Jujutsu Kaisen has finally introduced Kinji Hakari to the manga with the newest chapter! Just like Yuta Okkotsu, Kinji Hakari has been mentioned in passing a few times throughout the series as one of the Jujutsu Tech students that Satoru Gojo felt like was strong enough to rely on alongside Yuji Itadori. While Yuta has officially returned to the series as part of the lead in to the Culling Game, the series had previously teased we would finally get to meet the mysterious Hakari as part of this preparation as well as Yuji and Megumi Fushiguro try to recruit him for the tournament.
Now that series creator Gege Akutami has brought the manga back from its hiatus, Jujutsu Kaisen is back into the swing of things in preparation for the upcoming Culling Game with the newest chapter. Rejoining Yuji and Megumi in the dwindling days before they’re locked within Kenjaku’s tournament and out of options, Chapter 153 finally introduces the elusive Kinji Hakari to the series and he’s much different than the snapshot we got a while back.
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Chapter 153 of the series reveals that Master Tengen knew exactly where Hakari has been. He’s been making money as a bookie for an underground cursed user fight club, and Megumi explains to Yuji that Hakari hasn’t been seen in the school because he once got into a fight with the authorities and got suspended. He’s currently wrapped in illegal Jujutsu activities and could be hesitant to meet them since he’d think they were there to capture him.
Taking on disguises and faking their way into the fight club, Megumi has no idea whether or not Hakari would work with them but they need to try anyway if he’s as strong as Yuta proclaims he is. It’s a strength that series creator Akutami once noted he had trouble with introducing Hakari for since it would disturb the balance of the series’ fights overall, so that just makes his presence all the more interesting. Yuji ends up impressing him, so soon they’ll be meeting face to face as he wants to use Yuji for some scripted fights he has planned later.
With Hakari (and another third year student, Kirara Hoshi, who we know nothing about) now finally in the series, it seems the Culling Game is a going to have a lot more riding on it than maybe we even expected going in. But what do you think? Are you excited to finally see Kinji Hakari in the manga? What do you think his ability will be? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!
