This article contains spoilers from the Jujutsu Kaisen manga.
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 has finally arrived in the 2026 winter anime season, serving an explosive and hyper-stylized opening sequence packed with hidden details and visual motifs. It is an absolute visual feast, showing snippets of crucial events from the manga and anime series that only real JJK fans can instantly recognize. Not to mention, the opening song titled AIZO by King Gnu perfectly complements the visuals.
It goes without saying that Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 has a solid opening. Nearly every frame in the sequence hides references and meanings that practically spoil the third season if the viewers know where to look. The opening crammed a lot of important stuff, yet they showed it in vague ways. Let’s break them down one by one.
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Hiromi Higuruma’s Volume 19 Cover
- JJK Volume 19 Cover Features Hiromi Higuruma holding a sunflower
The JJK manga has featured major and minor supporting characters on its volume covers, and Hiromi Higuruma, a Grade 1 sorcerer, is no exception. In JJK Volume 19, Hiromi Higuruma is on the cover, holding a sunflower with an intense look in his eyes. This cover can be seen in JJK Season 3’s opening around the 1:10 mark.
Interestingly, Higuruma is another name for sunflower in Japan, which makes the flower a direct reflection of Higuruma's identity. In addition, real-life Japanese lawyers usually wear a sunflower pin for their badge. Higuruma also had a sunflower badge when he first appeared in Chapter 143 of the manga.
Yuji Itadori And The Cogs
- Yuji Itadori has a cog mentality.
Around the 1:26 mark of the JJK Season 3 opening, fans can see a bunch of cogs turning smoothly. It seems like a reference to Yuji Itadori’s iconic declaration to Kinji Hakari in their confrontation in JJK Chapter 157, where he tells him that he’s a cog for sorcerers to continue exorcising curses.
Of course, Kinji, the man who thrives on feverish passion, found Yuji’s reasoning boring. However, Yuji eventually convinces Kinji to fight on their side, helping them out in the Culling Games on behalf of Gojo Satoru and the other sorcerers in Jujutsu High.
Megumi Fushiguro and the Ten Sacred Treasures
- Seven out of the Ten Shadows have already appeared in the JJK anime.
As fans know, Megumi Fushiguro is a Ten Shadows technique user in JJK. The Season 3 opening made this fact even more obvious by showing seven of the symbols of the Ten Sacred Treasures, from the Okitsukagami (Mirror of the Deep) to the Yatsuka No Tsurugi (The Eight-Hands Long Sword), representing the seven shadows that Megumi has summoned in JJK.
So far, JJK has already shown Megumi’s Divine Dogs, Nue, Toad, Great Serpent, Max Elephant, and even the Divine General Mahoraga. Just recently, the anime also showed Megumi’s Rabbit Escape.
The Kiss Painting Featuring Yuta Okkotsu
- Yuta Okkotsu vs Kurourushi will happen in the Culling Game.
JJK Season 3’s opening referenced many paintings in its visual sequence, and one of them is the iconic oil painting by Gustav Klimt called The Kiss. Instead of seeing an embracing couple, fans saw Kuroroushi and Yuta Okkotsu together.
The Kiss Painting featuring Yuta and Kurourushi is a direct reference to the final moments of their fight during the Culling Games, specifically in JJK Chapter 175. Yuta literally kissed Kurourushi to death, sending positive cursed energy straight to his head, thus killing him.
Ryu Ishigori’s Granite Blast
- Ryu Ishigori can use a laser beam-like attack called Granite Blast.
It's not difficult to spot the laser beam in the new opening of JJK season 3. It appeared at around 1:07 and again at the 1:24 mark. Those who have read the manga should know that this laser beam is actually Ryu Ishigori’s signature attack called Granite Blast.
For more context, Ryu Ishigori is yet another ancient sorcerer who joined Kenjaku’s Culling Game. His Granite Blast looks like a laser beam packed with high-concentrated cursed energy, perfect as a weapon of mass destruction.
Maki and Mai in the Field of Reeds
- A major event will happen between Maki and Mai in JJK Season 3.
