Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 highlights Yuji Itadori’s cog mentality as a startling turning point

The Culling Game is in full swing in season 3 of Jujutsu Kaisen, which seems to be gearing towards more decisive and drawn-out fights. Episode 6, titled “Cog,” opens with a visually breathtaking battle between Kirara Hoshi and Megumi Fushiguro, who is aided by Panda. As soon as Kirara’s constellation-based cursed technique (called Love Rendezvous) is unraveled, Yuji Itadori and Kinji Hakari engage in a battle of wills on the roof of Gachinko Fight Club.

[Ed. note: This article contains spoilers for season 3 episode 6 of Jujutsu Kaisen]

As established in previous episodes, Hakari’s gambling-focused cursed technique, Private Pure Love Train, is a powerful asset for anyone who wants to win Kenjaku’s death match. While Yuji and his allies hatch a well-intended scheme to gain Hakari’s trust, things go awry after he suspects that Yuji is a Jujutsu High spy. To convince Hakari that his resolve is iron-clad, Yuji doesn’t make any offensive moves during their showdown and absorbs four deadly hits imbued with Hakari’s cursed energy. While this sequence feels a tad anticlimactic in comparison to Gege Akutami’s manga source material, the tension between these characters is charged enough to warrant a satisfying resolution.

MAPPA wastes no time in brandishing its technical artistry. Episode 6 opens with a fight club thug becoming the victim of Megumi’s Ten Shadows Technique, which is shot like a tense infiltration sequence. As the man lights a cigarette with his back to pitch-black darkness, we see Megumi’s face flicker ominously behind him right before he’s incapacitated. The intensity of this opener quickly dissipates with Panda’s infiltration strategy, who poses as an innocent animal before punching two baffled thugs without remorse. Panda’s comedic presence brings much-needed levity to an otherwise action-packed episode, which proceeds to immediately pit Megumi and Panda against Kirara’s unique cursed technique.

What makes this fight interesting is its refusal to rely on brute force. Kirara’s strategy hinges on a foreknowledge of constellations and a knack for arbitrary pattern recognition, with cursed energy deciding the sequence of marked targets. Both Panda and Megumi are disoriented by Love Rendezvous at first, but Megumi is quick to discern that the cursed technique mimics a Southern Cross. This isn’t an easy feat by any means, as he and Panda are constantly subjected to an attraction and repulsion mechanic that makes them collide into/pull away from living beings and inanimate objects. After Megumi figures out that depth of field factors into the Southern Cross pattern, Kirara is impressed by his perceptive brilliance, and the fight comes to an end.

Quick cut to Hakari punching Yuji hard enough to send him flying through the roof’s door, with our pink-haired protagonist looking absolutely battered. Inflamed by Yuji’s refusal to engage, Hakari repeatedly hits him with cursed energy-charged punches, but Yuji manages to stand back up every time. When Hakari criticizes Yuji’s lack of “passion,” Yuji says he is a “cog,” an interchangeable part of a larger machine. Yuji clarifies that his goal is to serve as a tool to help exorcise curses, which completely negates personal hopes or dreams. The cog metaphor had always been embedded in Yuji’s status as a vessel for Sukuna (the King of Curses), but this is the first time he acknowledges it.

Image: MAPPA/Crunchyroll

While Yuji did nurture a semblance of hope upon joining Jujutsu High, the Shibuya Incident completely robbed him of the desire to chase self-serving interests. His grandfather, Wasuke Itadori, had already instilled a sense of selfless altruism in him before dying, which morphs into the guilt-stricken helplessness he experiences after Sukuna leaves behind a trail of destruction in Shibuya. It is worth noting that not much time has passed between Shibuya and the ongoing Culling Game, which makes Yuji’s “cog” comment even more pressing and tragic. He doesn’t assign any value to his desires anymore, as his existence is meant to serve a system that eradicates curses while exploiting child sorcerers like him.

That said, the anomaly within Yuji’s cog mindset lies in his resilience. Yuji might perceive himself as a minuscule part of a whole, but he isn’t a pushover who is afraid to fight for what’s right. This instinctive need to protect people without second thought is mixed in with his awareness that he’s here to fulfill a function for the greater good. Hakari recognizes this quiet strength, interpreting it as a different kind of “passion” that sets Yuji apart. This prompts him to eagerly align himself with Yuji and his friends.

Episode 6 of Jujutsu Kaisen ends with the addition of a new rule to the Culling Game and the introduction of the ancient and deadly Hajime Kashimo, who expresses an interest in fighting Sukuna after defeating an unknown player. As the ending preview denotes, episode 7 will move on to the events that occur at Tokyo Colony No. 1, where Yuji and Megumi have their work cut out for them in the face of new, intriguing threats. If MAPPA sustains its impressive streak of adapting season 3 with verve and depth, the road ahead for Jujutsu Kaisen could be more exciting than ever before.

New episodes of Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 release every Thursday on Crunchyroll.