Nanami is the dad, that Itadori never had.
I think, out of all the complex and tragic characters we have met in Jujutsu Kaisen so
far, Nanami Kento is without any doubt the most complete character.
He has stuff figured out.
Listening to Nanami is like listening to your parents or friends, when you don't want to
admit they have a point, but they really do.
And so interestingly enough, in a world full of eccentric, powerful and badass characters,
of all things it's the guy who's most defining trait is being the normal grown up in the
room, that is so relatable and, quite rightfully, enjoys popularity that rivals that of Gojo.
How can that be?
Now, I'm gonna say right of the bat that of course, despite his mannerism and appearance,
there is very little normal about Nanami in general.
I mean the guy runs around with a blunt blade covered in anti-curse charms to basically
butcher his way through enemies.
But as you will see, it's exactly this contrast between the two worlds, the regular one and
the jujutsu one, that make him such a relatable and intriguing person.
This 'act' he'a putting on, of being just a regular tie-wearing office guy in a sightly
unusual line of work, is a central part of his identity and moral perspective.
So, why did he run away form the Jujutsu world?
How did he get so powerful?
And what makes him one of the most influential people for Itadori and the story overall?
This is the story of Nanami Kento.
First things first, a quick direction of Nanami's abilities as a Jujutsu-Shi.
While Nanami's anime is written with the Kanji for 7 and sea, his name can also be read as
nana-mi as in 7 and 3, making it a bit of a pun with his innate 7:3 ratio powers, that
allows him to divide a target of his choice with ten lines and forcibly creates weak spots
at the ratio point of seven to three.
While this ability, is without any doubt powerful, it requires excellent motor coordination,
that Nanami demonstrates together with fantastic athleticism and strength.
While not able to form his own domain, as a Grade 1 sorcerer, he can use black flash,
a powerful application of concentrated cursed energy.
Most interestingly however, Nanami has created a binding vow with himself, called overtime,
that limits the amount of cursed energy he can utilize during the time he's officially
on the clock working for Jujutsu High.
Once he goes beyond his normal shift however, and overtime hours begin, Nanami's cursed
energy swells to a great degree, granting him a significant boost in fighting power.
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While Nanami might not appear to be the most creative or complex on the surface, you only
need to go a little bit deeper to find that in Akutami's net of carefully crafted characters,
he is one of the most multi-layered and thought-through personalities in the story.
This becomes especially clear when we look at the two main functions of his in the story:
Being a father figure to Itadori and drawing you dear viewer, deeper into the story.
Let's start with the latter.
To understand, how what makes Nanami so important in terms of world building, I want to give
you a quick overview of the world in Jujutsu Kaisen.
Much more so than many other anime, JuJutsu Kaisen has taken it as a central designing
principle to integrate this supernatural world of courses and sorcerers into a real and timely
depiction of our world.
As someone living in Tokyo myself, I can attest to 100% that Akutami has literally taken the
real modern Japan and integrated his own world as a hidden hub within it.
This in itself is nothing new, it's something we for example also see in Bleach, one of
the major inspirations for the story.
However, whole Ichigo and co keep jumping form one world to the next and there rarely
seem to be references to the real world, in Jujutsu Kaisen, both sorcerers and Curses
alike are part of modern life.
As a result, we see Nobora shopping in Shibuya, Tojo going to Idol meet-ups, Gojo making Itadori
watch hours of famous Hollywood movies, Geto and the curses meeting up in a family restaurant
and even principal gakuganji, who first is introduced as the typical old-guy-preserving-traditions-and-following-the-rules-at-any-cost
type of character, turns out to have powers that have him use an electric guitar.
The most eye-catching thing however, might be the use of smart-phones in the story.
As the Nerdwriter, one of my favorite YouTubers, fantastically explains in one of his videos,
the reason, we usually get so few smartphones in Movies and Shows, is the addictive, time-consuming
and never stopping data mining we constantly perform on our smartphones.
Many of us have started to resent the way these devices control our lives and nourish
our insecurities and fears.
- Nerdwriter - JuJutsu Kaisen on the other hand is all about confronting fears and insecurities
and figuring out what is worth giving our time and even our lives for.
