Jujutsu Kaisen
Jujutsu Kaisen is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Gege Akutami. It was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from March 2018 to September 2024, with its chapters collected in 30 volumes. The story follows high school student Yuji Itadori as he joins a secret organization of Jujutsu Sorcerers to eliminate a powerful Curse named Ryomen Sukuna, of whom Yuji becomes the host. Jujutsu Kaisen is a sequel to Akutami's Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School, serialized in Shueisha's Jump Giga from April to July 2017, later collected in a single volume, retroactively titled as Jujutsu Kaisen 0, in December 2018.
Jujutsu Kaisen is licensed for English-language release in North America by Viz Media, which has published the manga in print since December 2019. Shueisha has published the series digitally in English on its Manga Plus platform. Two novels, written by, were published in May 2019 and January 2020, respectively. An anime television series adaptation, produced by MAPPA, aired its first season on MBS from October 2020 to March 2021; a second season aired from July to December 2023. A third season covering the "Culling Game" arc is set to premiere in January 2026.
By December 2025, the Jujutsu Kaisen manga had over 150 million copies in circulation, including related novels, digital versions, and Jujutsu Kaisen 0, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time.
In September 2025, Akutami and manga artist Yūji Iwasaki started the short-term manga series Jujutsu Kaisen Modulo. The story takes place 68 years after the main series' Culling Game.
Synopsis
Setting
In Jujutsu Kaisen, all living beings emanate a power source known as Cursed Energy, which arises from negative emotions that naturally flow throughout the body. Most people cannot control this energy, and as a result, continually release it. The accumulation of uncontrolled Cursed Energy gives rise to Curses, malevolent spiritual entities driven to harm humanity. These Curses often manifest as grotesque monsters, drawing on traditional Japanese folklore, such as , , and.Jujutsu Sorcerers are individuals capable of controlling the flow of Cursed Energy within themselves, allowing them to use it, thus granting them inhuman abilities and minimizing its passive release. High-ranking Sorcerers and powerful Curses can refine this energy to perform Cursed Techniques, specialized abilities that are often unique to the individual or inherited through familial bloodlines. An advanced form of these abilities is known as a Domain Expansion, in which the user conjures a pocket dimension that traps their target inside. Within the Domain, the user's techniques are significantly enhanced and guaranteed to hit.
Sorcerers are governed by the Jujutsu Society, a secretive and hierarchical organization tasked with protecting non-sorcerers from Curses and managing the battles against them within Japan. Its central governing body, the Jujutsu Headquarters, is led by the Jujutsu Commander, appointed by the Prime Minister upon nomination by the three major sorcerer families: the Gojo, Zen'in, and Kamo clans. It operates educational institutions such as the Tokyo and Kyoto Jujutsu High Schools, which train new generations of sorcerers. These schools are directly controlled by the Jujutsu Headquarters, and their principals are appointed based on recommendations from the major clans. Despite its noble mission, the Jujutsu Society faces criticism for its strict adherence to tradition and the disproportionate influence of elite sorcerer clans, leading to several internal conflicts and controversial decisions.
Plot
is a high school student with unnatural physical strength and athletic ability. One day at school, his friends attract Curses by unsealing a rotten finger talisman. Yuji swallows the finger to protect Jujutsu Sorcerer student Megumi Fushiguro, tasked with retrieving the finger, unwittingly becoming host to the powerful ancient sorcerer Ryomen Sukuna. The leaders of the Jujutsu Society intend to exorcise Sukuna, and Yuji by extension. However, noticing Yuji's capability to retain control over his body, Satoru Gojo—Megumi's teacher and the strongest sorcerer in the modern Jujutsu world—brings him to the Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School for training. Gojo has Yuji's execution postponed until he consumes all twenty of Sukuna's fingers, thereby enabling Sukuna's complete destruction through his death.Meanwhile, a group of intelligent Cursed Spirits plot an elaborate attack to reform Jujutsu according to their ideals, beginning with sealing away Gojo, whose power and influence maintain order within the Jujutsu world. The group is led by Suguru Geto, a mysterious sorcerer and Curse User believed to have been killed by Gojo a year earlier, whose entourage includes the sadistic Curse Mahito, fire Curse Jogo, and nature Curse Hanami. Gojo's class of first-years—Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara Kugisaki—train by taking on missions to exorcise low-level Curses; during these, Sukuna becomes interested in Megumi's Cursed Technique and potential. Yuji is devastated after Mahito kills his friend Junpei Yoshino, confronting him with the harsh reality of the Jujutsu world he has entered. During an inter-school competition between the Tokyo and Kyoto branches, Mahito infiltrates Tokyo Jujutsu High and steals three "Death Paintings"—dormant half-human half-Curses—before summoning them to their full form. Yuji and Nobara exorcise two of them during a mission, leaving Choso as the sole surviving Death Painting.
