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Yuji Itadori
Now that the JJK manga is wrapping up, I've decided to try my hand at giving a PG proposal to the MC of the series himself, Yuji Itadori. Beware of spoilers for any anime-only JJK fans!
What is the Work?
Jujutsu Kaisen is a manga/anime created by Gege Akutami. It is set in Japan and focused on the life of Yuji Itadori, a high schooler thrust into a world of sorcerers. In this world, cursed energy exists in every single person. This cursed energy results in the creation of cursed spirits which come to haunt places and cause serious mayhem in Japan. Some individuals are able to exorcise these curses and wield their cursed energy, known as Jujutsu sorcerers. Yuji Itadori becomes a jujutsu sorcerer after consuming one of Sukuna's fingers, a cursed object containing the soul of an ancient sorcerer known as Ryomen Sukuna. The story focuses on Yuji as he learns to become a sorcerer while fighting increasingly dangerous cursed spirits and curse users.
Who is He? What Has He Done?
Yuji Itadori starts the series as a regular high school known for his insane physical prowess, but still leads a relatively normal life and is also a member of Occult Research Club. He lives with his grandfather, who is dying of a severe illness. Just before his grandfather passes away, he tells Yuji to make sure he doesn't end up dying alone and to help people. Yuji remembers these words and becomes determined to live by them.
Later, his school is attacked by a cursed spirit who was attracted to the cursed object that the occult research club found. He meets Megumi Fushiguro, a high schooler and Jujutsu sorcerer. Megumi does battle with the cursed spirit, but realizing he needs help, Yuji decides to risk his life by eating the finger and gaining cursed energy and having his body taken over by Sukuna. After Sukuna defeats the cursed spirit, he's determined to cause chaos in this new era, but suddenly, a man named Satoru Gojo arrives. He's the strongest Jujutsu sorcerer in the modern age and easily overpowers Sukuna. To Sukuna's surprise, Yuji is able to maintain control of Sukuna's body. Gojo and Megumi are equally surprised by this and decide to take him to Jujutsu High Headquarters.
The heads of Jujutsu Society want to kill Yuji immediately, but Gojo offers another suggestion: postpone Yuji's execution and wait until he consumes all 20 of Sukuna's Fingers. The elders agree and they have Yuji enrolled as a student at Jujutsu High School. Yuji becomes classmates with Fushiguro and another student named Nobara Kugisaki. The three of them go on several missions to exorcise cursed spirits. During his tenure at Jujutsu High, Yuji Itadori meets dangerous cursed spirits known as the Disaster Curses, who are determined to eradicate humanity and make curses the dominant species. He first encounters Mahito, a cursed spirit born from humanity's hatred with the ability to manipulate the shape of people's souls and, subsequently, their bodies. Mahito kills a friend Yuji had made on a mission, earning Yuji's hatred. Another disaster curse, Hanami, attacks Jujutsu High, and Itadori fights him alongside a student from Tokyo Prefectural High, Aoi Todo.
Yuji trains in preparation for another encounter with the disaster curses. The big battle occurs at Shibuya. The disaster curses crafted a plan in Shibuya to seal Satoru Gojo, as he is too strong for the disaster curses to defeat. The plan is masterminded by Suguru Geto, an associate of the disaster curses whose cursed technique is curse manipulation. Their plan succeeds, and Gojo is sealed in an object known as Prison Realm. Yuji engages in several battles, one against a curse user named Choso. Yuji loses the battle and is knocked unconscious. While he's unconscious, one of the disaster curses, Jogo, feeds Yuji 10 of Sukuna's fingers, giving Sukuna momentary control. Sukuna and Jogo engage in battle which Sukuna wins. While still in control, Sukuna encounters Megumi, who has just summoned his most powerful weapon against an enemy. This shikigami, Mahoraga, is uncontrollable and prepares to kill Megumi. Before Mahoraga kills Megumi, Sukuna arrives to save him since he needs Megumi alive for his plans. Sukuna fights Mahoraga and defeats it after a lengthy battle, but the battle causes mass destruction and kills hundreds, if not thousands, of people. When Yuji regains control, he's horrified by what happened but decides to keep fighting.
While wandering through Shibuya, he encounters Mahito, who kills one of his mentors, Nanami, in front of him. Enraged once again, Yuji fights Mahito and engages in a prolonged battle with him. Throughout the battle, Mahito splits his soul into a clone, which fights Nobara. This clone meets up with the original while Nobara is chasing after him, and it manages to nick Nobara's face, seemingly killing her. This breaks Yuji's spirit and causes him to become defenseless as Mahito pummels him. Just before Mahito can administer the killing blow, he's saved by Todo. Yuji is initially incapable of fighting due to guilt, but Todo encourages to get back up and fight. Yuji and Todo engage Mahito in battle, and after a prolonged fight, Yuji manages to defeat Mahito. The cursed spirit flees in terror before encountering Geto. Unfortunately for Mahito, Geto betrays Mahito and uses his cursed spirit manipulation to absorb him. It's revealed that the man identifying himself as Suguru Geto isn't actually Geto, but an ancient sorcerer named Kenjaku with the ability to switch bodies who took over Geto's body due to his curse manipulation technique. Kenjaku uses Mahito's cursed technique to begin the Culling Games. He'd planted several cursed objects with the souls of ancient sorcerers into people's bodies while also awakening people who had the potential to become sorcerers. These sorcerers are to be awakened and kill one another as part of the Culling Games. Yuji witnesses Geto activate the Culling Games and watches helplessly as Geto escapes with the Prison Realm.
