The Jujutsu Kaisen fandom sure loves its problematic faves, and even though I’m personally a Geto Suguru stan at heart, there’s no denying that Fushiguro Toji belongs in that category. His first appearance in the Hidden Inventory arc in both Gege Akutami’s manga and MAPPA’s anime adaptation definitely left a mark—both within the story, since the consequences of his actions were pretty devastating, and outside of it, with Toji quickly climbing the ranks of everyone’s favorite terrible person list.
Fushiguro Toji’s whole deal revolves around what makes him an outcast in the jujutsu world. No, it’s not being impossibly strong, so strong that he gave teenage Gojo Satoru a run for his money. It’s the fact that he was born without a single shred of cursed energy, the one thing that sets sorcerers and non-sorcerers apart. So let’s break that down.
So what’s the reason behind Toji’s strength in Jujutsu Kaisen?
Fushiguro Toji—born Zenin Toji, but more on that later—was born without any trace of cursed energy because of a Heavenly Restriction, a cursed pact placed randomly on a sorcerer’s body at the moment of their birth. Heavenly Restrictions impact a sorcerer’s cursed energy in exchange for limitations of improvements to their body.
Toji is the only known case of a Heavenly Restriction completely eradicating someone’s reservoir of cursed energy. The trade-off for that was superhuman physical prowess, which made Toji’s five senses the sharpest they could be. This allows him to interact with curses in a way that those without cursed energy usually can’t.
Toji’s physical abilities, combined with training and a sharp strategic mind, made him one of the most elite fighters the jujutsu world had ever seen. So much so that, when his soul was called back by Granny Ogami’s cursed technique during the Shibuya Incident, he easily overpowered the soul of his vessel. Toji essentially came back to life for a considerable amount of time—just enough to engage in an epic fight with his estranged son Megumi.
What were the consequences of Toji’s Heavenly Restriction?
Because of his utter lack of cursed energy, Toji was quickly rejected by the clan he was born into. And given how the Zenins are one of the three great clans of the jujutsu world, his family has strict ideas of who is worthy to be a sorcerer. Those who don’t fit the standard are treated like servants and sometimes even worse than that—which is also what happened to twins Maki and Mai, the former being born with another form of Heavenly Restriction.
So Toji decided to reject the clan that had rejected him, adopting his then-wife’s surname Fushiguro, which is the same one his son Megumi uses. As fate would have it, Megumi was born with the Ten Shadows, the Zenin clan’s prized inherited technique.
Toji decided to use the skills granted to him by his Heavenly restriction to wreak havoc through the jujutsu world by becoming the so-called “sorcerer killer”. Who better to assassinate sorcerers left and right than someone who not only knows how they think but fights in a way they haven’t trained for?
This path will put him in direct opposition to Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru in the incident involving Amanaki Riko, the Star Plasma Vessel for the all-powerful Master Tengen’s merger in 2006. The situation soon spiraled into disaster. Toji killed Riko and was then killed by Gojo, who worked tirelessly to make himself stronger and more untouchable. Meanwhile, Geto drifted further and further away from the idea that sorcerers exist to protect non-sorcerers.
(featured image: MAPPA)
