Jujutsu Kaisen: The Ultimate Hub Guide | AnimeTiger

Jujutsu Kaisen: The Complete Hub Guide

There are plenty of shounen series fighting for your attention. Jujutsu Kaisen earns it. Since its manga debut in 2018 and the anime’s arrival in 2020, JJK has gone from a buzzworthy newcomer to one of the defining action series of its generation — and it got there fast. It didn’t wait three arcs to give you something worth caring about. Episode one drops you into a world where malevolent spirits walk the earth, a teenager swallows a cursed object containing a thousand-year-old demon king, and nothing is ever quite as safe as it looks.

That hook alone would be enough to pull in new viewers. What keeps them is everything underneath: a power system with genuine internal logic, a cast of characters who feel like real people shaped by grief and conviction, and a willingness to go to places that most mainstream anime refuse to touch. Gojo Satoru became an instant cultural icon. Sukuna is one of the great villains in modern manga. The animation studio MAPPA delivered sequences in Season 2 that people are still talking about years later.

This hub is AnimeTiger’s central home for all things Jujutsu Kaisen. Whether you’re trying to figure out the difference between a Domain Expansion and a Simple Domain, looking for the full watch order before Season 3, or want a deep breakdown of why Gojo is the strongest — you’ll find it all here. Start wherever makes sense for you.

Plot Overview (Spoiler-Light)

Jujutsu Kaisen is set in a version of modern Japan where negative human emotions — fear, grief, hatred — physically manifest as Cursed Spirits. These spirits range from small, nuisance-level creatures to ancient, near-unstoppable monsters. To deal with them, a shadow society of Jujutsu Sorcerers exists, quietly protecting a population that has no idea the threat is real.

Our entry point is Yuji Itadori, a high school student in Sendai with abnormal physical ability and a kind streak that gets him into serious trouble. When a classmate’s occult research accidentally unseals a cursed finger belonging to Ryomen Sukuna — the King of Curses, a demon so powerful he was never fully destroyed, only broken into twenty fingers and scattered — Yuji does the only thing that makes sense to him: he swallows it. This act saves his friends, but it also turns him into Sukuna’s vessel and marks him for execution by the Jujutsu world’s ruling council.

The story then follows Yuji’s enrollment at Tokyo Jujutsu High, his training under Gojo Satoru, and his growing bond with classmates Megumi Fushiguro and Nobara Kugisaki. The early arcs — including the brutal Hidden Inventory arc in Season 2, which rewinds to Gojo and Geto’s youth — establish that JJK is as interested in tragedy as it is in action. The Shibuya Incident arc changes the series completely. What begins as a coordinated attack on Gojo becomes a catastrophic, city-wide disaster that permanently alters the status quo.

The Culling Games arc, covered in Season 3, raises the stakes further still. A tournament-style death game forces sorcerers and reincarnated ancient curse users into conflict, while the deeper conspiracy pulling the strings finally begins to take shape. JJK is not a series where the heroes cleanly win. That’s part of what makes it worth following.

The Cursed Energy System Explained

What separates Jujutsu Kaisen from other power-system anime is that its rules feel earned. Author Gege Akutami built a system with real constraints, creative implications, and genuine consequences — so when characters push past their limits or find clever workarounds, it actually means something.

Cursed Energy is the foundation. It flows naturally from negative human emotions and accumulates in nearly every living person, though most people never learn to control it. Jujutsu Sorcerers are those rare individuals who can manipulate cursed energy intentionally, using it to enhance their physical abilities, reinforce their bodies, or project offensive techniques. The grade system — from Grade 4 up through Special Grade — reflects how much cursed energy a sorcerer or spirit can generate and control.

Cursed Techniques are inherited or self-developed abilities tied to a person’s unique relationship with cursed energy. Megumi’s Ten Shadows Technique summons shikigami from his shadow. Nobara’s Straw Doll Technique links the physical pain of a cursed object to a target’s body. Techniques are mostly fixed at birth or through lineage, which is why the rare ability to master a second technique — or reverse it entirely — marks someone as extraordinary.

Reverse Cursed Technique flips the math: instead of using negative energy to harm, it combines two negatives to generate a positive flow that heals. It’s exhausting, difficult, and only a handful of characters can do it reliably. Gojo uses it to keep his brain from destroying itself under the strain of the Infinity.

