🔗 Share this article

The Culling Game ritual in Jujutsu Kaisen is portrayed as one of the most terrifying acts of cursed sorcery terrorism in the annals of history. Season 3 has been gradually uncovering the unsettling layers of this battle royale, though its final objective remains unknown to the combatants themselves. The sorcerer Yuta Okkotsu joined the fray following the events of episode 3, with Yuji and Megumi subsequently striving to recruit companions and formulate plans to survive. The duo were split up immediately upon arriving in Tokyo Colony No. 1, leading up to an intense confrontation between Megumi and the ancient sorcerer Reggie Star in the tenth episode.

A Genius Strategist and a System's Empty Triumph

While the eleventh episode cements Megumi’s status 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 mercy of a contest that functions as a lethal trap, the series challenges what it means to be the "strongest" in a world that looks down upon the weak. It transcends overpowering opponents to demonstrate superiority—it's about revealing how pointless that kind of power is within a rigged system.

A Battle of Wits and Domains

Episode 10 concluded with Megumi unleashing his incomplete domain, Chimera Shadow Garden, inside a confined gym. The second-to-last installment of this story arc resumes with Reggie dismissing this move due to his domain-countering ability, Hollow Wicker Basket. Reggie's unique cursed technique enables him to avoid damage by neutralizing domain barriers that utilize a cursed technique, which nullifies any sure-hit effects. However, since Hollow Wicker Basket does not counter cursed techniques themselves, its efficacy depends on the presence of a domain barrier. Megumi's domain, being not fully realized, lacks a barrier altogether, which is precisely why he drew Reggie into the closed-off gymnasium to serve as a makeshift enclosure. This strategic move allows Megumi to assault Reggie with manifestations of his technique, catching the sorcerer off-guard with this ingenious workaround.

The animation has been brilliant this season. The clash between Megumi and Reggie is executed with meticulous care, incorporating dynamic camera work and distorted perspectives to create a sense of immediacy and kinetic energy.

Even the sight of Megumi struggling to maintain his domain stable while burdened by the pressure of Reggie's conjured vehicles is striking to behold. The gymnasium's dark space illuminates with Megumi's azure spiritual power, pulling Reggie into the abyss of his Ten Shadows Technique. Although Reggie fights valiantly to counter Megumi, he is outmaneuvered at every turn. Reggie tries to defeat Megumi by materializing a small house, but it collapses the floor, sending them into the swimming pool located beneath the gymnasium. At this moment, it becomes evident that Megumi had not fled in panic—he had strategically guided Reggie into a carefully laid snare, which concludes with Megumi dispelling his domain once Reggie's waterlogged tools become unusable.

A Hollow Triumph

After a brutal hand-to-hand struggle, Megumi incapacitates Reggie with Divine Dog: Totality to deliver the finishing move. In his dying moments, Reggie compares sorcerers to liars while commending Megumi's cleverness. It is then that Reggie discloses he was never in cahoots with Kenjaku; he was merely a spectator who became entangled in the Culling Game. Megumi mentions Master Tengen to extract a possible admission about his role, but Reggie's parting thoughts dwell upon the pointlessness of the game itself. These words make Megumi's victory feel hollow as he realizes that Tengen may not have been totally forthcoming about the real purpose of the Game. Megumi has already been forced to kill two sorcerers in his own defense, an act that must burden his conscience despite his belief that the ends justify the means if he wishes to save Tsumiki.

Kenjaku's Enigmatic Goal

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 the sorcerer world. The immense stress of the matches may even awaken new cursed techniques among the strongest participants. An false sense of agency is at play, as the game's complex rules mask the fact that it is, in essence, a brutal ritual of extermination. This "survival of the fittest" dynamic radically changes the definition of the "strongest," as it is not determined purely by the potency of one's technique.

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

The Core Irony

The tragic irony of the Culling Game is the illusion of strength it markets to its top combatants. The mastermind ultimately aims to use Sukuna as a "catalyst" to trigger the collapse of jujutsu society, a process that will inevitably endanger the weak and defenseless. This dynamic between the strong and the weak was explored in depth in season 2’s Hidden Inventory Arc, where Gojo and Suguru Geto maintained completely different worldviews. A young Gojo, in his arrogance, had separated his status as the "most powerful" from moral responsibility, while a young Geto believed that strength only holds meaning if it protects the weak. These perspectives flip after a key death, pushing Geto toward a genocidal rampath fueled by his contempt for non-sorcerers. Meanwhile, Gojo's trauma leads him to understand that strength is empty without a younger generation of sorcerers to carry an empowered legacy rooted in empathy—an empathy that includes the safety of non-sorcerers, who must be protected from the noxious influence of curses.

Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 compromises this vision for a gentler world with Kenjaku's plan to merge humanity with Tengen. This detached objective ignores individuality and views jujutsu sorcerers as pawns used for fulfilling empty whims. Following the rules of the Culling Game offers no assurance of survival, especially since the outcomes are manipulated yet unpredictable. The vision of a winner is a lie, just as a world without survivors is as hollow as a waking dream. With this story arc coming to an end next week, we will be one step closer to witnessing the mockery that the Culling Game makes of its most gifted sorcerers.