Jujutsu Kaisen: Did Yuta Die? Here’s What Happened to Him!
After Jujutsu Kaisen 0 and what happened later in the manga, Yuta Okkotsu has certainly become one of the more popular characters in the series, and that is also why we have decided to write yet another article about this intriguing character. This article will be about Yuta and his story in the series, as you will find out what happened to him, i.e., whether he died or not in the series.
As of the time of writing, Yuta Okkutsu is not dead. He had a very important clash with Suguru Geto in Jujutsu Kaisen 0, which almost cost him his life, but he managed to survive, after which he was sent abroad by Gojo to study and become better. When Gojo was sealed, Yuta returned, seemingly to kill Yuji, but he was Gojo’s liaison this whole time, and he came back to protect Yuji and find a way to free Satoru Gojo from the Prison Realm. He ultimately defeated several opponents along the way and is currently in Japan, observing the final fight between Gojo and Sukuna.
The rest of this article will focus on the character of Yuta Okkotsu and his fate in Jujutsu Kaisen. Yuta Okkotsu is a very popular and important character in the series, whose popularity rose even more after the prequel movie. Since then, fans have been wondering about him and his fate, and that actually motivated us to write this article, in which we will reveal everything that is known about his fate, which is revealed later in the manga. This article might contain a significant number of spoilers, so be careful while you’re reading.
What happens to Yuta in the end? He will come back and play a major role in the series
Yuta Okkotsu is an important character in the Jujutsu Kaisen series. Debuting in Jujutsu Kaisen 0, Yuta was actually going to be the main protagonist of the series (he was supposed to take Yuji’s role), but after the publication of 0, Akutami decided to keep the basic idea but change some of the characters and details, so Yuta was sent abroad, while Yuji Itadori was introduced as the new protagonist of the series, which was now titles simply Jujutsu Kaisen (Jujutsu Kaisen 0 was originally titled Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School).
Akutami never actually intended for his Jujutsu Kaisen 0 series to be serialized. Similarities between him and Yuji include his introduction to the world of jujutsu, tragedy, naivety, and facing death. Despite their similarities, the two have differed notably due to their very different personalities. We don’t really know the process of how and why Akutami decided to replace Yuta with Yuji and then bring him back into the main series, but it played out well, as Yuta truly became one of the series’ favorite characters. Having said this, let us not wee Yuta’s story.
The protagonist of Volume 0, which acts as a prequel to the manga series, Yuta, was introduced to the series in a very similar way to Itadori, who ultimately became the protagonist of the main series. He was initially the victim of a special-level curse, haunted by the cursed spirit of his childhood friend, Rika Orimoto. Gojo took on Yuta’s case and enrolled him in the Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College, where he became friends with Maki, Toge, and Panda.
After training with Gojo and the other students, Yuta learns to control his cursed energy and becomes a skilled swordsman, so much so that he manages to beat Sugru Geto in the final fight of the prequel series; Suguru Geto was Gojo’s former classmate who became a villain because he was disillusioned with the roles of jujutsu sorcerers and humans in the world. He wanted to steal Rika, whom he called the “Queen of Curses,” from Yuta, thinking that she would make him invincible. He ultimately lost the battle and was later killed by Gojo before Kenjaku took over his body.
After his battle, it became apparent that Yuta cursed Rika, and not the other way around, so he released her, but he regained his Special Grade status and his powers after a couple of months, and Gojo stated that Yuta had the potential to surpass him. Yuta’s great power comes from being a descendant of one of the three great sorcerer clans (he is related to Gojo, although distantly), and is why he cursed Rika when she refused her death at a young age.
Yuta’s bond with Rika also allowed him to unconditionally copy the cursed techniques of others, although there were some limits in that aspect. Yuta can also use an Innate Technique passed down in a clan of sorcerers and multiple techniques that he copied in rapid succession. However, after Rika’s exorcism, he can access the techniques he copied for only five minutes through the ring given to him by his friend when she was still alive.
Yuta is still a second-year student, and after a period of study abroad, he is called back to Japan by the higher-ups of the jujutsu society to execute Yuji following the events in Shibuya, which saw Gojo being sealed in the Prison Realm and then declared a traitor. Yuta does come back and attacks Yuji, but the truth is very different.
In reality, in agreement with Gojo, he only pretends to attack Itadori and then, together with his schoolmates, devise a plan to win the Culling Game initiated by Kenjaku. Yuta is thought to be the second strongest jujutsu sorcerer after his mentor, Gojo, and has set himself the goal of killing Kenjaku to spare Satoru from having to kill his best friend’s body again. He is currently alive and is observing the clash between Gojo and Sukuna.
