Mappa’s Naoya hair flip in Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 spawns a global meme

Polygon reports that a brief, newly animated hair flip by Naoya Zenin in the two-episode premiere of Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 has become a global meme. In the scene, Naoya uses his cursed technique to deliver a superspeed beatdown on Choso while casually tugging his hair, a moment that signals vanity and overpowering strength.

The clip has been spoofed across social media, repurposed with characters from other anime and games, shared by the Houston Texans’ mascot Toro on X after the team’s win over the Steelers, and even referenced by McDonald’s with an image of the Hamburglar. Unlike the manga — where the brief skirmish appears only across a couple of panels and contains no hair flip — Mappa extended the sequence and animated Naoya’s Projection Sorcery differently than his father Naobito’s, rendering Naoya’s frames in CGI at 24 frames per second while Naobito’s resembled traditional hand-drawn movement.

The moment, an original piece of animation rather than an AI trend, has also inspired fan art and broader conversation. Season 3 adapts the Culling Game arc and begins with the manga’s 139th chapter, and Mappa’s cinematic choices — from Mahoraga vs. Sukuna to a new symbolic opening that references famous paintings — show the studio taking liberties that streamline complex material.

Key Topics

Culture, Mappa, Jujutsu Kaisen, Naoya Zenin, Projection Sorcery, Culling Game