So, with the events of the last chapter, this guy's NPE potential went down the drain and he would be a perfect shoe-in here.... until I saw he got a VB page. Ik moral scaling is subjective but considering Sukuna as VB is something I massively disagree with, and I know many others share the same sentiments, and was a wake-up call to realize an IH proposal for him is necessary first, explain my case, and only then wait for peopwr consensus before we decide IH or VB. So let the trial commence.

What is the Work?[]

Jujutsu Kaisen is that one dark fantasy manga that has Gojo Satoru released in 2018, and a sequel to the 2017 one shot manga, Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School or as it's later retitled, Jujutsu Kaisen 0. In this series, humanity radiate a certain energy called cursed energy which all manifest as cursed spirits. People who can control their cursed energy, sorcerers, are dispatched to deal with the cursed spirits. When our young protagonist, Yuji Itadori, ends up stumbling across a cursed object, a finger of the King of Curses himself, Sukuna. Desiring to do as much good as he can, he trains to be a sorcerer and ends up getting himself to a conflict that shall forever change the balance between humans and curses.

When it comes to the series' Big Bad Ensemble, one half, Kenjaku, counts and still keeps as PE. The other half... eh... enter Ryomen Sukuna.

Who is Ryomen Sukuna? What Has He Done?[]

Once born to a starving woman, Sukuna on the womb had to devour his twin brother to survive. When born, according to Mahito and Sukuna's comments, he was shunned by Jujutsu society as an abomination, and in turn, he decided to embrace such a role as he abandons any connection with other beings, except for Uruame, he cool with them as they become his subordinate. An infamous figure during the Heinan era, Sukuna had gone a wave of slaughter with multiple sorcerers falling to his might as he goes on from village to village slaughtering and devouring their corpses. One of them is Yoruzu, whose throat he slit just for offering to alleviate his loneliness. Sukuna was eventually killed, but before he would, he struck a deal with Kenjaku to reincarnate into 20 indestructable fingers, which would attract dangerous cursed spirits and so needed to be sealed.

One of them eventually came to a box to the school of our protagonist, Yuji Itadori, attracting a big cursed spirit once the seal on it was broken. He and Megumi Fushigoro come to fight the cursed spirit, to which Yuji devoured the finger to fight the spirit... resulting on Sukuna to incarnate within him. Gleeful on his new lease on life, Sukuna intends to slaughter through a district, being especially excited on the numerous women and children available to kill. Before he can though... Yuji regains control. Because as it turns out, Yuji might be the perfect prison. Satoru Gojo, a teacher in Jujutsu High, intervenes and allows Yuji to relinquish Sukuna for 10 seconds for Gojo to gauge his power and effortlessly defeat, in which by the 10 second mark... Yuji wrests control back from him, to which Sukuna vows to kill Gojo once he is free.

Eventually Yuji is forced to transfer control to Sukuna to deal with a special grade cursed spirit that they were mislead into facing, dominating and killing it and then claim his finger that it possessed. Realizing Yuji can't take control from him so easily now, Sukuna faces Megumi, dominating the fight but still otherwise impressed by his skill, so much so that maybe he is the perfect host and plots on possessing him instead... hmmm... oh yeah, and he rips out Yuji's heart to ensure he won't wrest control back from him if he wants to live. But Yuji does to save his friend, dying as a result.

Sukuna really wants to make Megumi his host so bad, so he was forced to make a Binding Vow to Yuji to revive him under the condition that he will take control of his body for a minute when he chants "enchain" and put "not harming your friends" as a condition to make him accept it. But the other condition, that Yuji will forget this vow was put in place, made it suspicious and so refused. SO Sukuna offered a match and the one who gets defeated decide how the vow should be done, and then Yuji gets instantly curb-stomped back to life. Later on, when Mahito used his technique, Idle Transfiguration, to turn Yuji's friend, Junpei Yoshino, into a tortured blob, Yuji desperately pleads to Sukuna to lend him his power to save Junpei, but Sukuna refuses just to spite Yuji, laughing at his despair alongside Mahito when poor Junpei died. He did enjoy, but he did not like Mahito touching his soul and so threatens him, and when Mahito unknowingly touched his soul again when Yuji barged into Mahito's domain to save his mentor, Kento Nanami, Sukuna messes Mahito pretty bad. Later on he would continuously mock Yuji on how his decision to devour the finger and thus reawaken him leads to many people dying.

