Sukuna is Hisoka on steroids. Just like probably the most iconic character in Hunter x Hunter, the king of curses is loved for his charisma, is purely driven by his sadistic hedonism and serves as a complete wild card in the story, helping both the heroes and the villains, just as often as he likes to hurt or straight out ignore them, always looking for a way to benefit himself. And yet, despite his cruelty, selfishness and darkness, just like the psychopathic clown, the king of curses is as popular with fans as most of the "good guys".
What exactly is it that makes Sukuna so fascinating to watch? As I've already mentioned in previous videos, Akutami loves taking popular tropes from anime and manga, merge them and improve on them. and so, it comes as no big surprise that Sukuna emerges as one of the most rounded, complex and intriguing villains, I have ever come across.
So let's discuss his background, his role in the Story, his relationship to Itadori, Megumi and Gojo and whether or not he truly is all evil. This is the story of Ryoumen Sukuna. Sukuna is introduced in the story as the king of curses, who lived over a thousand years ago in the golden age of jujutsu in ancient Japan, where he was the most powerful being alive, despite being an actual human.
As Akutami clarified in an interview however, he wasn't so much a cursed user as a "natural calamity. " Apparently he still remembers his past life as a human as well. After his death however, he became a cursed spirit, so powerful, that his body could not be destroyed, but had to be divided into parts and sealed away.
- My god. This man akutami really has a rich imagination to come up with something like - hm? - aaaand I'm being told that that this is actually based on Japanese History.
It's time for a short Japanese history lesson. Because, as it turns out, Ryoumen Sukuna, is actually a historic figure. Well, kind of.
This person is mentioned in the second oldest record of Japans history, the Nihon Shoki, completed in the 8th century ad. Admittedly though, parts of it cross heavily into mythology and shinto religion, so it is often impossible to separate legend from fact. In this book however, that is filled with myths and politics alike, Sukuna is described as a demon-like person, significantly taller than any human with two faces, two arms and two legs.
The epithet Ryoumen by the way, literally meaning two-faced. He is said to have appeared in Hida prefecture, todays Gifu, that you can see on the map here, see, here's Tokyo, that didn't exist back then, that's Gifu. I don't want you finishing this video without having learned anything.
Anyways. Here he terrorized the people, until a brave military commander was able to expel him from the land. Interestingly enough however, while the Nihon Shoki described him as a villain and an enemy of the emperor, people in Hida and Mino Provinces treated Ryomen-sukuna as a hero and benefactor and worshipped him.
And there is actually a shrine dedicated to Sukuna still existing in Gifu prefecture, which a statue - that - doesn't look quite as cool as this. [switch between epic sukuna anime and that statue with epic loud music and derpy quiet music] Bless Anime. Now, since there is still very little that we know about him, I think the best way to understand Sukuna's character is by looking at his three most defining relationships so far, that each give us a different perspective on his personality.
These relationships are Gojo, Itadori and Megumi, who has long been teased to play a central role in the story. As you might remember from my analysis of gojo's character, there are a lot parallels between these two. Being the two most self-centered and individualistic characters in the story, both were introduced pretty much at the same time, right at the beginning of the story, one as the strongest sorcerer and one as the king of curses.
And the two of them clearly share this incredible aura of power, superiority and total control, especially during battle. next to their immense charisma, both of them also value strength over all else. In a way though, both are also incredibly immature and cruel, playing with other people, and especially Sukuna turning every fight into a game.
These parallels that akutami draws between the two, strongly suggest, that these two will face off again at some point in the story. And yet, there are also some striking differences between the two, that I think will help us explain sukuna's character a little better. The most fundamental difference here, is of course that gojo is a good guy and sukuna a baddy.
But since we are dealing with a lot of morally grey and quite complex characters here, let's not be that superficial. The main moral difference between the two lies in their approach towards the central moral question of jujutsu Kaisen. What constitutes a good life worth living?
For gojo, the answer here is strength itself. When you are strong you can use that strength to shape the world as you please, which in gojo's case means helping those he cares for. Sukuna's approach is quite similar.
However for him, a life worth living is the most extreme form of hedonism, as he uses his power to satisfy any of his desires, which often include the mental or physical tormentation of others. Gojo’s self confidence, always using his strength for the sake of others and trying to make a better world as he sees fit are all good things, but the fact that he believes no matter how strong he becomes no matter how hard he fights he’ll always die alone because it’s not worth becoming close to others in the Jujutsu World is the tragedy of his character. Whereas Sukuna in contrast either doesn’t care or has reached a point of no return, having become numb to the world around him na living purely for and relying only on himself.
Same as with Hisoka however, as modern neuro science has found, hedonism and living out each and every one of your desires is anything but equal to being happy or being fulfilled. Instead, this sort of hedonistic lifestyle, speaks for some sort of deep trauma in the past. Daniel Kahneman, an Israeli psychologist, introduced the concepts of the experinencing, vs the remembering self.
