Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 reveals Kenjaku’s Evangelion-like evil plan

Kenjaku's ultimate plan sure sounds like the Human Instrumentality Project

For a show where most of the lore gets trickled out to the viewer through offhand comments and quick explanations, Jujutsu Kaisen shifts gears in the third episode of season 3 with one long exposition dump in "About the Culling Game." On paper, it's kind of an awkward episode of television. Yuki, Yuji, Megumi, Maki, Yuta, and Choso arrived at Master Tengen's shrine within the Tombs of the Star Corridor at the end of episode 2. Jujutsu Kaisen then spends this entire episode just having characters talk about Kenjaku's evil plan and how the Culling Game fits into it — and it sounds a lot like the end of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Kenjaku doesn’t just want chaos, control, or domination. His endgame is far more abstract and horrifying. He wants to merge all of humanity into Tengen, erasing the boundaries between individuals and forcing human evolution forward. This reframes everything we know about Jujutsu Kaisen. And it's pretty terrifying.

How is this even possible? It all goes back to the "Hidden Inventory / Premature Death Arc." In addition to being the most potent barrier user in existence, Tengen's primary cursed technique is immortality. He cannot die naturally, but his body still ages, so every 500 years, he assimilates with a new Star Plasma Vessel to "reset" his body and technique. A dozen years in the past, Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto were tasked with protecting the Star Plasma Vessel so that Tengen could assimilate with her. But because Toji Zenin killed her before that could happen, Tengen explains that, in the years since, his aging has accelerated and his identity as an individual has vanished. "So the world itself is who I am now," he says.

The strange-looking form the group speaks with is just an avatar Tengen is able to manifest using his barrier technique. "Now that I've evolved, my soul is everywhere," Tengen says, explaining that anyone who assimilates with him now "would become a new being that's both there and not there." There would be no barriers between individuals if all of humanity were assimilated in this way. Tengen speculates that evil would spread instantly and destroy the world. The concrete details of this are murky, at best, and Tengen doesn't even attempt to guess why Kenjaku wants to do this, but the overall feeling of uncertainty is part of what makes this revelation so frightening.

Crucially, Tengen also explains that his evolution has made his "nature" closer to that of a cursed spirit rather than a human, meaning that he's vulnerable to cursed spirit manipulation — the very technique that Kenjaku wields in Suguru Geto's body. Tengen also explains that, for generations, he was connected by "fate" to both the Star Plasma Vessel and Six Eyes user. Kenjaku dedicated lifetimes to hunting both down, but lost to a Six Eyes user at least once, which is why this time around he opted to seal Gojo instead of fight him directly — because there can be only one user in existence at any time.

How does all of this connect back to Neon Genesis Evangelion? In that series, SEELE's secret goal was called the Human Instrumentality Project, and it involved triggering a Third Impact to forcibly assimilate humanity in a similarly abstract way. Every human soul would merge into a singular, transcendent entity. In Evangelion, it's billed as the antidote to all of human suffering. Jujutsu Kaisen speculates on a more sinister twist with the same concept, but they're functionally the same thing. Kenjaku's plan is Instrumentality without the giant white Rei, but the concept is identical: collapse humanity into a single, undifferentiated whole and call it “evolution.”

For a show with breakneck pacing and high-octane action to dedicate an entire episode to a chatter-filled lore dump is surprising and, frankly, pretty brave. "About the Culling Game" is also chock-full of flow charts and graphics to help over-explain all the confusing information being dropped on the viewer, including the many complicated rules of the Culling Game that collectively force every curse user, new and old, to participate in the deadly competition, lose their abilities, or die. All this exposition moves so quickly it can be hard to follow (I really wish the dubbed version was out already). But as a whole, the episode works perfectly as a turning point for the story at large.

With Gojo still walking around, the stakes in Jujutsu Kaisen always felt a bit small since he functioned as a safety net. But on this side of the Shibuya Incident arc, and with Gogo trapped in the Prison Realm, the apocalypse is already in motion. No amount of power can stop what's coming, and killing Kenjaku won't end the Culling Game, either. Much like in Evangelion, once Instrumentality begins, there's no stopping it, but there's a chance to reshape how it unfolds. That's where Yuji and his companions stand now. How can they bend the rules of the Culling Game in their favor so they can prevent the worst from happening?