Domain Expansion is the system’s most dramatic move. A sorcerer externalizes their inner world, creating a closed space where their cursed technique is guaranteed to land on anything inside. The catch: constructing a Domain is enormously energy-intensive, and a well-matched opponent can counter it with their own Domain or a Simple Domain — a smaller, incomplete barrier that can neutralize the sure-hit effect. This is why Domain clashes are so tactically interesting to watch; they’re chess played at lethal speed.

Binding Vows add a final layer of flexibility and risk. A sorcerer can voluntarily accept a limitation on their technique in exchange for increased power. Revealing your technique to an opponent, agreeing to restrict its use — these vows are honored by the laws of cursed energy itself. It’s a system that rewards both creativity and courage, which is exactly why the series produces so many memorable fights.

Key Characters

JJK has an enormous cast, but its core cast is what gives the series its emotional weight. Here’s a brief look at the characters who matter most — and links to deeper dives where we’ve covered them in full.

Yuji Itadori

Yuji is the protagonist, but he doesn’t fit the standard mold. He has no prestigious family, no mysterious hidden power waiting to emerge, and no destiny handed to him by birthright. What he has is a stubborn refusal to let people die alone — a value instilled by his grandfather’s dying words — and a body that can contain Sukuna’s overwhelming cursed energy without immediately falling apart. His arc is one of grief accumulating in real time. He can’t save everyone, and the series makes him live with that. His physical ability is off the charts from day one, but watching him build the emotional and technical skill to back it up is the actual story.

Gojo Satoru

The strongest sorcerer alive, by common consensus and his own enthusiastic admission. Gojo’s Six Eyes and Limitless technique make him functionally untouchable in direct combat, and his Domain Expansion — Infinite Void — is among the most devastating abilities in the series. But Gojo is more than a power fantasy. He chose to become a teacher because he genuinely believes the next generation of sorcerers can change a broken system — and because he understands that raw power alone doesn’t fix institutions. He is eccentric, occasionally infuriating, and clearly carrying more personal history than he ever directly discusses. We’ve written extensively about him: see our complete Gojo breakdown and our analysis of what makes him the strongest ever.

Megumi Fushiguro

Megumi is the serious, internally-complicated counterweight to Yuji’s warm impulsiveness. His Ten Shadows Technique gives him tactical range that most sorcerers can’t match — he summons shikigami from his own shadow, each with unique abilities and strengths. What makes him fascinating is his moral framework: he has explicitly stated he saves people he judges worth saving, not everyone indiscriminately. That tension between his ruthlessness and his obvious care for Yuji and Tsumiki is where most of his character development lives. Sukuna’s fixation on Megumi is one of the series’ central mysteries. See: why Sukuna likes Megumi and how strong Megumi actually is.

Ryomen Sukuna

The King of Curses is not a misunderstood villain. He is ancient, amoral, and genuinely delighted by carnage. What makes Sukuna interesting isn’t a secret sympathetic backstory — it’s the scale of his power and the cold intelligence behind it. Every moment he has control of Yuji’s body is a threat. His cursed techniques and his Domain Expansion are covered in depth on site. His eventual role in the later arcs reframes everything you thought you understood about the story’s central conflict.

Nobara Kugisaki

Nobara is the most underrated character in the main trio. Confident, blunt, and completely unbothered by anyone’s judgment of her, she brings an energy to the team that neither Yuji nor Megumi can supply. Her Straw Doll Technique is one of the more creative in the series — she can curse an effigy to harm a target at range, or, in an inspired extension of the logic, harm herself to simultaneously damage anyone she’s connected to through a cursed resonance. Her arc in Shibuya is devastating. Full profile: Nobara Kugisaki — 9 questions answered.

Aoi Todo

Todo is the character who should not work as well as he does. He is absurdly muscled, obsessed with his taste in women as a test of character, and bonds with Yuji almost instantly on the basis of a shared aesthetic preference in pop idols. He is also one of the most tactically gifted sorcerers Yuji ever fights alongside. His Boogie Woogie technique — which swaps the positions of any two objects or people by clapping — is deceptively simple and brutally effective in practice. His mentorship of Yuji during the Kyoto arc is a genuine turning point in Yuji’s development as a fighter.