Now, Sukuna generally takes a backseat until the Shibuya arc after Gojo was sealed by Kenjaku, where the adoptive daughters of Kenjaku's host (Suguru Geto), Mimiko and Nanako, as well the Lava Disaster Curse, Jogo, feed him more of Sukuna's fingers that bring the count to 15. Awakened, when Mimiko and Nanako plead with Sukuna to kill Kenjaku for refusing to release Geto's corpse, Sukuna butchers them due to a desire of not wanting to be ordered around. He then turns to Jogo, who only tells he just wanted Sukuna's return to usher in an age of curses. So Sukuna is not as offended here and makes Jogo one request: land a hit on him and he can let all of Shibuya be destroyed. Jogo gleefully agrees and they fight that spreads destruction across Shibuya. One particularly nasty kick the dog moment is when he forces sorcerers and other curse users to freeze in place and only release him just as the attack was gonna hit, slaughtering countless.

Sukuna then eventually kills Jogo, to which he calls his desire to feel like a human a weakness, but still had decided to otherwise comfort him the afterlife and tell him he was a strong opponent and should die happy for that before Uruame takes him to the afterlife, leading to Sukuna being shockingly overjoyed to see Uruame again. Upon noticing Megumi, he bids them farewell and tells them not to neglect their duties as he faces Megumi and his shikigami, Mahoraga, which wrecks up even more collateral damage than his fight with Jogo using his domain and other cursed techniques and destroys most of Shibuya. Sukuna then takes Megumi to a mediical facility because "Possess da boy no jutsu" and then, in one of his cruelest he has ever been, decides to give control back to Yuji specifically when he comes back to have him despair at the amount of death Sukuna caused, which is the destruction of nearly all of Shibuya and hundreds of thousands dead.

Then Sukuna again takes mostly a backseat until we get to the reveal that Megumi's older step-sister, Tsumiki, was possessed by another reincarnated sorcerer, one that Sukuna himself had slain in the past: Yorozu. Knowing Megumi's soul will be crushed, he expects this will grant Sukuna full control over Megumi's body. And thus he chants "Enchain", activating the Binding Vow and then exploits loopholes in the vow to harm Yuji, ripping out his pinky finger and infusing it with his cursed energy and force feed it to Megumi. Now taking control over Megumi's body instead, he then tries to kill Yuji but Yuji dodges his attacks and then he realized, Megumi is still fighting inside and that reduces his cursed output to simply 1/10th of it's true potential. After a battle, Sukuna meets Uruame and asks her to prepare a bath ritual to further surpress Megumi's soul (which is by submerging him in despair), and so decides that to take full control over Megumi, he must do one act: Kill Tsumiki and thus shatter Megumi's will to live. Killing Ryu he then confronts Yorozu and reveals he knows what love is but doesn't truly care for it, and in a one-sided battle, kills Yoruzu. But the worst part is, Sukuna made it seem it was Megumi's own cursed technique that dealt the blow and thus not only killed Yorozu but her host. His sister now dead, Megumi was now past the Despair Event Horizon.

Then the GOAT, Gojo was freed from his prison. Right before Gojo can kill Kenjaku, Sukuna arrives to face Gojo, wanting to exercise his threat to kill him when the time comes. Gojo remains defiant and even mocks him for running away from Yuji, and then in Kenjaku's request, the two eventually agree to wait until Christmas Eve (December 24th) for their climactic showdown. Sukuna prepares for this battle, devouring the rest of the fingers but keeping the final one in the corpse of his original mummified corpse, and then reveals he knows that Yuji's father is the reincarnation of his unborn twin brother, but still remains insistent that such a "brat" will not be a threat to him. And then, the climactic showdown happens in Shinjuku. The battle was gruelling, but then, when it seemed like Gojo had one, Sukuna had one final trick up his sleeve and kills Gojo. Impressed by his strength and resolve, Sukuna does take time to compliment Gojo for such in his final moments and how he shall never forget him as long as he lives. There he faces Kashimo who was strong enough to force Sukuna to return to his Heinan form. In respect of his strength, he does decide to offer his earnest answer to Kashimo's philosophical question as he dies because he knows even if he does not care for love, he does deserve such.

And then, we get to the grueling final battle. As Sukuna dominates his fight through most of the sorcerers and heroes even if tanking hefty damage, with many notable casualties including Choso, Yuji's big brother who Sukuna kills in front of him. The situation gets even worse when Sukuna ends up being handed over Kenjaku's will for his ultimate plot: to merge all of humanity with Master Tengen that will see it's painful annihilation. When tanked enough damage by the sorcerors, Yuji then unlocks his domain and traps Sukuna in it. Wanting to teach Sukuna the value of compassion, understanding that Yuji and Sukuna have similar, but then Yuji makes it clear that he will offer Sukuna this chance only if he makes the effort to change by merging with Yuji and releasing Megumi's soul, lest Yuji will destroy him. Sukuna, bluntly states he knows what compassion is but doesn't care, announcing his intention to force Yuji to watch humanity's horrifying demise through the Merger as a final act of spite against his ideological opposite.

