Characters / Jujutsu Kaisen: Mahito

Jujutsu Kaisen Main Character Index
Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School (Yuji Itadori, Megumi Fushiguro, Satoru Gojo) | Kyoto Prefectural Jujutsu High School | Cursed Spirits (Mahito) | Curse Users (Ryomen Sukuna) | Culling Game Players | Zen'in Clan | Others

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Mahito

"Even if we lose our way or are inconsistent, we undoubtedly live according to our desires. That is what we curses are."

^{Click here to see Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing}

Voiced by: Nobunaga Shimazaki (Japanese), Lucien Dodge (English)

Cursed Technique: Idle Transfiguration

"Thanks to the hatred spewed between people... I was born."

A Special-Grade Curse born from the negative emotions humanity feels towards other humans, and Yuji's archenemy. The youngest of the Disaster Curses but by far the most potentially dangerous, Mahito takes far greater pleasure in tormenting mankind then his peers; sadistically warping and experimenting on the souls of humans in the hopes of unlocking his own full potential.

His Cursed Technique is "Idle Transfiguration": Which grants him the power to distort the shape of the soul of either himself or a victim, allowing him to either shapeshift or transform an opponent into a grotesque monster with just a touch.

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A — K

• Adaptation Dye-Job: Mahito has gray eyes in the manga, but heterochromia of gray and blue eyes in the anime, adding to his already patchwork appearance.
• Antagonist Abilities: Let's count the ways. One: the ability to reshape his body at will makes him Nigh-Invulnerable to everything but damage done directly to his soul. Two: Idle Transfiguration lets Mahito gruesomely blow someone up if he just touches them once. Three: just in case you think you're safe if you don't let him touch you, he's got a Domain Expansion where the range of his Idle Transfiguration becomes unlimited and it's impossible to dodge or avoid. Aside from that, he can unleash transfigured humans on enemies to fight on his behalf, and can shapeshift his body into a variety of different weapons to suit a situation. Reading this without knowledge of the series, one would most likely assume he'd be an Invincible Villain Final Boss akin to Aizen or Madara Uchiha. Interestingly, Yuji's immunity to his Touch of Death thanks to being Sukuna's vessel contributes to their enmity, with Mahito calling him his "natural enemy".
• Animal Motif: He has two.
  • Insects. His description of a metamorphosis is visually shown as a moth/butterfly emerging from his cocoon with his One-Winged Angel being his metaphorical butterfly and the overall theme of Mahito's rapid growth and his intended goal of being how an insect undergoes an intended change to its adult form.
  • Rabbits on a subtle level. His hair is normally styled in two braids like downward rabbit ears, his ability to shape-shift in junction with messing with others through deception fits into the association with the rabbit being a trickster of good-evil intent depending on its mood in myth, and when finally cornered by Yuji with no tricks to fall back on, his retreat is visually symbolized as a rabbit being chased by a wolf, with Mahito being the rabbit and Yuji the wolf.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: Of the belief that Humans Are Bastards, and more specifically the act of Dehumanization: Just as people are capable of devaluing each other’s feelings and beliefs as unimportant or lesser compared to their own, Mahito reduces people to nothing but objects he uses as tools and toys.
• Arc Villain: He's the main villain of the Vs. Mahito Arc, which deals with his killings and manipulation of the bullied Junpei. He's later The Heavy and Climax Boss of the Shibuya Incident Arc. Being Yuji's Arch-Enemy, he can be considered the main antagonist for the first half of the series overall.
• Arch-Enemy: He and Yuji grow to hate each other's guts by the end of the Vs. Mahito Arc. Yuji bitterly regrets failing to save Junpei from him, while Mahito detests the existence of someone immune to his prized Innate Technique. As revenge, Mahito goes out of his way to break Yuji by targeting those he cares about, murdering Nanami and possibly Nobara.
• Asshole Victim: Mahito is reduced to a pitiful state when Yuji has him cornered after defeating him for the second and final time. Afterwards, he's absorbed by Kenjaku and turned into a makeshift weapon to be used at the sorcerer's whim. Considering how much of a depraved monster Mahito was, no one feels an ounce of sympathy when he's gone.
• Ax-Crazy: Mahito's childish curiosity and playfulness belies a murderous psychopath who relishes killing and inflicting as much misery as possible. This trait especially shines in battle, where his desire to kill his opponents is highlighted by expressions that can only be described as downright euphoric, and he only becomes more manic throughout his final bout with Yuji in the Shibuya Incident.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Technically speaking, Mahito is the youngest of the Disaster Curses, even younger than Dagon, a Cursed Womb who is infantile in appearance and mannerisms. In fact, he's barely a few days old at the time of his debut arc, whereas the other Disaster Curses are noted to have been around for at least a while.
• Bad Powers, Bad People: Idle Transfiguration does have a few positive applications (such as Healing Hands), but the power to enslave a soul to one's will and deform it so heavily that the changes manifest in the body it belongs to is a deeply invasive ability, and reflects the joy Mahito takes in torturing and degrading humanity quite well.
• Bait the Dog: He initially comes across as a helpful friend to Junpei before screwing his life by causing the latter's mother's death, mocking his indecisiveness and later killing him by turning him into a subhuman abomination while laughing at his demise — cementing him as completely heartless and sadistic towards humans.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: For all it's worth, Mahito truly wished to live up to his nature as a Curse, but found himself unprepared for the consequences of pushing his Arch-Enemy too far. During his final battle with Yuji in Shibuya, Mahito tells the young sorcerer that they're the same, following their respective natures, albeit two sides of the same coin. Mahito scoffs that until Yuji is ready to accept that, he'll never beat him. Yuji, pushed to the absolute brink mentally and emotionally, ultimately acknowledges that Mahito's right shortly after defeating him, and resolves to just kill him, not caring for any higher reason or moral justification. Realizing Yuji has taken his words to heart in the worst way possible sends Mahito scurrying for his life, until Kenjaku shows up and Mahito all but begs to be saved from his fate. Kenjaku obliges by absorbing Mahito and storing him as a tool for his own use, meaning that he won't reincarnate like Jogo, Dagon, and Hanami when they were slain.
• Beware the Silly Ones: As Nanami notes, Mahito carries an immaturity and childish silliness akin to Satoru Gojo, but he's far and away the most evil Curse in the series. His atrocities are underscored by the carefree joy of a child, and Nanami deduces that he could become too much for Jujutsu High to handle if they don't exorcise him as soon as possible. Indeed, Mahito was frighteningly powerful off the bat due being born of the natural fear humans hold for one another, and only became moreso as he gained experience through combat. It's all but stated had Mahito stuck around past Shibuya, he would have continued to reach greater heights of power.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Not that Mahito was ever a non-threat, being the strongest of the Disaster Curses and having the most potential of them, but he's ultimately swimming with much bigger fish in the form of Sukuna and Kenjaku; the former is the World's Strongest Man by a huge margin, while the latter possesses Cursed Spirit Manipulation, which is a hard counter to Cursed Spirits like him. Mahito, by comparison, is merely an immature child who has no greater ambitions beyond indulging his love for murder and destruction, and thinks far too highly of himself for his own good. Even after unlocking his full potential, Mahito is defeated by Yuji and promptly absorbed by Kenjaku. Though he's widely recognized as Yuji's Arch-Enemy and inflicts some nasty personal scars by killing Junpei, Nanami, and possibly Nobara, his role as Yuji's nemesis is usurped by Sukuna in the story's later arcs, with Mahito all but forgotten.
