Anyone else just not understanding anything on Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 at all?
Hope i dont get downvoted to hell,
I watch paying attention, pause to read the on-screen inserts and even rewatched season 2 twice. I really love jujutsu but as an anime only watcher this season is tough
Even with the whole exposition dump on the latest episode, things are moving so fast its such a whiplash.
Im still trying to understand what Mai did for Maki to become giga strong but so many name drops and random (powerful) characters being introduced out of nowhere (and dying right after) as the status quo change in a blink of an eye (litterally, you either pause or lose a shitton of info) is far too much
I think this is the point im going to give up trying to understand anything and just enjoy the animation
I watch paying attention, pause to read the on-screen inserts and even rewatched season 2 twice. I really love jujutsu but as an anime only watcher this season is tough
Even with the whole exposition dump on the latest episode, things are moving so fast its such a whiplash.
Im still trying to understand what Mai did for Maki to become giga strong but so many name drops and random (powerful) characters being introduced out of nowhere (and dying right after) as the status quo change in a blink of an eye (litterally, you either pause or lose a shitton of info) is far too much
I think this is the point im going to give up trying to understand anything and just enjoy the animation
Commentaires
It's still worth sticking with but it won't ever be as good as S1.
Stylistic choice but it sucked.
This actually happens with a lot series, for some reason fans forget the first season and seem to prefer the sequels, and it's the same with MAL scores.
Season 1 of Re:Zero for example is peak, but season 2 and 3 have higher scores.
For example on the 86 subreddit everytime someone asks what's their favorite volume, they say all other volumes except volume 1, despite being the series at its best in my opinion.
Going on a tangent here, but like, last we see Mai she was with the sniper when Geto started the game and when we see her again she's dead on their fathers arm.
then the whole "Mai's CT-gigabuff-on-maki" things happen and some random (but strong) people we've mostly never seen show up on the roof to protect the zenin clan and they have cool CT's but you blink and they're dead and this is like 35% of the episode.
I just cant fathom that people are saying that "its perfectly clear" and "they stated everything that happened" are just anime-onlies and understood everything just by the episode, there's no way
Edit: I am wrong, their heavenly restriction buff also allows them to see curses.
Maki, before this arc, needed glasses to see curses. Now she doesn't need them anymore to see
they introduced those "protectors of the zenin clan" or did we see them before outside of the punch guy? etc
She's part of the clan so she'd return to it after shibuya and Ogi was waiting for maki with mai half dead to give them that speech of his before he threw them both away. We don't know how long she was there but we assume Ogi got wind of maki coming for the vault, emptied it out and summoned mai to whoop her ass
The different squads of the zenin clan were a new introduction
Mai was there because she had no reason to believe her family would eliminate her.
She was in the vault so her dad could kill both maki and mai at the same time in a cruel way because they embarrassed him for being unusual/weak. It's kind of an honor killing.
In the world of the series, it seems like giving birth to twins is like having something split to half. Mai can use cursed energy but she has less cursed energy capacity compared to a normal sorcerer. Meanwhile Maki has zero cursed energy.
I do agree on your other about the pacing being fast and new characters being introduced just to shoved offscreen after their use is up. It would have been so much better if the author gave the story more breathing room but their was unavoidable reason so I cant complain too much
when was this explained? i'd love to rewatch or read about this, i had no clue. I just assumed that because she had no energy left she got buffed like Toji was, but i didnt know that was making it incomplete
also, what did she "create"? That she handed for Maki before dying
i understand most info are like 3 clicks and a thread or wiki away, but it's getting exhausting having to grasp the plot trough 3rd parties.
Toji had such physical gifts because he had no cursed energy.
Maki who is heavey restricted was breaking her pact because she is seen by jjk rules/god as sharing one pool of cursed energy with Mai.
Once Mai died Maki was no longer breaking her pact, and got the full physical gifts she is promised due to her heavenly restriction.
I wouldn't definitely trust nowadays with the translation of anime in streaming apps. Found many things in multiple animes that they decided to change that aren't spelled the same in manga in sub and dubbed(spanish and english)
The season feels treated as if the previous season just ended the week prior.
