Yuji Itadori in Jujutsu Kaisen - An Analytical Dive

Yuji itadori is the main character of jujitsu kaisen he is also the character who has arguably suffered the most in the entire story today I will attempt to peel back the several layers of his character in hopes of trying to understand what his purpose is to understand the story G akutami is trying to tell with Yuji front and center as the main set of eyes we view this broken world through a boy with terrible identity issues a warped sense of selfworth an unrealistic view on his role in the world and a disdain for his existence as a whole Yuji has debilitating problems in his self-esteem yet still clings to life he still manages to keep walking regardless of what awaits him on the path he has paved unfortunately for the boy the likes of rien sukuna and Mr brain only view him as a chess piece on a board a hopeless weak child who doesn't stand in the way of their goals but rather can be used for their benefit time and time again the main antagonists of the story have used yuji's existence as a tool to further themselves in their own goals which only serves to punish him further the boy whose self-proclaimed life purpose is to help people and prevent the death of innocence is forced to kill an ungodly amount of humans and thus burden the most heinous crime committed in the story on his own shoulders this video is constructed in a way where we will assess yuji's character chronologically thus making safe and friendly for anime only viewers for about half the video once we reach the yet to be adapted manga material I'll give a disclaimer and War everybody watching of the spoilers I'll be diving into with that being said let's Dive Right into this yuji's role as the protagonist of jujitsu kaisen is rather simple there is one thing above all that gives him claim to be the main character and that thing is existing as sukuna vessel in typical battles shown and fashion Yuji is a special being whose body is able to control sukuna without a problem gjo even states in the second chapter that only once every thousand years or so there such a person with a phenomenal ability like this appear the whole premise of JuJu suisen is that Yuji will consume all 20 of suk's fingers and then be executed in order to permanently seal him away to put them very bluntly these are yuji's motivations these are his reasons for existing he was thrust into this situation forced between a rock and a hard place either be executed for foolishly eating SU finger or devote his life to killing curses for the same people threatening to execute him the only present relative in his life the only person who loved Yuji unconditionally had died essentially rendering him an orphan I've actually seen various complaints about the framing of this scene the death of yuji's grandfather is treated as the Lynch pin of the story the event that sets everything in motion and shapes yuji's mindset as he is introduced into the world of the supernatural A Moment Like This would typically be given a lot more emotional weight it should be treated as something you'd think back on as Where it All Began evoking intense emotions about Yuji and his journey this is where his Journey Begins after all but it's not like that at all yuji's reaction is very muted he does shed some tears but he just casually goes on with his life in a few hours I've always found that to be a bit bizarre why is this kid who just lost his only relative who is now alone in the world not scared or worried about what what's coming for him to understand the answers to those questions we'll have to wind it back just a little to before his grandfather died Yuji was a pretty popular kid a super friendly guy that everybody felt comfortable talking to and cracking jokes with but at the same time not really close to anybody there's not a single character who sticks out as a close friend to Yuji we are literally introduced to him having this run-of-the-mill Japanese High School sports club battle that you'd expect from something like Gintama he has incredible natural Talent B and is a perfect fit for all kinds of sports yet he chooses to be in the aqual research Club simply because he felt needed there he wasn't needed for the survival of the sports club that would be something he would join for himself but the oul research club would be cancelled if he had not join them and so in a sense Yugi views his choice as something only he could do he has constantly shown prioritizing the wishes of others before his own and this kind of approach to rationalizing his choices is actually one of yuji's greatest weaknesses in a sense he was just coasting through life an empty vessel filled by the hopes and wishes of others incredibly selfless and definitely to a fault his grandfather's death and final words only push him further down this toxic path of self- neglect and so no wonder he leaps at the opportunity to once again do something only he can do but this time it wouldn't just keep a school club running it would save an innumerable amount of lives he became a vessel of Darkness a chamber for the king of curses consuming fingers synonymous with literal evil incarnate he essentially gives up his life for this role fully acknowledging that death is all that awaits him at the end of this path this is all strengthened by the nature of curses in the world of Jutsu kaisen the burden that every sorcerer must carry and the harsh reality of jiujitsu society that corrupted suguru ghetto just over a decade prior Sorcerers exist to kill curses curses are born from Human negativity but they are invisible to the bulk of humanity the system the jiujitsu world is designed around is incredibly unfair it expects Sorcerers to carry the burden of all evil in the world for the sake of the greater good to give up their agency to accept their roles and become cogs in the machine they are rendered incapable of feeling individually important they can only find Value together as a society just as a cog is something that cannot exist alone judisu Sorcerers require one another for the machine that is the world itself to function smoothly it's the age-old debates of the lives of a few versus the lives of the many and Yuji chooses the latter willfully discarding his own individuality and allowing a terrible monster to exist within the depths of his soul for the greater good of humanity to help people as he puts it and as one would expect from a story that consistently calls the corruption of this broken Society into question yuji's motivations which align with the jiujitsu world is also framed under the spotlight funnily enough Yaga is the first one to call yuji's mentality into question which I think is incredibly neat writing the mentality Yuji holds is highly regarded within Jujitsu Society it makes Sorcerers function as mindless soldiers dedicated to a common goal that can easily be manipulated by the higher-ups and fuel this exploitative system but here's the principle of jiujitsu high school a man in a position of authority within this Society calling that very mentality into question with time we learn how Yaga and by extension Goro are different or at the very least try their hardest to exist outside of this mentality even if to no avail this adds a lot of texture to the World building of the series and functions as a necessary counterbalance to the one track mind that is so cherished within this Society Yaga scorns yuji's way of going about things all the way at the beginning of the story is it going to be your grandfather's fault when you get killed by a curse so you're going to fight curses because someone else asked you to this scene is framed in the most most typical battle Shonen fashion possible the main character has entered a new world and in front of him lies his first obstacle in the pursuit of his goals the protagonist proves his worth his dedication to the cause and showcases a fiery resolve to do what must be done but the most interesting thing about this entire scene is the fact that this is not framed as a good thing the framing of yuji's characteristics can be a bit misleading the simple idea of helping people which can be found somewhere in almost every showen in history his is typically framed as a good thing it's altruistic it's selfless the well-being of others at the Forefront of one's mind before even themselves is surely a good thing right that's what Yugi does he puts his life on the line for the sake of others time and time and time again but I think that's a pretty reductive view of his motivations and if we peer into what Yugi actually feels rather than what he just says out loud there are some interesting discoveries chapter 3 where Yuji is tested by Yaga is titled for myself and the cover page shows Yuji visiting his grandfather's grave yaga's entire test is essentially forcing Yuji to tell the truth because people are more honest when their backs are against the wall when asked why he is prepared to dedicate himself to this difficult life of exorcism he attributes his purpose to fulfilling his grandfather's last request Yugi states that he's not concerned with the details he just wants to help people this alone is a fantastic Showcase of Yugi's quite childish black and white way of viewing the world which later comes to bite him still this shows yuji's selfless qualities which are coveted by the higher-ups of jiujiu society but upon saying this Yaga is annoyed and tells him he's disqualified saying it would have been better if you told me you were doing it just to postpone your execution a selfish motivation when forced to think introspectively Yuji reaches an answer that does gain yager's respect and allows him to pass this trial as previously stated Yuji wants to do something that nobody else can do he is thinking selfishly this starkly cont his previous answer which was inherently selfless only concerned with the last request of his grandfather someone other than himself yuji's true colors are finally shown the mask has been lifted and his real motivations are unveiled the simple idea of helping people is deconstructed in the third chapter of the manga yuji's actions are inherently selfless he does consistently put his life In Harm's Way for the sake of others yet it is all born from a selfish desire to have purpose in the world it just so happens to be that this selfish desire makes him do utterly selfless things in a way Yugi thinks other people exist to validate his own existence there's this quote that goes the measure of who we are is what we do with what we have in other words what we put out into the world defines Us in that sense Yuji is selfless but we should never forget the core of his motivations and why he puts that energy out into the world in the first place another interesting thing about this scene is that in establish iori's motivations in the story as grasping a role only he can fulfill something only he can do jiujitsu kaisen comes across as rather self-aware as this is also treated as his role from an external storytelling perspective the premise of jujitsu kaisen is that Yuji is the only one who can live as suk's vessel to collect all 20 of his fingers consume them all and then die having felt accomplished in helping people once again very reminiscent of the Cog mentality that jiujitsu Society cherishes but not quite this is just the scaffolding the structure is completed when Yugi is hardened and tempered by the night of October 31st in the distant future the key takeaway here though is the