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Maki Zenin is the tritagonist of the manga volume Jujutsu Kaisen 0 (as well as its anime film adaptation), and a major character of its sequel series Jujutsu Kaisen. She is the estranged daughter of Ogi Zenin, and a member of the Zenin Clan, one of the three great clans in the Jujutsu Sorcery world, as well as the older twin sister of Mai Zenin.
Due to being born with almost no cursed energy, Maki was considered a failure and was shunned by her controlling family. Eventually, in an effort to break away from her family and prove them wrong, Maki decides to become a jujutsu sorcerer by fighting with cursed tools, becoming a student at Tokyo Jujutsu High. She is currently a second year student at Tokyo High, alongside Yuta Okkotsu, Panda, and Toge Inumaki.
Maki Zenin is voiced by Mikako Komatsu in Japanese, who also voiced Yuzuha Shiba from Tokyo Revengers. In English, she was voiced by Allegra Clark, who had also voiced Beidou in Genshin Impact, U-1196 in Cells at Work! CODE BLACK, Dorothea Arnault in the Fire Emblem franchise, and Matrona in The Seven Deadly Sins.
Appearance
Maki Zenin is a Japanese teenager who stands at five feet and seven inches tall and had a strong, athletic build with a curvaceous physique. Described as beautiful, she has black eyes and black hair (which are hazel and seaweed-green colored respectively in the anime adaptation). Following her encounter with the cursed spirit Jogo, Maki received permanent burn scars across her upper body and face. Prior to her injury, her hair was long and tied up in a short ponytail. After her injury, her hair becomes shorter to the point that it barely covers her ears.
Before her sister's death, Maki always wore special glasses that allowed her to perceive cursed energy and spirits despite her lack of cursed energy. Like most Jujutsu High students, Maki wears a customized navy-blue school uniform. In her first year, Maki's uniform consists of a white dress shirt, brown boots with tan soles, a pair of woolly white knee-high socks, round glasses, a navy blue miniskirt, and a long-sleeved navy blue double-breasted asymmetric jacket with high collars which is closed with a singular golden button on the left side which is engraved with the school emblem. By her second year, Maki changed parts of her uniform. Her brown boots with tan soles are replaced with black ones with brown soles, her woolly socks are replaced with black leggings which covers her previously exposed skin, and her round glasses are replaced with slimline glasses with a purple frame.
After being scarred by Jogo, Maki completely changed her school uniform. Her new outfit consists of black pants, round glasses, black shoes, and a sleeveless turtleneck black shirt which is tucked into a brown belt with a golden buckle fastened around her waist. She also wears a short black cape that reaches down to her hips and is held in place by a pair of golden pins adorned with the Jujutsu High emblem. During training, Maki frequently wears black leggings, light short shorts or a similar pleated skirt, and a purple tracksuit jacket with a lilac collar and lilac cuffs.
Biography
Past
Maki was born into the Zenin family as the daughter of Ogi Zenin and the older twin sister of Mai Zenin. Despite her incapability to perceive cursed spirits, Maki was often regarded as the more courageous of the twin sisters. Eager to enhance her abilities and determined to become the family head one day, Maki made the bold decision to depart from the Zenin family. However, at every turn, the Zenin clan actively impeded her progress, even obstructing her promotion to a grade 4 sorcerer, despite her undeniable talent.
Jujutsu Kaisen 0
Maki Zen'in debuts in Jujutsu Kaisen 0 as a young student from Jujutsu High mentored by Satoru Gojo who brings a nervous teenager, Yuta Okkotsu, in order to train him and stop the curse of the undead girl Rika who is attacking everybody chasing Yuta. Early Maki mocks Yuta's weakness for being too passive, believing him to be the often subject of bullying. Although Yuta is unable to fight, he is assigned to work with Maki in exorcising a curse. When Maki is wounded, she asks Yuta what is his real desire to which he responds is that he only wants to enjoy a good life rather than remain alone. Maki encourages him to fight for such rights which allows her partner to control Rika for a brief period of time to escape with her. In the next three months, Maki has become Yuta's mentor in swordplay so that he can also fight alone much to her comrade's surprise. When one of Satoru Gojo's friends, Suguru Geto, appears in Jujutsu High, it is revealed that Maki is a rejected member from the Zen'in clan and is mocked which angers Yuta. After the visit, Maki tells Yuta her hatred towards her clan to which Yuta agrees to fight alongside her, comforting her. Geto once again appears in Jujutsu High to take Rika's Curse, taking down all the students. Yuta takes control of Rika to save his mates, resulting in Geto escaping weakened.
Jujutsu Kaisen
In Jujutsu Kaisen, Maki appears one year older still as Sorcerer from Jujutsu High alongside Panda and Toge Inumaki as Yuta is working abroad. During an examination where the Kyoto students try to kill newcomer Yuji Itadori for possessing the vengeful spirit of Ryoma Sukuna, Maki joins Yuji's group and defeats her sister, Mai, who questions why she left their clan. During the Shibuya incident, Maki suffers severe burns from the cursed spirit Jogo, leaving her body scarred. After the incident, Maki still continues to fight alongside Yuta and the other Jujutsu High students against Geto's predecessor Kenjaku. After Mai sacrifices her life for Maki, she is able to see curses without glasses. After killing their father, she slaughters Naoya Zen'in and all members of the Zen'in clan in retribution for the pain she and Mai were forced to undergo during their childhood.
