Jujutsu Kaisen is a smash-hit fantasy shonen series that may be considered part of an unofficial "big three" alongside Demon Slayer and My Hero Academia, with one anime season complete and a feature-length movie on the horizon. Inspired by its predecessor Bleach, this series features a punkish hero named Itadori Yuji who must rid the world of evil curses.
Jujutsu Kaisen's combat system is all about cursed energy, with the heroes and villains alike using intense negative emotions to fuel their supernatural powers. At the same time, physical combat is still a must for the heroes, and characters such as Yuki, Todo Aoi and Zenin Maki all prove it. Sorcerers need physical muscles, not just mental ones.
The Benefits Of A Well-Honed Body
Martial arts and physical training play a major role in the story of Jujutsu Kaisen, even if cursed energy takes center stage and fuels the series' most interesting moves, such as Gojo Satoru's Mugen domain expansion. Multiple characters in Jujutsu Kaisen use physical combat techniques to augment their cursed energy or even as a substitute for it, and there are multiple reasons for this.
A jujutsu sorcerer needs to be in good shape so they can run and evade a curse's attacks, with a possible exception of Momo, a witch-like Kyoto sorcerer who rides on a flying broom. Few sorcerers are seen creating barriers or shields, so they must run, jump and duck to evade enemy attacks if they don't get a chance to deflect the enemy's attack with their own techniques. This also allows sorcerers to run and chase down fleeing curses or suspicious individuals, or retreat if the enemy curse is too powerful to defeat.
More offensively, physical training and conditioning allow a sorcerer to blend their cursed energy with their muscular strength, which is exactly what Yuji and his flamboyant ally Todi Aoi do in battle. In fact, Yuji has a discrepancy between his physical punches and his cursed energy blasts, creating a double-hit technique that impressed Aoi when he saw it.
Physical combat skills give jujutsu sorcerers a lot more options in battle aside from spell-like abilities such as Megumi's shadow animals or Nobara's straw doll technique, especially if a curse can somehow nullify or resist those advanced techniques. A sorcerer must have backup options in battle against a wide variety of curses, so any sorcerer can and should practice martial arts for combat against curses ranging from rank four curses to Mahito himself.
As a bonus, physical exercise and training provide many health benefits for a sorcerer of any age, from balancing their sleep and appetite to improving their mood and mental clarity, and learning these moves can help a student sorcerer learn discipline, hand-eye coordination, self-esteem and much more. Exercise and martial arts training sharpen the mind as well as the body, making it a holistic practice.
Martial Arts In Jujutsu Kaisen
Many scenes and instances in Jujutsu Kaisen demonstrate to what extent physical training can pay off in this world, starting with Yuji. Even before he ate the first finger of Sukuna Ryomen, Yuji was an unusually tough and strong boy who could keep pace with curses, and Megumi was astonished to see Yuji fight back against a curse as a non-sorcerer. Yuji's power spiked even more once he ate that finger, and his martial arts technique was soon augmented rather than replaced with cursed energy.
Even after watching The Lord of the Rings to balance his strong emotional energy, Yuju continued to employ martial arts against a wide variety of foes, from the mutated humans Mahito created to Todo Aoi and even Hanami, a powerful plant-based curse. It's almost an unspoken rule that shonen heroes are martial artists, from Son Goku to Urameshi Yusuke to Uzumaki Naruto, and Yuji continues that tradition.
Similarly, Todo Aoi clearly takes good care of his body, and he didn't use cursed energy as an excuse to slack off on physical training. He is a bodybuilder with an impressive physique, and he can demolish his foes even without cursed energy. This allows him to take down human foes without killing them, and he used the Black Flash technique along with Yuji to deliver an impressive beatdown on Hanami with his bare hands.
Zenin Maki is yet another character who makes good use of physical combat, having been born unable to use curse energy. She needs glasses just to see curses, but even if her traditionalist clan rejects her, Maki is determined to become a great sorcerer, and she uses cursed weapons in battle along with her impressive physical strength. Kyoto's students were hard-pressed to keep up with Maki, all because she, like Yuji and Aoi, understood the value of physical training and unlocking the human body's true capabilities.
