Gege Akutami’s Jujutsu Kaisen is known for pushing its characters to their limits as they overcome relentless challenges, but no conflict transforms the series quite like its most expansive arc.
“What is the Culling Game?” then becomes the central question as the story plunges into a nationwide clash that rewrites the rules of jujutsu society.
What appears to be a deadly tournament is actually the culmination of a plan engineered across multiple lifetimes, pulling sorcerers and civilians into a web of colonies, cursed techniques, and shifting stakes.
As the arc unfolds, the story stretches across Japan, testing every character’s limits and exposing the true scale of the forces at play. It stands as the longest storyline in the manga, marking a defining phase in Jujutsu Kaisen’s escalating conflicts.
What is the Culling Game?
The Culling Game is a large-scale jujutsu competition engineered to force sorcerers and non-sorcerers into a deadly, rule-bound conflict across Japan.
At its core, it functions as a ritual meant to evolve humanity by merging it with cursed energy on a national level, using combat as the catalyst. Participants are placed inside designated colonies where they must battle, earn points, and navigate a strict ruleset that controls how the game progresses.
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Although it appears to operate like a tournament, it is fundamentally a binding vow designed to ensure every action—entry, combat, survival, and rule creation—advances the ritual’s purpose.
This structure makes the Culling Game the most expansive and system-driven conflict in Jujutsu Kaisen, intertwining strategy, territorial movement, and escalating stakes across multiple colonies.
Who created the Culling Game?
The Culling Game is created and orchestrated by Kenjaku, an ancient sorcerer adept at possessing different bodies across eras by transplanting his brain into new hosts. His preparation for the ritual spans multiple lifetimes, during which he manipulates bloodlines, curses individuals, and cultivates vessels capable of housing powerful sorcerers from Japan’s past.
Through these long-term plans, he assembles the conditions necessary to revive the Golden Age of Jujutsu, an era defined by overwhelming strength, constant conflict, and the dominance of elite sorcerers.
The Culling Game becomes the final stage of this ambition, serving as the mechanism that forces sorcerers to evolve or perish under immense pressure.
Participants in the Culling Game fall into several groups. First are the natural-born sorcerers and curse users who voluntarily choose to enter the colonies.
The second type of group consists of individuals whom Kenjaku implanted with cursed techniques, effectively turning ordinary people into players by binding them to the rules of the game.
The third group are the vessel players, whose bodies house revived sorcerers from previous eras, each possessing techniques and combat instincts far removed from modern jujutsu norms.
The game also includes Jujutsu society sorcerers looking to keep order, such as Yuji Itadori, Megumi Fushiguro, Yuta Okkotsu, and others who enter the colonies to stop Kenjaku’s plan. With this mix of past and present fighters, the roster of participants becomes one of the largest and most diverse groups in the series, reinforcing how far-reaching Kenjaku’s preparations have been.
When does the Culling Game arc start?
The Culling Game unfolds across Japan, which is divided into multiple colonies sealed off as combat zones. Each colony functions as an isolated battlefield where movement is restricted, participants are monitored, and the game’s rules take effect the moment a player enters.
These colonies span major regions—including Tokyo, Sendai, Osaka, and Fukushima—turning the entire country into a network of ritual sites tied to Kenjaku’s larger plan.
The Culling Game spans chapters 159 to 221 in the manga, making it the longest arc in Jujutsu Kaisen. Lasting 63 chapters from September 18, 2021 to April 24, 2023, the arc covers every major phase of the ritual.
In the anime, the arc is adapted in Jujutsu Kaisen season 3, which depicts events leading into and throughout the game, placing the storyline directly after the Shibuya Incident. Season 3 airs on January 8, 2026.
Jujutsu Kaisen Culling Game explained: Rules, point system
Once a player enters a colony, they become bound to the game and must follow its mechanics or face automatic execution. These rules dictate how players move, fight, earn points, and influence the game’s structure.
Although the system resembles a tournament, its true purpose is to guide the ritual toward a large-scale transformation of humanity through the forced evolution of sorcerers.
Culling Game rules
These core rules were briefly shown at the end of the Jujutsu Kaisen Execution movie.
| RULES | DESCRIPTION |
| Rule 1 | After awakening a cursed technique (or being forcibly given one), the affected individual must enter a barrier (colony) and declare their participation within 19 days. |
| Rule 2 | If a player fails to comply with Rule 1, their cursed technique will be removed — which effectively means death, given the physical burden. |
| Rule 3 | Any non-player who enters a colony automatically becomes a player at the moment they enter, considered to have declared participation. |
| Rule 4 | Players earn points by killing other players. |
| Rule 5 | The “life value” (point value) of each player is set by the game master. Generally, sorcerers (and cursed spirits) count as 5 points, while non-sorcerers count as 1. |
| Rule 6 | A player may spend 100 points (excluding their own life’s value) to propose a new rule for the game. |
| Rule 7 | The game master must accept any proposed new rule — as long as it doesn’t have a marked, long-lasting effect on the structure of the game. |
| Rule 8 | If a player’s score remains unchanged for 19 days, they face forced removal of their cursed technique — effectively execution. |
Culling Game points system explained
Each player starts with zero points and gains points by defeating others within a colony. A player’s value is determined by the complexity of their cursed technique. This means that stronger or more unique abilities yield higher point rewards.
Accumulating points is essential because they allow a participant to propose new rules, provided they spend 100 points to do so. Points also serve as one of the few methods for a player to exit the game, where leaving requires meeting specific conditions established by existing rules.
The Culling Game is anchored around five primary colonies that form the core battlegrounds of the ritual. These include Tokyo No. 1 and Tokyo No. 2 colonies, which cover different sectors of the city, as well as the Sendai, Sakurajima, and Osaka colonies.
Each colony is a sealed-off zone, effectively turning these regions into self-contained arenas where participants must remain until they meet the conditions to leave. These five colonies are the most prominently featured and discussed, serving as the primary stages for the major confrontations and plot developments within the arc.
Understanding what the Culling Game is clarifies why it stands as a turning point in Jujutsu Kaisen. Its structure, scale, and purpose reshape the series’ power dynamics and push every character into new territory, literally and metaphorically. More than a ritual or competition, it marks the moment the world of jujutsu changes for good.
READ MORE: Is Jujutsu Kaisen finished? Understanding the manga and anime timeline