And I think no other character represents this better than Nanami.
He is depicted in a full suit and tie, with neat haircut - nothing less than salaryman
image Gojo calls him.
Without his unique glasses, you won’t be able to differentiate him from common office
worker.
He’s the stiff seriousness formality in contrast to Gojo’s easy, overly friendly
and overly informal attitude.
Even during their first meeting, he demands a formal introduction from Itadori.
He's the type of guy that likes following rules and procedures.
Nanami's image as the normal guy, who used to work both as a salary man and a Sorcerer,
helps us connect to the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, better than maybe any other character.
For him, office work is shit -- but so is being a Jujutsu sorcerer.
We all can relate that working over-hours in a boring office job, is not merely boring
and dissatisfying, it's draining.
And Nanami basically putting this type of work and jujutsu on the same level, makes
the actions of gojo, itadori and co suddenly a lot more relatable and real as well.
Yes, being able to do a domain expansion might be dope, but in the end being a jujutsu sorcerer
is just as shit a job as working yourself to death as a salary man.
-- Just like smartphones, we usually don't like seeing the unpleasantness of a boring
and draining job reflected back at us when watching something.
And yet JuJutsu Kaisen, uses these elements consciously to create a realistic vibe, while
at the same time enforcing the central moral question of the story: What does it mean to
live a good life, worth living.
Nanami is the first character in this series of character analysis, that has a flat character
arc, in other words, he knows the truth about the world, that most other characters have
to figure out.
Nanami knows that in general, the world is mostly shit.
Jujutsu sucks, doing a normal job sucks.
In other words, life itself doesn't present you with a deeper purpose and happiness by
itself.
Nanami came to this realization after initially running away from the terrors associated with
being a sorcerer.
Seeing his comrades die and suffer around him, had a deep impact on Nanami, who, as
we will discuss in a bit, despite his hard shell has an incredibly soft core.
So, he decided to run away, work his ass of as a salary man and earn enough so he could
retire early somewhere outside of Japan, away from the Jujutsu world and all the suffering.
And yet, the office work drained him just as much and made him maybe even more unhappy.
Pointlessly thinking about money the entire day, while failing to live his life in the
moment.
And so, while it might seem like a minor thing in the context of the story, the two scenes
of Nanami visiting the bread store are actually the most defining of his entire character.
Because as he decides to release the girl from the burden of the curse on her shoulder
after all, that neither she nor any doctor can see, Nanami finally realizes, that while
life is shit and offers no purpose in itself, he himself is free to find his own purpose
and fulfillment in life.
And while Itadori has only inherited his wish to help others from his grandpa, and hasn't
really figure out himself why that matters, Nanami in this moment understands, that helping
others is what gives his live meaning.
While being a Jujutsu-shi might be just as bad or, considering all the violence and death,
worse a job than working in an office job, as a sorcerer he has the rare ability to help
others who are suffering under the terror of curses.
And this conclusion is very important.
Because someone like Mshito for example also understands this truth about the world.
However, as a result to this insight, he decides to simply live out his desire to fight and
hurt others.
As always with flat characters, the most important thing is how the use their knowledge to influence
the world, either for the good or bad.
Now the second major role Nanami plays in the story is that of the adult in the room
and ultimately one of the most influential people on Itadoris development.
This becomes especially clear when looking at his relationships with Yuji, Gojo and even
Mahito.
All three of them are immature in different ways.
Itadori of course literally is a kid, that has grown up without his parents and as so
many shounen heroes has been thrown into a world of violence.
Mahito is a newly born curse, that like a child likes to play around and try things
out, such as testing his own powers or having out with a human to see what it's like.
Finally, Gojo himself, who is actually Nanami's senior, can be quite serious and frightening
at times, but as I discuss in depth in his video, is nonetheless emotionally immature.
And while ironically, all three of them turn out to be stronger than Nanami, in their interactions
with him, their immaturity becomes clear.
Nanami is in many ways an alternative version of Gojo.
While the strongest sorcerer is charismatic, eccentric and un-conformist, Nanami represents
a sorcerer who follows the rules, sees the work they do as a job and is fairly reasonable
and straight laced in his behavior.
