Key Takeaways
- Jujutsu Kaisen follows Yuji, who teams up to collect cursed fingers and exorcise Sukuna.
- Sukuna’s fingers taste disgusting – like rods of feces and vomit slathered in waxy soap.
- Detailed descriptions from characters suggest that eating cursed objects is repulsive.
Jujutsu Kaisen follows the story of Yuji Itadori, a teenager who becomes a vessel to a powerful sorcerer named Ryomen Sukuna by eating one of the dark sorcerer’s fingers. To avoid execution, Itadori collaborates with the students and faculty of Jujutsu High to collect the rest of Sukuna’s fingers and exorcise the spirit once and for all. Let’s review: Jujutsu Kaisen is an anime about a boy who eats cursed fingers.
Speaking of eating cursed fingers, what would a cursed finger taste like? And not any cursed finger, a finger belonging to “The King of Curses” no less! Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), we’ll never get to eat one in real life. Therefore, the only tool available is speculation combined with knowledge gathered from JJK lore.
Related
Jujutsu Kaisen: Yuji’s Potential As The Next Sukuna, Explained
Yuji has tremendous power as JJK’s protagonist. He has enough potential to reach the level of Sukuna.
Ryomen Sukuna Is One of JJK’s Most Depraved Characters
His Fingers Reflect His Dark Soul
The first clue to understanding the taste of a particular meat is its source. Consider beef. Several factors affect beef’s taste, including what the cow eats, how much it travels from farm to farm in its lifetime, and the part of the cow slaughtered. The same logic applies to Sukuna’s fingers.
So, who is Ryomen Sukuna? In short, he was the most dangerous jujutsu sorcerer of the Heian era (794 CE to 1185 CE). Sukuna used his advanced proficiency in wielding cursed energy to feed his gluttony for bloodshed. No sorcerer was powerful enough to defeat Sukuna, causing the Japanese authorities to bend to his will and hold festivities in his honor.
When Sukuna died, his body transformed into a cursed object, and his soul separated into twenty fingers (yes, Sukuna has four arms). Over the next thousand-plus years, these fingers circulated among locations susceptible to curses, serving as wards to dispel cursed spirits.
Another fun fact about Sukuna: he is a cannibal. His taste for human flesh is best described in one of his quotes from the manga:
Every human has a unique and fleeting taste…which makes devouring them a perfect way to pass time until death.
–
Jujutsu Kaisen
, chapter 238
As Sukuna’s origin story and lifestyle suggest, his fingers do not have a pleasant flavor profile. These are the fingers of a gruesome cannibal that wrinkled into waxy, dry finger jerky over a thousand years. The word ‘gamey’ is an understatement.
JJK’s Characters Suggest Cursed Objects Taste Awful
Series Creator Compares Sukuna’s Fingers to Soap
Other sources we can refer to regarding Sukuna’s fingers’ taste are the characters who have eaten cursed objects and spirits. Considering he had eaten Sukuna’s fingers before, what does Yuji have to say about their taste? In season 1, episode 2, “For Myself,” after devouring his second Sukuna finger, Yuji exclaims, “Blech. So gross. I mean, so gross it’s funny.” It’s not the most specific description, but it makes sense.
Suguru Geto, a sorcerer with the power to exorcise and absorb curses, provides significantly more detail. In season 2, episode 1, “Hidden Inventory,” Geto states cursed spirits “taste like swallowing down a dirty rag, used to clean up shit and vomit.” That sounds consistent with Yuji’s description.
Lastly, Jujutsu Kaisen mangaka Gege Akutami provides a definitive answer regarding the flavor of Sukuna’s fingers. In an official fan book published in 2021, Akutami claimed that grave wax covers Sukuna’s fingers.
Wait. What’s grave wax? The answer is very unsettling. Grave wax is a naturally occurring substance that coats a decomposing corpse. As the human body decomposes, its fats disintegrate into a waxy orange substance that helps preserve it. According to Akutami, the taste is similar to soap.
The accounts from Itadori, Geto, and Akutami suggest that Sukuna’s fingers taste like rods of solidified feces and vomit slathered in waxy soap. They’re bitter, sour, acidic, rotten, and savory in the worst way possible. This flavor breakdown makes sense because these fingers are poisonous to the average human being. Even with dead taste buds, one needs a profound resilience against cursed energy to eat one.
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