Maki and Mai Zenin’s relationship is one of the most emotionally complex dynamics in Jujutsu Kaisen.
Why do Maki and Mai Zenin hate each other is a question rooted less in rivalry and more in shared trauma shaped by the Zenin clan.
As twins born into one of the most powerful jujutsu families, they were placed on opposite sides of the same cruel system.
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Their resentment did not come from malice, but from survival. Understanding their conflict requires looking at what the clan demanded of them, and how each sister chose to respond.
Spoiler Warning: Major spoilers ahead for the Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 anime and manga, including post-Shibuya Incident arc.
Who are twins Maki and Mai Zenin?
Maki and Mai Zenin are identical twins born into the Zenin clan, one of the Big Three jujutsu families alongside the Gojo and Kamo families, and the daughters of Ogi Zenin, a high-ranking but deeply embittered clan member.
From birth, their position within the clan was already compromised, not only because they were twins, but also because they were female in a family that consistently prioritized male heirs.
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Even their mother’s name was never spoken or recorded, a quiet but telling detail that reflects how little value the Zenin clan placed on women.
In the Jujutsu society, twins are considered an anomaly because jujutsu treats them as a single entity, resulting in both siblings possessing incomplete or divided cursed potential.
This is why neither Maki nor Mai was ever able to fully thrive under the clan’s standards: Maki was born with almost no cursed energy, while Mai possessed cursed energy but lacked the strength and will expected of a Zenin sorcerer.
The Zenin clan’s obsession with cursed techniques and bloodline purity had already proven how ruthless its standards were. Toji Fushiguro, one of the physically strongest individuals in Jujutsu Kaisen, was devalued and cast aside solely because he lacked a cursed technique.
His strength was treated as a flaw rather than an asset. That precedent made Maki’s situation worse. Like Toji, she had no cursed energy, but unlike him, she was also a woman in a clan that openly marginalized female members.
From the Zenin clan’s perspective, Maki embodied everything they refused to acknowledge or respect.
While the Gojo clan’s power is centralized in a single overwhelming figure like Satoru Gojo, and the Kamo clan maintains influence through bloodline techniques such as Blood Manipulation, the Zenin clan relied on rigid hierarchy and internal competition.
This structure made it especially hostile to anyone who did not fit its ideals. As twins with “incomplete” jujutsu, Maki and Mai were viewed as embarrassments rather than heirs.
Although they shared the same upbringing, their personalities and coping mechanisms diverged early. Maki chose resistance, leaving the clan and enrolling at Tokyo Jujutsu High to prove that strength was not defined by cursed techniques alone.
Mai chose endurance, staying behind and complying with the clan’s expectations to avoid punishment and survive within its walls. These opposing responses planted the seeds of resentment between them.
So why do Maki and Mai Zenin hate each other?
As children, Maki once promised Mai that she would stay by her side forever. At the time, Mai was the only person in the Zenin clan Maki truly cared about, and that promise mattered.
But as Maki grew older, she realized that remaining in the clan meant living under constant humiliation and control—something she knew she could not endure without hating herself. Leaving was not an act of abandonment in her mind; it was an act of survival.
When Maki left the Zenin clan, Mai was the one who paid the price. She was pressured into becoming a jujutsu sorcerer despite never wanting that life, forced into expectations she did not choose simply because her sister refused to submit.
From Mai’s perspective, Maki broke her promise and escaped, leaving her behind to shoulder the consequences alone. By the time both sisters enrolled at Jujutsu High, that resentment had already hardened into anger.
This bitterness shaped how Mai treated Maki during their early interactions. Mai mocked Maki for lacking cursed energy, dismissing her as worthless—language that mirrored the Zenin clan’s cruelty.
Maki, already accustomed to that treatment, appeared unaffected on the surface. When Mai clashed with Nobara during the Kyoto Goodwill Event, Maki bluntly told her sister that neither of them was valued by the clan, pointing out that Mai’s own abilities were limited to charging tools with cursed energy.
The exchange revealed how deeply both sisters had internalized the clan’s judgment.
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Maki’s motivation, however, never wavered. When questioned by Kugisaki Nobara and others about why she wanted to become a sorcerer despite her circumstances, Maki answered simply, she wanted to prove her family wrong.
It wasn’t about pride, it was about refusing the role the Zenin clan assigned her. Mai, who only wanted a quiet life, saw that determination as reckless and selfish, widening the emotional rift between them.
What Maki and Mai Zenin’s final confrontation truly meant
Despite their hostility, Maki never truly stopped caring about Mai. She did not actively try to repair their relationship, but neither did she deny the pain she caused by leaving the Zenin clan.
After defeating Mai during the Goodwill Event, Maki was asked why she did not stay behind with her sister—why she did not remain “at the bottom” alongside her.
Her answer was honest and quietly devastating: if she had stayed, she would have hated herself. Maki apologized to Mai for leaving, but walked away without resolving their conflict, leaving their relationship fractured.
That unresolved tension carried into the aftermath of the Shibuya Incident, when the Zenin clan was thrown into chaos following the death of Naobito Zenin. With the clan’s leadership destabilized, long-suppressed resentments surfaced.
Mai returned to the Zenin estate first and was brutally attacked by their father, Ogi Zenin, whose bitterness toward his daughters had finally reached its breaking point.
When Maki later arrived—officially to retrieve cursed tools from the clan armory under the authority of the new clan head, Megumi Fushiguro—Ogi attempted to kill both of his daughters. In his eyes, their perceived failures had cost him status and he felt that his daughters held him back.
Mortally wounded, Mai finally understood what Maki had realized years earlier, that obedience would never earn her acceptance. Using her cursed technique, Construction, Mai sacrificed her life to create the Split Soul Katana, fully unlocking Maki’s Heavenly Restriction in the process.
In her final act, Mai chose Maki’s path, entrusting her sister with both the power and resolve to end the Zenin clan’s cruelty.
Their conflict was never rooted in hatred. It was born from a broken promise, forced choices, and a system that pitted two sisters against each other. By the time they truly understood one another, the cost of that understanding was, unfortunately, already irreversible.
