Jujutsu Kaisen is a battle-focused anime/manga series created by Gege Akutami. It follows Yuji Itadori, a high-schooler who sets out to eat the 20 fingers of a powerful cursed entity, in order to stop them being used for evil, even if it means being executed once his mission is complete. Yuji has one of the most unorthodox motivations in shonen manga, and it’s part of what makes him a compelling protagonist.
He has a lot going for him at the beginning, but in order to face off against the many cursed spirits and jujutsu sorcerers he encounters, he develops a host of new abilities that help him keep up with foes who have way more experience than him. Given how talented he already is, it's only a matter of time before Itadori develops the skills required to be a competent jujutsu sorcerer.
Updated February 18, 2024, by Ritwik Mitra: MAPPA is on top of its game, adapting a wealth of great shows that are full of stellar animation. Fans hope that the animators get their time in the spotlight while also getting enough rest to animate things at their own pace. One of the major shows developed by this studio is Jujutsu Kaisen, as MAPPA's animation elevates this otherwise run-of-the-mill shonen anime to great heights. Fans can't wait to see how incredible the Culling Game will be, especially given the amazing animation during the Shibuya Incident. Itadori is bound to reach new heights as a protagonist, showing off a wealth of powers that make it clear why this newcomer to the realm of Cursed Energy is already making a huge mark.
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11 Quick Learning
Can Pick Up Moves And Abilities In A Short Time
- Notable Display(s): Quickly learned how to perform Divergent Fist, Black Flash, and Reverse Cursed Technique.
Shounen action stories usually focus on the development of their main characters. Even amongst his peers, Yuji is able to learn new skills and techniques at an absurd speed. Before attending Jujutsu High, he had very little combat training and no cursed energy training, yet he was able to pick up advanced martial arts and cursed energy manipulation within a few weeks.
Gojo devised a training regiment that involved Yuji watching movies to learn how to regulate his emotions and cursed energy. A few hours later, Yuji had already picked it up. When he first met Todo, it only took a few minutes for him to not only improve his cursed energy control but to adapt to Todo’s fighting style and perfectly sync up with him in battle.
10 Curse Resistance
His Relation To Kenjaku Makes Him Inherently Resistant To Curses
- Notable Display(s): Able to host and resist Sukuna's influence on his body.
As the main power system behind Jujutsu Kaisen’s fights, cursed energy is used by both the Jujutsu sorcerers and the cursed spirits they fight against. While all sorcerers have a level of curse resistance, Yuji’s is extremely high. Especially for someone who only discovered cursed energy in his mid-teens.
The most obvious example of this is Yuji’s ability to host Ryomen Sukuna, to begin with. Sukuna is known as ‘the king of curses’ specifically due to his immense amounts of cursed energy. Just 1 of his fingers is enough to make any curse into a massive threat. Yet, Yuji is capable of consuming all 20 without losing complete control of his body. Even when he was fed 10 fingers at once, he didn’t lose his body for too long.
9 Pure Physical Strength
Extremely Athletic
- Notable Display(s): Can throw cars, destroy walls, and jump immense heights with ease.
While cursed energy use is the source of the most powerful abilities in JJK, most sorcerers and even cursed spirits incorporate physical attacks into their arsenal. Even the strongest sorcerer, Satoru Gojo, has been seen using his fists in battle. Yuji is easily one of the most dangerous sorcerers in this regard, thanks in part to his massive physical strength.
While the reason for Yuji’s strength is rather vague, its effect on his fights is unmistakable. Even before learning to use cursed energy, Yuji could throw a shot put hard enough to dent a metal pole. Once he learns to add cursed energy to his strikes, he gains the ability to hit cursed spirits with all that strength, resulting in some devastating blows.
8 Martial Arts
His Technique, Combined With His Strength, Makes Him Powerful In Battle
- Notable Display(s): Going toe-to-toe with Aoi Todo, impressing him in the process.
While raw physical strength is a big boon for Yuji, it can’t take him very far without some form of polishing. This polish comes in the form of Yuji’s martial arts. He was already trained in karate by his grandfather, but as the series progresses, he learns new techniques, including several from ‘taido’ martial arts.
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His martial arts skills allow him to go head-to-head with everyone from curses to other sorcerers, despite his lack of an innate cursed technique. He has techniques like knee release and manji kick, which when used in combination with each other allow him to drop low in an instant, and then transfer his momentum into a powerful kick to his opponent’s face.
7 Weapon Proficiency
Can Use Weapons With Great Skill And Finesse
- Notable Display(s): Could use Slaughter Demon, a cursed tool, with little effort.
