Mahito is Jujutsu Kaisen’s primary antagonist and known for being the most hated character in the series. His fanbase is not that huge compared to morally grey villains like Hisoka Morow or Sasuke Uchiha. In fact, around 80% of the JJK fandom completely despises Mahito. Want to know why does everyone hate Mahito? Read this article to find out.
The Curse Born Out of Human Hatred
Mahito is a special grade cursed spirit born out of the collective hatred and fear that humans have for each other. He is the embodiment of the ugliest nature of humanity. According to Nanami, Mahito is a newly-born cursed spirit which means that he is not that powerful yet compared to other cursed spirits. However, it did not take long for Mahito to turn into a powerful cursed spirit. He was determined to become more powerful and even spent time experimenting with own power and limitations. Soon enough, he learned to effectively utilize his techniques and became a formidable opponent to Itadori Yuji.
Why Does Everyone Hate Mahito?
Mahito undoubtedly takes the crown as the number one most hated character in Jujutsu Kaisen. Now, I’m sure we all know that just because someone is a villain doesn’t automatically mean that they are hated by everyone. There are many anime villains out there who also happen to be the most loved characters in the series (Johan Liebert from Monster, Aizen from Bleach, Makima from Chainsaw Man). However, Mahito has done some horrible things that caused JJK fans to harbor anger toward him.
Mahito Killed a Lot of Fan Favorites
The number one reason why everyone hates Mahito is because he was responsible for the deaths of many well-loved characters including Junpei Yoshino and Nanami Kento. Mahito manipulated the innocent Junpei and used him for his own plans before mercilessly killing him. Junpei is actually a good kid who just wants to escape from bullying and spend an ordinary life with good friends, yet Mahito killed him without any remorse. Since Junpei has gained the sympathy of many fans because of his situation, a lot of them were angered by Mahito’s action.
Another character who unfortunately died in Mahito’s hands is Nanami. Although he only appeared in several instances, Nanami is one of the most popular characters in the series. He ranked 5th in both character popularity polls organized by Shueisha in 2019 and 2022. As such, many fans were devastated when he was killed by Mahito during the Shibuya Incident in Chapter 120 of the manga.
Apart from Junpei and Nanami, there’s also a possibility that Mahito killed Nobara during the Shibuya Incident. However, Nobara’s death remains unconfirmed since we haven’t seen any physical evidence of her death.
Mahito is Pure Evil
Most anime villains always have some sort of goal that justifies their actions. This goal gives meaning to their actions and allows the viewers to understand why they committed such actions. Aside from that, the author usually gives them a meaningful backstory to make the viewers sympathize with the bad guy.
However, Mahito is nothing like that. He was written as someone who is evil for the sake of it. He is unapologetically petty and cruel with no redeeming qualities. He uses real human beings for his ruthless experiments simply because he just wants to. Most importantly, he doesn’t have an ounce of sympathy or remorse in his body. He only exists to cause suffering to our heroes so it’s not surprising that Mahito is the least favorite character in the series.
A Well-Written Villain Despite Everything
We know that Mahito’s character is horrible and his actions are completely unforgivable, but we cannot deny that he is such a well-written villain. Let’s admit it: sometimes it is refreshing to see a villain who doesn’t remind you of their tear-jerking backstory every time they do something horrible. After all, he is only fulfilling his role as a villain: to become the most insufferable character in the series and make everyone’s lives miserable. He was not meant to be likeable in the first place.
It is also interesting to note that Mahito literally exists because of humans. He was born because humans have so much hatred and jealousy against each other. Technically, it is humanity’s fault that someone as abominable as Mahito exists. It makes you wonder if we should really put all the blame on Mahito.
Furthermore, unlike other shounen villains, Mahito was not yet powerful when he first appeared. He was a newly-born cursed spirit at the beginning of the series so he was obviously weak compared to other cursed spirits. However, we witnessed his gradual development throughout the series and we saw how Mahito became stronger and more fearsome in each fight.
Overall, he is an interesting character who also serves as the perfect foil to the main hero. The fact that Mahito’s character was able to stir up negative emotions from fans only means that Gege Akutami wrote an effective villain.