• Biomanipulation: The scope of Mahito's ability to modify the soul to reshape human flesh runs the full course between Healing Hands, shapeshifting, and Bio-Augmentation as long as he can get his hands on someone, turning humans into monstrosities and sprouting weaponized limbs mid-battle.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: Played With. He mockingly asks Yuji to wish him happy birthday when he discovers the true essence of his soul and evolves into his true form during the Shibuya Incident. It turns out to be a pretty shitty birthday, as Mahito is defeated by Yuji only a few minutes after attaining his transformation and cowardly tries to run for his life when it's clear he's unequivocally screwed. To further rub salt on his many wounds, Kenjaku turns up and promptly absorbs Mahito at his lowest point, before unleashing him in an Uzumaki attack that seemingly kills him.
• Blade Below the Shoulder:
  • Using Idle Transfiguration he can reshape his arm into a blade or multiple blades that he can extend to attack like Razor Floss.
  • In his One-Winged Angel form shown during the Shibuya fight, Mahito has two black blade-like protrusions jutting backwards out of his elbows, allowing him to incorporate them into his attacks like punches for added lethality. These blades are responsible for causing the scar on Yuji's mouth in the aftermath of the fight, but they break shortly after Mahito transforms, due to the damage he'd endured in the fight up to that point, which somewhat evens the odds against Yuji for the rest of the battle.
• Blood Knight: Mahito brings a childlike glee to every battle he participates in, itching at the chance to experience a good fight and increase his skills. It's subverted in the long-run, as Mahito's thrill for battle is primarily because he's usually not in life-threatening danger, as most Sorcerers are at a disadvantage against his ridiculously potent Technique. Once he loses his final fight with Yuji and is at the mercy of his enemy, Mahito pathetically runs for his life.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: A very bleak example. Mahito is incapable of empathy and takes great pride in making people suffer, but as a cursed spirit that is made out of pure hatred towards humans, there is not really anything else he could possibly be - hatred towards humanity quite literally comprises and defines his entire existence. He gives Yuji a "Not So Different" Remark, not because they are alike in any way, shape or form, but because at the end of the day, they are both acting in accordance with their respective natures, his urge to Kill All Humans being as integral to the way he acts as Yuji's desire to save as many people as he can.
• Body Horror: The results of his powers are utterly horrific, to say the least, changing his body into a variety of weapons, animalistic appendages, demonic distortions, clones, etc. even taking on a demonic looking form by tearing his usual face off. The most disturbing aspect of his powers is altering the soul of a victim into a grotesque parody that slowly dies from the shock of the transformation shortly after.
• Body Motifs: Hands. Mahito's ability to gruesomely deform the human body is often drawn like someone shaping clay, his powers work on touch, and Self Embodiment Of Perfection is a massive landscape comprised of nothing but hands.
• Break the Cutie:
  • What he does to Junpei. He corrupts Junpei into his nihilistic mindset, kills the boy's mother to make him spiteful, manipulates him as a weapon against Yuji and finally subjects him to a truly horrific death via transforming him into a monster that quickly dies soon after.
  • He takes a particular liking to toying with Yuji through time with the specific intention to kill his soul in different ways.
• Break the Haughty: His defeat at Yuji's hands destroys his flippant, nihilistic outlook of life, replacing it with a sincere and frenzied desire to not be killed. He's seen trying to scurry away from a resolute Yuji about to kill him, with imagery of rabbits being chased by wolves used to underscore how he is now the helpless prey before a mere human after being deprived of any options. The anime even adds him throwing mud and dirt at Yuri to keep him away from him, sneaking in a rock in the debris in hopes it'd distract Yuji for a second, only to panic when that pitiful tactic doesn't even shake Yuji's focus on ending him. He desperately resorts to begging Geto to save him, only to be promptly absorbed by his Cursed Technique.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Exploited to hell and back during his battle against Yuji, specifically to give his "The Reason You Suck" Speech more punch by comparing the two: Yuji kills Curses without consideration, while Mahito kills humans without consideration, with neither of them particularly caring enough to keep count or remember any of them.
  Mahito: Tell me Itadori, do you remember every curse you've exorcized up until now? I don't remember my victims either. And I'll surely forget you in time too.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Mahito is fully malevolent and wholly embraces his status and nature as the cursed spirit of human hatred, and lives to cause humans pain and suffering.
• Character Development: Mahito notably undergoes a lot of growth, in spite of being a relatively young Curse. He's initially following Geto's plans and toying with people for amusement, with little in the way of long-term goals for himself. His Straw Nihilist nature was more emphasized and he held himself to no particular ideal. After meeting and nearly being defeated by Yuji, however, he demonstrates a genuine, twisted motivation to crush Yuji's spirit and defeat him. Upon meeting Yuji again in Shibuya, he delivers a fierce "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the boy, outlining the nature of their fight as a battle of truths and showing his resolve in sticking to his instincts and coming out on top. This is also reflected in Mahito becoming stronger as he begins to realize the essence of his own soul, complete with a Super Mode that's outlined as his true self.
• Climax Boss: For the Shibuya Incident Arc. In an already action-packed arc with back-to-back battles, the longest, most intense and emotionally-driven fight is between Yuji and Mahito to close out their rivalry. The conclusion to this fight marks the point Kenjaku becomes known to the heroes and it's revealed that Geto is just one of many, many bodies and names he's assumed over the centuries, and he unleashes thousands of Cursed spirits upon Japan, prompting the start of the next major part of the story.
• Cloning Splits Attributes: Mahito is able to split himself into clones using Idle Transfiguration. Unlike his original self, the clone is unable to transfigure anything but itself.
• Combat Sadomasochist: He can actually enjoy getting hurt in a combat as long as it doesn't threaten his existence and furthers his skills. Getting beat down by Nanami and Yuji in their fight at the end of VS. Mahito arc actually causes his eyes to roll back in intense pleasure and gives him the means to create his Domain Expansion for the first time. This backfires on him during the final bout of his and Yuji's clash in Shibuya. Despite taking the fighting much more seriously and having unlocked 'the true form of his soul', the damage Mahito had accumulated throughout the battle still remained with him when he tried to use his new strength to destroy Yuji, draining his stamina and causing him to lose the form when Yuji lands a final Black Flash on him.
• The Corrupter: As the embodiment of humanity's hatred and fear of one another, he tries to corrupt humans into giving into nihilistic animosity towards humans as he does to Junpei, who was already on his way to becoming a misanthrope by the time he met Mahito. When this doesn't succeed, Mahito simply kills him.
• Create Your Own Hero: In a manner of speaking. While Yuji was already a sorcerer by this point, Mahito pushes Yuji mentally and physically, to the point that the fledgling sorcerer comes to see Mahito, whom he regarded as his Arch-Enemy, as little more than a pest who simply needs to die. Not for meaning, reason, or moral obligations, which Mahito has stressed don't mean anything — because it simply must be done. This cold indifference to his life sends Mahito running in a craven display.
• Creepy High-Pitched Voice: Mahito speaks with a very boyish, chipper voice, but it contrasts starkly with his zombie-like appearance and truly repugnant personality and only makes him comes across as more unsettling.
• Dark Is Evil: He wears a black shawl with matching pants and his cursed energy is a dark purple color, and he's a sadistic cursed spirit who revels in causing human suffering.
