Yuta Okkotsu

• 1. Introduction

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  Yuta Okkotsu is the teenage hero of Jujutsu Kaisen 0, a manga by Gege Akutami, and he is almost never alone. Beside him hovers the Cursed Spirit of Rika Orimoto, a childhood friend who died six years before the story opens. As children, the two had promised to marry when they grew up. That promise is the reason she is still here, and it is the reason she is dangerous.

  Yuta's story raises a few puzzles. Why did the author invent him as half of a pair before he pictured the manga ever being published? Why does a woman voice this teenage boy in the Japanese animation? And why did some critics later prefer him to the hero of the series that followed?

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• 2. A Combo Before a Series

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  Gege Akutami called Yuta and Rika "a combo", a pair that existed in his mind before he imagined the manga appearing in print. The name appealed to him for its sound. Its kanji also carry the meaning "One With Many Friends", which the author liked as well.

  The model for the pair was Naruto, the manga by Masashi Kishimoto. Naruto Uzumaki lives with a nine-tailed demon fox inside his body, and the two eventually become allies. Akutami said Yuta and the curse of Rika drew on that idea. Yuta likewise makes peace with Rika's curse, even though she keeps tormenting him throughout Jujutsu Kaisen 0.

  For Jujutsu Kaisen, Akutami wanted a different dynamic. Its hero, Yuji Itadori, is constantly mocked and victimized by the villain Ryomen Sukuna. Akutami had never intended the earlier story, Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School, to run as a serial, because Yuta's arc was its only subject. So when the larger series began, he invented Yuji for the lead role, and Yuta became a supporting character.

  The two heroes still share a good deal. Both are introduced to jujutsu, both suffer tragedy, both are naive, and both have faced death. Each also has to deal with an inner being of a different personality. One account notes that they "carry themselves very differently... Itadori is outgoing, where Yuta is more reserved". Yuta's first draft, as it turns out, looked quite different from the version readers know.

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• 3. The Road Not Taken

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  In Akutami's first plan, the person sent to recruit Yuta was Maki, not Satoru Gojo. The idea was a cast of sorcerers able to stop Yuta and Rika from killing other people. Yuta's relatives were also meant to appear, most notably his sister, whom Rika would take out of jealousy. Several changes reached the published version, yet Akutami believes the story should have kept its original concept.

  An editor named Yamanaka was drawn to the storyboard and spoke about it with other members of Shueisha. Akutami felt stressed by the expectations that followed. He also wanted Yuta to avoid resembling himself. As a tribute to Yamanaka, his former editor, he wrote Michizane Sugawara, a famous figure from Japanese history, in as an ancestor of both Yuta and Gojo.

  The scene in which Yuta is interrogated borrowed from the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. In that series, a group called SEELE communicates with Gendo Ikari. A different editor, Katayama, was surprised by a scene where Yuta comforts his friend Maki, and remarked that Yuta understood her feelings. Akutami revised the storyboard after that praise.

  Looking back, Akutami found Yuta's early design too similar to that of the sorcerer Megumi Fushiguro, and feared readers would confuse them. He changed Yuta's look for the main series. Yuta's white uniform was meant to reference problem students, and he still wears it at the end of the first manga. Akutami planned for him to wear white again on his return, hoping older readers would remember him. For the main series he also teased the possibility that Yuta had been romantically involved with another woman since Rika's death.

  When Akutami's father began reading the manga, the author started to wonder whether he had based Yuta on his father or on Megumi's father, Toji. The anime's director had his own ideas about where Yuta should appear.

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• 4. Screen and Voice

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  Sunghoo Park, who directed the first season of the anime and the prequel film, once planned to start the series with Yuta. In that format, the first three episodes would develop Yuji Itadori, then replace him with Okkotsu. The idea was scrapped. Yuta is absent from season one, but he received a brief cameo in the second introduction sequence. That sequence was made months before the studio MAPPA confirmed the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 film.

  Park said Yuta and Rika are the film's main focus, yet he also wanted to explore Yuta's bond with the supporting cast. The theme song by King Gnu centers its lyrics on Yuta and Rika. Among the fight scenes, Park's favorite in terms of animation is the one where Yuta calls Rika to face Geto.

  Megumi Ogata became Yuta's Japanese voice because Akutami chose her, following advice from Park and other staff. The author described the voice he imagined as "neutral, soft, and kind, and there is also a big emotional swing and head". Park was surprised that a young male character would be voiced by a woman. Ogata found Yuta one of the most relatable characters she had met, because his lonely childhood paralleled her own and both became sociable people. She also related to the way he keeps suffering and still overcomes his inner struggles.

  Ogata talked with Park to understand Yuta better. Fellow voice actors Yuichi Nakamura and Takahiro Sakurai felt a strong sense of "synchronization" in her performance. Hanazawa, who plays Rika, said she could feel Yuta's love through her scene partner's work, which made him lovable. Ogata returned the praise. She also recalled that voicing Yuta was difficult because of social distancing protocols.

