The Zenin Extinction: Catharsis or Cruelty?

It’s been nearly a week since the latest episode of Jujutsu Kaisen (or JJK, as it’s popularly called) aired. It is currently one of the most trending anime series, alongside titles like My Hero Academia, Black Clover, and Solo Leveling.

A Background of JJK

To provide some context, in the world of JJK, certain people are born with Cursed Energy. This energy is born from negative emotions like hatred, fear, anger, and grief. Most humans leak this energy unknowingly, like a leaky faucet. These energies pile up in places like schools, hospitals, and graveyards, eventually forming entities known as Cursed Spirits.

As the great OG Satoru Gojo puts it, Cursed Energy is like electricity. To make use of it, you require an “appliance”, like a fan for cooling or a microwave for heating. Jujutsu sorcerers are born with these appliances built in. Special techniques, like Gojo Satoru’s Six Eyes or Megumi’s Ten Shadows, are the appliances powered by the Cursed Energy they tap into.

In addition to this, there are several “hacks” that allow sorcerers to tap into more power:

Reverse Cursed Technique (RCT): Cursed Energy is negative (–) by default. By multiplying two negatives, sorcerers can create positive energy (+) to heal wounds. This hack famously saved Gojo during his fight with Toji.

Binding Vows: These are restrictions sorcerers place on themselves. Sacrificing something or creating risk, like exposing one’s technique, allows them to boost their power exponentially.

Heavenly Restriction: A rare case where a person is born with zero Cursed Energy. In return, they receive superhuman reflexes, speed, and strength. The best examples are Toji and Maki of the Zenin clan.

Current Setting: The Fall of the Zenin

Episode 8 of Season 3 is currently one of the highest-rated anime episodes of the year. It opens on a somber note, with one of the main characters, Maki Zenin, returning to her clan headquarters to retrieve Cursed Tools.

The world of JJK is not very different from our own. Despite having the ability to burn cities to a crisp or slice through dimensions, some sorcerers have little to no respect for ordinary people. When such people are born into a major sorcerer household without power, that apathy turns into hatred. That is the world Maki and her twin sister, Mai, were born into.

From an early age, they were treated harshly and that’s putting it mildly. They were treated as “curses” within the family. Maki had a defective Heavenly Restriction that gave her almost no Cursed Energy, while Mai had very limited reserves, allowing her to perform only one technique: Construction. She could create one small object per day, like a single bullet, which depleted her entirely.

Following the Shibuya Arc, Maki was burned alive by the disaster curse Jogo. She survived only because of her innate physical strength. After the death of the previous Zenin leader, his son, the delightfully creepy Naoya Zenin, was meant to take over the clan. In an ideal world, with Satoru Gojo around, it wouldn’t have made much difference. However, with Gojo sealed and Sukuna on a rampage, a fail-safe in the will made Megumi Fushiguro the new clan head. Megumi is the son of Toji, another “black sheep” born with zero Cursed Energy.

With Megumi at the helm, the clan elders felt the balance tipping against them. They decided to eliminate the sisters and kill Megumi, despite him inheriting the legendary Ten Shadows technique.

The Massacre Begins

When Maki reached her former residence, she didn’t notice the layers of dread settling over the house like a heavy blanket. Despite her mother’s pleading screams, she went to the storehouse. What awaited her was horrific: her twin lay covered in blood, and her father, Ogi, stood holding a blade. He blamed his daughters for his lost stature within the clan and wanted to extinguish them himself.

Maki tried to fight but lost an eye and was stabbed by her own father. In a final act of brutality, the sisters were thrown into a pit to be finished off by lower-level Cursed Spirits. This was the same fate intended for Toji Zenin years ago, but this time, the devil broke free.

In the Jujutsu world, twins are treated as a single entity. Because Mai held a small amount of Cursed Energy, Maki could never reach her full potential. Here, Mai drew the last straw. She absorbed all the Cursed Energy from both of them and chose to die. In her final act, she used the last of her life to construct a blade. When Maki woke up, she felt impossibly light. Only one phrase rang in her head: Destroy everything.

“Uma Thurman”–Style Catharsis

From this point on, Maki went full Kill Bill on the Kukuru unit, a group of soldiers born without Cursed Techniques who, despite being low-rank themselves, were complicit in her abuse. The fight felt like a blend of Kill Bill, Oldboy, and Daredevil. Initially, she punched and sliced her way through them like a hot knife through butter. The sequences echoed legendary hallway fights from cinema. There was blood and gore; she crushed them like rock over paper. She threw punches, and in some cases, simply kicked them in the balls. It was cathartic.

But this is where the backlash began. While Western audiences saw the episode as “god-level”, sections of the Japanese audience felt let down. To give context, the Uchiha massacre carried a deep sense of melancholy, while the extinction events in Attack on Titan felt mournful. In Maki’s case, her stoic expression paired with upbeat music made the episode resemble “K-pop Demon Hunters” to some domestic viewers.

The Elite and the Silent Accomplices

After the grunts, she faced the Hei group.

Nobuaki Zenin: The typical enforcer. He survived a few strikes longer than the others but eventually fell to Maki’s blade.

Chojuro Zenin: An elder who could manifest giant earthen fists. Against her superhuman speed, his power proved useless, and he was gutted.

Ranta Zenin: An exception. He wasn’t a sadist, but his silence made him complicit in the tyranny. He died trying to stop Maki, believing he had saved the clan. Maki didn’t correct his delusion, which may have been her one act of mercy.

Jinichi Zenin: Toji’s brother, built like a beast. His missile-like fists packed a punch, but even alongside the others, he couldn’t keep up. He was eventually beheaded.

Maki then encountered her mother. This moment was deliberately ambiguous. Her mother had been a silent spectator, complicit in the objectification and abuse of her daughters. In the end, she stabbed a wounded Naoya while he gloated about Maki not finishing him. Perhaps Maki left him alive for her mother to act. The mother died uttering the words, “I’m glad I gave birth to you.”

Because Naoya was killed by a non-sorcerer using a non-cursed weapon, he will later return as a Cursed Spirit to haunt Maki.

Final Thoughts

Maki killed them all. The sequence felt fresh and vibrant, showing a woman emerging from the ashes of her trauma. This was her catharsis, fulfilling her sister’s final words. In my opinion, the episode fully deserved its 9.8 rating, especially for the final act of absolutely pummeling Naoya.