language used when Yuji is considered the language consistently adheres to this self-aware pattern acknowledging itadori as the main character of jiujitsu kaisen keep this in your mind as it's going to be important later on over the course of the story leading up to Shibuya we learn a lot about Yuji but never enough it always feels incomplete and this is solely because of yuji's terrible habit of bottling up his emotions yuji's feelings are seriously repressed right from the very beginning look at this panel where he's talking to goo and he States I'm wondering why the heck I have to be executed his emotions bubble to the surface in the form of his words but his behavior and his attitude don't reflect them he's concerningly Carefree despite the gravity of the situation he is living in his resolve is simple and straightforward which Goro is shown to appreciate and if you know anything about Goro and how he conducts himself this is not a good thing gjo like Yuji is a man on a mission and he views the Next Generation as the ultimate tool to achieving his goals somebody like Yuji who doesn't question things who throws himself into near-death experiences without any concern for his own well-being is a powerful tool to be used it's also noteworthy that Goro calls him crazy as early as chapter 4 and gjo is a pretty good judge of character looking at the first 80 chapters of juujuu kaisen on the macro yuji's character writing is rather cyclical a cycle of self- neglect Yuji bottles things up explodes then goes right back to bottling things up any psychologist will tell you that repressing your negative emotions is incredibly unhealthy by repressing things you doom yourself to constant suffering rather than facing your problems and hopefully conquering them you're running away from your problems pretending they don't exist the first time we see this is when Yuji faces off against the special grade in cursed womb everything he should have been confronting from the very beginning his constant thoughts of death the pain and hurt of putting his life on the line all of this is finally acknowledged By Yuji the regret of his impulse decision to swallow the finger that decided the trajectory of his life or wrapped in the final request of his late grandfather these thoughts and emotions were there since the very beginning and someone who is mentally healthy would have confronted these feelings but instead Yuji allowed them to Fester within the depths of his mind and heart until they were forced out of him in a near-death experience the resolve to die he thought he had has been taken from him as he breaks down in tears at his own helplessness but then he does manage to survive and ironically goes back to being the exact same person he was before a goofy happy go-lucky bubble of joy that emanates happiness wherever they go a textbook coping mechanism for those living with repressed negative emotions this cycle repeats once more in the very next Arc yuji's repressed emotions are forced to the surface by mahit who pushes him into a state of Extreme Rage you'd expect such a traumatizing incident to have had a significant effect on Yuji for him to have changed following his interactions with jume for being unable to save jume but then the goodw comes along and Yuji just seems like the exact same Yuji as before this is all of course intentional and building up to his breaking point in Shibuya the boy considers himself a loner his reason for becoming a sorcerer is to help lot of people so that he can be surrounded by them in death such a friendly approachable kid considering himself a loner speaks volumes about Yuji how he views his relationships with goo megumi and noara and everybody else as conditional how he never opens up to those around him and leaves his real emotions to fester in darkness this is why he keeps secrets from Megami because despite how much they love each other he cannot view their relationship as unconditional friendship he doesn't want to be a burden on megumi's mind the last thing I want to address regarding yuji's fundamentals before we dive into shuya is his treatment within the narrative as the protagonist of the story I've already addressed the language used in some Yuji scenes and how his motivations are completely contingent upon the functional role he serves within the story as the main character he does what he does because he thinks he's the only one who can do it but how true is that really does Yugi get special treatment as the MC I don't think so at least not in a conventional way the story does not treat Yugi any differently from the rest of its characters so much so some of the most popular Yuji slander is that he is not the main character of his own story while I obviously don't agree with that take it's more than understandable and very easy to see where it comes from we rarely ever feel like Yuji is special in comparison to everybody else that is not to say Yuji has nothing about him that is special because he does but I think the framing takes precedence over what is actually the case in this regard to sufficiently illustrate my point I would have have to dive into manga territory which I will not be doing until after the Shibuya segment of the video so with that being said let's dive right into the night that changed everything the Shibuya incident takes all of yuji's fundamentals and deconstructs them placing them under a microscope and having Yuji suffer like never before questioning his ideals and everything he thinks he knows about himself only to build these fundamentals back up in a very similar fashion by the end of the night I say similar because it's not quite the same the Crux of his mentality is the same both before and after Shibuya but the extent to which he takes this mentality is night and day by the end of the incident Yuji has completely discarded his own agency and rendered himself a thoughtless tool without meaning or reason but we'll get into that shortly the night of October 31st is a product of careful and methodical Planning by the antagonists with Yuji itadori seemingly at the center of their plans at least originally there are two essential compon opponents to this plan the first being to immobilize satoru Goro and the second being to Ally with the king of curses both necessary prerequisites to the cursor's ultimate goal of eliminating all non Sorcerers from the world to Ally with sukuna they must free him from yuji's body and this ties into what I was just talking about Yuji being given special Focus it's not really a privilege here so much as it is a curse that will follow him as long as suket exists within him but it does contribute to the sense that Yuji holds extreme significance within the narrative that's what chapter 10 accomplished the introduction of the supposed main villains with Yuji at the Forefront of their minds at the exact same time Yuji is presumed dead these two scenes transitioning into one another is incredibly intentional that said we arrive at Shibuya and the villain's plans have completely changed besides joro none of them really care about allying with sukuna anymore what was once framed as a necessary prerequisite to their plans has now become Plan B nothing more than a contingency plan mahito being mahit just wants to torment Yuji choso wants to avenge his brothers and Mr brain well who the hell knows what's going on inside this Fell's head the subtlety of this is significant though because it reframes yuji's significance in The Narrative of shuuya he stops being the center of attention and the following chapters take this even further through his battle against Chaw when faced with an enemy he does not believe he can defeat without putting his life on the line Yuji relegates himself to the role of a supporting character he acknowledges that he does not need to be the one who saves Goro even if it means dying this is his role and he Embraces that to die for the sake of everyone else as a porn on their side of the board an entirely selfless gesture and this is where jiujitsu kisan's framework becomes especially important as we have seen through various different characters that selflessness is not always a good thing it can be careless foolish and self-destructive and on the flip side selfishness is not necessarily A Bad Thing megumi is the perfect case study for this in the anime material this child prodigy had unconsciously shut off his own potential prior to the origin of obedience and fought this special grade cursed selfishly in the past he fought solely worrying about the well-being of others and hindered his own potential for growth out of a dependency on his ultimate shikigami in worst case scenarios remembering sukuna his ideals of strength the way he scorned him for running away from the curse allowed him to picture a future Megami who can support pass his limits and that's exactly what he did In This Moment of selfishness he achieved the Pinnacle of a sorcerer's potential and although incomplete it was exactly what he needed to survive this Death Match Yuji suffers a great deal over the course of Shibuya at the hands of both sukuna and mahito two characters who care about nothing other than themselves first the king of curses joro who ironically reinforces yuji's narrative significance as someone whose sole motivation on this night is to make sukuna and Ally is the one who awakes the Beast as a result of foolishly forfeiting his life in the battle against Chaw and trusting in the mutual success of the sorcerers around him Yuji is unwillingly complicit in waking this monster what's interesting to consider is this scene between Yuji and megumi just before their separation following the battle against awaka if you die I'll kill you words Yuji snatched out of megami's mouth followed by a promise to see each other again Yuji sacrifices himself against Chaw and expects to death but all he did was give joro the perfect opportunity to force feed him multiple fingers and thus actively contribute to suk's rampage that defines the Knight but it wasn't just yuji's self-sacrifice that only served to make things worse immediately after summoning mahara and beginning the exorcism ritual that can only end in his death megumi recalls the promise he made to Yuji and apologizes declaring himself the first to pass on sukuna would have had no reason to use his domain and thus murder as many many people as he did had it not been for this selfless Act of sacrifice because both Yuji and megumi chose to die they unintentionally contributed to the greatest act of Terror the story has seen the narrative seems to consistently scorn these acts of extreme selflessness and it continues to do so for Yuji with no breaks in sight sua takes pleasure in handing control back to a broken Yuji who is forced to Bear witness to the destruction his own body carried out all those repressed thoughts his own words his grandfather's last request his reason for being all of this bubbles to the surface like vomit on the page as Yuji loses his mind and the way he sees it it's all his fault he's nothing but a murderer for being weak and failing to stay up against Chaw he paid the ultimate price but once again Yugi's response to this is to bury his feelings and keep them locked inside he needs to move he needs to fight slowly but surely he's sinking into darkness and losing his innocence becom coming a senseless Cog that fights almost on autopilot this panel really does speak for itself and the saddest thing is the suffering has only just