The manga was kinda rushed at the end because the author was getting a lot of hate from fans IIRC. But its still very very good, albeit the pacing is indeed a bit fast. They should have had half of the fight this episode and half of it next and explained some more in-between. But im guessing they don't want the whole season to be an Info dump.
I’m anime only also, Mai kind of explains that Maki will never be complete as long as Mai is alive, so she sacrifices herself and says she’s taking the cursed energy away with her. Throughout the episode Maki is berated because she can’t grow any stronger because she is not a sorcerer and her heavenly pact won’t ever change. After Mai sacrifices herself, all the characters start saying she is just like Toji.
I’m still not 100% sure what Mai’s ability is, I don’t remember if they explain it in s1 but I think she’s like Yaozaroza from MHA, she can create items from cursed energy. not sure if that means the guns she used before were created by her technique. Idk maybe they’ll get into the specifics later.
this show is funny to me because they do a ton of exposition, even giving an in-universe reason to do so, but then they also play with that by showing things and not explaining them explicitly, or at least not up front. I remember the Sukuna fight from S2, they don’t explain his technique until almost the end of the fight, and they never explain why his technique is also fire. I think sometimes you will definitely get tripped up on stuff because they don’t always come out and say it, but I find it makes me enjoy rewatching the show a lot.
So in the end she used all of their shared curse energy to make the sword for Maki so Maki would be truly without any and then could do what she did
Got the Yao part right and then just freestyled the rest lmao
>I've known for a long time now why twins are considered inauspicious by Jujutsu sorcerers . You have to offer something in order to gain anything. This goes beyond just ~~packs~~ pacts. The fact that we go through pain to grow stronger follows the same logic.
>
>But that balance never functions properly in the case of twins like us. Because Jujutsu views identical twins as the same individual. Get it? You are me, and I am you. You can long to grow stronger and work so hard you spit up blood but it's all pointless. Because I don't want to grow stronger at all.
>
>Even if you don't have any techniques it's pointless if I have one. So long as I exist, Maki, you'll always be incomplete.
>
>This is all I'll leave you with. I'll take all the cursed energy and everything with me. Just promise me one thing. Destroy it all.
This is word for word what Mai said to Maki during the beach scene before Mai dies. Once she is dead, taking all the cursed energy with her, Maki is "complete" and her heavenly restriction is now on par with Toji's.
As for the culling game, the rules are a bit much and I could see not understanding all of those right away, but all you need to know is the goals Tengen put at the end of their power point.
1.) Free Satoru Gojo
2.) Rescue Tsumiki and Reluctant Players
And then for each character it's spelled out
Maki -> Go retrieve cursed tools
Okkotsu -> Go on ahead alone
Itadori/fushiguro -> Recruit Kinji Hikari
Tsukumo/Choso -> guard tengen
I guess to be hyper specific. Saying Maki is "incomplete" is ambiguous. Incomplete in what sense? I understand what they meant now but at the time it could have meant bring emotionally unfulfilled for all I knew.
I guess if I was really versed in JJKs power system it might have made sense.
The first time we see it is when Tojis image is overlaid on top of Maki before she kills her father.
The next time is when Ranta says
>Forget about me Jinichi-san! The current Zen'in clan exists thanks to the whim of Toji-san! You must have realized it by now! Maki is the same as that man!
And then finally again when Naoya has a flashback of Toji explaining he has no cursed energy at all, which remember Mai earlier explained she "took the rest of the cursed energy with her", and then tells Maki she "ain't the one" to stand next to Toji and Gojo before being utterly defeated.
I guess to be fair you're not supposed to understand everything right as Mai says it, but by the end of the episode it doesn't leave much to wonder about what has happened. At least to me anyways it was fairly clear: Mai dies, taking the rest of the cursed energy with her, completing Maki making her the same as Toji, because since they were twins the heavenly pact was not the same as it was with Toji, who was completely cursed energy free.
Like, maki becoming toji-level powerful has massive implications and the mai-maki relationship underpins that change but we haven't seen much of mai for a season and a half (years in realtime tbh) and the beach scene was over in two minutes. I think many people were expecting there to be more build-up and more care taken to establish the choices and stakes at play.
