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MAPPA consistently manages to elevate each anime season with its standout productions, captivating fans across the globe. Among its most celebrated works is Jujutsu Kaisen, the anime adaptation of Gege Akutami’s renowned manga. Originally a sensation in Weekly Shonen Jump, this series has been one of the most significant titles in recent years. MAPPA’s adaptation has not only preserved the essence of Jujutsu Kaisen but has also propelled its popularity to new heights.
The series’ first two seasons, along with its prequel film, have left audiences thrilled and eager for more, solidifying trust in MAPPA’s ability to faithfully bring Akutami’s shonen epic to life. As anticipation builds for Jujutsu Kaisen’s third season, titled Jujutsu Kaisen: The Culling Game Part 1, which is set to debut on January 8, 2026, the studio stands at a pivotal moment. Adding to the excitement, a cinematic preview is also poised to hit theaters, promising to captivate viewers once again.
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The Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution Movie Sets Season 3 Up For Even Greater Success
MAPPA has generated greater excitement and anticipation for each successive season of Jujutsu Kaisen. It’s been extremely satisfying to watch MAPPA’s experience, confidence, and skills evolve during a pivotal transition period for Jujutsu Kaisen. Gege Akatumi’s manga grows exponentially more intense and darker with each new story arc.
After JJK Season 2’s heights, the audience was going to celebrate Season 3, regardless. However, MAPPA has brilliantly capitalized on Jujutsu Kaisen’s success and the current trends of the anime and film industries in order to generate maximum anticipation for the title’s upcoming season.
Jujutsu Kaisen: The Culling Game Part 1 will officially begin on January 8, 2026. Rather than simply advertise the upcoming season on television and manga, MAPPA has decided to cinematically showcase what’s to come in Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution. Much like Jujutsu Kaisen: Hidden Inventory / Premature Death – The Movie before it, Execution will recap the concluding events of Jujutsu Kaisen’s second season – the Shibuya Incident – before leading into season three’s first two episodes.
There’s ostensibly nothing in this movie that fans won’t see on television. However, this feature film event creates momentum and excitement for what’s to come, albeit several months early. It’s a really smart strategy that’s designed to keep fans talking up until January’s premiere, while also reminding them why they fell in love with Jujutsu Kaisen in the first place. It becomes far more than just a compilation film.
As much as Execution is a celebration of Jujutsu Kaisen and its fans, it’s also an opportunity to relish in MAPPA’s next-level visuals on the big screen. Sometimes it’s exciting to see an anime series transition over to cinemas, even if its visuals don’t exactly take advantage of the situation. MAPPA’s work on Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution isn’t squandered. Someone who hasn’t seen a frame of Jujutsu Kaisen would still be entertained by the film’s stunning visuals and hyperbolized battles.
The way in which Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution honors the anime’s upcoming third season, Jujutsu Kaisen’s fans, and MAPPA as a whole is really quite special. Execution is an anime event that is not just entertaining, but also represents an important turning point for the anime studio. A problem that wasn’t unique to MAPPA, but certainly felt all the same, is how studios will experience “crunch time” fatigue where animators are overworked and deadlines intensify. This sort of problem can become even more extreme when a studio is in demand and they’ve taken on multiple titles.
MAPPA’s issues in this department were addressed in 2025 with a greater awareness of such things. MAPPA was definitely juggling many projects while Jujutsu Kaisen’s second season was in production. Jujutsu Kaisen season two was still great, but it proved to be an exhaustive effort that could have faced a better production schedule. Many finishing touches and improvements to episode visuals had to be added later on the physical media releases. Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution and the Culling Game Part 1 season that follows were seemingly made under more ideal circumstances than season two.
It’s also much easier to trust what MAPPA is up to with Jujutsu Kaisen’s third season after their recent continued successes with titles like Ranma ½ and Lazarus, but also cinematic offerings, like Attack on Titan The Movie: The Last Attack, The Rose of Versailles, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, and Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution. It feels like MAPPA has taken what they’ve learned from the past and used it to make sure that Jujutsu Kaisen’s anime endgame is a success in terms of storytelling, production, and visuals. However, it also pays respect to the future of the series’ adaptation and a finale in which the story wraps up in cinemas, rather than on television.