begun as a mirror of humanity mahit serves as a mirror of itadori Yuji saves people without thinking and mahito kills people without thinking born of the hatred between people mahito is representative of Humanity's fears there is nothing Yugi fears more than powerlessness in the face of people's deaths jume is a clear Middle Ground between these to as after all a mirror is a reflection one can't exist without the other and so as long as Yuji tries to help people mahito will be there to kill them one thing to note about this Dynamic is that despite them both claiming they are one and the same they are in fact two opposite ends of the same Spectrum in fact in one clear difference is where maho's greatest strength can be found mahito submits to his nature he acts upon his instincts he toys with the lives of others and proudly runs away to save his own he does not hold himself to any set of morals he believes life has no weights or particular value it simply flows it simply exists and so if life has no value there's nothing telling him what he can and cannot do what he should or should not do and so he lives according to his whims he holds the quality sukka props up as the right way to carry yourself and reach unprecedented Heights above all though mahito exists to highlight yuji's main character complex and his delusions of Grandeur you see Yuji is consistently fluctuating between an unrealistic sense of self-importance and relegating himself to just a cog just a supporting character both are extreme and unhealthy states of mind that highlight yuji's greatest flaws his warped perspective on reality and his careless selflessness Yuji is constantly ascribing meaning to events as a coping mechanism for the life he leads believing his life is this string of meaningful events and everything is ultimately heading to its ideal destination he has a role to play after all but nanami is killed right in front of his eyes and his final words serve as a double-edged sword they push Yuji on to continue fighting and move forward but they also curse him they make Yuji feel as if he has to do this for anami sake to carry his burden for him when in reality nanami would have been happier for Yuji had he attempted to retreat here and prioritize his own well-being just when he is reminded he is not alone noara is also killed right in front of his eyes and it is at this point that Yuji is completely worn down the lowest point he has reached in the story thus far he is ripped apart and exposed laying bare on the ground completely defeated losing to Cha suk's Massacre nanami's death and now the death of noara as stated by the narrator yuji's resolve had reached its limit a long time ago and to rub salt in the wound mahito lands a black flash on the one supposedly blessed by those same Sparks but the narrator quite literally goes back on their statement from origin of obedience claiming these Sparks do not choose who to bless you can think of the black flash as yuji's trump card in a sense as someone with no unique curse technique thus far this is his bread and butter this is his most powerful tool in his role of exercising curses and helping people mahito using the black flash completely robs that from him yuji's efforts in honing this technique was all for nothing he's left lying weak hopeless and terrified in yuji's greatest moment of weakness mahito Towers over him the narrator abandons him and reality presents itself this entire sequence of mahito assaulting Yuji and essentially forcing him to recognize the reality of his situation by scorning his mentality pointing out his delusions of self-importance and worst of all his moral standing in this conflict the reason mahito even has his speech is because he's on a high feeling Overjoyed at bringing misery to Yuji by killing noara in front of his eyes this is his instinctual desire he considers his ability to torment an exhilarating Talent proof of his nature as a curse and ultimately that's what this conflict boils down to Gig akutami wants to punish Yuji to such an extent even the most textbook evil nihilist villain of the story is someone Yugi can't even blame for their actions that's just the way the world works Sorcerers must forfeit their lives for Humanity as their minor problems breed catastrophes in the form of curses that these Sorcerers must live to exercise Yuji employs a black and white outlook on the world considering himself good while curses evil because he's just a kid who already has too much on his plate and this is how he must rationalize things to keep on moving and that's what mahit to's Shibuya performance exists to highlight not just to us but more pertinently to Yugi himself it couldn't be more fitting then for to to intervene and save yuji's life as someone who exists as maho's ideological opposite maho's core belief is that life just flows in essence it is ephemeral fleeting and thus lacks value it doesn't matter because it comes and goes this is the mentality he adopts to satisfy his desires and do whatever he wants too is the complete opposite he enters quoting the tale of the he which is a very famous story in Japanese literature the first line of the quote is the sound of the gon sha Bells Echoes the impermanence of all things which outlines the central theme of the story life is fleeting but too includes a line at the end of his speech that isn't a part of the quote which completely goes against everything it stands for by declaring sorcerer as an exception he is rewriting the main point of the tale which is that all things are impermanent there are a lot of awesome implications for too's character but let's focus on Yuji too is perhaps the biggest influence on yuji's mentality even more so than the likes of goo and megumi despite having his back and loving him like a brother Toto's effect on Yuji is a double-edged sword he teaches him to repress his emotions to keep moving forward no matter what on a quest to find what you have been entrusted with by your Fallen comrades he is one of the biggest enforcers of the Cog mentality in the series making him one of judu society's biggest representatives in the framework of the story bear in mind he's a third-year student in high school todor loves life he loves feeling alive he is in tune with his cursed energy with mind body and soul and that cursed energy literally takes the form of hearts and so he will fight and die out of love for his brother which is incredibly ironic when you really think about it Yuji and too's friendship is literally built on memories of a past event that never happened mahit to's whole shtick is life has no meaning and his opponent's relationship is literally built on something that does not exist the commentary could not be more obvious with toor as a means of inspiration Yuji regains the will to keep moving but in turn he acknowledges that death would be the easy way out digging himself deeper into his misery something I find very interesting here is that he only thinks of taking on a share of nanami suffering because he's clinging to Nita's words please don't get your hopes up and this is how Yuji looks no survival is not a 0% chance and that is enough for him which I think further showcases Yugi's narrative logic thinking himself to be in a make believe story where everything will just work out some way somehow and here it does the Instinct of a curse lose to the so-called dignity obtained by human reason together too and Yuji defeat mahito in fact in one of the most decisive moments of the battle too with a single hand is saved by his innate human capacity to love life his locket distracts mahito for a split second which gives him the opportunity to clap his hand and quickly Escape which eventually allows him to pull off one of the greatest Bluffs in history and give Yuji the opportunity to land the decisive blow their joint efforts their teamwork is ultimately what saved their lives and won them this battle against mahor that's the difference between cursors and Sorcerers Yuji will continue fighting even if he cannot reject mahito or convince himself that mahito was wrong making him morally Superior now it's personal none of that matters anymore he no longer cares about justifying things he will keep killing curses for as long as he can can but even in this moment where the script has been flipped and Yuji is now towering over mahito as the white wolf chasing its prey Yugi still clings to the hope that his life will hold meaning even if it's at some point in the distant future he wants to matter more than anything his journey began because he wanted to do something only he could do and despite discarding his individual agency to exist is nothing more than a cog for judisu society Yuji still believes his role will pay dividends and that there will be some positive conclusion to his story a bit abrupt but that's all for the anime only material and here's your disclaimer from here on out there will be spoilers for manga content so anime only goodbye okay hopefully the anime only folk are all gone and I can start calling kenju by his name something I find incredibly impressive about Shibuya is that with how traumatizing it was for him it really does seem like the incident completely changed Yuji but that isn't really true that's not what happens his disposition definitely changes he loses that goofball happy go-lucky bubble of Joy side of his but this was always waiting for him on the path he chose to pave the role he had given himself the battle against mahito simply forced him to confront some of the repressed thoughts he had following Shibuya though Yuji becomes consumed by his role in all this a boy on a mission dedicated to jiujitsu society like never before even when branded a traitor set for execution by that same Society yuji's way of dealing with things is not framed as a good thing jitu Society being in need of Reform is a recurring theme in the manga we are consistently exposed to the corruption of the higher-ups and how nothing will ever improve so long as this system continues to exist Yuji is willfully sacrificing himself in an exploitative system that thrives on young children just like him he wants to help people he wants to help his comrades but he doesn't recognize the true cause of all his suffering Jujitsu Society is to blame and Yuji wants to become a cog for it to die for it to maintain it it's not a coincidence that the majority of characters on the protagonist side are very young and even the older generation like Gojo and nanami have been Tools in this system from a very young age Yuji wants to keep killing curses even after learning that not Every curse is bad Chaw is literally his older brother which just adds further irony to his goals Yugi unknowingly killed two of his own brothers and would have killed a third if he was a little stronger it's not because Yugi's a terrible person or because he doesn't recognize that things aren't so black and white but he intentionally adopts this unhealthy mindset of Simplicity he's so overwhelmed by everything he's experienced he doesn't want to confront any of his feelings and think about what he himself wants being a cog who just kills curses is easier than facing himself again this is a young boy revolting against the system that has existed since long before he was born isn't something he'd even naturally consider Yuji is still good-natured at his core he thinks the best of people and when taking that into consideration it becomes clear to see that his Cog mentality is