Jujutsu Kaisen blasted onto the manga scene in 2018 and has made waves in the anime and manga community ever since. It's an incredibly popular series that's already got over 50 million manga copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time. But to what, exactly, does Jujutsu Kaisen owe its massive success? For starters, it's a shonen series, a genre that historically brings in large numbers of fans.
But more specifically, it's got a strong cast of characters with impressive fighting skills that are mostly unique to each character. Megumi Fushiguro and Nobara Kugisaki make up two of the three main protagonists in the series, and each of them has a stylish and impressive cursed technique at their disposal. Comparing Nobara's Straw Doll technique and Megumi's Ten Shadows technique highlights both their strengths and weaknesses.
10 Nobara's Straw Doll Technique Has Long-Distance Projectile Utility
Shooting nails with cursed energy by striking them with her hammer is Nobara's bread and butter, allowing her decent mid-to-long range utility in battle. Nobara is known for having immense cursed energy reserves that she's quite skilled in using, meaning she could potentially be a proverbial machine gun if she has enough nails with her. Furthermore, Nobara can use the nails both against opponents and the environment, as evidenced in her battle against Momo Nishiyama. The long-distance utility of Nobara's Straw Doll technique allows a wide range of creativity and resourcefulness where Nobara's imagination is the only limit.
9 Megumi's Ten Shadows Technique Doesn't Require Tools To Use
Unlike Nobara's Straw Doll technique, Megumi needs no tools to activate the Ten Shadows technique. Instead, Megumi is limited by his cursed energy reserves and which shikigami he has under his control. The Ten Shadows technique allows jujutsu sorcerers to stockpile up to ten shikigami that they can summon via special hand-weaved shadow puppets. To gain a new shikigami, the user must successfully perform a special exorcism ritual and defeat the summoned shikigami. Once shikigami are under the user's control, they can be summoned at any time if the user has the requisite cursed energy.
8 Nobara's Straw Doll Technique Can Be Detonated Like Explosives Via Hairpin
Once Nobara's nails are stuck inside an opponent or object, she can focus her cursed energy on the nails and detonate them like mini cursed energy bombs by using the Hairpin extension technique. Extension techniques are attacks, spells, or abilities that are derived from a jujutsu sorcerer's innate techniques.
Accordingly, extension techniques allow jujutsu sorcerers to evolve and sharpen their innate technique's natural abilities. Nobara's ability to detonate nails with cursed energy makes her long-range utility more dangerous.
7 Megumi's Ten Shadows Technique Has Wide Strategic Utility
Since the Ten Shadows technique allows up to ten different shikigami to be controlled, Megumi has great strategic utility with deploying his shikigami. Over the course of the series, Megumi has used shikigami intelligently according to battle conditions. Nue, for example, is an airborne shikigami that Megumi has used both defensively to protect himself and offensively to take airborne enemies off guard. He's also used his Divine Dogs as trackers to locate enemies or allies, and he's used the Great Serpent shikigami to immobilize opponents.
6 Nobara's Straw Doll Technique Can Deal Remote Damage Via Resonance
Nobara's Resonance extension technique is perhaps the strongest aspect of her Straw Doll technique. Resonance allows limitless long-distance utility since it allows remote damage. As long as Nobara has a connection with her target, whether it be a piece of their body or something associated with them, Nobara can use her straw doll as a proxy for her enemy. Striking the straw doll with her hammer and nails inflicts the same damage upon her opponent, no matter how far away they are, meaning she can attack an enemy even after they've abandoned the battle.
5 Megumi's Ten Shadows Technique Allows Defeated Shikigami To Pass On Their Power
To date, Megumi has lost one of his Divine Dog shikigami and his Great Serpent shikigami. Once a shikigami is defeated in battle, it cannot be summoned again, but it can pass on its remaining power to other shikigami. This was evidenced when Megumi's white Divine Dog was defeated by a Finger Bearer and passed on its power to the black Divine Dog, making it stronger and more ferocious. Another handy skill is the ability to combine shikigami into one, such as when Megumi combined Nue and Toad in his fight against Aoi Todo.
4 Nobara's Straw Doll Technique Is Compatible With Black Flash
Black Flash is an elusive phenomenon that no jujutsu sorcerer is capable of using at will, not even Satoru Gojo. When Black Flash is successfully enabled, it increases a jujutsu sorcerer's normal attack to the power of 2.5, making it extremely powerful.
Since the execution of Black Flash is so specific, only the most skilled and intuitive jujutsu sorcerers are able to achieve it. During Nobara and Yuji Itadori's fight against the Death Paintings Eso and Kechizu, Nobara cleverly used her own body and the Death Painting's blood technique to deal massive Black Flash damage to Kechizu.
3 Megumi's Ten Shadows Technique Is Compatible With Domain Expansion
While it's yet to be seen whether Nobara will master Domain Expansion, Megumi has at least shown an incomplete version of Domain Expansion: Chimera Shadow Garden, the Domain Expansion exclusive to the Ten Shadows technique. Chimera Shadow Garden's power hasn't been fully explored, but what has been revealed is truly impressive. When Chimera Shadow Garden is active, the field floods with thick fluid shadows that can be manipulated at will to manifest multiple shikigami. Additionally, this Domain Expansion also allows advanced manipulation of all available shadows, making it quite diverse.
2 Nobara's Straw Doll Technique Is An Innate Technique & Unique To Her Only
A key difference between Nobara's Straw Doll technique and Megumi's Ten Shadows technique is their source. While the Ten Shadows technique is an inherited technique, the Straw Doll technique is an innate technique, meaning it's unique to Nobara only. The Ten Shadows technique has been passed down in the Zenin family of jujutsu sorcerers. Inherited techniques have the disadvantage of being taught, studied, and analyzed, leading to potential counters. But an innate technique is known only to its user, making it more secretive in nature and much more unpredictable.
1 Megumi's Ten Shadows Technique Impressed Sukuna, A Legendary Jujutsu Sorcerer
Since the Ten Shadows technique received praise from the one and only Ryoumen Sukuna, it's highly likely that it outclasses the Straw Doll technique. Sukuna was once an immensely powerful jujutsu sorcerer whose powers led him to become a cursed spirit after death. He's been interested in Megumi ever since witnessing his Ten Shadows technique and even commented that the technique's potential was being wasted since Megumi hasn't harnessed its full power. In fact, several high-level jujutsu sorcerers have commented on the Ten Shadows' limitless potential, meaning there's still a lot to be explored.