Summary
Jujutsu Kaisen gears up for its third season with the Culling Games arc, featuring unique and strange abilities. Kirara and Hakari, new third-year characters, join the main characters in the Culling Games with their strange abilities. The series embraces its strange side, drawing comparisons to Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, with both series sharing unique and inspired concepts.
With the end of the Shibuya arc, Jujutsu Kaisen is gearing up for its third season, featuring the long-awaited Culling Games. In the final moments of Season 2, Kenjaku absorbed and used Mahito's Idle Transfiguration on a massive scale, awakening two thousand magicians across Japan. Half are people who possess innate Cursed Techniques, but were not born with the brains to use them. The other half are reincarnated mages from a previous era like Sukuna.
Throughout this arc, the main characters and readers become acquainted with several individuals from both groups, and they have abilities that completely invert the Jujutsu Kaisen power system, taking it to strange new heights. Strange new heights even, as many of these new powers would not be unusual to see in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.
Just like that shonen giant did before, Looks like Gege Akutami wants to get weird with these new charactersand they certainly succeeded. Here's what those waiting for the next season can expect from the Culling Games installment.
Kirara and Hakari give a taste of what's to come
The invisible third years become new allies
Before Yuji, Megumi, and the other mages jump into the Annihilation Game to find a mage who can free Satoru Gojo from his imprisonment, they need help. These two third years are only talked about in rumors, especially Hakari who was suspended due to an argument with a conservative higher-up in the Jujutsu world. Both are quite capable mages, but both are also has strange abilities unlike anything else in the series Go ahead.
Kirara's Love Rendezvous technique forces their enemies to move in a certain direction, with each individual marked by a star in the Southern Cross constellation. It can cause things to crash into others or make things nearly impossible to reach. It's almost more of a puzzle than a combat technique. Hakari's technique uses Domain Expansion in a completely unique way, uses his surefire strike to inform enemies of how his Pachinko-based domain works – and if he hits the jackpot, he'll receive infinite cursed energy. This is just a small part of the Conditionally Cursed Techniques that this section introduces.
Cursed Techniques Get Weirder As The Killing Game Begins
Mages of New and Old Boast of Unique Techniques
When the main characters capture Hakari and Kirara, they will participate in the real Annihilation Game and become familiar with all types of MagesFrom the ancient eras to those new to the game, yet still thriving. There's Hiromi Higarama, a defense attorney turned killer with his courtroom and field skills. Kashimo, an electric demon seeking a fight with the most powerful witch of all time, Sukuna; not to mention Reggie Star, another resurrected witch who can recreate anything from a formula with his techniques.
The list goes on. There’s a jet-haired couple and a helicopter that dominates the airspace. A comedian who can make anything come true if he thinks it’s funny. An aspiring cartoonist who can see the future through drawings he puts on his opponents. A man who throws body parts soaked in gasoline to make explosives, recreating them with his “Reverse Curse” technique. A woman who bends the sky to make clothes. Interestingly, the US Army also makes an appearance at one point. This is really just the tip of the iceberg that Culling Games introduces.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Connection
Jujutsu Kaisen embraces its weird side
All of these new abilities take the series' battles in completely new directions. They force heroes to think quickly, take advantage of every possible advantage, and figure out how to counter these strange but creatively applied powers. The reintroduced fields aren't flashy final moves, but rather a way to express one's technique through a field. Gege Akutami clearly wants to push the system they have built to its absolute limitsand may have been inspired by Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.
The author himself has never said as much, with Bleach being cited as a direct inspiration for JJK. But there are some characters who would feel right at home in Jojo's quirky world. It's easy to picture Giorno Giovanna fighting enemies who throw explosive body parts at him and regrow them. A wannabe mangaka who can see the future through his drawings wouldn't be out of place in Morioh. Reggie Star's receipt-based fashion and recreations would fit Jojo's Bizarre Adventure like a glove.
Jojo's is also suitable for JJK fans
Killing Time Before Part 3 of Jujutsu Kaisen
Custom image by Merlyn De Souza
While a third season of Jujutsu Kaisen has been confirmed, it likely won't be for another year. But fans of the series can definitely give all six seasons of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure a try; having aired for a decade, there are currently six animated seasons, two more in the manga, and one ongoing. If Todo's antics and flamboyant attitude are fun, Jojo has plenty of that. If Megumi's Shikigami is fun for fans, then pretty much everyone is a shikigami user in Jojo.
Although these similarities are superficial and possibly unintentional, Both do something unique with those concepts that takes both series to new heights.. JJK fans should give Jojo a try, and so should Jojo fans who haven't seen or read JJK. Then they can also join the wait for Culling Games to be animated, or JJK fans can join the wait for the seventh Jojo installment, Steel Ball Run, to be animated – if it ever comes.
While Jujutsu Kaisen and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure probably won't get a new installment anytime soon, both have similarities, possibly drawing from similar inspirations. What both series do with it is unique, because The former becomes more like the latter with Culling Games.