On Halloween night in Shibuya, Geto's group launches their plan. Gojo destroys Hanami but is ultimately sealed by Geto, revealed to be the ancient sorcerer, Kenjaku, inhabiting Geto's corpse. With Gojo removed, chaos erupts. Choso defeats Yuji but spares him after a vision reveals they are brothers. Jogo force-feeds Yuji ten Sukuna fingers, allowing Sukuna to briefly take control. Sukuna kills Jogo and battles Megumi's uncontrollable Mahoraga, nearly destroying all of Shibuya in the process. Yuji witnesses Mahito killing his mentor and Gojo's colleague, Kento Nanami, and severely wounding Nobara, breaking him emotionally. With help from Kyoto student Aoi Todo, Yuji defeats Mahito, but Kenjaku absorbs the Curse and awakens countless sorcerers, advancing his millennia-old plan for a new era of Cursed Spirits.
In the aftermath, the Jujutsu higher-ups reinstate Yuji's immediate execution and appoint second-year student Yuta Okkotsu as his executioner. Loyal to Gojo, Yuta helps Yuji fake his death and joins him in seeking Master Tengen—an immortal, part-Curse part-human sorcerer. Tengen reveals Kenjaku's plan to merge the former's consciousness with the entire Japanese population through the "Culling Games"—a battle royale among the awakened sorcerers designed to accumulate vast amounts of Cursed Energy. Yuji and his allies search for a mysterious woman known as "Angel", who can unseal Gojo and help rescue Megumi's stepsister, Tsumiki, from being forced into the Culling Games. Kenjaku captures Tengen, and after finding Angel, Yuji and Megumi discover that Tsumiki's body has been overtaken by the ancient sorcerer Yorozu. Sukuna takes over, removes one of his own fingers, and forces Megumi to swallow it, transferring himself into Megumi's body. Sukuna kills Yorozu, resulting in Tsumiki's death, and crushes Megumi's will to resist his possession.
The group successfully unseals Gojo. Days later, Gojo battles Sukuna. Gojo nearly wins but drops his guard, causing a weakened Sukuna to fatally bisect him. Kenjaku is confronted by Fumihiko Takaba, a sorcerer who proves to be an effective distraction for Yuta to catch him off-guard and behead him. Before dying, Kenjaku makes Sukuna the Culling Games' master. The remaining Jujutsu Sorcerers attempt to fight Sukuna in Gojo's place but are overpowered as Sukuna regains his true form. In a flashback, it is revealed that Sukuna ate his twin brother in the womb a thousand years ago. The twin's soul reincarnated into Yuji's lineage, and Kenjaku's possession of Yuji's mother during conception combined to forge his unique physique and his capacity to host Sukuna.
With help from his allies, Yuji manages to overpower Sukuna, although Choso sacrifices himself in the process. Sukuna is stunned when Gojo reappears, only to be revealed as Yuta using Kenjaku's copied Cursed Technique to switch bodies. Yuji activates his Domain Expansion, dragging Sukuna through a vision of his hometown in a futile attempt to sway him. During this, he reaches Megumi's soul and inspires him to resist Sukuna's control. Sukuna realizes Yuji is missing one finger—used by Yuta to activate the Cursed Technique. Nobara then locates Sukuna's last finger, hidden by Gojo, and uses her Cursed Technique to strike it, simultaneously damaging Sukuna's soul and allowing Yuji to deliver a final blow. Megumi successfully frees himself from Sukuna, who disintegrates away after refusing a final chance from Yuji.
After the battle, Yuta returns to his original body. Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara undertake another mission, and Yuji reflects on Gojo's hopes and trust in him. Although Sukuna's last finger is shown, his defeat makes his return unlikely.
Production
Development
Manga author Gege Akutami first published Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School, a four-chapter series that ran in Jump Giga from April 28 to July 28, 2017. The series would later serve as a prologue to Jujutsu Kaisen and was retitled as Jujutsu Kaisen 0. According to Hiroyuki Nakano, the chief editor of Weekly Shōnen Jump, Jujutsu Kaisen received unanimous approval from the serialization committee. It debuted in Weekly Shōnen Jump on March 5, 2018.Akutami stated that Neon Genesis Evangelion influenced the mythological aspects of the series, and was also influenced by horror and found footage films. Akutami is particularly a fan of Yoshihiro Togashi, author of YuYu Hakusho and Hunter × Hunter, expressing intentions to have an art style as close as possible to his. The author is also a fan of Tite Kubo, author of Bleach, and discussed in an interview with him the similarities between their works. Other manga artists who influenced Akutami include Masashi Kishimoto and Yusuke Murata.
The magic system of Jujutsu Kaisen is largely inspired by Hunter × Hunter, whose fights, in Akutami's words, "rejects emotional arguments", stating however, that like, World Triggers author, whose magic system is also similar to Togashi's series, Akutami was trying to find and develop an own style. Akutami described the first chapter as a blend of Bleach and Naruto, and expressed regret over certain elements, such as the minimal role given to Yuji's grandfather.