JJK Season 3 Characters

Season 3 picks up right after the Shibuya Incident. Gojo is sealed, Yuji has been sentenced to death, and Kenjaku has just announced his Culling Game. Shota Goshozono directed it at MAPPA. The 12 episodes cover a lot of ground, so here's how the new Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 characters arrive, in order.

Episodes 1–2: "Execution" and "One More Time"

The two-episode premiere aired as a one-hour special on January 8. It's built around Yuta Okkotsu, back from overseas and appointed as Yuji's executioner. This is Yuta's first real fight in the main TV series. Before this he was a Jujutsu Kaisen 0 character with a few mentions. Fans who watched the film know there's more going on with him than the higher-ups think.

Episode 3: "About the Culling Game"

Mostly exposition, but important. Tengen explains Kenjaku's plan and the rules of the game. Kogane, the little shikigami-like interface every player gets, comes from these rules: it reports points and announces new ones. This is also where the cast agrees on its two goals, freeing Gojo from the Prison Realm and saving Tsumiki Fushiguro, who has been forced into the game as a player.

Episodes 4–6: Perfect Preparation, Hakari and the Zenin clan

This stretch splits two ways. Yuji, Megumi and Panda go looking for the suspended third-year Kinji Hakari and his partner Kirara Hoshi, and Hakari's fixation on "passion" (fittingly, the title of episode 5) is the whole recruitment pitch. Meanwhile Maki goes back to the Zenin clan, and those scenes are the most brutal in the season. Ogi Zenin, Maki and Mai's father, is properly on screen here, along with the clan's elite Hei squad (Jinichi and Ranta among them). Naoya Zenin, the clan's smug would-be heir, is front and centre. Mai dies to free Maki's Heavenly Restriction, and Maki then wipes out most of the clan with the Split Soul Katana Mai leaves her.

Episodes 7–11: Tokyo Colony No. 1

Five episodes in one colony, split between Yuji and Megumi. Yuji's side brings in the players Hanyu and Haba, the French manga artist Charles Bernard, and then Hiromi Higuruma. Higuruma is the best new character of the season for us. He's a former defense attorney who woke up with a domain, Deadly Sentencing, that holds a literal trial, with a shikigami called Judgeman acting as judge. Megumi's side is a long fight against Reggie Star's group, including Remi, Iori Hazenoki and Chizuru Hari. It ends with the arrival of Hana Kurusu, who carries the ancient sorcerer known as Angel.

Episode 12: "Sendai Colony"

The finale aired on March 26 (March 27 in Japan, as an extended episode). It jumps to Sendai, where the colony has been frozen in a four-way standoff between Takako Uro, Ryu Ishigori, the cockroach-like curse Kurourushi and Dhruv Lakdawalla. Yuta walks into that situation, which is exactly as bad for them as it sounds.

The anime stops at Sendai, so a handful of characters in our Culling Game list haven't really had their anime moment yet. Hajime Kashimo and Hakari's big fight, for example, belong to the second half of the arc. Season 4, The Culling Game Part 2, was announced right after the finale. A teaser shown in June 2026 confirmed it's in production, with Takeru Sato taking over as director, but there was still no air date at our last update.

Plenty of familiar faces carry the season too. Yuji is at his lowest point after Shibuya, and his line about being a cog in the machine of killing curses sets the tone for the first episodes. Megumi becomes the planner of the group, mostly because Tsumiki's life now depends on the game. Choso sticks close to Yuji as his self-appointed big brother, and his scenes give the season some of its few warm moments. Panda gets more to do than usual in the Hakari storyline. Maki's Season 3 is practically its own movie. Meanwhile Kenjaku spends most of the season off-screen, which suits a villain whose plan is already running.

Gojo isn't in the season except in memories and mentions. He's still sealed in the Prison Realm, and freeing him is the cast's main goal. The only person who might be able to open it is Angel, which is why Hana Kurusu's arrival at the end of Megumi's fight matters so much.

Hiromi Higuruma gets our vote. His backstory as a lawyer who got tired of watching the justice system fail people fits neatly into what Jujutsu Kaisen keeps saying about broken institutions. And Deadly Sentencing is a different kind of domain: you can be judged innocent. His fight with Yuji is a legal argument as much as a fistfight.

Naoya Zenin isn't new, but Season 3 is where he finally gets real screen time. He's fast, cruel and openly misogynistic, and his scenes with Maki are some of the hardest to watch. He's built to be hated, and Season 3 commits to it.

Charles Bernard is the surprise. A manga artist who wants his work to be a hit, fighting with a technique that lets him glimpse a moment of the future. He's absurd and oddly likable, a nice breather between heavier fights.