Cursed Energy, Techniques and Domains: A Spoiler-Free JJK Glossary

Jujutsu Kaisen throws a lot of vocabulary at you fast. Characters casually mention grades, techniques, curtains and vows in the middle of a fight, and the show trusts you to keep up. This glossary covers the basics you'll hear in the first season or so. No plot twists, no "who beats whom," just the rules of the world.

A quick note on names: English translations vary a little between the anime subtitles, the manga and fan sites, so each term below also gets its Japanese name.

The big idea: curses come from people

Season 1's official introduction lays it out bluntly: hardship, regret and shame, the negative feelings people produce, turn into curses that lurk in everyday life, and in the worst cases they lead people to their deaths. And only a curse can exorcise a curse.

That last line is the hinge of the whole series. Sorcerers don't fight curses with holy water or prayer. They fight them with the same dark energy curses are made of.

Cursed energy (juryoku, 呪力)

Cursed energy is the fuel. It comes from negative emotions, and according to CBR's explainer, ordinary people leak it constantly without noticing. Sorcerers are trained to keep it from leaking, build it up and use it for attack and defense. Left alone, CBR says, it's volatile and hard to control, a bit like static electricity, which is why sorcerers channel it through techniques.

Curses, or cursed spirits (jurei, 呪霊)

Curses are beings made of cursed energy. They're invisible to most people, and CBR notes they tend to gather where lots of people feel lots of bad things at once, such as schools and hospitals. They range from mindless monsters to creatures that can hold a conversation. The official site's profiles of Season 1's major curses show how specific their origins can be: one is a curse born of the earth, one is born from humanity's fear of forests, and one is a curse that originates from humans themselves.

Jujutsu sorcerers (jujutsushi, 呪術師)

Sorcerers are people who can see curses and control their own cursed energy. Yuji and friends train at Tokyo Jujutsu High (its full Japanese name, 東京都立呪術高等専門学校, translates roughly to Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu Technical College), which has a sister school in Kyoto. The two schools face off in the Goodwill Event (京都姉妹校交流会), which takes up a big chunk of Season 1. Behind the scenes, the official site says assistant managers handle support work: driving sorcerers to the job, setting up barriers and directing the mission.

Not every sorcerer is on the side of the angels. The official character profiles use the term curse user (jusoshi, 呪詛師) for sorcerers who use their power to harm ordinary people.

Grades

Both sorcerers and curses are ranked by grade. The official anime site's Season 1 profiles list grades for the Tokyo students and staff. The smaller the number, the higher the rank, which is why the profiles call Megumi a prodigy for entering school at Grade 2. Listed from the bottom up:

• Grade 4: Maki Zen'in
• Grade 3: Nobara Kugisaki
• Semi-Grade 2: Panda
• Grade 2: Megumi Fushiguro, the only first-year allowed to take solo missions
• Semi-Grade 1: Toge Inumaki
• Grade 1: Kento Nanami
• Special Grade: Satoru Gojo

Special Grade sits above everything else, and the label isn't only for people. The official site calls Sukuna's finger a special grade cursed object (tokkyu jubutsu, 特級呪物), and powerful curses get the same tag.

Cursed techniques (jutsushiki, 術式)

A cursed technique turns raw cursed energy into a specific ability. Many run in families. CBR points out that sorcerer clans pass techniques down through generations, and the official profiles offer plenty of examples:

• Megumi uses a shikigami technique that has been passed down in the Zen'in clan, one of the "Big Three" sorcerer families.
• Toge descends from a line of Cursed Speech users, whose words become weapons. To avoid cursing anyone by accident, he only talks in rice ball fillings.
• Mai Zen'in has the Construction technique, which builds matter from nothing using her own cursed energy.
• Noritoshi Kamo, from the main line of the Kamo clan (another of the Big Three), fights by manipulating his own blood.

Shikigami, by the way, are summoned servants or familiars bound to a sorcerer by cursed energy.

Reverse cursed technique (hanten jutsushiki, 反転術式)

Most cursed energy is about harm. The reverse cursed technique flips it. The official site describes Shoko Ieiri, the school doctor, as reversing cursed energy to produce positive energy, which lets her repair other people's bodies.

Cursed objects, cursed tools and cursed corpses

These three sound alike but mean different things.

• Cursed objects (jubutsu, 呪物) are items soaked in curses. The big one is Sukuna's finger. The official site explains that Sukuna, the King of Curses, lived more than a thousand years ago and that his remains became cursed objects that attract other curses.
• Cursed tools (jugu, 呪具) are weapons. Maki was born into an elite sorcerer family with no cursed energy and can't even see curses, so she fights as a cursed tool specialist.
• Cursed corpses (jugai, 呪骸) are dolls with curses sealed inside. Principal Yaga makes them, and the official site describes Panda as a mutated cursed corpse that speaks human language. Yes, really.

Barriers and curtains (kekkai, 結界; tobari, 帳)

Barrier techniques create enclosed spaces. The one you'll hear about most is the curtain, or tobari, which the official site lists among the jobs support staff handle on missions. Barriers matter a lot in this series, and that pays off in bigger ways later.

Binding vows (shibari, 縛り)

A binding vow is a deal made with cursed energy. CBR describes it as more like a contract than a technique: you can make one with yourself or with someone else, and you only gain something by giving something up. A classic self-imposed example is explaining your own technique to an opponent. You hand them information, and in exchange the technique gets stronger. Break a vow you made with yourself and you lose what you gained. Vows between two parties can carry much harsher penalties.

Heavenly restriction (tenyo jubaku, 天与呪縛)

This is a vow you don't choose. According to CBR, it's imposed at birth, restricting one part of a person and amplifying another. The official anime site uses the term for one of the Kyoto students, and you'll see exactly what it means when you meet him.

Black Flash (kokusen, 黒閃)

Season 1's episode 19 is named after this one. Anime News Network's review describes it as a feat of strength and reflex where cursed energy lands within an absurdly tiny fraction of a second of a punch, strong enough to distort reality around the hit. When it shows up on screen, you'll know.

Domain Expansion (ryōiki tenkai, 領域展開)

The showstopper. CBR's explainer calls it an advanced barrier technique: a sorcerer uses cursed energy to project their innate domain, a kind of inner landscape, into the real world and wraps it in a barrier with their cursed technique built in. Inside, the user's attacks are guaranteed to hit. Only the most skilled sorcerers and curses can pull it off, and it's costly.

A few related terms:

• Domain clash: when two domains collide, the more refined one usually wins out.
• Simple Domain: a defensive technique that makes a small barrier around the user to fend off a domain's sure-hit effect.
• Incomplete domain: a domain that lacks the barrier or the built-in technique, so the sure-hit guarantee isn't there.

If the rules still feel slippery, don't worry. The show explains domains piece by piece over several fights, and the visuals do a lot of the explaining for you.

Cheat sheet

• Negative emotions make cursed energy.
• Cursed energy makes curses.
• Sorcerers use cursed energy to exorcise curses.
• Cursed techniques shape that energy into specific powers.
• Vows trade a cost for a boost.
• Domains are the endgame move.