10 Hidden Details Of Season 3 Intro Only Real Fans Caught

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 has finally arrived for the 2026 winter anime season, serving up an explosive and hyper-stylized opening sequence filled with hidden details and visual motifs. The is an absolute visual feast, showing snippets of pivotal events from the manga and anime series that only true JJK fans can instantly recognize. Not to mention, the opening song titled AIZO by King Gnu complements the graphics perfectly.

It goes without saying Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 has a solid opening. Almost every frame in the sequence hides references and meanings that practically ruin the third season if viewers know where to look. The opening crammed in a lot of important stuff, but they showed it in vague ways. Let's break them down one by one.

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Director Jujutsu Kaisen reveals which character will shine the most in Season 3

Season 3 of JJK goes major. The director reveals which character will shine the most.

Hiromi Higuruma 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 class 1 wizard, is no exception. In JJK Volume 19, Hiromi Higuruma is on the cover, holding a sunflower with an intense look in her 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, making the flower a direct reflection of Higuruma's identity. Also, real Japanese lawyers usually wear a sunflower pin for their badge. Higuruma also had a sunflower mark 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 opener, fans can see a bunch of cogs spinning softly. It seems like a reference to Yuji Itadori's iconic explanation to Kinji Hakari in their confrontation in JJK Chapter 157, where he tells him that he is a cog for wizards to keep casting curses.

Naturally, 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 in the Culling Games on behalf of Gojo Satoru and the other wizards of Jujutsu High.

Megumi Fushiguro and the Ten Sacred Treasures

• Seven 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 apparent by showing seven of the symbols of the Ten Sacred Treasures, from Okitsukagami (Mirror of the Deep) to 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. Recently, the anime also showed Megumi's Rabbit Escape.

The kiss painting with Yuta Okkotsu

• Yuta Okkotsu vs Kurourushi will happen in 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 Kuroroshi and Yuta Okkotsu together.

The kiss painting with 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 and sent positive cursed energy straight to his head, killing him.

Ryu Ishigori's Granite Blast

• Ryu Ishigori can use a laser beam-like attack called Granite Blast.

It's not hard to spot the laser beam in the opening of JJK season 3. It appeared around the 1:07 mark 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 another old wizard who joined Kenjaku's Culling Game. His Granite Blast looks like a laser beam packed with highly concentrated cursed energy, perfect as a weapon of mass destruction.

Maki and Mai in the reed field

• A big event will happen between Maki and Mai in JJK Season 3.

The new opening of JJK season 3 featured Mai and Maki in many frames, one of which is them running hand in hand in the reed field. The short scene looks like an ominous video where Maki and Maki look so happy together. This is a rare scene, given their ongoing feud.

While Maki and Maki looked happy in that scene, the reed field represents an afterlife paradise where pain, sickness and suffering do not 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 deceive the government.

During the opening of JJK Season 3, a nuclear weapon can be seen flying over the skies of Japan. While some fans would believe that the nuke represents JJK's American plot, which the series eventually dropped, others believe it represents Kenjaku's explosive plan after the weak wizards die in the Culling Game.

In the words of Reggie Star, “Kenjaku will drop a bomb after only the strong are left,” a quote that gives the nuke image in JJK Season 3's opening an unsettling new context. Still, fans are free to interpret nukes as the American plot, with Kenjaku tricking the American government into speeding up his plans.

Maki and her bloody knife

• Maki will end the Zenin Clan by himself.

Maki Zenin has a huge exposure in the opening sequence of JJK season 3. She probably got the highest number of frames besides Yuji Itadori and Kenjaku, making her a big character in the third season.

One of the best frames in the opening has a still shot of Maki holding a bloody knife and/or dagger. As manga fans are aware, Maki is set to undergo an awakening, which will give her extraordinary power.

Like Yuji, her hands would be stained with blood, not from innocent people but from her entire clan. The knife in her hand probably represents her brutal actions against her clan. However, it could also be the same weapon that Maki's mother used against Naoya.

Dead Mother painting with 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, to turn his birth into part of a long-term experiment. This is why Choso regards Yuji as his younger brother, as they were both 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 at the Y-shaped crossroads, obviously referring to their roles in the Culling Game.

While Rin goes left, Remi is on the right path. 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

Author

Hiroshi Seko

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  Yuichi Nakamura

  Satoru Gojo