Using weapons is not an easy task. People need to understand how a particular weapon feels in their hands before they can even think of using it competently in battle. However, Itadori's natural talents allow him to use such weapons effectively in battle from the very moment he picks them up.
This talent makes him a competent and powerful jujutsu sorcerer who can take out waves of foes while using a weapon, which is no mean feat. Couple this with his cursed energy, and it's easy to see why he has the potential to surpass Gojo.
6 Swift Movement And Reflexes
Can Pull Off Impressive Dodges
- Notable Display(s): Dodged Choso's Piercing Blood, which apparently travels at the speed of sound.
Given how damaging the cursed spirits and other heinous individuals in this series can be, it's easy to see why having quick reflexes is imperative to avoid any unnecessary damage. Thankfully, Itadori understood this assignment and has honed his reflexes to perfection.
It helps that his speed is naturally fast due to his athletic body, allowing him to quickly understand the best way possible to deal with any threat that could possibly maim and kill him. These reflexes have saved him time and again during rough confrontations with powerful enemies.
5 High Durability And Stamina
Weathers A Lot Of Damage Without Tiring Himself Out
- Notable Display(s): Withstood Mahito's barrage in his Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing.
While it's ideal to avoid damage by dodging blows, it's also unrealistic to assume that a fighter will be able to dodge every blow in a fight. Even someone as physically gifted as Itadori is incapable of this feat, which is why it helps that his body is durable enough to take some damage without being out for the count.
He also boasts a huge horde of stamina, meaning that he won't get tired in battle quickly despite pushing himself to the very limit. This is great in a battle of attrition since Yuji can duke it out with the best in a lengthy fight without being too worried about the consequences.
4 Poison Resistance
Sukuna's Presence In His Body Makes Him Resistant To Toxins
- Notable Display(s): Resisted the poison of Moon Dregs, one of the shikigami summoned by Junpei.
While most of Yuji’s abilities are natural to him, this one comes from the influence of Sukuna on his body. Sukuna is an extremely powerful being, with a host of abilities. These abilities actually include poison-based ones, giving Sukuna himself a high resistance to poisons of any kind.
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Yuji inherits this passive ability and is shown to be unaffected by poison, even ones used by cursed spirits like Eso and Choso. He also has a resistance to any abilities that tamper with the soul. Since Sukuna attacks anything that attempts to harm him, trying to manipulate Yuji’s soul means being attacked by Sukuna himself.
3 Reverse Cursed Technique
Lets Him Heal Injuries To Get Back Ino Fighting Shape
- Notable Display(s): Healed himself after being hit by Sukuna's Cleave ability.
Reverse Cursed Technique is not easy. Trying to use Cursed Energy in a positive way to heal and mend bodies is easier said than done, which is why only the most skilled Jujutsu sorcerers stand a chance of mastering such a complex technique. So, most people were amazed to see that Itadori was able to master this technique in only a month.
He shows off this ability when Sukuna assumes that he's taken his previous host out of commission with a powerful Cleave ability, only for Itadori to rise to the occasion and heal his injuries, letting him re-engage the malicious sorcerer in battle. Sukuna ups the stakes and uses his Dismantle ability to incapacitate Yuji again, but his mastery over the Reverse Cursed Technique comes to the rescue and saves him once more.
2 Divergent Fist
Causes Attacks To Hit Twice Courtesy Of A Delayed Follow-Up
- Notable Display(s): Hit Mahito's Soul directly with a well-placed Divergent Fist.
Usually, jujutsu sorcerers have innate techniques that have been ingrained in them since birth. This allows them to do things like Gojo’s limitless or Megumi’s shadow manipulation. Without a technique of his own, Yuji developed Divergent Fist as a way to use his cursed energy in a unique way.
Divergent fist acts like a piston when Yuji punches something. His fist makes contact first, and then the cursed energy follows soon afterward, making every attack hit twice. This is good not only for raw damage but also for catching opponents off guard. As strong as this is though, Yuji later stopped using it since he learned to control his cursed energy even better.
1 Black Flash
Hits For Immense Damage
- Notable Display(s): Obliterated Mahito with a Black Flash attack imbued with maximum power.
As Divergent Fist showed, cursed energy does not always impact its target at the same time as a physical attack. Usually, this is undesirable, but if the delay is within 0.000001 seconds, it results in a ‘black flash,’ essentially a critical hit that does far more damage and heightens the senses for a time afterward.
Usually, Black Flash is something that sorcerers do by complete accident. The record for successive Black Flashes was only 4 and was set by Keito Nanami, who states he didn’t even do it on purpose. Yuji, on the other hand, reaches a point where he can use black flash on purpose. He not only matched Nanami’s record for consecutive flashes but has used the technique more times than even Gojo himself.
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