The Shinjuku Showdown Arc of Jujutsu Kaisen put an end to its long-running series. It also brought out some of the strongest characters in this series, from natural prodigies like Gojo to those who work their way to the top through pure determination, such as Maki.
Sorcerers and cursed spirits’ strength is determined by the amount of cursed energy they have. The more cursed energy they possess, the stronger they are.
Of course, there are a few exceptions, like Toji and Maki, who don’t have an ounce of cursed energy but are stronger than most cursed players. Their strength stems from their extraordinary physical capabilities.
That proves that in the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, cursed energy doesn’t always need to be the strongest. So, in this article, we’ll be taking a look at the top 5 strongest characters from the Shinjuku Showdown arc.
Table of Contents
5. Yuji Itadori
Yuji Itadori has developed into one of the most powerful jujutsu sorcerers in the series, starting from being a merely physically gifted high school student. While his fighting style is very much dependent on brute power and ferocity, Yuji has also picked up some seriously complicated techniques along the way.
One of the earliest techniques he mastered was Divergent Fist, a style in which his troubled energy trails behind his actual punch, striking twice simultaneously. Next, he honed it further into the so-called Soul Punch, a punch that does not merely strike the body but strikes his opponent’s soul.
Yuji also mastered Black Flash, a challenging and very hard-to-time technique where cursed energy is employed within 0.000001 seconds of impact, significantly enhancing the attack’s power. Not many jujutsu sorcerers can accomplish this, and Yuji has done so on several occasions in life-or-death fights.
In addition to raw brute power, Yuji has also accessed cursed techniques that are not even his by birth. He has been shown using Blood Manipulation, namely the Piercing Blood and Convergence methods that were originally from the Kamo Clan.
Later, he learned a more powerful variation of Sukuna’s Shrine Cursed Technique. This enabled him to execute catastrophic techniques such as Soul Dismantle, which directly harms the soul and body of his foes.
Yuji’s growth doesn’t stop at offense alone. He’s picked up defensive techniques like Simple Domain, a barrier technique used to resist enemy domains, and even progressed to using Domain Expansion, the pinnacle of jujutsu technique.
Apart from that, he has also mastered the Reverse Cursed Technique. It is a unique skill that allows him to transform cursed energy into positive energy to heal wounds. There are only a few of the top sorcerers, such as Yuta and Gojo, who can do this regularly.
All of this combined makes Yuji not only a powerhouse but a well-rounded fighter with the ability to outdo even the strongest in the jujutsu world. He defeated Sukuna alongside other sorcerers using Soul Dismantle and his Domain Expansion, which were their key techniques to separate Sukuna from Megumi in the Shinjuku Showdown Arc.
4. Kenjaku
Kenjaku is not just another villain in Jujutsu Kaisen, he’s a master manipulator who has shaped the course of sorcerer history for centuries. What makes Kenjaku so terrifying is not just his strength, but the fact that he can think several steps ahead of everyone else and collect cursed techniques.
His first ability enables him to transfer his mind into other bodies, so Kenjaku can essentially take on someone else’s life and techniques. This ability has allowed him to live for centuries, transferring bodies, learning, and growing with each transfer.
His last host was Suguru Geto, a former special grade sorcerer whose cursed spirit manipulation technique was precisely what Kenjaku needed for his master plan.
By using Geto’s corpse, Kenjaku obtained the Cursed Spirit Manipulation skill. It’s a curse technique that allows him to command and summon waves of cursed spirits on his own volition. The technique made him a one-man army, as he could summon an endless number of corpses onto the battlefield.
In addition to calling forth cursed spirits, Kenjaku is also skilled in Barrier Techniques. His knowledge of jujutsu is so high that he invented the Culling Game itself, warping the laws of cursed energy and taking oaths on a national level. He can control the environment, seal his enemies, and construct deadly traps, all without even feeling any fatigue.
Kenjaku also has mastered the Reverse Cursed Technique and can recover his body even in the middle of a battle. His brain-swapping ability made him nearly invincible unless you catch him at the right moment and slay the host and brain both, like Yuta did to defeat him.
All of this makes Kenjaku one of the most dangerous and unpredictable threats in Jujutsu Kaisen. A long-game master who uses cursed methods not as weapons of attack, but as pieces in a game in which he is the sole participant.
