Jujutsu Kaisen’s third season has one big problem lying ahead, butJojo’s Bizarre Adventurehas shown how it can be overcome.Jujutsu Kaisen’s manga and anime have already been lavished with praise. It almost feels redundant to say that the anime will make the manga more accessible and digestible, because that’s typically the case. To that end, I wrote the book (or, technically, the article) on why it’s a great idea toread Jujutsu Kaisen’s manga instead of awaiting adaptation.Jujutsu Kaisenis phenomenal as it is, in every form.
But it could be better. There’s one key problem that many battle shōnen have in common—and I can’t help but worry that it’s hurt the anticipation forJujutsu Kaisen’s upcoming third season. Things inJujutsu Kaisen’s anime are at a vital juncture:Jujutsu Kaisen0centerpiece Yuta Okkotsu just got tasked with executing Yuji, all the Jujutsu High buddies are dead or irretrievably in the trenches, and worst of all, Gojo’s inThe Cube. The season to come is probably going to be on the slower side, but I think fans should be pumped about what lies ahead.
The Culling Game Arc Is Mostly Fights—For Better and Worse
Jujutsu Kaisen’s Third Season Is Going To Be Very Combat-Heavy
The cornerstone ofJujutsu Kaisen’s upcoming season is going to be the Culling Game arc. Its premise is that, in order for him to achieve his goal of realizing the “full potential” of cursed energy beyond sorcerers and cursed spirits, Kenjaku initiates a ritual called the Culling Game. The idea is that different districts are established and everyone within them becomes a player in a death game. The arc is home to some ofJujutsu Kaisen’s best fights.
Sounds exciting in theory, and MAPPA has had no problem in the past takingJujutsu Kaisen’s fights and squeezing every last drop of hype out of them. The problem is the structure of the Culling Game arc. Despite having fantastic fights, the Culling Game arc has earned a middling reputation withJujutsu Kaisen’s fans. Because the fights are mostly disconnected and many new characters are introduced, the arc can give the impression of dragging—at worst, of being filler-laden. I have a hunch, though, that this is actually just something that comes with the territory of the manga format, and thatJujutsu Kaisen’s third season will be much better than some fans might anticipate.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and the Problem With Battle Manga
Battle Manga Struggle From One Key Problem: Reading (Like, Actually)
Stories centered around battles have walked hand-in-hand with manga since the earliest days of the modern comic, more or less. The problem is that battle manga tend to suffer terribly with pacing, by nature. In some ways, battle manga present unique advantages: in a manga format where things are still on the page, internal soliloquies about a tactical decision can make a lot more sense than their animated equivalents, where the asides can seem unnaturally long in the heat of battle.
At the end of the day, though, the battles are still stuck on the page. The fluidity and natural progression of battle can be somewhat lost in this format—not to mention the clarity of what’s being depicted. If you’ve ever tried to capture a good freeze-frame of a rapid event, you know what I mean. Think of a skateboard kickflip: in motion, it looks sick. Trying to capture a still image is exceedingly difficult, not least because a kickflip at many points also looks like an ollie, a heelflip, and any other number of tricks. The point is that it’s hard to make out things that are supposed to be in motion.
Even if one is exceptionally skilled at interpreting manga panels, they’re still going to look a lot less impressive—and interpretation of the story might suffer as a result.JoJogave me two major examples of this. One is the difference that color can make in this process of interpretation. When I first readJojolion, it was in black-and-white—I disliked the part, and I would say for years that it was overrated. A few months ago, though, I started to reread it—this time, the colored version. The difference in definition and the added clarity in what was depicted made all the difference, and the part quickly became one of my favorites.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Has One Unique Trick To Making Its Villains Anime’s Most Terrifying, & It Also Objectively Proves Which JoJo Is The Strongest
The Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure anime has consistently utilized one fascinating method of conveying the power of its villains–and one of its heroes.
The other is more relevant:Stone Ocean. I was one of the fans whopickedJojoup during the early part of the pandemic, at which point it had only been animated up toGolden Wind. Having fallen in love with the franchise, I was anxious to continue on with the manga.Stone Oceanwas my first experience reading aJojomanga, and even in color, it was rough. I didn’t realize that at the time, though.
I came away with many opinions, andStone Ocean’s animation blew them all out of the water. Some fights that seemed to take forever in the manga were satisfyingly brief in the anime: Dragon’s Dream and Heavy Weather were two great examples. Conversely, I thought the finale was lackluster at first—it was only in motion, with color and voice acting and the OST (Jojo’s OSTs are excellent by both default and rite) that I realizedjust how epicStone Ocean’s ending is.
MAPPA Will Make the Culling Game Arc Greater Than It Already Is
Animation Brings a New Dimension Out of Manga, Even If the Source Is Already Great
A battle manga must cleverly balance its pacing; battles and non-battles have to fit together well. Today, any manga that does particularly well can expect to be animated, and although I can’t speak from experience, I’m sure there’s a temptation to keep that in mind with one’s storytelling.Jujutsu Kaisencan be lauded for the relative clarity of its battle panels, but there’s still the simple fact that battlesfeellonger, less weighty, and less meaningful in the manga format in terms of the story taken as a grand narrative.
With the Culling Game arc essentially being battle after battle, I think fans have unfairly gotten the impression that it’s a boring part. In an anime format, the battle and out-of-battle parts will fit together far more coherently. A battle that once took three chapters might not even take a whole episode, once all is said and done.
The Reason Why Gojo Is Jujutsu Kaisen’s Best Character Is Not His Strength, It’s Actually the Opposite
Gojo is best known for his strength, however, his complexity comes from his weakness, which makes him the best character in Jujutsu Kaisen.
Worse yet, with it introducing a whole roster of new characters, I also worry that the impact of these characters might be overstated. In a battle-heavy manga, when one is devoting chapter upon chapter to a (generally) small set of characters at a time, the introduction or development of anewcharacter will inevitably feel slow, taxing, and labored. The way that animation brings a certain seamlessness and nonchalance to what is a major emotional and temporal commitment for the manga, I think, will make the Culling Game arc great.
Finally, there’s one last thing: MAPPA rarely disappoints. WithJujutsu Kaisen,Spy x Family, andAttack on Titan’s final season, MAPPA has shown a penchant for captivating animation of things that—frankly—could be animated a lot worse, if we’re just going off of direct manga-anime comparisons. A good animated adaptation can bring life and breath to still scenarios that elevate every aspect of the experience at a sensory level, and MAPPA is nothing if not a studio that constantly produces good adaptations. With them at the helm, the Culling Game arc—andJujutsu Kaisen’s upcoming season—will be better than even the arc’s most diehard defenders expect.
Jujutsu Kaisen
Jujutsu Kaisenis a Japanese anime and manga series created by Gege Akutami. The story is set in a world where Cursed Spirits, born from negative human emotions, prey on humanity. It follows high school student Yuji Itadori as he becomes entangled in the world of Jujutsu Sorcery after swallowing a cursed talisman—Ryomen Sukuna’s finger—and becomes the host for one of the most powerful curses. Yuji joins the Tokyo Metropolitan Magic Technical College to learn how to combat curses while searching for the remaining fingers of Sukuna to exorcise him permanently.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is a Japanese multimedia franchise created by Hirohiko Araki. It follows the adventures of the Joestar family, spanning generations, each with unique abilities and battling supernatural enemies. Known for its eccentric characters, distinctive art style, and creative battles, it includes manga, anime, games, and merchandise.
