How Many More Seasons Does Jujutsu Kaisen Need?

Warning: This contains spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2, now streaming on Crunchyroll.

The Shibuya Incident Arc of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 quickly became one of the biggest events in shōnen anime in years, which puts the onus on Season 3 to raise the bar once again. However, with only four arcs remaining – Itadori’s Extermination, Perfect Preparation, Culling Game, and Shinjuku Showdown – how many more seasons will be needed to cover it all?

With Gege Akutami’s acclaimed manga series now over, there are a total of 11 arcs, of which 7 have currently been adapted across 47 episodes and one prequel film, covering 141 chapters. 134 chapters remain – about the same number adapted thus far, suggesting at least two more seasons, but manga readers know that things are moving at a different pace from here on out.

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Jujutsu Kaisen Is Not The Same Anymore

In the wake of the Shibuya Incident, Jujutsu Kaisen becomes a very different beast, for better and for worse. The existence of cursed spirits has been made common knowledge and the basic power structures on which the story was built are progressively demolished. Amidst everything, our heroes have to rally with limited resources to save Gojo and stop Kenjaku, all while the latter has rewritten the rules, and turned their coming battle into a game.

This is a story unafraid to change and even less afraid to kill off characters as it dives deeper into a protracted war with more on the line by the chapter. For the better, this results in frequent, large, and often methodical battles that test every rule taught so far, while still creating new ones. For worse, it means characters whose stories end too soon and an already unwieldy power system that only gets more cumbersome as the action intensifies.

Put another way, Jujutsu Kaisen’s best qualities are arguably at their strongest, while its commonly cited problems are exacerbated. Regardless, both sides of that coin are owed to the blistering pace of the manga post-Shibuya Incident. Now, as is common of adaptations, there’s been speculation online about where Season 3 will end relative to the manga, but it’s not outlandish to suggest that the next season could adapt most, if not all, of the Culling Game arc.

The Anime’s Penchant for Efficient Pacing

On average, Jujutsu Kaisen’s anime has adapted each arc in a little over a third of as many episodes as there are chapters, a pace that quickened notably in Season 2. The flashback arc, Hidden Inventory/Premature Death, has 5 episodes compared to 15 chapters, and the Shibuya Incident was adapted into 18 episodes compared to a whopping 58 chapters. Looking ahead, it’s hard to imagine the two arcs preceding the Culling Game exceeding maybe 6 episodes at most.

Itadori’s Extermination arc is hardly an arc at all and could be adapted into a single episode, with its first chapter already covered in the latter half of Season 2’s finale. The Perfect Preparation arc has more exposition to cover, to say nothing of Maki’s reckoning with the Zenin clan, but the bulk of the latter could be adapted into a single, albeit intense, episode. That would hypothetically leave the Culling Game at an estimated 20–21 episodes based on 63 chapters.

How To Adapt Shinjuku Showdown

That leaves just one more arc, and the grandest of them all, but not necessarily the longest. Having read everything after the end of Season 2, I struggled to imagine the Shinjuku Showdown arc being adapted into a season of TV without stretching everything out. Even at 50 chapters, so much of it follows a single, constantly evolving, moment-driven battle that – in animation – could pass by much quicker without losing an ounce of its weight.

If Jujutsu Kaisen can efficiently adapt up to the end of the Culling Game arc in Season 3, then the Shinjuku Showdown probably wouldn’t need a full season. A shorter 12-episode season or an even shorter run of 8–10 episodes might be viable, but to properly send off one of the biggest shōnen series in years, why not take it to the big screen? A theatrical finale to the franchise, a la Demon Slayer’s upcoming trilogy, could be the perfect way to adapt the arc.

Three Seasons and a Movie?

Jujutsu Kaisen’s conclusion stands to gain a lot more clarity from brevity. Your mileage may vary, but the extensive narration from spectators regarding the ebb and flow of the final battle could almost make it more confusing to read. It can be a bombardment of terminology. There are a lot of intricate mechanics at play in this series to make the fights engaging, but earning the emotional investment of the audience hinges on properly presenting these concepts.

Director Shota Goshozono and the rest of the team behind Season 2 did a phenomenal job of crafting diverse action scenes with considerable depth. It wasn’t just the quality of the animation, but its clarity in service of storytelling, even when the mechanics of Jujutsu Kaisen’s world could be confusing. With Goshozono returning to direct Season 3, fans can hopefully expect similar clarity and efficiency in its action design.

Improving the Source Material

However, the above assertion that a Shinjuku Showdown film would be the best course of action is based on the supposition that Season 3 would adapt the entirety of the Culling Game. That’s impossible to know right now, given that the staff list, episode count, and release date are currently unknown. That being said, it makes sense based on the source material and the anime production’s history.

In that case, consider the overall gripes that people have expressed towards Jujutsu Kaisen since the conclusion of the manga, and how the adaptation could potentially address those issues. Creative liberties can be risky in anime adaptations, but they aren’t without merit. Just recently, Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War has received considerable praise for how it has improved on the original arc by adding new material.

Fulfillment, NOT Filler

This isn’t to say that Jujutsu Kaisen should add filler per se, but rather that it could take steps to address the commonly cited issues with the manga in the last leg of its run. It could be an opportunity for the anime to flesh out the supporting cast, add breathing room in between major events, and make the biggest narrative beats hit even harder.

As it stands, a 100% faithful adaptation of Jujutsu Kaisen’s final arcs probably wouldn’t need much more than another season and perhaps a theatrical film to wrap everything up. Otherwise, an adaptation willing to take liberties could easily fill two more seasons and give the series a better, even more fulfilling finale than it already is.

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Jujutsu Kaisen

Release Date

October 3, 2020