JJK's Toji Fushiguro Couldn't Break the Zenins' Cycle of Hate (2024)

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Jujutsu Kaisen's manga and anime.

Toji Fushiguro's poor childhood isn't new information to Jujutsu Kaisen fans — it's actually the reason behind all the parallels between him and Maki Zen'in. Both grew up without Cursed Energy in one of the most influential families in Jujutsu society, the Zen'in clan, causing them to be disgraced and mistreated by their own families. However, Maki wasn't the only family member whom Toji Fushiguro had a resemblance to.

His son, Megumi Fushiguro, knew very little of his parents, but his actions already echoed those of his father's. The Culling Game brought out a darker side to the young Fushiguro, likely because of his rocky upbringing and everything he's been through up until that point. Instead of saving his son from suffering the same tragic childhood, Toji Fushiguro passed the traumatic Zen'in cycle of hate down to Megumi. That said, this doesn't necessarily mean that Megumi was going to perpetuate his father's example.

Updated on January 15, 2024 by Angelo Delos Trinos: Now that the Culling Games are at their peak and Jujutsu Kaisen itself is nearing its endgame, all eyes are on Megumi and how his story may end. Megumi's arc was greatly influenced by Toji Fushiguro. Fans are both excited and worried to see if Megumi will escape his father's shadow, or be trapped there forever. This article was updated to reflect on Jujutsu Kaisen's latest developments.

Despite His Murderous Nature, Toji Fushiguro Cared About His Son, Megumi

Toji Fushiguro is one of Jujutsu Kaisen's most complex characters, mainly because his personality is often distilled down to his brute strength. Despite his impressive power, Toji Fushiguro's main character trait was how truly cruel he was. Toji Fushiguro was known as the Sorcerer Killer: an assassin hired to bring down figureheads in Jujutsu society. Unlike other similarly dark characters in shonen manga, he didn't do this to provide for his son or make money to give him a better life. Toji Fushiguro was an assassin because he knew he was good at killing. He effectively made a thriving, self-owned business out of murder. He purposefully went out of his way to be as cruel and callous as possible in order to repress any morals or vulnerability that could inhibit his work.

This behavior was a coping mechanism for Toji Fushiguro to deal with never having a home or being shown any kind of unconditional love in his life. He was treated as an object (or even less than one) for being the only Zenin born without Cursed Energy. Since Megumi inherited the strongest Cursed Technique in the Clan, he lived a very similar life to that of his father's. Toji Fushiguro abandoned Megumi as a child, and thus Megumi never had a stable home for most of his life. He was eventually taken in by Gojo Satoru, which brought some balance to his life, but even his mentor clearly intended to use Megumi and his overpowered Cursed Technique for his own ends. Megumi got help from Gojo, but it was conditional: he too had to grow up to be a Sorcerer, risk his life for strangers, and accept the fact that he would die a lonely and miserable death.

Toji Fushiguro abandoned Megumi because he believed that, after his wife died, he could never be the father his son needed. Toji Fushiguro loved Megumi and saw him as a blessing, so his heart truly was in the right place. He pushed away all vulnerability instead of grieving his wife and raising his child because this lack of emotional attachment was what he was used to. However, Toji leaving Megumi forced the latter into a childhood that mirrored his own. Although Toji Fushiguro wanted Megumi to live a different and better life, he almost condemned his son to relive his own suffering by abandoning him and not guiding him the way a father should.

Toji Fushiguro Unintentionally Continued the Abuse the Zen’In Clan Inflicted On Him

Toji Fushiguro failed to break the Zenins' cycle of abuse, which made his character arc quite tragic. He was capable of love and care; the admiration he had for his wife showed a soft, vulnerable side that neither he nor readers expected him to have. Toji Fushiguro chose to harden himself to inflict pain on others because this was what his upbringing made him believe strength was supposed to be. A cycle of abuse will continue until someone breaks it. Instead of being the person to do so, Toji Fushiguro ended up inflicting similar trauma onto Megumi — who in turn inherited his same flaws. As such, Megumi is at risk of becoming callous as well because he has never been taught how to properly deal with his emotions and control his power's worst impulses.

