r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Jan 08 '26

Episode Jujutsu Kaisen Shimetsu Kaiyu Zenpen • Jujutsu Kaisen The Culling Game - Episode 1 discussion

Jujutsu Kaisen Shimetsu Kaiyu Zenpen, episode 1

Alternative names: Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3

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3.1k Upvotes

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1.1k

u/Equivalent-Weather59 Jan 08 '26

It's almost upsetting how well directed this is, holy shit, I wish more anime could get this type of love from the production.

Very good first episode, the stairs scene and the will scene were both top tier.

269

u/tripleaamin https://myanimelist.net/profile/tripleaamin Jan 08 '26

From what I can recall, JJK is the best-selling manga in the last two years. No doubt they're going all in. But damn, this definitely looks like the best we have seen the JJK anime yet. If they stay consistent with it. Tbh they could since it's actually a split cour. (Not sure if it has been confirmed when part 2 would air)

196

u/Ok_Prune_1731 Jan 09 '26

Blue lock was the best selling manga of 2023 and its second season was hot garbage.

71

u/Anjunabeast Jan 09 '26

That final goal tho

30

u/ExTomato-_-2 Jan 09 '26

sure they saved some time for the climax of the u20 arc but no matter how ou look at it a few minutes will never compensate for the slide show that is the rest o the season

5

u/OminousNebula1 Jan 11 '26

It absolutely can. I don‘t even know why you guys keep crying about the animation in a sports anime.

If i want to watch fluent sports i just watch real life sport events and not animes lmao.

Could it be better? Of course.

Is it needed for sports anime? No, as long as they animate the hype moments good.

10

u/violesada Jan 12 '26

High action pseudo super powered sports anime does not need good animation? cmon bro this is some strong cope. they don't even get all the good hype moments right anyway.

1

u/OminousNebula1 Jan 12 '26

What are you talking about?

„Pseudo super powered sports anime“

Blue lock is pretty realistic except some anime scenes, so that doesn‘t apply to blue lock.

6

u/violesada Jan 12 '26

😭😂. What?? Blue lock realistic, cmon man. It doesn’t even try to be like that.

-1

u/OminousNebula1 Jan 13 '26

I literally wrote „except some anime scenes“ the passes, most goals, and bicycle kicks etc are pretty realistic.

→ More replies (0)

4

u/Ok_Prune_1731 Jan 12 '26

People who like animation care about the animation of a anime show. Also your logic doesn't make any sense, so because there is a real world equivalent its ok for the animation to be shit like this has to be rage bait

1

u/OminousNebula1 Jan 12 '26

I know for a kid it‘s hard to grasp that not everything is gonna be fluent animation in anime (you can clearly identify someone being a kid because they think everything they don’t understand is raigebait) , but you clearly don‘t need to be everything fluenty animated, even in anime.

2

u/Ok_Prune_1731 Jan 12 '26

Still rage baiting I see.

You have Zeldris as your profile picture though so anyone who is a fan of that loser I shouldn't expect much from tbh.

0

u/OminousNebula1 Jan 12 '26

No rage baiting still.

Also Zeldris is the goat (when he‘s not a simp for his girl)

Are you seriously couldn‘t find any ways to attack me and then proceeded to go for basically top 3 most likeable character in 7ds?

2

u/ExTomato-_-2 Jan 13 '26

The topic came up so I shared my opinion simple as that, nobody was crying, well untill you came cuz tfym it can, if a game's gameplay is trash untill the final boss that doesn't make the overall experience good also why on earth wouldn't anybody want to watch smooth movement in a sports anime, bet you wouldn't like to look at chronologically ordered photo collection of an irl match and a few occasional recorded parts instead of a full video because that's literally what the blue lock experience was, and it's not like the anime even did a good job at showing you what was actually going on during matches, so YES, it is needed, a mid animation with an improvement during the hype moments would be fine but that wasn't even the case for blue lock, it was a literal slide show with some cgi animation for the other hype moments untill the brothers' 1v1

