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Jujutsu Kaisen is an amazing manga and anime, and fans enjoy it so much because of its characters, and its interesting and mysterious story. This is not to even mention the excellently animated fight scenes. The anime can be light-hearted and funny at times, but it can also be heartbreaking and sad. Yuji Itadori is the protagonist of this story and the favorite character of a lot of people. He is also the star of this Yuji Itadori guide.
What is important to note is that Jujutsu Kaisen is an amazing manga and anime series with lots of fans. In the series, the secondary characters are notably fantastic but they are not the focus of this guide. This Yuji Itadori guide will focus on the main hero of the series alone. Yuji is a fascinating protagonist and one of the most interesting characters in the series.
Yuji is a rather young shounen hero at just 15 years old. Even so, he deals with some seriously messed up issues in interesting, and sometimes rather scary, ways. He takes some wild moments early in the story with ease. For example, finding out about the existence of hidden curses in the world did not affect him at all. In fact, meeting one face-to-face did not even make him flinch.
Nowadays, there are plenty of shounen anime out there, and some of the heroes can come off as pretty bland and generic. It is extremely refreshing to see Yuji go against the grain and be a unique protagonist in the process.
While it isn’t that weird seeing a kind-hearted character that gets angry at certain times, Yuji has a super fun personality. Also, the fact that he puts himself in danger without thinking twice for the sake of others is something that tells a lot about who he is.
Bottom Line Up Front
The main character in Jujutsu Kaisen is Yuji Itadori. The young high schooler starts out life as a normal student but quickly is entangled in the world of curses. When a dangerous situation occurs, he consumes the finger of the most powerful curse to ever live.
In the process, the spirit of the curse Sukuna possesses his body. Fortunately, able to control himself, for the most part, he embarks on a journey as a curse user. The ultimate goal for Yuji is to eat all of the fingers of Sukuna and survive to tell the tale.
Who Is Yuji Itadori?
Yuji Itadori is the protagonist in Jujutsu Kaisen. He is a 15-year-old boy who starts out living a pretty normal life as a high schooler. Despite this, he has outstanding physical abilities, making him stronger and faster than most boys his age.
Yuji grew up in Sendai but soon moved to Tokyo to enroll in the Tokyo Jujutsu High School. There, he is a first-year student at the school where he goes on missions with his classmates. He learns about controlling his curse powers and the cursed spirit inside him.
Through this, he is able to liberate people and areas from curses that are attacking them. The other side to Yuji is Sukuna, the King of All Curses who possesses him. While he is mostly in control of his body, there are moments that are exceptions to this.
As such, his ultimate goal is to eat all of the fingers and stop Sukuna once and for all. Yuji is a kind protagonist who is powerful but values all life equally. He believes that everyone should have the chance to live and, if they die, that they deserve a proper burial to remember them.
He is the protege student of Satoru Gojo, one of the greatest Jujutsu sorcerers in the world. He is also best friends with Megumi Fushigoro, his fellow first-year student and one of the most powerful high school-aged sorcerers in training.
History
This history of Yuji Itadori’s life is everything that you need to know about the character up until this point in time. The series is not over just yet so there is more to learn and see about Yuji. As such, we will mainly focus on the main story arcs and moments throughout the series so far.
What readers should note is that this history section is going to be filled with plenty of spoilers about Yuji Itadori. This is especially important since the still relatively new series is ongoing and there are some who are still catching up.
If you do not want to know everything that happens with Yuji, be sure to turn away now or skip this next section. Also, keep in mind that the anime series has only one season so far and that it covered less than half of the manga source material. Anime fans, in particular, should tread lightly.
Early Life
At the beginning of the Jujutsu Kaisen storyline, Yuji lives in the city of Sendai in Japan. He is raised by his grandfather, a kind older man who made the biggest impression on the protagonist. Yuji learns everything that he knows from his grandfather, including his personality.
