What is the Culling Game? Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 arc, explained

A sinister tournament begins, pitting sorcerers and cursed humans against each other. What is the true purpose behind this deadly game?

The Culling Game, the next arc in the Jujutsu Kaisen anime following the two-episode premiere of season 3, is a massive tournament that pits jujutsu sorcerers and newly awakened humans against each other. Series antagonist Kenjaku wants those who survive his game to evolve jujutsu energy so that he can bring humanity to its next stage.

The arc kicks off when Megumi approaches Yuji at the end of episode 2 of season 3, but not for the reasons Yuji believes. Megumi needs Yuji’s strength to save his sister, Tsumiki, who has found herself as an unwilling participant in the tournament as one of the humans awakened by Kenjaku at the end of season 2.

It’s a pretty zany story with a different take on the classic tournament arc most shonen find themselves in at some point or another. But as a result, the Culling Game comes with a lot of rules that author Gege Akutami doesn’t really convey well at the onset, and especially as newer rules and stipulations are introduced later.

With how complex and convoluted this arc will get, we lay down the basics of the Culling Game to help viewers more easily understand the events of JuJutsu Kaisen season 3.

What is the Culling Game?

The Culling Game is essentially one big battle royal that puts 1000 sorcerers and curse users against each other as a means of generating cursed energy to further Kenjaku’s means for sorcerer supremacy. There are 10 colonies across Japan where battles take place, and they are sealed off with barriers that separate them from one another. The only area not affected by the barriers is Hokkaido, as it is a holy land.

When the Culling Game begins, eight rules are disclosed to all participants and anyone eligible to join. The design ensures that no single individual, not even Kenjaku, acts as a game master. Instead, the game governs itself, bound by a web of vows and conditions Kenjaku put in place to guarantee it fulfills its purpose of harvesting cursed energy, even in the event of his death.

What are the rules are the Culling Game?

Although chapter 143 of the manga, adapted in the second episode of JuJutsu Kaisen season 3, showcases the tournament rules at the end, the episode itself does not, most likely saving this explanation for the following episode, when more about the tournament is explained. The initial rules are as follows:

1. After awakening a cursed technique, an individual must declare their participation in the Culling Game by entering a barrier of their choosing within 19 days.
2. Any player who fails to follow the previous rule will be subjected to cursed technique removal, which will likely kill the person.
3. Any non-player who enters a barrier is immediately registered as a player and is considered to have declared participation upon entry.
4. Players accumulate points by killing other players.
5. Point values are assigned by the game and represent the worth of a player’s life, with sorcerers generally valued at five points and non-sorcerers at one point.
6. Excluding the value of their own life, players may spend one hundred points to negotiate the addition of a single new rule to the Culling Game.
7. The game must accept any proposed rule under the previous condition unless it would cause a significant and long-term impact on the Culling Game.
8. If a player’s point total does not change for 19 consecutive days, they will be subjected to cursed technique removal.

Who is involved in the Culling Games?

Kenjaku initially sets the tournament in motion following the events of the Shibuya incident, when he steals Mahito’s cursed technique, Idle Transfiguration, and uses it to activate two types of non-sorcerers he marked. The first are individuals selected to become vessels for reincarnated sorcerers of the past (usually by ingesting a cursed object, as Yuji did with Sukuna’s fingers). The second is normal humans who had their brains re-wired to wield cursed energy, thus awakening as jujutsu sorcerers. This includes Megumi’s sister Tsumiki, who, as a non-combatant, now has 19 days before she dies for the rules of the game.

The Culling Game is considered the worst act of terrorism in the history of the jujutsu world. Not only does it forcibly involve civilians and disclose the existence of cursed energy and curses to the world, it also threatens to decimate the Japanese population and evolve the survivors into new, unknown life forms.

What is Kenjaku’s plan in JJK season 3?

Kenjaku is Jujutsu Kaisen’s most enigmatic antagonist, with much of his past left unknown, though it’s clear he is ancient and has spent nearly a thousand years orchestrating the Culling Game. After absorbing Mahito at the end of season 2, Kenjaku gains the ability to manipulate souls, which he uses to forcibly awaken cursed techniques in ordinary humans and pit them against sorcerers in a brutal battle for survival, all in the name of human “evolution.”

This conflict generates enormous amounts of cursed energy, which Kenjaku plans to use to merge all non-sorcerers in Japan with Tengen, the immortal sorcerer who maintains the nation’s barrier system from the Tombs of the Star Corridor. Over centuries, Tengen’s repeated mergers with vessels have made them more curse than human, and Kenjaku intends to exploit that state to erase the line between humans and curses entirely. To him, the mass merger is nothing more than an experiment; whether it results in salvation or catastrophe is irrelevant, as long as something new is born.

What is the heroes’ goal in JJK season 3?

Yuji, Megumi, and their allies enter the Culling Game with different objectives. Besides finding a way to save Tsumiki, their main goal is to free Gojo from the Prison Realm, knowing that the overwhelming strength of their master will stop Kenjaku’s plan. To do so, they have to find a reincarnated sorcerer whose cursed technique can break the seal and free Gojo.

To achieve these goals, however, they’ll have to fight. They need to gather enough points to add new rules to the game to offset the effect of rule 8 on Tsumiki. They’ll have to contend with powerful sorcerers from past eras and awakened individuals wielding strange, cursed techniques. Meanwhile, Kenjaku’s plan continues to unfold behind the scenes.

The Culling Game is certainly one of the most chaotic and complex arcs in the story, but it’s also one of the most exciting. Expect plenty of the battles that made Jujutsu Kaisen stand out in the first place.