• Death by Irony: Mahito has his nihilistic outlook thrown right back in his face when Yuji's embracing it completely leads to him having the resolve to defeat the curse, before dying at the hands of someone he trusted and expected to help him at his lowest point, mirroring what he did to Junpei. Prior to his defeat, Mahito showed a noticeable fear towards his own incoming demise at Yuji's hands, in contrast to how each of his fellow curses perished. He ends the fight being assimilated by Geto's Cursed technique and used as fuel for an Uzumaki, allowing Geto to use Mahito's Idle Transfiguration technique at will and ultimately using him as a tool in his plans going forwards, mirroring what Mahito did to so many humans to gain a combat advantage against Yuji and other sorcerers.
• Devour the Dragon: Kenjaku, possessing Suguru Geto's body, uses Geto's Cursed Spirit Manipulation to devour a weakened Mahito to take possession of the curse's Idle Transfiguration technique for his own plans.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: During the fight at Shibuya, Mahito tells Sukuna to "shut up and watch" when he uses his 0.2 second Domain Expansion to try and kill both him and Yuji. Sukuna doesn't retaliate or even give Mahito the satisfaction of a reply, instead merely staring back with a smile. It's implied the only reason he did nothing was because Sukuna knew Yuji had surpassed him and wanted to savour the younger Curse's humiliating death.
• Dirty Coward: Mahito is incredibly smug and sadistic toward his opponents, since most Sorcerers are unable to directly damage his soul, but when faced with an opponent who can (such as Yuji), he's notably shocked. Mahito's carefree behavior masks the fact that he'll run from a fight he's not confident he'll win and attempts to play it off as part of his plan. When backed into a corner with no more tricks to fall back on and unable to escape his inevitable death, Mahito's bravado shatters and he runs for his life in a very unsightly fashion. The anime makes it even more pathetic, showing him quivering and outright crying in terror at his approaching mortality, even resorting to throwing clumps of mud at Yuji while blubbering incoherently. This is a stark contrast to the other Disaster Curses, who go down fighting and accept their deaths with much more dignity.
• Discard and Draw: His Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing is based on a Binding Vow that restricts his ability to metamorphose his body, except for the blades on his arms but gains a large boost to his physical power and durability.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Initially, Mahito is the most active and dangerous Cursed Spirit Yuji comes across, even becoming his Arch-Enemy by the end of his debut and being present throughout subsequent arcs. This would imply Mahito will stick around for the majority of the story, but he's only around for half at best. He gets a prolonged, climactic confrontation with Yuji to close out the Shibuya Incident Arc, but his defeat marks the point where Kenjaku openly becomes the Big Bad to initiate the Culling Games, and Sukuna's eventual escape from Yuji's body highlights that the Disaster Curse was the least of the young Sorcerer's worries.
• Dissonant Serenity: As the youngest of the Disaster Curses, his disposition is compared to that of a child. He is usually friendly, curious and excited to learn new things, which can serve to make him sympathetic when he wants to, but to those who know his true nature, the same traits only highlight how horrifically twisted he is, as he keeps that same sunny disposition while he's torturing humans to death.
• Ditto Fighter: After witnessing Gojo use his Domain Expansion for 0.2 seconds and being on the receiving end of Black Flash, Mahito learns how to use them for himself throughout his battle against Yuji in Shibuya.
• Domain Holder: Mahito's Domain Expansion, "Self-Embodiment of Perfection", is a black void containing an infinite tangle of gigantic hands that touch everything caught inside, rendering them vulnerable to Idle Transfiguration. He unlocks it to escape an almost fatal beating from Nanami and Yuji, And after witnessing Gojo pull it off at the start of the Shibuya Incident, Mahito figures how to manifest his own Domain for only 0.2 seconds, allowing him to cast it even with Yuji inside (though not on him) without enraging Sukuna.
• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Sukuna is not amused when Mahito barges into his soul by attempting to use Idle Transfiguration on Yuji and warns him not to do it again. When Mahito does so by an accident, Sukuna keeps to his word and promptly rips the curse a new one, though nowhere near enough to kill him.
• The Dragon: For Geto, being the leader of the Disaster Curses under him and the most active member in the plot's first half.
• Dual Age Modes: Thanks to having absolute control over his body, Mahito can morph into a child version of himself, first doing so in battle against Yuji and Nanami to avoid their attacks. This serves to further highlight his childish nature as a newly formed cursed spirit.
• Evil Counterpart: To Yuji. Both are cheery individuals very new to the world of Jujutsu Sorcery (Yuji was an ordinary teenager before becoming Sukuna's host, while Mahito is a recently manifested Curse) who have nevertheless adapted to their strange new surroundings at an incredible rate. Mahito's sadistic personality is at odds with Yuji's empathetic disposition and pacifist tendencies. Yuji fights near entirely with just his Super-Strength and martial arts, while Mahito relies heavily on his Superpower Lottery Cursed Technique and army of Transfigured Humans. Mahito even realizes this himself, referring to Yuji as his "natural enemy" and pointing out that they're diametrically opposed to each other.
• Evil Laugh: He belts an a absolutely spectacular one after killing Junpei and realizing Sukuna won't help Yuji save him as added salt on the wound. Both Curses proceed to yuck it up at Itadori's expense, only stopping when Yuji attacks in a rage.
• Evil Wears Black: Mahito wears a black shawl and pants and is an evil cursed spirit.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Downplayed. While his face is laced with stitches, he otherwise looks normal, even attractive to a degree. It underscores the fact that he's an utterly rotten and depraved being who represents the worst traits of humanity.
• False Friend: For Junpei. Mahito's affable, easygoing nature allows him to prey on the lonely, bullied youth and corrupt him to embrace his misanthropic worldview. He plays the part of an understanding kindred spirit, offering Junpei pointers about Cursed Spirits and even helping him awaken his latent power to take revenge on his tormentors. It's all an act, however, as Mahito views Junpei as an experimental plaything and has no qualms orchestrating the death of the boy's mother to push him over the murderous edge. Just as Junpei begins to realize the true nature of his "friend", Mahito simply transforms him into a grotesque monster and laughs as he dies a painful death.
• Fate Worse than Death: Inflicts this. His transfigured victims are not only still alive, but aware of what Mahito had done to them and are in horrible pain because of it to the point where they shed tears and beg for someone to kill them.
• Faux Affably Evil: A defining trait for a high-functioning sociopath like him. His friendliness towards normal humans and Jujutsu sorcerers is simply a vehicle and veneer for his sadism, mockery and manipulation. He's initially friendly to Junpei, though this simply hides just how lowly he thinks of him. He tends to laugh atrocities off and treat everything like it's a game, making his disregard for life very clear.
• Foil:
  • To Sukuna. Both are bloodthirsty humanoid cursed spirits who eventually develop a special enmity with Yuji, but outside of that are as different as night and day. Sukuna is formerly human, while Mahito is a natural born Curse. Mahito is deceitfully charming and uses faux-philosophical nonsense to justify his cruelty while Sukuna is openly disdainful of everyone and revels in his malevolence. While both appear to enjoy a proper fight, Sukuna isn't afraid to die and welcomes being outmatched, while Mahito turns tail if pushed to his limits. Mahito was set up as a major villain only for he and his group to amount to Geto's pawns, while Sukuna at first seemed to be a garden variety Superpowered Evil Side before revealing himself to be much more dangerous.