simply A coping mechanism for living He is consumed by this suicidal survivors guilts and the battle against higuma is almost entirely centered around this Yuji willingly claims the crime of suk's Massacre while in a domain expansion that will theoretically kill him for his guilt and I think that fact in of itself says more than any amount of analysis can Maki exists as a foil to Yuji everything concerning her character post shuya is about breaking free from the chains of systems and embracing her own individuality she massacres the zenin clan crushing their ideology in the process this begins when she loses her sister ma she immediately kills her father destroys the kuuru unit she was once part of and then kills NAA as well as her own mother she completely cuts herself away from this clan by wiping them out of existence there's obviously so much more to mak's character but it should be clear to see how starkly she contrasts Yuji through that very simple description Yuji adheres to what Society expects of him whilst Maki revolts deciding things for herself individual agency versus conforming to societal standards that conflict is present in almost every single character and through Maki we can see how someone who isn't too different to Yuji in terms of personality and values can achieve achieve entirely different results based on how they direct their actions Yugi's narrative thinking demands him to enter the calling games with the objective of saving tsumiki and Gojo at the Forefront of his mind survive get enough points to free Tumi from the game acquaint with Angel and give her the back of the prison realm to free the strongest that's the ideal chain of events Yuji Works towards alongside the help of the other sorcerers and for a while it really did feel like everything was smooth sailing it would wouldn't be jiujitsu kaisen if when it finally seemed like things were working out for our protagonists and Gojo would soon return that everything went wrong thank you for giving me a role to play these are yuji's words at the start of chapter 212 as he contemplates the different events that led him to this position finally with megumi and tsumiki with enough points to free her from the game again we see yuji's flawed way of thinking and how he ascribes meaning to events like he lives in some make believe story it's exactly in that moment where yorozu reveals herself and destroys everything they had been working towards remember earlier in the video where I spoke about the transition between scenes in chapter 10 from kaku's plans for Shibuya to Yuji and suk's conversation and the depths of his soul the former has already been explained yuji's role as the centerpiece of the villain's plans was completely ditched rendering him just another guy present when everything went down on the night of Shibuya and the latter The Binding vow between Yuji and sukuna comes to fruition here it turns out Megami also has the potential to be a vessel for sukuna the one thing that gave Yugi narrative claim to be the protagonist has been stripped from him it turns out sukna never planned on staying in yuji's body from almost the start of the manga he has been orchestrating a long scheme to free himself from yuji's body and take over megum Instead This scheme was set in motion right from the very beginning when Yuji killed himself surviving this with literally zero consequences is something people would typically tribute to main character plot armor and I think that's exactly what gak kutami was aiming for yet as we now know the plan set in motion by sukka in that moment where yuji's main character privilege seemingly shined is all about Yuji not actually being special Suk could have freed himself whenever he wanted to he was just Bing his time and waiting for the perfect opportunity which presents itself just as things finally seem to be wrapping up for the best to rub further salt into the wound sua's strategy only succeeded because when Yuji made The Binding vow with him under restriction to not kill or hurt anyone for a minute Yuji did not include hurting himself as a part of that restriction thus allowing sukuna to rip off one of his fingers and force feed it to Megami in turn transferring his conscience to the 10 Shadow's curse technique user once again the story makes it clear that yuji's defined characteristic is also his greatest flaw his lack of regard for himself and his own well-being is exactly why he suffers time and time again mAh and yuji's dynamic parallels sukuna and megumi in many ways they are both curses and I say this with an asterisk for sukuna that represent the opposite of what the protagonists represents Yuji lives to help people so mahito hurts people megumi lives for his loved ones and Suk rejects the very notion of Love megumi is also the one to introduce us to the Cog mentality and through his character we can learn so much about Yuji there are several clearly intentional callbacks between what sukuna is doing to megumi current and what Suk did to Yuji in Shibuya possession of his body using his body to make him complicit in Murder by getting the blood on his hands then killing off his loved ones to weaken his resolve and sink his soul into despair you can think of the way sukuna uses tsumiki to sink megumi's soul in despair as a parallel to the way mahito toys with and kills jume to push itadori to the edge I think the natural outcome of all this is that megumi is going to completely lose his mind when he somehow regains his agency but that's a topic for another video the point of highlighting these parallels is to drive home the point of how everything that made Yuji special as the protagonist has been handed off to megumi's body which is being controlled by sukuna this illustrates how Yuji never really had control highlighting his delusions of self-importance maho's functional role in shuya is almost exactly the same as everything sukuna has been doing since hijacking megumi's body they play the same role as far as yui is concerned highlight yuji's lack of control over the flow of the story kill a friend kill a mentor and just torment him the uncertain nature of both noara and megumi statuses is a funny way in which this parallel comes together Yugi saying he's the same as mahit also reaffirms how he's the same as sukuna too again the difference is in how they project their mentalities onto the world and themselves yuji's self-hatred and Suicidal Thoughts come from a place of weakness he is too weak to help anyone or change anything and the contempt Suk has towards weak individuals is for a very similar reason because they have no ability to cause any change yet still cling to life but rather than projecting his feelings onto himself like Yuji does sua projects that onto people the ultimate point of all this analysis is to Showcase how yuji's role as the main character of jiujitsu kaisen has been explored both internally with Yuji as an individual and externally with how yuji's character interacts with the larger framework of the story I chose the title of this video because I think the idea of being a main character and what that constitutes has been explored in several ways with regards to Yuji it's not as simple as him having main character syndrome which is why I opted for the word complex to serve as a bit of a double on Tundra the one thing that gave him claim to be the protagonist of the story was not just a piece of kaku's plans but also not anything unique to him from the beginning kenju who has consistently been characterized as the schema behind everything anything that happens in the story goes from being interested in yuji's potential to barely caring about him besides his role as the trigger for sukuna Revival the things that make Yuji the MC are constantly devalued as the story progresses but it isn't so black and white Yuji is constantly suffering but that doesn't mean he has zero privileges as the story's main character he does still retain some favor in The Narrative and can be quite fortunate at times the kid has suffered he's been through hell on Earth and yet still astonishingly he has managed to hold on to his life the reason why people don't complain about too and Chaw having memories spawned into their heads or toor coming to save Yuji in the nick of time is because he is still constantly suffering there are countless instances in jjk where I could see people calling them plot armor if this was any other story at times Yuji actively wants to die he views it as the easy way out from his suffering and so in a Twisted Way by having him survive the story is punishing him even further as a final note Yuji has chosen to become a slave for an exploitative system that is the real root cause of all the suffering he has endured he has been brainwashed to believe that if he is strong enough he can overcome everything on his own which only serves to keep the Machinery running smoothly and Rob these cogs of agency while selling the dream that their contributions matter and that they are doing good for the world sukuna and Kaku are the active forces who wreak havoc upon the world but I'd argue the real villain of the series is jiujitsu society the system itself the hups are all dead yet still their philosophies linger it is ingrained in the characters themselves making it ever present in the narrative this is the system that branded Goro a terrorist the second they couldn't make use of his strength this is the system that had Yaga killed for next to no reason this is the system that ostracized hakari because they didn't like the complexity of his curse technique this is the system that wanted to to kill Yuji and Utah because that would be easier to deal with than Gojo's plans to keep them alive and nurture them into valuable assets the first mission Yugi goes on is literally a trap laid by the higher-ups to have him killed by a special grade curse and most significantly this is literally the system kenju has in the palm of his hands in order for this story to progress with Yuji as its main character he must break free from this system that has completely consumed him I myself think think we're approaching the perfect opportunity for this to happen and megumi will be at the center of yuji's epiphany the moral query of cursed womb the life of One Versus the life of many will be brought back up but this time it will be in the context of megumi and the survival of humanity as a whole I Envision a situation where everybody besides Yuji will be prepared to kill megumi in order to kill sukuna and that would be a pretty perfect trajectory for the story to take that being said I hope you guys enjoyed this video let a lot to talk about when it comes to Yugi and I tried to make this video as comprehensive as possible but I'm sure there are various interesting things that I failed to mention still I'm pretty proud of how this has turned out and I hope at least some of you guys have found some new appreciation for Yugi's character by watching this thank you all and please do leave a comment with your thoughts

