nanami kento guide

Nanami Kento Guide

Latest posts by Emad Shah (see all)

Cool-minded, decently dressed, and an unstoppable fighting machine when he wants to be, are the few things that come to mind when we think of Kento Nanami.

Coming from humble beginnings, Kento Nanami has made quite an impact in the Jujutsu Kaisen world, not just for his razor-sharp speed and agility but also for his calm and composed attitude whenever faced with a dire situation.

Without a doubt, Nanami is a jack of all trades and master of all. Whether it’s fighting special grade curses or just managing his client’s money, Nanami’s composure gives him an edge, allowing him to come out from the direst of situations. He has inspired not only young Jujutsu Sorcerers but also the entire community with his vast knowledge and an arsenal stacked with special grade moves.

Gege Akutami has cashed out his innovative and out-of-this-world anime idea Jujutsu Kaisen, which, just for your knowledge, wasn’t “entirely” his idea and was inspired by an actual incident that took place back in ancient Japan. Nonetheless, Gege Akutami has paid close attention to the details of each character; whether they were the main or side.

Studio MAPPA stepped up their A-game to create Jujutsu Kaisen. The unique and attractive art style, fast-paced fighting scenes, and the oh-so-addictive opening soundtrack gets you off your seat and jamming to the beat. It’s quite different compared to their previous anime, the likes of Terror in Resonance, Yuri on ice, Dororo, and their most loved anime, Attack on Titan: The Final Season.

This article primarily hits on the humble beginnings of Kento Nanami, his rise to the highest rank of a Jujutsu Sorcerer, his leaving everything behind and running away, and finally coming back to redeem himself.

The in-depth knowledge you’ll receive after going through this article will completely baffle and change how you’ve looked at our quiet and serious Kento Nanami. So without further waste of time, let’s begin the Guide to Kento Nanami.

Bottom Line Up Front

Kento Nanami is a stoic and realistic depiction of a peak salaryman who minds his own business. With no family background in being a Jujutsu Sorcerer, Kento was the first of his family to join Tokyo Jujutsu High, where he was an underclassman of Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto.

After graduating from Jujutsu High, Nanami left the life of a sorcerer due to the indifferent attitude of his teammates after the death of one of his close friends Yu Haibara. While working as a Jujutsu Sorcerer, Nanami was ranked as a grade 1 sorcerer and operated primarily out of the Tokyo campus.

He became the mentor of Yuji Itadori after the persuasion of Gojo Sensei, who had other duties to attend to. Nanami was unwilling to teach Itadori but seeing the boy’s will and hunger to get stronger; he took him under his wing. Nanami believed in helping as many people as possible and could never see people close to him in pain. One of the reasons he came back as a sorcerer was to help others.

Sadly, like all great heroes and teachers, Kento Nanami met a tragic death after going head to head with Mahito for the third time in the Shibuya Incident Arc.

The series already foreshadowed or, in other words, predicted that the two would fight to the death when they first met in the sewage, where Nanami gave a gruesome and painful defeat to Mahito. Kento Nanami left back a legacy for his students and peers altogether, making him stand as one of the most impactful side characters of the whole series.

Nanami Kento: The 7:3 Sorcerer

Nanami Kento Guide
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With an inner desire to help as many people as he could, Kento Nanami could not stand that his former teammates or the Jujutsu Sorcerers brushed the death of one of their teammates Yu Haibara.

Hurt over the death of the person who had the most positive impact on his life, Nanami left Jujutsu High—taking up the job of a simple salaryman. There he would manage his client’s cash responsibly and tactfully, earning him quite the reputation in the firm.

Not entirely happy or satisfied with his job, Nanami would venture out time and time again to help people who were influenced or bothered by demons. Four years later, Kento Nanami returned to being a Jujutsu Sorcerer.

Taking Yuji Itadori under his wing, Nanami had quite the impact on the boy, and so did Yuji on Nanami. Bearing similar qualities to his old friend Yu Haibara, the inner desire to do good and get stronger, Nanami found it hard not to help Itadori reach his goals and dreams.