  • With Yuji. Yuji strongly believes in the value of human life and his goal is to save as many people as he can. As a result, he believes it is amoral to take another human life and tries to avoid doing so. Mahito is the embodiment of human hatred for each other and believes that humanity should be eradicated, having no empathy for human life whatsoever. Mahito's cursed technique allows him to modify and fuse souls, while Yuji's unknown cursed technique allows him to separate souls. Yuji's cursed energy comes from having another soul in his body, making him Mahito's natural enemy in terms of abilities. During their fight in Shibuya, Mahito tries breaking Yuji's resolve by pointing out they are the same, Mahito killing without a second thought and Yuji doing the same with saving others. After defeating Mahito, Yuji admits to Mahito that he's a reflection of him, and doesn't need a reason to kill curses.
  • To Jogo, with the two of them holding completely contradictory mindsets. Jogo bases his identity around his insecurity of wanting to become a "true" human, adopting human mannerisms and even chiding his fellow Disaster Curses for acting in ways "unbefitting" of humanity's successors. Mahito, while ironically the most human-like of the Disaster Curses, wholeheartedly accepts and embraces his malicious impulses as a curse. Whereas Jogo acts with a defined end-goal that doesn't directly benefit himself, wanting to create an era of curses, Mahito simply does it because he enjoys killing humans. While Jogo is steadfast in his belief that curses shouldn't fear death and has a rather dignified death at the hands of Sukuna, Mahito flees in fear after being defeated by Yuji Itadori. The narrative decidedly doesn’t really favor either mindset over the other. On one hand, Mahito is highlighted to have the most potential out of all the disaster cursed and puts up a serious fight against Yuji and Todo. By contrast, although Jogo is extremely strong, he gets completely pulverized by Sukuna as a direct consequence of him trying to ally with Sukuna to achieve the Disaster Curses' goal. On the other hand, however, Jogo is given a dignified and even sympathetic death and is shown to have an impact on Sukuna of all people posthumously. Mahito dies pathetically groveling for his life, with Yuji by the end viewing him as yet another cursed to be exorcised and with Kenjaku absorbing him, stealing his cursed technique, and throwing him out as a disposable tool.
  • Then there's Geto. The two have very-similar powers, but with respect to different entities, with Mahito having mastery over human souls while Geto had mastery over Cursed Spirits. Without souls as ammo, both are far less dangerous. Both charmed those of the type they couldn't absorb to serve as pawns beneath them, based on their misanthropy; however, Mahito outlived his pawns and lost his story relevance almost immediately after his defeat, while Geto's followers outlived him and empowered Sukuna to try and get him back. Lastly, both ended up as completely-dominated pawns of the same Jujutsu sorcerer, Kenjaku; however, Geto was already dead at that point and had gone through a full character arc before accepting it, while Mahito was only a few months old and never really changed as a person (despite him fully-realizing his powers) before being orbed by Kenjaku. Mahito is essentially digested by Kenjaku, so that the audience will never have to see him again, and through the use of Geto's powers too; meanwhile, Geto remains Kenjaku's avatar and face, despite the hint that Kenjaku keeps innate techniques while body-swapping.
• Forced Transformation: One of the most disturbing aspects of his powers is being able to change the shape of the victim's soul, causing them to transform into hideous abominations, Junpei being a memorable example. The victims are left in constant pain and begging to die.
• Healing Hands: As demonstrated with Kokichi Muta, it is possible for Idle Transfiguration to be used to heal one's soul, but since Mahito is a malevolent Cursed Spirit, he uses it in this manner once, and only because he would suffer the negative consequences of breaking a Binding Vow if he didn't follow through.
• The Heavy: Since Sukuna is sealed within Yuji and Kenjaku manipulates events from behind the scenes, Mahito is the most active villain for the first major chunk of the story. He personally battles Yuji, becoming his Arch-Enemy after exposing him to the depravity of Curses by killing Junpei. He also has the most atrocities to his name, being responsible for the deaths of Kokichi Muta, Kento Nanami, possibly Nobara Kugisaki, and rendering Aoi Todo unable to use his Cursed Technique. The climactic fight of the "Shibuya Incident" arc is against him, ending with his final defeat before being absorbed by Kenjaku, who openly takes center stage as the Big Bad for the Culling Game.
• The Hedonist: Mahito treats this as a way of life. In his eyes, a Curse must live according to their natural instincts and desires, and to pretend otherwise is folly. Since he views all life as inherently meaningless, he openly advocates doing whatever one pleases and regards his murder of humans with the same weight of a human eating when they're hungry. Ironically, despite being the most human in appearance, Mahito has the mindset truer to the nature of a Curse than most of his comrades, and experiences the most growth because of it.
• Hero Killer: Mahito racks up quite a list of named characters in his short life.
  • In the "Vs. Mahito" arc, he murders Junpei just as the boy was on the cusp of joining Jujutsu High, leading to Yuji strengthening his will to kill and seeing Mahito as his biggest enemy.
  • In the "Shibuya Incident" arc, he kills Kokichi "Mechamaru" Muta, Kento Nanami, forces Aoi Todo to amputate his hand to avoid being killed by Idle Transfiguration, and seemingly kills Nobara Kugisaki, who didn't have a pulse when she was last seen, but was given a non-zero chance of survival due to a sorcerer's curse technique.
• Horrifying the Horror: With himself being the Horror in question as a misanthropic embodiment of humanity's fear and hatred of each other, getting off on the deaths of others, treating skilled Jujutsu sorcerers as amusements as well as being seen as a potential threat. Sukuna is just as terrifying to him as to anyone else and Yuji is eventually too. Ultimately, in the second major fight he has with Yuji, Mahito is reduced to scampering for his dear life in an undignified manner as the young Sorcerer casually tries to kill him, viewing him as a pest to be exterminated at that point.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Mahito shows Junpei a couple of transfigured humans who are the results of his experiments about how large or small Idle Transfiguration can make people.
• Humans Are Bastards: Mahito is literally the personification of this belief, being the cursed spirit born from mankind's fear of fellow humans and all the dark deeds they're capable of.
• Humanoid Abomination: Mahito might look human at first glance, but his unnaturally pale skin, silver hair, stitch-like markings, and utterly unearthly powers all make it clear he's the furthest thing from it. He then undergoes a transformation to the true shape of his soul which somewhat resembles Hanami, becoming less human like in appearance, while retaining a humanoid frame.
• The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Briefly before Geto captures him, the normally unflappable and calm Mahito who hunts humans to warp their forms into hideous forms with glee, tries to run away from Yuji, who is now hunting him down. The analogy becomes more apparent when imagery of a rabbit being chased by a wolf in winter is paired with the same imagery with the implications that Yuji is the wolf and Mahito is now the rabbit trying to flee from the person about to kill him.
• Hypocrite: Mahito believes himself to be a superior being to humanity and that this justifies his horrific cruelty toward them, yet, almost all of his more powerful offensive techniques are reliant on Transfigured humans doing the heavy lifting. What's more, for all he espouses about how life is inherently worthless and that it's pointless to find any meaning or reason, once he's on death's door and his own philosophy is thrown back at his face by Yuji, he cravenly runs for his life to preserve it.
• Instant-Win Condition: His Idle Transfiguration means that he can end most fights by touching his opponents to fatally deform their souls and bodies into whatever he desires. The only real defense against it is to keep one's distance. If he does make contact, one can limit the damage by focusing Cursed Energy on the afflicted area, which is something only experienced Sorcerers can pull off, or severing the affected flesh or limb before it spreads too far. His Domain Expansion's certain-hit effect takes this trope all the way to eleven, as distance between Mahito and his target no longer matters, meaning they're literally in the palm of his hand. Of course, the only times he breaks out his Expansion is in battle against Yuji, since any other opponent would have been done for. It gets even more potent in the Shibuya Incident Arc, when he copies Gojo's 0.2 second Expansion technique, after which he's defeated and absorbed by Kenjaku to prevent such a dangerous ability from being used freely against the heroes.
