Less than one month into 2026, and Jujutsu Kaisen has already shaken up the shonen anime landscape. JJK Season 3 pushed the franchise to new heights in only four episodes, and the preamble to the Culling Game has been every bit as exciting as fans could have hoped heading into 2026.
However, not everyone is a fan of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3’s most recent installment. Maki Zenin’s slaughter of the Zenin Clan has earned ire from Japanese fans for numerous reasons, with most of their criticism focusing on the creative liberties that MAPPA took in their adaptation of the episode. These critiques have been loud, pointed, and spread across social media, but just because they’re outspoken doesn’t mean these complaints hold water under closer examination.
JJK Season 3, Episode 4 Has Faced a Wave of Backlash From Japanese Fans
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To be clear, ther’s no reason to think that the overwhelming response from Japanese Jujutsu Kaisen fans toward Season 3, Episode 4 was negative; after all, the voices of a few social media accounts are far from representative of the entire country’s feelings toward JJK. Still, there is more than enough negative sentiment from these fans to see a couple of commonly held criticisms toward the Perfect Preparation mini-arc.
For one, it seems as though a fair number of fans were displeased with the stylistic direction of Maki Zenin’s rampage, with some criticizing it as “over-the-top” or “pretty meh” – both of which are a far cry from the response among American JJK fans. The episode’s Kill Bill-inspired action clearly missed the mark with these critics, some of whom specifically pointed to Maki’s fight with the Kukuru Unit as an example of “Perfect Preparation”‘s faults.
Additionally, it seems as though two more scenes from Maki’s fight with the Hei went over especially poorly with Japanese fans: (1) her parallel with Toji Zenin during her slaughter o