He seems to believe in a higher, external set of rules and values, that everyone should
conform to.
Goodness and righteousness in particular are two ideals that define his life, and that
end up shaping him, even if he tries to avoid then.
In that sense, Nanami is different from Yuji or Fushiguro, he doesn't actually want to
save everyone or even the ones he holds dear, knowing fully well it's not possible for him.
And yet whenever he's faced with the option to help, he does so, holding himself to his
own high standards.
All despite not being a very self righteous person himself.
Gojo has a high opinion of himself, but low social skills, and low compliance with others.
Nanami is his inversion, he has a low opinion of himself, but he’s geared much more to
watching over and cooperating with others.
This results in the disrespect he has for Gojo and his methods of handling things, but
goes out of his way to cooperate with him and not let his personal opinions interfere
with his work.
And this difference is reflected perfectly in their approach to teaching.
While Gojo is great at bringing Yuji up to speed in terms of power, basically crash-coursing
him into being a first class sorcerer in mere weeks, due to his own character flaw, he can't
teach Itadori on an emotional and human level.
This is where Nanami comes in.
While he doesn't make Yuji any stronger, he teaches him about morality, duty and in general
what it means being a part of the Jujutsu world.
He also, allows Yuji, who reminds him of his own time as student, to be a kid, which, even
though it might annoy him at first, is incredibly important for dealing with the flaws and struggles
that come with being a teenager that suddenly has to make complex moral decisions, like
taking a human life and that is way to reckless with his own life already.
Instead of throwing Itadori into the fire, like Gojo does, he gives Itadori the option
to say no.
Nanami is a sort of parental figure for Itadori, that, while strict, gives him a sense of security
and guidance.
And most importantly, he gives Yuji a feeling of achievement and attention by believing
in him and his abilities.
In the world of Jujutsu the kids have to risk their lives while the higher ups pull their
strings behind the scenes, safely away from the action, not caring about their suffering
and pain.
that’s why nanami keeps saying things like “being a child is not a sin” and “it’s
my duty to prioritize your life over mine” because he's trying to do what the higher-ups
should have been doing all along, which is trying to keep these kids Safe and let them
grow into responsible adults.
This care for the students and the dislike of the established structures is one of the
few things he actually has in common with Gojo.
Nanami is an oddity among the sorcery world not for being an eccentric but for being too
normal.
He’s too much of a functioning adult.
He’s not insane enough like most sorcerers, which is the case for a goo reason.
- Gojo explains not everyone can do it - That’s because Nanami’s number one priority is
not strength, but rather connecting and cooperating with others hence why he’s so strong on
conformism.
And so, in the end, Nanami’s salaryman-like serious persona becomes more and more of an
act as you dwell on his character.
It’s like he’s putting on a show that he’s not as mad as everybody else, that
he’s still reasonable in this world.
It’s done mostly for his own sake because Nanami is striving to follow his own ideals
of being good, in a world he’s well aware is not so good.
While being an incredibly sensitive and loving person at heart, he always forces himself
to be strict because he believes he has to.
The moment that best shows this, is during his fight with Mahito, where he is quite empathic
to the transfigured humans used by Mahito in their fight, despite claiming that he doesn’t
bring his personal feeling to work.
And it's this fatherly nature of his, the feeling that there is an adult in the room
who knows what has to be done, that make Nanami such a well-respected and dearly loved character.
And while, despite his best efforts, Nanami is simply not blessed with the powers of a
Gojo or Itadori, he is able to pass on his will and drive to the next generation.
While he might feel like just another clog in the system, just like the accumulation
of little despairs made him grow up, the accumulation of little acts of kindness are what create
an impact in the grand scale of things, making his life worth living.
Which is why in the face of death, Nanami is actually able to smile, having lived his
life suffering, but without regret.
Now, while Nanami in many ways is a more mature version of Itadori, having passed his philosophy
onto him, the student that is actually most like Gojo, is not Fushiguro, but actually
Kugisaki Nobora, a refreshingly badass take on the female support character in shounen.
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Make sure to watch her video by clicking right here.
Thanks for watching.
Peace.