• Irony:
  • Despite being the one person in the world he truly despises, Yuji didn't actually realize Mahito had a name until the start of the Shibuya Incident.
  • Though he's the most human Disaster Curse in appearance and mannerisms, he's by far one of, if not the most detestable characters in the whole work, lacking any Villainous Virtues or Noble Demon qualities that would be even remotely redeeming. This is the whole point, as Mahito's existence is a crock pot of humanity's fear and hatred of one another given shape, and with the amount of evil mankind is capable of and has committed in the past, is it any wonder they would birth such a monstrous being that wore the face of a human?
  • Mahito comes to view Yuji as personification of the human spirit he detests so much and that killing him will prove once and for all humanity’s inferiority to Cursed Spirits. But soon after Mahito’s death; it’s revealed that Yuji may actually be half—Cursed Spirit. Which, judging by their alliance with the hybrid Death Paintings, would have qualified him by the Disaster Curses’ standards as one of the “true humans” they wished to replace humanity with.
• It's Personal: After their first encounter, Mahito becomes obsessed with crushing Yuji's spirit, and he goes to absurd lengths to make him suffer as much as possible.
• Journey to Find Oneself: Mahito is obsessed with finding out the true shape of his soul. During the Shibuya Incident, the focus he feels from using Black Flash for the first time against Yuji lets him feel his soul's true essence momentarily. Hitting Todo with another Black Flash and mastering the technique lets Mahito finally understand his true soul, evolving into his "true form" Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing. He mockingly asks Yuji to wish him happy birthday.
  Yuji: That's a surprise. Didn't figure you were the type for a journey of self-discovery.
• Karmic Death: Mahito’s apparent death parallels both his betrayal and murder of Junpei, as well as his penchant for using Idle Transfiguration to forcibly transform humans into literal weapons or tortured abominations he uses as shock troops. Not only is Mahito also betrayed by a more powerful ally who never cared about him despite his seeming friendliness, but his form is also painfully transformed by said ally’s Cursed Spirit Manipulation technique. Mahito is even ingested by Kenjaku the same way Mahito would eat transfigured humans to store them as a stockpile, and then, once Kenjaku absorbs his Idle Transfiguration for himself, he casually weaponizes Mahito in an Uzumaki ultimate attack against Miwa, turning Mahito into a horrific mutation before seemingly destroying him for good.
• Kick the Dog: Really, anytime he inflicts Idle Transfiguration on someone. If Mahito particularly dislikes someone, though, he uses this trope as a strategy to break their spirit.
  • He manipulates the impressionable Junpei into being his nihilistic pawn and subjects him to severe trauma by having his mother killed, culminating in killing the boy in the most disturbing way possible with his powers before laughing at his death as a final insult.
  • In his second major fight with Yuji, he briefly turns one of his fingers into a resemblance of Junpei before stabbing it, just to hammer in how much he enjoyed killing the boy.
  • When he realizes Nobara is friends with Yuji, he plans on murdering her and dragging her corpse down to show Yuji just as another attempt to 'kill his soul.' Unfortunately, he seems to succeed in killing her.
• Kill All Humans: His ultimate goal along with the other Disaster Curses. The reason he wants this is because Mahito simply disregards human life and enjoys experimenting on and killing people. He does suggest maybe keeping some humans alive so he and the other curses can hunt them for sport.
• Kill the Cutie: After breaking the innocence of an impressional boy by corrupting him into nihilism, killing his mother to make him more hateful and finally using him as a pawn to kill Yuji; Mahito kills Junpei in a truly nightmarish way.
• Knight of Cerebus: Jujutsu Kaisen isn't a light series to begin with, but Idle Transfiguration is perhaps one of the most gruesome and unsettling primary abilities wielded by any shōnen villain. And the Shibuya Incident arc explicitly states that more then a thousand people have ended up as Mahito's tortured, disfigured slaves.

L — Y

• Lack of Empathy: Due to his ability, which lets him touch and mold the souls of humans like putty, Mahito does not see human lives as different than any regular object. He believes firmly in just doing what you want to do, even if that interferes with the happiness of others.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Mahito hunts and kills terrified humans with casual indifference added with his gleeful sadism. The one bond he forms with a human is entirely false, and he betrays them soon afterwards. Mahito is forced to scamper for his life when Yuji is about to kill him with the same indifference to his existence. And when Geto appears, Mahito believes he's there to save him, only to be absorbed into Geto's Cursed technique. The parallels are made stronger due to Mahito having hair covering half of his face like Junpei when this happens.
• Lightning Bruiser: His Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing forces him to lock his Cursed Technique in exchange for enhanced strength and speed great enough to overwhelm Yuji for a short time. The narration states that this Super Mode improves Mahito's physical prowess by 200%, and Word of God states he would have torn Yuji to shreds if the first year didn't have Black Flash up his sleeve.
• Light Is Not Good: He’s pale-skinned and has powder-blue/silver hair… but he’s also an insane sadist.
• Logical Weakness:
  • As deadly as it is, Idle Transfiguration is still a Cursed Technique like any other, and thus a Thought-Controlled Power that Mahito has to consciously turn on and off. Yuji and Nanami are able to nearly kill him during their first confrontation just beating him so hard and so fast that he can't concentrate well enough to picture something to transform into.
  • The activation condition for Idle Transfiguration is specifically Mahito laying his hands upon the target, which he can normally do with ease either through speed, or morphing his body to touch them.^note Though his hands themselves must stay unaltered in order to use Idle Transfiguration on someone However, if the target can react fast enough and guard themselves with Cursed Energy, then they can survive close contact with him, even if momentarily.
  • His Domain Expansion is incredibly deadly because its sure-hit effect is applied to his Idle Transfiguration, meaning anybody caught within it can be freely altered by Mahito even without physically touching them. However, because the Domain is designed to entrap an opponent within to apply the effect, it's weaker to external forces who want to break inside, easily allowing Yuji to enter and disrupting Mahito through Sukuna's interference. Mahito specifically enacts a workaround to this during their rematch in Shibuya, activating the Domain for 0.2 seconds to bypass Sukuna's retaliation and apply Idle Transfiguration to Todo in that moment, nullifying the Domain's weakness.
• Lovecraftian Superpower: Idle Transfiguration is one of the most disturbing interpretations of Soul Power ever put to page, turning his body parts into weapons and transforming victims into grotesque beings.
• Magic Pants: More often than not, he'll have pants on no matter how much he shapeshifts. They actually seem to be part of his body.
• Maniac Tongue: Mahito has stuck out his tongue on a few occassions and is an Ax-Crazy sociopath who loves to degrade humans and cause them pain.
• Manipulative Bastard:
  • He manipulates Junpei into being his pawn by feeding him information about the Jujutsu world while giving the boy further encouragement into the nihilism that the boy was already experiencing. He later gives Junpei one of Sukuna's fingers withholding the fact that it would attract Curses and kill his mother. Knowing that Yuji would come to stop Junpei from killing a boy that bullied the latter and had convinced that he was responsible, leading to the two fighting to death, killing two birds with one stone. When this doesn't work, he does his usual Body Horror transformation schtick to turn the boy into an unrecognizable abomination that slowly dies.
