How can Yuji see curses? This is a question that has been answered as early as the first episode in the anime or chapter in the manga of the super popular series Jujutsu Kaisen. In this blog, let’s talk about how Yuji Itadori, the ordinary high school boy, started seeing Cursed Energy and began his life as a Jujutsu Sorcerer.
Can Yuji See Curses Before Sukuna?
The short answer is no. Yuji can’t see curses before he ingested Sukuna’s finger.
When Does Yuji Start Seeing Curses?
Yuji is an entirely regular high school boy who gets into a supernatural world overnight. Well, we will later find out that he is actually not a regular guy. He has superhuman physical strength, but we will talk about it later.
Yuji only learns about that underground world after meeting Megumi and coming to the school that eventful night.
In Chapter 1 (Episode 1), Yuji first meets Megumi in the hospital after his grandfather passes away. Megumi is looking for an object about which Yuji has information.
After learning that the object is a deadly cursed object, Yuji and Megumi return to the school to pick it up. But they were too late. The cursed object has been opened, attracting cursed spirits all over the school. Megumi runs to the school to save Yuji’s friends, who had broken the cursed object’s seal, and looks for a way to get the cursed object back.
That object is one of the fingers of a man(?) named Sukuna, who lived hundreds of years ago. Sukuna’s finger contains his cursed energy. It can make those cursed spirits stronger after they consume it. So, Megumi is genuinely in a complicated situation. He must hurry not to let cursed spirits consume that finger.
But Yuji appears. He jumps to the floor where Megumi is fighting, breaks the windows, and attacks the cursed spirit to save his friends. But Yuji has yet to train to become a sorcerer like Megumi; he hasn’t even seen cursed spirits before.
So, why does an ordinary boy surprisingly change like that? Here is why.
How Can Yuji See Curses?
In this period of the series, the reason why Yuji can see cursed spirits might be because of Sukuna’s finger. According to Megumi, there are two ways for people to see cursed spirits:
- When they are near death. At this moment, they can see cursed spirits and other spiritual things.
- When they are in special places. Here, the word “special” means the area must be full of cursed energy.
When Yuji’s friends together unsealed Sukuna’s finger, the cursed energy inside that finger ran amok in the school. It turns the school into a site full of cursed energy; at once, everyone can see supernatural things like cursed spirits.
We know this because before Yuji’s friends opened the cursed object, they didn’t feel or see anything weird. But, after they unsealed it, the school turned into a hotspot, and they can see cursed spirits.
If you didn’t know, Sukuna used to be the strongest sorcerer way back in the golden age of jujutsu. When he was defeated by the collaborative effort of other sorcerers, he split his immense power into his fingers. These twenty fingers have the highest rank based on Sorcerer Society’s system and can even absorb cursed energy from the environment to get stronger over time.
That’s why the school fills with cursed energy when the finger gets unsealed. And that’s why Yuji can suddenly see the cursed spirits for the first time.
Megumi realizes he is in danger and that only Yuji has the stamina to save those people and escape from school. So, he directs Yuji to do so. But Yuji asks Megumi about Sukuna’s finger, and without thinking, he swallows it in his stomach.
That’s when Yuji abandons his ordinary life and steps into a new world he has never dreamed of.
He awakens the soul in that finger and saves Megumi from death. And now he has to become a jujutsu sorcerer and take responsibility for the creature he has awakened.
And from that moment, because of the cursed energy of the finger that he has swallowed, he can see cursed spirits like a jujutsu sorcerer without needing to get to special places.
What is Curse Energy?
In the story of Yuji, we can see the central point is cursed energy. So, what is cursed energy, and why is it essential in the Jujutsu Kaisen World?
Cursed energy is the energy used by jujutsu sorcerers and cursed spirits. Cursed energy is born from the negative emotions of humans. And when that energy grows enough, it will evolve into cursed spirits.