Jujutsu Kaisen character guide
Yuji Itadori is the protagonist of Jujutsu Kaisen: a high-school athlete with exceptional physical ability who swallows a cursed finger to save a classmate and ends up sharing his body with the King of Curses. The story follows what he decides to do with a life that was supposed to be forfeit.
Confirmed: stated in the manga, anime or official guidebooks. Estimate: approximate or derived. Unknown: not revealed.
Yuji lives with his grandfather in Sendai and belongs to the Occult Research Club for convenience, even though he is the school’s best at sports. His grandfather’s dying advice, to help others and to die surrounded by people, is the line he repeats whenever he needs a reason to act. (Ep. 1 · ch. 1)
When Megumi Fushiguro arrives at Yuji’s school looking for a cursed object, Yuji’s club has already broken its seal, and a curse targets Megumi. To give himself enough cursed energy to rescue Megumi, Yuji eats the object, one of Sukuna’s twenty fingers. That incarnates Sukuna in his body. Yuji takes control back within seconds, which is why the jujutsu world does not simply kill him on the spot. (Ep. 1 · ch. 1)
Gojo stops Yuji’s execution and puts him in the first-year class with Megumi and Nobara Kugisaki. Yuji is told he cannot use a cursed technique, so his first lessons go to cursed-energy control and hand-to-hand fighting, and he learns his limits quickly: he is physically strong enough to be useful, but he is also the one fighting with Sukuna just under his skin. (Ch. 12)
In chapter 9 Sukuna tears out Yuji’s heart to stop Yuji from taking his body back. Yuji dies, but in Sukuna’s domain the two make a deal and Yuji wakes up in the morgue in chapter 11 with no memory of its terms. The records list him as dead for a time, so that Gojo can train him in secret. (Ep. 6 · ch. 11)
Yuji enters Shibuya as part of the rescue effort for Gojo. When he is pushed to the edge, Sukuna takes control of his body, and the toll on the people of Shibuya becomes the weight Yuji carries into every later arc.
After Shibuya the Culling Game turns the rest of the story into a search for ways to stop Sukuna. Late in the Culling Game Sukuna moves into Megumi’s body, which changes Yuji’s goal from containing Sukuna to getting his friend back. (Ch. 216)
Yuji, with the sorcerers who remain, fights Sukuna in Shinjuku. In chapter 267 a Black Flash breaks the fight open, and in chapter 268 Sukuna dies. Yuji survives, as does Megumi, and the manga ends with Yuji back in an ordinary mission with Megumi and Nobara. (Ch. 268)
Yuji is cheerful and unguarded. He trusts quickly, eats everything, and is not afraid to look foolish in front of the people he is trying to help. What stands out is that he keeps the same warmth in fights, and that he does not treat Sukuna as a monster to be hated but as someone he is stuck with.
The series puts Yuji under steady pressure: he lives with a being that wants to kill the people he loves. The story shows his guilt over deaths he could not prevent, and the times he asks Sukuna for help and is refused cost him more than a defeat does. (Ep. 12 · ch. 27)
Yuji begins acting out of his grandfather’s words, not because he has a goal of his own. The long arc of the series moves him to a conviction he can state himself: in the final stretch he explains to Sukuna how his thinking about what his life is for has changed. The author uses Sukuna, an opponent who cannot be moved by that speech, to show that Yuji’s change matters to him rather than to his enemy. (Ch. 265)
Open an entry for its strengths, limits and where it appears. Entries describe what the story shows; they are not a power ranking.
Yuji can throw a lead ball far enough to bend a soccer goalpost and cover 50 metres in about three seconds before any jujutsu training.
Ep. 1 · ch. 1
Yuji can survive Sukuna’s presence and the swallowing of Sukuna’s fingers, and he can take his body back after Sukuna takes control.
Ep. 1 · ch. 1
A strike in which cursed energy lands within a hair of the impact and flashes black. Yuji’s ability to land it repeatedly becomes one of his signature skills.
