Jujutsu Kaisen: Yuji Itadori (ESFJ)

Yuji Itadori from Jujutsu Kaisen is widely accepted as an ISFP, or at the very least, an SFP. However, we couldn’t actually find any significant indication that Yuji is an Fi user. In fact, the evidence seems to point to him having Fe/Ti. We certainly considered ISFP and ESFP, given the popularity of those theories. We also considered ESTP and ENFJ for Yuji Itadori, before finally landing on ESFJ. Of course, we’re well aware that calling Yuji Itadori an ESFJ is likely to stir up controvery. Please approach this article with an open mind. If you’re interested, we’ve written other Jujutsu Kaisen articles as well, which you can find here.

Fe:

But then I thought, everybody’s gonna die. so I want to make sure that the people I know all have a chance at a proper death. Not that I really understand it.”

“No way! I’m coming. I may not know those two that well, but they’re friends. I have to help.”

“It was someone’s dying request of me, and I don’t care about the details. I just want to save who I can.”

“Dying wish? You’re saying you’ll fight curses just because someone else told you to do that? Insufficient.” – Principal to Itadori

“You rock, Fushiguro. You’re such a pro! Thanks to you we can rescue some people and save ourselves!”

“Whatever this thing is we’re facing, it disgusts me to the core.”

“Yeah, but we have a lot in common, so I think we’re going to be good friends.”

While Fi dominants (like ISFPs) are self-referencing when it comes to their values, Yuji Itadori does the opposite. For the entire show, Yuji’s overarching value and mission is to save people and guide them to proper deaths. However, he gets this value directly from his grandpa, and openly admits that. Of course, an Fi user could adopt a value from someone else, but Itadori is actually shown struggling to produce a personal motivation for his action, that doesn’t directly reference his grandpa’s dying wish. The principal of Jujutsu High School calls this out as insufficient, and demands more from Itadori. He forces Itadori to make it about himself, so that he couldn’t blame anyone else in the end.

Generally speaking, other people are the primarily motivation for Yuji’s actions. Whenever he acts impulsive, it’s because lives are on the line, compelling him to action. (One doesn’t have to have Se or be a perceiver to be quick to act. In fact, confident extraverts can be quite impulsive). However, whenever Yuji is explaining the motivation for his actions, he never expresses a value in a personal way, like a deeply held belief or an abstract principle to live by. Rather, he’ll makes a statement which essentially shows that the need to help others is compelling him to act. In other words, his primary focus is external or objective, making him not only an extravert, but an Extraverted Feeler (Fe).

Yuji is highly empathetic and emotionally open. Of course, other types can be empathetic, but we specifically see Yuji being easily affected by the emotional well-being of complete strangers. He’s quick to empathize with the mother of the convict, wanting to bring out his dead body so she can accept his death. He’s also quick to connect with Junpei, and expresses very little judgement toward him, in spite of what Junpei ends up doing. Instead, Yuji focuses on trying to figure out what Junpei was thinking and what led him to that point rather than judging him based on a personal value system.

Yuji’s strong point is in relating to others, which why he’s able to connect to Junpei so quickly. (Remember, Junpei was a loner and held a cynical perspective towards others.) However, Yuji is able to quickly insert himself into Junpei’s life, and influence him to some degree. He finds their common ground, and proclaims that they’ll be good friends. Generally speaking, Yuji is not at all picky about whom he calls his friends. He doesn’t have to be close to them for him to feel like there’s a shared bond, and feel emotionally obligated towards them. Yuji essentially expresses this when he tells Megumi that, “I may not know those two that well, but they’re friends. I have to help.”

Itadori naturally validates others, making them feel important and appreciated. There are multiple examples of this. For instance, he explains his logical reason for sticking with the Occult Club, but then goes on to affirm that he really likes the club, saying that it has a “great vibe”. In other another instance, when Fushiguro alleviates him and Nobara’s fears about not being able to find their way out of the detention center, Itadori says, “You rock, Fushiguro. You’re such a pro! Thanks to you we can rescue some people and save ourselves!” Of course, he also feeds into Gojo’s ego, referring to him as the strongest.

Si:

“Consuming Sukuna is something only I can do. So even if I could escape my death sentence and run away from this responsibility, then someday I’d be eating food, taking a bath, or reading manga, and the moment I stopped to think, I’d go ‘Oh I bet that right now, somewhere out there, someone is dying because of Sukuna, but that doesn’t concern me. It’s certainly not my fault.’ You expect me to tell myself that? Well I refuse to do that. I don’t know how I’ll feel when I’m dying, but I won’t regret the way I lived!”

“Hold on a minute. Let’s take this seriously. Curses are dangerous, you know.”

“This is why I told you! I said it’s dangerous to go alone, and you need to take it seriously!”

