🔗 Share this article

The Culling Game in the hit anime series is portrayed as one of the most terrifying acts of jujutsu terrorism in the annals of history. The third season has been methodically revealing the disturbing facets of this battle royale, though its true purpose remains a mystery to the combatants themselves. Yuta Okkotsu joined the fray following the conclusion of episode 3, with Yuji Itadori and Megumi Fushiguro subsequently attempting to recruit companions and devise strategies to survive. Yuji and Megumi were separated immediately upon arriving in the first Tokyo colony, culminating in an intense battle between Megumi and the reincarnated sorcerer Reggie Star in episode 10.

The Cunning of a Strategist and a System's Hollow Victory

While the eleventh episode solidifies Megumi Fushiguro's reputation as a genius battle strategist, it also casts a spotlight on the profoundly paradoxical nature of the Culling Game. With the strongest sorcerers at the whim of a contest that functions as a lethal trap, the series questions what it means to be the "strongest" in a world that looks down upon the weak. It is not about defeating every enemy to demonstrate superiority—it's about revealing how futile that type of strength is within a rigged system.

A Battle of Wits and Domains

The previous episode concluded with Megumi activating his unfinished domain expansion, Chimera Shadow Garden, inside a school gymnasium. The penultimate episode of season 3, part 1 picks up with Reggie dismissing this move due to his anti-domain technique, Hollow Wicker Basket. Reggie's unique cursed technique enables him to avoid damage by countering domain barriers infused with a cursed technique, which nullifies any guaranteed hits. However, since Hollow Wicker Basket does not counter cursed techniques themselves, its efficacy is contingent upon the presence of a domain barrier. Megumi's domain, being not fully realized, does not possess a barrier altogether, which is precisely why he drew Reggie into the enclosed gymnasium to serve as a physical barrier. This clever ploy allows Megumi to overwhelm Reggie with shadow clones, catching the sorcerer off-guard with this unexpected loophole.

The animation has been brilliant this season. The Megumi versus Reggie fight is crafted with visible love, incorporating dynamic camera work and fisheye lenses to create a sense of immediacy and kinetic energy.

Even the sight of Megumi struggling to maintain his domain stable while weighed down by the force of Reggie's conjured vehicles is striking to behold. The gymnasium's dark space lights up with Megumi's blue cursed energy, pulling Reggie into the abyss of his Ten Shadows Technique. Although Reggie fights valiantly to withstand Megumi, he is outsmarted at every turn. Reggie tries to crush Megumi by materializing a structure, but it breaks through the floor, plunging both combatants into the swimming pool located beneath the gymnasium. At this moment, it becomes evident that Megumi had not fled in panic—he had deliberately lured Reggie into a trap, which concludes with Megumi dispelling his domain once Reggie's waterlogged tools become ineffective.

A Hollow Triumph

After a tense fist fight, Megumi stuns Reggie with Divine Dog: Totality to execute the finishing move. In his dying moments, Reggie likens sorcerers to liars while commending Megumi's cunning. It is then that Reggie discloses he was never in cahoots with Kenjaku; he was merely a bystander who got involved in the Culling Game. Megumi brings up Master Tengen to elicit a possible confession about his involvement, but Reggie's parting thoughts linger on the pointlessness of the game itself. These words make Megumi's victory feel hollow as he realizes that Tengen may not have been entirely truthful about the real purpose of the Game. Megumi has already been forced to kill two sorcerers in his own defense, an act that must weigh heavily on him despite his perception that the means justify the end if he wishes to save Tsumiki.

The Mastermind's Mysterious Plan

Kenjaku's ultimate objective remains the most intriguing aspect of the story. He appears to be using the Culling Game as a literal means to cull the weakest within jujutsu society. The immense stress of the matches may even trigger new cursed techniques among the strongest participants. An illusion of control is at play, as the game's convoluted system mask the fact that it is, quite simply, a brutal ritual of extermination. This "survival of the fittest" dynamic radically changes the definition of the "most powerful," as it is not determined purely by the raw strength of one's technique.

We are offered a glimpse of this when a voiceover states that Fumihiko Takaba's Comedian technique is so potent it could rival Satoru Gojo's Limitless, yet Takaba remains completely ignorant of his own strength. Another sorcerer often likened to Gojo is Yuta, who concludes the installment by defeating the historical figure Dhruv Lakdawalla in the Sendai Colony. Lakdawalla's death dissolves the power deadlock in that colony, setting the stage for intense battles involving Yuta in the upcoming finale.

The Core Irony

The central paradox of the Culling Game is the illusion of strength it sells to its top combatants. The architect ultimately wishes to use Sukuna as a "catalyst" to precipitate the collapse of jujutsu society, a process that will inherently threaten the vulnerable. This dynamic between the strong and the weak was fleshed out in a previous story arc, where Gojo and Suguru Geto maintained completely different worldviews. A young Gojo, in his hubris, had distanced his status as the "strongest" from ethical duty, while a young Geto believed that strength only has value if it protects the weak. These viewpoints flip after a tragic event, propelling Geto toward a genocidal rampath fueled by his disdain for non-sorcerers. Meanwhile, Gojo's trauma leads him to understand that strength is empty without a new wave of sorcerers to uphold a tradition rooted in empathy—an empathy that includes the safety of non-sorcerers, who must be protected from the malignant presence of curses.

Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 compromises this vision for a more compassionate society with Kenjaku's plan to fuse all people with Tengen. This apathetic goal ignores individuality and views jujutsu sorcerers as pawns used for fulfilling empty whims. Adhering to the rules of the Culling Game does not guarantee safety, especially since the outcomes are rigged but fluid. The promise of a winner is a falsehood, just as a world without survivors is as hollow as a fleeting illusion. With season 3, part 1 coming to an end next week, we will be one step closer to observing the mockery that the Culling Game makes of its most talented sorcerers.