She joins the Culling Games as a player, and due to her special circumstance, is able to leave and enter barriers. Noritoshi Kamo from Kyoto school soon joins her side in the colony, but they are set upon by the special grade cursed spirit created from Naoya Zen'in, who has arrived as a curse to avenge his own death at the hands of Maki and her mother. They engage in fierce battle, during which Maki is significantly injured. She is forced to retreat, in order to heal, as Noritoshi takes it upon himself to hold off Naoya until she can exorcise it, even if it costs his life. During her battle with Naoya's cursed spirit, she is fully awakened, becoming just like Toji Fushiguro.
Personality
Maki possesses a self-confident and composed personality, seemingly impervious to the opinions or judgments of others. She consistently demonstrates unwavering determination and independence, striving to break free from the constraints imposed by her oppressive and patriarchal family. Being born a woman and an identical twin, which is considered an ill omen in the world of Jujutsu due to celestial restrictions, only adds to her challenges. She embodies unyielding willpower and resilience, driven by her desire to challenge and defy the restrictions imposed by her lineage.
In a society that highly values cursed power techniques, Maki's inability to perceive curses represented a significant obstacle. Women within the sorcerer clans faced even greater expectations, and Maki endured relentless mistreatment and unrelenting abuse at the hands of the Zenin clan. Despite feeling burdened by her lineage, she remains resolute in her quest to become a formidable sorcerer, defying her family's expectations and working diligently to dismantle their way of life.
Maki may appear distant and indifferent, even to her classmates. She takes on a leadership role but is demanding and impatient, often displaying a temperamental demeanor. Maki holds little regard for Satoru Gojo, largely due to his carefree attitude. Although she initially treated Yuta with severity, she later came to understand and support him in his struggles. Her interactions with her fellow students, Megumi and Nobara, reflect her toughness, frequently teasing them, though her bluntness may come across as insensitivity.
Maki is unwaveringly committed to proving her worth and reaching her full potential. Her complex relationship with her twin sister, Mai, stems from Maki's decision to leave the Zenin clan. This abandonment led to a tense and resentful relationship. After a life-altering sacrifice that changed her life, Maki underwent a profound transformation. She ruthlessly dismantled her family and clan, displaying relentless and emotionless determination. Her journey from a strict and demanding instructor to a more inclusive and supportive mentor is evident in her relationship with Megumi, Nobara, and Yuta.
Maki's evolution and her newfound understanding of her own abilities enable her to embrace her strength and face the world with renewed confidence. Her past experiences and the loss of her family have shaped her into a formidable and resilient sorcerer.
Powers & Abilities
Powers
- Pinnacle Human Physiology: Occasionally, jujutsu sorcerers are born with a "Heavenly Restriction," a type of binding that weakens or otherwise restricts the affected in one capacity of their life in exchange for an improvement in a different capacity. Maki Zenin was born with a Heavenly Restriction that increases her physical capabilities to a superhuman level, but strips her of almost all of her cursed energy. Interestingly, Maki's cousin Toji Fushiguro, who was greatly feared by jujutsu society for his strength, had a Heavenly Restriction identical to her's. The only reason Maki retained any cursed energy was because of her link to her twin sister Mai Zenin, who possessed cursed energy. However, the little cursed energy Maki did have was actually a hinderance to her, as the increase to her physicality would've been far greater if she had no cursed energy. When Mai died, Maki's cursed energy went along with her. As a result, Maki gained what she had been missing since birth: a body at the pinnacle of human possibility.
- Accelerated Healing: Maki's body heals from physical injuries at an accelerated rate. Before the death of her twin, she was able to recover from serious burns across her entire body in a matter of days. After reaching her full potential, Maki's healing capacity increased to the point that she can return to fighting form after sustaining damage to her internal organs just minutes prior.
- Enhanced Senses: In addition to having her physical prowess greatly enhanced, Maki's Heavenly Restriction also grants her with a drastic improvement to her senses. Among those senses is sight, which is enhanced to the point that she can see cursed energy and cursed spirits without having to rely on her special glasses anymore. With her new senses, Maki is so attuned to the environment that she can detect scattered, yet usually imperceptible, tangible surfaces created in the atmosphere by variations in air density and temperature. Maki can take advantage of these scattered surfaces, using them as platforms to jump around or change direction in mid air.
- Superhuman Durability: Maki Zenin's Heavenly Restriction grants her a superhuman level of physical durability. Even before having her full potential unlocked, Maki was able to survive a point-blank attack from the Special Grade Cursed Spirit Jogo whereas higher-ranking Jujutsu Sorcerers such as her uncle Naobito Zenin and Kento Nanami were affected far more significantly.
