Interview: Jujutsu Kaisen Director Sung Hoo Park
by Lynzee Loveridge,
Following Yuji Itadori's journey as a Jujutsu Sorcerer after he consumed the finger of Special Grade Curse Ryoumen Sukuna, Jujutsu Kaisen is undoubtedly one of the best animation showcases of the Fall 2020 anime season. Director Sunghoo Park spoke briefly to ANN about the process and challenges of adapting the popular Shonen Jump manga into animated form.
Shonen Jump manga are known to run for years and years. What was the approach for adapting the beginning of such a long-form narrative into a seasonal anime structure?
Our goal wasn't to reconstruct the manga version but to create the anime which follows the original storyline as precisely as possible. Therefore, we've had lots of meetings to discuss details closely with Shueisha and Akutami-sensei.
Have there been any challenges in adapting Jujutsu Kaisen's designs to animation? Those curse creatures are intense!
It was difficult to build the characters, and what was especially difficult to create were the “Domain Expansion” scenes. Obviously, manga is drawn in black and white without motions. Therefore, we really had to think about how we would construct a three-dimensional space, like what it would look like, what color it would be, etc. This also required lots of detailed discussion with Akutami-sensei and Shueisha.
There are some new or altered scenes in the anime so far that weren't in the manga, like extending Nobara Kugisaki's backstory in episode 3. Can fans expect more additional scenes like that from the anime?
I don't want to talk about any spoilers, but you can expect more of the additional and anime-original scenes. These are created with Akutami-sensei's approval, so please look forward to them!
How does working on Jujutsu Kaisen compare to your previous series, The God of High School?
Because these are different teams, there aren't much similarities between the shows. If I were to pick one similarity, it'd be that some of the same people have been working on both shows. Each of these creators is making use of their technique and creativity to make these action scenes possible. So, in that sense, you may see both similarities and differences in the action scenes of the two shows.
Is there a message you'd like to convey to Jujutsu Kaisen's fans?
I hope you will love our anime as much as the manga!
