Jujutsu Kaisen: How Strong Is Sukuna? (& Who Can Defeat Him?)

Ever since the beginning of Jujutsu Kaisen, we have seen how resistant Yūji Itadori is to the possession of Ryōmen Sukuna, who is known as the King of Curses. Even though he ate one of Sukuna’s fingers and was supposed to get taken over by the evil cursed spirit, Yuji retained control over his body but sometimes allowed Sukuna to take over, especially in tough situations. Sukuna, however, is one of the most important characters in the Jujutsu Kaisen franchise. He is one of the series’ main antagonists, being also one of its most powerful characters. In this article, we will tell you just how strong Ryōmen Sukuna was.

The article is going to be divided into two major sections. The first one will be a representation of Sukuna’s powers and abilities, while the other one will be a short comparison of Sukuna’s powers and abilities to the powers and abilities of other characters, divided into several subsections. These will not be detailed analyses, just brief comments so you can understand Sukuna’s position in the Jujutsu Kaisen lore.

Ryōmen Sukuna’s powers and abilities

Sukuna is an S-class cursed spirit, which actually means that he is incredibly powerful, as he is in the top tier among the curses in the series. Considered to be the undisputed King of Curses, Sukuna possesses incredible strength and presence, a presence that nearly froze his opponents when he awoke in Shibuya. He quickly overpowered and defeated Jōgo, who was the strongest Curse in Mahito’s group, led by Kenjaku posing as Pseudo-Getō.

Even Satoru Gojō admitted that Sukuna was a powerful opponent and that he would have trouble fighting him, but he added that he would still be able to defeat him, even at full power.

With each appearance, Sukuna has proven himself to be the most powerful Curse of all time by far, as it seems, and an enemy who is incredibly difficult to defeat, even though we have not seen him at the height of his powers and abilities. He badly injured Mahito when angry, defeated Jōgo without difficulty, and even defeated the Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga, the Ten Shadow Technique’s strongest shinigami.

He is, in fact, so powerful that both Mahito and Jōgo are absolutely certain that Sukuna’s full resurrection could secure the domination of the cursed spirits, which is why they wanted him on their side.

In terms of his overall strength, Sukuna ranks – as it seems – above even the other S-class cursed spirits, making him the most powerful cursed entity in the series. So far, Satoru Gojō is the only character who openly claims that he could defeat him even at the height of his powers and abilities, and knowing Gojō, this might just be true.

Being the most powerful cursed spirit known in the series, you can imagine that Sukuna’s levels of cursed energy are simply outstanding. Throughout the series, he has shown that he can use his skills without any fatigue, even the most complex ones because his control over these energy reserves is absolutely amazing. He can use both Domain Expansion and the Reverse Cursed Techniques; the only other character that can use both of them, as far as we know, is Gojō, which speaks for itself.

His innate cursed technique has not been identified yet, but we have seen it in action. He can use his Dismantle and Cleave techniques to cut up his opponents with ease, and he also has an unnamed fire-based technique that he can use. The name of his Domain Expansion is Malevolent Shrine; it manifests as a Buddhist shrine filled with skulls.

Interestingly enough, it doesn’t create a separate dimension using a barrier, like other Domain Expansions, and it also allows those trapped inside to escape, but only if they accept a binding vow.

On top of all of that, Sukuna is also exceptionally skilled in direct hand-to-hand combat. When he fought Megumi, he could overpower him with absolute ease. What makes him even more dangerous is that he can combine his cursed energy with his physical attacks, making the latter both extremely dangerous and powerful.

Sukuna has shown that he moves at an incredible speed, so it is already too late for his opponent to notice that he has not moved. He can also counter any attack from an opponent with amazing ease and has shown that coupled with his speed, he can lacerate his opponent before the latter can even realize it.

Finally, it has to be said that Ryōmen Sukuna is an incredibly intelligent cursed spirit. He fully understood the nature of spells and cursed energy as a whole, which is why he had become so powerful and dangerous to the world around him. With this, he is able to quickly deduce the inner workings of spells after only seeing them once or twice, as well as creating parries suited to these techniques.

The most notorious example is his fight against the Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga, during which he defeated the familiar after understanding his technique.

How powerful is Ryōmen Sukuna compared to other Jujutsu Kaisen characters?

This section will compare Ryōmen Sukuna to some other prominent Jujutsu Kaisen characters. These will be brief comparisons whose main goal is to give you a general idea of his powers and abilities. (Note: We will talk about a fully-powered Sukuna here, as it is unreasonable to pick up a random point in the story because his powers keep increasing constantly.)

