JJK Female Characters

Shonen manga has a long habit of handing its girls a healing role and a crush. Gege Akutami mostly skipped that. Nobara walks into the story already sure of her own worth, and Maki's whole arc is about refusing the role her family picked for her. Below are the Jujutsu Kaisen female characters we think matter most, roughly in order of how much the story leans on them. The full gallery of girl characters in JJK sits underneath. If you came here looking for the JJK characters girls fans talk about most, start with Nobara and Maki, then read on.

Nobara Kugisaki

Nobara moved to Tokyo from a village she couldn't stand. The one person there she liked, an older girl named Saori, was driven out by the other villagers, and that memory explains a lot about how stubborn Nobara is. Her Straw Doll Technique works through nails, a hammer and Resonance. Resonance links a straw doll to something taken from the target, so she can hurt them from a distance, and it hurts her too. Watch the Season 1 fight against Eso and Kechizu if you want to see her at her most reckless.

Maki Zenin

Maki was born into the Zenin clan with almost no cursed energy. To that family, that made her a failure. She can't even see curses without her special glasses. She trains anyway, fights with spears, staves and swords, and is the strongest physical fighter among the second-years well before anything changes for her. Chapter 149 is where her story turns. Her twin Mai dies to remove the "shared" cursed energy holding Maki's restriction back, and Maki comes out of it with a body on Toji's level. That chapter is adapted in Season 3's "Perfect Preparation" episodes.

Mai Zenin

Mai is Maki's twin at Kyoto, and she's written as a bitter, sharp-tongued rival in Season 1. You only really understand her later: she resents Maki for leaving because she was the one left behind with the clan. Her technique, Construction, can create matter from nothing, but the cost is so steep that she can only manage a single bullet a day.

Yuki Tsukumo

The first person we meet who openly calls herself a special grade, and still easily the strongest woman in JJK. Yuki is relaxed, nosy (her standard opener is asking what type of woman you like) and has a theory about ending curses by getting rid of cursed energy altogether. Her technique, Star Rage, adds virtual mass to herself and her shikigami Garuda. She dies in Chapter 208, collapsing herself into a black hole in an attempt to take Kenjaku with her.

Mei Mei

Grade 1, works for money and makes no apology for it. Mei Mei fights with a huge axe and controls crows with Black Bird Manipulation. Her best moment is in Shibuya, Chapter 102. Stuck in a disease curse's domain with her brother Ui Ui and only one crow left, she uses Bird Strike, which forces the crow to sacrifice itself and removes its cursed energy limit. The series tells us only Gojo has ever survived that move.

Utahime Iori

Kyoto's teacher and Gojo's senior at school, though you'd never guess the seniority from how he talks to her. Her technique, Solo Forbidden Area, boosts the cursed energy output of her allies, which the series finally puts to real use in the final Shinjuku battle.

Shoko Ieiri

The school doctor. Shoko can use Reverse Cursed Technique on other people, which is incredibly rare, so she spends most of the series out of combat keeping everyone else alive. Season 2's flashback makes her the third member of the old Gojo, Geto and Shoko trio, and her one-line reactions in that arc do a lot of quiet work.

Kasumi Miwa

Miwa calls herself "useless Miwa", and the fandom adopted it with real affection. She's a Kyoto second-year swordswoman using New Shadow Style, she's openly in this job to support her family, and she has a running fan-girl moment over Gojo. She's on this list because she's one of the most popular girl characters in JJK polls, not because she wins fights.

Momo Nishimiya

A Kyoto third-year who flies on a broom and handles scouting for her team. Momo has a sharp line in Season 1 about how female sorcerers are held to a standard of being both strong and pretty that men never face. It's short, but it says something about the setting.

Rika Orimoto

Yuta's childhood friend who died in a traffic accident and became the cursed spirit following him through Jujutsu Kaisen 0. In that film she's terrifying. In the later chapters she's closer to a weapon Yuta uses on purpose, and her design changes to match.

Riko Amanai

The Star Plasma Vessel in Season 2's Hidden Inventory arc: a schoolgirl meant to merge with Tengen. Gojo and Geto are assigned to protect her. The arc gives her just enough time to become a real person before Toji arrives, which is exactly why it hurts.

Tsumiki Fushiguro

Megumi's step-sister, cursed and comatose for most of the story. Megumi barely talks about her, but nearly everything he does is about her. Her role in the Culling Game is a major spoiler, so we'll leave it at that.

Hana Kurusu, Takako Uro and Yorozu

The Culling Game brings in a new set of women. Hana Kurusu shares her body with the ancient sorcerer called Angel, whose technique can cancel other techniques; she shows up at the end of Megumi's fight in Tokyo Colony No. 1. Takako Uro is a reincarnated Heian-era sorcerer who controls the sky itself, seen in the Sendai Colony. Yorozu is another Heian-era sorcerer, obsessed with Sukuna. She takes over Tsumiki's body.

Smaller roles worth knowing

Akari Nitta (the cheerful assistant manager), Nagi Yoshino (Junpei's mother, whose death breaks him), Misato Kuroi (Riko's caretaker), Granny Ogami (the curse user who channels Toji in Shibuya) and Nobara's friends Saori and Fumi all appear in the gallery below.