Yuji Itadori

Who is Yuji Itadori?

Yuji Itadori is the main character of Jujutsu Kaisen: a first-year at Tokyo Jujutsu High, the vessel of Ryomen Sukuna and, by the end, one of the strongest sorcerers alive. He's the "itadori jjk" everyone means, the pink-haired kid with the red hood.

The manga's first chapter came out in Weekly Shonen Jump in March 2018, and it starts with Yuji as an ordinary, if freakishly athletic, high schooler in Sendai who spends his afternoons in the Occult Club and his evenings visiting his grandfather in hospital. Within a chapter he's eaten a cursed finger. Within a few more he's been sentenced to death.

Personality

Yuji is warm, open and almost aggressively decent. He makes friends easily, cries easily and doesn't overthink much. His guiding rule comes from his grandfather Wasuke, whose last words tell him to help people and to die surrounded by people. Yuji turns that into a promise to help others have "proper deaths", and the series spends years testing whether that's even possible.

He changes a lot. After Shibuya, he sees himself as "a cog", something that exists to kill curses and nothing more. Watching him climb back from that point is the emotional core of the second half of the story.

Appearance

Short pink hair with a darker undercut, brown eyes, and the Tokyo Jujutsu High uniform with a red hood added. Most references list him at 173 cm. When Sukuna surfaces, he gains facial markings and a second pair of eyes beneath his own.

Background

Yuji was raised by his grandfather, and for most of the story he knows very little about his parents. That gap turns out to be one of the series' biggest secrets. He enters the jujutsu world when the Occult Club unseals a Sukuna finger at school and curses swarm in. Yuji swallows the finger to get enough power to save his friends and Megumi. Instead of losing control, he stays himself, which makes him a perfect vessel. The higher-ups sentence him to death, but Gojo gets the execution postponed until Yuji has eaten all twenty fingers.

Abilities and fighting style

For most of the series, Yuji doesn't have a cursed technique of his own. What he does have:

• Superhuman physical strength. In episode 1 he throws a shot put roughly 30 metres in gym class like it's nothing.
• Divergent Fist. Because his cursed energy lags behind his punches, each hit lands twice: once physically, once as a delayed wave of energy.
• Black Flash. He learns to time his cursed energy perfectly, producing a hit with spatial distortion that's much stronger than normal. Against Hanami during the Goodwill Event, coached by Todo, he lands it four times in a row, tying Nanami's record. The Season 1 episode where he first lands it is titled "Black Flash" (episode 19).
• Sukuna resistance. His body can hold Sukuna's fingers without being overtaken, at least until he passes out.

Yuji's major fights by arc

Season 1: the Fearsome Womb (where he dies and comes back), Mahito and Junpei, Todo and Hanami at the Goodwill Event, then Eso and Kechizu with Nobara.

Yuji and Sukuna: a vessel who won't break

Most vessels would be overtaken by eating a Sukuna finger. Yuji just gets indigestion. That isn't luck, and the manga eventually explains why his body is so suited to holding the King of Curses. For most of the story, though, what matters is that Sukuna can only take over when Yuji allows it, is unconscious, or is tricked. Every time that happens, someone gets hurt, and Yuji carries the blame. It's the central tension of his character: he's the hero, and the most dangerous thing in any room is inside him.

The Yuji episodes that define him

Yuji's arc is built from a handful of scenes that hit harder every time you rewatch them. Here's where we'd send a newer fan.

Season 1, Episode 1. His grandfather's last words, "help people", set up everything. It's easy to rush past, but it's the reason he keeps standing back up for the next 250 chapters.

The Goodwill Event vs Hanami. Teaming up with Todo, Yuji lands his first Black Flash and then chains several more. Todo's hype is half the fun, and the episode is where Yuji stops being "the kid with Sukuna inside" and becomes a fighter in his own right.

Season 1 finale, the Death Painting brothers. Yuji kills for the first time with full awareness of what he's doing, and the show doesn't let him or you look away from it.

Shibuya. Nanami's death, Nobara's injury and the destruction Sukuna causes with Yuji's hands all hit within a few episodes. His second fight with Mahito, with Todo back at his side, is his lowest point and one of his best fights at the same time.

For manga readers, the Shinjuku showdown is Yuji's real graduation. He ties Nanami's record of four consecutive Black Flashes and is the one who finishes Sukuna.

Relationships

Megumi and Nobara are his classmates and closest friends. Gojo is his teacher and protector, Nanami his mentor. Todo calls him his best friend, an idea Yuji gradually stops resisting. Choso claims him as a brother. Mahito is his nemesis, Sukuna his tenant.

Yuji quick facts

• Japanese name: 虎杖悠仁 (Itadori Yūji)
• Birthday: March 20
• Age: 15 at the start of the story
• Affiliation: Tokyo Jujutsu High, first-year
• Debut: Chapter 1 / Season 1 episode 1
• Voice actors: Junya Enoki (Japanese), Adam McArthur (English)

Trivia

Itadori (虎杖) is the Japanese name for Japanese knotweed, a plant that's famously hard to kill, which suits him. He's a film buff, and Gojo uses his time in hiding during Season 1 to have him train while watching movies with a cursed doll in his lap that punches him if his energy slips.

Is Yuji dead?