The strongest Jujutsu Kaisen villains are ranked here by combat power and narrative impact, not popularity: Ryomen Sukuna tops the list as the undefeated King of Curses, followed by mastermind Kenjaku, soul-warping Mahito, and the cursed-energy-less assassin Toji Fushiguro. This ranking covers the manga’s completed story, including how it ends.
Last updated: 2026-09-04
Gege Akutami’s Jujutsu Kaisen manga finished its six-year run with Chapter 271 on September 30, 2024; the anime is still catching up, with Season 3 (“The Culling Game”) airing its first cour from January to March 2026 and Part 2 already confirmed. For a full character list mixing heroes and villains, see our companion ranking, The 15 Strongest Jujutsu Kaisen Characters, Ranked. This list narrows the lens to antagonists only.
The Two Kinds of “Strongest” in Jujutsu Kaisen
Most villain rankings collapse into a single power axis, but Jujutsu Kaisen actually runs two: combat ceiling and structural reach. Sukuna wins any 1-on-1 fight in the series. Kenjaku, who would likely lose that fight, still causes more total damage to the world, because his power is patience and orchestration spread across a thousand years, not raw output in one scene. Ranking on combat alone undersells how much of the plot — the Shibuya Incident, the Culling Game itself — exists because Kenjaku engineered it, not because he could win a straight fight.
1. Ryomen Sukuna
Ryomen Sukuna, the King of Curses, is the strongest Jujutsu Kaisen villain by raw power: his Malevolent Shrine domain guarantees a hit on anything caught inside it, and his Dismantle and Cleave techniques cut through almost any defense. He never lost a straight fight across the manga’s full run.
Even after absorbing Megumi Fushiguro’s Ten Shadows technique and its strongest shikigami, Mahoraga, Sukuna kept winning — the acquisition raised his ceiling rather than exposing a weakness. He is defeated only in Chapter 271, when Yuji Itadori finally lands the finishing blow in the Shinjuku Showdown; Sukuna dies rejecting Yuji’s offer of mercy, declaring himself a curse to the end.
2. Kenjaku
Kenjaku is a thousand-year-old curse that survives by transplanting its brain into new bodies, currently wearing the corpse of Suguru Geto, Satoru Gojo’s childhood best friend and first major antagonist. Kenjaku rarely fights directly, and that restraint is the point.
Kenjaku engineered the Shibuya Incident and set the Culling Game in motion to force Sukuna’s revival and study human evolution across generations — planning no other villain attempts. Because Kenjaku wears Geto’s body, the two are functionally different villains sharing one face: Geto was a disillusioned idealist who wanted to cull non-sorcerers; Kenjaku is an amoral scientist who does not care about humans at all.
3. Mahito
Mahito is a cursed spirit born directly from humanity’s fear and hatred of curses, and his Idle Transfiguration lets him reshape any soul he touches — rearranging organs, fusing people together, or killing outright with a single grab.
His Domain Expansion, Self-Embodiment of Perfection, turns his territory into a killing field where every hit reshapes the target’s soul. He kills fan-favorite mentor Nanami Kento in the Shibuya Incident, making him the villain most directly responsible for the story’s named-character body count.
4. Toji Fushiguro
Toji Fushiguro has zero cursed energy due to a condition called Heavenly Restriction, which should make him powerless in a world built on cursed energy — instead it makes him faster and physically stronger than nearly every sorcerer alive, and cursed techniques cannot sense or predict him.
Working as the mercenary “Sorcerer Killer,” Toji nearly kills a teenage Satoru Gojo using his Inverted Spear of Heaven cursed tool before Gojo’s Six Eyes and Limitless fully awaken mid-fight and reverse the outcome. It is one of the few times in the series a completely non-sorcerer antagonist pushes the eventual strongest sorcerer to his limit. See our breakdown of that dynamic in Sukuna vs. Gojo: Who Is Actually the Stronger Sorcerer?
5. Jogo
Jogo is a special grade cursed spirit made of living volcanic rock, one of a trio of curses — alongside Hanami and Dagon — created to embody a specific human anxiety, in his case natural disaster.