With his last breath, Nanami knew he had given his all to the world, especially to Itadori, as he let him finish what he had started. A peaceful and happy death is what I would say met Kento Nanami.

Early Life

Nanami Kento Guide
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Kento Nanami came from a humble and straightforward family where no one was a sorcerer, so he was the first of his whole family to become a well-known Jujutsu Sorcerer. His family name sounds similar to Seven (Nana) and Three (mi), a reference to his ratio technique and the seven-three partition hairstyle.

Kento Nanami was scouted by the Jujutsu High academy and selected due to his skills and farsightedness. He gave everything to his training, earning the respect of both Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto. He later teamed up with Yu Haibara to back up Suguru and Satoru while on a mission at Okinawa.

Yu Haibara transformed Nanami with his cherry and positive attitude, and the two became close friends. Over a year later, Nanami teamed up with Yu on a mission, but the mission turned out to be far more complex, leading to Yu’s agonizing death.

After the mission, Nanami and Geto went to see Yu’s body at the morgue, where Geto commented that the mission was far too difficult and dismissed the matter as a whole. After completing Jujutsu High, Nanami left to pursue the job of a salaryman.

Being a serious person who doesn’t interact with many people, Kento Nanami did have a soft spot under all that hard exterior. He loved talking about money and having knowledgeable conversations without much time wasted. He would question his place in the world from time to time, and before joining the Jujutsu Sorcerers again, he termed his “leave” as running away.

He believed all sorcerers and the higher-ups to be trash for throwing their peers into missions above their ranks and not caring for their life. He also had a feeling of disrespect and hostility against Satoru Gojo.

Knowing that being a Jujutsu Sorcerer is a vast and demanding job that forces young sorcerers to lay their lives on the line makes Nanami slowly lose the little bit of respect he had for the higher-ups. He initially treated Yuji as a child who did not fully comprehend the complexity and politics of Jujutsu high and how they burden sorcerers with more work than they could take up.

Nanami didn’t want to see Yuji waste away his life, happiness, and freedom to be a Jujutsu Sorcerer. However, he eventually proved himself capable enough, making Nanami show him the ropes after all.

Nanami worked righteously for his firm, where he would make his employees richer with his farsighted and observant abilities. Still, all this did not satisfy or fulfill his heart, and he felt that his existence had no fundamental importance or impact on the people around him. As he says:

“Whether I’m awake or asleep, all I think about is money. Curses and other people have nothing to do with me as long as I have money.” The day he returned to being a Jujutsu Sorcerer, he visited a bakery and helped out a girl who had a pain in her shoulder due to a cursed spirit presiding on it.

Blunt and uninterested in how the world worked, Nanami was very practical and liked to stick with his moral ethics and thinking. Going through numerous fate-changing incidents, he refused to believe that people could become mature over time or when death approached them but only turn into adults when they pass through a series of events that shatter and change them as a person. As Nanami once said:

“The accumulation of those despairs is what makes a person an adult.” Finally, Kento Nanami never really cared about what others thought of him as a person. He never paid a bat’s eye to any of them, whether they hated, loved, despised, or straight out loathed him. He only cared about how he viewed himself, his purpose in this life, and how he could redeem himself.

First Mission

Nanami Kento Guide
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Kento Nanami started by getting selected for the Jujutsu high school. From there, he showcased his outstanding skills and decision-making and made his way under the leadership of Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto. Being a master swordsman and adept at close-range armed combat, Kento was assigned his first mission to back up Gojo and Geto on their escort job in Okinawa.

After over a year, he was assigned another job, this time a bit harder than his former ones, alongside his friend and teammate Yuu Haibara. However, while on the mission, it turned out to be way above their current level as sorcerers, which resulted in the death of Yuu Haibara.

