Tayyab Shah
You’ve watched Jujutsu Kaisen, and like most of us you’ve been charmed by Junpei Yoshino as well. He’s a major supporting character in the Vs. Mahito Arc of the anime.
Personality wise he’s bashful, as well as faint-hearted. You’re probably familiar with the guy in a series who’s being taken advantage of, that’s Junpei.
Initially he’s introduced as a non-sorcerer, who was brought up by his single mother. He’s also a high school student in Satozakura High School, where he’s mistreated a lot.
After developments in the anime, we see that Junpei has attained pretty cool powers. But where did those abilities come from?
Been watching Jujutsu Kaisen? Then you know Yuji Itadori, our protagonist, has crossed paths with Junpei. They’ve developed a sort of kinship as well due to being the same age.
You’ve also most likely noticed Junpei is on the ending credits as well, with Yuji and other sorcerers. All this definitely suggest that Junpei is going to compete against Yuji, like it was with Naruto and Sasuke, right?
If you’ve made it here, that seems unlikely to be the case.
Is Junpei alive in Jujutsu Kaisen?
No. Junpei has passed away in Jujutsu Kaisen. After his soul was transfigured by Mahito, Junpei dies from the sheer trauma of the transformation.
Though he was timid, and uncertain at times, that still made him easily a fan favourite character with only a handful of appearances.
The fandom was struck at the heart when the author Gege Akutami killed him off. And if you’re a manga reader, you might know who else gets killed off in chapter 120.
Curse you Akutami sensei!
To be honest, fans were more enraged because they had been seeing Junpei in the opening and ending credits of the anime. This led everyone to assume that the anime is going to heavily develop on Junpei as a competitor to Yuji.
But they couldn’t have been more wrong.
How did Junpei die in Jujutsu Kaisen?
We see Junpei watching a movie at Kinema Cinema. He notices three of his school bullies sitting in front of him. Mahito, a cursed spirit manifests and murders those bullies, all while Junpei is witnessing it from the back.
Junpei chases after Mahito, and after finally catching up to Mahito, they have a chat. Mahito leads Junpei to the sewers, whilst revealing himself to be a curse born from the hatred of men.
Mahito asks him if those boys were friends of his. Recalling his trauma, Junpei denies that statement. Mahito intriguingly unveils his works of art. Which are disfigured, and malformed humans. Mahito alters Junpei’s soul as well, enabling him to tap into cursed energy.
Later Junpei arrives home to Sotomura, his teacher, sitting at the base of his steps. Sotomura continues to irritate Junpei but Yuji Itadori makes a flashy entrance.
Nagi Yoshino, Junpei’s mother, invites Yuji over for dinner. They have a good conversation, which leads to Yuji and Junpei developing a brotherhood of sorts.
A relic in Junpei’s home attracts a small cursed spirit, which ends up taking the life of his mother. A grieving Junpei is then manipulated by Mahito into believing Shota, his high school bully, is responsible for leaving the cursed relic. In reality, Mahito was the culprit.
An enraged Junpei launches an all out assault against his school, trapping many students. He confronts Shota, and starts to torture him.
Yuji arrives in the nick of time and is able to stop Junpei. Afterwards, Yuji invites Junpei to exorcism school, where he says they’ll find what really happened to his mother.
Mahito unfortunately shows up, to which Yuji yells at Junpei to run. Junpei who was being manipulated by Mahito, assures Yuji that isn’t the case. But just as he uttered those words, the sinister scourge Mahito places his hand on Junpei. He smirks, and whispers into his ear that he is as stupid as every other detestable human.
With that Junpei is transfigured into another one of Mahito’s abominations. He eventually dies due to his malformed physical state.
Will Junpei ever return?
Simply put, No. Gege Akutami revealed in an interview that he felt bad for not utilizing this character’s full potential.
You can’t undo the past, so it’s best if we take Junpei’s death as a necessary evil. It could be possible that some reincarnation, or summoning spell could be used to bring him back. You never know what you might expect, it’s Jujutsu Kaisen afterall.
