Summary
Even though it has only just completed its second season,Jujutsu Kaisenhas been on a roll. From season 2 garnering praise from fans and critics alike to sweeping the 2024 Crunchyroll Anime Awards, the series now comfortably rests on a level enjoyed by some of the most legendary and iconic anime of all time. Doing as well as it is, one would think that there’s no way it could get even better.
However, the eventual release of season 3 seeks to challenge that notion. WhereasJujutsu Kaisenhas already seen incredible success with its unparalleled storytelling, amazing characters, and high stakes, the Culling Game Arc dials all of this up to 11. So, let’s break down whyseason 3 ofJujutsu Kaisenwill be an absolute game-changer that will break the internet.
‘It’s Like That’ - Jun 15, 2025
Total Number of Episodes
17
Season 1 ofJujutsu Kaisenleft off with Yuji and the gang being stronger than they had ever been before. Due to this, they had a far better mastery over their Cursed Techniques, with Nobara and Yuji being powerful enough to take down 2Special Grade Death Paintingsand Megumi realizing the initial requirements of his Domain, leading to him summoning an incomplete form of it to defeat a Special Grade Cursed Spirit.
The first 5 episodes of the second season showed the Hidden Inventory Arc, which recounted the events that led to Gojo becoming the strongest sorcerer on the planet, as well as planting the seeds for why Geto eventually turned evil. Following this,Pseudo-Geto and the Disaster Curseslaunch an attack on Shibuya and succeed in capturing Gojo within the Prison Realm.
You are too strong.
The rest of the season takes off from here, where many beloved characters meet their end and the stakes are higher than they have ever been due to the absence of Gojo as a deterrent. Many memorable fights and poignant character moments go on to show the state the world is in and where it’s going, laying the groundwork for the eventual start of the Culling Game.
Total Duration
100+ Chapters
At the close of the previous arc, fans finally found out what Pseudo-Geto had been planning all along. Using Cursed Spirit Manipulation, he absorbs Mahito, due to which he can use hisCursed Technique of Idle Transfiguration. More than just manipulating people’s souls, a new aspect of this technique was shown as the former used it to remotely break a seal that affected many people all across Japan.
In this arc, it is revealed that the seal which was broken affected about 1000 people all across the country. This seal had 2 properties; it either activates a Cursed Technique within some people who have ingested a Cursed Object at some point in their lives or a similar kind of ingested Cursed Object acts as a vessel for the consciousness of an ancient sorcerer to awaken in a modern-day person’s body, similar to what happened between Yuji and Sukuna.
Shall I save you, Mahito?
The Nature of the Game
The Game itself sees all of these modern-day and ancient sorcerers spawn in various colonies across Japan, where they must fight it out with each other and accumulate points. The person with the highest number of accumulated points by the end of the Culling Game wins. However, Pseudo-Geto’s true goal is theoptimization of Cursed Energy, which he hopes to achieve by getting all these sorcerers to fight to release an incredible amount of Cursed Energy.
With this release, he hopes that a singular, all-powerful Cursed Spirit will be formed, one which will essentially become the peak of Jujutsu sorcery. In an effort to stop this, the heroes will be taken to various parts of the country and be forced to fight against some of the most interesting and powerful characters ever seen before in the franchise.
The stakes in this arc are higher than they have ever been before because the heroes are not only looking to stop Kenjaku from completing all his nefarious plans, but at the same time, they are trying tofree Gojo from the Prison Realm. This arc is filled with action and emotional moments that are greater than anything that the series has ever shown before, and the implications for the future after its conclusion seem to hint at even bigger things.
The Action Is Better Than Ever
The Culling Game is the perfect setting for the action of the series to just go all out. Due to the resurrection of powerful ancient sorcerers and many modern-day sorcerers getting incredible new abilities, writer Gege Akutami allowed their imagination to go wild, coming up with Cursed Techniques that are either incredibly broken, overpowered, or some that are just plain goofy.
