It’s been nearly two whole years since MAPPA released the last season of Jujutsu Kaisen and four since the series first made its debut, and yet fans are still just as eagerly waiting for Season 3. Though the series’ renewal was officially confirmed by MAPPA right after the Season 2 finale, fans are yet to receive an update on when they can expect the next season to air, and with the manga also having concluded, anticipation surrounding the anime’s return only continues to grow. That said, Season 3 of Jujutsu Kaisen may end up disappointing fans despite the long wait, and there’s unfortunately nothing MAPPA can do about it.
Season 3 of Jujutsu Kaisen is expected to cover the Culling Game Arc of the story, which, as the name implies, involves a battle royale set into motion by Kenjaku at the end of the Shibuya Arc as the next step of his grand plan. While the arc introduces many interesting new characters like Hiruguma, Takaba, Kashimo, and Hakari, who all play a crucial role in the series’ finale, the arc has largely been dubbed as lackluster, especially in comparison to the Shibuya Arc with even the series’ creator Gege Akutami openly regretting not making the Culling Game Arc a more overtly tournament-style battle instead. Despite having quite a few interesting matchups, the Culling Game Arc’s poor structure and pacing hold the arc back from being great, and not even the anime may be able to fix this and the many other inherent issues with the arc.
Jujutsu Kaisen’s Culling Game Misses the Mark as a Tournament Arc Due to Pacing and Structure
Other than the initial Kyoto Goodwill Event Arc which was also interrupted half way, the Culling Game Arc is arguably the closest Jujutsu Kaisen has come to having a tournament arc, which are mong the most beloved story arcs in almost any shonen series. However, Jujutsu Kaisen’s Culling Game Arc fails to evoke the same excitement as a traditional tournament arc for multiple reasons. The first and foremost complaint about the Culling Game Arc is the pacing. Unlike the series’ previous compact story arcs, the Culling Game Arc is the longest arc in all of Jujutsu Kaisen, spanning a whopping 63 chapters. This is why it is doubtful whether Season 3 of Jujutsu Kaisen will be able to adapt the entire arc even with two cours.
Another huge complaint about the Culling Game Arc is that it lacks any real stakes or tension, even though it very much has an underlying sense of urgency throughout, and this is a consequence of both the slow pacing and the structure of the arc. For one, the arc moves from one sorcerer to the next, from colony to colony, staggering out the arc’s fights. As a result, the arc feels more like a bunch of mini-arcs squashed together under one umbrella, building up and defusing any tension with every move to another colony.
As for the stakes, the Culling Game Arc starts out with three fairly simple and specific objectives, which are to find the sorcerer named Angel so she can unseal Gojo, to protect Tengen from Kenjaku, and to obtain enough points and add rules to the game so as to prevent Megumi’s sister Tsumiki from having to join the bloodshed. Though the main purpose of the arc becomes to gather points and add rules in their favor, this is arguably just as integral to foiling Kenjaku’s plan, as are unsealing Gojo and protecting Master Tengen. However, the slow pacing of the arc further puts a huge damper on any built-up tension there may be, also making it difficult to keep track of these three primary goals.
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The Culling Game is Ultimately Set Up For Jujutsu Kaisen’s Final Arc
Another reason why the Culling Game arc is challenging to embrace, which is not talked about nearly enough, is the sheer number of new characters it introduces. Many of these characters, like Hakari, for example, have incredibly confusing techniques and abilities, which, together with the overwhelming number of new characters introduced, make it hard to keep track of the plot and characters.
What’s more frustrating is that many of these new characters end up being irrelevant at the end of it all. Hakari is yet again an excellent example of a character who has interesting fights in the Culling Game Arc but ends up being a wasted character, as his entire battle against Uraume takes place almost entirely off-screen. Besides characters that went nowhere, the Culling Game Arc also has storylines that went nowhere to the chagrin of the readers. This includes Kenjaku’s meeting with the US Government and the entire army plotline that ended up being a waste of time with no real significance to the series or Kenjaku’s plan as a whole.
As a whole, the Culling Game arc comes across as set up for the Shinjuku Showdown and an attempt to shoehorn a bunch of new characters in as quickly as possible in time for the finale. Many fans often compare the Culling Game Arc to the Shibuya Arc, which is quite an unfair comparison, as the Shibuya Arc is very much a high-stakes climax of the first half of the story, while the Culling Game Arc is set up for the second and final half of the series, the climax of which is the Shinjuku Showdown Arc.
The Culling Game Arc no doubt has excellent fights in store, full of well-written character growth, like Yuji versus Higuruma, Megumi versus Reggie, Yuta’s three-way battle against Uro and Ishigori, and Maki’s enlightening fight against Miyo. That said, it is difficult to deny that the Shibuya Arc has raised the bar impossibly high for the series going forward, which is the biggest reason why fans may be disappointed when Season 3 of Jujutsu Kaisen comes around with the Culling Game Arc.
Jujutsu Kaisen can be streamed up-to-date via Crunchyroll.
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