Jujutsu Kaisen is a mega-hit shonen series that's right on par with other heavyweight titles like Demon Slayer and My Hero Academia, and they live up to the original shonen big three not just with their excellent combat systems but also their stellar character designs. Some characters are almost like a reincarnation of Ichigo, Naruto or Sasuke.
In some ways, the cheerful Itadori Yuji is like a tweaked Kurosaki Ichigo of Bleach fame, while Megumi is the new Sasuke and Nobara is a better Haruno Sakura. So, where does that leave supporting characters like the cursed weapon-wielding Maki Zenin? She can be compared not to Sakura or Nami but to Killua Zoldyck, the co-star of Hunter x Hunter. They actually have plenty in common.
How Maki & Killua Broke Tradition For The Better
Some shonen series have a theme of strict tradition and the characters' relationship to those rigid rules and norms. This is especially true in the dark, cursed world of Jujutsu Kaisen, where conservative leaders and influential sorcerer families make the rules and heavily punish all rulebreakers and dissenters. The uncompromising Kyoto dean, Gakuganji Yoshinobu, follows precedent and wants Yuji dead for being Sukuna's vessel, and the traditionalist Zenin family is even more severe.
Little of this family has been seen so far in the Jujutsu Kaisen anime so far, but flashbacks concerning Zenin Maki in particular make it clear that growing up among the Zenins comes with serious baggage. Girls are looked down upon as a rule and are forbidden from practicing sorcery, but despite that and not having natural cursed energy of her own, Maki vowed to succeed as a sorcerer anyway. This makes her tense and defensive in the main JJK anime and the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 animated movie, but it just might pay off.
Hunter x Hunter's own co-star Killua Zoldyck can relate to that, and Maki's character arc feels like a more fleshed-out version of Killua's own. Killua's strained relationship with his reclusive, all-assassin family is mostly a personal affair for him, while Maki's story thematically ties into the entire JJK universe, but otherwise, there's plenty of overlap. Killua deeply resented his family's brutal and eccentric ways, and he didn't want to be defined by the Zoldyck family's harsh rules and rigid traditions. So, he broke away from them to become his own man, making up his own rules as he went. That may be what inspired him to befriend the carefree, free-spirited Gon Freecss, since Killua saw in Gon what he wanted for himself. Tradition isn't what Killua or Maki need -- only self-sufficiency, balanced with the power of friendship, can unlock their true potential.
How Maki & Killua Chose Their Own Families
Maki and Killua are certainly defying strict and harmful traditions by fleeing from their oppressive families, but they aren't just running from something; they are running toward something else. These runaway fighters have both stumbled upon another of shonen's best themes: the power of found family. While this theme is more acutely depicted among the Straw Hats of One Piece fame or the Forger family in Spy x Family, this theme does subtly play a role in Maki and Killua's remarkably similar character arcs. These characters want to be self-sufficient, but they are not total lone wolves. If they abandon one family, they will want to embrace another.
The "found family" theme may be too sentimental for Maki and Killua when spoken aloud, but in a modest, unspoken way, these characters still embrace that theme, which boosts their likability and reinforces their image as true shonen protagonists rather than seinen-style rogues. Maki, for example, embraces all her Tokyo classmates as friends, even if she is a total tsundere about it, and her classmates admire and respect her in turn as model teammates. Similarly, Killua gladly accepted Gon as his best friend and also gets along with Leorio and Kurapika when they're around, and the four of them formed a loose found family with Gon and Killua at the heart of it.
Killua would scoff if anyone said this out loud, but deep down, he knows it's true, and so does Zenin Maki. This is how their characters do more than escape their troublesome biological families -- it's also how they grow and develop as fighters and as people. That's what makes for a compelling shonen character arc.