While Megumi seems to be the opposite of Toji Fushiguro, the pair are similar at their cores. Megumi had an incredible amount of responsibility thrust on his shoulders when he was young due to his Cursed Technique. On top of this, he never had parents or a stable home, so his emotional response was to always repress himself. Megumi may break if he considers how unfair the circ*mstances of his life are or how angry it makes him, so he just doesn’t think about it at all. These repressed feelings and thoughts also fueled his penchant for playing martyr. Megumi valued himself so little that he was more than willing to sacrifice his life for others in a heartbeat. Because of this lack of emotional intelligence, Megumi was set to take after Toji Fushiguro, hardening up and hurting people to avoid vulnerability. And much like his father before him, Megumi did this under the misguided belief that he was sparing his friends and loved ones from pain and suffering by taking it all for himself. In more ways than one, Megumi's fatalism reflected his father's self-destructive and self-loathing views.

Things only changed for the better thanks to Gojo's influence. Just before he died, Toji Fushiguro told Gojo of the Zen'in clan's plans for Megumi. Toji Fushiguro knew that the elitist sorcerer family only saw Megumi as a powerful pawn who they could dispose of later when he stopped being useful to them. Despite his previous cruelty and the fact that he was barely a father to Megumi, Toji Fushiguro all but asked Gojo to make sure that his son doesn't suffer the same fate during his final moments. Gojo genuinely sympathized with Toji Fushiguro, and basically adopted Megumi as if he were his own son. Thanks to Gojo's genuine if imperfect and unorthodox methods, Megumi was able break his myopic worldview. He now focused on surviving and living for the sake of others and himself. Despite Megumi's improvements, he was still prone to following his father's footsteps without him realizing it.

Megumi Fushiguro Could Break the Zen'in Clan's Cycle of Abuse

• Inheriting the Ten Shadows Technique has made the Zen'in Clan target Megumi.
• Ten Shadows Technique allows him to summon friendly cursed spirits to fight alongside him
• The name Megumi roughly translates to mean "blessing" or "graced."

Megumi believes himself to be selfish, and is aware that he picks and chooses who he kills. This was seen when he killed the unconscious Chizuru in Jujutsu Kaisen's Culling Game. Although Toji Fushiguro was also incredibly self-aware and recognized right from wrong, this didn't stop him from doing bad things. He and his son coped in the same way, both using self-awareness as a nonchalant excuse to act unethically or commit murder. Megumi was wrong to kill Chizuru; he did it simply because he could. At the time he chose to kill his opponent, the Culling Game's players no longer had to murder to gain points. This, however, didn't stop the young sorcerer from choosing to end someone's life. Megumi's darker side is emerging, and it's eerily reminiscent of Toji Fushiguro's. Both were crafted in the same cycle of abuse.

Thankfully, all was not lost for both Toji Fushiguro. When fighting Megumi during the Culling Games, Toji Fushiguro snapped out of his bloodlust and stopped himself from killing his own son. After confirming that Megumi was his own person and not a Zen'in pawn since he used the surname "Fushiguro," Toji Fushiguro stabbed himself in the head. He gladly did this, knowing that Megumi was free to live his own life and not follow his example. Toji Fushiguro may not have been able to end the Zen'in clan's cycle of hatred, but he knew his son could because he was already on the right path.

Given Megumi's importance in the overarching Jujutsu Kaisen storyline, it doesn't make sense to send him down Toji Fushiguro Fushiguro's dark path and leave him there. On the contrary, heroic shonen characters almost always find a way to tackle their dark histories without losing themselves in the process. It's also worth noting that Jujutsu Kaisen is, thematically, about breaking toxic and downright evil cycles masked as "tradition." Megumi seems like he's about to realize this, but in the darkest ways possible. Recently, Megumi was pushed to his breaking point by the monstrous Sukuna. After killing Megumi's sister Tsumiki, Sukuna possessed Megumi and is currently in the process of making this permanent. But thanks to the fact that Megumi lived a better life thanks to Gojo's influence and befriended more people than Toji Fushiguro ever did, there's still a fighting chance for his survival. As of this writing, Yuji Itadori and the remaining sorcerers are fighting tooth and nail to free Megumi from Sukuna's clutches. Times are dark, but the fruits of Megumi's life and Toji Fushiguro's atonement are coming to bear when they were needed most.

Jujutsu Kaisen

TV-MA

Animation

Action

Adventure

A boy swallows a cursed talisman - the finger of a demon - and becomes cursed himself. He enters a shaman's school to be able to locate the demon's other body parts and thus exorcise himself.

Release Date

October 2, 2020

Creator

Gege Akutami

Cast

Junya Enoki , Yuma Uchida , Yuichi Nakamura , Adam McArthur , Asami Seto

Main Genre

Animation

Seasons

3

Studio

MAPPA

Production Company

Mappa, TOHO animation

Number of Episodes

47 Episodes