With a love and reverence for others and life, it does not take long for Yuji to become entangled in something sinister. One day, Yuji’s life changes forever when he comes across a cursed object, one of the fingers of one of the strongest curses that ever existed.
This curse happens to be known as Sukuna, the King of All Curses, and he ends up eating it in the process. Normally the curse would’ve taken over a normal person’s body but the exceptional Yuji was able to somehow contain the curse and keep it in control.
When finding out that curses exist in his world, and they are monstrosities that kill humans, he was surprisingly accepting of that and showed no fear or shock when seeing a curse. He instead chose to fight against them, even without knowing anything about them.
His first interaction with curses was when they appeared at his school because two of his classmates released the seal around Sukuna’s finger. The curses were drawn to its power, appeared in the school, and tried to kill them. Yuji was approached by a sorcerer who would become one of his closest friends in the future, Megumi Fushiguro. Fushiguro was tasked with finding and retrieving the finger so both of them headed to the school.
When the dangerous cursed spirit appeared, Fushiguro warned Yuji to run away and not get involved. However, because his friends were in trouble Yuji immediately jumped into harm’s way to protect them. He had no qualms whatsoever about these cursed spirits, despite knowing little about them at the time.
After being able to defeat the weaker curses, Yuji and Megumi are attacked by a stronger spirit. While Yuji does fight against it, because of his lack of cursed energy, he isn’t able to kill it. Finding himself cornered and without options, he decided to eat Sukuna’s finger so that he could use cursed energy.
After eating one of Sukuna’s fingers, Yuji turned into a vessel and was told that because of that, he would have to die, so that that piece of the curse within him would also die. However, he proves that he can withstand eating the fingers and still control his own body. Since these fingers cannot be destroyed by normal cursed techniques, he is offered the choice to either die now or wait until he eats all twenty fingers. At that point, every trace of the cursed spirit known as Sukuna would be gone and Yuji since the fingers would be permanently destroyed.
Yuji chooses to become a sorcerer and is accepted to be executed after consuming all fingers. His choice was heavily inspired by his grandfather’s last words, who told him to help as many people as he can so that he won’t die alone.
Yuji accepts his fate, even with death right in front of him. To be able to find and eat all of Sukuna’s fingers, he was taken to Tokyo Jujutsu High School to learn more about curses, In the process of this, he learned how to defeat them and use cursed techniques. He joins a class with two other students that are around his age, including familiar face Megumi Fushiguro, and another brand new student introduced later in the story.
Kugisaki Nobara is the third classmate rounding out Yuji’s class and the three of them study under none other than the strongest sorcerer there is, Satoru Gojo. Nobara and Fushiguro are already familiar with curses and cursed energy, so Gojo focuses mainly on teaching Yuji how to control his cursed energy and tells him everything he needs to know about curses.
Sukuna’s Vessel
After joining the Tokyo Jujutsu high, and becoming a novice sorcerer, he participated in a couple of missions. His first mission is alongside his classmate, Nobara, and together their objective is to clear a cursed place. Both of them work together, and Yuji uses a cursed weapon to fight against curses since he still doesn’t know how to use his cursed energy.
This mission was easy for them and was cleared without anyone getting injured. In his second mission, however, Yuji, Nobara, and Fushiguro worked together to locate another one of Sukuna’s fingers, and to kill any curses that are around it. However, they come across a powerful curse that has ingested one of Sukuna’s fingers, making it even more powerful.
They don’t stand a chance against it, so Yuji tells Fushiguro to run away and get help, while he distracts the curse. Yuji, however, almost dies while attempting to fight the curse. To stop the evil spirit from winning, he then proceeds to let Sukuna take over control of his body so that he can destroy the curse. He offers to work together with the curse, but after it tries to attack and kill him, he gets rid of the curse in an instant.
At this point in the mission, Yuji is no longer able to control his body. The reason behind this is simple: his near-death experience weakened him to the point of being unable to hold back all-powerful Sukuna like usual.
