2026 recently marked the end of one of the best anime seasons in Studio Mappa's Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3. To end the brilliant season the studio delivered this year, Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 12 featured a sensational battle in Sendai Colony that fans can't stop talking about.
While the Sendai Colony Battle was absolutely brilliant, it was recently confirmed that the Sendai Colony Battle was meant to be much longer than it ended up being. In fact, it was meant to span two episodes instead of one. The director, through Yuta Okkotsu's voice actor, has revealed why the change was made, and why the extra episode never ended up happening.
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The director of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 decided to add another episode to the season finale
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 aired for 12 episodes, starting on January 8, 2026 and ending on March 26, 2026. The season-ending episode was titled “The Sendai Colony”. It featured a heated battle between Yuta Okkotsu, Dhruv Lakdawalla, Kurourushi, Takako Uro and Ryu Ishigori. Of all the battles in the season, this one was quite easily the best of them all, even with other sensational ones like the Zenin Clan Massacre.
The Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 finale was much longer than usual. It was the second longest episode of the season, with a running time of 27 minutes. For reference, the standard anime episode is usually only about 22 minutes. Although 27 minutes seems like a lot, this episode still adapted 8 whole chapters from the manga. In that sense, fans expected this battle to be amped up even more in the anime.
Surprisingly, it was recently revealed through the JJK anime voice actor podcast that this fight was supposed to be even longer and actually span two full episodes. New information from Megumi Ogata, Yuta's Japanese voice actor, was revealed, and he states that the director, Shouta Goshozono, as well as the rest of the team behind JJK Season 3, decided that two episodes simply wouldn't work for this fight due to its format and intensity.
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The director believed that splitting this battle into two episodes would simply destroy the pace and intensity of the battle. What JJK is known for is its crazy battles, so many believe that this was indeed a good decision by the director. Although the episode was shorter than previously expected, it was incredibly well received by fans all over the world and fan ratings on platforms like IMDb and MAL are proof of that. It is currently the highest rated episode of the entire JJK season and ranks as one of the best episodes of the entire year.
“The director and the rest of the team decided that if they handled it like a 'normal' anime and spread it over two episodes, the fight would lose momentum. You'd end up with scenes of characters just staring each other down or standing with their arms crossed. They felt it wouldn't fit into the Jujutsu Kaisen style. They wanted a non-stop fight to feel like a non-stop fight. — Megumi Ogata (Yuta Okkotsu's Japanese voice actor)
Cutting Jujutsu Kaisen's final card was the right thing to do. Although 8 chapters in 27 minutes seems like a lot, the chapters adapted from the manga were mostly action-focused, which can easily be condensed without affecting the story. Despite being condensed, the story still flows smoothly, and nothing was left out, which is the most important thing. The three-way domain expansion was perfectly adapted and remains one of the most iconic moments of the entire season. In general, fans loved the anime adaptation, and as the director mentioned, having characters staring each other down instead could have been frowned upon by fans who want fast-paced action.
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With that in mind, many fans are wondering if the content that was cut could ever be released to the public. It does not appear that this will happen at this time. Sometimes, with Blu-ray releases, director's cut content may be included; However, it is unclear if this content was even animated, or if this decision happened early in the planning of the third season.
What's next for Jujutsu Kaisen after Sendai Colony?
Almost everyone would agree that Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 was exciting. But even the Sendai Colony battle will pale in comparison to what comes next. Jujutsu Kaisen season 4 has already been announced, immediately after the end of season 3, and it is scheduled to be released sometime in 2027, although an exact release date remains to be confirmed.
While Season 3 was quite slow and focused on some smaller battles in the Culling Game, Season 4 will see the heavy hitters and even include the likes of Sukuna in action. It will also see the return of iconic characters and the beginning of the end for the JJK franchise.
Source: JJK Anime Voice Actor Podcast
Jujutsu Kaisen
- Release date
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October 3, 2020
- Network
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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
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Ryohei Takeshita, Masataka Akai, Chie Nishizawa, Daisuke Tsukushi, Tomomi Kamiya, Kakushi Ifuku, Ken Takahashi
- Author
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Hiroshi Seko
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Yuichi Nakamura
Satoru Gojo
