Jujutsu Kaisen's Cursed Energy Explained: Why All Sorcerers Are In Japan & Why It Makes The Series Revolutionary

Jujutsu Kaisen is a landmark shōnen whose manga just came to an end, and the hype and surrounding controversy is sure to bring new faces who might be confused by its cursed energy system at first. At its most fundamental, cursed energy is straightforward: humans in their day-to-day lives experience a number of negative emotions. Most people possess a certain degree of cursed energy, but only a handful of people are actually able to manipulate it. Jujutsu Kaisen's system of jujutsu ("sorcery") centers around the manipulation of cursed energy to make things happen.

The idea of an energy source deriving from human experiences and emotions is unique among shōnen manga. In many other series—say, Naruto (chakra), Hunter x Hunter (nen), JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (hamon), and Dragon Ball (ki)—the primary energy source is a primordial life force that characters manipulate. Cursed energy is only one of Jujutsu Kaisen's revolutionary ideas, breaking this trend with an entirely new foundation.

Cursed Energy Explains Who Does What In Jujutsu Kaisen

Cursed Energy Is The Atomic Unit Of Jujutsu Kaisen's World

Jujutsu Kaisen can be a bewildering series because of its different classes of characters, entities, and objects. The average person is unable to use cursed energy, and would be called a non-sorcerer. Those who can manipulate cursed energy are called curse users, with sorcerers being a subclass of curse users who can see cursed spirits and use their cursed energy manipulation to battle curses rather than for criminal purposes. Curse users use cursed techniques. These come in two flavors:

Innate techniques, which develop randomly. Inherent techniques, which are genetic/familial.

Related All of Jujutsu Kaisen's Heavenly Pacts Explained There are many interesting powers and techniques in Jujutsu Kaisen but the Heavenly Pact is perhaps the most interesting and unpredictable.

Curses are a broad category of things in the series, and can appear in many ways. Cursed energy leaks from humans and builds up until it's exorcised. Cursed energy can congeal into a malicious entity called a cursed spirit, often simply "curses" for short. An object can be imbued with curses, called a cursed object; weapons or support items imbued with curses are called cursed tools, usable by characters who can't see cursed spirits or manipulate cursed energy. There are also domains, inner manifestations of the soul. The following is a list and explanation of major uses of cursed energy:

Despite a common misconception, Black Flashes are not technically cursed techniques.

Name Description Reverse Curse Technique Multiplies cursed energy by itself to heal the user. Domain Expansion Manifests user's domain in physical world at a huge expense. Innate technique always hits within barrier. Binding Vow Manifests an unbreakable vow with themselves, another sorcerer, or curse user. Heavenly Restriction Takes something away from the user in exchange for giving something. Barriers Used to keep things in/out, conceal, and monitor. Anti-Domain Techniques Prevent effects of domain expansions. Cursed Energy Reinforcement Cursed energy used defensively to reinforce the body.

Why Are All Cursed Energy Users In Japan?

Gege Never Explicitly Says, But It's Not Tengen's Fault

It's a natural question why cursed energy is so concentrated in Japan if everyone leaks it. Characters like Miguel from Jujutsu Kaisen 0, from Kenya, show that curse users arise in areas outside Japan. However, for some reason, Japan has more cursed energy than anywhere else. There's a misconception that Tengen has placed barriers that concentrate and optimize cursed energy. This is not the case, and Tengen's barriers are not responsible for Japan's cursed energy.

Avoiding spoilers, this misconception arises from a certain character's plan for the future; it doesn't describe the use of the barriers by Tengen herself. Tengen's barriers trap cursed energy in Japan to keep it from leaking. The reason for Japan's immense cursed energy isn't entirely clear. One compelling theory is that, like Gojo's birth raised the number and skill of sorcerers, Sukuna's presence in Japan did the opposite. It could also be a commentary on Japanese culture by Gege.

Jujutsu Kaisen's Deepest Theme Depends On Cursed Energy

Cursed Energy Creates A Situation Where Enemies Are Humans' Fault

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One major component of Jujutsu Kaisen is its overarching moral ambiguity. Jujutsu Kaisen is a rare franchise that takes the concept of moral ambiguity seriously, making all its characters have comprehensible motivations and values. By creating an energy source that comes from humans and their negativity, from which the enemies originate and which non-sorcerers cannot see, Gege developed an incredibly compelling foundation for such a project. Consider Suguru Geto. Geto fought curses alongside Satoru Gojo as sorcerers at Jujutsu High. A traumatic event shared by Gojo and Geto, in which a young girl (Riko) was killed by a paid mercenary (Toji), would be the catalyst for Gojo turning against non-sorcerers.

Related Every Jujutsu Kaisen Shibuya Incident Villain Explained The Shibuya Incident Arc will be the most action-packed arc in the series, and the villains are one of the biggest highlights of the season.

Sorcerers are "cursed" to secretly fight curses, defending non-sorcerers. The fact that sorcerers alone can see them creates a sense of ethical responsibility, on its own. For example, Nanami tried to leave sorcery but returned because he felt an ethical obligation to non-sorcerers. Instead of thanklessly protecting people who would never know and who would kill over something like money, Geto decided instead not to leave sorcery, but to instead leave the dogmatic binary of good and evil to dream of a world where non-sorcerers didn't exist, freeing everyone from curses.

Jujutsu Kaisen's cursed energy system is unique because it enables a complex moral/ethical network unlike any other shōnen has. The point of this kind of moral relativism isn't to say that all moralities are the same or equally worthwhile but to show that every different system for evaluating things comes from a perspective that has reasons for thinking as it does. In turn, cursed energy is what makes Jujutsu Kaisen's characters, regardless of what side they represent, so fascinating.