Jujutsu Kaisen: Toji vs Maki

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen, Seasons 1 and 2, now streaming on Crunchyroll, and Chapters 148-152, available to read through VIZ Media.

In a story full of sorcerers, the two most uniquely powerful characters in Jujutsu Kaisen have no access to sorcery at all, and both hail from the Zenin clan, whether they like it or not. Toji Fushiguro and Maki Zenin are two deadly fan favorites whose powers exist as the antithesis to the magic system at the heart of their story, but which of these relatives is a bigger threat?

Maki made her mark early on in Season 1 as a second-year student at Jujutsu High who could not use cursed energy or see cursed spirits but was blessed with superhuman strength. Toji – the absentee father of Megumi – debuted in Season 2 and, like Maki, possessed great strength and a penchant for using cursed tools, but without the need for special glasses to see spirits.

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The Outcasts of the Zenin Clan

Toji and Maki are cut from the same cloth – both loathed by/ loathsome of their family on account of their lack of cursed energy and the resultant torment at the hands of their prestigious clan. They are both the recipients of Heavenly Restrictions, a form of binding vow placed on a person when they are born. It alters an individual’s relationship to cursed energy for better or worse, with some physical tradeoff.

Kokichi Muta, for instance, was born with a frail body in exchange for stronger, wider-reaching control of his cursed energy. On the flipside, Toji and Maki’s restrictions took away cursed energy in exchange for incredible strength and agility, but their respective cases aren’t one-to-one, at least at the start. Maki’s Heavenly restriction merely reduced her cursed energy to a level even below that of a non-sorcerer, while Toji’s body is completely devoid of cursed energy – a crucial distinction. Thus, the tradeoff for Toji is much more significant.

Toji Appears to Be the Clear Winner (At First)

For those who have only watched the anime, Toji seems like the stronger of the two. Even with Maki’s impressive speed, combat ability, and mastery of various cursed tools, Toji completely eclipses her by forsaking cursed energy altogether. His existence denies jujutsu, which makes him practically invisible to detection by sorcerers, hence his infamous reputation as the “Sorcerer Killer.”

He not only infiltrated Jujutsu High and murdered Riko Amanai but also practically killed Satoru Gojo. Even with Gojo’s relative inexperience compared to when the viewer first meets him, it’s no less an impressive feat, only undone by Gojo figuring out how to perform reverse cursed technique in the nick of time. Even after death, Toji’s brief resurrection during the Shibuya Incident only further illustrated his strength and the power gap between him and Maki.

But Wait! Maki’s Story Isn’t Finished

Compared to her briefly resurrected cousin, Maki’s role in the Shibuya Incident ended on the receiving end of Jogo’s flames, scarring her permanently. She wasn’t seen for the rest of the season, but as we’ve covered previously, she’s set to make a major comeback in Season 3. See, the somewhat unsatisfying answer to the titular question is that neither Toji nor Maki is necessarily stronger than the other.

If anything, they are reflections of each other, even though they’ve never personally met. Jujutsu Kaisen has this tendency to explore certain types of sorcery through a few unrelated (mostly) characters. It’s almost as if the power itself has an “arc” that subsequently influences/ complements the characters. Blood Manipulation, for instance, was introduced by Noritoshi Kamo, then explored in greater detail by Choso. It’s simple, efficient world-building.

The same is true of Heavenly Restrictions, and Maki and Toji’s parallel-but-ultimately-distinct struggles within the Zenin clan send them both on the same path. The only thing holding Maki back was that she still had some cursed energy left, and as readers discovered back in 2021, Maki would have to lose a lot more than just that to achieve her full potential.

How Maki Became the Second Coming of Toji

In the interim between the Shibuya Incident and the Culling Game, Maki was sent on a mission to retrieve a store of cursed tools from the Zenin estate. When she arrived, however, she found her sister, Mai, wounded by none other than her father, Ogi Zenin. Maki dueled her father and lost, and the twin sisters were thrown into a chamber full of cursed spirits to be devoured, but Mai had other plans. She decided to die and take Maki’s cursed energy with her.

Mai’s parting gift was twofold: the Split Soul Katana – created with the last embers of Mai’s projection sorcery – and most importantly, Maki’s newfound strength. The last thing Ogi Zenin ever saw was the ghost of Toji in his daughter’s form. Over the next few chapters, Maki would go on to decimate the Zenin clan that scorned her and her sister for years, reborn anew but, by her own words, at the cost of her heart.

But Seriously, Which of Them Is Stronger?

If we’re measuring purely based on accomplishments, Maki did what Toji probably dreamed of doing for years. However, to say that she is the stronger one suggests that Toji couldn’t have pulled it off, and the text doesn’t support that for a couple of reasons. Firstly, around Chapter 195, upon witnessing Hagane Daido deal damage with the Split Soul Katana that she couldn’t, Maki was aggravated to realize there was still a gap in skill between her and Toji.

After some training with Rokujushi Miyo, another participant in the Culling Game, she realized the problem was her focus, and truly achieved her peak. One might argue that Maki’s sheer adrenaline in the aftermath of her sister’s death might have made the difference when destroying her clan, but it still doesn’t prove that Toji couldn’t have killed everyone.

The Difference in Motivation/Circumstance

Toji probably would have taken vengeance against the Zenin clan were it not for the woman he fell in love with. Granted, after her passing, he reverted to his old ways, but by then, Megumi was born, so instead of killing the Zenins, he planned to sell them his kid, thinking Megumi might at least become the sorcerer he never could be. Toji and Maki both shared a resentment of jujutsu society, but how that resentment took root – and where it took them – were vastly different.

No matter how bad Toji might have had it, it’s hard to argue that Maki didn’t have it worse when the text has demonstrated how antiquated and misogynistic the Zenin clan was. It certainly must have helped that Toji was strong enough that he sent shivers down the spines of his family, whereas Maki and Mai were looked down on as failures. Toji abandoned the life of a sorcerer and even made himself a villain within that world, but Maki strived to become a sorcerer to spite her family. She refused to take that disrespect.

There’s little point in arguing whether either is physically stronger than the other, but there’s just as little point in pretending that the strength of Maki’s will alone doesn’t leave Toji in the dust. She faced her problems head-on, refused to give up, and broke every shackle holding her back, but without ever truly losing her humanity or her capacity for compassion and loyalty. She was aware of her flaws, strived to fix them, and encouraged her allies not to repeat her mistakes. Maki Zenin is one of the strongest characters in Jujutsu Kaisen – body, mind, and soul.

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