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Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution becomes a chance for MAPPA to test the waters regarding a potential cinematic finish for the franchise. The record-breaking success of Chainsaw Man and Demon Slayer’s canonical movies also points to a future in which MAPPA can set Jujutsu Kaisen up for the perfect finish as it learns from other projects’ pasts. It feels like MAPPA has entered a new era where canon movies for popular anime are the norm, rather than the compilation approach that was so popular in the past, including with Jujutsu Kaisen. In many ways, a cinematic finale – or trilogy – following Jujutsu Kaisen’s third season feels like what MAPPA has been conditioning itself for over the past 15 years.
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Will Give MAPPA More Of An Opportunity To Show Their Style
Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution distills the best parts of the end of the anime’s second season with the magnetic start to season three, which is hard to mess up. It’s what follows for the rest of the season that keeps the audience’s interest and demonstrates that Jujutsu Kaisen has received the attention that it deserves from MAPPA.
Fans want proof that The Culling Game Part 1 wasn’t some secondary production that lost MAPPA’s top talent to other titles. Jujutsu Kaisen: The Culling Game Part 1 has retained much of its key talent, such as Yosuke Yajima and Hiromi Niwa, who return as character designers, and Yoshimasa Terui, the composer. Director Shota Goshozono is also no stranger to the franchise, working as director and key animator on select episodes from Jujutsu Kaisen’s first two seasons.
Jujutsu Kaisen: The Culling Game Part 1 will begin with the Itadori Extermination Arc and Perfect Preparation Arc before the Culling Game’s theatrics and Satoru Gojo’s rescue from the Prison Realm begin. These two shorter arcs aren’t necessarily bad. However, they’re certainly among some of the manga’s more lackluster material. This is an exciting chance for MAPPA to improve upon the source material and push this generic material to new heights.
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Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 has come along at an important point in MAPPA’s run where they’ve earned the audience’s trust to take greater risks. They’ve proven themselves several times over, not just with Jujutsu Kaisen, but with the majority of their manga adaptations, including Attack on Titan. This isn’t to say that MAPPA should completely rewrite the Itadori Extermination and Perfect Preparation Arcs. They have just become an exciting example of MAPPA’s potential as an anime studio. This season connects many disparate dots from Jujutsu Kaisen’s past, including Yuta from Jujutsu Kaisen 0. There’s a lot of payoff for those who have demonstrated remarkable patience, and it becomes a satisfying homecoming all around.
MAPPA’s Adaptation Of A Top Tier JJK Arc Points To An Even Brighter Future
Jujutsu Kaisen’s third season is proudly celebrating its Culling Game Arc, right down to how MAPPA has incorporated the storyline’s title into the season’s name. It’s another smart decision on MAPPA’s part that highlights how well they know Jujutsu Kaisen’s audience. Anyone who fell off the anime or decided not to check it out in the first place knows that this new season tackles some of the manga’s most coveted material.
It’s proof that MAPPA understands the significance of this storyline and that they want to wreak havoc on the anime crowd to the same effect that was experienced by the manga readers during the Culling Game Arc’s initial run. Furthermore, the simple decision to label this season with a “Part 1” at the end is another way to illustrate the enormity of this story and that bigger things are ahead.
It also provides some assurance that this season, which will likely be between 23–26 episodes, won’t attempt to cram too much into this season. While a fourth season or movie follow-up has yet to be officially confirmed, one must imagine that it’s in the cards and being built up to, due to the “Part 1” title. It’s all very encouraging that MAPPA’s visual expertise and Akatumi’s acclaimed storytelling can beautifully work in tandem, as all this leads into an exceptional final season.
Jujutsu Kaisen’s Culling Game Anime Is Destined to Fail – Unless It’s a Movie
Jujutsu Kaisen’s intense Culling Game Arc is best suited for a movie adaptation, exploring its high-stakes action and character development.
Casual shonen fans have likely heard that Jujutsu Kaisen’s Culling Game Arc is inspired storytelling that puts other modern shonen series to shame. MAPPA recognizes the pressure that it faces by adapting this storyline and the unprecedented audience that it could bring its way. MAPPA boldly embraces these high expectations, rather than shying away. It turns out work that’s prepared to not just win over Jujutsu Kaisen fans, but anyone who watches anime, as it sets itself up for a future that’s so bright that it’s blinding.