JUJUSTU KAISEN has got to be one of the most well-known names in anime today. Whether you’ve been a fan since the show started in 2020, loved JUJUTSU KAISEN 0 since 2021, or you’re an OG manga fan from before that, JJK has a ton of fans. JUJUTSU KAISEN season 3 premiered on January 8th, launching viewers into The Culling Game arc following the Shibuya Incident.
While JUJUTSU KAISEN season 3 plays out, we were able to sit down with two of the English voice actors from the show. We spoke to Adam McArthur, who voices Yuji Itadori, and Kayleigh McKee, who voices Yuta Okkotsu. We wanted to catch up on where Yuji and Yuta are heading into this season, what they have learned, and why these actors think JUJUTSU KAISEN is so popular.
I was hoping just to start, you could tell us a bit about your characters on JUJUTSU KAISENand where they’re starting off in season 3.
Kayleigh McKee: I am the English voice for Yuta Okkotsu, and he’s starting off this season, having gotten back from Africa for almost a year, searching for some things to help out back in Japan, unfortunately, not having found that, but with a new goal of protecting the ones that he loves. And that looks very different ways at different times. But I promise, he’s on the up and up. He’s a good dude. So if you haven’t watched enough of the episodes, just, you’ll you’ll get there.
We’re going to be won over in JUJUTSU KAISEN season 3!
Adam McArthur: I’m the English voice of Yuji Itadori. My name’s Adam McArthur. Hello, Dayna. Gosh. We find Yuji at the beginning of season three, just fresh out of what has been so lovingly named the “Shibuya Incident,” where there’s just tragedy upon tragedy and loss after loss. Our sweet golden retriever boy is now sort of refiguring out what’s next.
We kind of jump right into him figuring it out with Megumi and Yuta, and quickly finding out that The Culling Game is what’s next on the docket. So he’s mentally trying to recover and find his new normal after the Shibuya Incident.
Now you used words like “mentally trying to recover” in season 3 of JUJUTSU KAISEN. How do you both tap into those characters with your voices, especially when so much has happened?
Adam McArthur: I think the interesting part is, as an actor, we’re kind of living through it with them. Going into this recording studio now is interesting because I, as an actor, have lived through the recording of [JUJUTSU KAISEN] season two. So I was kind of with Yuji along the whole way, you know?
So, going into those recording sessions now, you can’t just forget all of what happened. So in a weird way, it’s like, when you are as connected to the characters as we are, you are sort of living a parallel life to them and experiencing that as you go as well.
Kayleigh McKee: It’s interesting because there was a lot of Yuta that I didn’t get to experience, and that the viewer doesn’t get to experience while he’s away. But I think really the core that I focused on was the through line of who he was in the first movie and who it seems like he is becoming, going from timid and needing protection from these new friends to fiercely valuing these new friends and them having shown him how to find his own strength and him really wanting to use that to protect them and to protect anybody that he can—sort of understanding the responsibility of his power at this point.
I try to tap into the moments of my life when I have felt that shift in responsibility. You know, growing up and realizing that some people might rely on me now. And I think that that really, really fuels it.
And how do you think that Yuji and Yuta have grown from, from their first appearance in JUJUTSU KAISEN to where we’re going to find them in JUJUTSU KAISEN season 3? What lessons do you think they’ve learned?
Kayleigh McKee: Like I was saying with Yuta, he learned that he has this power and that he should use it responsibly and use it to help people, because people with power helped him when he needed it. He learned very quickly that that can sometimes mean some heavy stuff, I feel like. With the end of the movie and being brought back in [JUJUTSU KAISEN] season two, he had to fight his mentor and relatives, best friend, who was harming his friends and almost killed them. I think that taught him some unfortunate but fortunate lessons very quickly.
Adam McArthur: [laughs] Yeah. Never trust anyone. No, I’m just kidding.
He learned trauma.
Adam McArthur: Yeah! What I love about Yuji is that he is the same character from season one. He is the same good boy. No matter all the stuff that’s happened to him. Now, has everything about him been challenged? Are all his beliefs…You know, he says in season one, he says something to the effect of, like, “I’ll never kill anyone. I just wouldn’t do that.” And then that was quickly challenged. When Mahito transfigured humans and all this stuff, and he’s just faced with all of these things.
And then, of course, all the trauma that happened in the Shibuya Incident and Sukuna taking over his body and causing devastation, which he then feels the responsibility for. So this very thing he said he would never do, no matter what is now happening to him outside of his control.
I think all of that does change Yuji, but at his core, he is still a good boy, and I think that’s what makes him so appealing as a main character. If you look at the things that he has gone through and that have happened to him in any other instance, any other story, any other show that makes that character the villain, he’s all of a sudden it’s like, “Well, if I can’t beat him, I’ll join em’,” kind of thing.
But not with Yugi. He remains steadfast in his pursuit to help people and in a way to sort of, you know, live that request of his grandpa that we heard in episode one of season one, which was, you know, “Even if you help one person, help that person, don’t die, not surrounded by other people.” So, I think that’s probably my favourite part about playing Yugi is that he still makes choices for good, even when they are tough or hard, or it might put him at risk.
Now, even people who don’t know anime know this show or JUJUTSU KAISEN in some capacity. Why do you think that is?
Kayleigh McKee: Honestly, I didn’t know that to that degree. But I do know, it’s so, so popular, and I think it’s just because it’s so compelling in the way that it does relationships and the way that it does struggle and conflict and action. It’s cinema. I don’t know, that’s as simple as I can say it.
Adam McArthur: I think it has to do a lot with, uh, with when JJK was released, JJK season one came out in October of 2020, we were all still stuck at home, consuming as much media as possible. And I think it was, I mean, honestly, a big part of it, it was sort of a perfect storm of that, which was everyone was home, the show is amazing. It’s just such a good—sorry I say that as if I’m not in it, but sometimes I feel like this is happening to a best friend.
Like, my best friend is doing this, and it’s not me, so I don’t mean that as in, “Hey, look at us. We’re so cool.” It’s more of, if I wasn’t in it, this is such an amazing show. I need to clarify that. I think that, paired with the fact that everyone was at home consuming media at that time, JJK hits all the notes of the iconic shonen characters, but then sort of tips them on their head a little bit. I think it’s just got people hooked.
JUJUTSY KAISEN season 3 premiered on January 8th on Crunchyroll with episodes releasing weekly on Thursdays.