I get that jjk is a battle shounen and it does that part well but gege rarely lets the emotions breathe and it's to the detriment of the show's emotional impact.
Edit: missing word
And Mai says in season 1 that twins are unlucky (but doesn't say why), and her technique is siginificantly worse than anybody else's we'd seen (only being able to make 1 bullet a day).
This last episode could've really benefitted with three-five more minutes - show maki's grief, do the Toji/maki comparison better, show more camaraderie within Zenin clan
It’s the same with JJK and many other anime. If you really think about it, it doesn’t always make sense. But it kind of does. And keeps the story going.
Tengen’s explanation for the culling games is the same. Does it really make sense that if all of the humans merge with the world, it will be destroyed? I’m not so sure about that.
At the end of the day we suspend some belief and accept the in universe explanation.
Mai = Maki in sorcery for equivalent exchange.
Mai takes most of the curse energy, leaving with Maki with little.
Maki takes most of the strength, leaving Mai with little.
Heavenly restriction thinks Mai = Maki. Oh hey you still got curse energy, I don't apply heavenly restriction on you lol.
Mai dies and takes all curse energy
Heavenly restriction: o u have no curse energy. lemme buff u
All the training Maki did was negated by Mai not training. Mai dying released Maki from the restriction of being "half a person". Now she's Toji, with full Heavenly Restriction and 0 Cursed Energy because Mai took it with her.
So even if Mai individually has 100% curse energy & Maki has 100% Heavenly restrictions, the jujitsu sees them as one. A single person which has both curse & heavenly restrictions and limiting both from becoming OP.
With Mai's sacrifice, only Maki was left with zero curse energy recognised by Jujitsu, which unleashed Maki's Full potential from Heavenly restrictions.
It's like twins are treated as Yin & Yang combined as one individual. With Yin gone, only Yang was left behind.
Mai sacrifices herself for Maki; Jujitsu sees it as sacrificing oneself.
Jujutsu "rewards" Maki the Toji level powers because it thinks she killed herself to get it.
Broken ass power and system.
It's not. It's a "defect" some are born with. All it means is if you lack one thing you are better in another thing. Like an RPG character creator where you can put all your stats into magic or strength or balance it out.
The Mechamaru guy was born with missing limbs and a paper body and in exchange had immense cursed energy. Maki had very little cursed energy and in return was physically gifted. Toji was even further on the spectrum where his cursed energy was imperceptible. Since twins share cursed energy Mai was able to take the little energy Maki had with her when she died thus leaving Maki with no cursed energy at all putting her on the same level as Toji.
This is not the first time this confusion comes up and I blame Gege. Heavenly restriction is part of the power system "binding vows" that one makes with oneself. So this is a binding vow that a baby in the womb made with itself. No wonder people are confused.
>"x character did a thing which made y character stronger/weaker."
>"how exactly?"
>"that's just how cursed energy / heavenly pacts / the world works."
>"yeah, okay, sure."
If you can't yeah, okay, sure it. Then you're going to have bad time.
I made the decision long ago to ignore all of the explanations and enjoy the fights and animation similar to what you mentioned. I watch shounen to see people punch each other. If I wanted to learn stuff I’d read a book. I skipped the culling games episode once I realized it was an episode with nothing but explanations.
In my (somewhat unpopular) opinion, stories that are told through animation shouldn’t require this level of explanation, and the author/director has failed if they are unable to convey the story without constant info dumps.
Even Gojo’s skillset is presented in an esoteric manner when it’s literally just using cursed energy like magnets (space manipulation). But then Gege decides to explain this by talking about [-1 apples](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fhow-does-gojo-do-this-what-ability-in-infinity-gives-him-v0-rbmfgmshdn2b1.jpeg%3Fwidth%3D1067%26format%3Dpjpg%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D130a780b1c5499620347f7e32fc42cef1cd1daf1).
I always describe his style of writing as “over-explaining, under-clarifying.”
