Jujitsu Kaisenlike other major shonen series, has its own separate system and power currency. Cursed energy forms the basis of both the series’ antagonists and the means to fight them.
The series started off on a relatively darker note compared to series like Naruto and Hunter x Hunter. So it’s no surprise that this series’ power system has its roots in the darker aspects of the human psyche.
With recent manga chapters revealing Kenjaku’s connection to the West and plans related to the Culling Game, the significance of cursed energy in the story increases even further. This article attempts to define what cursed energy is, and discuss its nature and role Jujitsu Kaisen.
Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the Jujitsu Kaisen manga.
Cursed energy in it Jujitsu Kaisen is born of negative human emotions
What is Cursed Energy?
In the Jujitsu Kaisen universe, cursed energy is defined as a force that comes from negative human emotions such as sadness, anger and fear. But other emotions related to human vices, such as guilt, envy, hatred, and gluttony, can also generate cursed energy in humans.
Cursed energy is present in almost everyone, but in a very small percentage of the population, the concentration of this energy is high enough to see cursed ghosts.
Cursed Ghosts, often referred to as curses, are beings created purely from cursed energy, born from an accumulation of negative human emotions. Primordial curses within Jujitsu Kaisen like Jogo, Hanami and Dagon have been around for centuries, born out of people’s fear of natural disasters like volcanoes, floods or the terrifying side of nature.
In stark contrast, Mahito is a relatively new cursed spirit, born out of feelings of envy, hatred, and ill-will humans have toward other humans. Generally invisible to the naked eye, humans can sometimes gain the ability to see curses while dying at the hands of a cursed spirit, as the risk of being cursed causes their cursed energy to spike.
This is because the concept of cursed energy is fatalistic depending on both human emotion and the risk to the user’s life.
How cursed energy makes jujitsu possible
In Jujitsu Kaisen, jujutsu wizards are people with heightened levels of cursed energy, who can see curses and use their own energy to fight back against them. Since cursed spirits are made of pure energy, they cannot be killed by normal means and can only be exorcised using jujutsu techniques.
At the beginning of the series, Gojo explains to Itadori that cursed energy can be compared to electricity, a versatile fuel that can be used to strengthen one’s body and weapon and even increase the impact of a physical blow, as is the case in Itadori’s Divergent. Fist.
Reinforcement is not a cursed technique, however, as it merely covers the object without performing any specific task.
Gojo explained that most wizards are born with an affinity for specific cursed techniqueswhich function like electrical devices, manipulating cursed energy to perform a particular function.
A wizard’s rank and skill level Jujitsu Kaisen usually depends on their proficiency with their individual cursed technique and the amount of cursed energy they possess.
Each wizard and cursed ghost also has a distinct energy signature, known in the series as “residuals.” Powerful wizards can detect such remnants to identify jujutsu users and also cover their own tracks.
Seasoned wizards can also sense the cursed energy production of someone using jujutsu, helping them gauge how powerful their ally or opponent might be.
Cursed energy as a source of energy
Jujitsu Kaisen has been dropping subtle clues about the true importance of cursed energy from the beginning of the series. During the Gojo’s past arc, Yuki Tsukumo discussed how the flow of cursed energy in wizards was significantly greater than that of non-wizards, who were adept at preventing energy from leaking out and being wasted.
She suggested that if every person in the world became a wizard, there wouldn’t be enough cursed energy for curses to arise.
But it was during the infamous Shibuya Incident arc from Jujitsu Kaisen that the true potential of cursed energy was introduced. Yuki tried to buy time by engaging Kenjaku in conversation, stating that the next stage of evolution was to separate humans from cursed energy.
But the villain disagreed, insisting it was due to cursed energy optimization. This led Yuki to point out that such a plan was flawed, as both wizards and curses were rare outside of Japan, leaving Japanese as the only ones who could become wizards.
Kenjaku then used Mahito’s Idle Transfiguration to remove the Clearance gamea tournament to kill or be killed for wizards.
The immortal wizard Tengen revealed that Kenjaku’s intent was to collect cursed energy from contestants and force a nationwide evolution of non-wizards by merging them with Tengen. But the body-hopping wizard’s real plan turned out to be something much more sinister, for which a major clue was dropped Jujitsu Kaisen chapter 167, showing him meeting with Chinese officials.
Jujutsu Kaisen Chapter 201 Preview: A terrifying plan. The choice of the superpower country is..?! Release date: Monday, October 17. https://t.co/p5UKpd1zMM
Jujitsu Kaisen chapter 200 eventually pulled back the curtains and revealed that Kenjaku was assembling powerful nations, including the US, to send military personnel to Japan during the Culling Game and kidnap the surviving wizards.
The chapter explored the possibility of using cursed energy as an alternative energy source, with the potential to one day replace conventional fossil fuels.
Kenjaku’s meeting at the White House, even convinced the officials that a wizard as powerful as Gojo could have enough cursed energy to single-handedly power an entire country, leading them to agree to use the kidnapped wizards as lab rats to study cursed energy.
Final thoughts
Cursed energy forms the backbone of the Jujitsu Kaisen universe, the basis of everything related to jujutsu. Interestingly, cursed energy itself is completely dependent on humans, which further increases its thematic significance in the story.
While there are anomalies such as Maki and Toji, whose celestial limitations robbed them of all cursed energy in exchange for superior physical and sensory reflexes, they are not completely free from the bonds of cursed energy as they must rely on cursed tools to exorcise curses.
