Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Will Finally Payoff a Conflict That's Been Built Up Even Before the Manga Came Out
The third season of Jujutsu Kaisen is hotly anticipated, but there's one reason to be hype that even many fans of the franchise have overlooked. Even fans who don't follow the manga have a rough outline of how Jujutsu Kaisen's third season will play out. It will cover the relatively short Itadori Extermination arc before settling in and building out the Culling Game arc.
The devil is in the details, though. Jujutsu Kaisen's third season is actually going to bring the series full circle thanks to one small detail that a lot of fans might not even be aware of. The end of Jujutsu Kaisen's second season teased the beginning of the Itadori Extermination arc, with Jujutsu Kaisen 0 lead Yuta Okkotsu being given the mission to rid the world of Itadori Yuji after he loses control of Sukuna, who goes on a widespread rampage during the Shibuya Incident arc. This is one of creator Gege Akutami's most profoundly underrated storytelling decisions, and it has huge implications for the franchise as a whole.
Yuta Was Actually Jujutsu Kaisen's Original Protagonist
Gege Akutami's First Version of JJK Had Yuta as the Main Character
Fun fact: Jujutsu Kaisen 0 isn't a prequel so much as Jujutsu Kaisen is a sequel. The former was actually renamed after Jujutsu Kaisen caught fire, but it was actually published prior to Jujutsu Kaisen as Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School. Jujutsu Kaisen exists solely because of Jujutsu Kaisen 0's success.
Jujutsu Kaisen 0's story is surely familiar to fans: Yuta Okkotsu is haunted by his childhood friend and fiancée, Rika. Discovered by Satoru Gojo, he's taken in and nurtured at Jujutsu High. Eventually, along comes Gojo's former friend Geto, who starts an all-out assault on Jujutsu High. After a heated battle, Geto escapes and is tracked down by Gojo, who executes him—but not before laying the narrative groundwork for their friendship that would be explored further in Jujutsu Kaisen.
When one picks up Jujutsu Kaisen, the characters feel so strong and eloquently written that it seems impossible to imagine them as something that could have existed prior to the series. Ironically, the reason they're so strong and eloquently written is that several pillars of the franchise—Gojo, Geto, Maki Zen'in, and more—were already present in the story that set up Jujutsu Kaisen to begin with. Jujutsu Kaisen 0 was intended to be a short-running manga, and it was only on the back of its success that Jujutsu Kaisen came to be.
But despite the appearance of numerous other characters from the original run, Yuta has so far been nowhere to be found in the anime—up until the end of season 2 brings Jujutsu Kaisen's first protagonist back.
Jujutsu Kaisen's Third Season Will Pay Off a Conflict Between Two Rival Protagonists
Hinted at With Season 2's Finale, Yuji and Yuta's Fates Finally Clash
Jujutsu Kaisen, of course, saw the introduction of an entirely new protagonist: Itadori Yuji. It might be lost on fans of the franchise today, but when the manga first came out, people who enjoyed Jujutsu Kaisen 0 weren't necessarily huge fans of Yuji. This sentiment persisted long after, with many saying Yuta always should have been Jujutsu Kaisen's protagonist.
The third season of the franchise will see the two protagonists finally intertwine as Yuta is now given the critical mission of exterminating Yuji. Without giving anything spoilers away, this also brings Yuta into the fold of Jujutsu Kaisen's story writ large. The talented sorcerer was the final character from Jujutsu Kaisen 0 that had been left untouched by Jujutsu Kaisen itself. Once he's finally brought into the fray, he remains a tremendous part of the plot moving forward.
In a sense, a lot of fans underestimate the importance of the Itadori Extermination arc in one crucial way. Yuta's addition to Jujutsu Kaisen's narrative isn't just a clever callback to the series' prologue. It's the introduction of an entirely new protagonist to the world of Jujutsu Kaisen—as the plot plays out, consciously or unconsciously, he vies for his rightful position, playing a decisive and disproportionate role in the Culling Game and Shibuya Showdown arcs that bring the series to its close.
Against Yuji, Yuta makes an effort to defend his throne as Jujutsu Kaisen's true protagonist—and it makes Yuji's actions and development all the more meaningful, too. If Jujutsu Kaisen 0 and Jujutsu Kaisen can be treated as expositions of different core themes, then those differences are going to be latent in the interactions between Yuji and Yuta moving forward. Everything that Yuji shows himself to be in comparison to Yuta is a summary of Gege's shifting mission and intended messages with the franchise that Yuta kicked off.
Yuta's introduction will bring Jujutsu Kaisen full circle in the best way possible. After the Itadori Extermination arc, the thematic and narrative threads that compare and contrast Yuta and Yuji will only grow denser. As Yuji tries to prove himself as Jujutsu Kaisen's protagonist, it will always be in the image of Yuta's own claim to the throne—a claim that he's ready to kill Yuji for with his introduction.
- Created by
- Gege Akutami
- First Film
- Jujutsu Kaisen 0
- Latest Film
- Jujutsu Kaisen 0
- First TV Show
- Jujutsu Kaisen
- Latest TV Show
- Jujutsu Kaisen
- Upcoming TV Shows
- Jujutsu Kaisen
Jujutsu Kaisen is 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.
- First Episode Air Date
- October 3, 2020
- Cast
- Junya Enoki, Yuma Uchida, Asami Seto, Yuichi Nakamura
- Current Series
- Jujutsu Kaisen
- TV Show(s)
- Jujutsu Kaisen
- Video Game(s)
- Jujutsu Kaisen Cursed Clash