- Superhuman Speed: Even before the death of her twin sister, Maki Zenin's natural reflexes and movement speed allowed her to perceive the movement of speeding bullets and dodge them with relative ease. She was even able to move fast enough to impress the Special Grade Cursed Spirit Hanami. After Mai's murder, Maki's speed increased drastically. She can move so fast that individuals such as Ogi, Chojuro, and Nobuaki Zenin weren't even able to perceive her movements, even though the former had been faster than Maki prior to her potential being unlocked. She is also able to move and react quick enough to compete with her cousin Naoya Zenin's Projection Sorcery, which allows him to move at greater than subsonic speeds.
- Superhuman Strength: Maki has always possessed extraordinarily high levels of strength for a human. She knocked out Aoi Todo with a baseball to the face and broke a wooden polearm over her thigh, something no normal person is physically capable of. As a testament to her heavenly gifted strength, Playful Cloud is a cursed tool that relies solely on its user's power. She was able to use it to damage two powerful special grade cursed spirits on her own.
Abilities
- Master Combatant: Due to her lack of cursed energy, Maki Zenin is forced to rely almost completely on her own martial prowess in order to effectively combat Curses. She is capable of wielding numerous types of weapons with lethal efficiency including spears, staffs, kunai, swords, and her weapon of choice glaives. In addition to her skill with weaponry, Maki is an expert hand-to-hand fighter capable of employing martial arts such as Aikido. Maki's experience made her a skilled fighting instructor, as both Yuta Okkotsu and Megumi Fushiguro trained under her and are accomplished combatants in their own right.
- Master Weapons Specialist: Maki is touted as the best cursed tool user at Tokyo Jujutsu High. Able to wield a wide assortment of different weapons, Maki has mastered all sorts of armed combat styles. She appears to prefer using polearms and spears in battle but is fully capable of switching between multiple weapons in the course of a single fight.
- Immense Agility & Reflexes: Maki has incredible speed to match her strength and moves well enough in a fight for her agility to be acknowledged by Hanami. She makes sharp moves, and stays highly mobile in a fight with great precision. Against Mai's revolver, Maki effortlessly dodged and weaved through her sister's barrage of bullets. Not only did she slice a bullet in half with a katana, Maki even moved fast enough to catch a speeding bullet just a few centimeters from her face using incredibly astute reflexes.
Equipment
- Cursed Tools: Cursed spirits can only be exorcized by attacks containing cursed energy or reverse cursed energy, which means that Maki is incapable of killing curses despite her immense physical power. She can, however, exorcize curses by using cursed tools, weapons imbued with cursed energy. Maki possesses a number of cursed tools, including pairs of glasses that allow her to see cursed spirits.
- Dragon-Bone: "Dragon-Bone" is the name of a powerful cursed tool that is considered the masterpiece of its creator, the curse user Juzo Kumiya. Following Kumiya's arrest, Maki eventually retrieved the weapon from the curse user's workshop. Dragon-Bone was a partially-mechanical single-edged sword capable of storing kinetic and cursed energy from its vicinity into itself and then releasing said energy to increase the power behind its wielder's next strike.
- Playful Cloud (formerly): "Playful Cloud" is a powerful three-section staff designated as special-grade, the highest tier of cursed tool. It previously belonged to Suguru Geto and Toji Fushiguro before him, and was reluctantly given to Maki on loan by her family on the insistence of Satoru Gojo. This weapon is the only special-grade cursed tool not imbued with a cursed technique, instead acting as an amplifier for the user's physical strength with its cursed energy. As a result, the physically stronger the user is, the more effective Playful Cloud is. It allows Maki to contend with special-grade cursed spirits even before her sister's death. She ultimately lost it during the Shibuya Incident, when it was reclaimed and shattered into three by the resurrected Toji Fushiguro.
- Split Soul Katana: Mai Zenin used her innate technique "Construction" in her final moments to create an exact replica of the "Split Soul Katana," a powerful cursed tool that had been wielded by Toji Fushiguro. The Split Soul Katana, which is a single-edged broadsword with a fur tsuba, completely bypasses a target's physical toughness to cut directly into their soul. However, the blade can only cut into a target's soul if its wielder has a heightened sense of awareness that allows them to perceive the souls of even inorganic objects. Due to her Heavenly Restriction, Maki Zenin possesses transcendent senses and can therefore use the sword at its full potential. Having received the weapon as a parting gift from her sister, Maki sometimes speaks to it as though it were Mai herself.
External Links
- Maki Zenin on Wikipedia
- Maki Zenin on the Jujutsu Kaisen Wiki
 Heroes
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Tokyo Jujutsu High Students: Megumi Fushiguro | Kinji Hakari | Kirara Hoshi | Toge Inumaki | Yuji Itadori | Nobara Kugisaki | Yuta Okkotsu | Panda | Maki Zenin Former Students: Suguru Geto | Yu Haibara Kyoto Jujutsu High Students: Noritoshi Kamo | Kasumi Miwa | Kokichi Muta | Momo Nishimiya | Arata Nitta | Aoi Todo | Mai Zenin Others  | ||