“I’m afraid of dying. Was I afraid of it before? Didn’t feel like I was. Didn’t cry because I was scared. Just felt a little sad, but my Grandpa’s death and the death I’m facing now aren’t really any different.”

“If I quit now, I’ll be having this nightmare for a week.”

“If only I hadn’t picked up that finger back then. If only I hadn’t eaten it. If only… If only… Stop it! Don’t think!”

Itadori is not living for the present in spite of the potential future consequences, like an Se user does. Rather, Itadori motivates himself by thinking about the future consequences of his actions. For instance, when the principal forces Itadori to produce a personal motivation for becoming a Jujutsu sorcerer, Itadori describes an ordinary scenario that could a play out a year from now. (Quote at the top of this section.) He essentially explains that he wouldn’t be able to live with himself then, knowing that someone out there was dying because of Sukuna. Similarily, in the middle of a fight, when Megumi tells him to run away, Itadori says, “If I quit now, I’ll be having this nightmare for a week.”

Itadori approaches dangerous situations seriously. While he can certainly act when the moment requires him to, he doesn’t typically leap head first into situations if given the option not to. For instance, he tells Nobara (during their first assignment) to slow down and take it seriously, because curses are dangerous. Furthermore, Itadori acts similarily in more ordinary Jujutsu sorcerer tasks. For instance, when he sees Junpei sitting outside alone, Itadori wants to go talk to him, but hesitates because he’s not sure he’s allowed. He argues with himself briefly before finally deciding to go talk to Junpei regardless of the rules.

Itadori focuses on the past often. The obvious example is the death of his grandpa. Of course, many would think about the recent passing of a loved one. However, Itadori doesn’t do so in a sense of mourning. Rather, he keeps replaying or reciting his grandpa’s last words, incorporating those directly into his values. Of course, after he and Nobara survive their first assignment, he throws his past words back in her face. In addition, Itadori is shown consciously comparing current situations to past situations that have matching details, like comparing a potential death situation he was facing to his Grandpa’s death.

Ne:

“I just thought I’d be able to pull off thunder or fire or a power bomb or something.”

“This sucks big time. I wanted to pull off a spirit gun, or bankai, or a rasengan, or a…”

Itadori’s Ne surfaces in more subtle ways, since it is merely his tertiary function. Ne is involved whenever he’s speculating, or considering future scenario. Therefore, anytime Itadori is considering consequences (like those mentioned in the Si section), Ne is at play. However, beyond that, Itadori is also shown to be extremely disappointed when Gojo says that he can’t used cursed techniques. He references multiple different fictional techniques that he had been hoping were possible for him to do.

In addition, Itadori is very inquisitive. He asks a lot of questions whenever confronted with anything new, like when first meeting Fushiguro. The questions span from asking why the finger is so dangerous to asking if it tastes good. Itadori doesn’t hesitate to inquire about anything he doesn’t understand.

Ti:

“But then I thought, everybody’s gonna die, so I want to make sure that the people I know all have a chance at a proper death. Not that I really understand it.”

“I still don’t get all this stuff about curses.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. I’ve never seen ghosts or weird stuff like this before.”

“I’ll accept it, Mahito. I am you. I really wanted to reject you. I wanted to pretend I didn’t understand what you said. But that’s different now. I’ll just kill you, and if you’re ever reborn again as a new curse, I’ll kill you then too. Change your name and appearance, I’ll still kill you again and again. I don’t need meaning or a reason anymore. Maybe there will be some meaning to be found from my actions several centuries after I’m dead. And I’m sure that I’m just one giant cog in the wheel. And I’ll keep on killing curses until I rust away, because that seems to be my role in this war.”

Itadori proves to be astoundingly accepting of the new reality of curses and sorcerers that he finds himself in. However, he does demonstrates a constant need to rationalize the answers he’s given, to determine if they make sense. He’s not naturally very skeptical, so he accepts the answers fairly easily, but he still needs to process it all logically. When first meeting Fushiguro, he’s often shown making statements like “Yeah, that’s make sense” or expressing that he doesn’t understand. Although, while a lack of understanding does bother him (which he’ll express), he doesn’t allow himself to get hung up on that for too long.

A specific sign of inferior Ti can be seen in the value he adopts from his grandpa. He fixates on the need to give others a chance at a “proper death”. However, the catch is that he doesn’t actually understand what that means. He adopts it as a core value extremely quickly, and feels bothered that he doesn’t understand what it means, but he doesn’t feel the need to understand it personally before adopting it. This both demonstrates inferior Ti, and contradicts the prominent theory of him being an ISFP, or an Fi dominant. Any dominant introverted judger (Ti or Fi) would be unable to accept a value that they themselves didn’t personally understand.