The latest episode of Jujutsu Kaisen, which focused on Maki Zenin, instantly became the highest-rated episode of the series, scoring a 9.8 on IMDb with over 8,000 reviews. However, despite the critical acclaim season 3, episode 4 has received globally, the fans over in Japan don’t feel the same. “Perfect Preparation” adapted chapters 148-153 of the manga into a compact 28-minute episode, taking artistic liberties to convey both the story and the action. However, some manga purists have taken umbrage at the small differences between the anime and manga, leading to arguments that JuJutsu Kaisen is attempting to appeal too much to American sensibilities with the anime’s emphasis on fights.
The episode had many visual elements not in the original manga, and some action sequences were even inspired directly by Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill. One Japanese fan on X touched on the episode’s high 9.8 rating in America, saying (through machine translation), “In the end, those guys are only interested in the fights. ‘Amazing animation!’ ‘Insane aura!’ That’s all they’re saying. Episode 3 that explained the Culling Game rules in an anime-original segment to make it easy for anime-only fans to understand, and got massive praise in Japan, only scored 7.7/10 over there.”
Some Japanese fans believe that many American fans are most engaged with Jujutsu Kaisen when the action takes center stage, and tend to check out during heavier, more plot-driven episodes. Outside of Japan, some fans are even worried about the anime’s future, arguing that the backlash Mappa is facing mirrors what happened with Chainsaw Man season 1. In Japan, in particular, fans pushed back against the director’s more cinematic take on the source material, a reaction that ultimately led to a change in director for Chainsaw Man: The Movie – Reze Arc. That shift paid off, with the film praised for its chaotic, manga-accurate pacing.
Debates over how the episode should have been adapted have spiraled into broader cultural arguments, questioning taste, audience expectations, and whether Japanese creators should tailor anime to appeal beyond their domestic audience. Ultimately, it’s possible to argue that this episode of Jujutsu Kaisen placed artistic ambition front and center, leaving narrative clarity and emotional payoff in the background. Finding the right balance between story and action is essential, and while the episode proved cathartic for some viewers, others felt that the spectacle often overwhelmed the characters and their emotional beats.
