Maki Zenin is one of the characters from Jujutsu Kaisen that captivated the eyes of readers and viewers alike. Not only is she gorgeous, with her intelligent looking eyeglasses – she’s also the best cursed tool user. So here’s what you should know about Maki Zenin.
Who is Maki Zenin in Jujutsu Kaisen?
Maki Zenin is a major secondary character from Gege Akutami’s Jujutsu Kaisen and one of the protagonists of its sequel, Jujutsu Kaisen 0. She is a student from Tokyo Jujutsu High, directly mentored by Gojo Satoru. She is the best at fighting with cursed tools among the students of Tokyo Jujutsu High.
Maki Zenin hails from one of the three prestigious families of jujutsu sorcerers, the Zenin Family.
Coming from a family of jujutsu sorcerers, everyone from her clan expects her to be one as well. But contrary to their expectations, Maki was born with miniscule Cursed Energy (even less than an average non sorcerer), and even without the capacity to wield it. These has practically made her an outcast even though she showed great potential in fighting.
Despite having so little Cursed Energy and inability to control it, she is a prominent cursed tool (weapon imbued with Cursed Energy) user. Her primary weapon is a Naginata. But she uses a variety of weapons depending on the circumstances as well: a wooden staff (for training purposes), a three-sectional staff, a katana, and a sword. She mentors Yuta Okkotsu, her fellow sorcerer in the same year at Tokyo Jujutsu High, on how to wield a katana. Maki also mentors Megumi on how to wield different weapons after he realizes how helpless he is against special grade cursed spirits especially when his familiars can’t match up with the enemy cursed spirits.
She also has a firm personality that doesn’t lose sight of her goal. When paired with Yuta Okkotsu on his first field mission, she teaches him the basics of exorcising cursed spirits. She gives him courage to find his purpose in life and stand up for it.
Maki Zenin’s Personal Information
| Name | Maki Zenin |
| Age | 16 |
| Birthday | January 20 |
| Grade | Grade 4 Sorcerer |
| Birthplace | Kyoto |
| Enrollment Method | Family Lineage |
| Cursed Technique | None |
| Heavenly Restriction | Physically Gifted |
| Special Skill | Crushing Empty Can |
| Favorite Food | Junk Food |
| Least Favorite Food | Vegetarian Food |
| Stress Source | Zenin Family Procedure |
What is Maki Zenin’s Past?
Maki Zenin is born from the prestigious Zenin Family. Being one of the big three Sorcerer Families, the Zenins put more importance to the cursed technique above anything else to the point that they’d even reject their own family member if they don’t show a great cursed technique. Having a small amount of Cursed Energy and no cursed technique at all, Maki was shunned by everyone from the family even though she showed great potential as a martial artist.
She left the family determined to make a name for herself in the jujutsu society and come back to become the new master of Zenin Clan to spite her family. Maki remained as a grade 4 jujutsu sorcerer for years due to the influence of the Zenin family to the Jujutsu Society. Upon leaving the Zenin Family, her twin sister Mai hated her because of her high dream and stubborn personality which led to the love-hate relationship between the twins.
What Does Maki Zenin Look Like?
Maki Zenin is a tall young woman with an athletic build. She has moderately long dark green hair, tied into a ponytail and bangs with longer unkempt fringe hair. She wears purple, half-framed eyeglasses that allow her to see curses.
She typically wears the uniform of Tokyo Jujutsu High, a dark blue gakuran jacket for females with gold jujutsu sorcerer buttons on the left side and white long sleeve underneath. On the bottom, she wears a dark blue mini skirt with a length up to the middle portion of her thigh, black leggings and black leather boots with brown sole.
She is often seen carrying a long rectangular red tote bag with yellow straps that houses her main weapon, Naginata.
What is Maki Zenin’s Personality Like?
Maki has a rather straightforward personality which sometimes comes off as rude. She seems heartless when she approaches Nobara and Megumi, asking if they’re mourning or something due to the sad atmosphere they’re radiating. In fact, the first years are really mourning the death of their comrades. She then regrets what she said, showing that even though she always comes up with rude remarks, she truly cares for the feelings of who she considers comrades.
Maki has a strong sense of responsibility and leadership. During the Kyoto Goodwill Event Arc, she voluntarily leads the Tokyo Jujutsu High team and comes up with a good strategy. As a leader, she has the ability to grasp the strength of the team she leads and assigns them to the appropriate task where they can fully utilize their strengths and cover each other’s weaknesses. She also has a great grasp of her surroundings and is quick on the uptake. As the best cursed tool wielder among the students, she feels strong responsibilities in training her fellow students on wielding weapons.
The most notable character of Maki is her strong personality that doesn’t lose sight of her goal. She continues to persevere amidst all the aggression of her family, focused solely on making it to the top of Jujutsu Sorcerer to spite her family.
What are Maki Zenin’s Abilities?
Maki is the best cursed tool user in Tokyo Jujutsu High. She can wield a great deal of weaponry with high mastery. She mainly uses polearm and sword-type weapons – two types of weapon with different fundamentals. She can switch from weapon to weapon depending on circumstances and she can even use a stolen weapon better than its original wielder.
She is also able to overwhelm her opponent in hand-to-hand combat. These are because she was born with Heavenly Restriction, a type of cursed restriction that (in Maki’s case) completely dries the person with Cursed Energy. But in exchange, they are granted with extreme physical prowess technically removing one’s physical limitations.
What is Maki Zenin’s Heavenly Restriction?
