🔗 Share this article

The Culling Game ritual in the hit anime series is framed as one of the most bone-chilling acts of cursed sorcery terrorism in history. Season 3 has been gradually uncovering the unsettling layers of this battle royale, though its ultimate end goal remains unknown to the combatants themselves. Yuta Okkotsu entered the game following the events of the third episode, with Yuji Itadori and Megumi Fushiguro subsequently striving to recruit companions and devise strategies to endure. Yuji and Megumi were separated immediately upon arriving in Tokyo Colony No. 1, culminating in an exciting battle between Megumi and the reincarnated sorcerer Reggie Star in episode 10.

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

While the eleventh episode confirms Megumi’s status as a genius battle strategist, it also casts a spotlight on the deeply ironic nature of the Culling Game. With the most powerful jujutsu users at the mercy of a game that doubles as a lethal trap, the series redefines what it means to be the "most powerful" in a world that looks down upon the weak. It transcends defeating every enemy to demonstrate superiority—it's about revealing how meaningless 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 school gymnasium. The second-to-last installment of this story arc picks up with Reggie underestimating this move due to his domain-countering ability, Hollow Wicker Basket. Reggie's unique cursed technique enables him to remain unharmed by neutralizing domain barriers that utilize 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 barrier. Megumi's domain, being not fully realized, does not possess a barrier altogether, which is precisely why he drew Reggie into the closed-off gymnasium to serve as a physical barrier. This strategic move allows Megumi to overwhelm Reggie with manifestations of his technique, catching the sorcerer off-guard with this unexpected loophole.

The visual presentation has been stunning this season. The Megumi versus Reggie fight is executed with meticulous care, incorporating dynamic camera work and distorted perspectives to convey a sense of immediacy and kinetic energy.

Even the sight of Megumi barely keeping his domain stable while burdened by the pressure of Reggie's summoned objects is awe-inspiring to behold. The gymnasium's dark space illuminates 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 summoning a small house, but it breaks through the floor, plunging both combatants into the pool located beneath the gymnasium. At this moment, it becomes abundantly clear that Megumi had not fled in panic—he had deliberately lured Reggie into a carefully laid snare, which concludes with Megumi dispelling his domain once Reggie's drenched receipts become unusable.

A Hollow Triumph

After a tense fist fight, Megumi stuns Reggie with Divine Dog: Totality to deliver the finishing move. In his dying moments, Reggie likens sorcerers to deceivers while praising Megumi's cunning. It is then that Reggie discloses he was never in cahoots with Kenjaku; he was merely a bystander who became entangled in the Culling Game. Megumi mentions Master Tengen to extract a possible confession about his role, but Reggie's final words linger on the utter futility of the game itself. These words make Megumi's victory feel empty as he grasps that Tengen may not have been entirely truthful about the true nature of the Game. Megumi has already been forced to kill two sorcerers in self-defense, an act that must weigh heavily on him despite his perception that the means justify the end 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 jujutsu society. The traumatic pressure of the matches may even trigger new cursed techniques among the strongest participants. An false sense of agency is at play, as the game's convoluted system mask the fact that it is, in essence, a ruthless mass murder ritual. 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 powerful it could rival Satoru Gojo's Limitless, yet Takaba remains completely ignorant of his own strength. Another sorcerer often inspiring comparisons to Gojo is Yuta, who concludes the installment by eliminating the ancient sorcerer Dhruv Lakdawalla in the Sendai Colony. Lakdawalla's death dissolves the stalemate in that colony, paving the way for intense battles involving Yuta in the impending conclusion.

The Core Irony

The tragic irony of the Culling Game is the false promise of power it markets to its most skilled players. The architect ultimately aims to use Sukuna as a "bomb" to trigger the collapse of jujutsu society, a process that will inherently threaten the weak and defenseless. This relationship between the strong and the weak was fleshed out in season 2’s Hidden Inventory Arc, where Gojo and Suguru Geto held diametrically opposed worldviews. A young Gojo, in his hubris, had distanced his status as the "most powerful" from ethical duty, while a young Geto believed that strength only holds meaning if it safeguards the vulnerable. These viewpoints flip after a key death, pushing Geto toward a destructive path driven 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 steeped in empathy—an empathy that encompasses the safety of non-sorcerers, who must be protected from the noxious influence of curses.

Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 undermines this vision for a more compassionate society with Kenjaku's plan to merge humanity with Tengen. This apathetic goal disregards individuality and treats 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 devoid of meaning as a waking dream. With season 3, part 1 concluding next week, we will be one step closer to witnessing the travesty that the Culling Game makes of its most gifted sorcerers.