to replace Park with Shota Goshozono for the upcoming sequel season.

Likewise, a lot of fan investigations and discussions focusing exclusively on Goshozono's history in the anime industry has taken place since. Follow along as this article briefly summarizes the past work and life experiences of Jujutsu Kaisen season 2’s director, Shota Goshozono.

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Jujutsu Kaisen anime’s newest series director Shota Goshozono brings high-profile experience to MAPPA’s production

Shota Goshozono’s credits, explained

Goshozono’s career in animation, which eventually led him to his directorial role in Jujutsu Kaisen season 2, first began after graduating high school. He joined XEBECzwei, an animation studio which has since become a hub for talented animators and directors. The likes of Ryohei Takeshita, Shin Wakabayashi, Kiyotaka Oshiyama, and Keisuke Kobayashi all started their careers at XEBEC.

The director’s first full animation credit came in 2017 on Takeshita’s directorial debut, Eromanga Sensei. His work here allowed him to begin proving himself as a talented animator with a unique approach to the use of blender tools. Goshozono's work on projects such as Black Clover and Fate/Grand Order - Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia further proved this.

It was around this time that Goshozono joined animation industry circle TAP, where he’d meet future close collaborators such as Moaang, Toya Ooshima, and more. Goshozono then got his first chance as an episode director, ironically on the eighth episode of the first season of Jujutsu Kaisen. While Goshozono didn’t storyboard the episode, his work was apparent via perspective and lighting choices throughout the episode.

His full storyboarding debut came on the second cour of the first Jujutsu Kaisen season, where he and some superstar animators he recruited on Twitter produced episode 17. This episode was regarded as one of the series' standouts, boasting smooth fighting scenes and incredible choices in perspective, lighting, movement, and more.

Goshozono’s next directorial work was on Ousama Ranking episodes 7 and 21, where he truly began coming into his own as a director. Unique scene layouts, color palette choices, and action set pieces lead to both episodes being contenders for the episode of the year. Likewise, they also cemented him as one of the most promising creators in the anime industry currently.

Shota Goshozono’s most recently published work came in the form of Chainsaw Man episode 8, which fans absolutely raved over the quality of. While it was more constricted in terms of story content than his previous works, his influence was nevertheless felt and beloved by fans. MAPPA seems to have felt similarly, with the studio now putting him in charge of directing the highly anticipated sequel season.

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Be sure to keep up with all Jujutsu Kaisen anime and manga news, as well as general anime, manga, film, and live-action news as 2023 progresses.