These over-the-top abilities make for some of the most brilliant fights ever seen in a manga, so much so that even while reading them, the hype never truly dies down as the fights just jump off of the page. Some of these new Cursed Techniques are often very confusing to grasp, but the way that they’re utilized within the fights makes them ingenious to behold. The nature of these techniques leads to them being extremely versatile and exciting, adding tohow amazing these fights truly are.
However, it’s not only these new characters that shine. Since the varied nature of the new enemies makes them and their abilities very different to anything that the heroes have gone up against before, they have to tailor their movesets to perform differently against these opponents. This is wonderful to see, not only because it shows existing techniques used in different ways, but also shows how the main characters have grown and become far more adept fighters than they were at the start of the series.
An example of a great fight from the former category is the duel between Hakari and Kashimo, which shows two immensely powerful sorcerers battling it out in an incredible clash that provides a ton of spectacle. Hakari is an electrifying character with a veryconfusing Cursed Technique that relies purely on luck,but it is also one that is one of the strongest techniques in the series when it’s used by the right person.
I love the fever… and the fever is gambling… and gambling is life!
Hakari battles Kashimo, a reincarnated sorcerer whose entire purpose in life is to fight, and their clash is one of the best. Moreover, a great example of a brand-new spin put on an existing ability is in a fight that Megumi has fairly early on in the arc, where he is pitted against many evil sorcerers whom he is able to defeat by using his Ten Shadows technique in new and exciting ways.
Characters Continue To Take The Spotlight
The common opinion among theJujutsu Kaisencommunity is that the characters are some of the most enticing parts of the franchise. This has been quite evident ever since the release of the very first season of the show, as the heroes have lovable personalities that make them very endearing and relatable to viewers. Season 2 largely dealt with the same cast of characters but introduced a few new ones that stood on their own as amazing additions to the story.
Season 3 will see the addition of the greatest number of characters since season 1 ofJujutsu Kaisenwith the Culling Game. Whether monstrous villains aligned with Kenjaku or those sorcerers that eventually come to the side of the good guys, this arc introduces characters that have formed a lasting impact on fans of the series. Though some are introduced as minor villains, most are fleshed-out characters that all have their ownreasons to be in the Culling Gameand, whether they’re good or bad, viewers can understand their sides of the story.
I won’t help people who insult my friends!
Some outstanding character moments:
Other than the sheer number of characters introduced into the franchise in this arc, the personal journeys of all characters are amazing to witness. Seeing how dire the situation is for the world, the protagonists often mirror this in their journeys and struggles, which shape them to be characters that have a lot of depth to them.
A perfect example of this is Maki. Despite already being a fan-favorite character, Maki’s story reaches its peak in the Culling Game arc where unfortunate events force her to unlock thefull potential of her Heavenly Restriction. Other than her, almost every one of the main characters is shown to struggle and eventually come out of their pain even stronger, making for some of the greatest storytelling in all of modern anime/manga.
The Building Blocks For The Future
As expansive as this arc was, it was certainly not the end. Throughout the events of the Shibuya Incident, the main goal that the heroes had was to find the Prison Realm and to free Gojo from it. For the most part, this goal doesn’t change for the Culling Game, as Gojo is still trapped for most of it and the heroes have to free him from his confinement, something they succeed in doing at the very end.
Gojo’s freedom leads to a confrontation with the impostor who has taken over the body of his best friend along with Sukuna. This sets the stage for the next part of the story, which is to begin with the most anticipated fight in all modern anime/manga; the battle of the strongest. Sukuna versus Gojo sees the most powerful sorcerer of all time fight against the most powerful sorcerer of the modern age in an epic clash that seeks to beone of the most legendary fights ever seen on the screen.
Jujutsu Kaisencan be streamed onAmazon Prime.
Jujutsu Kaisen
Based on Gege Akutami’s Jujutsu Kaisen manga, Mappa’s battle shonen anime envisions a world where Jujutsu Sorcerers battle against entities born out of Cursed Energy. One day, a teenager named Yuji Itadori is dragged into this conflict when he eats a possessed finger.