His Domain Expansion, Coffin of the Iron Mountain, buries a target under simulated volcanic eruption and lava. Jogo is fanatically loyal to Sukuna and dies giving him a body to repossess during the Shibuya Incident — arguably more consequential than anything he does alive. Domain Expansions like his are explained in What Is Domain Expansion in Jujutsu Kaisen?
6. Hanami
Hanami is the nature-embodying member of the same special grade trio as Jogo, formed from human disregard for the natural world, and fights using plant-based attacks that regenerate almost any damage taken.
That durability makes Hanami one of the hardest curses in the series to finish off outright; its early fight against Yuji Itadori and Megumi Fushiguro is one of the first times the story shows technique variety, not just power level, deciding a fight.
7. Choso
Choso is the eldest of the Death Painting Wombs, a set of cursed-womb-born brothers who manipulate blood as both weapon and projectile, firing hardened blood bullets called Death Flash with sniper-rifle precision.
Introduced hunting Yuji Itadori to avenge his younger brothers, Choso later defects and fights alongside the protagonists — one of the few villains here whose arc ends in redemption rather than death.
8. Naoya Zenin
Naoya Zenin is the human antagonist on this list: heir to the corrupt Zenin clan, he uses Projection Sorcery to cut through space and close distance almost instantly, making him look like he is teleporting mid-fight.
During the Shibuya Incident, Naoya curb-stomps both Choso and the remote-piloted Mechamaru with contemptuous ease — proof that not every dangerous villain in Jujutsu Kaisen is a curse.
| Villain | Signature Technique | Domain Expansion | Notable Feat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ryomen Sukuna | Dismantle / Cleave | Malevolent Shrine | Undefeated in combat until Chapter 271’s Shinjuku Showdown |
| Kenjaku | Soul & brain transplantation | None used directly | Engineered the Shibuya Incident and the Culling Game across 1,000 years |
| Mahito | Idle Transfiguration | Self-Embodiment of Perfection | Kills Nanami Kento in the Shibuya Incident |
| Toji Fushiguro | Heavenly Restriction (zero cursed energy) | None (cannot use one) | Nearly kills a teenage Satoru Gojo mid-awakening |
| Jogo | Volcanic manipulation | Coffin of the Iron Mountain | Gives his body to Sukuna to repossess in Shibuya |
| Hanami | Plant/nature manipulation | Not shown | Near-total damage regeneration in early fights |
| Choso | Blood manipulation (Death Flash) | Not shown | Strongest of the three Death Painting Womb brothers |
| Naoya Zenin | Projection Sorcery | Not shown | Curb-stomps Choso and Mechamaru in Shibuya |
How Big Is Jujutsu Kaisen, Really?
This villain roster is popular enough to move real numbers: worldwide manga circulation surpassed 150 million copies in circulation worldwide as of the figure announced on January 3, 2026, up from 100 million on the exact day serialization ended in September 2024 — a 50-million-copy jump in about 15 months, driven largely by the anime’s Culling Game arc pulling in new readers.
That readership showed up on screens too: per Netflix’s own “What We Watched” report, Season 3 logged 9.4 million views and 46 million viewing hours in the first half of 2026, making it Netflix’s most-watched Japanese anime of that period.
For the franchise’s full production history, see the overview on Wikipedia.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the strongest Jujutsu Kaisen villain overall?
Ryomen Sukuna. He never loses a straight fight in the manga and is only defeated in the final chapter, Chapter 271, by Yuji Itadori.
Is Kenjaku stronger than Sukuna in a fight?
No — Kenjaku avoids direct combat with Sukuna entirely. Kenjaku’s power is strategic and long-term rather than a raw combat ceiling, which is why this ranking places Sukuna first on fighting ability while treating Kenjaku’s plotting as a separate, equally dangerous axis.
Did Toji Fushiguro really have no cursed energy?
Yes. Toji’s Heavenly Restriction removed his cursed energy entirely, but the same condition boosted his raw physical stats to a level that let him fight sorcerers on equal footing, including a young Satoru Gojo.
Is Suguru Geto the same villain as Kenjaku?
Not exactly. Kenjaku is a separate, thousand-year-old curse currently occupying Geto’s dead body. Geto was Gojo’s disillusioned former best friend; Kenjaku is the entity that took over his corpse after the real Geto died.
