Warning: Spoilers Ahead for Jujutsu Kaisen!

Jujutsu Kaisen is still living out its cultural moment in 2024, from winning Crunchyroll's Anime of the Year 2024 award to concluding its memorable manga series on Sunday, September 29, 2024. It's a top-rated franchise among fans, selling one hundred million copies over its six-year run, firmly placing it among the best-selling manga ever. However, due to Jujutsu Kaisen's battle shōnen framework and genre makeup, I can't help but look at the entire manga and anime and recognize that Mahito was a more compelling villain than Sukuna.

Mahito has limited competition in the grand scheme of Jujutsu Kaisen villains who are both threatening and compelling, especially beyond Sukuna. He doesn't wind up having the same stake as some of the other major players of the series, but he has left an enduring legacy. I will Mahito as a violent and terrific special-grade cursed spirit with an imposing body count. Mahito might not have wound up the most powerful or storied of Jujutsu Kaisen's villains. Still, his brutal powers, maniacal execution, and surprisingly funny anime moments make him a far more interesting character to me.

Jujutsu Kaisen's True Greatest Villain Was Mahito After Reading from Start to Finish

An Impressive Body Count to His Name

Mahito featured through just short of the halfway point of Jujutsu Kaisen, with a surprising final appearance in chapter #271's series finale. Yet, Mahito has been featured as one of the series' most impactful and ruthless killers. After I finished the Shinjuku Showdown Arc, including the marathon battles between Sukuna and Gojo and enough new challengers to drain the quarters of a fighting game enthusiast, Sukuna's menace fell flat. This isn't to say Mahito would ever come close to Sukuna's strength: as a cursed spirit, even with Mahito's incredible growth, he'd never match the King of Curses in Jujutsu Kaisen.

While I also felt that Kenjaku was a compelling villain, much of my opinion of him fell apart when he never got to execute the Tengen Merger.

Mahito's true strengths lie in his impact as an antagonist and incredible body count, which exceeds four figures in the Shibuya Incident, accentuated by the chilling moment in Jujutsu Kaisen chapter #88 when his victims come loose. He's among the most ruthless and efficient killers in contemporary shōnen manga, with a shocking number of onscreen deaths to his name, most notably Junpei Yoshino, Kento Nanami, and Kokichi Muta. While Nanami's death, in particular, felt upsetting, one loss in Jujutsu Kaisen was more than tragic: it was horrifying and perfect for the series.

Mahito Shines Among Jujutsu Kaisen's Horror Highlights in the Dark Trio

The Opposite of the Midas Touch

Jujutsu Kaisen, as a dark urban fantasy on top of being a shōnen battle manga, has caused it to be labeled among the Shōnen Dark Trio alongside Hell's Paradise and Chainsaw Man. While Hell's Paradise is my favorite visually, and Chainsaw Man has bold and horrific imagery and writing to its credit, Jujutsu Kaisen was usually the series whose dark fantasy trappings felt less steeped in horror. Taking this as a challenge, Mahito's Idle Transformation was perhaps most chillingly rendered in Jujutsu Kaisen season 1, episode #12, when his manipulated henchman, Junpei Yoshino, outlived his usefulness.

Idle Transfiguration is Mahito's innate cursed technique, allowing him to reshape the souls of the bodies he touches, which consequentially means that the body will change shape to follow suit. When used offensively, this often meant the targets would be warped into abominations, potentially serving Mahito's bidding as fodder against his enemies while dying in agony. I was horrified to see Junpei tearfully pleading for Yuji's help in the anime (or asking, "Why?" in the manga, chapter #27), hopelessly transformed beyond repair. What I love about this is the body horror element it injects into Jujutsu Kaisen.

Body horror is a subgenre of horror that entails aberrant and often violent changes to predominantly human bodies, either imposed or over a gradual period. Famous creators in body horror include legendary figures like David Cronenberg and Junji Ito, and my favorite artist for the genre is Travel Foreman for his mind-blowing work on Jeff Lemire's 2011 Animal Man run. When Junpei pleaded to Yuji in Jujutsu Kaisen, it was reminiscent of a pitiful, grotesquely transformed Seth Brundle grabbing Veronica Quaife's shotgun in The Fly. Both were desperate for mercy in their final moments, in whatever form possible.

Mahito Was the Perfect Enemy for Yuji in Jujutsu Kaisen

Growth to Rival That of Sukuna's Vessel

While Yuji Itadori benefited from immense talent, phenomenal strength, and being honed as Sukuna's vessel to become a powerful sorcerer, Mahito learned quickly from his survival after every encounter in Jujutsu Kaisen. With his unique advantage of two souls in his body, Yuji was a hard counter to Mahito. When Mahito was beaten in chapter #132, it had to be by Yuji, who had witnessed what was long-believed to be Nobara Kugisaki's death alongside countless other victims. It's impactful enough that even Yuji's victory over Sukuna still has shades of this moment in chapter #268.

While Sukuna was the final villain who needed to be defeated at all costs by anyone, and freeing Megumi Fushiguro was a major personal win for Yuji, I felt less interested in the idea of Yuji being the one to land the killing blow. Yuji even offers mercy to Sukuna in his final moments in Jujutsu Kaisen, the culmination of his character development, calling back to Mahito's final moments, yet Yuji defeating Mahito felt cathartically necessary. One rapidly growing presence had to eliminate the other eventually, and Yuji had witnessed far too many atrocities to let Mahito slip away.

The JJK Anime Made Mahito More Entertaining

A Flippant Shade of Cruelty

Mahito's playfully monstrous side is perfectly captured in many moments of the Jujutsu Kaisen anime. Still, something struck me as utterly Joker-coded about him dancing along the train car interior. Mahito's flippant act of mutilating engers is immortalized in one of JJK's best opening themes. While he appears bouncing out of the train in chapter #88, it lacks the anime's cinematic gravitas. Even the utterly nonsensical post-credits friendly soccer game of Jujutsu Kaisen season 1, episode #7 was wildly entertaining, with Mahito hilariously scoring a perfect bicycle kick using Jogo's head as the ball.

With a character whose cruelty and playfulness are initially only seen as written, it's legitimate to enjoy Mahito as he appears as a despicable villain in the manga. But seeing his jovial nonchalance, even while inflicting unimaginable cruelty, is fascinating in anime. It's akin to reading Batman for years until the first time you see the Joker as voiced by Mark Hamill. In Jujutsu Kaisen, from his writing to the sheer morbid entertainment factor, Mahito was the perfect villain for me, and I am sure I'm not alone in feeling this.