Yuji itadori is the main character of jujitsu kaisen he is also the character who has arguably suffered the most in the entire story today I will attempt to peel back the several layers of his character in hopes of trying to understand what his purpose is to understand the story G akutami is trying to tell with Yuji front and center as the main set of eyes we view this broken world through a boy with terrible identity issues a warped sense of selfworth an unrealistic view on his role in the world and a disdain for his existence as a whole Yuji has debilitating problems in his self-esteem yet still clings to life he still manages to keep walking regardless of what awaits him on the path he has paved unfortunately for the boy the likes of rien sukuna and Mr brain only view him as a chess piece on a board a hopeless weak child who doesn&#39;t stand in the way of their goals but rather can be used for their benefit time and time again the main antagonists of the story have used yuji&#39;s existence as a tool to further themselves in their own goals which only serves to punish him further the boy whose self-proclaimed life purpose is to help people and prevent the death of innocence is forced to kill an ungodly amount of humans and thus burden the most heinous crime committed in the story on his own shoulders this video is constructed in a way where we will assess yuji&#39;s character chronologically thus making safe and friendly for anime only viewers for about half the video once we reach the yet to be adapted manga material I&#39;ll give a disclaimer and War everybody watching of the spoilers I&#39;ll be diving into with that being said let&#39;s Dive Right into this yuji&#39;s role as the protagonist of jujitsu kaisen is rather simple there is one thing above all that gives him claim to be the main character and that thing is existing as sukuna vessel in typical battles shown and fashion Yuji is a special being whose body is able to control sukuna without a problem gjo even states in the second chapter that only once every thousand years or so there such a person with a phenomenal ability like this appear the whole premise of JuJu suisen is that Yuji will consume all 20 of suk&#39;s fingers and then be executed in order to permanently seal him away to put them very bluntly these are yuji&#39;s motivations these are his reasons for existing he was thrust into this situation forced between a rock and a hard place either be executed for foolishly eating SU finger or devote his life to killing curses for the same people threatening to execute him the only present relative in his life the only person who loved Yuji unconditionally had died essentially rendering him an orphan I&#39;ve actually seen various complaints about the framing of this scene the death of yuji&#39;s grandfather is treated as the Lynch pin of the story the event that sets everything in motion and shapes yuji&#39;s mindset as he is introduced into the world of the supernatural A Moment Like This would typically be given a lot more emotional weight it should be treated as something you&#39;d think back on as Where it All Began evoking intense emotions about Yuji and his journey this is where his Journey Begins after all but it&#39;s not like that at all yuji&#39;s reaction is very muted he does shed some tears but he just casually goes on with his life in a few hours I&#39;ve always found that to be a bit bizarre why is this kid who just lost his only relative who is now alone in the world not scared or worried about what what&#39;s coming for him to understand the answers to those questions we&#39;ll have to wind it back just a little to before his grandfather died Yuji was a pretty popular kid a super friendly guy that everybody felt comfortable talking to and cracking jokes with but at the same time not really close to anybody there&#39;s not a single character who sticks out as a close friend to Yuji we are literally introduced to him having this run-of-the-mill Japanese High School sports club battle that you&#39;d expect from something like Gintama he has incredible natural Talent B and is a perfect fit for all kinds of sports yet he chooses to be in the aqual research Club simply because he felt needed there he wasn&#39;t needed for the survival of the sports club that would be something he would join for himself but the oul research club would be cancelled if he had not join them and so in a sense Yugi views his choice as something only he could do he has constantly shown prioritizing the wishes of others before his own and this kind of approach to rationalizing his choices is actually one of yuji&#39;s greatest weaknesses in a sense he was just coasting through life an empty vessel filled by the hopes and wishes of others incredibly selfless and definitely to a fault his grandfather&#39;s death and final words only push him further down this toxic path of self- neglect and so no wonder he leaps at the opportunity to once again do something only he can do but this time it wouldn&#39;t just keep a school club running it would save an innumerable amount of lives he became a vessel of Darkness a chamber for the king of curses consuming fingers synonymous with literal evil incarnate he essentially gives up his life for this role fully acknowledging that death is all that awaits him at the end of this path this is all strengthened by the nature of curses in the world of Jutsu kaisen the burden that every sorcerer must carry and the harsh reality of jiujitsu society that corrupted suguru ghetto just over a decade prior Sorcerers exist to kill curses curses are born from Human negativity but they are invisible to the bulk of humanity the system the jiujitsu world is designed around is incredibly unfair it expects Sorcerers to carry the burden of all evil in the world for the sake of the greater good to give up their agency to accept their roles and become cogs in the machine they are rendered incapable of feeling individually important they can only find Value together as a society just as a cog is something that cannot exist alone judisu Sorcerers require one another for the machine that is the world itself to function smoothly it&#39;s the age-old debates of the lives of a few versus the lives of the many and Yuji chooses the latter willfully discarding his own individuality and allowing a terrible monster to exist within the depths of his soul for the greater good of humanity to help people as he puts it and as one would expect from a story that consistently calls the corruption of this broken Society into question yuji&#39;s motivations which align with the jiujitsu world is also framed under the spotlight funnily enough Yaga is the first one to call yuji&#39;s mentality into question which I think is incredibly neat writing the mentality Yuji holds is highly regarded within Jujitsu Society it makes Sorcerers function as mindless soldiers dedicated to a common goal that can easily be manipulated by the higher-ups and fuel this exploitative system but here&#39;s the principle of jiujitsu high school a man in a position of authority within this Society calling that very mentality into question with time we learn how Yaga and by extension Goro are different or at the very least try their hardest to exist outside of this mentality even if to no avail this adds a lot of texture to the World building of the series and functions as a necessary counterbalance to the one track mind that is so cherished within this Society Yaga scorns yuji&#39;s way of going about things all the way at the beginning of the story is it going to be your grandfather&#39;s fault when you get killed by a curse so you&#39;re going to fight curses because someone else asked you to this scene is framed in the most most typical battle Shonen fashion possible the main character has entered a new world and in front of him lies his first obstacle in the pursuit of his goals the protagonist proves his worth his dedication to the cause and showcases a fiery resolve to do what must be done but the most interesting thing about this entire scene is the fact that this is not framed as a good thing the framing of yuji&#39;s characteristics can be a bit misleading the simple idea of helping people which can be found somewhere in almost every showen in history his is typically framed as a good thing it&#39;s altruistic it&#39;s selfless the well-being of others at the Forefront of one&#39;s mind before even themselves is surely a good thing right that&#39;s what Yugi does he puts his life on the line for the sake of others time and time and time again but I think that&#39;s a pretty reductive view of his motivations and if we peer into what Yugi actually feels rather than what he just says out loud there are some interesting discoveries chapter 3 where Yuji is tested by Yaga is titled for myself and the cover page shows Yuji visiting his grandfather&#39;s grave yaga&#39;s entire test is essentially forcing Yuji to tell the truth because people are more honest when their backs are against the wall when asked why he is prepared to dedicate himself to this difficult life of exorcism he attributes his purpose to fulfilling his grandfather&#39;s last request Yugi states that he&#39;s not concerned with the details he just wants to help people this alone is a fantastic Showcase of Yugi&#39;s quite childish black and white way of viewing the world which later comes to bite him still this shows yuji&#39;s selfless qualities which are coveted by the higher-ups of jiujiu society but upon saying this Yaga is annoyed and tells him he&#39;s disqualified saying it would have been better if you told me you were doing it just to postpone your execution a selfish motivation when forced to think introspectively Yuji reaches an answer that does gain yager&#39;s respect and allows him to pass this trial as previously stated Yuji wants to do something that nobody else can do he is thinking selfishly this starkly cont his previous answer which was inherently selfless only concerned with the last request of his grandfather someone other than himself yuji&#39;s true colors are finally shown the mask has been lifted and his real motivations are unveiled the simple idea of helping people is deconstructed in the third chapter of the manga yuji&#39;s actions are inherently selfless he does consistently put his life In Harm&#39;s Way for the sake of others yet it is all born from a selfish desire to have purpose in the world it just so happens to be that this selfish desire makes him do utterly selfless things in a way Yugi thinks other people exist to validate his own existence there&#39;s this quote that goes the measure of who we are is what we do with what we have in other words what we put out into the world defines Us in that sense Yuji is selfless but we should never forget the core of his motivations and why he puts that energy out into the world in the first place another interesting thing about this scene is that in establish iori&#39;s motivations in the story as grasping a role only he can fulfill something only he can do jiujitsu kaisen comes across as rather self-aware as this is also treated as his role from an external storytelling perspective the premise of jujitsu kaisen is that Yuji is the only one who can live as suk&#39;s vessel to collect all 20 of his fingers consume them all and then die having felt accomplished in helping people once again very reminiscent of the Cog mentality that jiujitsu Society cherishes but not quite this is just the scaffolding the structure is completed when Yugi is hardened and tempered by the night of October 31st in the distant future the key takeaway here though is the language used when Yuji is considered the language consistently adheres to this self-aware pattern acknowledging itadori as the main character of jiujitsu kaisen keep this in your mind as it&#39;s going to be important later on over the course of the story leading up to Shibuya we learn a lot about Yuji but