Highlights
- Higuruma is a lawyer turned sorcerer with a unique Cursed Technique, making him a formidable opponent in the Culling Game.
- His Cursed Technique is tied to his Domain Expansion, allowing him to use Domain Amplification to neutralize enemy attacks.
- Higuruma’s Domain Expansion, Deadly Sentencing, functions as a courtroom where he and the defendant present arguments to influence the judge’s verdict, with a guilty verdict resulting in a death sentence.
Hiromi Higuruma was a character introduced well into the Culling Game arc of Jujutsu Kaisen. In his introduction, he seemed to be lazy and bored with living, but it was revealed that he had the highest points in the entire game after Kashimo, letting fans know that this character was far stronger than he seemed at first glance. In his fights with Yuji and Sukuna, however, the true extent of his talent was shown.
Higuruma was a lawyer with a very powerful Cursed Technique that had unique properties not found anywhere else in Jujutsu Kaisen. This technique allowed him to defeat many hostile sorcerers and accumulate the second-highest number of points in the entire Culling Game. So, let’s break down the full extent of his Cursed Technique and see why it made him so strong.
Who is Higuruma?
As mentioned previously, Higuruma was a lawyer based in Japan before the events of the Culling Game broke out. He was a genius defense attorney who would quite often take the most difficult cases to save the wrongfully accused from serving prison time, but this was a venture that eventually brought him to the rotten side of the law quite frequently, as innocent people would suffer no matter how hard he tried or how good his case was.
This made him give up on the justice system entirely and go down a sort of depressive spiral, leading to a perpetual look of tiredness and boredom on his face. However, Higuruma is nothing short of a prodigy. At the time of his introduction, Higuruma had access to his Cursed Technique for only two months, during which he not only mastered the technique but also learned the fundamentals of Cursed Energy all on his own and could even use his Domain Expansion.
In the Shinjuku showdown during Sukuna’s fight with Gojo, Higuruma was seen as one of the few people to initially understand Gojo’s plan as well as complex tactics and terms relating to Jujutsu, despite only being familiar with it for two months. In his eventual fight against Sukuna, he learned Reverse Cursed Technique on the spot after being goaded by the King of Curses, even being commended by him multiple times throughout the fight as Sukuna stated Higuruma to be a talent on the same level as Gojo.
What is Higuruma’s Cursed Technique?
Higuruma’s Cursed Technique is tied directly to his Domain Expansion, making him a unique sorcerer in this regard. Due to his natural intelligence and high levels of Cursed Energy, he was able to initially grasp the nature of his Domain, which he would then use to master his Cursed Energy and understand the basics of Jujutsu.
Higuruma can also use Domain Amplification, which is a high level of mastery over his innate technique that covers his entire body with his Domain, similar to an aura. This allows for the neutralization of his enemies’ techniques from damaging him and is so impressive that Sukuna even remarked that Higuruma uses his technique almost as efficiently as Sukuna uses his.
Much like his innate technique, Higuruma’s Cursed Tool of choice, his gavel, is also tied to his Domain. This gavel is an extremely versatile and powerful weapon whose properties can change to another kind of weapon or tool should Higuruma desire it. During his fight against Yuji, the gavel is shown to increase in size, turning into a massive mallet, a scythe and even a hook.
When his Domain Expansion isn’t active in any capacity, the gavel is Higuruma’s main method of inflicting damage on his opponent. This Cursed Tool can be summoned at any point and can be transported from one hand to another in an instant, allowing for great flexibility in combat. When Higuruma’s opponent is given the death sentence in his Domain Expansion, the gavel then turns into the terrifying Executioner’s Sword.
Higuruma’s Domain Expansion
Higuruma’s Domain Expansion, Deadly Sentencing, is not only the strongest part of his arsenal, but it is also the focal point that the rest of his move set is based on. This is because his Innate Cursed Technique, as well as the Cursed Tool he uses in battle, are both linked to his Domain by default. As for the Domain itself, it is essentially a small courtroom surrounded on the outside by guillotines and consists of one podium for Higuruma and one for the defendant (the person he is fighting), which are situated across from one another.
Unlike other Domains, Deadly Sentencing does not have a sure-hit attack. Instead, the Domain places a non-violence effect on everyone inside of it, making it so no one can engage in any sort of violence while inside its barrier, even turning off the usage of anyone’s Cursed Technique for the duration of the Expansion. Anyone who tries to forego these rules by attacking is simply transported back to their podium.
Aside from Higuruma, the defendant and any witnesses, there’s a Shikigami present behind Higuruma called Judgeman. This Shikigami knows everything about the defendant, though he reveals none of it to Higuruma, instead only providing him with a sealed piece of evidence relating to the defendant, who also is not clued in as to what is inside. Inside the Domain, Judgeman acts as the judge of the trial and the verdict he gives depends on the argument provided to him by Higuruma, with the defendant’s goal being to dispel all doubts about their innocence.
Both Higuruma and the defendant have only one opportunity to make a conclusive argument to sway Judgeman into making a verdict in their favor. When presented with a verdict by the prosecution, the defendant can either remain silent, confess to the crime or deny it outright. After this decision is made, Higuruma then has the opportunity to offer a rebuttal to the claim made by the defendant based on the evidence he was given.
If the defendant is proven to be innocent, they are simply let go from the Domain. However, a guilty verdict proposes 2 sentences; either a confiscation or a death sentence. Confiscation temporarily takes away the opponent’s ability to use their Cursed Technique, but if they don’t have one, it takes away their ability to use Cursed Energy for a time. If the defendant had a Cursed Tool on them at the time of their sentencing, the confiscation sentencing applies to the tool instead, disabling its Cursed Technique.
The death sentence is Higuruma’s Cursed Technique at its strongest. When the opponent has been deemed guilty by Judgeman, confiscation applies under the same rules, but now, Higuruma’s gavel is transformed into the Executioner’s Sword, a weapon made purely of Cursed Energy with the power to instantly kill anyone it cuts. In the case of multiple souls existing in one target, the sword only targets and eliminates the guilty one.
Jujutsu Kaisen can be streamed on Amazon Prime and Netflix.
Leave a Reply