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Geto Suguru’s Cursed Spirit Manipulation In Jujutsu Kaisen Explained

Geto's cursed spirit manipulation is a rare technique which might seem easy to understand at first glance. But it has a few complexities of its own.

Geto Sugru is a “villain” for the books. However, he is much more than his appearance tells, very literally. Once the strongest shaman and best friends with Gojo Satoru, his tragic story is fascinating.

As unique as his thoughts and goals are, so is his cursed technique as well. Cursed Spirit Manipulation is a rare technique in the jujutsu world. In fact, Toji spared Geto because of his technique. If you think about it, Geto was spared twice in the same lifetime. Well, we know where that led us, don’t we? *sighs in the Culling Game*

Geto’s technique might seem easy at first glance. But, there are a few nitty-gritty about this technique we should keep in mind! So, without wasting any more time or words, let’s cut to it!

What is Cursed Spirit Manipulation?

Cursed Spirit Manipulation gives Geto the ability to control or manipulate curses after exorcising them.

Kenjaku using Curse Manipulation on Mahito at Shibuya
Kenjaku using Curse Manipulation on Mahito at Shibuya

To control curses and use their cursed energy, Geto first has to exorcise them. This exorcism ritual involves a ball that absorbs the curses in it. Once the ball absorbs the curse, Geto consumes and ingests it. There is no limit to the number of curses a shaman could ingest.

Once this exorcism is done, these curses are stored in Geto’s body at his disposal. He can release any number of them at once to fulfill a purpose. He can also use the Maximum Uzumaki, but more on that later. The cursed energy of a shaman with Curse Manipulation is different.

So far, there are only a couple of conditions surrounding the Cursed Spirit Manipulation technique. First, the curse should not be in a master-servant relationship. We saw this take place in the HIdden Inventory arc. Geto could not take in Toji’s cursed spirit “weapon cache.” According to Akutami’s notes, Toji and the curse already had a master-servant relationship; hence Geto’s attack was repelled.

Geto's attack against Toji is repelled
Geto’s attack against Toji is repelled

However, it is not clear how exactly did Toji form a master-servant bond with a curse.

Secondly, in the same scene from chapter 73, we come to know another fact. There are no conditions to ingesting a curse when the difference of levels with a shaman is one or two levels.

This statement means that there must be some conditions when the shaman takes in a spirit on the same level. For example, we saw fake Geto (or Kenjaku) ingest Mahito in the Shibuya Incident. But, we still don’t know what conditions made it possible.

Curse Manipulation
About rankings

We also don’t know what happens to the curses that a shaman ingested once they die.

What is the Curse Manipulation Technique: Maximum Uzumaki?

Coming to the Maximum technique, Uzumaki. Maximum techniques are like extensions along with domain expansion. These techniques form an attack by saturating a huge amount of cursed energy in one go. Fake Geto called them a supreme art.

The Maximum Uzumaki attack is the same. It combines all the curses Geto absorbed into one attack with super condensed cursed energy. We saw the Maximum Uzumaki attack twice in Jujutsu Kaisen yet. However, both of these uses were completely different from each other.

Geto's Maximum Uzumaki against Yuta
Geto’s Maximum Uzumaki against Yuta

First, in Jujutsu Kaisen 0, Geto used Maximum Uzumaki against Okkotsu. He combined 4,461 curses in his possession into one. But, this attack was a failure against a special grade curse like Rika. The reason behind his failure is that Geto used Maximum Uzumaki to recycle lower-grade curses. Thus, this attack did not unleash the true nature of Uzumaki.

The second instance happened at Shibuya. This instance is perhaps even more important than the first one. Fake Geto revealed the actual power of Uzumaki. When curses of semi-grade 1 or higher are used for Maximum Uzumaki, it extracts the cursed techniques. Thus, it allows the shaman to use both his innate and extracted technique as his own.

After he ingested Mahito, Kenjaku used Uzumaki to extract the Idle Transfiguration technique. This extraction was a pivotal step in Kenjaku’s true plans. He used Idle Transfiguration with the help of Tengen’s barrier on several non-shamans across Japan.

Kenjaku could use Idle Transfiguration after ingesting Mahito
Kenjaku could use Idle Transfiguration after ingesting Mahito

This technique is highly effective and powerful. However, in the fanbook, Akutami mentioned that cursed energy refined by Maximum Uzumaki doesn’t return to the shaman. So it possibly means that Uzumaki drains a lot of cursed energy out of the user.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Cursed Spirit Manipulation

As stated in the introduction, Geto was once the strongest alongside Gojo. Without a doubt, a lot of Geto’s strength can be credited to his powerful technique. But what makes this technique so powerful?

Strengths

Cursed Spirit Manipulation’s biggest advantage is its range. It gives an array of attacks to a shaman without so much as lifting a finger. The shaman can unleash as many curses as they want against their opponent with different attacks. Even if their opponent defeats these curses, they can simply put out other ones.

Additionally, the use of curses is versatile and at the shaman’s disposal. A few examples of this versatility are Geto using the curses to fight, bind, and even fly. This factor gives the shaman an edge over other techniques.

Geto using a curse for flight
Geto using a curse for flight

As mentioned before, there are no limits mentioned for the number of curses a shaman can store. Even in Jujutsu Kaisen 0 itself, Geto had close to 6,500 curses. Moreover, the shaman can take in any curse without any conditions other than ranking.

But, the biggest advantage of Curse Manipulation might be the Maximum Uzumaki attack. It has a huge potential to provide unimaginable strength to the shaman. Besides using up a lot of cursed energy, there are no apparent side effects or demerits to this attack.

However, even this near-perfect technique has some downsides.

Weaknesses

Despite all curses being a target of Curse Manipulation, there are two exceptions. First, as we saw already, is that the curse should not be in a master-servant relationship. Secondly, this technique only works on natural curses. What this condition means is that the shaman cannot consume a shikigami. Any curse made out of a technique cannot be ingested.

Since there is a condition of ranks, Geto mostly stored only curses of grade 2 or lesser. There are important implications of this weakness. Grade 2 or lesser curses are puny when it comes to grade 1 or higher shamans. A shaman such as Gojo can defeat them with a flick of his finger.

Most curses Geto had were grade 2 or less
Most curses Geto had were grade 2 or less

Another thing is the effect of consuming a higher grade spirit. What are the conditions under which a shaman can consume a special grade spirit? We, of course, don’t know that yet.

A largely ignored disadvantage of Curse Manipulation might have been Geto’s last straw. The mental toll of consuming curses is incredible. Geto’s spiral gave us some awareness of this side-effect. It must be tough for a shaman to keep consuming curses.

A few prerequisites

Despite all its strengths and weaknesses, a shaman using this technique has to be clever. It is a basic fact that a shaman can employ curses only when they think fast and well. Even Kenjaku’s use of techniques against Yuji at Shibuya was great. It told us that a shaman has to be really perceptive to use this technique to its fullest.

In fact another fight that gives a great insight is from chapter 68. Geto was up against a shikgami user to protect Riko.

Since Geto could not ingest shikigami in this fight, he had to think of a different way to win. His opponent thought that Geto would not go for close combat. But, Geto saw through this notion and did the opposite. He used his curse as a decoy and engaged in close combat. Thus, other than intellect, the shaman must also have physical strength.

Geto vs. shikigami user
Geto vs. shikigami user

Well, that was all there is to know about Geto’s technique! So what do you think of it? Is it a strong technique? And did you know everything about it? Let us know in the comments below!

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