Yuji initially goes out on his own to exorcise curses and refuses to return to Jujutsu High out of guilt. But Megumi finds him and convinces him to return, pleading with Yuji to help him save Megumi's sister, Tsumiki. Upon returning to Jujutsu High, Yuji and everyone else get a better idea of what the Culling Games are and the rules for the games: players are forced to kill each other, can add rules for 100 points, and need to get points every 19 days or else they're killed. With this in mind, Yuji and Megumi become players in the Culling Games to find the top players and convince them to add a rule so that points can become transferrable then they make another rule where a player can use 100 points to leave the colony, and bring in a substitute. After several battles, they get the rules added to the game. They reunite with Tsumiki and give her the points, waiting for her to make the substitution. However, instead she makes a rule to allow travel between colonies. Turns out she was a reincarnated sorcerer from 1000 years ago who took over Tsumiki's body and posed as her until she got 100 points. Her goal was to fight Sukuna and make him her bride. This horrifies Megumi, and Sukuna makes his move. He momentarily takes over Yuji's body, then channels his essence into Yuji's pinky, ripping it off and force-feeding it to Megumi. Sukuna had waited to leave Yuji's body and into Megumi's, biding his time to gain more strength and to take advantage of an opportunity when Megumi was in despair and easier to take over. Yuji fights Sukuna, but after a short battle, he flees with his subordinate Uraume to ensure total control over Megumi's body.
Yuji is disheartened and guilty over this recent turn of events. But luckily for him and the others, they encountered a sorcerer in the Culling Games named Hana with the ability to nullify cursed techniques. With her technique, they can open the back gate of Prison Realm and free Gojo. They do this and successfully release Gojo from the prison realm. Gojo encounters Sukuna and Kenjaku, where they agree to wait a month to battle. Yuji trains with the others in preparation for the battle against Sukuna. A month passes, and Gojo begins his battle with Sukuna in Shinjuku. The battle is legendary, but in the end Sukuna kills Gojo. Several other sorcerers fight Sukuna as part of their plan. Yuji is one of the main fighters, and he engages in a prolonged battle with Sukuna. Yuji is a key fighter due to his ability to perceive the soul and hit the boundary between Megumi and Sukuna's souls to separate the two of them. During the battle, he evolves and awakens Sukuna's cursed technique, Shrine. The CT was engraved in Yuji's body, and he finally awakened it to use against Sukuna. With this CT, he puts Sukuna even more on the ropes.
Yuji's training also allowed him to activate a Domain. When he and Sukuna are in the domain, Yuji tries to reason with Sukuna and convince him to return to Yuji and release Megumi. Sukuna vehemently refuses and resumes the battle. Sukuna's injuries pile up, and Megumi finally shakes himself out of despair to help Yuji, fighting for control again. At the same time, Nobara, who had been in a coma since Shibuya, wakes up and uses her technique on Sukuna's last finger, which Jujutsu High had kept in hopes of using it against him. This disrupts Sukuna's soul, preventing him from opening his domain and allowing Yuji to land the final blow.
Sukuna is separated from Megumi's body and rendered a pile of goo on the ground. Yuji gives Sukuna one final chance to live and return to Yuji's body. Sukuna once again refuses, declaring he's a curse. In the aftermath, Yuji reunites with Megumi and Nobara and work to rebuilding the Jujutsu world.
Admirable Standard
As the story's MC, Yuji stands out in several ways.
He is incredibly selfless and determined from the start of the story. After his grandfather dies and tells Yuji to help people so that he doesn't die alone, Yuji takes those words to heart and decides to aid others when he can. In the very first chapters, he jumps into danger to protect his friends in the Occult Club from a cursed spirit, managing to save them and allow Megumi to exorcise the cursed spirit. When another cursed spirit arrives and overpowers Megumi, Yuji risks his life and soul by eating Sukuna's finger to gain cursed energy and defeat it. After learning about the jujutsu world and what awaits him, he fully accepts the burden of being Sukuna's vessel and his eventual death. He becomes dead-set on consuming all of Sukuna's fingers to protect people and save them from Sukuna's wrath.
He manages to save a number of people throughout his missions as a jujutsu sorcerer. He saves a child on his first mission with Nobara, he ensures Mahito doesn't transfigure the students at Junpei's high school, saves multiple civilians from Mahito's transfigured humans during Shibuya, exorcises multiple spirits when he first enters the colonies, and is able to save his friends multiple times as well.
