Highlights
- Cursed spirits are beings that can cause trouble and even kill humans, created from the build-up of negative emotions leaked by humans.
- Cursed spirits can range from weak to powerful and have existed for a long time, with their presence hidden from normal human perception.
- Curse users, like Jujutsu Sorcerers, utilize jujutsu sorcery for evil and personal gain, but their freedom was restricted with the arrival of Satoru Gojo, who could stop them.
The difference between cursed spirits and a curse user is an important aspect to understand for those following the Jujutsu Kaisen universe and is central to the series’ developments. The best way to understand the difference between the two is to understand that cursed spirits are beings that are capable of causing trouble to humans and are also capable of killing them.
Curse users, on the other hand, are humans like Jujutsu Sorcerers, who use jujutsu sorcery for evil and personal gain or even to kill. These curse users used to be able to act freely but were not able to after the birth of Satoru Gojo.
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What Are Cursed Spirits?
Cursed spirits are the reason why jujutsu sorcerers exist in the world of Jujutsu Kaisen. While cursed spirits have different appearances and powers, very little is known about their origin. Cursed spirits range from being super weak to super powerful and the way these curses are created is through the build up of negative emotions that leak from humans. Once a substantial amount of negative human emotions have been collected, this is what creates a cursed spirit which proceeds to enact its evil upon humans in return. The danger of these cursed spirits can vary between just being a bother to humans, by creating a negative atmosphere around them, or by killing them.
While little is known about how long cursed spirits have roamed the earth, it can be presumed that they have existed for quite a long time, as humans are constantly known to leak their negative emotions, if there are humans that co-exist in the same place and if all of them leak or emit negative energy, this is where a cursed spirit can be born. While the origin of cursed spirits is unknown, it is possible to say that they have been around for thousands of years, dating back to the Heian Era, also known as the “Golden Age of Jujutsu”, which is when Ryomen Sukuna reigned and was known as the undisputed king of curses. The existence of cursed spirits, however, is kept hidden and also cannot be seen by the normal human eye, which is why there are many unknown reasons for deaths and disappearances in the Jujutsu Kaisen universe.
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Locations which are known for creating the most cursed spirits are said to be schools and hospitals because of the negative emotions that leak from places like these for various reasons. It is not just a collective of sad emotions that create a cursed spirit, but also emotions such as fear and hatred, which can also create a cursed spirit. The more the negative emotions, the higher the possibility of creating an extremely powerful cursed spirit. The interesting thing about cursed spirits is that they usually embody negative emotions when they are being created. For example, the cursed spirit Hanami was born because of humanity’s fear of land-based natural disasters and mistreatment towards nature, which is how it can control plants. Mahito was born from the hatred humans feel towards one another, which gives it the ability to reshape souls.
Cursed spirits can be classified into 3 main categories – vengeful cursed spirit, imaginary vengeful cursed spirit and disease cursed spirit. A vengeful cursed spirit is created when a human becomes a curse after dying. Rika Orimoto is the prime example of a vengeful cursed spirit, as her friend Yuta couldn’t accept the fact that she died, binding her into a curse when her accident happened, transforming her into a vengeful cursed spirit, not letting her spirit ascend. Imaginary vengeful cursed spirits, on the other hand, are cursed spirits which are born from a broad collection of fear of ghosts or monsters bringing them to life. Finally, disease-cursed spirits are cursed spirits which are created because of hatred towards diseases and sicknesses. An example of this kind of cursed spirit is the smallpox deity which appears during the Shibuya Incident arc.
When it comes to exorcising cursed spirits, they cannot be killed by normal methods and can only be killed by users of cursed energy. A powerful attack on a cursed spirit can cause it to dissipate. Cursed spirits which are much more powerful, cannot also be easily killed by cursed energy, and are sealed away instead of being killed. This is seen in the case of Sukuna, as he had to be sealed into twenty fingers within a talisman to constrain him.
Who Are Curse Users?
Curse users are individuals who are sorcerers who use jujutsu for evil. This was, however, before Satoru Gojo was born. Before the birth of Satoru Gojo curse users were able to freely curse the innocent and operate underworld societies to place bounties on individuals or carry out evil plans. Once Satoru Gojo was born with his ability known as Six Eyes, curse users could no longer freely operate as he was able to stop them from comitting evil acts. While there are a few organized curse user groups such as Q and the Time Vessel Association, they mostly operated in secret.
Suguru Geto, a former student of Jujutsu High and long time friend of Gojo was expelled from Jujutsu High after becoming evil and murdering over a hundred civilians, thus forcing the jujutsu community to brand him a curse user. He later went on to look for more curse users and was known to be one of the most evil curse users around.
Jujutsu Kaisen is available to stream on Prime Video.
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