Maki Zenin

Maki Zenin is a major supporting character in Jujutsu Kaisen and one of the main protagonists of its prequel, Jujutsu Kaisen 0: Jujutsu High. She is currently a second-year at Tokyo Jujutsu High. Daughter of Ogi Zenin and the elder twin sister of Mai Zenin, Maki was born in the Zenin Family. Born a non-sorcerer in one of the Big Three Sorcerer Families, Maki was constantly mistreated so she eventually expelled herself from the Zenin clan. She aspires to be a great jujutsu sorcerer to spite her family, working closely with her friends Panda and Toge Inumaki instead, while also serving as a role model to the first-year students. Maki is a young woman with a tall athletic build. She has small golden eyes and long black hair (dark green in the anime) normally tied into a short ponytail. She had fringes of hair over her forehead with smaller strands framing her cheeks and used to sport different pairs of glasses that allowed her to see curses. While still a member of the Zenin clan, Maki wore a traditional outfit, a white yukata, and a black hakama. Maki's original Jujutsu High student uniform consisted of the traditional long sleeve jacket with a skirt. As a first-year student, she wore thick, long tan socks and black shoes with her uniform. As a second-year Maki wore a different pair of glasses and sported black leggings instead of socks. While training for the Goodwill Event, Maki wore a purple tracksuit a black jersey with tan shorts over her leggings. While training Yuta Okkotsu, Maki wore the same top with darker shorts. Her casual clothes consisted of a white hoodie over a black and white horizontal shirt, white shorts over black pants, and white boots. Maki was severely burned by Jogo's flames during the Shibuya Incident. This has left a great deal of her body covered in scars from the severe burns, running all the way up and down both her arms and the sides of her face. Her hair now only reaches just past her ears, which may be a result of her cutting it, or it may have been partially or entirely burned off. Maki decided to alter her uniform to keep her arms mostly uncovered. She wore a sleeveless, turtle-neck, black shirt underneath a large cape attached by two Jujutsu High pins on each side. The shirt tucked into a large brown belt with a gold buckle, tied around the waste of tight black pants. The glasses she paired with this outfit were circular but Maki's right eye was covered in bandages from the burns. During her conflict with the Zenin Family, Maki lost her right eye altogether and now has a scar where it was sliced by her father's katana. She ditched the cape but sports mostly the same outfit, with the same sleeveless shirt paired with the same pants, belt, and shoes. By the time she entered the Culling Game, Maki reclaimed her cape and had her right eye completely healed. Maki is a very headstrong and straightforward person who tries to drive herself forward without needing anyone else's help. She is extremely strong-willed, capable, and motivated to escape the standards that have been set for her by people who are supposed to be her family. In a sorcerer clan, strong cursed techniques are everything, but Maki couldn't even see curses. Women in sorcerer clans have to stand out even more, leading Maki to be constantly severely mistreated and abused by the Zenin clan. Despite feeling cursed by her own blood, Maki motivates herself to become a strong sorcerer regardless of what her family thinks. She wants to break apart the foundation of their way of their life and reject it completely. Maki can come off as rather cold at times, even to her classmates. She is the leader type but Maki is very tough on others and tends to be impatient and hot-tempered. Maki doesn't seem to respect Satoru Gojo as a person due to his very goofy attitude. Even as her teacher and senior, Maki often refers to him as a moron. She was initially very mean to Yuta because of his shy attitude and openly told him he had no business attending Jujutsu High as a cursed human. While working on a mission together, Maki and Yuta learned to understand one another and she realized they weren't so different. She asked Yuta why he enrolled in the school and he told her that he wanted it to be acceptable for him to live. Maki told him that's what Jujutsu High is all about and encouraged him to use his curse to save people. Maki trained Yuta harshly because she wants to see him get stronger and fight beside her. Something she would later impart on to Megumi and Nobara as their senpai. She's taught them all highly advanced situational awareness and how to properly wield a variety of weapons, even if they had to get beaten up a lot in the process. Maki has repressed many of her emotions to maintain her trademark tough exterior. She hasn't expressed romantic interest in anyone and Panda enjoyed teasing her about this as first-years. When it came to Yuta, this embarrassed Maki enough to lash out at Panda in a temper. Following their first encounter with Suguru Geto, Maki and Yuta talked about why Geto referred to her as the "failure of the Zenin clan". Maki initially played it off as if being born a non-sorcerer gave her a perfect excuse to leave because she hated the clan for a variety of other reasons. When Yuta inquired as to why Maki chooses to be a sorcerer and Maki said it's because she's got a bad personality and wants to be a grade 1 sorcerer to spite the Zenin clan. Yuta admires Maki's strength and revealed he wants to be like her, strong and resilient. Yuta awkwardly offered to help her stick it to the Zenin clan but called him an idiot and said it was something she needed to do alone. She had spent so long rejecting the need to feel accepted that she became flustered that Yuta kindly recognized her strength. Maki left the conversation to gain her composure and then reminded herself that she should go feeling like she's been recognized. As a second-year student, Maki carries an aura of leadership and guides her juniors appropriately. She gravitates toward Megumi Fushiguro because he's also an ex-member of the Zenin clan and they get along well. She's comfortable with teasing him even if it's harsh and this can make her come off as a "cold-hearted demon" at times. When she found Megumi sulking with Nobara Kugisaki, she jokingly asked them if they had just attended a funeral. However, this was ironically after their classmate, Yuji Itadori's death. This made Maki feel really guilty and as usual, she lashed out at Panda in a rage for not informing her sooner. Even after the accident, Maki was still unsure if taking it easy on the first-year students would've even been a kindness. Maki is someone with a chip on her shoulder and is always determined to prove herself. For the Kyoto Goodwill Event, she needed strong teammates to help showcase her abilities on a public stage where she couldn't be denied. She encouraged Megumi and Nobara to get stronger for their fallen ally and figured it was the perfect opportunity to put her juniors in their place.