Naoya Zenin: Full Story, Powers, Technique and Death Explained

Naoya is a character in the Jujutsu kaisen world who belongs to the Zenin clan, which is one of the three Major clans in the Jujutsu kaisen world. In this Article we we'll explore about Naoya Zenin's life and how he transformed into a Cursed spirit.

Who is Naoya Zenin?

Image source:  © Shueisha / Gege Akutami / MAPPA Studios

Human, Zenin Clan Member:

Naoya Zenin is the son of Naobito Zenin, who is the former head of the Zenin Clan. Naoya is a first-grade sorcerer whose power is on par with his father(fastest sorcerer after Gojo Satoru, of course). Naoya is one of the strongest in the Zeni Clan, and due to his upbringing in a power-based based racist environment, he has developed an Inferiority Complex where he thinks most of the people in his clan or outside are inferior to him.

A Cursed Spirit:

After being killed, Naoya Reincarnated as a Special Grade Vengeful Spirit, which appeared as a caterpillar-like Curse with Human arms, but it was just his cursed womb state. After fully evolving into a Curse, he looked like a chrysalis with a skull-shaped face capable of extending tendrils that band together to function like humanoid limbs. His Power, Speed, and Cursed technique were greatly enhanced in his Curse form due to which he surpassed his father, who was considered the fastest sorcerer in the Jujutsu kaisen world.

Key Physical Features:

In his human life, Naoya was a tall, thin man with brown eyes and blonde(dyed) hair. After reincarnating as a curse, he first became a cursed womb which looked like a caterpillar, and post-evolving he resembled a chrysalis with Skull face capable of extending tendrils which functioned like limbs.

Naoya's Back Story:

Naoya was born in the Zenin clan, which was one of the three Major clans in the Jujutsu kaisen world, and he was the son of the former head of the clan, which made him one of the potential candidates for the next clan head position. Even as a child, Naoya was an exceptional sorcerer and was considered the most promising from all of the Naobito's Children. Due to his upbringing in his racist family and being spoiled as the youngest and most promising candidate, he developed an inferiority complex where he viewed every person weaker than him as scum, and he always had an overconfident grin on his face.

The only person Naoya ever had respect for was Toji Zenin. Toji was always mocked and declined as a Zenin clan member by his family because of his being born with a Heavenly restriction, which took away all his cursed energy and in return enhanced his physical strength and abilities. When Naoya first heard about Toji he considered him a pitiful, weak person who was a black sheep in his family. He decided to go have a look at Toji and see for himself how weak Toji is but when he saw Toji he was shocked by his Pure testosterone Aura and immediately understood that he is the strongest Zenin clan member and decided to be a powerful sorcerer on par with Toji.

Before Naobito's death, he chose Megumi as the next Clan Head. Megumi had inherited the Ten Shadows Technique, which was the Zenin clan's main inherited technique and was also considered superior to all other techniques, such as Projection Sorcery. 

Naobito also had a deal with toji that if Megumi ever inherited a technique, he would buy him and secure the clan's future. This deal was about to be fulfilled but Gojo Satoru intervened in between and the deal was left incomplete. After that, it was decided that if in any case Gojo was incapacitated, Megumi would be sold to the Zenin Clan,  which was fulfilled after Gojo was sealed. Naobito always wanted Megumi to become the next clan had as he possesed the Ten Shadow Technique, and thus all the conditions were fulfilled he decided in his will to make Megumi the next Clan Head.

After learning about Megumi's succession to the clan's Head Position, Naoya was shocked and then was ready to kill Megumi to inherit the clan's head Position. Naoya was well aware that most of the Members of the Clan would choose Magumi and despite this was ready to ignore everybody's POV and decided to kill Megumi. His fellow high-ranking Clan members Jinichi and Ogi also decided to side with Naoya and kill Megumi as they didn't want him to become the clan's head.

Naoya made a plan to kill Megumi where he would attack Megumi's friends to draw him out and kill him. Naoya ambushed Yuji and Choso while they were hunting Curses and tried to kill them so that Megumi can be drawn out but was interrupted by Yuta who was there to kill Yuji instead. After Yuta and Yuji started fighting, Naoya started fighting choso and overpowered him with his Projection Sorcery and superior speed. Despite dominating most of the fight against Choso Naoya was ultimately defeated by him in the end. But Yuta killed Yuji and intervened in Naoya's Battle again defeating choso and mocking Naoya for his loss. This made Naoya Irritated.