Sukuna notices that and uses this as his golden opportunity to finally take over Yuji for good. He ends up finding Fushiguro who he wishes to fight. Because he is in a good mood, though, he decides to talk with Fushiguro, instead of immediately engaging in battle.
In a move to take over Yuji’s body forever, Sukuna proceeds to remove his heart since he can live without it. The catch, though, is that Yuji can’t live without his own heart, allowing Sukuna to keep the protagonist as his hostage in a way.
Fushiguro then proceeds to fight against Sukuna, and during their battle, Sukuna notices that Fushiguro is someone truly special with great potential. Before Fushiguro unleashes his technique to win the fight, Yuji finally manages to take control of his body. Unfortunately, this leads to his inevitable death and a “last talk” with Fushiguro.
Later on, Yuji is brought back to life by Sukuna after they make a binding vow. This agreement would allow Sukuna to take over Yuji’s body for only one minute but with a couple of catches. For one, Sukuna would be unable to kill during that time and Yuji would forget that view ever happened. Yuji tries to dupe the curse and fight so that Sukuna only brings him to life without forgetting but is quickly defeated.
Sukuna proceeds to revive Yuji, and after that, he goes into hiding. There, he is trained by Gojo, who teaches him about cursed energy. After learning the basics about cursed energy and how to control it, he is tasked to go on missions with another extremely strong sorcerer, Nanami Kento, who taught Yuji more about what being a sorcerer means.
During one of their missions, Yuji comes across a fellow high school student named Junpei Yoshino. They quickly become friends, but sadly Junpei was only being used by a curse known as Mahito. And thanks to him, Junpei learns how to use cursed techniques and uses them to kill the kids that bullied him in school.
Yuji tries to stop Junpei from turning down a dark path of revenge, hatred, and despair. Just as it seems that he is finally getting through to Junpei, Mahito appears and turns Junpei into a cursed creature. This forces Yuji to kill his friend, and he finds himself in a rage with nothing but the desire to defeat Mahito.
However, Mahito manages to escape, and Yuji is left heartbroken and lost, as he also learned that the curses he fought before were likely humans in their past lives. Nanami tells Yuji that being a sorcerer isn’t easy and that he recognizes him as a real sorcerer.
Kyoto Jujutsu High School Exchange
While training in secret, only Gojo and a select group of people know of Yuji’s survival. Not even Fushiguro and Nobara know that he survived their prior mission together. That is, until the start of the Kyoto Jujutsu High School exchange event.
A supposedly friendly competition between the two rival Jujutsu sorcerer schools, they were meant to battle against one another. Yuji makes his triumphant return during this arc and reveals to everyone that he is still alive and kicking.
During this high school exchange arc, another important person that helped Yuji on his journey is Aoi Todo. Todo is a third-year student at Kyoto Jujutsu High and a grade-one jujutsu sorcerer with immense strength. He was first tasked to kill Yuji in the event to stop Sukuna from taking control again but soon changed his tune.
This happens after fighting one another and realizing that they are two peas in a pod with many elements in common. For some odd reason, Aoi Todo also believes that Yuji is his best friend/bro from middle school. Because of this, Todo begins to teach him how to properly control his cursed energy and use it more efficiently.
During their fight, Yuji manages to properly use his cursed energy and learns the powerful and elusive fighting move known as Black Flash. Later on in the Kyoto Exchange arc, he and Todo work together to fight against another special-grade curse.
In the midst of this battle, Yuji manages to use Black Flash against an enemy for the first time. As a young sorcerer master, he does not stop with just one already difficult use of the move but does it four times in a row. Unfortunately, their fight was cut short once Yuji’s teacher, Gojo, managed to enter the battlefield, forcing the curse to retreat.
