Wednesday, July 5, 2023 saw the official Jump Comics YouTube channel post an anime-quality promotional video for Jujutsu Kaisen’s 26th manga volume, which was released yesterday, on July 4. Volume 23 of the series, currently only available in Japanese, is set to adapt the start of the final chapters of the Culling Game arc.
The preview runs for just over a minute and is seemingly animated at a level of excellence and quality that is comparable to the actual Jujutsu Kaisen anime from MAPPA Studios. In fact, the level of animation quality for the preview is so high that likely the only explanation is that MAPPA Studios did indeed animate this preview for Shueisha, overlaying certain sequences onto live-action footage.
The video also features several voice actors from the Jujutsu Kaisen anime series delivering lines as the preview plays out. While there is no official list in the video’s description of who is speaking during the course of the video, the characters present appear to be Suguru Geto, Yuji Itadori, Megumi Fushiguro, and Setsuko Sasaki.
Jujutsu Kaisen volume 23 promo video makes magic with help from anime’s voice actors, animation staff
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The Jujutsu Kaisen volume 23 promo opens with a shot of the ocean, quickly switching to show what appears to be one of the Culling Game colonies entrapped in a large, black barrier. The scene then moves to a dark area of a town with clouds passing over it, while a crow flies into and through the town. This eventually segues into a lighted area, that sees a herd of small, fish-like spirits flying through.
A person is then seen crouching against a wall in the illuminated area of a dark alley, with what appears to be Cursed Spirits floating nearby. A dark road is then seen at night, with several eyes opening up in the dark skies above. Next, what comes across as a giant ball of stone is seen floating above a mountain or volcano, before being pierced and seemingly bleeding.
The pace and tone of the preview changes dramatically here, with the music becoming high pitched and the video flickering from scene to scene very rapidly. Cursed Energy is seen flying through the town all over, before shots of various hand signals being made appear. What appears to be a Domain Barrier is seen being broken from the bottom up, with the final scenes showing the crow from before and the same black barrier tower once more.
Meanwhile, a tweet from the official Jujutsu Kaisen PR Twitter account pointed out that the series has now exceeded 80 million copies in circulation. Likewise, the video was made especially to commemorate this achievement, and was apparently done with live-action filming. Shueisha likely had MAPPA overlay some animation onto the live-action footage to create some of the more fantastical scenes in the promo video.
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.
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