Watch Order & Where to Stream

Getting the watch order right matters in JJK more than most series, because the prequel film and the Season 2 flashback arc add context that changes how you read the main timeline. Here’s the recommended order:

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 1 (2020–2021) — Start here. Twenty-four episodes covering the Cursed Training, Vs. Mahito, and Kyoto Goodwill Event arcs. This is your foundation: how the world works, who the core cast is, what the stakes feel like.
Jujutsu Kaisen 0 — The Movie (2021) — Set one year before Season 1, this film follows Yuta Okkotsu, a student haunted by a particularly powerful cursed spirit. It runs parallel to the early manga timeline and introduces characters who become important later. Watch it after Season 1 so you already know some of the faces; it lands harder that way.
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 (2023) — The first cour is a flashback to Gojo and Geto’s student years (Hidden Inventory arc). The second cour is the Shibuya Incident. Season 2 is where JJK becomes something different — bigger, darker, and far less willing to let its characters off the hook.
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 (2024–2025) — The Culling Games arc. If you’re watching as it airs, our Season 3 news and updates article has everything you need.

All seasons and the film are available on Crunchyroll. The film is also available on various rental platforms. As of early 2026, Season 3 is airing and coverage is ongoing here on AnimeTiger.

Character Analysis & Power Breakdowns

Our most detailed single-character and head-to-head power analysis pieces. These go beyond summaries — each one actually tries to work out what a character can and can’t do, and why that matters for the story.

Guides & Watch Orders

Long-form explainers and structured guides for readers who want the full picture on how JJK’s systems and battles actually work.

Reviews & Episode Coverage

Looking for a specific episode or moment? These pieces track down the key scenes — which episode, what happens, and why it matters.

Supporting cast deep-dives, trivia, and the smaller questions that turn out to be surprisingly interesting once you actually dig in.

Why Jujutsu Kaisen Stands Out

It’s worth asking, honestly, what separates Jujutsu Kaisen from the other big shounen titles of the last decade. The obvious answer — better animation, darker tone — is true but incomplete. MAPPA’s work on Season 2 was a genuine technical achievement, but visual quality alone doesn’t explain why Shibuya hit the way it did. The answer is in how the story is structured around loss.

Most long-running shounen series have an implicit contract with the reader: heroes can be beaten, but they will recover; the core cast will survive until the story decides otherwise; tension is real but fundamentally safe. JJK doesn’t honor that contract, and it signals this early. The moment you realize the series is willing to take its losses seriously — not as temporary setbacks but as actual, irreversible breaks in the fabric of the story — you start watching differently. Every fight has genuine stakes. Every arc carries the real possibility that someone you care about won’t make it to the next one. That shift in reading posture changes the entire emotional experience.

The series also does something unusual with its antagonists. Mahito, the villain who drives much of the early-to-mid story, isn’t evil in the way a typical shounen villain is evil. He’s not motivated by revenge or ambition. He just finds human suffering genuinely entertaining, the way a child might be curious about pulling apart an insect. He represents the idea — stated explicitly in the series — that curses are born from human emotions, which means humanity is responsible for the monsters it faces. That’s a more interesting premise than most action series are willing to work with.

Compare JJK to its contemporaries: My Hero Academia builds its world around hope and the mythologizing of heroism. Demon Slayer’s emotional core is grief refined into pure dedication. Chainsaw Man shares JJK’s nihilistic edge but frames it as dark comedy. JJK sits in its own space — emotionally honest about failure, technically rigorous about its power system, and genuinely invested in asking what it costs to fight for other people in a world that doesn’t guarantee outcomes. Gojo’s stated mission to change the jujutsu world from within is explicitly framed as naïve by several characters. Whether that naïveté becomes wisdom or tragedy is one of the story’s deepest questions.

The character writing is also quietly excellent in ways that don’t get enough credit. Nanami Kento, who gets a relatively small amount of total screen time, is one of the most fully realized adult characters in recent anime. Toji Fushiguro’s arc in Hidden Inventory recontextualizes what it means to reject your world and then have your son remake it. Even minor characters like Hanami and Dagon feel like they have actual reasons for existing beyond being obstacles. Gege Akutami builds a world that feels populated, not staged.

None of this means JJK is a perfect series — the pacing in certain arcs has been fairly criticized, and the manga’s ending generated real controversy among longtime readers. But the highest points of Jujutsu Kaisen are among the best the genre has produced, and the ceiling for what it’s willing to attempt has always been set high. That combination of ambition and follow-through is rarer than it should be, and it’s the real reason AnimeTiger has dedicated so much space to covering it.

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The Complete Guide to Jujutsu Kaisen