From that day onwards, Nanami lost all interest in their work field, deeming it as ruining one’s life. After finishing his studies at Jujutsu High, he quit being a sorcerer and started his adult life as an ordinary salary man. He began completely disregarding the world of the cursed spirits and being indifferent to the sufferings of the people around him.

Kento Nanami made his star appearance when asked to train Yuji by Gojo sensei, to which he reluctantly agreed. Here, we witnessed Nanami’s fighting and great judgment skills as he and Yuji tracked down the cursed spirits that caused the theater incident where some teenagers got killed and their bodies mutilated.

Nanami taught Yuji how to see remnants, and they followed the trail to two cursed spirits and faced them, leaving one alive to better examine it. With the help of Shoko Leiri, they found out that the cursed spirits had initially been humans. After finding out that there have been multiple reports of missing people, Nanami instructed Yuji to inspect Junpei Yoshino while he alone ventured to find the culprit.

The traces of the cursed spirit lead Nanami into the sewers, where he encountered Mahito, the cursed spirit that could reshape the human body via cursed energy and mold it according to his desire. Nanami showcased to us his overwhelming fighting style using his short sword.

In a heated battle, Nanami went head to head with Mahito, but when the clock ended up hitting six, that’s when Nanami showed us why he stood as a first-grade sorcerer. Nanami wrapped his tie around his hand and produced an enormous amount of cursed energy, one that even surprised Mahito. After smashing Mahito’s leg and injuring him, Mahito retreated, not allowing Nanami to finish the job.

His Rise To First Grade Sorcerer

Nanami Kento Guide
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Nanami worked his way up to the rank of first-grade sorcerer and rightfully earned his position as a master swordsman. After being scouted by the Jujutsu Academy, he took on missions that far exceeded his level and completed them with extreme dexterity and diligence.

What earned him the rank of the first-grade sorcerer was his quick yet calm way of making decisions whenever put into a sticky situation, not to mention his leadership skills, clearly displayed in the Shibuya incident. Satoru Gojo entrusted Nanami with the upbringing and polishing of Yuji, mainly to make him not just a better fighter but a better decision-maker as well.

Takuma Ino and Yuji both looked up to Nanami, and at one incident where Ino would ask himself. “What would Nanami do in this situation” to make the right decision.

Nanami would fight his opponent wearing his civilized suit, holding a blunt sword usually hidden under his coat. However, when forced to work overtime (something that he disliked), Nanami would take off his coat, wrap his tie around his hand for a better grip and activate his innate ability.

Combined with his cursed technique, he could cut through anything with his blunt sword, even opponents blocking his attack with their cursed energy. Holding his blade, Nanami moved with complete grace and beauty, striking his opponent left to right without a drop of mercy.

For a mere human, Nanami held quite the strength and durability. From surviving Mahito’s idle transfiguration touch, which would have finished him off in seconds, to withstanding Shigemo’s kick and slashes with his sword. Shigemo compared hitting Nanami to hitting a stone wall and couldn’t have imagined that he was fighting a human being if it wasn’t for Nanami’s physical appearance.

Having close-ranged combat was another one of his specialties where he would not spare his opponent no matter the odds.

Finally, Nanami’s precision and technique differentiated him from his teammates as he used his mind instead of his sword all the time to make rapid decisions and foresee his opponent’s weak spots to deliver a deadly blow and finish the job in as less time as possible. Similarly, he used this ability to avoid being hit by his opponents.

With all these abilities and skills combined, Kento Nanami rightfully deserves the position as a grade one sorcerer.

Shibuya Incident Arc

Shibuya Incident Arc

The Shibuya Incident occurred on October 31st when mutated humans attacked the citizens of Shibuya. Knowing who was behind the whole scene, Nanami went straight for the source of all the cursed energy while Megumi and Takumi busied themselves with stopping the mutated people.

Finding Kiyotaka lying wounded on the ground, Nanami lost his temper and whooped the living daylights out of Haruta Shigemo, forcing him to spill whoever was behind the whole incident and where they resided. Not getting anything out of Haruta, Nanami tossed him away and moved to help Gojo Sensei, who had gotten sealed.

