Coming off two Anime of the Year Awards for its first two seasons, Jujutsu Kaisen had a lot of pressure for part one of the new Culling Games arc, continuing the momentum from the Shibuya Incident Arc. The end of the Shibuya incident ended on a huge cliff hanger with antagonist Kenjaku, or formerly known as a version of Suguru Geto, releasing all cursed spirits into the surrounding area, and freeing cursed energy from all humans whose energy had not yet awakened. This sparked multiple new curse users along with the outbreak of cursed spirits into the world of JJK.
All of this happened due to Saturo Gojo, the most powerful sorcerer in the world currently, being sealed away to a “prison realm”. This led to the calling of an execution for main character Yuji Itadori, as Gojo was the only one protecting him from the higher ups in the sorcerer world. To start season three, Yuji is on the run with now older brother Choso, with special grade sorcerer Yuta Okkotsu hunting Itadori down.
In order to build the hype for season three, Jujutsu Kaisen released a movie into select theaters. The movie displayed a recap of the Shibuya Incident and the first two episodes of season three. To start the new season, Yuji and Choso are hunting down the various cursed spirits that have been released, and trying to save innocent lives.
While this is all happening, new character Naoya Zenin, who is a part of the Zenin clan, is looking to be named the new head of his clan. In the dying will of the former head, he names Naoya as his successor, but in the event that Saturo Gojo is dead or sealed away, Megumi Fushigoro is to be named the new head of the Zenin clan. Outraged by this, Naoya goes to look for Megumi by chasing after Yuji Itadori, assuming they will be together in some capacity.
Naoya ends up confronting Yuji and Choso to ask about Megumi’s whereabouts, but at the same time Yuta shows up to execute Yuji, which eventually sparks a fight between Yuji and Yuta, along with Choso and Naoya fighting each other. In the end Yuta ends up “killing” Yuji, and Choso defeats Naoya with his technique. Naoya ends up getting saved by Yuta using a reversed cursed technique.
Yuta, now holding the body of Yuji Itadori, goes to a hideout and waits for Yuji to reawaken. This being as right when Yuta killed him, he used reverse cursed technique to save his life. Yuta mainly did this because the last time he saw Gojo, he was told by Gojo that if anything was to happen to him, make sure he protects Yuji. So, Yuta agreed to it, for one specific reason. Yuta’s big thing is cherishing his friends and their friendships, as he grew up alone. He didn’t have anyone to cherish moments with, but once he joined Jujutsu High, he made friends with the likes of Maki, Panda, and Inumaki. It made Yuta grow a lot as a person and gave him the principle of protecting his friends with his strong power, while also staying true to himself, which is mainly done through his kindness and empathy towards others.
Once regrouped, Megumi Fushiguro leads them to meet up with Maki Zenin and Yuki. They then find out about the start of the Culling games, which were started by Kenjaku to eliminate all weak sorcerers. It’s basically a hunger games scenario.
With the Start of the Culling games, the main goal of Yuji and Megumi is to gain points to add rules to the games, and in the end free Saturo Gojo and end the Culling games. Yuji ends up entering the Tokyo colony with Megumi. Yuji goes to fight new character and awakened sorcerer Hiromi Higuruma. Higuruma puts Yuji through a trial, as his technique is being a judge, and accuses Yuji of murdering thousands of people in Shibuya. Yuji ends up pleading guilty to his crimes, but in reality he wasn’t in control of his body, Sukuna was. Yuji accepts the fault of losing control of Sukuna and allowing him to murder thousands. Yuji lives with this doubt while continuing to try and save the Jujustu world. Higuruma realizes he’s not actually guilty, so he lets Yuji go and gives him all his points.
This whole fight shows why Yuji is one of the best characters in the show, as he lives with doubt and guilt but continues to try and fight for others. It also shows how unique Higuruma is, because he gets introduced as a defending lawyer, and ends up losing a case for someone that was charged with multiple counts of murder. Higuruma knows he isn’t guilty, but can’t beat the Japanese court system. Knowing this, along with his new awakened ability, he kills the judge and quits being a lawyer.
Maki Zenin also has her own little arc, and the one episode she is mainly featured in, is one of the highest rated in the entire show. She goes to the Zenin Clan and kills everyone as she now has a heavenly pack, no cursed energy, but almost unlimited physical tools. She has to achieve this though by losing her twin sister, by the hands of their own father. Maki takes down the corrupt and evil Zenin clan but it costs grief and suffering.
In season three, the themes were very different from season one and two. We see the psychological horror that these characters go through, while also seeing their resilience and strength to keep fighting. We also explore the systematic corruption of not just the Zenin clan, but the government and court system of Japan. The identity of the characters has started to grow as well, with Maki getting her transformation while shattering her family legacy, Yuta taking on his role as one of the most powerful sorcerers in the culling games, and Yuji continuing to grow in strength while accepting what happened in Shibuya and trying to just move on from it. The bond between the characters is still present as well, with the chemistry between Yuji, Choso, and Megumi being displayed in some moments.
The season finale was the highest rated of the season, as Yuta Okkotsu goes to fight three very powerful sorcerers in the Sendai Colony of the culling games. In my personal opinion, this is one of the best animated episodes of the entire series. We see the animation studio, MAPPA, perfectly animate iconic panels from the manga, which left fans amazed by the end of the episode.
The ratings for all of season three were phenomenal from critics and fans. On iMDB, seven out of the twelve total episodes received a 9/10 or higher. That is a remarkable accomplishment and shows that Jujustu Kaisen is one of the best anime out right now. This only continues their momentum heading into season four, which will be part two of the Culling games.
The finale of the third season shows glimpses of the next season, which is scheduled to come out at the end of this year or early 2027. In the glimpses, we were shown Sukuna in his domain, Kenjaku holding the prison realm that holds Gojo, and snippets of the fights to come in season four.
With the huge popularity that Jujustu Kaisen has gained ever since its start in 2020, I expect season four to continue the momentum that the series has tracked so far.
