Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 review: Anime A-lister returns to cull the competition

This review is based on Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 episodes 1-2.

Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 kicks off with an uncharacteristically quiet moment for the teen sorcerer at the heart of this show.

Yuji Itadori is washing blood off his hands, but there's just too much of it. Red stains spiral into the sink, stubbornly refusing to come clean.

Endless torrents of blood are par for the course in both the series and the Gege Akutami-penned manga this story is based on, but this isn't just the aftermath of any old battle.

Season 2 ended with The Shibuya Incident, Jujutsu Kaisen's most devastating arc yet. Friends died at the hands of demons and countless more perished at the hands of Yuji himself once the power of Ryomen Sukuna took over.

In the fallout from this, the blood on Yuji's hands carries something far heavier, and the overarching mood is thick with despair as well.

Survivor's guilt coupled with guilt over the carnage he technically wreaked shapes everything here, visually warping Tokyo itself with a bleary pink sunrise stained like the blood on his hands.

A giant, grotesque monster claws at Yuji all of a sudden, throwing us into battle, but you can feel that Yuji's heart isn't in it. Even at his most impressive, jumping and spinning and hurtling through the air mid-fight, Yuji's body language speaks to a broken man far removed from the protagonist we were first introduced to in season one.

Dread infuses every frame, every lingering shot of an empty staircase or demolished building. It's eerie and atmospheric in ways that speak to the show's movie-level animation and how the team at MAPPA are capable of stunning beyond Jujutsu Kaisen's signature fights.

These too are just as elaborate as ever, first when Yuji tears into Cronenbergian demons, and then when Yuta Okkotsu arrives to kill him on orders from the Jujutsu Council. We've only seen glimpses of Yuta in the main show before now, but here, the protagonist of Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is finally unleashed in full, pitting the franchise's two heroes against each other in a battle to the death.

The fan-favourite sorcerer is also one of the most powerful, and you can feel it in every blow. This long-awaited confrontation between them is as visceral as it is balletic, practically operatic in its gravity-defying athleticism. Note how the pair's different fighting styles bring a new kind of energy to the show as well, paired with Jujutsu Kaisen's usual chaotic framing and sharp camera movements.

Between every cursed punch and kick, it's also gratifying to see how Yuta carries himself now, no longer the timid student we met back in the prequel film. His self-assured arrival further shifts Jujutsu Kaisen into new territory along with the addition of other characters including Naoya Zenin, a potential clan leader who has Megumi Fushiguro in his sights.

Beyond each individual fight, power struggles in the wider world of Jujutsu Kaisen ebb and flow to form new enemies and alliances at every turn across these first two episodes. The writing speedruns some of this set-up, moving faster than even our battling sorcerers, as season three hurtles towards The Culling Game.

As fans of the manga know, the longest arc in the series (spanning 63 chapters) is a game-changer that might even top the Shibuya Incident in terms of impact. That's assuming the show can navigate this arc and condense it where needed without losing too much of the original story. With less room to maneuver here, season three runs the risk of mishandling the pace, a problem that can already be felt a bit in these first two episodes.

Jujutsu Kaisen has never been the easiest show to follow, rushing through convoluted setups and ever-changing rules, but nowhere has this been felt more keenly than at the end of episode two when The Culling Game rules are first explained. Well, "explained" is generous given how quickly huge swathes of text are plastered across the screen, only to be removed seconds later.

Exposition is often dense in this show, but usually we're given at least a fighting chance to catch up and understand. Other character beats beyond Yuji's despair in the opening also land quickly, although you might not realise that initially thanks to the sheer spectacle of everything that unfolds.

Fans hyped for the show's return probably won't mind too much though. By and large, the first two episodes of season 3 amp up everything we love most about Jujutsu Kaisen. Every frame, every note in the score, goes harder than ever. This is apocalyptic aura farming at its most effortless, which makes it easier to overlook occasional issues with the writing.

Even without our blue-eyed boy Satoru Gojo on hand, season 3 has loudly announced itself as the A-lister to beat once again. Everything from the soundtrack to the voice-acting is next level, and with something as big as The Culling Game looming so close, blood will pour for anyone who stands in the way of Yuji and Jujutsu Kaisen alike.

Jujutsu Kaisen is streaming weekly on Crunchyroll.

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