never enough it always feels incomplete and this is solely because of yuji&#39;s terrible habit of bottling up his emotions yuji&#39;s feelings are seriously repressed right from the very beginning look at this panel where he&#39;s talking to goo and he States I&#39;m wondering why the heck I have to be executed his emotions bubble to the surface in the form of his words but his behavior and his attitude don&#39;t reflect them he&#39;s concerningly Carefree despite the gravity of the situation he is living in his resolve is simple and straightforward which Goro is shown to appreciate and if you know anything about Goro and how he conducts himself this is not a good thing gjo like Yuji is a man on a mission and he views the Next Generation as the ultimate tool to achieving his goals somebody like Yuji who doesn&#39;t question things who throws himself into near-death experiences without any concern for his own well-being is a powerful tool to be used it&#39;s also noteworthy that Goro calls him crazy as early as chapter 4 and gjo is a pretty good judge of character looking at the first 80 chapters of juujuu kaisen on the macro yuji&#39;s character writing is rather cyclical a cycle of self- neglect Yuji bottles things up explodes then goes right back to bottling things up any psychologist will tell you that repressing your negative emotions is incredibly unhealthy by repressing things you doom yourself to constant suffering rather than facing your problems and hopefully conquering them you&#39;re running away from your problems pretending they don&#39;t exist the first time we see this is when Yuji faces off against the special grade in cursed womb everything he should have been confronting from the very beginning his constant thoughts of death the pain and hurt of putting his life on the line all of this is finally acknowledged By Yuji the regret of his impulse decision to swallow the finger that decided the trajectory of his life or wrapped in the final request of his late grandfather these thoughts and emotions were there since the very beginning and someone who is mentally healthy would have confronted these feelings but instead Yuji allowed them to Fester within the depths of his mind and heart until they were forced out of him in a near-death experience the resolve to die he thought he had has been taken from him as he breaks down in tears at his own helplessness but then he does manage to survive and ironically goes back to being the exact same person he was before a goofy happy go-lucky bubble of joy that emanates happiness wherever they go a textbook coping mechanism for those living with repressed negative emotions this cycle repeats once more in the very next Arc yuji&#39;s repressed emotions are forced to the surface by mahit who pushes him into a state of Extreme Rage you&#39;d expect such a traumatizing incident to have had a significant effect on Yuji for him to have changed following his interactions with jume for being unable to save jume but then the goodw comes along and Yuji just seems like the exact same Yuji as before this is all of course intentional and building up to his breaking point in Shibuya the boy considers himself a loner his reason for becoming a sorcerer is to help lot of people so that he can be surrounded by them in death such a friendly approachable kid considering himself a loner speaks volumes about Yuji how he views his relationships with goo megumi and noara and everybody else as conditional how he never opens up to those around him and leaves his real emotions to fester in darkness this is why he keeps secrets from Megami because despite how much they love each other he cannot view their relationship as unconditional friendship he doesn&#39;t want to be a burden on megumi&#39;s mind the last thing I want to address regarding yuji&#39;s fundamentals before we dive into shuya is his treatment within the narrative as the protagonist of the story I&#39;ve already addressed the language used in some Yuji scenes and how his motivations are completely contingent upon the functional role he serves within the story as the main character he does what he does because he thinks he&#39;s the only one who can do it but how true is that really does Yugi get special treatment as the MC I don&#39;t think so at least not in a conventional way the story does not treat Yugi any differently from the rest of its characters so much so some of the most popular Yuji slander is that he is not the main character of his own story while I obviously don&#39;t agree with that take it&#39;s more than understandable and very easy to see where it comes from we rarely ever feel like Yuji is special in comparison to everybody else that is not to say Yuji has nothing about him that is special because he does but I think the framing takes precedence over what is actually the case in this regard to sufficiently illustrate my point I would have have to dive into manga territory which I will not be doing until after the Shibuya segment of the video so with that being said let&#39;s dive right into the night that changed everything the Shibuya incident takes all of yuji&#39;s fundamentals and deconstructs them placing them under a microscope and having Yuji suffer like never before questioning his ideals and everything he thinks he knows about himself only to build these fundamentals back up in a very similar fashion by the end of the night I say similar because it&#39;s not quite the same the Crux of his mentality is the same both before and after Shibuya but the extent to which he takes this mentality is night and day by the end of the incident Yuji has completely discarded his own agency and rendered himself a thoughtless tool without meaning or reason but we&#39;ll get into that shortly the night of October 31st is a product of careful and methodical Planning by the antagonists with Yuji itadori seemingly at the center of their plans at least originally there are two essential compon opponents to this plan the first being to immobilize satoru Goro and the second being to Ally with the king of curses both necessary prerequisites to the cursor&#39;s ultimate goal of eliminating all non Sorcerers from the world to Ally with sukuna they must free him from yuji&#39;s body and this ties into what I was just talking about Yuji being given special Focus it&#39;s not really a privilege here so much as it is a curse that will follow him as long as suket exists within him but it does contribute to the sense that Yuji holds extreme significance within the narrative that&#39;s what chapter 10 accomplished the introduction of the supposed main villains with Yuji at the Forefront of their minds at the exact same time Yuji is presumed dead these two scenes transitioning into one another is incredibly intentional that said we arrive at Shibuya and the villain&#39;s plans have completely changed besides joro none of them really care about allying with sukuna anymore what was once framed as a necessary prerequisite to their plans has now become Plan B nothing more than a contingency plan mahito being mahit just wants to torment Yuji choso wants to avenge his brothers and Mr brain well who the hell knows what&#39;s going on inside this Fell&#39;s head the subtlety of this is significant though because it reframes yuji&#39;s significance in The Narrative of shuuya he stops being the center of attention and the following chapters take this even further through his battle against Chaw when faced with an enemy he does not believe he can defeat without putting his life on the line Yuji relegates himself to the role of a supporting character he acknowledges that he does not need to be the one who saves Goro even if it means dying this is his role and he Embraces that to die for the sake of everyone else as a porn on their side of the board an entirely selfless gesture and this is where jiujitsu kisan&#39;s framework becomes especially important as we have seen through various different characters that selflessness is not always a good thing it can be careless foolish and self-destructive and on the flip side selfishness is not necessarily A Bad Thing megumi is the perfect case study for this in the anime material this child prodigy had unconsciously shut off his own potential prior to the origin of obedience and fought this special grade cursed selfishly in the past he fought solely worrying about the well-being of others and hindered his own potential for growth out of a dependency on his ultimate shikigami in worst case scenarios remembering sukuna his ideals of strength the way he scorned him for running away from the curse allowed him to picture a future Megami who can support pass his limits and that&#39;s exactly what he did In This Moment of selfishness he achieved the Pinnacle of a sorcerer&#39;s potential and although incomplete it was exactly what he needed to survive this Death Match Yuji suffers a great deal over the course of Shibuya at the hands of both sukuna and mahito two characters who care about nothing other than themselves first the king of curses joro who ironically reinforces yuji&#39;s narrative significance as someone whose sole motivation on this night is to make sukuna and Ally is the one who awakes the Beast as a result of foolishly forfeiting his life in the battle against Chaw and trusting in the mutual success of the sorcerers around him Yuji is unwillingly complicit in waking this monster what&#39;s interesting to consider is this scene between Yuji and megumi just before their separation following the battle against awaka if you die I&#39;ll kill you words Yuji snatched out of megami&#39;s mouth followed by a promise to see each other again Yuji sacrifices himself against Chaw and expects to death but all he did was give joro the perfect opportunity to force feed him multiple fingers and thus actively contribute to suk&#39;s rampage that defines the Knight but it wasn&#39;t just yuji&#39;s self-sacrifice that only served to make things worse immediately after summoning mahara and beginning the exorcism ritual that can only end in his death megumi recalls the promise he made to Yuji and apologizes declaring himself the first to pass on sukuna would have had no reason to use his domain and thus murder as many many people as he did had it not been for this selfless Act of sacrifice because both Yuji and megumi chose to die they unintentionally contributed to the greatest act of Terror the story has seen the narrative seems to consistently scorn these acts of extreme selflessness and it continues to do so for Yuji with no breaks in sight sua takes pleasure in handing control back to a broken Yuji who is forced to Bear witness to the destruction his own body carried out all those repressed thoughts his own words his grandfather&#39;s last request his reason for being all of this bubbles to the surface like vomit on the page as Yuji loses his mind and the way he sees it it&#39;s all his fault he&#39;s nothing but a murderer for being weak and failing to stay up against Chaw he paid the ultimate price but once again Yugi&#39;s response to this is to bury his feelings and keep them locked inside he needs to move he needs to fight slowly but surely he&#39;s sinking into darkness and losing his innocence becom coming a senseless Cog that fights almost on autopilot this panel really does speak for itself and the saddest thing is the suffering has only just begun as a mirror of humanity mahit serves as a mirror of itadori Yuji saves people without thinking and mahito