Jujutsu Kaisen Story Arcs Explained: Where Each Arc Sits

Jujutsu Kaisen's story moves in arcs: chunks of plot with their own setup, villains and payoff. Knowing the arc names helps a lot, because fans, episode guides and the official sites all talk in arcs rather than episode numbers.

Spoiler level: light. This guide covers each arc's premise, where it sits in the manga and which part of the anime adapts it. It stays at the "here's the setup" level and doesn't reveal who lives, who dies or any of the big twists. When an arc has a major turn coming, it'll say so and stop there.

Volume numbers refer to the 30-volume main manga plus the separate Volume 0, as listed in VIZ Media's English edition. Arc edges don't always line up neatly with volume breaks, so treat the ranges as approximate.

Jujutsu Kaisen 0 (Volume 0; the 2021 movie)

The prequel. VIZ's description: Yuta Okkotsu is a nervous high schooler whose childhood friend Rika has turned into a Curse and won't leave him alone. Because Rika is no ordinary Curse, Satoru Gojo takes notice and convinces Yuta to enroll at Jujutsu High. According to Crunchyroll's official Season 2 description, Yuta's story wraps up in December 2017, about half a year before the main series begins.

It started life as a four-chapter series Akutami ran in Jump GIGA in 2017, and it was later retitled to fit the main series. It's self-contained, but characters and threads from it come back later.

Opening chapters and the cursed womb (Volumes 1 and 2; Season 1)

The main story begins in June 2018. Yuji Itadori is a high schooler with absurd physical strength who would rather hang out with his school's Occult Research Club than join a sports team. When the club gets its hands on a sealed cursed object, things go very wrong, and Yuji ends up sharing his body with Ryomen Sukuna, the King of Curses. Gojo brings him to Tokyo Jujutsu High, where he joins first-years Megumi Fushiguro and Nobara Kugisaki.

Their first big job, in Volume 2, sends them to a detention facility where a cursed womb has appeared. The curse they find is far stronger than anyone expected. Meanwhile, as VIZ's synopsis puts it, powerful curses with designs on Jujutsu High and on Gojo are gathering. That gathering is the engine for most of what follows.

Yuji and Junpei (Volumes 3 and 4; Season 1)

While investigating a string of strange deaths, Yuji meets Junpei Yoshino, a troubled kid who's bullied at school. Junpei has also been befriended by the culprit: Mahito, a curse that can reshape human bodies by touching their souls. The arc also introduces Kento Nanami, a Grade 1 sorcerer who, per the official anime site, quit sorcery for an office job and came back. It's a smaller, more personal story, and it's one of the places where the series shows how dark it's willing to get. Go in prepared.

The Goodwill Event (Volumes 3 to 6; Season 1)

Tokyo Jujutsu High and its sister school in Kyoto face off in a competition between the two campuses, and this arc is that competition. It brings in the Kyoto students, including Aoi Todo, whose odd fixation (he asks opponents what type of woman they like before fighting them) is right there in his official profile. The event doesn't stay a friendly rivalry for long. VIZ's synopses mention both school politics aimed at Yuji and an attack from outside.

The Death Painting brothers (Volumes 7 and 8; end of Season 1)

After the Goodwill Event, people start dying under mysterious circumstances, and the trail may lead to Sukuna's missing fingers. Yuji and his classmates end up facing brothers born from a special grade cursed object called the Cursed Womb: Death Painting. Season 1 ends partway through Volume 8.

Hidden Inventory / Premature Death (late Volume 8 and Volume 9; Season 2, episodes 1 to 5)

A flashback to spring 2006. Gojo and Suguru Geto are two peerless students at Jujutsu High, and they're assigned to escort the "Star Plasma Vessel" to Master Tengen, an immortal the jujutsu world depends on. VIZ's synopsis adds that they're ambushed by Toji Fushiguro, a mercenary known as the Sorcerer Killer. The official anime site describes this arc as revealing the past behind the split between Gojo and Geto that the movie hints at. Light warning: this arc is short, emotional and important to everything after it.

Shibuya Incident (roughly Volumes 10 to 16; Season 2, episodes 6 to 23)

Back in the present. The official anime site sets the scene: on October 31, 2018, as Halloween crowds fill the streets around Shibuya Station, a curtain suddenly drops over the area and traps huge numbers of ordinary people inside. A demand comes through the trapped crowd: bring Satoru Gojo. The higher-ups send Gojo in alone, while Yuji, Megumi, Nobara, Nanami and many other sorcerers gather outside the curtain. It's a trap set by curses and curse users.

That's where this guide stops. Shibuya is the arc where the series changes shape, and nearly everything worth knowing about it is a spoiler. Anime News Network's review of the full manga counts the arc at 53 chapters, so it's a long night. Season 2 adapts it through the arc's end in Volume 16.

The Culling Game (roughly Volumes 17 to 25; Seasons 3 and 4)

In the aftermath of Shibuya, a deadly game is set in motion. The current official anime site describes the Culling Game as a battle to the death among people who have been given jujutsu powers, staged inside barriers called colonies around Japan. Players score points, and VIZ's synopses note that a player with 100 points can add a new rule to the game. Yuji and his allies head into the colonies, partly to rescue Megumi's sister Tsumiki, who has been swept into it.

The arc spreads out into several colonies at once (VIZ's synopses mention Tokyo, Sendai and Sakurajima) and introduces a big new cast, from modern people who've just awakened to sorcery to sorcerers from the distant past. Season 3, The Culling Game Part 1, covers the first stretch; its last two episodes adapt battles described in the synopsis for Volume 20, and the official site's Season 3 story summary leaves off with Hakari and Panda heading for the Tokyo No. 2 Colony, where VIZ's Volume 21 synopsis picks up. Season 4, The Culling Game Part 2, is in production.

The final battle (roughly Volumes 25 to 30; not yet animated)

The manga's last stretch is the long-promised showdown with Sukuna, fought largely in Shinjuku. In English-language coverage, such as CBR's, it goes by the Shinjuku Showdown arc. We're not going near the details. The main story ends in Volume 30, which also includes 16 pages of four newly drawn epilogues.

Where each arc sits, at a glance

• Jujutsu Kaisen 0: Volume 0; the movie
• Opening chapters and the cursed womb: Volumes 1 to 2; Season 1
• Yuji and Junpei: Volumes 3 to 4; Season 1
• Goodwill Event: Volumes 3 to 6; Season 1
• Death Painting brothers: Volumes 7 to 8; Season 1
• Hidden Inventory / Premature Death: Volumes 8 to 9; Season 2, episodes 1 to 5
• Shibuya Incident: roughly Volumes 10 to 16; Season 2, episodes 6 to 23
• The Culling Game: roughly Volumes 17 to 25; Season 3 and the upcoming Season 4
• Final battle: roughly Volumes 25 to 30; not yet animated

A note on the timeline

The in-universe dates are handy for keeping things straight. Crunchyroll's official description of Season 2 places Yuji taking Sukuna into his body in June 2018, the end of Yuta's story in December 2017, and the Gojo and Geto flashback in spring 2006. The official anime site puts the Shibuya Incident on October 31, 2018. In other words, most of the main story's first half happens within a few months.