  When Ogata returned to voice Yuta in the episode Execution, the fight was staged to fake Itadori's death. Even so, Yuta still had to stop Itadori's heart, so he had to calmly think through how. His monologue includes the line "He's fast," and Ogata read it as a fighter analyzing his opponent and searching for an opening. She noticed that many Jujutsu Kaisen characters narrate their fighting strategy, and that Yuta had become one of them.

  In the English dub, Yuta is voiced by Kayleigh McKee, who called the work "amazing, challenging, and so fun". She related to his lonely life and eventual growth, which helped her find the pitch the role required. She saw his story as a coming-of-age tale about learning to control Rika while making friends. McKee was new to voice work and enjoyed the fight scenes, since Yuta makes many kinds of sounds. The moments where he calms down and reaches out to Rika mattered most to her, because they show how kind he can be. A lead role this large made her nervous.

  An upcoming stage play will retell Jujutsu Kaisen 0 with Yuki Ogoe as Yuta. According to AmeBlo, he suited the part better than his earlier role as Kurapika from Hunter × Hunter, thanks to a different hair color and a school uniform that matched Akutami's view of how Yuta should look.

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• 5. Grief and Growth

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  Satoru Gojo takes charge of Yuta's case in Jujutsu Kaisen 0 and enrolls him at Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School. There Yuta befriends Panda, Maki Zen'in and Toge Inumaki. On his first mission, a wounded Maki pushes him to fight for his goals. He briefly controls Rika and swears to stop the curse. After months of training with Gojo and the other students, he learns to control his Cursed Energy and becomes a skilled swordsman, often sparring with Maki.

  Suguru Geto, a sorcerer on friendly terms with Gojo, is drawn by Rika's power. He attacks Yuta and his friends and wounds them severely. Enraged, Yuta unleashes Rika and promises to join her if she helps him defeat Geto. He overwhelms Geto, who escapes after losing an arm. As Gojo kills the escapees, a twist emerges. Rika never cursed Yuta. After her death, his desire to keep her alive accidentally turned her into a Curse Spirit. Now familiar with his powers, Yuta frees Rika, and she departs to the afterlife while he stays on as a sorcerer.

  The trade press read the story as a study in mourning. Polygon said its theme is Yuta's need to accept Rika's death. Anime News Network saw him as emotionally ambiguous in the way he handles his feelings for her afterward. Park considers Yuta a straightforward teenager whose loneliness comes from being chased by Rika's curse. Ogata surprised Park by giving him a sensitive characterization. She finds him attractive because he grows stronger through his contact with others.

  The Mary Sue wrote that Yuta becomes appealing as he stops wanting to kill himself and starts valuing his life. Gojo guides him toward controlling Rika and avoiding isolation, while Maki trains him to stand on his own. That training turns the passive newcomer into a hero, though he turns aggressive when Geto wounds his friends. His reluctance to accept Rika's death parallels Yuji's struggle to accept his grandfather's death. McKee was moved by Yuta's speech about being cherished by his classmates, and by the shift in his expression near the climax of the Geto fight.

  In December 2021, Akutami wrote a new chapter set after Rika's departure. Yuta's group takes part-time jobs in a store, where the sorcerer Utahime Iori is a customer. The animated film adds a scene in Kenya, where Yuta has lunch with one of Geto's former allies until Gojo interrupts.

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• 6. The Executioner Returns

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  For the early chapters of Jujutsu Kaisen, Yuta is only a name. Gojo mentions him to Yuji Itadori as one of the upper-level students at Jujutsu High who may one day surpass Gojo himself. On his return to Japan, Yuta saves a child from a spirit, using a replica he calls Rika. He then comes back to Jujutsu High as the appointed executioner of Yuji, who carries the vengeful spirit Ryomen Sukuna. Yuta also wants revenge on Sukuna for wounding his friend Inumaki.

  Yuta finds Yuji and his ally Choso fighting Naoya Zen'in, one of Maki's relatives. He easily defeats Yuji and Choso and pretends to kill Yuji. He tells Naoya to inform their superiors that Yuji is dead. Then he reveals himself as an ally to the newly revived Yuji. Critics later noted that his manner shifts from aggressive to friendly and casual, and that he keeps apologizing for the wounds he caused.

  Yuta reunites with Maki and other sorcerers to help Gojo against Kenjaku, who plans to curse Japanese civilians through the terrorist attack known as the Culling Game. Yuta enters the Sendai colony and defeats several reincarnated sorcerers. When Gojo is freed, Yuta and his allies must watch their mentor fight the unleashed Sukuna. After Gojo's death, Yuta decapitates Kenjaku following Kenjaku's battle with Takaba.

  Yuta then joins Yuji against Sukuna, who is using Megumi Fushiguro as a new vessel. He uses a Domain Expansion that carries all of his copied attacks. Together, Yuta and Yuji try to release Megumi, but Megumi's own rejection allows Sukuna to wound them severely. Yuta responds by using Kenjaku's body-swapping technique to trade bodies with the dead Gojo. He fights on while trying to control his mentor's powers. He cannot defeat Sukuna, and his copied power reaches its limit. Still, he stops Sukuna from using his Domain against Yuji, who then frees Megumi. Rika returns Yuta to his own body, and he reunites with his partners.