Nanami came across Maki Zenin and Naobito as they entered the Shibuya station, where the trio faced a cursed spirit named Dagon. The cursed spirit gave them a hard time and even managed to seal Nanami along with his friends in his domain expansion.

Here, Nanami was faced with a swarm of attacks to end his life but tactfully avoided them. They got rescued by Megumi, who used his domain expansion to nullify Dagons.

Knowing that they could not defeat Dagon alone, Toji arrived via a portal and finished Dagon off, but took Megumi away to another place. If things couldn’t get any worse, Jogo came, and Jogo is hell a lot stronger than Dagon. Nanami himself faced the lights of Jogo, who severely wounded him and nearly placed him on death’s door.

Nanami continued to live on the little bit of hope and life that he had left before facing a cluster of mutated humans. He reminisced about how he could have spent his life living in Malaysia, reading a book when exhausted. That is when Mahito arrived to finish Nanami for good.

Nanami got a flashback of Haibara, who pointed at Yuji running at immense speed to save him. Knowing that his time had come, Nanami accepted his fate and, with no regrets, got his upper body wiped out by Mahito.

Kento Nanami: Appearance, Personality, Abilities, And Much More.

Appearance

Nanami Kento Guide
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At the time of his passing, Kento Nanami was twenty-seven years old. He was a tall and well-built man, with a 7:3 hair parting style, his signature glasses, and necktie that we could never seem to get enough of. Working as a salaryman in the past, he would always show up in a suit, tie, and well-polished shoes.

He would hide his weapons under his coat, which consisted of a blunt sword wrapped in a cloth, having the same color as his necktie. He would have his suit on during fights, only taking his coat and tie off when working overtime. He would wrap his tie around his hand to activate his innate abilities.

Personality

Nanami Kento Guide
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Nanami was a reserved person, not a fan of big gatherings and talking. Nonetheless, he was very wise and great at making tough decisions in dire situations. He’s always calm composure was a strength he possessed that allowed him to shift the tide of many battles in his career.

From his high school days, all the way to his practical life, he would always have a calm and composed behavior towards any situation. However, he would avoid small talk and large gatherings with his peers.

His primary motive was to earn loads of money, which he did when he became a salaryman, but that did not fulfill his inner desire. He always felt like he was missing a piece of himself. Coming back to being a Jujutsu Sorcerer, his feelings for his peers did not change, though he did get attached to Yuji Itadori.

Abilities

Nanami Kento Guide
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As discussed before, Kento Nanami possessed the ability to use his blunt knife to deliver massive physical damage. The knife also worked as a vessel for his 7:3 technique. He had two binding vows which would hold back a considerable amount of his cursed energy.

One was his overtime vow which was a vow made to himself. He would limit the cursed energy he could use while working for Jujutsu High, but when the clock went overtime, his cursed energy swelled to a great degree, granting him extreme power.

Revealing one’s hand was another binding vow many Jujutsu sorcerers also use. They would divide their cursed energy into their techniques, maximizing the output of cursed energy in their next attack.

Fighting Style

With his sword, he would use collapse and Ratio techniques, just some of his special moves used to register precise and accurate hits on his enemy’s weak spots. Collapse would locate weak points in the surrounding environment and allow Nanami to destroy it with a single blow.

Quotes By Kento Nanami

Apart from being one of the best fighters in the academy, Nanami also had loads of wisdom that made him a great leader and teacher. Here are some of his best quotes.

  • The accumulation of those little despairs is what makes a person an adult
  • I don’t need your gratitude. I’ve already received it from others. I have no regrets.
  • Most people in this world are not good or evil. Death is the final stop for all of us, giving them all a proper death is a difficult task, I personally wouldn’t recommend it.
  • I always thought I was a person without no concept of a reason for living. But I suppose I was wrong, even someone like me can have a purpose in life.
  • Frankly, no one would mind if I was gone.
  • I won’t praise or insult you. I am here to identify the truth and uphold the law.

