HIGHLIGHTS

Yuji has shown significant growth in the Shinjuku Showdown Arc, unlocking his Shrine cursed technique.
Despite not fully utilizing his new power, Yuji has the potential to manifest a unique Domain Expansion.
The key differences between Yuji’s Malevolent Shrine and Sukuna’s version showcase Yuji’s creativity and safety in combat.

Yuji Itadori has shown tremendous growth in the Shinjuku Showdown Arc of Jujutsu Kaisen. He’s already one of the strongest characters in the series right now, and even though the spotlight might have been taken away from him due to the ongoing events of the battle between Yuta and Sukuna, Yuji still stands as one of the strongest.

In fact, he hasn’t had the opportunity to showcase what he is truly capable of, especially when it comes to the usage of his Shrine cursed technique. This is his newly awakened power, but, strangely enough, Yuji has not utilized it properly at all, landing a total of zero significant blows with it so far. However, that won’t be the case for long, and eventually, Yuji will make sure to properly utilize this cursed technique in the many battles to come. At the same time, there is also a possibility that Yuji will manifest a proper domain expansion, but his version of this technique is most definitely going to be different from that of Sukuna.

Yuji’s Awakening Of The Shrine Cursed Technique

Yuji Managed To Awaken His Second Cursed Technique In Shinjuku

Yuji awakened the Shrine cursed technique rather recently in Jujutsu Kaisen. Before Yuta came to the battlefield using Gojo’s body and decided to engage Sukuna in combat, Yuji was the one who was primarily handling the fight against him. Fans clearly saw Yuji utilize multiple Black Flashes in a row, and because of that, he was able to weaken the King of Curses quite a bit. The Black Flashes themselves did not defeat Sukuna, nor did they give Yuji an opportunity to finish them off. The biggest significance of the Black Flash was that it enabled Yuji to unlock his latent potential and bring out a cursed technique that fans knew was inside of him.

Beneath the scattering sparks of black…Itadori Yuji…Awakens

Yuji finally tapped into the power of the Shrine, and was able to manifest the same cursed technique as Sukuna. This surprised the King of Curses, however, in the back of his head, he knew that this was a possibility. In fact, Gojo had clearly mentioned early on in the series that Yuji would eventually go on to learn Sukuna’s cursed technique, as his power was bound to seep into his body, which would give him access to all of his abilities and make him quite powerful. Now, Yuji has manifested Sukuna’s Shrine cursed technique and so far, he has used it only a bit.

He used the Shrine curse technique to chop a pillar, and then, he tried to grab Sukuna’s foot and use this technique to take it from him. However, he was unable to do so. Essentially, it can be said that Yuji has only used his cursed technique properly on one occasion, which was to chop a pillar in half. This was insignificant as well, due to this accomplishing nothing in the grand scheme of things. This simply means that there is more to come from Yuji awakening the shrine Cursed Technique. It would be absolutely preposterous if the author simply gave him the cursed technique and not have him use it properly.

Sukuna has two types of slashing attacks. The Default slash, Dismantle. And the other one, Cleave, which can be adjusted according to the target’s toughness and cursed energy levels to cut them down in one fell swoop.

In fact, the handling that JJK has shown for this is rather bizarre, to begin with. Having Yuji awaken a new power and then not utilize it in combat, proceeding by someone else taking the spotlight is weird, to begin with. However, all is not lost and Gege can still make a great impression here, potentially taking things one step further, and unlocking a Domain Expansion as well.

Yuji’s Domain Expansion Manifestation

Yuji Can Manifest His Domain Expansion Very Soon

Yuji Itadori will most likely fight against Sukuna again. Fans must remember that no matter how strong Yuta is, he’s not going to be the one to finish off Sukuna properly. For starters, Yuta is not as strong as Gojo. He cannot utilize techniques with the same efficiency as him.

However, even if that were to be true, then, fans need to remember that Yuta has a strict time limit of 5 minutes. Fans do not know what exactly will happen to him after the 5 minutes are up, and that essentially means that Yuji and Todo will most likely have to fight once again. Yuta’s barrier will come down eventually, and fans will get to see Yuji join the battle. When that happens, Yuji vs Sukuna is a possibility once again. Now, fans also know that Yuji has seen Sukuna use Domain Expansion in his body. This means that this technique too must be engraved into him, and he will make use of it eventually.

It would actually be a massive missed opportunity if Yuji were to not make use of the pinnacle of Jujutsu sorcery that Sukuna has already engraved into his body. Yuji should make use of Malevolent Shrine at some point in this fight for the King of Curses to witness, especially given how different the usage of his version of this cursed technique is.

How Yuji’s Shrine Will Be Different From Sukuna’s

Yuji’s Malevolent Shrine Will Be A Safer And Less Indiscriminate Version Of The Technique

When comparing Yuji’s Shrine to Sukuna’s, fans have already noticed key differences. For one, Sukuna’s Shrine is meant to be more dangerous and indiscriminate. Essentially, it kills anything and everything in its path because Sukuna does not care about what is in front of him. Meanwhile, Yuji’s version of the Shrine is somewhat different. Whenever Yuji wants to chop something up, he first lays a scissor mark on the surface and only the portion that he wants to cut gets cut up. This makes Yuji’s version of the Shrine much safer. The domain expansion will follow similar rules and make it very different from the one that Sukuna manifests.

According to Sukuna, this is because of the difference in both the era during which these techniques awakened, and at the same time, the users being very different as well. Regardless, fans will definitely get to see a different version of Malevolent Shrine. For starters, fans need to take into consideration that Yuji’s domain expansion will likely be an open-barrier domain as well. This is because Sukuna has engraved it in his body and he should be able to make use of it with enough training or in the heat of battle.

However, Yuji’s Domain Expansion will be different. He should be able to chop up only what he wants to chop up, which makes it a much safer version of the Shrine than the one that Sukuna utilizes. Yuji might be able to mark everything or pinpoint things that he wants to cut up within his range, and then launch powerful scissor-like slashes at his targets. This would make the Domain Expansion very unique and give Yuji a perfect way to showcase his creativity.

Giving Yuji the same Domain Expansion as Sukuna would be somewhat lazy. On the other hand, it would be incredibly exciting if Yuji were to figure out new usages of this Domain Expansion and, at the same time, surprise even the King of Curses himself.

Jujutsu Kaisen is available to read via Viz Media. The series can be read by the fans officially and for free on the Shonen Jump and the Manga Plus app. The release date for the next chapter of JJK, Jujutsu Kaisen chapter 263, is set to be June 30, 2024.