  The epilogue in the final volume shows Yuta as head representative of the Gojo clan, with children and grandchildren. In the sequel Jujutsu Kaisen Modulo, he is revealed to have married Maki some time after the Shinjuku showdown. After Maki died, he fell into a depression and grew weaker, and he died by 2080. In his last years he stayed close to his granddaughter Yuka. He promised that she would inherit his cursed ring, implied to hold a replica of Rika, once she became a full Jujutsu Sorcerer. He is also a playable character in the fighting game Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash, in his Jujutsu Kaisen 0 design.

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• 7. Fans and Awards

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  A Viz Media popularity poll in March 2021 ranked Yuta the eighth most popular character in the Jujutsu Kaisen franchise. A December 2021 poll by Weekly Shōnen Jump placed him eighth again.

  Marketing followed. To promote the series, Yuta's outfit was added to the NetEase video game Knives Out. Shibuya Scramble Figure released a figurine of Yuta holding Rika, and a replica of his sword with the shadows of his energy was also produced. A Jujutsu Kaisen 0 cafe event ran in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya from the 29th of August to the 27th of October 2024.

  After the film's release, /Film ranked Yuta its third best character, behind Rika and Panda. In May 2022, the manga artist Kenta Shinohara drew a tribute to Yuta alongside Yuji and Megumi. In the Anime Trending 2022 poll, he ranked eighth in the general Boy of the Year category. The 44th Anime Grand Prix put him second for Best Male Character, behind Tengen Uzui of Demon Slayer. At the 12th Newtype Anime Awards he reached sixth place in the same category.

  At the 7th Crunchyroll Anime Awards in 2023, Jaime Pérez de Sevilla won best Spanish voice actor for portraying Yuta, and Nicolás Artajo won best German voice actor. Pedro Alcântara was nominated for Portuguese.

  The finale of the anime's second season brought a new burst of fan praise. Viewers admired Yuta's redesign, which made him look far stronger, along with the animation of his scenes, and he became a hot topic on social media. In January 2024, McKee posted an "apology form" to Yuta on social media in response to many negative fan reactions, and asked fans to sign more of them. In February 2024, his Domain Expansion against Sukuna appeared in the manga. According to EpicStream, fans nicknamed it "Unlimited Blade Works", after a dimension from the visual novel Fate/stay Night. In that story, the hero Shirou Emiya and his future self, Archer, draw huge numbers of swords as they fight with everything they have.

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• 8. Critics and Scholars

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  The Los Angeles Times compared Yuta and Rika to Marvel's Venom, since Yuta must control Rika's power to fight properly. Polygon likened his energy in battle to Batman, and critics judged the film's fights superior to most earlier work by MAPPA, such as The God of High School. Daryl Harding, writing for Yatta-Tachi and Bleeding Cool, found Yuta an appealing shōnen hero. Anime News Network called his traits a common trend because he grows early. Others thought Rika made him overpowered and less relatable. The Digital Fix found his story darker than Yuji's.

  On voices, some media praised Megumi Ogata for making Yuta stand out, particularly when he turns from calm to aggressive. They compared her calm delivery to her early work as Shinji Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion. The Fandom Post compared Kayleigh McKee with Spike Spencer, who voiced Shinji in the English dub, and wondered whether that was deliberate. HITC praised both actresses, while Pop Culture Maniacs thought McKee made him sound childish rather than traumatized. Real Sound praised Ogata's season 2 finale performance for combining his caring treatment of a young girl with the cold attitude of announcing he would kill Yuji.

  A paper titled "Analysis of the Visual Meaning of the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 Film Poster", by Citra Agustina of the Institut Teknologi Batam, examines the film's poster. It notes Yuta's sword, his tense expression and the cursed energy around him, with Rika at his side. It adds that the other Jujutsu High students signal that he is not alone. In a Jungian study of mourning and burial rituals, Hiroko Sakata linked Yuta and Rika to the god Hiruko, the oni Katako and the child K, reading them as modernized Japanese myths. She also compared them to Tanjiro and Nezuko Kamado of Demon Slayer, who likewise aim to control an oni element and become fighters.

  Yuta's return to Jujutsu Kaisen surprised critics with its irony, since the former protagonist was sent to kill the current one. James Beckett of Anime News Network had looked forward to it, because he found Yuta more compelling than Yuji, who felt generic by the end of season 2. Anime Hunch said fans were relieved to learn he was faking Yuji's death at Gojo's request. Nijimen found the team-up against Sukuna engaging because the two lead characters come from the two manga Akutami wrote. Once the series ended, GameRant argued that Yuji was not a fitting main character, since Yuta and Gojo overshadowed him. Kevin Cormack of Anime News Network praised Yuta's arc as the best self-contained story Akutami wrote, though he criticized the little screen time Yuta gets in the final arc. GameRant reported fans satisfied that the epilogue gave him a family with Maki. One piece of unfinished business remains. Yuta's connection to the late Sugawara no Michizane was kept vague, and Geekmi suggested it might matter for the series in the future.

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