The Story Continues as the “Culling Game” Heats Up!
Episode 54 of the TV anime Jujutsu Kaisen, titled “Tokyo No. 1 Colony (1)” (Season 3, Episode 7), aired on Thursday, February 12, 2026. As the story finally moves forward into the Culling Game with Kishibe’s cooperation, viewers had a lot to say.
Jujutsu Kaisen is a manga by Gege Akutami serialized in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump from March 2018 to September 2025. The story depicts the battle between curses, born from humanity’s negative emotions, and the jujutsu sorcerers who exorcise them using jujutsu. The global series circulation, including digital versions, has surpassed 150 million copies. Since September 2025, a near-future spin-off titled Jujutsu Kaisen ≡ (Modulo), illustrated by Yuuji Iwasaki based on Akutami’s original story, has been in a short-term concentrated serialization.
The TV anime began airing in October 2020. The first film adaptation, Jujutsu Kaisen 0, was a massive hit with worldwide box office revenue of 26.5 billion yen. The TV anime’s second season, “Hidden Inventory / Premature Death and Shibuya Incident,” aired from July to December 2023 and generated significant reactions not only in Japan but worldwide.
Then, on Thursday, January 8, 2026, the long-awaited third season, “Culling Game – First Part,” began its TV broadcast. The battle unfolds in the “Culling Game,” a deathmatch orchestrated by history’s most evil sorcerer, Kamo Noritoshi.
Please Note: The following text, due to the nature of this topic, contains descriptions that may be considered “spoilers” for those who have not seen the work. Proceed with caution.
Episode 54 Breakdown & Fan Reactions
The story begins with a scene featuring Kenjaku and Sasaki-senpai (CV: Mariya Ise), who once invited Itadori to the Occult Research Club. Viewers, excited to see Sasaki-senpai for the first time since Season 1, Episode 1, commented with things like “Long time no see, senpai!”. However, the atmosphere changed instantly when Kenjaku said, “Thank you for being friends with my son (Itadori),” leading to a flood of comments like “Gross!” and “Stop acting like a mother!”.
Meanwhile, Itadori, Fushiguro, and Panda succeed in persuading Kishibe. Viewers found Kishibe, who casually says things like “I haven’t been this depressed since an arrow got stuck in Yakul’s butt” and calls Fushiguro “Fushiguro-kun,” incredibly entertaining, with comments like “Kishibe is hilarious” and “Kin-chan is such a great character.”
Kogane (CV: NIIKO) appears before Itadori, who is already registered in the Culling Game due to his connection with Sukuna. While searching for players with high points, the figure of Hikari Hiromi (CV: Tomokazu Sugita) appears for just a moment, causing SNS to explode with “Hikari-san is here!!”
New Characters and a Blast from the Past
From Part B, they finally enter the colony. Itadori is attacked by Haba and Habu, who were hunting beginners. When the tool used by the two, Rin Amai (CV: Soma Saito), starts speaking, fans expressed their joy with comments like “Soma Saito!?” and “Saito-san’s voice…!!”
Soma Saito, who plays Amai, commented: “Having read the original manga and watched the anime, I am very happy to be involved as a voice cast member. He might be described as a character with a more commoner-like personality—somewhat cowardly, a bit sly, yet wishing to change from being that kind of person. Please pay attention to what he feels and how he acts in the story.”
SNS went into an even bigger frenzy after this. When Amai, who approaches Itadori after his victory over Haba and Habu, says the words “Tiger of West Junior High,” comments from original manga fans flooded in: “The Tiger of West Junior High is here!!”, “It’s here! The Tiger of West Junior High!”, and “Itadori’s dark history.” This even caused “Tiger of West Junior High” to trend for a while.
Around that time, Fushiguro, who was transported to a different location, confronts the modern sorcerer Remi (CV: Aki Ozawa). In contrast to Amai, the impression from viewers was negative, with critical comments like “This guy is really annoying,” “I really dislike Remi lol,” and “Her head looks like it’s connected to dumbbells.”
Aki Ozawa, who plays Remi, commented: “I think Remi is a character who is desperate to live and has a very human-like quality. In the anime, I believe you will be able to feel more strongly her desperate struggle to survive.”
Amai guides Itadori, and Remi guides Fushiguro to Hikari, but they give different locations: “Ikebukuro” and “Shinjuku.” Just as viewers began to wonder, “Is one of them lying, or are both lying…?” Episode 54 came to an end.
Next week, a reconfigured program “Culling Game – First Part: Idle Talk” with new narration will be aired. (From 2:00 AM). The intentions of Amai and Remi, as well as the awaited appearance of Hikari, will have to wait for the broadcasts in the weeks to come.
TV Anime Season 3 “Culling Game – First Part” Information
Broadcast: Every Thursday from January 8, 2026, at 12:26 AM (late night) on the MBS/TBS network’s 28-station “Super Animeism TURBO” timeslot for nationwide simultaneous broadcast!
Original Work: “Jujutsu Kaisen” by Gege Akutami (published by Shueisha Jump Comics)
Main Cast
| Itadori Yuuji | Junya Enoki |
| Fushiguro Megumi | Yuma Uchida |
| Zenin Maki | Mikako Komatsu |
| Panda | Tomokazu Seki |
| Okkotsu Yuuta | Megumi Ogata |
| Choso | Daisuke Namikawa |
| Tsukumo Yuki | Noriko Hidaka |
| Tengen | Yoshiko Sakakibara |
| Kishibe Kinji | Kazuya Nakai |
| Hoshi Kira | Yuki Sakakibara |
| Zenin Naoya | Koji Yusa |
| Hikari Hiromi | Tomokazu Sugita |
| Takaba Fumihiko | Satoshi Tsuruoka |
| Reggie Star | Minoru Aoyama |
| Kogane | NIIKO |
| Geto Suguru (Kamo Noritoshi) | Takahiro Sakurai |
Production Staff
| Director | Shota Goshono |
| Series Composition / Script | Hiroshi Seko |
| Character Design | Yosuke Yajima, Hiromi Niwa |
| Assistant Director | Yosuke Takada, Takeshi Sato |
| Art Director | Junichi Higashi |
| Color Design | Eiko Matsushima |
| CGI Producer | Yusuke Awanowa |
| 3DCG Director | Kentaro Shigara (Monsters Egg) |
| Director of Photography | Teppei Ito |
| Editing | Keisuke Yanagi, ACE |
| Music | Junpei Terui |
| Music Producer | Kenji Kobayashi |
| Sound Director | Yasunori Ebina |
| Sound Production | dugout |
| Animation Producer | Keisuke Seshimo, Riku Nihonyanagi |
| Production | MAPPA |
(C) Gege Akutami / Shueisha, Jujutsu Kaisen Production Committee
Written by Megumi Hori
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