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Jujutsu Kaisen chapter 177 ended with the promise of an intense three-way battle ahead, with Okkotsu Yuta putting on his ring to summon Rika.
With the manga on a one-week hiatus, fans have been waiting for this chapter with bated breath, and expectations were further bolstered after raw scans of the chapter were released.
The official English translation and the chapter proved to be everything that fans expected and more.
Jujutsu Kaisen manga chapter 178 spoilers ahead.
Jujutsu Kaisen chapter 178 highlights
The cover page of this chapter featured Yuta with his arm stretched out towards the reader and the title of the chapter is “Sendai Colony part 5.”
Chapter 178, just like the last few chapters of the Sendai Colony arc, has Yuta as the primary focus, seemingly setting him up as the tritagonist of the Jujutsu Kaisen series after Itadori Yuuji and Fushiguro Megumi.
Yuta summons Rika
Jujutsu Kaisen chapter 178 picked up where the previous chapter left off, with Yuta asking Rika to give him everything.
His declaration and Rika’s manifestation surprised both Takako and Ishigori, who had presumed Yuta to have reached his full potential after revealing his skilled use of Reverse Cursed Technique. Ishigori observed that Yuta’s cursed energy was increasing rapidly again.
Rika ripped open her chest and offered Yuta a huge range of weapons, asking him to choose. Akutami dives into one of his trademark elaborations regarding Rika’s powers.
Yuta was able to connect to Rika with his ring but was only able to maintain the link for five minutes, suggesting that he could not maintain Rika’s full manifestation beyond that time span.
While maintaining that link, Yuta was able to use Rika as a bottomless reserve for cursed energy and summon a complete manifestation.
Among the weapons Rika offered, Yuta chose what looked like a gauntlet, which could control Rika’s movements.
The fight begins
Takako was the first to attack, rushing forward only to notice Yuta hiding his mouth with his other hand and revealing the markings necessary for Cursed Speech use.
Takako tried to shield her ears against the technique, but it was a bit too late, Yuta’s command preventing her from moving, which allowed Yuta to land a series of blows on Takako directly.
Ishigori attacked next, with Rika lifting Yuta upwards away from the other sorcerer. While he went after Takako, Rika blocked a blast of cursed energy sent out by Ishigori with her bare hand, causing Ishigori to conclude that Rika might be tougher to defeat than Yuta.
Jujutsu Kaisen chapter 178 proved that Rika, despite being cursed spirit, still had some human emotions and reactions, mostly obvious through her delight at Yuta praising her, and her exclamation that deflecting Ishigori’s attack hurt.
She proceeded to punch him, sending him flying. She went in for a second hit but Ishigori was prepared, sending Rika crashing instead.
Takako’s past and Yuta’s cursed technique
Jujutsu Kaisen chapter 178 revealed another interesting technique that Yuta’s cursed arm gauntlet supplied: pulling out his hair strands and using them as a medium for creating shikigami that looked like miniature versions of Rika.
Takako parried the shikigami and taunted Yuta that they couldn’t bear seeing Takako becoming someone. Her obsession with individuality and identity became evident as the tidbits of her past were revealed.
The assassination unit that Takako served under, “The Sun, Moon and Stars squad,” had to live and die in the shadows, denied the right to have an identity of their own.
Takako was framed and executed in place of a Fujiwara who had killed a member of their clan.
Despite parrying the shikigami’s attacks, Takako was injured in several places, recognizing the effect to be like Dhruv’s cursed technique, the trajectories of whose shikigami constituted their domain.
She correctly identified the true nature of Yuta’s cursed technique to be "Mimicry," the ability to copy others’ cursed techniques.
Domain Expansion
Two fights raged side by side. Rika fought Ishigori while Yuta tackled Takako. Yuta told her that he didn’t know what his ancestors did to her but living for just themselves will only take her so far, to which the latter said that only people who have already achieved something could say such things.
Jujutsu Kaisen chapter 178 ended with Ishigori declaring that words were useless at this point, and all three Culling Game players activated Domain Expansion in a bid to survive and win.
Jujutsu Kaisen chapter 178 ended on yet another massive cliff hanger, leaving the reveal of the three sorcerers’ domains to chapter 179.
It will also be interesting to see how Yuta’s domain manifests, since domains are based on the basic nature of the sorcerer or cursed spirits’ cursed technique, and if it will manage to overpower both Ishigori and Takako’s domains.
