Summary
The problem withshonen animecomes in the name. “Shōnen” means “young boy,” so shōnen works have produced a wide variety of male heroes, like stoic muscleman Kenshiro fromFist of the North Staror happy-go-lucky Goku fromDragon Ball. Unfortunately, the women in those series specifically can be typically described as “useless damsels” and “they be shopping,” respectively.
It’s not that guys shouldn’t be heroes in a genre named after them and primarily targeted for them. The genre could just do with writing of equal quality for its female characters, as plenty of girls and women enjoy shōnen anime too. They don’t have to be perfect, but they can be more than boring eye candy. Luckily, there are a bunch of shōnen anime showswith strong female characters. Gege Akutami’sJujutsu Kaisenis one of them, and these arethe best women and girls in the series.
Updated June 21, 2025 by David Heath:It’s done. Jujutsu Kaisen is now complete. Well, the manga is, at any rate, releasing its last chapter back on September 30th, 2024. The anime will continue to adapt the post-Shibuya Incident arcs next year, though anime-only viewers are now going to have a hard time avoiding spoilers for that long.
Even this list has already previewed some of the key female players to watch out for once the anime returns, along with ground already covered by the anime. So, for this update, this list heads back to the show to illustrate a few more of JJK’s top women but will avoid details about the manga’s ending or the characters' fates. People will have to dive into the manga or hang on for the anime’s return to find out for sure.
1Setsuko Sasaki
The First Girl In The Series
Setsuko Sasakiwas the first girl to turn up inJujutsu Kaisen, though she didn’t do a lot after her part in the Fearsome Womb Arc. She’s just an ordinary high school girl after all, and wouldn’t have a spot at either Tokyo or Kyoto’s Jujutsu high schools, but she was Yuji’s friend before he got involved in the world of sorcery and curses, and it’s her fault he ended up becoming the vessel for Sukuna. Kind of.
The two were members of Sugisawa Third High School’s Occult Research Club, alongside their other friend Takeshi. She and Takeshi snuck back into school after hours to unseal a special occult charm they found. It turned out to contain Sukuna’s finger and attracted some Curses that threatened to kill the pair. Yuji swallows the finger to save his friends, gets possessed by Sukuna, and ends up at Tokyo Jujutsu High. If Setsuko was less curious, or less into the occult, the story would’ve ended as soon as it began.
2Tsumiki Fushigoro
JJKis a series with multiple leads. Yuji is the main protagonist, with Megumi Fushigoro as the deuteragonist, or secondary lead. He’s sterner than his mentor, Satoru Gojo, but cares little about tradition, rules, or his blood ties to the Zenin clan. The only family that matters to him is his elder stepsister,Tsumiki Fushigoro. After the deaths of their parents, she essentially became his guardian, scolding him when he got into fights with bullies.
But he sees her as the perfect example of “a good person” - someone who did good without letting bad people off easy. When she fell victim to a sleeping curse, he realized Tsumiki’s benevolence came from her willingness to protect others, not from rigidity. It’s rough that she essentially became the Uncle Ben to Megumi’s Spider-Man, with her condition leading him to finally become a sorcerer. But there’s more to Tsumiki than the anime lets on.
3Nagi Yoshino
Loving Mother And Keen Drinker
It’s not thatJJKdoesn’t have flaws. It could be argued thatNagi Yoshinogot killed just to give character development to her son Junpei andthe series' hero Yuji Itadori, a trope better known as ‘fridging’ a character. Yet the worst cases of fridging tend to be because the woman had little development beyond “doomed love interest/relative.” By contrast, Nagi had enough characterization to make her a fan favorite.
It might’ve been because she was likable and easy-going. She wasn’t some perfect parent, as she smoked, drank, and would let Junpei skip school if he didn’t want to go. Nagi thought he’d succeed in any path in life he chose, regardless of whether it involved college or the like. She was more interested in seeing Junpei break out of his gloomy shell, make friends, and be happy. Which makes the Yoshino family’s fate all the sadder.
4Mimiko & Nanako Hasaba
Suguru Geto’s Right-Hand Women
JJKis a series where the guy who felt sorcerers should protect non-sorcerers is its most notorious villain, and the guy who thought that was cheesy nonsense is one of its main heroes. How that happened made up a large part of Season 2, as the once noble Suguru Geto became a sorcerer-supremacist, preferring to wipe out all of regular humanity rather than cater to them.
What sealed that deal for him was when he came across a village that was victimizing two twin girls,Mimiko & Nanako Hasaba, thinking they were responsible for deaths in the area. Suguru slaughtered them and saved the twins instead. The sisters' arc showed the reason for Suguru’s madness, and why they went along with it. Why stop Suguru’s “sorcerers-only paradise” when he’s treated them better than the real world ever did? They’re the drop of good that can be found in evil.
