Jujutsu Kaisen is without question one of the most well adapted battle Shonen in recent years. As the anime enters its third season, every episode has produced countless memes, memorable moments from combat, superb animation, great music, and enough explanation to finally force anime-only fans to do some reading. While Jujutsu Kaisen characters are busy fighting for their lives in the Culling Game, we had the chance to sit down in conversation with the dual protagonists of the series: Adam McArthur, English voice of Yuji Itadori and Kayleigh McKee, English voice of Yuta Okkotsu.
Portions of this interview have been lightly edited for clarity. This interview contains very minor spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episodes 1 and 2.
Q: Kayleigh, the Jujutsu Kaisen fandom has not gotten to see much of Yuta since Jujutsu Kaisen 0. What was your approach to his reintroduction? And was there any special direction you received for it?
Kayleigh McKee: Yeah, mostly it was trying to portray a character who is older and has done some maturing and who I felt was being put in this situation that he didn’t want to be in, but felt that there wasn’t anybody better than him to do. Because, well, once you watch it, you’ll know he had a plan. And that was not actually kill the main character. I don’t think that’s controversial to say. And so he had to pretend to be a villain, almost. So I wanted to portray a person portraying villainy, but in a way that — it’s a show he’s putting on, because he has to. And he’s, I felt like, probably not very happy that he’s doing so. I feel like we see that on screen. And so mostly it was just finding that nuance and that line to get us through it, while also, giving the treat of a very cool fight that everybody is going to be at the edge of their seats for, without betraying that.
Q: Adam, with Season 3, Yuji is obviously a lot more formidable, even being called a demon god. As his power and confidence grows, has that affected your approach to the character overall?
Adam McArthur: Interesting. I would say that what I love about Yuji is that he remains consistent no matter what kind of power upscale he gets. I don’t think he’s walking around acting like he’s more formidable. I think he is still a good boy that just happens to be really talented and good at all these things. I think he’s using those tools to help people, which is what he’s kind of always set out to do. But yeah, as far as from a technical standpoint, from a voice acting standpoint, post the Shibuya incident, Yuji does have these more intense moments — a little bit more grounded, a little less kind of oblivious, happy, happy guy. And so those moments I want to just honor the intensity and all that. So I do think there is a reflection in the voice work as far as all that goes. But character wise, even though he is getting more powerful, I do believe that he is still our good boy, deep down.
Q: This next question is for both of you. The two of you started off Season 3 with an incredible fight. What was it like recording that fight? And do you think it finally answered the question of who the real main character is?
Adam McArthur: (laughs) Actually, the “real main character” discourse is just so fun to me. I poke fun at it all the time in my own social media videos and stuff like that. No, I think the jury is still out on who the MC is. That means people have to keep watching to see. No, I’m just kidding.
Kayleigh McKee: (laughs) The real main character is you.
Adam McArthur: Yeah, the fans along the way. No, I think it was cool. It was cool to finally see Yuji and Yuta together in the same scene. And to be honest with you, one of my favorite things is them on the same team. So the fact that we are sort of now past this “I don’t know what would happen if they fought” thing, it just couldn’t have been handled in a cooler way. And now we get to see what happens when they’re all working together for the same cause. And I think, as with other characters in this story, I think all the characters serve their purpose for the story as a whole.
Kayleigh McKee: Yeah, I agree with Adam. I think the most exciting thing is now as we ramp up, first it was, “Oh, how cool will it be to see them fight?” And now it’s, “How cool will it be to see them fight together?”
Q: While many of these fights in Season 3 have yet to air, both of your characters have entered the Culling Game and are preparing to have fight after fight after fight. How do you make each individual fight feel meaningfully distinct from others?
Kayleigh McKee: I think obviously a big part of it is that the writing is just so good at positioning the characters’ mental landscapes in different places for each fight. Because every fight in Jujutsu Kaisen has a unique reason behind it. It’s not a Shonen anime where they have this one goal and they’re just pushing through everybody that gets in their way to get to it — which can be compelling. But I think unique among anime with a lot of action, Jujutsu Kaisen is really explorative and character-driven that causes these conflicts to be necessary. And they can be for wildly different reasons. Gaining information versus struggling immensely just to hold yourself together and stop more damage. It makes our job easier to find the motivation in some ways and a challenge to portray that complexity in other ways.
Adam McArthur: Yeah, totally. There are some fights coming in Season 3 that I’ve looked forward to for a really, really long time. And they are very character defining fights. And like Kayleigh said, it’s the writing. What I love about a lot of the fights Yuji is in is it’s not a fight to go fight. It’s not a fight where if I fight this person, I’m going to be stronger. That is not Yuji at all. If anything, it’s like, oh, okay, I guess I’ll fight, like he’s kind of picking himself up to do it. And then he does, still remaining who he is, even in the context of like something as intense as a fight. So we get more character revelations. We learn more about him as he goes. It’s just such an incredible thing to get to play as an actor. And it’s also just so incredibly well written and fun to watch that I think that’s also what fans resonate with. The fights are epic, the animation is amazing, but they are also character driven, like Kayleigh said.
Q: I have time for one more quick one, so I’ll ask this: if you could pick one Cursed Technique from the series as your own, which would you pick?
Adam McArthur: Infinite Void. That’s what I’d pick.
Kayleigh McKee: I’m an avid collector game player. Pokemon, Digimon, all of that. So I would want Geto’s. I want to collect Cursed Spirits.
Adam McArthur: I’m changing my answer because it’s too easy. I’m picking Boogie Woogie. There you go.
We’d like to thank Adam McArthur and Kayleigh McKee for taking the time to speak with us about Jujutsu Kaisen and thank the folks over at Crunchyroll for setting up the interview. Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 is streaming on Crunchyroll. If you’re interested in hearing from even more of the Jujustu Kaisen English dub cast, check out our interview with them from New York Comic Con 2025.