Yuji is also incredibly kind. Even before growing up and becoming a jujutsu sorcerer, he was fond of Ozawa, an overweight girl at his school, because he admired her qualities such as her handwriting and her general demeanor. After becoming a jujutsu sorcerer, he does his best to get along with everyone he meets. He befriends Junpei, a loner high schooler who's been bullied and has no friends. When Mahito manipulates Junpei into becoming a villain and attacking the bullies at his school, Yuji talks with him and convinces him to give up his vendetta against the students to become a student at Jujutsu High. This would have succeeded had Mahito not killed Junpei immediately afterward. He also befriends Todo, who is viewed negatively by his classmates, and works in tandem with him during several future battles.
Yuji values life very much. He is utterly disgusted by Mahito due to his utter callousness in how he treats human lives and turns innocents into his playthings. When he first fights Mahito, the cursed spirit uses transfigured humans who take the shape of babies and are begging for death. Yuji is horrified and barely pieces the resolve to kill them. When Mahito does the same trick again in Shibuya, Yuji is still horrified and only reluctantly kills the transfigured humans. During Shibuya, Yuji is equally traumatized by all the deaths Sukuna caused in his fight with Mahoraga, and carries the burden of this despite it not being his fault. During the Culling Games, he doesn't kill any of the combatants unlike Megumi and Yuta, preferring to reason with them and convince them to give Yuji his points instead.
Yuji positively affects those around him, and he shows kindness to even those who don't deserve it. Thanks to his determination, kindness and selflessness, he has managed to sway many people away from villainy. He prevents Junpei from becoming a murderer and killing his bullies, as already mentioned above. During the culling Games, he meets one of the top players, Hiromi Higuruma, a former defense attorney who'd become swallowed by despair after failing to protect his clients from the unjust Japanese penal system. Higuruma initially refuses to cooperate with Yuji and is even prepared to kill him, but after witnessing Yuji's value for life and taking responsibility for Sukuna's actions despite not being culpable, he helps Higuruma redeem himself and become an ally. But most remarkably is when he attempts to reason with Sukuna and show him mercy in the final battle. Despite knowing it would likely be pointless, Yuji still tries to convince Sukuna to see the value in life and memories and gives Sukuna the chance to live in Yuji's body again. He is the only character in the series who actively tries to redeem an enemy, especially one as heinous as Sukuna.
Yuji has had a very large impact on the story through his actions. He and Todo worked together to fight Hanami, preventing him from killing any of the other students at the exchange event. During Shibuya, he was one of the key players who defeated several powerful cursed spirits and curse users; most importantly, he was the one who defeated Mahito and weakened him to the point where he could be absorbed by Kenjaku, preventing Mahito from transfiguring any more innocent people. But most importantly, he was one of the main reasons that Sukuna was defeated in the final battle. He was the one who landed the finishing blow on him and ended his reign of terror. Though other characters have perhaps contributed more than Yuji, he still stands out due to his lesser resources compared to Gojo and Yuta, as well as the fact he's only been a jujutsu sorcerer for a few months.
Corrupting Factors
Yuji doesn't have too many corrupting factors. He's never rude, anti-heroic, or selfish during his time as a jujutsu sorcerer. The only corrupting factors that could prevent him from being PG are his hatred and lethality toward a select few enemies. When fighting Mahito, Yuji shows intense rage and pummels him mercilessly, but this rage is very justified considering how mercilessly Mahito killed Junpei, laughed at his death, and then transfigured thousands of other innocent people. He also shows equal rage and hatred toward Sukuna for all the people he's killed and his callousness towards life, but again it's very justified that he would show such anger.
However, by the final arc, I would argue he manages to subvert this corrupting factor. When he traps Sukuna in his domain, Yuji takes the time to talk to Sukuna and shows him mercy and compassion despite everything he'd done. Then, when Sukuna is finally defeated and rendered helpless, Yuji gives Sukuna one final opportunity to survive and to coexist. This demonstrates how he's moved past blind hatred and can show kindness to even his worst enemies.
The only other mild corrupting factor he had was during the Culling Games when he was rude with a female player named Hana who they'd enlisted to help free Gojo. However, he tells Megumi the main reason he was rude to her was because he was still grieving over Nobara and felt like it would be wrong to treat Hana as a replacement. He and Hana later mend any tension between them, and he then treats her like he would anyone else, so it shouldn't really count against Itadori.
And while the story isn't over yet, there's literally one chapter left, and I find it highly unlikely Yuji would gain any corrupting factors in the span of a single chapter.
Overall Verdict
For helping defeat some of the most vile cursed spirits and villains in the series, selflessly serving Japan and innocents as a jujutsu sorcerer, and managing to overcome any corrupting factors he once had, Yuji Itadori should qualify as PG.