The bar is so low for JJK fans 💀 I couldn't make it past season 1 sorry but Chainsaw Man is pretty much the same plot but better
Maki had HR
Mai didn't
Twins are equal to Jujutsu
Maki's HR was split, half to Maki and half to Mai
Mai's CE was split, half to Mai and half to Maki
I guess i truly am a Jujutsu fan, i can't read
That's why we got an entire episode dedicated to breaking down all that writing and going from an unmanageable mess to a plan without a clear path but a clear goal.
Hidden Inventory proves to me that Gege can write well when he wants to. I believe Shonen Jump with their tough practices and deadlines are to blame for this since I think they sucked the passion out of the author, with the final arc in the manga most people could just tell it was being rushed and that Gege just didnt care to think about some things.
Edit: I've looked more into it and apparently the poor fella had to work with an exploded appendix for like 2 months, that was probably another big reason things started to fall off
To add to your point about deadlines, his writing has been SO good in JJK Modulo. Brisk pace, but still allowing the characters and ideas to breathe. It honestly feels so refined. It must take so much weight off his shoulders not having to draw everything.
It literally dedicates an entire arc to just teaching you the fundamentals, that way they can start going crazy without having to explain every single action someone takes.
Just look at the respective fanbases. You’ll see a lot less “I don’t understand” posts compared to JJK. Thats a direct byproduct of how information is conveyed.
They would have to REWRITE the entire arc to make it less exposition heavy. Just wait until you get to the big fights of the season; so many unnecessary interruptions
Just goes to show how great of a story he can craft when given time and not having to draw. It’s a shame some people still think he doesn’t care about story. This ain’t Solo Leveling, and I enjoy that series.
It's frustrating whenever people claim that something clumsy is well planned. What's the point of planning a story well when people will just generously claim that anything with good character designs/art has good writing?
Sigh.
So Gegege is writing something new? How is Modulo? Any characters that stand out? Similar to JJK?
It has way more focus on the characters, and the plot and new powers are kept simple so that the story has time to breath.
Imo, Gege should've added an extra chapter to set the scene and the players more and he probably should've introduced all of the Zenin Clan members way earlier. He had the perfect opportunity to do it too when he introduced Naobito in the Shibuya arc.
It always irked me that the head of one of the big 3 clans just got introduced like someone we already knew, without any weight or importance. Most of my friends didn't even get that he was head of the Zenin clan until S3E1.
The real "lucky" groups in that age differential will know about manga only series like Kagaburachi, Modulo, Ichi the Witch, and some others.
Sometimes it still creeps up and surprises me. I grew up in a time where the Anime/Manga kids stayed at their own lunch table in school and while maybe not bullied (I was a little past the rampant bullying of the 80's/90's cafeterias) were definitely some of the lowest on the totem pole and generally avoided even talking to. Hell, I only really got into it through sheer luck as a pot smoker who broke through several different social groups and one of those included a few of the nerdy kids who would hit up Barns and Noble or local bookstores/comic shops to read DeathNote, Fruit Baskets, and other really early stuff before Crunchy was a thing and every piece of content was a sketchy fansub site. Even having showings of Demon Slayer in Japanese at every major movie theater in my city still blows me away at how far the medium has come.
You will have to continue to pause and digest the information because Gege does not slow down with these things. There will be a lot of confusion going forward into the next cour *and* season
Their base abilities aren't confusing; Gregarious the Nefarious just adds seven million extra rules for no real reason.
I had to pause so much and watched that 23 minute episode in several parts. And it's still not completely clear!
I know fake-Geto did the whole Idle Transfiguration thing to have people fight, but all of a sudden it's a tournament with rules??
But his writing ain't Hunter x Hunter grade.
Welcome to post-Shibuya JJK lol
And people will say you can’t read just because you don’t have an encyclopedic memory of how things heavenly restriction work lmao 😆
Akutami forced it back into a death game at the first opportunity.
Megumi was supposed to be the MC.
Bumgumi Fraudshiguro.
Good news is that the fights are probably worth sticking around for. There are some good ones and they will go viral 100%.
And after watching a Youtube summary, my feeling is that very little in this episode was set up very well in the anime and only people who have read the manga were getting much out of it. Looked kinda cool but because I didn't know what was happening, why or to whom, I was left feeling pretty cold. Hope the rest of the season can setting into something approaching a coherent narrative because so far it has been a mess.
