Highlights
- Mahito and Sukuna are both incredible villains in Jujutsu Kaisen, each embodying different qualities that make them memorable and formidable obstacles for the heroes, particularly Yuji.
- Mahito is born from humanity’s collective fear and hatred, making him ruthless and cruel. His powers and motivations, as well as his connection to Yuji, make him an ideal rival.
- Sukuna is the strongest character in the series and exists solely to fulfill his own desires. He traumatizes Yuji and serves as an unbeatable antagonist, admiring strength above all else.
Mahito and Sukuna are some of the best villains introduced in a modern anime series and have both been instrumental in serving as major obstacles that the heroes of Jujutsu Kaisen, particularly Yuji, have to overcome. Both of them embody the best aspects of what makes a villain memorable as well as what makes them an antithesis of the ideals that the main hero strives to achieve.
However, despite them both serving as incredible villains in their own right, many in the Jujutsu Kaisen fandom are conflicted about who is the better antagonist among them. Yuji is the common factor between the two curses and both of them have their own, specific relationship with him, so in this article, let’s break down who the better villain is between Mahito and Sukuna.
The Case For Mahito
Mahito has been a major villain in the series ever since the first season. Unlike the rest of his companions in his group of Disaster Curses, Mahito is the only one of them who has not been born from the fear of a natural disaster, rather, the reason for Mahito’s existence is far more sinister and personal. He is a curse that is born from all of humanity’s collective fear and hatred for other humans, something which is seen in his ruthless personality.
The reason why Mahito works so well as a villain is due to his powers and motivations, as well as his relationship with the series’ protagonist, Yuji Itadori. His Cursed Technique, Idle Transfiguration, allows him to reshape a person’s soul and turn them into a mindless monster, meaning that wherever Mahito goes, he spreads pain and misery, as is seen in all the side characters that he has killed; namely Nanami, Nobara and Junpei, making him an ideal rival for Yuji.
This is such a potent character motivation because Mahito simply doesn’t think that he is doing anything wrong, despite being undoubtedly cruel and sadistic. He reasons that since he is a curse born of negative emotions such as fear and hatred of humans, his nature is simply to act in such a way befitting these emotions and that killing and mutating humans is just how he is wired.
This contrasts Mahito’s ideals with those of Yuji beautifully. Just as Mahito believes that killing and spreading destruction to humans is his nature, Yuji believes that his nature is to save and protect people, no matter the cost. This is why Mahito is so obsessed with Yuji and trying to defeat him, because he even mentions in their fight that they are both opposite sides of the same coin and that their battle serves to show whose ideals are superior and will last the test of time. Mahito also calls Yuji a hypocrite because just as he indiscriminately kills humans without a second thought, Yuji indiscriminately kills curses without a second thought.
Mahito and Yuji’s relationship is also where the famous “I’m You” line comes from, as it was something that Mahito tried to convince Yuji of how they’re virtually the same as they both act according to their nature. Though this was a fact that Yuji heavily denied initially, he eventually comes to terms with it. This realization was instrumental in defeating the Cursed Spirit, as Yuji finally acknowledged his role as someone who would eradicate all curses from the world.
The Case For Sukuna
The King of Curses is a title not lightly given to Sukuna, as he is by far the strongest character in the entire series. Ever since the first episode, Sukuna has been equally as important to how Jujutsu Kaisen has played out as Yuji has, as he is a walking calamity that everyone in Jujutsu society has feared for over 1000 years. Despite being born a human and becoming a Jujutsu sorcerer, Sukuna committed many vile and depraved acts that eventually transformed him into the most powerful curse of all time.
Much like Mahito, Sukuna exists solely for himself and to fulfill his desires. His main motivation has always been to serve himself and reach the pinnacle of strength so that no one else can ever come close to him, and his hatred for Yuji is born from the fact that, despite inhabiting his body, he could never have full control over a ‘brat’ that he viewed as boring and weak.
Unlike Mahito, however, Sukuna does not spread destruction because he claims it to be his nature. In fact, Sukuna’s main purpose is being able to do whatever he wants, and he kills anyone who gets in the way of him realizing his desires. Being reborn in the modern era within Yuji’s body greatly impedes these goals due to him not being able to take control of Yuji, which ends up harboring a deep resentment within Sukuna towards the boy.
Due to this, Sukuna has heavily traumatized Yuji many times, as was seen when he killed an untold number of people during the Shibuya Incident, took over the body of his best friend and then ended up killing his mentor Gojo at the end of their battle. With Gojo’s death, Sukuna made sure to get rid of the strongest sorcerer who was the biggest hurdle in seeing him achieve his goals.
Sukuna serves as an amazing antagonist in the story as he is essentially an obstacle that none of the heroes can overcome. Despite his ruthless nature, though, Sukuna is a character that admires strength above all else, even in his adversaries, and so, exists as a testament to the power of others to test themselves against. Sukuna’s philosophy about love and existence that he spoke about to Kashimo makes him a very evil character, but not one without nuance, as he claims to know the feelings of love and whatever others enjoy despite his unparalleled strength, only his perspective upon them is vastly different.
Even though they’re both very different characters, Mahito and Sukuna fill a role within Jujutsu Kaisen that no one else does. In doing so, they have cemented themselves as legendary characters that will both go down as some of the best villains ever introduced in an anime/manga series!
Jujutsu Kaisen can be streamed on Amazon Prime and Netflix.
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