  • He also manipulates Kokichi Muta into acting as the Curses' informant during the Goodwill Event, in exchange for curing his ailment. While he does uphold that promise, Mahito kills him afterward. In fairness, however, Kokichi had planned on killing him and Geto immediately after getting what he wanted and to stop their plans for Shibuya. Sadly, Mahito pulled the trigger on him first.
• Meaningful Name:
  • The kanji for "Mahito" (真人) can be literally translated as both "true man", tying into Disaster Curses's "true humans" ideology, and "devilish man", which fits his character to a T. Junpei even catches himself mid-sentence, when Mahito attacks Yuji, saying "Mahito's not a bad man", only then realizing the truth about his Evil Mentor.
  • Idle Transfiguration's Japanese name, "Mui Tenpen", is a corruption of "Ui Tenpen": A Buddhist mantra that states that all states of being, no matter how seemingly absolute, are impermanent. Combined with "Mui" (which roughly translates as " unalterable"), it's possible to read the technique's name as "change the unchangeable".
• Megaton Punch: During the opening rounds of their rematch in Shibuya, Mahito uses his Soul Multiplicity technique to attack Yuji with a massive twisted amalgamation of humans, only to use it as cover to travel through the abomination to surprise attack Yuji square in the face whilst his guard's down. Having morphed his hand into a pile-bunker like form, Mahito notes that if he'd put more forced behind the hit, he could have split Yuji's skull in two. The attack would leave a permanent reminder on Yuji's face after the fight.
• Misanthrope Supreme: He personifies this by virtue of being the embodiment of the negative emotions humans have for each other. Mahito is essentially a manifestation of misanthropy.
• Mook Maker:
  • His cursed technique transfigures unfortunate humans to be small enough for him to carry and later transform into larger monsters that he commands against enemies. However, thanks to their weak constitution they're able to die mid-battle on their own.
  • In Shibuya he shows the technique Polymorphic Soul Isomer, combining multiple souls with weak rejection to form a single, stronger humanoid that won't die on their own but are still vulnerable to being killed with blows using cursed energy.
• Moral Myopia: Had zero problem slaughtering innocent humans, showing no empathy whatsoever in the suffering he inflicted upon them, but as soon as Yuji was about to kill him with the same look of indifference on his face, Mahito turned tail and ran in fear.
• Mr. Fanservice: He's got a quite good-looking physique which gets put on prominent display through several Shirtless Scenes and, if one doesn't mind the stitches, he's got quite a nice looking face too.
• Nightmare Face: He does several, but one of his most notable ones was his eerily off smile when he bursts into Mechamaru's cockpit just before killing him. There is also this◊ fantastically wicked Slasher Smile he pulls off shortly before his final showdown.
• Near-Death Experience: Weaponized. Being nearly killed by Nanami as they fight gives Mahito the inspiration to use his Domain Expansion for the first time.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: Because he can just reshape his body at will, any physical damage dealt to him is immediately undone. The only way to genuinely harm him is by damaging his soul, a feat very few jujutsu sorcerers are even capable of.
• Non-Humans Lack Attributes: A literal example. Mahito has been confirmed by the fanbook to have no genitalia. This doesn’t stop the anime giving him Censor Steam, however, or the manga putting a sticker labelled ‘curse’ over his privates during a hot springs scene.
• No-Sell:
  • Normal attacks don't work on him, since he can simply reshape his soul and body back to normal. It takes actual hits at his soul just to damage him. Yuji is shown to be capable of bypassing this naturally, as being a vessel for Sukuna's soul he naturally perceives the souls of others. It is later shown that Simple Domain also allows Mahito's soul to be damaged thanks to outright nullifying his technique.
  • With Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing, Mahito's skin is encased in an armored hide so tough that Yuji's normally devastating blows don't even make him flinch, having about as much effect as striking a reinforced bunker wall. In fact, Mahito just lets Yuji whale on him to demonstrate his newfound durability.
• Not Afraid of You Anymore: After busting out his 0.2 second Domain Expansion, Mahito finds himself inside Sukuna's mindspace once again. Only this time he looks him dead in the eye and declares that he will kill Itadori before Sukuna can make a move to save the boy. A far cry from their previous interactions where Mahito was visibly afraid in the presence of the King of Curses. Then again, he can only afford to be brave because Sukuna cannot (or chooses not to) retaliate.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Mahito states Yuji is the same as him, both spurred to move through their respective desires. He breaks this down for Yuji during a scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
  Mahito: I bet you thought you were gonna do some pest control! Or ghost exterminations like in some make-believe story! You came to Shibuya with half-assed determination, didn't ya?! How naive, you stupid brat! This is war! Not a battle to fix what's wrong! But a clash of truths! You and your fragile justice! You are me, Yuji Itadori! I kill without a second thought, just like how you save people without a second thought! The instincts of a curse against the so-called dignity obtained by human reason! It's a battle to determine who will be left standing in 100 years!
• Oh, Crap!: Suffers one when Yuji is able to strike his soul. He gets an even bigger one when he forcibly enters his Domain Expansion, since that forced his technique to reach Sukuna.
• One-Winged Angel: During his fight with Yuji and Todo, Mahito discovers the true essence of his soul, transforming himself into his true form, the Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing.. Doubles as Turns Red.
  • This ends up being Deconstructed. Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing locks him out of most of his powerset, turning a uniquely versatile and treacherous fighter into nothing more than a brute with very little in the way of unique abilities, albeit still a dangerous foe since he's able to overpower Yuji and easily tanks anything short of a Black Flash. To boot, because Mahito was already heavily injured by fighting Yuji, Nobara and Todo, it only takes one more well-placed Black Flash to defeat him for good after he finally achieves this form.
• Original Position Fallacy: Mahito's sociopathic mindset didn't account for someone (Yuji) arriving to a similar conclusion about how unnecessary and troublesome Mahito is, much like how Mahito himself views humans to be. Seeing such cold, pragmatic indifference towards his prized existence is enough to send the formerly unflappable Disaster Curse running.
• Personality Powers: Mahito views life as fundamentally worthless and the human soul, a concept invented by humanity to mark themselves as above animals, as no more significant then as a lump of dirt. Fittingly, Idle Transfiguration lets him to take control of a person’s soul and grotesquely warp it to reduce them to a suffering lump of flesh.
• Practically Joker: While lacking the Monster Clown guise, his Ax-Crazy nature, purple Color Motif clothing, Straw Nihilist outlook, faux affability, darkly comedic nature, and obsession with getting under his nemesis, Yuji Itadori's, skin and breaking him makes Mahito the Joker if he were a cursed spirit.
• Prehensile Tail: His "true form" possesses a tail that he uses to restrain and attack his opponent.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Being the youngest of the Disaster Curses, Mahito is naturally immature and approaches most things the way a child would, engaging in activities like board games, football/soccer, bubbles, casual sadism, murder and cruel mind games. It's no surprise that this fits his nature as a personification of humanity's negative traits.
• Psychotic Smirk: Mahito's default expression, going along with his childish cruelty.
• Purple Is Powerful: Primarily associated with the color purple in both the anime and colored illustrations, and he certainly is quite powerful. His Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing is depicted as purple in the color page of Chapter 131.