3. Yuta Okkotsu
The origin of Yuta Okkotsu’s powers is derived from his connection with the Big Three Sorcerer Families, the Gojo Clan. As shown in the series, he is a distant cousin of the Gojo clan, which explains why he is so talented.
As soon as he joined Jujutsu High, he was classified as a Special Grade Sorcerer, due to possessing the spirit of Queen of the Curses, Rika Orimoto. However, he isn’t fully dependent on Rika every time. Over time, he has cultivated his cursed energy to the point that it even rivals Gojo’s in terms of raw output and control.
Yuta is most famously known for his Copying Cursed Techniques. He can replicate cursed techniques from other sorcerers, such as Inumaki’s Cursed Speech Shikigami Manipulation and Dhruv’s Shikigami Manipulation.
Besides that, Yuta has also mastered the Reverse Cursed Technique, which he applies to heal himself and other individuals. Only a few naturally gifted individuals can do it effectively since it is extremely hard to master.
Yuta proved his strength multiple times during the Shinjuku Showdown arc by fighting many high-ranking foes, such as Kenjaku, and even facing Sukuna. His ability to learn the cursed techniques to perfection turned him into one of the strongest jujutsu sorcerers of his generation.
2. Gojo Satoru
Having been born with the Six Eyes and the Limitless Cursed Technique since birth, Gojo has been nearly unstoppable from the start. His birth shifted the balance of power in the world, which led to curses getting stronger due to maintaining the balance between sorcerers and curses.
Gojo’s Six Eyes allows him to work with cursed energy most effectively, so his consumption of energy is almost negligible. Additionally, his Limitless Cursed Technique lets him control time and space. This allows him to use Infinity, a shield around him that keeps out all harmful things and attacks.
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Gojo’s Domain Expansion, Unlimited Void, is his most powerful technique in his arsenal. This technique traps opponents in an infinite stream of knowledge, overwhelming their senses and paralyzing them. This power, combined with his raw physical strength, makes Gojo a one-man army capable of annihilating crowds of foes with ease.
Gojo went toe-to-toe with Sukuna during the Shinjuku Showdown Arc, even when faced with overwhelming odds since Sukuna was fighting him alongside Mahoraga. As Gojo himself says, he was truly the strongest of his generation.
1. Ryomen Sukuna
Sukuna isn’t called the King of Curses for nothing. Throughout the centuries, many sorcerers came and went, but none could ever come close to him. At the end of the Shinjuku Showdown Arc, Uraume mentioned that jujutsu sorcerers (Yuji, Yuta, Maki, etc.) were lucky to be born thousands of centuries later.
Suggesting that if they had faced him during the Heian era, when he was a human and a full-fledged curse, things would have been different. This just shows how terrifying Sukuna might have been during the Heian era, a force so powerful that even centuries later, his strength remained unmatched.
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Sukuna’s immense amount of cursed energy allows him to perform multiple cursed techniques without holding back. This big pool of power allows him to use reverse-cursed techniques to heal himself over and over. This helped him a lot during the Shinjuku Showdown Arc, where he fought multiple opponents.
To top that, Sukuna is also one of the few who can fully master a Domain Expansion without needing a barrier. His domain, Malevolent Shrine, forms an enormous slaughter zone where his slashes pour down continuously within a restricted area, severing anyone unfortunate enough to be within range. It’s one of the strongest and most broken domains in the series, appropriate for the likes of Sukuna.
After he possessed Megumi Fushiguro’s body, Sukuna’s arsenal became even stronger. With Megumi’s Ten Shadows Technique, Sukuna has access to powerful shikigami like Mahoraga, altering the flow of battle without even lifting a finger himself.
This combination of ancient cursed techniques and modern jujutsu capabilities makes him an even bigger threat than he was before. He can be called the ideal sorcerer, as he excels in every area, from his deep understanding of jujutsu to his unparalleled strength.
In the entire arc, Sukuna didn’t even get a single time to spare, as the sorcerers kept showing up one after another to fight him. Even with the odds against him, he faced them all with his ultimate might, and until Yuji figured out how to separate him from Megumi’s body to end his reign.
There are many other powerful characters in the Shinjuku Showdown Arc, like Maki, Mahoraga, Kashimo, Hakari, Uruame, and Higuruma, but these five stood their ground and proved themselves. Especially, Yuji and Yuta, who were new to Jujutsu, but still managed to master curse techniques like Domain Expansion and Reverse Cursed Technique.
