SPOILER WARNING: The following content has major spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3.
After the success of 2023’s Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2, Studio MAPPA continued their adaptation starting with season 3 in January 2026.
Season 3 ended up being half the length of seasons one and two, being on 12 episodes compared to season one’s 24 episodes and season two’s 23. Adapting only half of the Culling games arc.
Season 3 started with the release of the first two episodes on January 8. 2026, both of which were released in theaters a month or so prior, covering the Yuji Itadori vs Yuta Okkotsu Fight. Episode 3 was highly controversial in the west due to the significant amount of reading required and the lack of action.
Overall the season had many many moments where the audience was required to pause and read the text on screen, regardless of if they were watching the dub or the sub. Explaining very important things like the rules of the culling game (The driving force for this season and next season) and little flashes of important lore in the middle of fights,
Episode 4 was one of this season’s extended episodes, covering Maki’s extermination of the Zen’in clan. The animation in this episode was truly stunning and truly embraced the “Kill Bill” influence of the original scene, however the tone of Maki’s slaughter-fest was changed from the morally grey feel the manga had to a more freeing and liberating experience with more upbeat music which some people had a problem with.
Episodes five and six covered Yuji Itadori and Megumi Fushiguro trying to find and contact former student Kinji Hakari. The main thing to note was the still shot of Hakari and Yuji’s meeting in his office at the end of episode five. The ringing of Hakari’s phone during the entire interaction, the slow wind up of Hakari chucking his shot glass at Yuji, all of it added to the eerie feeling. Megumi and Panda’s fight against Kirara Hoshi was also fantastically choreographed, with panda getting hit by a car and getting stuck in it being a great moment.
Episode seven was the protagonists entering the culling games themselves, Yuji’s fight with the hair sorcerers had way too much effort put into it for such a fodder fight. The reveal of Megumi and Yuji being led to different locations in an attempt to find the same person was a great suspense builder considering that the following week was a break week for the anime.
Episodes eight and nine are easily this season’s best set of normal episodes, covering Yuji’s encounter with Hiromi Higaruma. Episode eight had a single key animator, being done by Kouki Fujimoto, something animation studios and animators in general rarely agree to. Episode nine’s intense fight with even more intense lighting and choreography.
Episodes ten and eleven covered Megumi vs Reggie Starr, this fight was fine but honestly nothing to note other than the introduction of sorcerer Fumihiko Takaba, a comedian who has no idea what his power is.
Episode twelve is widely considered this season’s best, being another extended episode like the Maki episode earlier in the season. This episode covered the entirety of Yuta Okkotsu’s fight in the Sendai colony. Fighting 2 other sorcerers and a powerful cursed spirit in a free for all. I feel like a broken record when talking about this season’s fantastic art direction, fight choreography, and overall animation quality.
Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 gets 5/5 stars.