• Sadist: Mahito openly enjoys hurting and toying with others. His cursed technique is centered all around mutating humans into weapons or monsters, usually leaving them just enough intelligence to beg for death. After "befriending" Junpei and corrupting him into misanthropy, when Yuji manages to get through to him, Mahito just transfigures Junpei into a monster and laughs as he dies because of how much pain it causes Yuji to be unable to save him. He even proposes leaving some humans alive instead of wiping them out altogether just so he and his fellow cursed spirits can hunt them for fun.
• Say It with Hearts: Does this twistedly to Yuji while trying to break his spirit:
  Mahito: Tell me, Yuji Itadori... have you ever stopped to count how many curses you've killed? No, right? Me neither. Me neither. ♥ Like I care about how many... people I've killed.
• Scarf of Asskicking: In his One-Winged Angel form, Mahito has what appears to be a black, cloth-like growth out the back of his head, vaguely reminiscent of a ponytail, that visually resembles this trope. He's able to incorporate it into his fighting style, wrapping up Yuji's foot after a near miss kick to hold him still for his own attack.
• Scary Stitches: He has stitches through his face and body, getting called "Patchwork Man", which mark him as a cursed spirit in spite of his humanoid appearance.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Tried to flee from a thoroughly pissed off Itadori after his defeat to avoid being exorcised by the vengeful sorcerer, which was rendered moot due to Geto wanting Idle Transfiguration and planning to dispose off him anyways.
• Self-Duplication: In Shibuya, Mahito demonstrates the newfound ability to create a body double. The double is considerably weaker than him, and cannot transfigure other souls than its own, but otherwise can move, independently think and use the same Eldritch Transformation attacks like the original.
• Serial Killer: The Supernatural Killer Type. Being a Curse that resembles a human who is able to inflict grotesque transformations onto others aside, Mahito's actions, particularly near his beginning of his introductory arc- resemble the modus operandi of a serial killer. His calling card is the hideous transformations he inflicts on his victims, he reminiscences to Yuji on his victim Junpei's death, and his initial murderers are a shared investigation between the police and the Jujutsu sorcerers to find the killer.
• Shapeshifter Weapon: All sorts, like turning his entire body in a giant ball of spikes and transforming his arm into a stream of blades.
• Shapeshifting Heals Wounds: Mahito combines this trope with a touch of Perpetually Protean to negate physical damage by constantly reshaping and repositioning his soul. It takes direct attacks on his soul to actually do any meaningful damage.
• Slasher Smile: Tends to have a sadistic, insane smile on his face when he inflicts pain on and kills humans.
• Slave Mooks: The many transfigured humans he commands are enslaved under his will, and in great pain from their transformation and begging to be killed.
• The Sociopath: His defining trait, which is unsurprising, considering the concept he represents. He's adept at lying and manipulating others, but is incapable of empathy, literally dehumanizing people by turning them into weapons and monsters and referring to ones that catch his interest, like Junpei, as his "toys". He has a massive ego in himself as a curse, cares only about himself, and has a child-like need for constant stimulation, whether it be in literal games or rampant murder. While the other intelligent curses show a disdain for human life for varying reasons, they are shown to have the capacity to care about each other and have codes of honor. In contrast, Mahito hurts and toys with others' lives entirely for the sake of his own amusement, and despite his apparent friendship with his fellow Disaster Curses, claims he knew all along that Kenjaku intended to betray them and did nothing to warn them in advance, implying even his stated care for them was another lie.
• Sole Survivor: As of the Shibuya Incident arc, he is the last of the Disaster Curses alive, maybe. Though after Geto absorbs him, his survival is a bit questionable. Instead of keeping Mahito around as a Familiar, Geto, or rather Kenjaku, apparently opted to instead extract Mahito's Idle Transformation technique by using Geto's Maximum Technique, Uzumaki. Mahito is seemly killed when Kenjaku used the curse to power up an Uzumaki against Miwa, so that Kenjaku can use Idle Transformation himself.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: He has a gentle, playful, almost sweet voice. If given the opportunity, he is going to take his sweet time to talk about all the horrible things he just did/is about to do to someone in a perfectly friendly, cheery manner.
• Soul Power: A very unorthodox version: While most interpretations of the soul in modern fiction depicts it as entirely separate from the material world. In the setting of Jujutsu Kaisen, the shape of a person’s body and the shape of their soul are very strongly linked; so Mahito’s ability to manipulate the latter grants him almost total control over the shape of the former.
• Spare Body Parts: He activates his Domain by growing a tiny pair of hands inside his mouth.
• Spikes of Villainy: A malicious curse and can turn his arm and even body into a weaponized ball of spikes.
• Straw Nihilist: Mahito believes life holds no value or meaning, and so everyone should do as they please. This mindset seems to stem from his ability to perceive and manipulate human souls, which causes him to see a human's "soul", and by extension their heart, as nothing more than another object. It's because of this mindset that he wasn't motivated by anything in particular until he met Yuji.
• Super-Empowering: Because Mahito is capable of altering a human's form, he's capable of altering the physiology of their brain, allowing non-sorcerers to tap into their cursed energy and become sorcerers or curse users themselves. The only time Mahito is shown doing this is when he unlocks Junpei's potential for jujutsu sorcery. This skill turns out to be instrumental for the next stage of Kenjaku's plan, the Culling Game, where he uses Mahito's Idle Transfiguration to both allow those with the potential to become sorcerers to finally access their cursed energy as well as alter the bodies of certain humans to become vessels for reincarnated sorcerers like Yuji.
• Super Mode: Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing, which Mahito deems the true essence of his soul and thus, the pinnacle of his evolution as a Curse. However, the form comes with a tradeoff in rendering him incapable of altering the shape of his soul, locking him out of the majority of his powerset that made him such a dangerous foe to begin with. While Word of God confirms that Mahito can still use Idle Transfiguration with his palms, there are no other humans in Shibuya to use, so he falls back on brute force to overwhelm Yuji, who's normally the better hand-to-hand fighter. This is ultimately deconstructed, however. In the standard Shōnen, a super form of this nature comes at the apex of a difficult battle and gives the user a massive boost to overwhelm their opponent. Here, it's demonstrated that unlocking such a form, while providing a massive boost to physical stats, also requires a great deal of stamina to maintain and does not heal the damage Mahito had accumulated throughout the battle prior to this point. The result is that Mahito quickly drains his remaining stamina and his injuries prevent him from utilizing his newfound form to its fullest potential. The conclusion is that after only a few minutes of unlocking this form, one more Black Flash from Yuji (with some help from Todo) is enough to knock him out of it and seal his final defeat.
• Superpower Lottery: Idle Transfiguration is easily one of the most powerful Cursed Techniques in the series, granting Mahito complete control over souls. With it, Mahito is able to alter the shape of a person's soul, which he can use to either kill them with a single touch or transform them into weapons or monsters under his control. His Domain Expansion, Self-Embodiment of Perfection, vastly increases Idle Transfiguration's range and allows him to alter the souls of anyone trapped inside without having to make contact with them. Mahito can also alter the shape of his own soul, allowing him to transform his body into various weapons for offense as well as heal from all physical damage save for attacks that directly target his soul such as Nobara's Straw Doll Technique. Outside of combat, Mahito can also heal a person by altering their body into a healthier state as he did with Mechamaru and can even alter the physiology of their brain, allowing non-sorcerers to tap into their cursed energy and become sorcerers or curse users themselves. This skill turns out to be instrumental for the next stage of Kenjaku's plan, the Culling Game, where he uses Mahito's Idle Transfiguration to both allow those with the potential to become sorcerers to finally access their cursed energy as well as alter the bodies of certain humans to become vessels for reincarnated sorcerers like Yuji.