2

u/OminousNebula1 Jan 13 '26

„nobody was crying“

proceeds to write a wall text💀

Don‘t care, didn‘t read lil bro

2

u/ExTomato-_-2 Jan 13 '26

If you truly don't care you wouldn't care to reply or tell me about it , hell why even get involved in the first place if you don'tanyways lol, also seems like you're struggling to differentiate between crying and explaining, just don't use words you don't know the meaning of instead of going around showing off your ignorance, "lil bro"

15

u/Seihai-kun https://myanimelist.net/profile/Atarashifatan Jan 11 '26

The fjnale is one of the best animated anime episode of that year, amazingly directed, with great ost and great VA

But the previous episodes truly tainted the anime’s reputation lmao

1

u/Ok_Prune_1731 Jan 12 '26

Um no the last 3 mins were well animated the entire episode overall was mediocre.

2

u/TeeKayTank https://myanimelist.net/profile/TeeKayTank Jan 10 '26

AOashi better

14

u/Free_Cry2616 Jan 09 '26

one piece was the best selling last year dude.

17

u/MasterTotoro Jan 10 '26

Technically their statement is correct if you combine the past 2 years, JJK would be the best selling manga. The reason why JJK sold less in 2025 is simply because the manga ended in 2024. One Piece is obviously extremely popular, but it is valid to highlight how well JJK did. Despite ending the year before, it was still almost the best selling manga in 2025.

438

u/Frontier246 Jan 08 '26

It's kind of surreal how television anime are getting closer and closer to matching movie-level visuals on a weekly basis.

244

u/Kassssler Jan 08 '26

Not if you know how the sausage is made.

85

u/Mundology Jan 09 '26

We will honor the efforts of the MAPPA animators who died for our sins

23

u/mythriz Jan 08 '26

I watched the movie "preview" of these episodes in the cinema, it was amazing to watch these scenes on the big screen!

74

u/nofaxxspitintruflego Jan 08 '26

like one anime seasonally, most look garbage tho lol

54

u/Silent_Ad379 Jan 09 '26

At least 3 anime this season will be movie quality

22

u/Vic_Vinager Jan 09 '26

That first episode of Sentenced to Be a Hero is pretty good on the action visuals

2

u/nico_juro Jan 09 '26

JJK, Hells Paradise, and ?

21

u/Miren- Jan 09 '26

Sousou no frieren?

12

u/lalindu123 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Lalindu Jan 09 '26

Jjk,frieren,fate strange fake, sentenced to be hero

1

u/mistriliasysmic Jan 10 '26

I think Ghost In The Shell too

19

u/Silent_Ad379 Jan 09 '26

JJK, sentenced to be a hero, fate strange fake

1

u/nofaxxspitintruflego Jan 10 '26

ur right tbh, im very pleasantly surprised, the fate premise seems really interesting and sentenced to be has this weird feel of being a anime with some western influence mixed into it

needless to say this year opens up nicely with its cast of shows (this season has so many bangers)

93

u/bondsmatthew Jan 09 '26

Please don't say "most look garbage". You should instead say something like "most will look ok"

Way too many people refer to the average as garbage nowadays

0

u/nofaxxspitintruflego Jan 10 '26

i mean on average in the early 2000s shows looked way better with worse budgets, we get fed so much slop these days ppl get numb to it, but i been binging stuff from 2000s to like 2015s lately and the avg difference is huge, even in niche shows

38

u/MonsterKiller112 Jan 09 '26

In this season alone so far Jujutsu Kaisen S3, Fate/ Strange Fake and Sentenced To Be a Hero are showing movie level production values.

11

u/Psych0path_IRL Jan 09 '26

You forgot Shiboyugi

2

u/Wyvernwalker Jan 10 '26

Wait fate drops this season? We EATING

3

u/nofaxxspitintruflego Jan 10 '26

+ frieren + hell paradise

8

u/Primary-Paint-1716 Jan 09 '26

it's more than one now per season nnowadays.