So then comes the actual final battle and Yuji shows his mettle and with help from his friend, Nobara Kugisaki, retrieving the final finger of Sukuna to use her technique 'Resonance' to whack it and thus bind Sukuna, leaving him defenseless for Yuji to eventually seperate Sukuna from Megumi's soul/Sukuna then pathetically tries to demoralize him but Megumi, having a newfound will to live, refuses to give in and expelled from his body. With no body to inhabit, Sukuna slowly withers away. Yuji then pleads with Sukuna for a final attempt to redeem by merging with him, but Sukuna, while begrudgingly having to respect Yuji and even say his name (latter def must be painful), he refuses and opts to die a curse.

Okay, Sukuna done.... but wait. In the very final chapter of the series, Sukuna is in the passageway of souls where he meets Mahito. Sukuna then admits to Mahito his ideology of living only for himself was indeed a lie he told to himself and that he wanted revenge for his ostracization as an "abomination". Then Sukuna admits he can choose a new path on his life and then offers some consolation to Uruame who was with him. Sukuna then admits he wants to change his way of life, much to Mahito's shock who calls him as going soft. Sukuna agrees, but retorts that his old path in life led to his unceremonious demise and he and his philosophies have unambiguously lost. He and Uruame then walk away for reincarnation, while Mahito remains just to sulk.

Is He Heinous Enough?[]

The heinous standard for Jujutsu Kaisen is really high, but Sukuna polevaults the standard. He is a vicious beast out to kill as many as he can across the series. He had committed a brutal series of massacres across Heinan Japan that led to him being an infamous name across Jujutsu history. When awakening inside Yuji, he gleefully attempts to slaughter through entire districts, especially the countless women and children present. He goes all out to break Yuji, worst is when he had most of Shibuya destroyed and over 100K casualties, and then decides to release Yuji just to despair over the pain. He refuses to help Yuji turn Junpei back to a normal human even though he easily could out of spite and laughed at his despair when Junpei tragically dies from the pain of Mahito's transfiguration. Upon possessing Megumi, he forces him to watch as he uses his body to kill his step-sister and thus break his will to live and his possession is to drown him in despair. Or when he gleefully accepts to do Kenjaku's plans to begin the merger with Master Tengen that will see humanity condemned to a slow, agonizing end, wanting Yuji to watch as they all suffer, out of spite of Yuji daring to show compassion to him.

Kenjaku and Mahito are absolutely nasty bars to pass but Sukuna easily rivals them both in heinousness. His capricious sadism and rampant kick the dog streak far outshines Kenjaku while taking over his apocalyptic plan and gleefully intends to see it through as the ultimate act of spite to Yuji, his scale makes Mahito look like a baby while having the personal cruelty to rival him, and in terms of direct killcount, he honestly trumps both of them. Despite what his VB page originally states, he really does not fail the heinous standard.

Is He Inconsistent Enough?[]

Sukuna was a vile villain throughout but originally leaned more towards NPE. He has a strong warrior sense of honor, mostly when it comes to villainous respect. Whenever he finds opponents strong, he actually takes his time to commemorate them for their might, and even offer comfort on their final moments such as when slaying Jogo, Gojo and Kashimo ("Stand strong, you fought well"). He also has a friendship with Uruame that is rather genuine. He is very oddly chummy with them that sticks out especially bad compared to his mostly sociopathic connections with other people, that when Uruame thought he would punish them for losing to Gojo, he just tells her to heal, while remaining friendly to her, and even WoG confirms Sukuna indeed sees Uruame a friend.

Now, just them is not inconsistent enough. But he instantly gets pushed to this in the final chapter. Sukuna had allusions of a Freudian Excuse where due to originally being a curse reject like Toji and Maki Zen'in, and was heavily discriminated, and Gojo and Yuji do sympathize with him, but Sukuna refuses such, wanting to make it clear he only lives for his own thirst for blood and doesn't care about being denied compassion and feeling lonely in his life. However, upon his ultimate death and in the afterlife, Sukuna... admits this was all a self-delusion, he really was wanting revenge for his ostracization as an "abomination", and seeing how Yuji was of a similarly lonely background yet was able to be good and considerate for others and actually triumph over Sukuna...

That's what spurred Sukuna to make a shocking change: he will reincarnate to choose a more peaceful path in life. He admits he has gone soft but this is what he wants. It's not exactly due to regretting his crimes and more like "This is what made me lose" is what made him lose his thirst for slaughter a la Prime!Megatron, but again like him, he doesn't want to continue his evil ways anymore and opts to make sure it sticks so even if lowkey, it is still a redemption.

Final Verdict[]

Ridiculously easy keep.