The Experiencing Self is the one that is experiencing the emotional state in the moment, like eating chocolate ice cream or you know tormenting the teenager you are stuck in, while the remembering self is the memory of the experienced moment looking back. Thus, while relaxing at the beach in some resort is probably a lot more fun while you're there, exploring the history of Rome in the heat of summer may suck while you're there, but makes for way richer memory when thinking back to it. And bringing this all the way back to sukuna, when someone is only living purely driven by the experiencing self, this usually means you prefer not to engage to much with your past and long-term consequences.
What this tells us about the sadistic king of courses, who used to be human after all, is that he probably had a quite tragic past, that drove him into abandoning his humanity. So, unlike Mahito, who Akutami described as being evil by nature, I expect Sukuna to have a much more complex background as to why he became as cruel and lust-driven as he has. That will be one hell off a backstory for sure.
Coming back to our comparison, while Gojo was pretty much born with ridiculous strength and perception, and thus was used to having the upper hand in battle, Sukuna, despite his power, is surprisingly focused during all his battles. No matter if against gojo or Megumi, he is always analyzing his opponent, trying to figure out exactly whats going on, so he can counter as efficiently as possible. As he mentions, he appears to have an extremely detailed understanding of what curses, cursed energy and true jujutsu really are.
All of this would make a lot of sense, if sukuna had to struggle his way to the top from basically rock-bottom. One last important parallel between Gojo and Sukuna, in contrast to their individualism is their approach to others. While they both prefer to rely on their own power, they both long to understand those around them, even if for different reasons.
Sukuna’s one redeeming feature for now, is that when people are strong he will acknowledge them and actually finds them interesting, as we can see with Megumi. But bottom line is, Sukuna is so focused on strength, to try and fill the emptiness inside him, by satisfying his every desire. Funnily enough, he shares that trait not only with Gojo, but also with the main character, Itadori Yuji.
He is the third person, who also thinks that power will help him live a good life by trying to save as many people as possible. And in regards to their relationship, Sukuna not only bares similarities to Hisoka, but also unites elements from stories like Naruto, Bleach or Attack on Titan: The trope of the vessel. Just like Naruto and Eren, Itadori Yuji also serves as the container for a source of immeasurable, destructive power, that allow them to play way above their league.
However, while the titan powers lack any personality in themselves, and Kuruma turns out to be a lonely, misunderstood and used creature, that doesn't want to get involved with Naruto or his life, Sukuna is an actual evil person, that constantly talks to Itadori and actively tries to harm him. In that sense, I think that the closest comparison that we can draw is with bleach, and by that I mean the good part of Bleach, and that is with Hichigo, Ichigo's dark self. An aspect of the self that is presented as an antagonist.
Have you ever wondered, why Sukuna looks so much like Yuji? We never see the face he originally had, he always specifically takes Itadori’s form. As we know, while the part of sukuna inside Itadori would die, if he were to die, the parts of his soul in the remaining fingers would survive.
So this Sukuna we have met, in a unique way seems to be tied to Itadori. Whenever Itadori can't control his darkest emotions like fear or anger, he starts to loose control over Sukuna, in other words giving in to his own hedonistic instincts. For example, once Itadori consciously acknowledges his anger towards Todo, he’s able to deal with it in a more healthy way.
And so, just like Ichigo had to take control over his shadow self to use his powers, similarly it will be necessary for Itadori to take control over sukuna, who only acknowledges strength, In order to actually profit form his powers and keep him from hurting others and especially himself. Because the only person Sukuna is actually fixated on, is not Itadori, whom he simply finds irritating, but Megumi Fushiguro. What a transition.
Fushiguro in himself is such a fantastic character, that he deserves a video of his own, which will be the next one after this. Luckily, Sukuna is not exactly interested in Fushiguro for his personality, but for his abilities. The connection between the two has been hinted at since their encounter during the cursed womb arc.
And just to get it out of the way: of course Sukuna wants to use Fushiguro for his own purposes. Either to regain his own body or to take on gojo, once he has. These statements were triggers for both Megumi and the audience alike, but for different reasons.
Sukuna’s words show that he has an interest in Megumi and his ability while giving the audience a more in-depth idea of Sukuna’s tauntful personality . At the same time they actually help Fushiguro to grow, something Sukuna keeps encouraging. In this moment Megumi prepares to use what Gojo calls his “Trump Card” an attack that is unconfirmed in nature, but seemingly is the end all be all for Megumi.
And funnily enough, both him and Gojo have much more faith in his abilities than he himself seems to. Whatever he sees in Megumi, it seems to make it worth reviving Itadori and staying in his body, something he's not exactly enjoying. Yuji being a one in a million potential vessel was a breaking point for Sukuna to once again feel human flesh but we know he doesn’t want to stay in Yuji’s body permanently, why not?
After all, Yuji can control his possession and can become stronger as he absorbs more fingers. And should he die, the fingers within him would actually die, unlike with curses where the fingers would just appear where the curse once was as they cannot be destroyed by normal means.