**Physically Gifted"** (フィジカルギフテッド *Fijikaru Gifuteddo*[**^(?)**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Installing_Japanese_character_sets))^(\[4\]\[5\]\[6\]) is a heavenly restriction that, for unknown reasons, has been shown to manifest exclusively in Zenin Clan members. It entails the restriction bearer having either extremely low levels of, or absolutely zero, cursed energy in exchange for a superhumanly augmented physique.
In its most developed state where the "physically gifted" harbors absolutely zero cursed energy, unlike most non-sorcerers who have at least a tiny amount, they attain a "body of steel"^(\[7\]) endowed with unrivalled physical capabilities: strength, speed, endurance, etc. far beyond the bounds of normal humans. Notably, this extends to the five basic senses being heightened to the point where the physically gifted can perceive the presence of cursed spirits, by picking up on normally imperceivable changes in air density and temperature.^(\[8\]\[9\]) In addition, the physically gifted's utter lack of cursed energy grants them exceptional stealth against sorcerers,^(\[10\]) the ability to freely move through barriers,^(\[11\]\[12\]) as well as immunity to the sure-hit effects of domains, which cannot recognize their presence.^(\[13\])
The "Sorcerer Killer" Toji Fushiguro was the first person in history to have zero cursed energy, which made his restriction so potent that he was capable of defeating the strongest sorcerers through sheer physical prowess.^(\[4\]\[2\]) Maki Zenin would later become the second known person to awaken a body with zero cursed energy.^(\[14\]\[15\]\[16\]) Despite possessing little to no cursed energy, those with the "physically gifted" restriction are associated with jujutsu (usually through using cursed tools) and thus classified as sorcerers,^(\[17\]\[18\]) although jujutsu society has no interest in issuing an accurate grade classification for them.^(\[19\])
She's basically dying and says she'll use whatever energy she has left to materialize a weapon for maki. (Her technique materializes stuff)
Once she dies, maki's heavenly restriction is fully awakened, because her twin half that shares the same soul is dead.
For more context, my currently airing favorite animes are mf ghost and tojima wants to be kamen rider.
Mai has never wanted to be strong, she didn't even want to be a Sorcerer but because she is a Zen'in she had to. Maki has always wanted to be stronger and Mai knew this, that's why in the episode she says she knew the day would come eventually. Mai dying severed their connection and with that any cursed energy that Maki was getting from Mai.
Also Mai's cursed technique is she can create ANYTHING but she lacks the CE and can usually only make one item per day which she usually just makes cursed bullets, Mai knew she was going to die for Maki's sake and crafting the sword was too draining on her plus she was already bleeding out from the sword wound.
If Maki was born an only child she would've been Toji 2.0, if Mai was an only child she would've had a normal amount of CE.
The whole thing feels kinda forced into a deathgame anime format for no real reason other than lazy gamification of Kenjakus intentions which were already set up beforehand anyway. I guess we will see if the payoff is good but for now I'm not super impressed with this season aside from some pretty animation here and there. The 20 minute powerpoint domain expansion was tragically boring to watch. Sure it explains the situation well enough but a whole ass episode that is nothing but "tell don't show" exposition dumping is just not good writing, I don't care how much people are glazing the fancy death game rules. And then the next episode is more or less one big action scene which is a massive overcorrection in the other direction. I think they left the balance and pacing writing manual at home that day.
Its not that I'm about to quit the show or anything but the previous seasons pretty much had me hooked from the get go and here we are 4 episode in and I'm still kind of on the fence.
You probably won't like the rest, since it's Gege with no editors into Gege going in and out of the hospital every month (with no editors).
Also, it'll get worse, sadly.
I've read the manga, and I've done two re-watches so far. I think giving it a re-watch helps with catching some hints, or at least seeing any dialogue that was missed.
I do have an issue with some of the pacing with the anime/manga as a whole. But still enjoyable.
Would not stress too much about having to re-watch episode three to try and pick up anything on the rules or the game, as it's an integral part leading on and plays a plot in it.
Many in here have already gave background on some of the specific plot points.
