‘Jujutsu Kaisen’ Voice Actor Junya Enoki Discusses Rapid Action Scenes in Season 3, Airing Now

By Yayoi Kawatoko / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

10:08 JST, January 30, 2026

With a performance that inspires all who watch, voice actor Junya Enoki portrays the straightforward protagonist Yuji Itadori facing overwhelming hardships head-on in the smash-hit TV anime “Jujutsu Kaisen.”

This month saw the launch of its third season, “Jujutsu Kaisen: The Culling Game Part 1.”

Theaters also hosted special screenings under the title “Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution / Shibuya Incident x The Culling Game Begins.” Prior to the season 3 premiere, Enoki sat down for an interview to discuss his thoughts on Jujutsu Kaisen, the series that has defined his career.

Shibuya Incident

“This series was a turning point and is massively significant for me. It provided more opportunities for the public to know my work,” said Enoki, reflecting on Jujutsu Kaisen, which first aired in 2020.

Jujutsu Kaisen is a wildly popular manga by Gege Akutami, serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump, with more than 100 million copies in circulation, including digital editions. Enoki secured the role of Itadori through an audition.

In the story, Itadori is an ordinary high school student who, after eating the finger of Ryomen Sukuna, called a king of curses, and becoming his human incarnation, transfers to Tokyo Jujutsu High School, a specialized institution for combating curses. There, while studying to become a jujutsu sorcerer, he finds himself thrust into battling cursed spirits and curse users.

“In the beginning, he was a classic Shonen Jump protagonist — energetic and positive … but as the story progressed, various other sides of him emerged, including his darker aspects. He follows the traditional hero’s journey but also deviates from it slightly,” Enoki said.

Itadori spends his days exorcising powerful, cursed spirits alongside classmates Megumi Fushiguro and Nobara Kugisaki, as well as his homeroom teacher, Satoru Gojo.

In the Shibuya Incident arc broadcast in 2023, he was pushed to the brink of despair.

Gojo, the strongest jujutsu sorcerer of the modern era, was sealed away, leading to an all-out war in Shibuya against curse users and cursed spirits.

Sukuna took control of Itadori’s body and devastated Shibuya, claiming the lives of countless innocent bystanders. When Itadori eventually regained consciousness, he faced the devastating truth: Sukuna had used his body to carry out a campaign of mass destruction and slaughter.

The scene where he screams, “Die. Only me… only me… Die! Right now!” reverberated among viewers.

Though it was a painful moment, Enoki approached recording levelheadedly rather than over-identifying with the character, he said.

“I try to get as close to the character’s heart as possible, but rather than losing myself in the role, I find myself calculating the most effective way to convey those emotions. It’s as if I’m observing the character from a detached, objective perspective,” he said.

Culling Game

In the aftermath of the Shibuya Incident, Tokyo has become a wasteland where curses roam free. Season 3 of the anime shifts to the Culling Game, in which jujutsu sorcerers kill one another within 10 colonies across Japan. Itadori does not return to Tokyo Jujutsu High School and continues to hunt cursed spirits on his own.

Enoki views Itadori as burdened by profound guilt. “He is weighed down by the feeling of ‘if only I had been executed [before the mass slaughter in Shibuya], none of this would have happened,’” he said.

In the third season, Yuta Okkotsu appears as Itadori’s executioner, alongside new characters like Naoya Zen’in.

“The action scenes were so fast, they were almost difficult to keep up with visually, and I was even more stunned when I saw the final version,” Enoki noted.

He added with confidence: “While some aspects of the Culling Game may be complex to grasp initially, the season is crafted so the audience can fully immerse themselves in the visuals.”

Junya Enoki

Born Oct. 19, 1988, in Tokyo. His other notable credits include voicing Pannacotta Fugo in “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind” and Seishu Inui in “Tokyo Revengers.”