kills people without thinking born of the hatred between people mahito is representative of Humanity&#39;s fears there is nothing Yugi fears more than powerlessness in the face of people&#39;s deaths jume is a clear Middle Ground between these to as after all a mirror is a reflection one can&#39;t exist without the other and so as long as Yuji tries to help people mahito will be there to kill them one thing to note about this Dynamic is that despite them both claiming they are one and the same they are in fact two opposite ends of the same Spectrum in fact in one clear difference is where maho&#39;s greatest strength can be found mahito submits to his nature he acts upon his instincts he toys with the lives of others and proudly runs away to save his own he does not hold himself to any set of morals he believes life has no weights or particular value it simply flows it simply exists and so if life has no value there&#39;s nothing telling him what he can and cannot do what he should or should not do and so he lives according to his whims he holds the quality sukka props up as the right way to carry yourself and reach unprecedented Heights above all though mahito exists to highlight yuji&#39;s main character complex and his delusions of Grandeur you see Yuji is consistently fluctuating between an unrealistic sense of self-importance and relegating himself to just a cog just a supporting character both are extreme and unhealthy states of mind that highlight yuji&#39;s greatest flaws his warped perspective on reality and his careless selflessness Yuji is constantly ascribing meaning to events as a coping mechanism for the life he leads believing his life is this string of meaningful events and everything is ultimately heading to its ideal destination he has a role to play after all but nanami is killed right in front of his eyes and his final words serve as a double-edged sword they push Yuji on to continue fighting and move forward but they also curse him they make Yuji feel as if he has to do this for anami sake to carry his burden for him when in reality nanami would have been happier for Yuji had he attempted to retreat here and prioritize his own well-being just when he is reminded he is not alone noara is also killed right in front of his eyes and it is at this point that Yuji is completely worn down the lowest point he has reached in the story thus far he is ripped apart and exposed laying bare on the ground completely defeated losing to Cha suk&#39;s Massacre nanami&#39;s death and now the death of noara as stated by the narrator yuji&#39;s resolve had reached its limit a long time ago and to rub salt in the wound mahito lands a black flash on the one supposedly blessed by those same Sparks but the narrator quite literally goes back on their statement from origin of obedience claiming these Sparks do not choose who to bless you can think of the black flash as yuji&#39;s trump card in a sense as someone with no unique curse technique thus far this is his bread and butter this is his most powerful tool in his role of exercising curses and helping people mahito using the black flash completely robs that from him yuji&#39;s efforts in honing this technique was all for nothing he&#39;s left lying weak hopeless and terrified in yuji&#39;s greatest moment of weakness mahito Towers over him the narrator abandons him and reality presents itself this entire sequence of mahito assaulting Yuji and essentially forcing him to recognize the reality of his situation by scorning his mentality pointing out his delusions of self-importance and worst of all his moral standing in this conflict the reason mahito even has his speech is because he&#39;s on a high feeling Overjoyed at bringing misery to Yuji by killing noara in front of his eyes this is his instinctual desire he considers his ability to torment an exhilarating Talent proof of his nature as a curse and ultimately that&#39;s what this conflict boils down to Gig akutami wants to punish Yuji to such an extent even the most textbook evil nihilist villain of the story is someone Yugi can&#39;t even blame for their actions that&#39;s just the way the world works Sorcerers must forfeit their lives for Humanity as their minor problems breed catastrophes in the form of curses that these Sorcerers must live to exercise Yuji employs a black and white outlook on the world considering himself good while curses evil because he&#39;s just a kid who already has too much on his plate and this is how he must rationalize things to keep on moving and that&#39;s what mahit to&#39;s Shibuya performance exists to highlight not just to us but more pertinently to Yugi himself it couldn&#39;t be more fitting then for to to intervene and save yuji&#39;s life as someone who exists as maho&#39;s ideological opposite maho&#39;s core belief is that life just flows in essence it is ephemeral fleeting and thus lacks value it doesn&#39;t matter because it comes and goes this is the mentality he adopts to satisfy his desires and do whatever he wants too is the complete opposite he enters quoting the tale of the he which is a very famous story in Japanese literature the first line of the quote is the sound of the gon sha Bells Echoes the impermanence of all things which outlines the central theme of the story life is fleeting but too includes a line at the end of his speech that isn&#39;t a part of the quote which completely goes against everything it stands for by declaring sorcerer as an exception he is rewriting the main point of the tale which is that all things are impermanent there are a lot of awesome implications for too&#39;s character but let&#39;s focus on Yuji too is perhaps the biggest influence on yuji&#39;s mentality even more so than the likes of goo and megumi despite having his back and loving him like a brother Toto&#39;s effect on Yuji is a double-edged sword he teaches him to repress his emotions to keep moving forward no matter what on a quest to find what you have been entrusted with by your Fallen comrades he is one of the biggest enforcers of the Cog mentality in the series making him one of judu society&#39;s biggest representatives in the framework of the story bear in mind he&#39;s a third-year student in high school todor loves life he loves feeling alive he is in tune with his cursed energy with mind body and soul and that cursed energy literally takes the form of hearts and so he will fight and die out of love for his brother which is incredibly ironic when you really think about it Yuji and too&#39;s friendship is literally built on memories of a past event that never happened mahit to&#39;s whole shtick is life has no meaning and his opponent&#39;s relationship is literally built on something that does not exist the commentary could not be more obvious with toor as a means of inspiration Yuji regains the will to keep moving but in turn he acknowledges that death would be the easy way out digging himself deeper into his misery something I find very interesting here is that he only thinks of taking on a share of nanami suffering because he&#39;s clinging to Nita&#39;s words please don&#39;t get your hopes up and this is how Yuji looks no survival is not a 0% chance and that is enough for him which I think further showcases Yugi&#39;s narrative logic thinking himself to be in a make believe story where everything will just work out some way somehow and here it does the Instinct of a curse lose to the so-called dignity obtained by human reason together too and Yuji defeat mahito in fact in one of the most decisive moments of the battle too with a single hand is saved by his innate human capacity to love life his locket distracts mahito for a split second which gives him the opportunity to clap his hand and quickly Escape which eventually allows him to pull off one of the greatest Bluffs in history and give Yuji the opportunity to land the decisive blow their joint efforts their teamwork is ultimately what saved their lives and won them this battle against mahor that&#39;s the difference between cursors and Sorcerers Yuji will continue fighting even if he cannot reject mahito or convince himself that mahito was wrong making him morally Superior now it&#39;s personal none of that matters anymore he no longer cares about justifying things he will keep killing curses for as long as he can can but even in this moment where the script has been flipped and Yuji is now towering over mahito as the white wolf chasing its prey Yugi still clings to the hope that his life will hold meaning even if it&#39;s at some point in the distant future he wants to matter more than anything his journey began because he wanted to do something only he could do and despite discarding his individual agency to exist is nothing more than a cog for judisu society Yuji still believes his role will pay dividends and that there will be some positive conclusion to his story a bit abrupt but that&#39;s all for the anime only material and here&#39;s your disclaimer from here on out there will be spoilers for manga content so anime only goodbye okay hopefully the anime only folk are all gone and I can start calling kenju by his name something I find incredibly impressive about Shibuya is that with how traumatizing it was for him it really does seem like the incident completely changed Yuji but that isn&#39;t really true that&#39;s not what happens his disposition definitely changes he loses that goofball happy go-lucky bubble of Joy side of his but this was always waiting for him on the path he chose to pave the role he had given himself the battle against mahito simply forced him to confront some of the repressed thoughts he had following Shibuya though Yuji becomes consumed by his role in all this a boy on a mission dedicated to jiujitsu society like never before even when branded a traitor set for execution by that same Society yuji&#39;s way of dealing with things is not framed as a good thing jitu Society being in need of Reform is a recurring theme in the manga we are consistently exposed to the corruption of the higher-ups and how nothing will ever improve so long as this system continues to exist Yuji is willfully sacrificing himself in an exploitative system that thrives on young children just like him he wants to help people he wants to help his comrades but he doesn&#39;t recognize the true cause of all his suffering Jujitsu Society is to blame and Yuji wants to become a cog for it to die for it to maintain it it&#39;s not a coincidence that the majority of characters on the protagonist side are very young and even the older generation like Gojo and nanami have been Tools in this system from a very young age Yuji wants to keep killing curses even after learning that not Every curse is bad Chaw is literally his older brother which just adds further irony to his goals Yugi unknowingly killed two of his own brothers and would have killed a third if he was a little stronger it&#39;s not because Yugi&#39;s a terrible person or because he doesn&#39;t recognize that things aren&#39;t so black and white but he intentionally adopts this unhealthy mindset of Simplicity he&#39;s so overwhelmed by everything he&#39;s experienced he doesn&#39;t want to confront any of his feelings and think about what he himself wants being a cog who just kills curses is easier than facing himself again this is a young boy revolting against the system that has existed since long before he was born isn&#39;t something he&#39;d even naturally consider Yuji is still good-natured at his