JJK CULLING GAMES

     For me, everything I love about JJK Season 3 can be felt through the opening, "AIZO." The music is eclectic, chaotic, and fast-paced, existing in stark contrast to last season's "SPECIALZ" opening. Prior to the release of this season, I touted SPECIALZ as my favorite opening of the series by far, because of how it captured the sensation of the season's arc through the color and music of the intro. The slow, almost creepy music paired with the dark reds and shadows of the visuals create this atmosphere of impending doom, which embodies the contents of the Shibuya Incident arc of episodes. AIZO accomplishes the same result while being more fitting for the Culling Games arc, which essentially features the cast of protagonists scrambling to put out fires everywhere while the fire department was just bombed. The fast cutting between characters, the explosive visuals, and the high-energy music all come together to get the viewers pumped for a season built for adrenaline junkies. 

    However, my love for the opening moves beyond just vibes: what elevates AIZO above SPECIALZ in my opinion is the blending of typical anime opening visuals (characters, poses, hints to what occurs in the season) with these beautiful recreations of classic art pieces, recontextualized to fit JJK's story while still paying homage to well-known historical art. It isn't just a really cool visual to include in the opening— these are literally setting up one of the major plot points of the Culling Games, which includes the reincarnation of ancient sorcerers into the modern world to do battle with the sorcerers of today, taking over the bodies of modern people in order to participate in the Culling Games. This dichotomy and conflict between the traditional and modern world extends to the art featured in the opening, which is just fantastic visual storytelling occurring in the first minute of every episode. This sort of attention to detail and blending of techniques is the reason why I hold Jujutsu Kaisen in such high regard among the other animes I have watched.

    There is so much more to be appreciated in JJK's soundtrack than just the opening, however. As someone who had the JJK Season 2 soundtrack as one of my most listened-to artists on Spotify last year, I was worried that Season 3 would fail to deliver the same quantity of quality music to score the season through its many fights and special moments. As soon as the official soundtrack for The Culling Games was released on Spotify (following my viewing of the episodes, of course) I was prepared to eat my words. The music is on par, if not surpassing the quality of last season's soundtrack! Songs like "The Eldest Brother of Ten Siblings" hype up the viewer, pumping them with electricity for certain fight scenes, while other tracks like "Execution" get in touch with the lesser-appreciated tones of the show's creepy, investigative feel. So many of these tracks give the feeling of the scenes they embody, that one could close their eyes and listen to the music and envision themselves walking through scenes from the show even if they had never watched JJK for themselves. Whether you need a song to play when you shower in the dark or for when you need that extra push at the gym, the Culling Games soundtrack has you covered.

What has elevated JJK: Culling Games above other anime I've watched has been the beautiful direction from Shouta Goshozono, whom the fans nicknamed "Gosso" lovingly. The creative liberties that the animators and directors take when adapting the black and white, static manga panels is awe-inspiring. Fight scenes that lasted only a few pages are given minutes to breathe in extended cuts, allowing for ideas and techniques to be explored in depth while also experimenting with how they are visually represented to the audience. Take for example the fight with Hiromi Higuruma. Since it's such a recent release, there aren't any good videos that feature the entire scene without awkward cuts, but this gets my point across. The scene is simple: a conversation while he sits in his bathtub, and then the escalation to the fight. But observe how they chose to adapt the scene: changing angles frequently, playing with the background to display information, and switching between some gorgeous colored lighting. This could have been designed to play out like any other conversation, but the animation team and directors choose to continuously challenge themselves and the viewer through different techniques to make it more visually interesting. That sort of passion and creativity is applied to everything in this season, which makes it such a treat to watch!

    For many, the main attraction from watching a shonen anime like JJK are the intense, well-animated fight scenes between powerful characters with unique and creative abilities. And true enough, the Culling Games arc does not slack in this regard: this season is probably the most battle-dense season in the entire show. But, as a contrast from last season, where the entire cast was spread out in Shibuya City, fighting independently but still in the same area as everyone else, this season further separates the cast into different "colonies" spaced throughout all of Japan. Conceptually, this achieves a few things, like allowing for the audience to have a wider scope of vision throughout the world the anime creates, but most importantly, it creates the impression that each cast member is on their own. With one or two members of the main group distributed to each colony, there is little to no chance for a last-minute save from another character. This raises the stakes substantially, and makes each fight seem just a little bit more intense and personal.

    The other thing I really enjoyed about the fights this season are the matchups. As a writer, one of the issues I always think about when watching this series is how the author designed each fight for each protagonist to maximize their personal investment in the battle (shonen animes typically use fights between characters as stand-ins for philosophical debates between ideologically opposed characters) while simultaneously ensuring that the skill sets and powers of the enemy lead to an interesting battle for the viewers to watch. Fights in anime have the burden of achieving two functions: to progress the story in a meaningful way, and to give the audience a good show to watch. A well-written fight will feel boring if the visuals and choreography are bad, and a well-animated fight with poor writing will feel flashy and intangible, as if you are jingling keys in front of your audience.

    I've mentioned it earlier in this post, but the fight between Yuji and Higuruma was one of my absolute favorites in this season. Beyond stellar visuals and a banger of a fight song, I felt like this scene was a perfect example of a "perfect fight," where the writing shines alongside the hype of the skills and cursed techniques used in the fight. JJK likes assigning ironically fitting powers to match the inner conflicts of many of the main characters (like Gojo's Infinity representing the distance and loneliness he feels from being "the strongest,"), and I particularly like how Higuruma's Judgeman technique places him as a prosecutor with the power to kill his opponents, contrasting how he started as a disillusioned defense attorney who tried to save his clients from punishment. Additionally, the black-and-white lens that Judgeman has towards right and wrong (or innocence and guiltiness) further challenges Higuruma, who felt frustration from the same quality in the Japanese legal system he struggled against as a defense lawyer. 

    At the same time, this ability is the perfect obstacle for Yuji to encounter following the Shibuya Incident. Yuji is no stranger to punching away his problems, but this enemy forces non-violence on him, and forces him to confront his misplaced guilt for the deaths in Shibuya. This means Yuji has to tackle a mental threat rather than a physical one, and while he does succeed for a while, when forced to deal with his guilt for Shibuya, he confesses, despite not truly being responsible. Seeing Yuji confess to a crime he didn't commit, Higuruma is now placed in the same position as the unfair legal system he hated so much, as Judgeman sentences Yuji to the death penalty by Higuruma's hand. However, instead of continuing to participate in this fight (and this cycle of unfair judgement), Higuruma allows himself to be defeated, putting an end to the conflict (while avoiding an outright winner) and redeeming himself somewhat. This fight isn't just a beautifully directed and action-packed battle, but also a invisible battle of guilt and redemption. It's not a coincidence that Yuji, who feels like he cannot be redeemed for a crime he didn't commit, is paired with Higuruma, who feels like redemption is impossible after years of being worn down by the corrupt legal system. By the end of the fight, Higuruma's faith in innocence and redemption is restored, and Yuji gets external validation that he is not guilty, in spite of his own feelings.

    There's a lot more to love about this season (and I may just write a few bonus posts with a deeper dive into specific episodes in the future), but I don't want this post to stretch on forever. All I can say is that I cannot recommend this season enough, both to people who do and don't watch anime! I can't wait for the next season, whenever that may come out!