• Tears of Fear: In the anime, an extra scene was added to Yuji’s "The Reason You Suck" Speech where Mahito is so frightened by him that he was close to actually shedding tears in utter terror.
• Touch of Death: Unless your name is Yuji Itadori, getting grabbed by Mahito means either sudden, gruesome death or something infinitely worse.
• Transformation Horror: His Forced Transformation of people is always profoundly nightmarish and usually ends up killing the target from the sheer physical and psychological trauma of the metamorphosis.
• Turns Red: Being brought to the brink of death in his battle with Yuji and Nanami makes him use a Domain Expansion. Also happens again in Shibuya vs Yuji and Todo, combining this trope with One-Winged Angel. This ends up being Deconstructed, as Mahito was already heavily injured by fighting Yuji, Nobara and Todo, it only takes one more Black Flash to defeat him for good, despite his powerup.
• Undignified Death: Mahito's death is pathetic by the standards of both humans and curses. While Mahito's fellow disaster curses all die with their pride and dignity intact, Mahito's final moments have all of his confidence and Straw Nihilist bravado fall away to show his true colors as a bratty, selfish child who scampers away in terror the moment he's at the receiving end of the exact same callousness he had shown countless innocent people. It's taken even further in the anime, adding a scene in which Mahito is so scared shitless by Yuji that he throws mud at him in a pointless effort to ward him off. When absorbed by Kenjaku afterwards, he tries to put on a brave face but quickly devolves to screaming in pain. Then, after Kenjaku absorbs his prized Idle Transfiguration technique, he seemingly destroys Mahito for good by releasing him as an Uzumaki special attack, turning the Special Grade Curse into a one-off weapon easily discarded as casually as the countless humans Mahito himself had transformed into disposable weapons.
• Unfit for Greatness: A villainous example. The senior Disaster Curses propped Mahito up as their leader because they considered him their best chance at finally conquering humanity. Because he represented a fear humans cursed more than any other, his potential was practically limitless. But a couple of dozen chapters after this sentiment is expressed, Mahito’s full potential proves insufficient to defeat Yuji, he cravenly attempts to flee, and his prized Cursed Technique is stolen by Kenjaku — a sequence that implies no Cursed Spirit can surpass the potential for evil of the beings they were born from. It's worth noting, however, that Mahito does grow in strength and power throughout the story at an alarming rate, and learns frighteningly quick. Nanami even notes that Mahito had to be exorcised quickly or he would have grown too strong for even the senior staff of Jujutsu High (barring Gojo) to deal with. The main reasons he wasn't allowed to attain his full potential was down to his own pride and the fact that doing so would have caused problems for Kenjaku.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Mahito is an extremely dangerous Cursed Spirit with one of the most powerful Techniques in the whole story, but he's somewhat tempered by the fact he was only born recently, meaning he has very little in the way of actual combat experience. This means that while he can end most fights with the touch of a hand, he notably struggles against weaker opponents that are more skilled with their own Techniques or possess superior combat ability. This allows Sorcerers like Nanami, Nobara, and Todo to give him trouble, despite the power gap between them. It's telling the tide of Mahito's final fight with Yuji very quickly turns in the young Sorcerer's favour when intense fatigue and the price of his Super Mode forces Mahito to fight hand-to-hand. This is further demonstrated when Kenjaku gets his hands on Idle Transfiguration, and with only a single use remotely awakens about a thousand supposedly normal humans into Curse Users or vessels (without expressly harming any of them), a feat Mahito could only dream of.
• Villainous Breakdown: The second major fight he has with Yuji ends with his nihilistic, dissonant and childish nature completely shattered as he attempts to flee for his life, terrified of Yuji about to kill him. He then begs Geto to save him when he arrives, only for the latter to absorb him into a sphere via his Cursed Technique. The anime even adds a scene where he tries to pathetically throw mud at Yuji in a futile attempt to ward him off, a far cry from the nigh-invulnerable and fierce demon that he had been moments ago.
  Mahito: Not... yet... I'm also out of transfigured humans...
• Villainous Friendship: Subverted. Reinforcing his role as the series' Hate Sink who embodies the worst of humanity, Mahito only truly cares for himself. He's openly proud to consider his fellow Disaster Curses friends and happily engages in fun activities with them, but he barely bats an eye when they start dying in Shibuya. He's mildly surprised to hear of Hanami's death at Gojo's hands, but otherwise shows no grief like Jogo or Dagon, and quickly forgets about him. Moreover, he jeopardizes the group's goal of resurrecting Sukuna, which Hanami died to make possible, in favor of settling his own grudge with Yuji, which would have rendered his sacrifice meaningless had Mahito succeeded. Even more damning, if his claim that he knew Kenjaku intended to betray them all along is true, then Mahito is even worse for not telling his fellow Curses, implying he would have gladly abandoned them all to save himself.
• Villainous Respect: Subverted. In the series' first light novel, Mahito meets a blind elderly man whom he sees as free like him and different from other humans, but this stemmed from him being unable to see any of his emotions and being curious about him due to thinking he was a unique type of human, with him planning to manipulate his soul to enchance his powers. When the old man died, while he was stated to have felt very moved when seeing his soul dying, it was out of his interest in a human soul rather than the death of the man itself, and when the elderly man thanked Mahito for spending time with him, he became shocked when proven wrong about the man and how he was no different from any other human, with him later reffering to his body as an object and thinking about how the body no longer had a soul he could manipulate.
• Villainous RRoD: Once he unlocks his Super Mode at the tail end of his fight with Yuji fight in the Shibuya brawl, he gleefully tries to brutalize the boy with his now far greater strength.. only for all the horrific wounds Yuji had already dealt him to drain his stamina enough he can't properly maintain the transformation.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: He can reshape his body into basically any form that strikes his fancy and uses this in combat extensively, usually by growing animal bodyparts to increase his agility, turning his limbs into deadly weapons, or even avoiding attacks via transfiguration (for example, opening a hole in his body to let an attack go through it).
• Wicked Pretentious: Mahito adores giving long-winded speeches about how his ability has let him understand the true nature of the soul better then any other and that the nihilistic hedonism he uses to justify his cruelty is the only "proper" way to live. But it's little more a thin justification that he doesn't like having turned back on him.
  • To further hammer this home, the book he's reading in his Establishing Character Moment, "Cloud Giant",is actually a downright cringeworthy (and thus unpublished) collection of poems Gege wrote in his teenage years, rather than some classic like No Longer Human that would fit Mahito's character better, symbolizing the Curse's childishness.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Has silver-blue hair and is the cursed spirit of human hatred who enjoys inflicting pain on his many victims.
• You Are Already Dead: Mahito's ability is able to kick in after he's already touched his victims once, leading to moments where they appear normal at first before they either contort into whatever he thinks of or explode in someone's face. Also, because of his Domain literally putting you in the palm of his hand and therefore vulnerable to Idle Transfiguration, getting caught in it is basically a game over unless you have Simple Domain.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He doesn't waste time murdering Junpei just when the boy finds a chance at redemption and realizes how much of a monster Mahito is.
• Younger Than They Look: Despite looking like he's in early twenties, Nanami deduces that Mahito only gained intelligence and self-awareness as a Curse very recently. This is reflected in his behavior, which comes off as quite childish more often than not.
• Xenomorph Xerox: His Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing strongly resembles a hulked out Xenomorph, complete with a tail, elbow blades, and a crusted crown that covers his eyes, leaving only his teeth visible.

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