Ryōmen Sukuna vs. Satoru Gojō

We cannot be completely certain about this, and the manga might prove us wrong in the end, but if anyone can defeat Sukuna, it’s Gojō. Satoru Gojō is the franchise’s most popular character by far, and Akutami has made him incredibly powerful; he is, by all means, the most powerful character in the series.

Now, the long-awaited clash between Sukuna and Gojō is probably closer than we think (as far as the manga is concerned) and we are finally going to see who the most powerful character in the series is, but based on what we know at this point – both from Gojō’s own words and what we have seen him do in the series – Gojō should be able to defeat Sukuna in a direct clash.

Ryōmen Sukuna vs. Kenjaku

This is a very interesting comparison, to be honest. Sukuna and Kenjaku are both ancient entities, but where Sukuna is a cursed spirit, Kenjaku is a sorcerer. Now, if we’re looking at this directly, it does seem that Sukuna would be able to overpower Kenjaku, but Kenjaku has some interesting skills and abilities, including those he has copied from the people whose bodies he has taken over, which is why we don’t think that Sukuna would have an easy job defeating the experienced sorcerer.

We’ll give Sukuna the advantage in this one, but only a small one, as it is really difficult to objectively compare them based on the little information we have at this point.

Ryōmen Sukuna vs. Yūta Okkutsu

We’ve seen Yūta Okkutsu in the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 movie, and we’ve seen what he is capable of and a lot. He is undoubtedly one of the series’ strongest characters and one of the characters with the highest growth potential. Gojō personally picked him as his “successor,” and the series has, on numerous occasions, confirmed that if anyone could surpass Gojō at one point, it is Yūta.

He has been able to preserve Rika’s powers despite letting Rika pass on peacefully, which makes him incredibly powerful, and we don’t doubt that he would be able to face Sukuna on equal terms in a hypothetical clash where the two of them would be at the peak of their potentials. We’re putting this one down as a draw based on that conclusion.

Ryōmen Sukuna vs. Yūji Itadori

Sukuna’s story is intrinsically tied to that of Yūji Itadori, the young boy who consumed his fingers in order to save his friends. From that moment on, Sukuna and Itadori have been tied to one another, but Sukuna later proved himself capable of leaving Itadori’s body when he possesses Megumi.

Now, Itadori also has enormous potential, and he has proven himself capable of internally resisting Sukuna’s attempts to take over his body, but if it were to come down to a one-on-one fight between the two, Sukuna would, at this point, win. Unless Itadori gets some major power boost that we cannot anticipate from this perspective, there is absolutely no way that he could defeat the powerful cursed spirit and that is why Sukuna is the clear winner in this clash.

Ryōmen Sukuna vs. Megumi Fushiguro

Sukuna has taken a keen interest in Megumi ever since he first saw him because of Megumi’s special abilities, which Sukuna thought would be useful to him. And that is why he wanted to “catch” Megumi for some time, and he eventually did, taking over his body in one of the manga’s most shocking moments. Now, both Megumi and Sukuna are aware that Sukuna is the stronger of the two, but Megumi would definitely be able to put up a fight.

As he did, but he eventually lost. Sukuna defeated the Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga with relative ease, and he is undoubtedly the strongest manifestation of Megumi’s Ten Shadows Technique, so there’s that. That is why Sukuna clearly wins this one.

Ryōmen Sukuna vs. Jōgo

Aside from Sukuna, Jōgo was the strongest cursed spirit seen in the series. Despite his goofy appearance and personality, Jōgo is truly powerful and could easily deal with most characters in the series. Gojō initially kicked his ass when they faced each other, proving just how powerful he is, and he was later – also – defeated by Sukuna, which makes this comparison quite easy. Jōgo is a powerful cursed spirit, but Sukuna is so above the ordinary level of all cursed spirits that even Jōgo cannot challenge the powerful antagonist.

Ryōmen Sukuna vs. Mahito

Mahito had one of the most bizarre abilities in the series and was also one of the series’ most bizarre characters. Now, he was certainly powerful, but he wasn’t really on Sukuna’s level, and we’re absolutely certain that he would lose; in fact, he stood no chance against Sukuna when the two of them actually clashed in the series. Plus, you must remember that Mahito openly admired Sukuna, thereby admitting that the ancient cursed spirit is stronger.