Character Analysis: Yuji Itadori
The compassionate vessel of evil
An era has officially ended with Jujutsu Kaisen releasing its final chapter earlier this week (This is giving me deja vu. Check out my article on My Hero Academia’s ending two months ago). Reading this manga week-to-week for the past year and a half, the final arc had its ups and downs. I was massively disappointed in the ending itself, but I really enjoyed the conclusion to the protagonist’s character.
Yuji Itadori is easily my favorite new-gen manga protagonist. He takes aspects from classic shonen protagonists, while still feeling fresh and unique. I especially love his dynamic with the antagonists of the series, and his unique growth as a character through his interactions with those around him.
Note: This article contains spoilers for the Jujutsu Kaisen manga by Gege Akutami.
Introduction
In the first chapter itself, we see Yuji’s motivation. His grandfather, dying alone, asks him to try to help people and ensure that when he dies, he is surrounded by friends. Yuji interprets this as a motivation to help people die a ‘proper death’ — a peaceful death at an old age, not a violent one at the hands of Curses. This motivates him to save Megumi and swallow Sukuna’s finger. He even accepts that he will be executed once he has consumed all of Sukuna’s fingers, and agrees to it in order to prevent the destruction he could cause.
I’ve always been good at sports and fighting. But I never once thought that I was the only one who could do something. Consuming Sukuna - I know that’s something only I can do. Even if I could run away from my execution, or from the mission, no matter what I do it’ll still be there! I can’t rest knowing people might die because of Sukuna. Even if none of this involves me, there’s no way I can convince myself that it’s not my fault. I don’t know what I’ll be thinking when I die, but I’m not going to regret how I lived!
As he becomes a sorcerer, Yuji does morally gray things in order to save lives. He kills humans transformed into monsters by the Disaster Curse Mahito. He watches his friend Junpei die. He even kills two human sorcerers working for the Disaster Curses, unaware that they are his brothers. Still, through it all, he remains convinced that he is doing the right thing.
Shibuya
Yuji’s greatest challenge yet is the Shibuya Incident, where he goes through two mental breakdowns in the span of ten minutes. He is defeated and nearly killed by Choso, fails to save his teacher, and sees Mahito murder two of his closest friends while being unable to help them. On top of that, Sukuna takes over his body and massacres hundreds of innocent civilians, an act that he holds himself responsible for.
This trial by fire hardens him. By the end of the arc he sees himself, not as a hero, but a soldier in a war. He accepts that his only purpose is to kill curses, and vows to do so until he dies. I talked about his fight with Mahito in greater detail in this article. However, I’m going to put the quote here again.
You were right, Mahito. I am you. I wanted to reject you. Convince myself that you were wrong. But that doesn’t matter now. I’m going to kill you. If you come back to life, I’ll kill you again. Change your name. Change your form. I’ll kill you again. I don’t need to find a meaning or a reason. Maybe a hundred years after my death, the meaning behind my actions will become apparent. In the grand scheme of things, I’m probably noting more than a cog. But I’ll keep killing Curses for as long as I can. That’s my role in this war.
Post-Shibuya
After Shibuya, Yuji turns darker and more jaded. He blames himself for Sukuna’s crimes, not even attempting to defend himself during his fight with Higuruma. Things begin to look up for him. They finally manage to heal Megumi’s sister, and Angel promises to unseal Gojo and destroy Yuji and Sukuma. But all their plans are overturned when Sukuna leaves his body and possesses Megumi - someone he can control a lot more easily.
Yuji: You! All of you! Why can’t you just live normally?! Why can’t you just live without causing suffering?!
Sukuna: To me, the real question is, why are you all so weak? Why do such weaklings cling so fiercely to life? How can a creature that falls apart at a touch say that it always wants to be happy? Your suffering is natural. You people are meant to be chewed up.
Yuji: Then let’s see if you can chew up me and my suffering.
I really love the dynamic between these two.
Shinjuku
Yuji starts this arc fixated on revenge. He wants to kill Sukuna and save Megumi no matter what it costs him. This mindset - and his entire belief system - changes over the course of the final battle. He sees the people he loves - his teacher, friends and brother - die bloody, violent deaths. And yet, they go out satisfied. Choso was finally able to bond with and protect his little brother. Gojo was able to go all-out after a life of loneliness and isolation. These were not what Yuji would have considered ‘proper deaths’. And yet, they were able to die without regrets.
Yuji realizes that the circumstances of one’s death are not what makes one happy — it is what one goes through during their life that determines who they are. He acknowledges how lucky he was to have mentors who could care for him and show him the right path. He realizes that Sukuna had no such mentors - he was an unwanted child, a product of the most brutal period in jujutsu history. He takes pity on his greatest enemy, offering him mercy.
Sukuna… you are me. Unknowingly burdened with a curse from birth, what kind of monster we become depends on luck. I had my grandpa. Sukuna… let’s try again. Not to curse someone but to coexist. Even if no one else accepts you, I’m the only one who can.
Conclusion
Yuji Itadori is not the most powerful character in JJK. Nor does he have as much plot armor as another protagonist might. He constantly loses battles and fails to protect the people he loves. What makes him so compelling to me is that despite everything against him, he keeps fighting. He continues to challenge the ideologies of monsters like Sukuna and Mahito, monsters he has no chance of defeating by himself. And yet, through all that suffering, by the end of the series, he remains a good person. He even offers mercy to the man he hates most, because he knows that it is the right thing to do.
Gege Akutami may hate his protagonist, but I love him.
This is excellent! I always loved Yuji, but I also saw, at times, what Akutami meant when he said he didn’t know how to handle him. That’s a weird situation to be in when a creator doesn’t know how to write his own protagonist but I still think it worked out for the better more times than not. Despite how jaded I’ll always be towards JJK because of that ending arc, I’ll always love Yuji’s character.
Yuji has grown on me over time. But Sukkuna is better 😁