Updated on January 25, 2026, 12:25pm (GMT+8): Added details to the Perfect Preparation arc section.
Maki Zenin and Toji Fushiguro are often spoken of in the same breath, and for good reason—both represent the extreme end of physical power in Jujutsu Kaisen without relying on cursed energy.
Why is Maki stronger than Toji is a question that naturally follows once her post–Shibuya feats are placed alongside Toji’s infamous legacy.
While Toji set the benchmark by overwhelming sorcerers who relied too heavily on cursed techniques, Maki’s evolution shows what happens when that same foundation is paired with purpose, growth, and resolve.
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Their similarities make the comparison compelling, but their differences are what ultimately separate them. This distinction becomes clearer when their backgrounds, battles, and motivations are examined side by side.
Spoiler Warning: Major spoilers ahead for the Jujutsu Kaisen anime and manga, including post-Shibuya and Shinjuku Showdown events.
Who is Maki Zenin?
Maki Zenin is a second-year student at Tokyo Jujutsu High and a member of the prestigious Zenin Clan, one of the three major jujutsu families.
Born without cursed energy, Maki was treated as a failure within a clan that equated worth with innate cursed techniques. Despite this, she enrolled in Jujutsu High with the explicit goal of becoming a powerful sorcerer on her own terms to prove the Zenin Clan wrong.
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Maki has a twin sister, Mai Zenin, who possessed cursed energy but lacked the motivation or desire to fight. This imbalance placed both sisters in an impossible position: Maki was scorned for her lack of cursed energy, while Mai was forced into the role of a sorcerer she never wanted.
Their strained relationship was shaped by resentment, obligation, and the expectations imposed by the Zenin Clan. Mai’s eventual sacrifice during the Perfect Preparation arc became the defining turning point in Maki’s life, fully awakening her Heavenly Restriction and severing her ties to cursed energy entirely.
Her relationship with her parents further reflects the cruelty of the clan. Maki’s father, Ogi Zenin, viewed her existence as a stain on the family name and openly favored Mai only because she possessed cursed energy.
Her mother, while more subdued, remained complicit through silence and inaction. These relationships reinforced Maki’s resolve but also fueled her growing disillusionment with the clan’s rigid hierarchy.
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Following Mai’s death and her complete physical awakening, Maki returned to the Zenin estate and singlehandedly exterminated the clan’s combat forces, including high-ranking sorcerers. After decimating the Zenin clan, Maki defeated their acting head and grade one sorcerer Naoya Zenin with a devastating punch. This act was not impulsive revenge but a decisive rejection of the system that dehumanized her from birth.
By the end of the arc, Maki had not only surpassed the clan’s expectations—she erased the clan itself, establishing herself as one of the most formidable fighters in the series.
Who is Toji Fushiguro?
Toji Fushiguro, originally known as Toji Zenin, was born into the same clan as Maki and suffered similar discrimination due to his complete lack of cursed energy.
Like Maki, he possessed a Heavenly Restriction that granted him extraordinary physical abilities far beyond those of ordinary sorcerers. Unlike Maki, however, Toji chose to abandon both the clan and the jujutsu world entirely, adopting the life of a mercenary who sold his skills to the highest bidder.
Toji became infamous as the “Sorcerer Killer,” specializing in assassinating jujutsu sorcerers by exploiting their reliance on cursed energy. His combat style emphasized preparation, misdirection, and overwhelming physical pressure, supported by an extensive arsenal of cursed tools.
Among these was the Inverted Spear of Heaven, a weapon capable of nullifying cursed techniques on contact, making it uniquely effective even against prodigies.
His most notable feat was defeating a pre-enlightenment Satoru Gojo, overwhelming him through careful planning and exhaustion rather than raw power alone.
However, once Gojo achieved full mastery of his abilities and unlocked Hollow Purple, Toji was decisively defeated. This encounter solidified Toji’s legacy as an exceptional fighter who could challenge the strongest—but only under specific conditions.
Why is Maki stronger than Toji?
Maki Zenin and Toji Fushiguro are deliberately framed as parallels, but Jujutsu Kaisen never treats them as identical.
On paper, both are products of Heavenly Restriction—no cursed energy in exchange for extreme physical ability—and the manga repeatedly implies that their raw stats are comparable. The difference is not in what they can do, but in how far each of them was allowed — and willing — to go.
Toji’s reputation is built on one defining moment: defeating a pre-awakened Satoru Gojo. That fight matters because it shows how terrifying Toji was when conditions favored him. He exhausted Gojo, prepared the battlefield, and used the Inverted Spear of Heaven, a cursed tool that nullifies cursed techniques on contact, to bypass Gojo’s cursed technique, Infinity, entirely.
This was a clean demonstration of Toji’s intelligence and experience. But the story is also very clear about what happens next—once Gojo awakens and fires Hollow Purple, Toji is instantly outmatched. His ceiling is exposed in the same arc that establishes his legend.
Maki’s post–Perfect Preparation portrayal feels intentionally different. After Mai’s death fully unlocks her Heavenly Restriction, Maki does not just become “another Toji.” Instead, the manga goes out of its way to show that she is something new.
Her massacre of the Zenin Clan is not framed as a clever ambush or a tactical assassination—it is a straight, brutal dismantling of everything that once held power over her. There is no setup arc. No conditions. She simply walks through them.
That distinction becomes even clearer during the Shinjuku Showdown. Maki’s encounter with Ryomen Sukuna is not a clean duel, but surviving an exchange with a nearly fully awakened Sukuna is still an absurd feat.
This narrative weight of that moment matters because Toji was never shown facing a threat operating at that level once all restraints were gone. Maki does—and lives.
Weapons also reflect how the two are written. Toji relied on versatility: cursed tools for specific scenarios, each compensating for the fact that he fought sorcerers on their terms.
On the other hand, Maki’s Split Soul Katana, which cuts the soul directly and ignores physical durability, feels like an extension of her body rather than a workaround. The Dragon-Bone sword does the same—turning raw physical force into destructive output. She doesn’t outthink her opponents as much as she overwhelms them.
Ultimately, the biggest difference is intent. Toji had no real stake in the world he broke into. He abandoned the Zenin Clan, abandoned the jujutsu system, and lived without attachment.
Conversely, Maki grew up under the same cruelty and made the opposite choice. She stayed, endured, and eventually destroyed the system that rejected her. That purpose is baked into every one of her post-awakening fights.
Toji was the proof of concept. Maki is the finished evolution.
That is why, within the logic and trajectory of Jujutsu Kaisen, Maki is stronger—not because Toji was weak, but because the story never lets him go as far as it lets her.
