In the Culling Games arc of Jujutsu Kaisen, we got to see many new characters that had been either reincarnated from the past or had simply awakened their Cursed Technique when Kenjaku used Mahito’s Cursed Technique.
Since there are so many new characters now, let’s rank the major characters that we saw in the Culling Games arc. Note that the strength of characters is limited to the Culling Games arc here. If we consider the Shinjuku Showdown arc, the ranking would change drastically as Gojo would be present. Let’s dive in.
| TITLE | Jujutsu Kaisen |
| RELEASE DATE | Oct 3, 2020 |
| STUDIO | MAPPA |
| WHERE TO WATCH | Crunchyroll |
| MAL RATINGS (as of July 18, 2026) | 8.50 / 10 |
15. Takako Uro Has a Strong Technique, but She Is Slow
Takako Uro’s Cursed Technique allows her to manipulate the sky itself. The anime and manga call it “sky”, but considering how we saw her doing it inside a room as well, she basically has a spatial manipulation technique. Though it makes sense because in her time, as she is a reincarnated sorcerer, people didn’t have a better scientific understanding to say that she is manipulating space.
Even with such a strong technique, she ranks quite low because of the two major flaws. Firstly, she is full of anger, which makes her fighting style more like a burst of anger than calculated moves. Secondly, she is really slow, which is something we saw when she was fighting Yuta and Ryu in the Sendai Colony episode. Meaning, she can easily be speed blitzed by most characters in the anime.
14. Megumi Fushiguro Showed His Potential in Culling Games
Megumi Fushiguro is part of the main trio in the anime and the inheritor of the Ten Shadows Cursed Technique. To be honest, he would easily be really high up in the ranking, only if he had control of Mahoraga, his strongest Shikigami. That is one of the reasons that there is a community meme about him being a potential man as well.
However, without his Mahoraga, the only reason he manages to stay in this ranking is that he is trained by Gojo Satoru himself, something that became clear when he fought Reggie Star and won by a series of deceptions. His battle intelligence is unmatched. Yet, the reason he is so held back in this ranking is that his strongest move would end up killing him as well.
13. Ryu Ishigori Has the Heaviest Energy Output
Ryu Ishigori is stated to be a sorcerer with the biggest energy output, and it works really well for him because his entire fighting style revolves around shooting Cursed Energy out of his hair. He was strong enough to give a real challenge to Yuta Okkotsu himself, which says a lot when you consider how high Yuta himself is ranked here.
However, the reason he cannot climb higher on this ranking is that his Cursed Technique is really simple and can easily be countered. In fact, Yuta himself countered it with a Cursed Energy output of his own.
12. Naoya Zenin Is One of the Fastest Ever
Naoya Zenin is perhaps the most hated character in the anime, and there is a reason for that. His Cursed Technique allows him to be one of the fastest characters, to the point that Yuji Itadori wasn’t even able to properly see him.
However, he is also ranked outside the top ten because fast is all he is. Not a single one of his punches was able to affect Maki in any way when they fought. He was eventually killed by Maki herself after turning into a Cursed Spirit, which speaks a lot, considering how he is the embodiment of misogyny itself.
11. Yuji Itadori Was Still Learning by This Point
It may surprise you that Yuji Itadori, the protagonist himself, is ranked outside the top ten here. But Jujutsu Kaisen isn’t just any other manga where the protagonist magically gets stronger. The reason he is ranked so low is that by this point in the story, he hasn’t achieved his full potential. In fact, he doesn’t even have a cursed technique.
Even without one, he still ranks higher than Naoya and others below him because he still shows incredible battle intelligence, physical prowess, speed, and reflexes. He was able to fight Mahito like none other, dodge piercing blood, and at the start of Season 3, he was moving in a way you’d only see a superhero move. However, don’t worry, moving forward in Season Four of the anime, he still grows stronger.
10. Maki Zenin Is the Modern Toji
Initially, Maki would’ve ranked outside the top ten or even the top fifteen. However, after her sister died, which unlocked Maki’s true potential because the power system in the JJK world treats twins as a single person, she became as strong as Toji Fushiguro himself, if not stronger.
She wiped out the entire Zenin clan, leaving out Megumi, in a single afternoon. Later in the arc, she was even able to physically keep pace with a 15-finger Sukuna right after he took over Megumi’s body. All of this put her this high. However, she cannot climb higher because, moving forward, the power system gets really broken.
9. Uraume’s Ice Is Simple Yet Effective
Uraume was the attendant of Sukuna himself, which speaks volumes. They have the Cursed Technique that allows them to create and manipulate ice. It sounds really simple, but this technique was able to hold off multiple Grade 1 sorcerers in place without Uraume showing a shred of effort.
They were also seen summoning a huge amount of ice high up in the sky, meaning the Cursed Energy output they possess is also incredible. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see them in many fights, which holds them at this rank.
8. Hakari Kinji Is Simply Too Lucky
A Cursed Technique that requires the person to practically gamble and has unpredictable results sounds like a bad deal. However, that is not the case when the character himself is really lucky. Hakari Kinji has a complicated Cursed Technique. Though we can boil it down to the fact that he has to play slots in his domain, which he can open whenever he wants, and if he hits a jackpot, he gets infinite Cursed Energy for a short amount of time.
This infinite Cursed Energy makes him practically immortal, as seen in his battle against Hajime Kashimo himself. The fact that he battles Kashimo and comes out perfectly fine solidifies his rank here. Considering his strength is largely reliant on hitting that jackpot, he is a massive threat to anyone he traps inside his domain.