But I also wonder if this is an issue of subs on crunchyroll being able to relay this in a short time frame. I haven't tried looking at fansubs yet, but I probably will when having my SO give this a first time watch.
No it's not surprising you don't understand jjk gets nuts from this arc and pointlessly so, the next season is some flashy fights and and insane number of introductions and power descriptions all made void by sukunna later so that don't matter, this whole arc which I ill probably be 1 and a half seasons means absolutely nothing to the main story other than some folks are going to fight the big bad
It's really just vibes now.
Other comments don't seem to mention Mai is not capable of producing more than 1 bullet per day with her CT because she has low cursed energy reserves.
She likely used a death binding vow to create a special grade cursed tool.
Mai and Maki are twins, so the jujutsu system treats them as one person. Maki's heavenly restriction is held back by Mai's cursed energy, and the amount of Mai's cursed energy is lower than it should be because of Maki's restriction. One of them dying "fixes" things.
I keep reading comments about JJK being too complicated and I honestly don’t get it. I mean, I love JJK but it’s honestly just another braindead shonen. Its literally memed to death for being “nothing but hype moments and aura”. Even the last episode sacrifices pacing and potential (lol iykyk) storytelling so Maki can have more screentime to clown on her clan with stellar animation.
Mai literally says that she’s taking all the cursed energy with her after dying and creating the sword. This would make Maki have 0 cursed energy which would make her Toji´s equal. It’s not even up for interpretation, the guy with the giant eyes technique literally spells it out.
I’ve also seen many memes about the culling games rules being too complicated… what? You get points by killing people. With enough points you can create new rules. If you don’t play you die. That’s it. Gege really doesn’t care about creating a complex story or meaningful character interactions, he just wanted to draw buff dudes (and Maki) punching each other. The power system is also quite simple compared to something like Nen from HxH.
It’s not just JJK either, I’m seeing this in many fandoms. Is media literacy dead? I swear it was not that bad a few years ago… Is it TikTok? Doomscrolling? I swear something must have happened…
I unironically wish I had an offspring that would act as my anime secretary (but I'm not responsible enough to support a family!).
Japan is literally criticizing westerners for only caring about the animation in episode 4 lmao
People who fell out of love with JJK are really trying their hardest to push the narrative that the power system is full of plot holes and such when the reality is that it's just overcomplicated and Gege sucks at explaining.
last episode had me pausing constantly and before i realised it, the show become a 1 hour fest for me, this episode as well 😭
Mai helped to actualize Makis' Heavenly Restriction.
Heavenly Restriction is just giving up something important, a possible vital part of life to gain insane powers in something else. (I think giving up is wrong terminology but Heavenly restriction is something you are born with) For eg, Mechamaru was born with nothing, had a miserable life of disability but he got an insane range and power on his technique. Toji had 0 Cursed Energy but he gained inhuman physical strength and possibly regeneration as well.Mechamaru and Toji were single child at the time of their birth i.e. no Twins.
But Maki is an identical twin to Mai and Jujutsu looks at Twins like they are same entity or people. In previous seasons, you must've seen Maki said she cannot see CE but she has very trace amounts of it and very good physical strength for someone who has very less CE (Most sorcerers just use CE to reinforce physical strength). In season 1, Mai said how difficult it is for her to use her CT because of low CE reserves, this is also due to the same reason.
If you treat them as same entity, Mai is the part that is CE and Maki is the part that is Physical Strength but since they both exist, neither of them has the best of either CE or Physical strength.
So when Mai gave up on her life, the CE part was lifted from the said entity making Maki essentially same as Toji. Someone with no CE but instead given insane physical strength.
Reverse would've been true as well. If Maki had sacrificed her life, Mai would've gained Immense Cursed Energy. Her CT "Construction" would've been insane if she got the CE reserves that requires to fuel it. [Mild Spoilers for her technique]>!We will meet someone who has the same technique as Mai and it is an very good CT to have!<
Having said that, I agree with you. I am only able to understand as I had read Manga. To me, the "directing" feels off for this season. I don't know how many people feel it, but I am also not liking the voice acting. As for animation, they seem to giving up on more solid art work for more fluidity in animation. I find it jarring.