Spoilers ahead! warning!

This season has been my favourite so far, I have really enjoyed the style of fights, characters, buildup as well as the animation style. I think that this season really excelled in jumping off from where the last season left off, and I feel that even though it may come across as being a generic battle trope, the fights act as actual plot devices.

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Beginning:
The season begins with the aftermath of Shibuya, I retain an opinion that Choso let off Yuji too easily for killing his brothers, but the attempt at explanation for this means that I give it a bit off a pass. The fight in the first episode is set up at the beginning of season 2, which shows Yuta having returned from Africa and being in Japan. The death of Naobito in the season prior also sets up Naoya as a character, his introductory scene was really good, they took an interesting angle and made the meeting of the Zen’in clan potential heads really claustrophobic.

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What was really interesting for me is where this followed up. Since the fight had split into two, it meant that Yuta could kill Yuji, but the twist being that since Yuta was a pupil of Gojo, it meant he would follow his instructions to protect Yuji, I thought this was actually quite a clever bit of writing as I did think it was out of character for Yuta to attack Yuji like that. The reintroduction of the characters from last season was also handled pretty well.
After everyone recouped, they need to explain the culling games, and they use Tengen for this, a previously established character who was known to be pretty knowledgeable. This episode was a bit slow and lacked action, however, it’s importance was very high. I feel that if the animators and studio has more control over what happens, then they could’ve explained the rules through a few battles at the start of the culling games, however, the method they used was visually pleasing and also manga accurate. The plan that was established in this episode also went to set up where everyone would be going this season. It led to Maki going back to the Zen’in clan.

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Maki’s return to the Zen’in clan was always going to be pretty tense, she always described how she wanted to take them down, and the rest of the clan was known to look down upon her. This was especially shown through Naoya, who always expressed his dislike for women, and even further for Maki, due to her lacking cursed energy and also now being burnt. I think the scene with Maki and Mai was really touching and beautiful. The rest of the episode from there was also beautiful in the sense that it was so easy for Maki for the most part, it felt like well due revenge and also her resemblance to Toji really showed the importance of the Hidden Inventory arc. The creativity shown in this episode was amazing too. The different angles and alignment with the music was really creative and this led to an overall pretty perfect episode.

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Hakari:
After this, Megumi and Yuji went to collect Hakari. Hakari had been hinted at in seasons prior and the way they went about introducing him here was really effective. This is because we don’t actually see him much, apart from after the fight, in which he has a bit of dialogue, but is not seen too much after that. His character is shown from his betting attitude and the whole scheme he is running, I feel this episodes really went to show that. His protector, Kirara, had a really cool cursed technique shown in the battle for this part of the season. I think it was complicated, but not so much that it was difficult to understand, it just wasn’t clear what it was until Megumi and Panda figured it out. This successful sidequest then led to Yuji and Megumi being ready to join the Tokyo Colony.

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Tokyo Colony:
The Tokyo colony was a two sided affair. One half Megumi and one half Yuji. The fact that there were two different answers to where Higuruma was was a really cool concept. I think making Yuji fight Higuruma by himself was really important too as his fight seemed to act like a plot device to relieve Yuji of some of his guilt from the Shibuya incident. I think this was important to do now as he often dwelled on what had happened in the first part of the season, and he was desperate to stop it if anything like it almost happened again. Megumi’s fight in the Tokyo colony was a bit different. It acted as development in terms of how he battled. I thought that Reggie was a bit boring at first, but throughout the fight, his cursed technique became pretty interesting to see. Although what stunted this segment for me was Takaba, I think he was funny and the adaptation of him was great, but I don’t think that he should’ve been here. His sudden introduction was random, and on top of this, he randomly left too. I feel his association with Megumi shouldn’t have come so easily and also while he did spice the fight up a bit, he took it away from Megumi, which made him look a bit weaker in retrospect. The ending to Megumi’s fight with Reggie was really cool though, Megumi’s domain was genius and the dynamic of the weight in his shadows was really good, especially when fighting Reggie, whose cursed technique seemed to semi counter that. The conclusion to this fight was really cool too, it showed Reggie and Megumi had a great fight, but overall Megumi had come out on top.

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Sendai Colony:
The final episode of this seasons is a big Sendai Colony bonanza, it was filled with action and managed to entertain at every step. First of all, Yuta being shown with all of his power post-Africa trip was great. His technique being properly shown made him seem really powerful, just as everyone had described. The three he was fighting also made for an incredible matchup. Kurourushi was probably the weakest of these, although he did seem to get close to killing Yuta, however, it was due to the handicap Yuta imposed on himself. I think he was the worst of the guys Yuta fought in Sendai due to the fact that he did return, but only to stop the domain and get instantly thrust away by Yuta yet again. Uro was different from this though, she was really good as she had dialogue with Yuta, which I think went to show the nature of the incarnated sorcerers and their relationship with the sorcerers of the present. Her ability was also really cool as it was quite unique. Her conclusion for this season was a bit strange, she was so violent to Yuta at first, but upon being beaten, she simply went to warn Yuta. Although the dialogue that they had during the fight about the family that Yuta came from may go to show why she did this. Ishigori was the final opponent Yuta fought in Sendai, and he was definitely the best. His design was really cool and along with that, the hair he had was used for his cursed technique. I think his outgoing nature to fight made him really interesting as well as his monologue about dessert. I think this monologue was just used to explain why he gave up on trying to kill Yuta after he was spared, as it shows he was fulfilled with their fight. During their fight, Ishigori had a really easy to understand technique. It was also really clear when it had run out due to his hair, which gave a funny moment when he combed it midway through the fight. Now to address the best part of the Sendai Colony fight, the three way domain. This scene was really faithful as well as being really well animated, it gave me goosebumps when it came up as it was so cool to see this in the episode, it felt like the same style which the Yuji, Mahito, Todo fight was in season 2. This domain was never seen though, but the scene alone made it really cool.

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Best Episodes:

1. Episode 4: Perfect Preparation

2. Episode 12: Sendai Colony 3. Episode 9: Tokyo No. 1 Colony, Part 3

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Best Characters:

1. Yuta

2. Maki 3. Higuruma

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Overall, I think this season was really good as it did allow the animators lots of creativity and the animation felt the best it had been so far. The nature of the Culling Games also made it really enjoyable to watch and the growth that some characters went through in this season was pretty immense.