The new opening of JJK season 3 featured Mai and Maki in a lot of frames, one of which is them running hand in hand in the field of reeds. The short scene looks like an ominous found footage video, where Maki and Maki look so happy together. This is a rare scene, considering their ongoing feud.
While Maki and Maki looked happy in that scene, the field of reeds represents an afterlife paradise where pain, illness, and suffering don’t exist, according to Egyptian mythology. Without spoiling too much, this scene is bad news for one of the Zenin sisters.
Flying Nuke
- Kenjaku once visited America to trick the government.
Throughout the opening of JJK season 3, a nuke can be seen flying across the skies of Japan. While some fans would think the nuke represents the American plot of JJK, which the series eventually dropped, others believe it represents Kenjaku’s explosive plan after the weak sorcerers have died in the Culling Game.
In Reggie Star’s words, “Kenjaku will drop a bomb after there are only the strong ones left,” a quote that gives the nuke imagery in JJK Season 3’s opening an unsettling new context. Still, fans are free to interpret the nuke as the American plot, with Kenjaku tricking the American government to accelerate his plans.
Maki and Her Bloody Knife
- Maki will end the Zenin Clan by herself.
Maki Zenin has a huge exposure in the opening sequence of JJK Season 3. She probably received the highest number of frames other than Yuji Itadori and Kenjaku, making her a major character in the third season.
One of the best frames in the opening features a still shot of Maki while holding a bloody knife and/or dagger. As manga fans are aware, Maki is set to undergo an awakening, which will grant her extraordinary power.
Just like Yuji, her hands would be soiled with blood, not of innocent people but of her entire clan. The knife in her hand probably represents her brutal acts toward her clan. However, it could also be the same weapon Maki’s mother used against Naoya.
Dead Mother Painting Featuring Yuji and Kenjaku
- Kenjaku interfered in Yuji Itadori's birth.
Egon Schiele’s 1910 painting called Dead Mother was also referenced in JJK Season 3’s opening. The anime used Kenjaku as the mother, while they used an infant Yuji Itadori as the baby around the 0:52 mark. The frame looked beautiful and terrifying at the same time, knowing how Yuji was conceived in JJK.
It’s no secret that Kenjaku used the body of Yuji Itadori’s mother, Kaori, turning his birth into part of a long-running experiment. This is the reason why Choso considers Yuji as his younger brother, as both of them were born through Kenjaku’s interference.
Y-Shaped Crossroads Painting
- Megumi and Yuji will be separated in the Culling Game.
The art references in JJK Season 3’s opening also featured the Y-Shaped Crossroads painting by Tadanori Yokoo. This time, JJK placed Rin Amai and Remi in the Y-shaped crossroads, obviously referencing their roles in the Culling Game.
While Rin walks toward the left, Remi is on the right road. In the JJK manga, Rin and Remi trick Yuji Itadori and Megumi Fushiguro, who are looking for the Angel, Hana Kurusu. Instead of helping Yuji and Megumi, Rin led Yuji to Higuruma, while Remi led Megumi to Reggie Star and his crew, further delaying their mission.
- Release Date
- October 3, 2020
- Network
- TBS, MBS, CBC, Tulip Television, BSN, tys, NBC, HBC, RKK, i-Television, SBS, IBC, BSS, MRO, OBS, TUF, RSK, TUY, tbc, RKB, SBC, KUTV, RBC, UTY, RCC, MRT, atv, MBC
- Directors
- Ryohei Takeshita, Masataka Akai, Chie Nishizawa, Daisuke Tsukushi, Tomomi Kamiya, Kakushi Ifuku, Ken Takahashi
Cast
-
Junya EnokiYuji Itadori -
Yuichi NakamuraSatoru Gojo
WHERE TO WATCH
Based on Gege Akutami's Jujutsu Kaisen manga, Mappa's battle shonen anime envisions a world where Jujutsu Sorcerers battle against entities born out of Cursed Energy. One day, a teenager named Yuji Itadori is dragged into this conflict when he eats a possessed finger.
- Writers
- Hiroshi Seko
- Franchise(s)
- Jujutsu Kaisen
- Studio
- MAPPA
- Number of Episodes
- 47
- MyAnimeList Score
- 8.57 (Season 1)