7. Yorozu Could Evaporate Other Jujutsu Sorcerers
Yorozu is another reincarnated sorcerer who took over Megumi’s sister’s body. She has the Cursed Technique that allows her to construct things. It alone doesn’t sound impressive until you realize that the only limit here is imagination.
When she makes the perfect sphere, the mathematics dictate that the sphere’s surface would have infinite pressure, which would evaporate anything that touches it. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see her in many battles herself. The only major battle we saw was her fighting Sukuna for his love, which resulted in her death, holding her back in seventh position.
6. Hajime Kashimo’s Wish Is the Only Thing Holding Him Back
Just like Gojo Satoru and Sukuna, Hajime Kashimo is also the strongest sorcerer of his time. He is one of the only two characters who have a special property to their Cursed Energy. The first one is Hakari, whose Cursed Energy is described as having a rough property, like sandpaper. On the other hand, Hajime’s Cursed Energy has electric properties, which is how his cursed technique manifests as well.
His electric Cursed Energy makes his hand-to-hand combat incredibly lethal. However, what holds him back in this ranking is his own pride. While he possesses an immensely powerful Cursed Technique, he stubbornly refuses to use it on anyone except Sukuna, limiting his arsenal against other Culling Game players. However, he can only use it once, as it is a suicide measure, which also holds him back in this ranking.
5. Kenjaku Lived Long Enough to Grow Extremely Strong
Kenjaku has switched many bodies since the Heian Era, and he possesses every single Cursed Technique that he acquired with each switch. For example, he can manipulate gravity. Furthermore, since he got Geto’s body, he can also consume Cursed Spirits.
What really bumps him up in this ranking is how smart he is. He had a plot going on for a thousand years, and he even managed to outsmart one of the strongest sorcerers of all time. His evil is something Sukuna himself is disgusted by, as he will do anything necessary to simply have fun. Reminder that his whole plot was to only see what would happen if he succeeded, as it was all fun and games for him.
4. Hiromi Higuruma Wouldn’t Need to Fight
Hiromi Higuruma is perhaps the most unique entry on here. He is not a reincarnated sorcerer, and he hasn’t been trained to be a sorcerer ever since he was a kid either. He simply got his Cursed Technique when Kenjaku used Idle Transfiguration to start the Culling Games, and that technique happened to be one of the most broken ones.
It allows him to pull others into a domain where they are judged for their crimes and get sentences based on that. It’s something that even took Yuji’s Cursed Energy away. What makes him truly unique is that he is an undeniable prodigy.
It didn’t take him long to figure out how domains and Cursed Energy work, and he learned everything that everyone else is taught from a young age in a few days. If the story had given him more time, he might have surpassed Gojo and Sukuna themselves.
3. Yuta Okkotsu Is the Undeniable Genius
Yuta Okkotsu is the original protagonist, even before Yuji. He was a special grade from day one, which says a lot about how strong he really is. His Cursed Technique is Copy, which allows him to copy the Cursed Technique of others if Rika, his shikigami, eats a body part of the sorcerer. During the Culling Games, he proved his immense power by taking down four incredibly powerful sorcerers and cursed spirits back-to-back in the Sendai Colony without breaking a sweat.
The real reason he ranks this high is that his Cursed Energy deposit is unmatched, surpassing the likes of Gojo himself. However, there are still two characters in the Culling Games who are stronger than him.
2. Fumihiko Takaba Can Manipulate Reality
Takaba is another person who became a sorcerer after the Culling Games started, and his technique is actually the most broken one. Simply speaking, he can change reality as he likes. If he finds something that would truly be hilarious, it would become reality. Honestly, he just had to think that Sukuna dying would be hilarious, and the entire story would’ve ended right there.
However, that’s where the problem is, which holds him at the 2nd position. He is not aware of his technique. What if he finds out about his technique, and he stops finding anything funny? That is the only holdback here. It’s very situational, but really strong.
1. Ryomen Sukuna Is The Disaster of Jujutsu Kaisen
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Credit: MAPPA -
Credit: MAPPA -
Credit: MAPPA
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Credit: MAPPA -
Credit: MAPPA -
Credit: MAPPA
Was there any surprise? When characters from Modulo and Gojo Satoru do not exist, even the fifteen-finger Sukuna is the strongest. He demolished Mahoraga without effort, killed Yorozu just to break apart Megumi’s soul, made a plan that shook the readers, proving that he is also smart, and is somehow the biggest threat with one of the simplest techniques that was already theorized.
At just 15 fingers, characters were hoping that they would never get to see the day Sukuna was in front of them. Even the special grades cower in fear when Sukuna is present, with the sole exception of Satoru Gojo, of course. Unfortunately, Gojo wasn’t present in the Culling Games, making Sukuna the default number one.
| RANK | CHARACTER |
| 15 | Takako Uro |
| 14 | Megumi Fushiguro |
| 13 | Ryu Ishigori |
| 12 | Naoya Zenin |
| 11 | Yuji Itadori |
| 10 | Maki Zenin |
| 9 | Uraume |
| 8 | Hakari Kinji |
| 7 | Yorozu |
| 6 | Hajime Kashimo |
| 5 | Kenjaku |
| 4 | Hiromi Higuruma |
| 3 | Yuta Okkotsu |
| 2 | Fumihiko Takaba |
| 1 | Ryomen Sukuna |
How do you think the Culling Games would turn out if Gojo was available? Let us know in the comments.
Jujutsu Kaisen is streaming on Crunchyroll.