Yuji Itadori: Personality, Quotes, Appearance, and More
Appearance
Human Form
Yuji is a 15-year-old boy who is 173 centimeters (5’8”). He has mostly pink hair with black undertones. After consuming Sukuna’s finger, he now has two markings under his eyes. After ingesting Sukuna’s finger, the powerful curse also occasionally manifests as extra mouths on Yuji’s body that Sukuna talks through. These bizarre and terrifying mouths can appear under his eyes or even on his hand.
After joining Tokyo Jujutsu High, Yuji now always wears his blue and red uniform, but his uniform is different from the others since it has a red scarf attached.
Sukuna Form
Whenever Sukuna takes over Yuji’s body, we can see some differences. This is his second form, essentially, with the cursed spirit king changing his appearance a bit.
His hair is styled differently, and his body is covered in some strange sort of markings. Oddly enough, it also seems that Sukuna isn’t a big fan of the clothes Yuji wears since every time he takes over his body, Sukuna always rips some of his clothes off.
Personality
When it comes to personality, Yuji is a kind guy and a passionate person. Unlike some other heroes in this shounen genre of manga, he is not nearly as obsessed with fighting. He simply cares about people and wishes to accomplish his goal of finding Sukuna’s fingers to make the world a better place.
To this end, he loves everyone equally and values life. This causes some distress and tragedy for him throughout the series but he sticks to his beliefs nonetheless. Sukuna is technically not part of his personality since they are two completely different beings inhabiting the same body.
Quotes
Yuji is a pretty hilarious protagonist. While most of the series shows off his sweet, kind, and funny side, there are also times when he is filled with rage and regret. During these moments, he says a lot of amazing quotes, and here is a small list of some of them:
I’m into girls like Jennifer Lawrence. Nice to meet you!
I don’t know how I’ll feel when I’m dead, but I don’t want to regret the way I lived.
Grandpa died with his head held high. This death is not acceptable.
You are dependable Fushiguro.
I will kill you!!!
Abilities: Fighting Style and Cursed Techniques
Yuji is still new to the world of curses and sorcery but thanks to his abnormal physical strength, he has no trouble fighting against weaker curses. He is already inhumanly strong, and by using cursed techniques, he can draw out even more power.
His fighting style is focused mainly on hand-to-hand combat, but he is skilled enough to use cursed weapons, if necessary. Yuji uses two cursed techniques, the first being his divergent fist. With this ability, he can use his cursed energy to cause a little bit of lag for enemies after a direct hit on them, so he can strike twice by using this ability. The other technique he uses is the one that is best friend and signature move later in the series, Black Flash.
Aoi Todo helped him learn to use Black flash, an attack so powerful that it distorts space and deals incredible damage to its target. Yuji cannot use this technique frequently, since it requires a lot of focus. That said, using it becomes easier for Yuji after landing it the first time. For example, Yuji was able to use Black Flash four consecutive times when fighting together with Todo against the spirit Hanami.
In this fight, Yuji mainly focuses on physical combat, so until now these are the only skills that he uses. Gojo once said that Yuji is one of the most powerful and talented students in Jujutsu High, and that he might one day surpass even him. What makes Yuji such a strong person, is the fact that he is a master in combat, not only in hand-to-hand, but also other styles. He is a quick learner, allowing him to flexibly learn other abilities and weapons with ease.
Also, thanks to being the vessel for Sukuna, he is now resistant to every type of poison. His teacher, Gojo, also said that in the future, Yuji will be able to learn how to use even more cursed techniques.
Fun Facts About Yuji Itadori
Yuji is a super fun character, and here are some fun facts about him that you might not have known about:
Yuji loves going to Karaokes, watching TV, and doing impersonations.
He likes every type of food but he loves eating a bowl of rice with some toppings and noodles.
A lot of people think that because of Sukuna, he would have some trouble sleeping but, in fact, he doesn’t have any trouble with that.
Believe it or not, his hair color is natural.
Yuji was never taught any martial arts; his grandpa only taught him a bit of karate.
His ideal girl is tall and has a big butt.
