After three years, Jujutsu Kaisen (2020) is back, and fans are going ballistic. Its return was so highly anticipated that Crunchyroll actually crashed shortly after it premiered, and currently it’s sitting comfortably in JustWatch’s Top 100 streamed shows. It’s good to be a fan of Jujutsu Kaisen, which is funny given how absolutely miserable things are in the anime. The Shibuya Incident killed hundreds, Satoru Gojo is imprisoned, and Kenjaku has released countless Curses in Japan to decimate the population.
And yet, that’s not even the worst part. The two-part premiere of Season 3 reveals that Kenjaku is beginning an event called the Culling Game. What exactly is it? Well, the anime doesn’t do a good job at explaining what it is. All it does to explain the Culling Game is flash a mountain of text on-screen informing viewers of the rules, and that’s about it. No narration, no in-depth explanation, just a gargantuan amount of words that don’t make a whole lot of sense. If you had to pause the episode just to read what’s going on, and you still have no clue, then here’s a general breakdown of what the Culling Game is, the rules, and what to expect from it.
What Is The Culling Game In ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’?
Within the wider context of Jujutsu Kaisen, the Culling Game marks a major turning point in the series where most of the original supporting cast is jettisoned for new characters, and the arc serves as the penultimate installment before the manga’s finale.
In universe, the Culling Game is an experiment by Kenjaku to force humanity to evolve. How? Due to the events of the Shibuya Incident, Kenjaku is forcing newly awakened Jujutsu Sorcerers into a battle to generate Cursed Energy. Once a large enough amount of Cursed Energy has been created, Kenjaku plans to use the energy to merge all of humanity into Master Tengen, the oldest and most powerful barrier Sorcerer in existence. Kenjaku doesn’t even know if this plan will work, but as a chaotic being more motivated by curiosity and entertainment, it doesn’t really matter much to him. He just wants to see if it’ll actually work.
What Are The Culling Game Rules?
The rules of the Culling Game may seem complicated and hard to grasp, but once most of the terminology is clarified, it’s actually a pretty straightforward game, at least initially.
In the beginning, there are eight rules that all players must follow. Rule One essentially states that anyone who became a Sorcerer because of Kenjaku’s actions in the Shibuya Incident must declare their participation in the game by November 19th. If not, they’ll be in violation of Rule Two and have their Cursed Technique removed, which would effectively kill them. Because the Culling Game takes place in 10 colonies created around Japan, Rule Three states that anyone who enters any of the colonies will become participants, whether they have a Cursed Technique or not.
Once in the game, Rule Four tells players that they can earn points by killing other Culling Game participants. As per Rule Five, the game master determines points. However, there technically is no game master, so point values are determined by the value of the player as a Sorcerer. The more powerful you are, the more points you’re worth. Once a player reaches 100 points, Rule Six says that they can create a new rule and, based on Rule Seven, that rule must be accepted, provided it doesn’t cause a long-term problem in the operation of the Culling Game. Finally, Rule Eight makes it clear that if a player’s score remains the same for 19 days, then they will be killed.
At its core, the Culling Game is an incredibly complicated battle royale meant to govern itself. Once it’s begun, not much can be done to stop it, and the rules added are mostly inserted to find ways to save a few individuals playing it.
What Should Fans Expect Of The Culling Game Arc?
If the Culling Game is just one gigantic battle royale, then it stands to reason that fans can look forward to a lot of intense battles. However, that would only be scratching the surface.
Yes, many of the participants are newly created Sorcerers, but there are also a handful of ancient Sorcerers revived by Kenjaku that have agreed to participate for their own personal reasons. Not only this, but a lot of the new Cursed Techniques that will be introduced in the arc are wildly creative, esoteric, and are on the same level of complexity as Stands from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (2012). For example, there’s a character who is effectively invincible, provided they have complete confidence that what they’re doing is funny. Imaginative powers like that are just a taste of what the Culling Game will introduce, so it’s a guarantee that if you want outrageous fights, you’ll find that here.
That isn’t to say that there won’t be any character development alongside these wonderfully animated fights. Yuji, as we’ve seen in the premiere, has to come to terms with the destruction Sukuna has caused during the Shibuya Incident, and the drama surrounding the succession of the Zen’in clan will affect both Maki and Megumi in the coming episodes. And, of course, there’s the overarching goal of our heroes to stop Kenjaku, free Gojo from his prison, and rescue Megumi’s sister, Tsumiki, from the game. They have their work cut out for them, but at the very least, it’ll be entertaining watching the chaos of the Culling Game unfold.
