Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 was definitely the big winner of the 2024 Crunchyroll Anime Awards. It took win, after win, after win, and I can’t say I’m too surprised. In fact, it’d be far more surprising if it didn’t bring home a single win.
Some anime enthusiasts were of the opinion that, prior to season 2 airing, Jujutsu Kaisen was a “mid-ish” shonen anime. Season 2 arrived to revolutionize the point of view of quite a few anime fans, including myself.
Demon Slayer: Swordsmith Village Arc might have been the victor of the Best Animation Award – Studio Ufotable has always been on top of their game with the stellar animation quality – but Jujutsu Kaisen made up for it with every other win it had.
The many awards Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 won
Despite the MAPPA controversy that was happening in parallel to the airing of Jujutsu Kaisen season 2, the series the studio produced (not to mention their other series which were also awarded wins during the ceremony, like Chainsaw Man and Attack on Titan) was, by far, the one to receive the most Crunchyroll awards.
The anime series’ list of wins goes as follows:
- Three Best Voice Acting Awards: Two Satoru Gojo’s voice actors, Yuichi Nakamura (Japanese) and Léo Rabelo (Brazilian Portuguese), and one Suguru Geto voice actor, Martial Le Minoux (French).
- Best Anime Opening and Best Ending Sequence: “Where our Blue is” by Tatsuya Kitani – some would argue “SPECIALZ” was better, but both were unskippable – and “Akari” by Soshi Sakiyama, the emotionally nostalgic ending sequence that was also used as a painful device to ease viewers into a false sense of security at the end of season 2, episode 3.
- Best Supporting Character: Really, who else but Satoru Gojo? The Honored One and now, the Award-winning One as well.
- Best Action Anime: The amazing action sequences were countless this season. On a personal note, season 2, episode 13, “Red Scale,” has been cemented as my favorite 1-on-1 action-heavy shonen episode of all time.
- Best Cinematography: No questions here, I think.
- Best Director: Shota Goshozono, who was also the episode director for the astoundingly beautiful Chainsaw Man season 1, episode 8. In Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 he worked as director and on Storyboard for Ending 2 and 5 episodes, Episode Director for episodes 1, 18, and 23, Unit Director for Ending 2, and was in charge of Key Animation in 7 episodes (via AnimeNewsNetwork)
- Best Character Design: It seems like the slight changes and adjustments in animation style and character design for season 2 were to the series’ benefit.
- Last but certainly the most anticipated award, Anime of the Year 2024. It was presented by none other than Megan Thee Stallion at the end of the ceremony. She seemed pretty joyful on announcing the win – and judging by the majestic female Gojo cosplay she posted on her Instagram timeline and stories a few hours prior, we can begin to speculate why (I’m now new a fan of hers, connected through space-time by anime nerdiness and adoration for Gojo).
In total, Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 reaped an incredible 11 Crunchyroll awards this year. Let’s give a round of applause! – but not like the one teenage Geto kept hearing as background noise during his mental spiraling, please. I’m still not over it.