FAQs
Question: Where are Yuji’s Parents?
Answer: Sadly, even now what happened to his parents is still a mystery. Only recently did we finally get to see his mother and father recently in the manga. We still don’t know the name of his mother but his father’s name is Jin Itadori. If you don’t want any spoilers at all for some of the most recent manga chapters, here is your last warning.
In a recent manga chapter, we finally got to see his mother and there is something unique about her. She has stitches in her head that are very similar to the ones we see in the antagonist, Geto Suguru. We already know that Geto is being controlled by a brain that is the reason for the stitches in his head. It was later confirmed that Yuji’s mother is being controlled by the same mysterious brain that is currently in Geto’s body.
As for more information about his father, Jin Itadori, we will have to wait and see for now. We still have yet to learn why Yuji was raised by his grandpa, especially when it seems possible that his parents may yet be alive.
Question: Why Is Yuji Super Strong?
Answer: While it hasn’t been confirmed, the most logical explanation is that his mother is being controlled by Kenjaku, a sorcerer that can control human bodies. So it might be because of his mother, causing a natural affinity for cursed power in Yuji. In addition, there is some speculation that experiments were made on Yuji while he was still a baby or in the womb. It is yet to be officially explained the reason for his superhuman agility and strength but the author confirmed that Yuji is similar to the cursed wombs.
Question: Are Yuji’s Parents Dead?
Answer: It still isn’t official that his parents are dead. Until the status of them is officially confirmed, it is unknown at this time. That said, it is my belief that both of them are dead, or at least one of them is, based on what we know at this time. Given that this is a manga, it would not be surprising if one of them returns later in the series as a cursed spirit or the like.
Question: Who is the love interest of Yuji Itadori?
Answer: Bear in mind that the answer to this question is considered slight spoilers for the anime fans out there. While not a huge spoiler for the series as a whole, Yuji does have a canon love interest of sorts. Or, at least, he did. That person is Yuko Ozawa, a former classmate of Yuji.
They attended the same middle school and Yuji had a crush on her, eventually leading to Ozawa developing the same feelings. Though the two never share these feelings with one another in the manga, this romantic connection does exist. It is even to the point where Yuko Ozawa shares her feelings with both Fushiguro and Nobara in her short appearance so far.
The brief inclusion of Ozawa in the manga is noteworthy since artists typically do not introduce a character for nothing. It is likely that she will play a role later in the story and, perhaps, one that will end in either true love or tragedy for the young hero Yuji. For now, though, we will have to wait and see.
The reason that this is a spoiler for anime fans is that the first season of the show avoided showing her off. This is quite strange given that the first season concluded in the middle of the manga’s 64th chapter, which is exactly where Yuko Ozawa is first introduced. This does not mean that she will not show up in the anime at all but, if she will, it is likely going to happen in the second season. Whether or not she ends up a true love interest for Yuji, though, remains to be seen as there is no other possible candidate at this time.
Yuji Itadori Guide: Final Thoughts
Yuji Itadori is an amazing character and it is no surprise that he is one of the most popular characters in the series among fans. His kind and goofy personality make him a likable character. It makes it easy for the fans to feel attached to him. In this way, seeing him going through hard times can affect the reader or viewer in the same way.
At the same time, Yuji is a mysterious character, and it is weird to have a protagonist whom we almost know nothing about. Hopefully, in the future, we will get to know more about his past and what made him become the person he is today. We do know that his grandpa had a huge influence on him but we still have little to almost no information about his parents.
If you’re a fan of manga and/or anime, and you still haven’t checked out Jujutsu Kaisen, then what are you waiting for? It is an amazing series that we highly recommend. It currently has a single season with 24 episodes and one movie that acts as a prequel. It has also been confirmed that a new season is going to be released in 2023 that will continue to adapt the renowned manga series.
If you want to be in the know about the series as a whole, be sure to take a look at our general Jujutsu Kaisen history and overview guide.