As Naoya saw that none of his plans were going straight, he was very irritated and decided to take out his anger on Maki. He mocked her when she returned to the Zenin clan's property to take their Cursed weapons for the preparation of future battles. 

But Maki and Mai were imprisoned by their own father and left to die. Mai sacrificed her life in exchange for removing the limitations on Maki's Potential, and before dying, she used all of her and Maki's Shared Cursed energy to make a very powerful Cursed Weapon which was a Sword able to inflict damage on a Person's soul.

Maki became a force on par with Toji Zenin, and she Killed all of the Zenin clan members infront of Naoya. Naoya was not at all bothered by his fellow clan member's death and instead was still declining Maki's strength and wanted to kill her to prove his point. Maki defeated Naoya brutally and left him unfinished and after Maki left the zenin clan's property Naoya was stabbed by Maki's Mother.

After dying such a horrible Death Naoya was very irritated and even while dying he was Cursing Maki's Mother. After his death Naoya was reincarnated as a Special grade Cursed Spirit because he was not finished by Cursed energy while dying. 

He became a cursed womb and entered Shibuya in the culling game, and attacked Maki and Noritoshi. After evolving into a full cursed spirit, he became more powerful and used his Domain Expansion on Maki and the other fighters to kill them. But since Maki had no Cursed energy, the Domain was unable to recognize Maki as a target and Naoya got Killed by Maki this time.

Naoya's Power and Abilities:

Cursed Technique: Projection Sorcery.

Naoya inherited one of the most famous techniques of zenin clan named Projection sorcery. This technique was very powerful, allowing him to turn one second into 24 frames and trace a predetermined set of movements using his field of view as the angle of view. While the technique is active, anything touched by Naoya's palm must abide by the technique's 24 FPS rule or they are frozen for one second inside an animated frame.

This technique also enhanced Naoya's speed, for which he was so overconfident. he also had a vast amount of knowledge about other cursed techniques thanks to Zenin clan's record and influence. In his Curse form Naoya's technique was greatly enhanced and now he can fly with his new body, which further enhanced his speed.

Master hand to hand Combatant:

Naoya was a exceptional Martial artist and due to his highly exceptional speed he enhanced his hand-to-hand combat mastery. He also believed that using weapons was the way of weak sorcerers and was always fighting barehanded but he also kept a knife in secret for dire circumstances.

Intelligence:

Naoya also had a genius-level intellect which allowed him to properly use his 24 frame rule on par with an experienced sorcerer like his dad, despite being a child. He relies on predictiing his opponent's moves and overpowering his opponents with his strength and speed. Despite being a genius, he had a large amount of ego, which proved to be his weakness in his fight against Choso.

Domain Expansion : Time Cell Moon Palace

Image source:  © Shueisha / Gege Akutami / MAPPA Studios

In his Cursed form Naoya has gained the ability to use his domain expansion : Time Cell Moon Palace. His domain takes the form of a womb-like environment with an eye in place of the Uterus. This domain sure hit effect applies the 24 FPS rule to all the opponents inside his domain on a cellular level.

Battles and results:

Itadori's Extermination Arc

Naoya mostly dominated Choso but lost this battle due to his over confidence and was about to be delive rthe finishing blow but Yuta intervened and took Naoya away.

Perfect Preparation Arc:-

Maki defeated Naoya easily but didn't kill him and keft. After that Maki's mother killed Naoya by stabbing him with a Knife resulting in him being reincarneted as a Curse.

Culling Game Arc:

Maki and Noritoshi fought Naoya's cursed worm state and defeated him and after this fight Naoya evolved to his final form which was far more powerful then his cursed womb form.

Image source:  © Shueisha / Gege Akutami / MAPPA Studios

All the fighters fought a deadly battle against Naoya's final form and were trapped inside his Domain resulting in them being heavily injured. but Maki defeated and landed the final blow on Naoya inside his own Domain as the domain was unable to recognise Maki as a target due to her having no Cursed energy. Naoya was finally defeated.

Conclusion by Senpai:

So this was all about Naoya Zenin and his impact on the story. Naoya's story is that of being Blind by his own EGO and Selfishness. Naoya could have been a great sorcerer on par with Yuji and Megumi if his upbringing had been in a better environment.

Frequently Asked Questions About Naoya Zenin: