English Dub Review: Jujutsu Kaisen “About the Culling Game”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Tengen explains the complex rules of the Culling Game put forth by Kenjaku, the true name of the being controlling Geto’s body, to Yuji and the rest, and they make their battle plans to survive and end the game.

OUR TAKE

Hey, it’s an episode with content I haven’t seen before! What a novel concept! And it’s technically a bottle episode since it takes pretty much entirely in one room (aside from the scene at the end introducing a new character) and focuses primarily on characters explaining long complicated jargon to each other and discussing stuff they’ll do in future episodes that aren’t this one. You might think that aspect would pull the score for this episode down at least a notch or two but actually…it was pretty intriguing jargon that filled in some important blanks. There is a LOT to wrap my head around regarding the Culling Game itself, but it seems the main gist of it is that Kenjaku, who finally has a proper name instead of just being Fake Geto, wants to make a bunch of sorcerers kill each other while also making even more sorcerers which will eventually build up enough Cursed Energy to cause a wide spread evolution of mankind into an assimilated super cursed being. And to do that, he’s going to need to assimilate Tengen, who itself has been going through some strange evolutions since the Hidden Inventory Arc when it failed to get a new proper host.

Now that Yuji and the gang are pretty much caught up on all of that, they make a plan to participate in the games (which seems to be mandatory) and find a way to add a rule to make them stop, something that is apparently allowed if they are able to gain enough points from their killings. Some, like Chozo, will stay behind to guard Tengen from being targeted, some like Maki will go get the cursed weapons from the Zenin family’s storage (and probably roll some heads while she’s there), and others like Yuta are off to get some special materials to help with their plan, leaving Yuji and Megumi (who is now apparently the head of the clan by a special agreement between the previous head and Megumi’s father Toji) to recruit another special sorcerer to help them. But they won’t be the only ones we’re keeping up with, as the end of the episode shows us Fumihiko Takaba, who has yet to discover his cursed abilities but is nonetheless an unwitting player in this game. Now, let the games begin, starting next episode where Maki gets some much deserved vengeance against the Zenins.