Shota Goshozono

Shota Goshozono is a Japanese animator and anime director best known as the series director of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2. Produced by MAPPA and broadcast from July through December 2023, the season adapted Gege Akutami’s manga in two sharply different arcs: “Hidden Inventory/Premature Death” and the “Shibuya Incident.” Goshozono succeeded Sunghoo Park, director of the first television season and Jujutsu Kaisen 0, in the principal directing position for the television sequel. The season contains twenty-three episodes. Its opening five episodes move back to 2006 and center on teenage Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto. Their assignment to protect the Star Plasma Vessel, Riko Amanai, leads to conflict with assassin Toji Fushiguro and establishes the rupture that later separates Gojo and Geto. The story returns to 2018 for the Shibuya Incident, which begins on Halloween night. Curse users and cursed spirits exploit civilians to constrain Gojo in Shibuya; he is ultimately sealed in the Prison Realm. The arc also includes Yuji Itadori and Aoi Todo’s battle with Mahito, Sukuna’s fight against Jogo, and Sukuna’s confrontation with Mahoraga. Goshozono had already contributed to the franchise before receiving the series-director credit. He was credited as episode director on episode 17 of Jujutsu Kaisen’s 2020–2021 first season, “Kyoto Sister School Event - Team Battle, Part 3.” That installment follows Yuji and Todo as they continue their coordinated fight against Hanami during the Kyoto Goodwill Event. The credit puts his work inside the original television adaptation’s production, rather than making Season 2 his first connection with Akutami’s characters. Season 2’s staff included composer Yoshimasa Terui and character designers Sayaka Koiso and Tadashi Hiramatsu. MAPPA announced Goshozono as the director in its production information for the sequel. The show was carried in Japan on the MBS/TBS network block and was streamed internationally by Crunchyroll in many territories. Its July premiere was “Hidden Inventory,” while the finale was titled “Shibuya Incident - Gate, Close.” In 2024, Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 won Anime of the Year at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards. That recognition belongs to a large production team, rather than to Goshozono alone, but it is attached to the season he directed. His public profile is consequently tied to a specific change in the franchise: he led the television installment that animated Gojo’s past and Shibuya’s catastrophe after the first season. The season’s ending leaves several surviving characters facing the consequences of Shibuya after Gojo’s sealing and devastation.