Maki Zenin was born with Heavenly Restriction, granting her unnatural strength and agility. In the Kyoto Goodwill Event Arc, Maki exhibits her extraordinary physical prowess as she overwhelms Kasumi Miwa. Miwa then realizes that Maki can defeat a Grade 2 curse with ease with just her weapon mastery and physical prowess.
In her match against Mai Zenin, she is able to dodge all the bullets Mai shoots at her. Mai isn’t some third rate gunner. In fact, she snipes Kugisaki Nobara from a great distance away in a trajectory that barely fits the clear line between countless obstructions – reflecting how accurate her aim is. That very same marksman can’t hit Maki even a graze. This shows how fast and unpredictable Maki’s movement is. Maki even catches a bullet made with Mai’s Cursed Energy with her bare hand. We can also see Maki doing some exceptional stunts like casually jumping to extreme heights with just her physical strength.
All these capabilities are just the surface of what someone with Heavenly Restriction can do. Maki can’t even fully utilize the potential she has. Heavenly Restriction in Maki’s case sacrifices Cursed Energy in exchange for removing her limitation. This means that the closer she is to having no Cursed Energy, the stronger physical prowess and tougher constitution she is granted. Maki has a twin sister and in the world of jujutsu, twins are considered as one individual. This means that as long as Mai is alive, her (Mai) Cursed Energy is considered Maki’s, thus limiting her (Maki’s) potential.
Q: What is Heavenly Restriction?
A: Heavenly Restriction is a type of cursed restriction that is placed on the sorcerer’s body before they’re born. The sorcerer is rid of Cursed Energy and the ability to manipulate it in exchange for removing one’s limitations on the body.
What are Maki’s Weapons?
Maki’s foundation as a Jujutsu Sorcerer comes with his mastery of weapons. She uses different types of weapons and has a great mastery over them. She let Panda carry her weapon during their mission and when they discovered the ability of Megumi, she hid it in his (Megumi) shadow instead.
Eyeglasses
Maki is born with minuscule Cursed Energy and inability to control it. One side of this is that Maki can’t see curses. As a sorcerer, the ability to see curses is the foundation of exorcising so Maki has to wear eyeglasses just to see curses. In the Jujutsu Kaisen 0, she wears round oversized eyeglasses. It was broken by Suguru Geto so she switches to the purple half framed eyeglasses which she uses now.
Wooden Polearm
Wooden Polearm is a straight circular wooden stick with no blades designed for sparring purposes. Maki uses wooden polearm with white clothes on both ends during training. Her main weapon is also a polearm so she’s shown favor to her wooden polearm. She doesn’t hold back whenever they’re training and would definitely strike her opponent with it if she was given a chance.
Naginata
Naginata is a polearm with a blade at the end and red fabric at the other end. It is decorated with fur between the blade and the polearm. Maki uses this Cursed Tool to exorcise Cursed Spirits in the prequel Jujutsu Kaisen 0 and during the Kyoto Goodwill Event Arc where she overwhelms Kasumi Miwa.
Playful Cloud
Playful Cloud is a three-section staff cursed tool. Each section is about an arm’s length, color red with black on both ends and is connected with chains. As a flail cursed tool with no sharp edges, Playful Cloud is reliant on the pure physical strength of the user. When Maki uses this weapon, she is able to fling Hanami a great distance away into the forest. According to Gege Akutami, Playful Cloud is owned by the Gojo Family.
Katana
This katana doesn’t actually belong to Mai. It belongs to Kasumi Miwa whom she stole it from during their match. It is a semi-cursed grade katana that still requires the Cursed Energy of the wielder. It broke easily against Hanami because Maki can’t supply it with Cursed Energy in the first place.
Dragon-Bone
Dragon-Bone is Juzo Kumiya’s masterpiece. It has a white hilt with a decorative strand of fabric dangling at the end. The guard is composed of six rectangular plates lined up around the hilt. The blade looks like a machete and the back of the blade seems like an inverted hollow dragon tooth.
It has the ability to accumulate force and Cursed Energy and eject it at the back of the blade through the hollows by the will of the wielder.
Maki uses the Dragon-Bone to duel her father Ogi Zenin leading to her defeat.
Split Soul Katana
Split Soul Katana is a cursed tool used by Toji Fushiguro. It is a katana with a white feather decoration in between the blade and the hilt. The one used by Maki is just a replica of the original made by Mai using all her Cursed Energy ultimately ending her life.
Maki uses the Split Soul Katana to destroy everything (annihilate the Zenin Clan) as the dying wish of her late twin sister Mai. It has the ability to hit directly the soul of the target bypassing any physical resistance.
Who is Maki Zenin’s Love Interest?
In the cameo named Sorcerer’s Theatre at the end of episode 15, the main characters are asked, “What kind of person do you like?” Maki’s response is, “At least stronger than me”. Even though Maki doesn’t openly talk about romance in the series, it is shown here what at least is the qualifications to catch her eyes.
Maki’s personality doesn’t allow her to open her heart to someone. She’s focused solely on her goal and she just sees her classmates as a colleague or friend. When Yuta Okkotsu openly expresses her admiration and recognizes her skills, Maki is taken aback since she is never recognized by her family. When Yuta tells her that he will be there if she wants help to crush her family or something, she is seen slightly blushing and loses her composure. That is the first time she meets someone who’s willing to accompany her. As a special grade sorcerer and the sole person who makes Maki blush, Yuta Okkotsu is the prime candidate for Maki’s love interest.