Ep. 19 · ch. 48 · part of Black Flash
After absorbing Death Painting wombs, Yuji is engraved with blood manipulation, the technique used by Choso, whom he calls his brother.
Ch. 256
After landing a Black Flash on Sukuna, Yuji draws out Sukuna’s own cursed technique, engraved in his body. He uses a variant of Dismantle on the boundary between Sukuna’s soul and Megumi’s.
Ch. 263
Every named connection is listed here. Open a card to see how the relationship changes over the story.
Open Yuji Itadori in the Jujutsu Kaisen family tree.
Gojo stops Yuji’s execution at the start of the story and becomes his teacher.
Sukuna lives inside Yuji, and the two speak inside Yuji’s innate domain.
Megumi saves Yuji in chapter 1 and then spends the story pushing back against him, and fighting beside him.
Yuji, Megumi and Nobara form the first-year team.
Choso, a Death Painting, considers Yuji his younger brother. Yuji later introduces Choso as his older brother.
Wasuke raised Yuji. His dying wish — that Yuji die surrounded by people — shapes Yuji’s choices.
Result: Yuji takes his body back, then dies; the two meet in Sukuna’s domain. (Ep. 5 · ch. 9)
Sukuna takes over Yuji’s body to fight Megumi, who loses several shikigami before Yuji retakes control. Sukuna tears out Yuji’s heart to stop him. See it on the timeline.
Result: Sukuna intervenes against Mahito; Mahito survives. (Ep. 13 · ch. 30)
Yuji finds the curse who killed Junpei Yoshino, and the fight ends with Sukuna wounding Mahito after Mahito touches his soul.
Result: Sukuna is defeated and dies in chapter 268. (Ch. 267)
In Shinjuku a team of sorcerers fights Sukuna for Megumi’s body. Yuji’s Black Flash in chapter 267 ends the fight. See it on the timeline.
To save Megumi from a curse, Yuji eats a finger of the King of Curses and wakes Sukuna inside himself.
Gojo explains that Yuji is to be executed after the last finger, then argues for a delay.
Sukuna takes control of Yuji’s body, tears out his heart to stop him from taking it back, and Yuji dies in chapter 9. In Sukuna’s domain Sukuna offers a deal, and Yuji wakes up in the morgue in chapter 11 with no memory of the terms.
Gojo takes Yuji to face the special-grade curse Jogo and uses Unlimited Void.
Kenjaku turns ten colonies into a death-match arena, and Megumi enters the game to save Tsumiki.
After Yuji eats the last finger, Kenjaku takes Sukuna to Megumi’s body.
Choso shields Yuji from Sukuna’s Divine Flame.
The figure that looks like Gojo turns out to be Yuta, whose brain was moved into Gojo’s body with Kenjaku’s technique.
Yuji’s Black Flash in chapter 267 ends the fight, and Sukuna dies in chapter 268 after refusing Yuji’s offer to let him live inside him.
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Status can differ between the anime and the manga, and it can change: characters are sealed, revived or used by others. Each event below has its own spoiler protection and verified references.
Yuji survives the story. He does die once, in chapter 9, and is revived in chapter 11 with the records listing him as dead for a time.
How far the anime goes. Anime: Yuji’s story reaches the middle of the Culling Game (episode 59, manga chapter 181). Manga: The manga continues through the Shinjuku fight to the finale in chapter 271.
| Medium | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Manga | Jujutsu Kaisen | Protagonist, from chapter 1. |
| Anime | Jujutsu Kaisen seasons 1–3 | Episodes 1–59 |
He dies once, in chapter 9, and is brought back in chapter 11. He survives the story.
He has none of his own at the start. Gojo tells him so early in the story. Later chapters show him using techniques engraved into him; those are spoilers for the late manga.
It is a strike in which cursed energy lands almost exactly with the impact and flashes black. Yuji lands it several times, and the final fight turns on it.
Last verified October 29, 2026. Covers Manga chapters 1–271 (complete) and anime episodes 1–59. Details are written by AnimeSparks from the manga and anime themselves, and cross-checked against the references below. Where something isn’t confirmed, the page says so.