Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3: The Culling Game Part 1

Episode 53

It's weird that in the previous episode, Hikari asserts that “There isn't a single sorcerer who doesn't know of Satoru Gojo,” and the lynchpin of this conflict with Hikari and Kirara is that the two don't know that Gojo has been sealed, right? I understand that they're largely sequestered from jujutsu society in part due to conservative leaders discriminating against them, but I think that would only make them more aware of the rumors and events swirling in this community as they have a greater capacity to affect them in their marginalized position. It's also weird that the motivations of unrelated characters like Yuta and Naoya in previous episodes are entirely driven by Gojo being sealed, making the information feel ubiquitous, only for this later conflict to be partially motivated by their ignorance of it.

If it feels like I'm putting a premium on the characters' motivation in this review, it's because the episode doesn't give me much else to work with narratively. The entirety of this episode is dedicated to Megumi and Panda's fight against Kirara to get to Yuji and Hikari, with the Tyler Durden-ass sorcerer deciding to listen to them after witnessing Yuji's resolve. While these fights meet the lofty animation expectations MAPPA has set previously, the pacing of this fight feels a bit clunky.

While Megumi taking out goons by jumping between shadows is a cool application of his powers in the opening moments of the episode, we don't see anything nearly as creative in the main fight. In fact, Megumi spends a lot of time just talking in the middle of this fight to deduce how Kirara's powers work. While Megumi is unraveling this mystery, Kirara — who has never done anything wrong in their life and who I would die for — stands motionless while their ability is exposed. Kirara could have made this fight way more difficult for Megumi and Panda and I feel like their inaction in this episode is coming less from the character and more from this being a filler fight that needs to resolve quickly so the plot can carry on.

As such, episode six of season three of Jujutsu Kaisen was fine, with the spectacle of its animation once again doing the heavy lifting. After this episode, I'm more eager than ever for the Culling Games to begin in earnest, as it's becoming increasingly clear that this season of JJK isn't phenomenal at character writing or character expression outside big battles. Based on the preview for the next episode, this season is finally about to start living up to its “THE CULLING GAME Part 1” subheading, and I hope that even adds more focus and direction to everyone's actions.

Rating:

While he's indifferent to curses, Lucas DeRuyter has long believed that he could achieve complete emotional fulfillment if demons were real, so he could dedicate his life to fighting them. That not being the case, he instead focuses on entertainment writing, contributing to ANN's This Week in Anime column and posting about these and other exploits on his Bluesky account.

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3: The Culling Game Part 1 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.