Kurama or Sukuna – who’s your pick?
Separate entities living inside the protagonist is a typical formula in many shounen manga and anime series. If you’re a fan of both Naruto and Jujutsu Kaisen, you might’ve noticed the many similarities between Sukuna and Kurama. Like Sukuna and Yuji’s situation, Kurama is a tailed beast sealed inside Naruto Uzumaki. Kurama can forcefully take over Naruto’s body, but over time, Naruto learned how to gain better control of his body and suppress Kurama.
Apart from being able to switch places with their hosts, Kurama and Sukuna pretty much have similar characteristics. Both of them are incredibly powerful, fearsome, proud, cunning, and manipulative. They are often pitted against each other since they would be such an exciting matchup. If these two powerful beings had a face-off, who would win? Who is stronger: Kurama or Sukuna?
Table of Contents
Kurama or Sukuna, Take Your Pick! The Nine-Tailed Beast vs. The King of Curses
Kurama
Kurama is one of the tailed beasts created by the Sage of Six Paths. He is the most powerful among the tailed beasts, possessing a massive amount of chakra and incredible strength, speed, and durability. It is believed that a single swipe of his tail can flatten mountains and give rise to tsunamis. He is also strong enough to defeat the five tailed beasts at once even with only half of his total power. Apart from having incredible raw physical strength, Kurama is also a cunning and manipulative foe. He can calmly strategize in the midst of an intense battle and use his opponent’s weakness against them.
The tailed beasts were initially created to maintain peace and prevent the resurrection of the Ten-Tails. However, over the centuries, humanity began to perceive them as mere demons and evil beasts that must be feared due to their immense power. They were sought out only to be used as powerful weapons in times of war. Because of the scornful treatment of humans, the tailed beasts began to loathe humanity and turned into the evil beasts they were portrayed as.
Kurama’s history with Naruto goes way back. He is originally sealed within Kushina Uzumaki (Naruto’s mother) until Tobi removed his seal and used him to destroy Konoha. That time, Kushina just gave birth to Naruto which is why the seal was weakened and Tobi had it easily removed. Minato Namikaze (Naruto’s father) was the current Hokage at that time and in order to save the village, he decided to seal Kurama into their newborn infant. However, the Nine-Tailed Beast was too powerful to be locked inside Naruto so Minato resorted to using the Reaper Death Seal at the cost of his and Kushina’s life. They managed to successfully seal Kurama inside Naruto albeit leaving him orphaned.
Naruto and Kurama’s relationship obviously started off as ugly. Naruto was bullied by his peers because of the tailed beast inside him and Kurama’s unpleasantness didn’t help. However, their relationship gradually improved over the years and the two learned to coexist in harmony. Eventually, Kurama trusted Naruto with his powers and allowed him to use his chakra willingly.
Kurama’s Notable Feats
- Defeated five tailed beasts at once during the Fourth Great Ninja War
- His shout alone can destroy a village
- His Tailed Beast Bomb can create an explosion larger than mountains
- Casually tackled and threw around the colossal Hamura Otsutsuki Golem
- Quickly blocked Naruto’s massive Sage Rasengan with his tails
Sukuna
Ryomen Sukuna is a powerful cursed spirit known as the undisputed King of Curses. His actual form is characterized as a fearsome demon with four arms and two faces. He is inherently selfish, ruthless, and sadistic, often taking pleasure in causing pain and suffering to others. He’s highly confident in his power and sees himself as superior to all other beings on Earth.
As the most powerful cursed spirit in the entire series, Sukuna possesses a massive amount of cursed energy. His overwhelming presence was felt throughout Shibuya once he was awakened. Even Gojo Satoru himself admitted that fighting Sukuna would definitely be challenging. On several occasions, Sukuna has proved himself to be one, if not the most powerful character in the series. He easily defeated strong cursed spirits that others had a difficult time with. He took down Mahito with just one swipe, defeated Jogo in a one-sided battle, and most importantly, defeated Mahoraga, the most powerful shikigami of the Ten Shadows Technique that no sorcerer had ever defeated before.
Sukuna’s Notable feats
- Defeated Jogo, the strongest special grade cursed spirit from Mahito’s group, in a one-sided battle
- He’s the only person who has ever defeated Mahoraga, the strongest shikigami of the Ten Shadows Technique
- Annihilated a massive part of Shibuya in just a few seconds
- Casually blocked the powerful Sword of Extermination, a specialized blade for killing cursed spirits
- Easily dodged Jogo’s Maximum: Meteor
Who is stronger: Kurama or Sukuna?
Honestly, it’s too early to tell which one is stronger, especially since we have yet to see the extent of Sukuna’s power with all 20 fingers. Both Kurama and Sukuna have shown that they are capable of wiping out entire cities or villages with not as much as a sweat. In terms of speed and durability, both of them are lightning-fast and can withstand powerful attacks from their foes. They also have incredible feats that showcase how powerful they can really be.
Kurama’s fans might defend him and say that he’s obviously stronger than Sukuna since it was mentioned before that he can turn the world into ash at only half power. But what if Sukuna at full force is also capable of that? It’s highly possible that Sukuna has a lot of tricks up his sleeve and that he hasn’t shown us everything that he’s capable of yet. I mean, it was not until Chapter 115 that we found out that Sukuna can also use fire. Even Jogo was taken off-guard since he thought that Sukuna’s technique is only limited to slicing and slashing attacks. So until Jujutsu Kaisen is finished, how about let’s end this with a draw for now?