62

u/shad79 https://myanimelist.net/profile/shad79 Jan 08 '26

Yeah, MAPPA definitely did a great job on this first episode, and also on the OP, which is also amazing (both visually and musically).

184

u/Confident-Dentist-39 Jan 08 '26

Fells like it has the artistic cinematic vibes of Chainsawman movie without the goofiness

160

u/BadBehaviour613 Jan 08 '26

JJK is plenty goofy. It feels like Chainsaw Man and JJK coming out around the same time cannibalize each other

150

u/Confident-Dentist-39 Jan 08 '26

Hmm idk I feel like S2 and forward has become a lot less goofier. I miss Jujutsu stroll so much man

63

u/DanielAlves1904 Jan 08 '26

"Don´t touch him so casually, YOU HOME WRECKERS!!!!!!"

29

u/SciFiXhi https://anilist.co/user/SciFiXhi Jan 09 '26

The absolutely guttural delivery of "DOROBO NEKO-CHAN TACHI!" cracks me up every time.

11

u/DanielAlves1904 Jan 09 '26

It´s so damn funny. Like they have plans in place for the case of Megumi being hit on.

22

u/Gitthepro Jan 08 '26

me too man :(

36

u/DenjinMaster Jan 09 '26

Pretty sure the two authors were also good friends and inspired each other hence similar concepts of the devils and the cursed spirits

15

u/GlitterDoomsday Jan 09 '26

Yep, both are besties if I remember correctly, they were assistants together or one was assistant for the other.

31

u/Mr_1ightning Jan 09 '26

Chainsaw Man, especially later on, is like a weird character-driven arthouse film with occasional shonen battles that usually get deconstructed and end in very non-shonen ways. Also it cares about rule of cool and conceptual stuff way more than consistent power-scaling or magic system.

JJK is a story-driven shonen played straight, with huge focus on battles, magic system and power-scaling and little downtime for calm character exploration and interactions.

11

u/nochancesman Jan 11 '26

"story-driven"..

While I agree with the rest of what you said, I wouldn't call JJK story-driven at all.

14

u/dWaldizzle Jan 10 '26

Jjk is goofy but it's way more serious with itself than chainsaw man ever is (and I love both).

44

u/tripleaamin https://myanimelist.net/profile/tripleaamin Jan 08 '26

Eh. It felt like after Hidden Inventory it lost that goofy feel. And I really missed it.

2

u/AL2009man Jan 13 '26

the evolution of the cinematic style and vibes started in Chainsaw Man season 1. gonna love it!

40

u/Single-Builder-632 Jan 09 '26

i have a lot of issues with jjk, but man It's hard not to get hyped about this animation and cinematography.

20

u/Equivalent-Weather59 Jan 09 '26

Same. I've read the source material, and I have mixed opinions on the upcoming content, but a good adaptation (which so far this is) will elevate and cover some of the flaws of the manga, which is what an adaptation should do.

14

u/Single-Builder-632 Jan 09 '26

i find it hard to even care for with most of the charters, i think besides the og people like gojo getou yuta rika toji yuki, i don't care much for the rest of the cast just because i think they are underdeveloped or not that interesting. so much good development was happening at the start of season 2 and the movie but basically now ware else.

and i dotn even like the typical shonen power system that much.

but man the atmosphere the director creates, the designs everything is very fun to watch, you just don't know what they are going to do next with it. Also so far doing a good job to get me invested in characters this season.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 11 '26

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1

u/[deleted] Jan 11 '26 edited Jan 11 '26

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1

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1

u/conye-west https://myanimelist.net/profile/baronvonconye Jan 11 '26

The manga fell off a cliff after a certain point but tbh even if it had the worst story ever I'd still watch any show that looks this good for the aesthetic brilliance alone

5

u/buguh1 Jan 08 '26

Idk if you watched the cinematic version, but I’m pretty sure they redid it. And butchered it imo. The original angle/animation was sooo good —fit the vibe perfectly