Yuji Itadori, the protagonist of Jujutsu Kaisen, has shown incredible growth ever since he first appeared in the first series. Since he is a protagonist of a shonen series, fans can expect to see its classic trope again where the weak leading character gets involved in a tragedy and goes through several events that help him in increasing his power. The same can be seen with other protagonists such as Monkey D Luffy, Goku, Naruto, Izuku Midoriya, and many more.
Just like them, Yuji Itadori also began his journey as an ordinary high school student. But soon, he found himself in some tragic events and eventually became the host of the King of Curses, Sukuna. Yuji Itadori has limitless potential in Jujutsu Kaisen. In fact, the series creator Gege Akutami himself stated that fans have only seen a fraction of Yuji Itadori’s true capabilities.
Yuji Itadori’s Encounter With Curses
Even before his encounter with the curses, Yuji Itadori was not an ordinary human at all. He has superhuman strength, enhanced speed and reflexes, and great durability. This superhuman physical prowess earned him the nickname “The Tiger of West Junior High.” But, Itadori and his friends found a special grade cursed object in the form of Sukuna’s finger. This attracted several curses towards his friends. Megumi arrived at the scene to retrieve the finger. However, the situation became out of control.
Therefore, in order to gain cursed energy, Yuji Itadori ate the finger and became the host of Sukuna. Itadori was strong enough to suppress the King of Curses and took control of his body back to him. The incarnation of Sukuna within Yuji changed the latter’s physiology as well. It was the first step that Yuji Itadori took in order to become powerful. Due to Sukuna, Yuji Itadori also became immune to any kind of poison. He even showed this immunity in his fight against Junpei and the cursed womb paintings.
Yuji’s Growth Under Gojo Satoru’s Training
Once Yuji became a host to Sukuna, Gojo Satoru convinced him to be a part of Tokyo Jujutsu Tech. After joining the school, Gojo Satoru trained Yuji himself. He taught them how to manifest the cursed energy. Due to the lack of power, Yuji Itadori even died once in the Cursed Womb arc. However, Sukuna resurrected him by using a binding vow. Itadori’s training began to show its fruitful results when he managed to use an attack known as “Divergent Fist” in VS Mahito arc.
During this arc, he learned to mold the cursed energy and blend it with his superhuman strength to launch an attack. This combination resulted in a Divergent Fist that is simply a punch infused with cursed energy. In this attack, the cursed energy lags behind the punch resulting in a double impact.
Yuji Itadori’s Growth In Kyoto Goodwill Event Arc
In the Kyoto Goodwill Event arc, Yuji crossed paths with Aoi Todo, and the two of them instantly became best friends because of their same taste in women. Todo decided that he would help his friend grow strong. Besides, he revealed to Yuji that his Divergent Fist technique was incomplete. He taught him a couple of things and then told Yuji that he had to fight the S-grade cursed spirit alone. Moreover, he wouldn’t help him unless he could land a Black Flash. It is a technique that applies cursed energy within 0.000001 of a second of the punch’s landing.
Soon, Yuji Itadori unleashed not one or two but four consecutive Black Flash attacks against the cursed spirit. After using this attack, it became easier for Itadori to use the cursed energy. He also tied the record of Nanami to use the Black Flash four consecutive times, and it is still the highest up to this date. Yuji Itadori has grown exponentially in the Death Painting arc, where he saved the life of Megumi and fought alongside Nobara to defeat the Cursed Spirits.
Gege Akutami is yet to reveal what Sukuna has up its sleeves and which cursed techniques he can use. Once Yuji Itadori learns to control the power of Sukuna, he will certainly become the strongest character of Jujutsu Kaisen.