Kenjaku vs Yuki Tsukumo, Explained

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen, Volume 23 (Chapters 200-208), available to read through Viz Media.

The Culling Game arc of Jujutsu Kaisen has no shortage of intricate and exciting fights, but the duel between Yuki Tsukumo and Kenjaku stands out, in particular, for what the heroes stand to lose. It’s a layered battle between limited participants, begging to be dissected, both for its merits as a shining example of this franchise’s action direction and as a victim of its cast’s wasted potential.

Beginning in earnest around Chapter 205, the fight between these two powerful sorcerers truly began earlier, with the battle between Kenjaku and Choso, the latter of whom nearly died facing the former. Thanks to Choso putting the pressure on his opponent, he forced Kenjaku to reveal a hidden cursed technique, giving Yuki just enough insight to tap in and face her opponent unafraid.

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This story’s resolution will come down to what the characters choose to do with the power lying at its very center: cursed energy.

Putting The Battle into Context

While the rest of the cast are dispersed throughout Japan fighting in the Culling Game, Yuki and Choso have stayed behind in the Star Corridor to protect Master Tengen. If Kenjaku were to absorb Tengen as a Cursed Spirit, he’d be able to fulfill his goal of merging all of Japan’s populace into a single entity for nothing other than his own amusement and curiosity.

Yuki’s Entrance/ The Reveal of “Star Rage”

In the grand scheme of things, Yuki’s fight with Kenjaku is fast. It is a series of bold moves that each succeeds or fails with considerable consequences and rapidly shifts the tide in the other’s favor. It is the thought processes of the combatants – and the mechanics of their techniques – that break up the pace and make the fight so engaging. Things get off to an incredible start when Yuki wastes no time revealing why she is a special grade sorcerer.

She folds up her shikigami, Garuda, and kicks it like a soccer ball, straight through the huge cursed spirit Kenjaku just summoned, and then sends him flying with a punch for good measure. Yuki’s technique, Star Rage, gives her and Garuda virtual mass, granting their attacks extraordinary strength. After watching Kenjaku barely get scratched by Choso previously, this gnarly hit comes as a breath of fresh air, but it doesn’t take long for the pendulum to swing the other way.

A Battle of Minds, Miscalculation, and Raging Stars

The Domain Expansion Strategy

When Kenjaku opens his Domain Expansion, “Womb Profusion”, the next layer of this 4D chess game reveals itself. The plan was to force Kenjaku to open his domain so that Tengen, a master of domains himself, could dispel it. After all, the arena in which the fight takes place is one big domain, hence why Tengen, Yuki, and Choso are always seen chilling out in different places during the flashbacks interspliced with the fight.

Unfortunately, Tengen’s plan backfires big time. Kenjaku’s domain ends up working like Sukuna’s did in Shibuya against Mahoraga – with no barrier enclosing it. Tengen still manages to dispel it, but only after Yuki has been brutally injured. Kenjaku’s mistake, then, was thinking that would be enough to keep her down because even with one arm completely crushed, she wails on him relentlessly. But the best part is when Choso reenters the fight, beckoning the third act of this duel to the death.

Choso Gets His Second Wind

The non-linear way in which the reader is informed of the plan is a major part of what makes this fight work on a technical and emotional level. Previously, when Choso insists on fighting Kenjaku first, it comes across as a noble sacrifice, but the return to this conversation in Chapter 207 humorously turns it from a sacrifice into a misdirection. Yuki reminds Choso that he hasn’t even heard their full plan yet, but even after hearing the plan, he’s adamant that he still go first.

Choso shines in these small but potent exchanges, not only because they offer great insight into his development but also because they inform his intellect. He argues that Kenjaku will only release his domain if he’s convinced that he only has to worry about Yuki, and he’s completely right. Between Yuki’s Star Rage, Choso’s blood manipulation, and their combined hand-to-hand skills, they beat Kenjaku senseless. Even when he replenishes his gravity manipulation technique, Yuki gets so close to defeating him, but then….

The End of Special Grade Sorcerer Yuki Tsukumo

There tends to be some debate among fans about whether Kenjaku classifies as a special grade, but frankly, the aftermath of this fight makes it abundantly clear that he is at that level or close to it. After luring Yuki into a trap, he uses a compressed form of the cursed technique, Uzumaki, to blast a hole in her body. Before Choso can respond, Tengen sends him outside the barrier; it’s the one part of the plan Yuki kept from him, so she could save his life if the worst happened.

With Choso safe, Yuki pulls out her trump card. She increases her density to its limit, turning herself into a black hole to take Kenjaku down with her. The barrier, as well as Tokyo Jujutsu High, are destroyed, but even after all that, Kenjaku emerges from the rubble, victorious. As it happens, the gravity technique he’d been using the whole fight was simply a reversal of the antigravity technique that Kaori Itadori – Yuji’s mother – possessed. Kenjaku took a gamble and employed the technique normally, using his body as a domain in the process. An annoyingly clever win.

The Good and Bad of This Colossal Fight

Yuki has been defeated, Tengen has been absorbed, and Choso has lived to tell the tale to the rest of the heroes so that they might plan their next steps. The biggest criticism of this fight is a familiar one: Yuki is another dead character who didn’t reach her full potential. Considering her status in this world and the magnetism of her personality, people wanted to learn more about her.

It’s an echo of the biggest issue facing Jujutsu Kaisen. With so many great characters, interesting themes, and cool mechanics, there’s so much more that could have been done. However, when I think about the fight itself, divorced from what could have been in the larger context, revisiting it has only highlighted how awesome it is. As mentioned before, the non-linear exposition grants the battle a great flow that reveals the appreciable thought that Akutami put into making every frame count.

How Yuki and Choso Benefited From This Volume

We might not have gotten a lot of time to truly know Yuki Tsukumo, but she proved without a shadow of a doubt why she was a special grade sorcerer. Her attitude, frightening strength, and downright harrowing persistence despite her injuries all skyrocket her to levels of cool only rivaled by Maki, another standout female member of the cast. The real problem, understandably, lies in how her final attack didn’t amount to anything, but that wasn’t meant to be her legacy – Choso was.

This volume sees Choso wrestle with the weight of his past actions and resolve to sacrifice himself, not only to atone but so that Yuji can live. Yuki understands his guilt but decides that he needs to live so that Yuji isn’t alone. Her final words to him carry so much weight, and Choso staying in the story as long as he does is perhaps Yuki’s greatest gift to the story.

Of course, your mileage may vary on how well Choso was handled after Volume 23, but if the fulfillment of Choso’s will was that Yuji wouldn’t be alone, he had all the friends he needed in the end. Furthermore, if Choso fulfilling that role as Yuji’s brother was Yuki’s wish, then it came true, even if not for long. Through good and bad, this was an exceptional fight and a major turning point in Jujutsu Kaisen that will be very interesting to see adapted whenever Season 3 finally comes out.

Jujutsu Kaisen is now streaming on Crunchyroll.

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Jujutsu Kaisen

Release Date

October 3, 2020