Jujutsu Kaisen- Yuji Itadori Character Profile

In the Jujutsu Kaisen, Yuji Itadori, along with his fellow characters, attends Jujutsu High to train to become exorcists to hunt down evil curses. 

As a character, Yuji Itadori follows the tropes of the genre while still being an interesting character which we will explore in this character profile. 

Motivation

Itadori is a character who takes a lot from the people around him. This ties his development to a lot of the other characters. At the centre of his character is a motivation to want to die surrounded by people, so he tries to save as many people as possible. This simple goal makes him ideal for the main character slot, as his strength and distinctive traits make him worthy of his position as the main character of this story. His primary motivation comes from his grandfather, who told Yuuju to save people because he is strong. Yuuji compares his grandfather’s death to a “right death” and thinks that every human deserves the right death. What sets Yuuji apart from characters in other series is that death is an intrinsic part of Itadori Yuuji, reflecting the series's darker and more twisted tone. 

Abilities and powers

Even before gaining his supernatural powers, Yuuji was gifted with incredible physical strength and speed; these significant abilities allowed him to defeat a Grade 1 curse in his first fight. 

His Jujutsu abilities manifest as a few different physical techniques. His first technique is called the Divergent Fist. The Divergent Fist is a punch that sends a second, delayed blast of cursed energy at the target, which makes a stronger second impact. 

Itadori’s other technique is called the Black Flash, which creates a spatial distortion when a user connects with an impact of cursed energy within 0.000001 seconds of a physical hit. The phenomenon causes cursed power to flashback, creating a more potent attack, dealing more than double the damage of the initial hit. 

The origins of Itadori’s powers

Itadori’s powers originate from an entity called Sukuna. Sukuna first appears in Yuji’s body when Yuji eats one of Sukuna’s cursed fingers. Sukuna is the king of curses, and it becomes Yuji’s purpose in the series to track down each of Sukuna’s fingers and eat them to stop them from getting into the wrong hands and destroy them forever. Sukuna and Yuji eventually make a binding vow, giving Yuji a measure of power. In return, Yuji would allow Sukuna to take over his body for one full minute when the cursed spirit would chant “Enchain”, and Yuji was forced to forget about this agreement. Yuji initially turned down this agreement and instead tried to defeat Sukuna in the battle to get what he needed. Still, Sukuna effortlessly defeated Yuji, forcing him to take the binding vow.