MAPPA’s Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Begins the Culling Game Arc

Jujutsu Kaisen (JJK) season 3 has officially begun streaming on Jan 8, 2026, marking the franchise’s return to television and streaming following previous commercially and culturally dominant cycles. The new season adapts the Culling Game arc from Gege Akutami’s original Jujutsu Kaisen manga.

Season 3 adapts manga chapters 159-221, covering Itadori’s Extermination, Perfect Preparation, and the initial stages of Culling Game, a large-scale battle royale designed by antagonist Noritoshi Kamo to evolve cursed energy users. The arc is widely considered a turning point in Gege Akutami’s original manga. It expanded the narrative scope, introduced new characters, and ultimately led to the climax of the manga— Satoru Gojo and Ryomen Sukuna’s fight.

The season’s release also follows the relatively strong theatrical performance of Jujutsu Kaisen: The Execution, which reinforced the franchise’s box-office viability and helped bridge audience interest between the Shibuya Incident arc and the anime’s return.

The performance of Jujutsu Kaisen: The Execution is another indicator of how popular the franchise is, since it was not a standalone movie like Jujutsu Kaisen: 0, but a production that combined JJK season 2 and the first two episodes of season 3. Even the manga became the best-selling manga of 2025, joining the world’s best-selling manga list of all time.

Production Details and Release Strategy of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3

Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 is also produced by MAPPA, with Shōta Goshozono returning as director following season 2’s success. The core creative staff, including character design leads and voice artists, has been retained.

While Jujutsu Kaisen is one of MAPPA’s most successful anime IPs, it is also among the most expensive ones due to the necessity to use high-definition graphics while replicating Akutami’s artwork. According to The Times of India’s reporting, the Culling Game arc pushed the budget to a $160K USD per episode.

The season is expected to run for two cours and have 24-26 episodes in total. Episodes air first on Japanese television before becoming available internationally on Crunchyroll and Netflix (in select Asian regions). As of now, Crunchyroll is dropping the episodes every Thursday at 9 am PT/ 12 pm PT for audiences across Europe, Central, North, and South Americas, the Middle East, CIS, Oceania, Southeast Asia, and Africa.

The season premiered with a two-episode launch and will follow a weekly release schedule, a format generally favored by Japanese broadcasters and global anime streamers to sustain engagement. Following this release schedule, the next episode is due on Jan 15, 2026, and the Culling Game arc is expected to start with episode 6, releasing on Feb 5, 2026.

Crunchyroll is offering the season in Japanese with subtitles at launch, with dubs rolling out on a staggered schedule in subsequent weeks. Crunchyroll has already confirmed that the English dub version will stream between January and March. Additionally, Crunchyroll is reported to dub Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 into Latin American Spanish, Castilian Spanish, Italian, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Arabic.

With this global release strategy and demand, JJK season 3 could replicate the momentum of season 2, which was named the Most In-Demand Animated TV Series globally by data-tracking firm Parrot Analytics and recognized by Guinness World Records. Jujutsu Kaisen observed 71.2 times more demand between the period of Jan 17, 2023, to Jan 16, 2024, according to Parrot Analytics’ data, close to the demand for HBO’s famed series Game of Thrones at 74.5 times.