5Manami Suda
Geto’s Assistant And Second-In-Command
If Mimiko and Nanako were like daughters to Geto,Manami Sudawould be the closest thing he got to a partner. He was able to unwind with her, and even took a selfie with her and had a jolly good time celebrating their ‘family’ reunion after they killed some unlucky human. She shares his supremacist ideals, and also would rather live in a world without humans.
She aided him as his second-in-command and was no slouch in the sorcery department either, as she was able to hold her own against Atsuya and Panda. Her only drawback is that, without Geto, she loses much of her purpose. She chose to aid Pseudo-Geto, the spirit inhabiting her late superior’s body, to create the world the real deal wanted. But chances are his world differs from what Geto or Manami would’ve considered ‘ideal’.
6Riko Amanai
A Loner In A World of Magic
The Hasaba Twins' situation pushed Suguru over the edge, but what got it shaking wasRiko Amanai’s fate. She was an ordinary high school girl who just happened to have the potential to be a Star Plasma Vessel- a body that could merge with the immortal jujutsu master Tengen to maintain their will and self-awareness. The result would essentially kill the Vessel, but it would keep Tengen from becoming a Cursed Spirit and making things worse.
Riko was fine with it as, growing up without her parents, she felt left alone anyway. She had school friends, a caretaker, and escorts in Suguru and Satoru Gojo, but no one she could call family. Over time, she’d bonded with Suguru and Satoru to the point where she didn’t want to merge anymore. She wanted more time with her friends. But she didn’t have a choice. Ironically, a non-sorcerer ‘monkey’s fate made Suguru shift towards his dark goals.
7Misato Kuroi
The Jeeves to Riko’s Wooster
Misato Kuroiisn’t exactly the deepest or most interesting character in the series, but she is one of many strong examples in the series of how family goes beyond blood ties. Professionally, she was Riko’s caretaker, tasked with keeping her safe until it was time for her to merge with Tengen. But like Geto and Gojo, she grew close to her charge, until she practically became a sister to her.
Her kidnapping brought Riko, Geto, and Gojo together to help her, and their brief time together in Okinawa made them a sort of found family. Albeit one that was doomed from the start, as whether Riko fulfilled her destiny, or fell victim to foes like Toji Fushigoro, they would be torn apart. It was likely through this experience that both Geto and Gojo would form familial bonds of their own with the Hasaba Twins and Toji’s son Megumi respectively.
8Rika Orimoto
Queen Of Curses
Some of the best villains live up to the phrase “the road to hell is paved with good intentions,” as Suguru showed in his descent from wanting to “protect everyone” to “kill all the monkeys.” Another case turned up inJujutsu Kaisen 0: Jujutsu High, the prequel that saw Satoru and Maki join forces to help Yuta, a boy plagued by a cursed spirit that used to beRika Orimoto, his childhood friend who was killed in a car accident.
Yuta had promised to outlive her, but the accident broke that promise, leading to her becoming a cursed spirit so powerful she could test Satoru and overwhelm Suguru. But Rika wasn’t harming Yuta. Not directly anyway. She was protecting him against anything she saw as a threat, inadvertently making him suffer as a result. People can sympathize with her plight and intentions, but ultimately her bond was toxic to Yuta, and she had to let go to move on.
9Shoko Ieiri
What would a school be without a resident doctor? Particularly one this cool-headed. There are quite a few laid-back ladies inJJK, butShoko Ieiriis possibly the most laid-back and nonchalant of the bunch. She takes her medical work, with or without sorcery, quite seriously. Yet she remains unflappable in nearly any and every situation. As harsh or upsetting as things get, she keeps her head when everyone is losing theirs.
Shoko was the same back when she was a student, as Season 2’s flashbacks showed. She was classmates with Satoru and Suguru, and she’d handle them at their best and worst. As an adult, she remembers these days fondly, lighting up a cigarette for old times’ sake. They were idyllic compared to the Shibuya incident, but even there she kept at work, healing others as best as she could.
10Akari Nitta
Biker Girl Turned Professional
As the auxiliary manager at Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School (Tokyo Jujutsu High for short),Akari Nittausually takes a supportive role. She drove Yuji, Nobara, and Megumi off to their destination for Season 1’s finale, then found them again once it was over. But there’s more to her than meets the eye. She used to be a Yanki, a delinquent known for being keen on motors, American rock music, and wild hairstyles. But the only trace of her past is her interest in customizing cars.
Akari gave up the rough life to graduate from Kyoto Jujutsu High and entered the school system as an assistant because she knew her little brother Arata would be going to her alma mater. She didn’t want him getting into trouble, so she got a job where looking after him and the other Jujutsu students would be her top priority. It’s rather sweet in a way and shows that there’s more to her than a smart suit.
