Jujutsu Kaisen episode 52 turns a one-shot rotoscoped scene into cinema

Polygon says Jujutsu Kaisen episode 52, “Passion,” closes on a single, unbroken rotoscoped take between Yuji and Kinji Hakari that pushes the anime’s direction from TV toward cinema. In the episode Yuji goes undercover at a fight club to recruit its boss for the Culling Games, throwing a staged match against Panda to earn a face-to-face with suspended third-year Kinji Hakari.

The final scene plays out in a claustrophobic control room — monitors on the walls, a bar and fridge in the back, a table dividing the two — and unfolds with no cuts or angle shifts. The characters were rotoscoped to closely mimic real human movement, and Polygon notes the exchange feels like two actors trading lines for about four minutes.

Director Shota Goshozono (Gosso) handled the motion capture for Yuji while episode director Masaomi Andou did the same for Hakari. The tone drifts from casual to threatening, ending with a thrown glass, a brief display of a Cursed Technique and a headbutt that reveals Hakari’s face.

Fans have pointed out the episode’s heavy reliance on camera perspective and atmosphere; Polygon observes the sound design leans on ambient noise over a soundtrack and that the manga conveyed the continuous-shot moment across panels rather than as an uninterrupted take.

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