Once Jujutsu Kaisen 0 movie ended, the big question that everyone had was, “Why does Yuta still have Rika?” The events of the movie contradict the status quo of the mainline story; moreover, the movie manages to do one more thing. It established Yuta as one of the more interesting characters in the story and a fan favorite. And this isn’t the first time the story has this case. Gujou Satoro and Sakuna are popular among fans more than the main characters. Yuta was the newest addition to this list.
On top of that, despite their screen time, Yuji and Megumin don’t have that big of popularity. Though the series is popular, it would make much more sense if someone like Yuji was the protagonist or the main character. But this is something even the author Gege Akutami realizes as his presence in the main story is palpable once he makes his appearance.
Speaking of which, when he is first seen in the story, he is not alone and is accompanied by a grotesque-looking evil spirit, Rika. And based on what we saw in the movie, she should have passed away peacefully with no attachment to the dead. So what’s going on?
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Does Yuta Still Have Rika, or is it someone else?
The first thing that Yuta says to Yuji is how they are total opposites of each other. Yuji has incredible that can go toe-to-toe with spirits bigger than his size, but he only has minuscule cursed energy. On the other hand, Yuji is a skinny man with a sword but has a tremendous amount of cursed energy.
This is crucial info, as it helps explain why Yuta is renowned in the world and strong to the point even Gojo thinks highly of him. Cursed energy is essential for performing cursed techniques, and it is a matter of life or death for an exorcist. Having a lot of cursed energy means lots of options, but the series also limits this by making most of the techniques unique to people.
According to Gojo, only 20 percent of cursed techniques are learnable, while the remaining can’t be replicated unless they are of the same bloodline. But good techniques like Black flash and Healing. And we saw Yuta heal Yuji right after he had stabbed him. Yuta explains he does it by applying negative energy over negative which makes it positive energy that leads him to heal.
Why is it So Contradictory?
This also means Yuta came up with a cursed technique that helped him come up with a Rika. See, the Rika that follows Yuta in the present storyline is not a haunted spirit, to begin with, it’s a cursed technique that uses Rika’s cursed spirit. After Rika passed away, Yuta came up with a technique that brought him a Rika-like ghost that followed him.
It doesn’t have a connection to the original other than the name and her cursed spirit. And despite not being as strong as the original, the cursed technique is strong in many ways. Yuta uses her to store Cursed weapons, store his cursed energy. Moreover, this new Rika is sentient and has acted of her own will many times in the present timeline. Which makes her dangerous to Yuta’s enemies.
The pair has good chemistry, and no doubt this Rika helps Yuta move on from the original Rika’s death. But it does the question, has the original passed away? If there is a piece of her that remains in the land of the living, can she rest in the piece? We never get to this part as the events start to unfold, which shook the whole of Japan during the culling game. There are unexpected deaths and new entries while some characters are getting power-ups during the whole pseudo-competition arc.
The game started by Kenjaku is a long plan of his that he has been planning for centuries. He is also someone Sukuna used to know and even work with. He could be a sorcerer like Sukuna from the past or an evil spirit that had gained sentient like the ones we saw in the beginning. We will soon learn about his identity as the story of Jujutsu Kaisen goes on.
Also Read: Jujutsu Kaisen 0 Ranks As The 7th Biggest Anime Film Of All Time, Worldwide