Fun Facts About Kento Nanami

Nanami Kento Guide
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Let’s go over some fun facts regarding the 7:3 sorcerer.

  • He loved bread and was a foodie.
  • He wished to get married but not while working as a Jujutsu Sorcerer.
  • Gege Akutami, the mangaka, kept forgetting to make Nanami’s watch during the Shibuya Incident Arc.
  • His hobby was drinking alcohol and cooking food.
  • His least favorite dish: Ribbon Pasta.
  • Causes of stress: Working overtime.
  • Nanami’s original design represented him as a villain, but Gege changed his mind.
  • He was the first person to hit the black flash four consecutive times.
  • Gege decided his end because his role had reached the zenith in the story.

FAQs

Question: Was There A Reason Why Nanami Wore Those Weird Glasses?

Answer: He wore those glasses to escape the gaze of cursed spirits. As explained in the series, curses are able to sense a human’s gaze upon them, resulting in an unwanted confrontation between the two. When Nanami left Jujutsu High, he intended not to engage with curses, hence he decided to wear those glasses.
As for the weird design of the glasses, that was probably a personal choice. Though I must admit, those round goggles did look stunning on the guy.

Question: Was Nanami Married?

Answer: No, Nanami was not married. He often thought of getting married after quitting his job as a sorcerer. Too bad we won’t get to see him raising a family.
But as always, the fans had to ship him with a few characters nevertheless. Fans often ship Nanami with Gojo, and his former partner, Yu Haibara.

Question: Did Nanami Hate His Job?

Answer: Nanami was never really satisfied with working as a salaryman. He constantly felt he could do better and make a difference with his gifts. When he came to being a sorcerer again, he was still not happy as he didn’t like the decisions the higher-ups took.
Nonetheless, he was adept at both his jobs. He had earned quite a reputation in his firm and the same as a high-grade Jujutsu sorcerer.

Question: Why Did Nanami Always Cover His Blade?

Answer: To deliver more force in his attacks. It hasn’t been made official, but a theory regarding the cloth is that the patterns on the fabric had something to do with his 7:3 ratio. Maybe the pattern was necessary to activate his technique.
Similarly, he used a dull blade instead of a sharp one so that the cloth wouldn’t get cut during a fight. Then again, it isn’t official, so it could be that Gege planned on doing a big reveal regarding the knife but later changed his mind.

Kento Nanami Guide: Final Thoughts

Nanami Kento Guide
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In my opinion, Kento Nanami hit the spot throughout the series, especially when it came to his moral values and feelings like a genuine human being. There were times when he would act like money was the solution to all his problems, and if he had money, no curse or human could hurt him. But that idea wasn’t entirely what Nanami felt as he was just lost at the time.

His inner desire to help others made a huge difference in the world, and he finally stood up against the higher-ups for their indifferent behavior toward Jujutsu Sorcerers. Nanami can easily be a role figure for anyone. His big brotherly attitude towards Yuji is a testament to his caring nature.

Nanami taught me one huge thing: never have regrets. Granted that he ran away from his responsibilities as a sorcerer in the past, he still returned to redeem himself. That is why on his death bed, he gracefully accepted defeat and knew that it was time to say goodbye.

There was nothing more he could offer to the world, and he had given his all to Yuji, who would far exceed him as a sorcerer. A broken heart and a bucket full of tears are just a morsel of what I felt after the death of a truly great sorcerer and especially a great human being.

This masterpiece of a story by Gege is a genuinely terrifying yet beautiful experience. The vast and ever-expanding world of Jujutsu Kaisen has captured the hearts of many, including mine. Not to mention the adaptation by Studio MAPPA does justice to the plot with its breathtaking animation. I’d tell you to try this series, but I know you already have.

That’s all for Nanami’s character guide. I’ve been Emad, and I’ll be seeing you in the next one.

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