core he thinks the best of people and when taking that into consideration it becomes clear to see that his Cog mentality is simply A coping mechanism for living He is consumed by this suicidal survivors guilts and the battle against higuma is almost entirely centered around this Yuji willingly claims the crime of suk&#39;s Massacre while in a domain expansion that will theoretically kill him for his guilt and I think that fact in of itself says more than any amount of analysis can Maki exists as a foil to Yuji everything concerning her character post shuya is about breaking free from the chains of systems and embracing her own individuality she massacres the zenin clan crushing their ideology in the process this begins when she loses her sister ma she immediately kills her father destroys the kuuru unit she was once part of and then kills NAA as well as her own mother she completely cuts herself away from this clan by wiping them out of existence there&#39;s obviously so much more to mak&#39;s character but it should be clear to see how starkly she contrasts Yuji through that very simple description Yuji adheres to what Society expects of him whilst Maki revolts deciding things for herself individual agency versus conforming to societal standards that conflict is present in almost every single character and through Maki we can see how someone who isn&#39;t too different to Yuji in terms of personality and values can achieve achieve entirely different results based on how they direct their actions Yugi&#39;s narrative thinking demands him to enter the calling games with the objective of saving tsumiki and Gojo at the Forefront of his mind survive get enough points to free Tumi from the game acquaint with Angel and give her the back of the prison realm to free the strongest that&#39;s the ideal chain of events Yuji Works towards alongside the help of the other sorcerers and for a while it really did feel like everything was smooth sailing it would wouldn&#39;t be jiujitsu kaisen if when it finally seemed like things were working out for our protagonists and Gojo would soon return that everything went wrong thank you for giving me a role to play these are yuji&#39;s words at the start of chapter 212 as he contemplates the different events that led him to this position finally with megumi and tsumiki with enough points to free her from the game again we see yuji&#39;s flawed way of thinking and how he ascribes meaning to events like he lives in some make believe story it&#39;s exactly in that moment where yorozu reveals herself and destroys everything they had been working towards remember earlier in the video where I spoke about the transition between scenes in chapter 10 from kaku&#39;s plans for Shibuya to Yuji and suk&#39;s conversation and the depths of his soul the former has already been explained yuji&#39;s role as the centerpiece of the villain&#39;s plans was completely ditched rendering him just another guy present when everything went down on the night of Shibuya and the latter The Binding vow between Yuji and sukuna comes to fruition here it turns out Megami also has the potential to be a vessel for sukuna the one thing that gave Yugi narrative claim to be the protagonist has been stripped from him it turns out sukna never planned on staying in yuji&#39;s body from almost the start of the manga he has been orchestrating a long scheme to free himself from yuji&#39;s body and take over megum Instead This scheme was set in motion right from the very beginning when Yuji killed himself surviving this with literally zero consequences is something people would typically tribute to main character plot armor and I think that&#39;s exactly what gak kutami was aiming for yet as we now know the plan set in motion by sukka in that moment where yuji&#39;s main character privilege seemingly shined is all about Yuji not actually being special Suk could have freed himself whenever he wanted to he was just Bing his time and waiting for the perfect opportunity which presents itself just as things finally seem to be wrapping up for the best to rub further salt into the wound sua&#39;s strategy only succeeded because when Yuji made The Binding vow with him under restriction to not kill or hurt anyone for a minute Yuji did not include hurting himself as a part of that restriction thus allowing sukuna to rip off one of his fingers and force feed it to Megami in turn transferring his conscience to the 10 Shadow&#39;s curse technique user once again the story makes it clear that yuji&#39;s defined characteristic is also his greatest flaw his lack of regard for himself and his own well-being is exactly why he suffers time and time again mAh and yuji&#39;s dynamic parallels sukuna and megumi in many ways they are both curses and I say this with an asterisk for sukuna that represent the opposite of what the protagonists represents Yuji lives to help people so mahito hurts people megumi lives for his loved ones and Suk rejects the very notion of Love megumi is also the one to introduce us to the Cog mentality and through his character we can learn so much about Yuji there are several clearly intentional callbacks between what sukuna is doing to megumi current and what Suk did to Yuji in Shibuya possession of his body using his body to make him complicit in Murder by getting the blood on his hands then killing off his loved ones to weaken his resolve and sink his soul into despair you can think of the way sukuna uses tsumiki to sink megumi&#39;s soul in despair as a parallel to the way mahito toys with and kills jume to push itadori to the edge I think the natural outcome of all this is that megumi is going to completely lose his mind when he somehow regains his agency but that&#39;s a topic for another video the point of highlighting these parallels is to drive home the point of how everything that made Yuji special as the protagonist has been handed off to megumi&#39;s body which is being controlled by sukuna this illustrates how Yuji never really had control highlighting his delusions of self-importance maho&#39;s functional role in shuya is almost exactly the same as everything sukuna has been doing since hijacking megumi&#39;s body they play the same role as far as yui is concerned highlight yuji&#39;s lack of control over the flow of the story kill a friend kill a mentor and just torment him the uncertain nature of both noara and megumi statuses is a funny way in which this parallel comes together Yugi saying he&#39;s the same as mahit also reaffirms how he&#39;s the same as sukuna too again the difference is in how they project their mentalities onto the world and themselves yuji&#39;s self-hatred and Suicidal Thoughts come from a place of weakness he is too weak to help anyone or change anything and the contempt Suk has towards weak individuals is for a very similar reason because they have no ability to cause any change yet still cling to life but rather than projecting his feelings onto himself like Yuji does sua projects that onto people the ultimate point of all this analysis is to Showcase how yuji&#39;s role as the main character of jiujitsu kaisen has been explored both internally with Yuji as an individual and externally with how yuji&#39;s character interacts with the larger framework of the story I chose the title of this video because I think the idea of being a main character and what that constitutes has been explored in several ways with regards to Yuji it&#39;s not as simple as him having main character syndrome which is why I opted for the word complex to serve as a bit of a double on Tundra the one thing that gave him claim to be the protagonist of the story was not just a piece of kaku&#39;s plans but also not anything unique to him from the beginning kenju who has consistently been characterized as the schema behind everything anything that happens in the story goes from being interested in yuji&#39;s potential to barely caring about him besides his role as the trigger for sukuna Revival the things that make Yuji the MC are constantly devalued as the story progresses but it isn&#39;t so black and white Yuji is constantly suffering but that doesn&#39;t mean he has zero privileges as the story&#39;s main character he does still retain some favor in The Narrative and can be quite fortunate at times the kid has suffered he&#39;s been through hell on Earth and yet still astonishingly he has managed to hold on to his life the reason why people don&#39;t complain about too and Chaw having memories spawned into their heads or toor coming to save Yuji in the nick of time is because he is still constantly suffering there are countless instances in jjk where I could see people calling them plot armor if this was any other story at times Yuji actively wants to die he views it as the easy way out from his suffering and so in a Twisted Way by having him survive the story is punishing him even further as a final note Yuji has chosen to become a slave for an exploitative system that is the real root cause of all the suffering he has endured he has been brainwashed to believe that if he is strong enough he can overcome everything on his own which only serves to keep the Machinery running smoothly and Rob these cogs of agency while selling the dream that their contributions matter and that they are doing good for the world sukuna and Kaku are the active forces who wreak havoc upon the world but I&#39;d argue the real villain of the series is jiujitsu society the system itself the hups are all dead yet still their philosophies linger it is ingrained in the characters themselves making it ever present in the narrative this is the system that branded Goro a terrorist the second they couldn&#39;t make use of his strength this is the system that had Yaga killed for next to no reason this is the system that ostracized hakari because they didn&#39;t like the complexity of his curse technique this is the system that wanted to to kill Yuji and Utah because that would be easier to deal with than Gojo&#39;s plans to keep them alive and nurture them into valuable assets the first mission Yugi goes on is literally a trap laid by the higher-ups to have him killed by a special grade curse and most significantly this is literally the system kenju has in the palm of his hands in order for this story to progress with Yuji as its main character he must break free from this system that has completely consumed him I myself think think we&#39;re approaching the perfect opportunity for this to happen and megumi will be at the center of yuji&#39;s epiphany the moral query of cursed womb the life of One Versus the life of many will be brought back up but this time it will be in the context of megumi and the survival of humanity as a whole I Envision a situation where everybody besides Yuji will be prepared to kill megumi in order to kill sukuna and that would be a pretty perfect trajectory for the story to take that being said I hope you guys enjoyed this video let a lot to talk about when it comes to Yugi and I tried to make this video as comprehensive as possible but I&#39;m sure there are various interesting things that I failed to mention still I&#39;m pretty proud of how this has turned out and I hope at least some of you guys have found some new appreciation for Yugi&#39;s character by watching this thank you all and please do leave a comment with your thoughts

Transcript for:Yuji Itadori in Jujutsu Kaisen - An Analytical Dive

Transcript for:
Yuji Itadori in Jujutsu Kaisen - An Analytical Dive