Jujutsu Kaisen: Nanami Kento’s Cursed Technique And Abilities Explained!

Nanami Kento. The chad Grade 1 sorcerer who holds the record for most simultaneous Black Flashes… whose biggest desires are buying his favourite bread and taking a trip to Malaysia.

He’s just like me fr.

Behind the facade of a disgruntled salaryman, Nanami was more than just a mentor for Yuji; he was the adult Yuji needed to grow as a sorcerer without losing his childhood.

Through the chad, Yuji got to know Black Flash and other tools for combat. This brings us to the topic: what makes Nanami so strong? Well, just like any other sorcerer, it’s his cursed technique, their versions, and other abilities.

Without further ado, let’s go over them one by one.

Ratio Technique

The biggest hint towards his cursed technique is actually his name itself! “Nanami” is read in Japanese as “seven” (七 = nana) “three” (三 = mi), thus, his ability is called the Ratio technique!

It allows Nanami to forcibly create a weak spot on his opponent in order to divide the entire area into a ratio of 7:3. But why this specific number?

Well, the best aspect of the ratio technique is that if Nanami gets to land a hit, it can deal significant damage to much stronger opponents, even to non-living things.

Neither the length nor the wingspan of the target are necessary for the lines to coincide. Among the many possible parts to cut, Nanami has complete freedom of choice over the subjects’ heads, torsos, limbs, and legs.

For example, he cut through Mahito’s arm with a ratio strike, despite Mahito using cursed energy to defend himself.

It’s also important to note that Mahito is a special-grade cursed spirit equipped with insane levels of durability and regeneration!

While this technique is pretty OP, it wasn’t able to destroy Mahito because of idle transfiguration, an ability to reshape and reconstruct the soul. This means that a single blow will not do anything unless the soul itself is attacked.

But in a hilarious way, this ability has another aspect to it… which every salaryman like him despises:

Overtime

Nanami HATES overtime, even if there’s a killer on the loose. For instance, in chapter 22, he faced Mahito, who had already killed a bunch of innocent people.

But Nanami was like, naah bruh, I started work today early at 10 and if I don’t wrap it by 6, i’m calling it quits for the day.

Overtime is a binding vow Nanami makes to himself where his body goes into OVERDRIVE mode in case he isn’t able to finish the job within the time he’s officially working for Jujutsu High.

During his worktime, Nanami suppresses his cursed energy output to about 80-90% of his total capacity. This is the stage at which he dukes with the transfigured humans alongside Yuji in the Kinema Cinema and where he engages Mahito for the most of their fight in the sewer.

However, he failed to kill Mahito within the timeframe, and now, he’s on overtime, an employee’s worst enemy, and his power spikes up to 110–120% of his normal strength!

The Grade 1 Sorcerer can choose to ignore the vow at any time and spend all of his cursed energy, but even then, the Overtime ability will only boost his power by 1%.

Nevertheless, it was enough to slice through Mahito’s leg, destroying the sewer wall in one hit and casually causing an earthquake with a magnitude of 2.0.

All this is because he refined and extended his ratio technique, thanks to overdrive, creating a variant called Collapse.

Collapse

The primary goal of the Ratio Technique is to isolate and exploit the weaknesses of a single opponent. It would often create a 10-stroke line that would split a single target in half.

While the Ratio Technique was previously limited to dividing and targeting a single object, the introduction of Collapse greatly increased this capability. Shockwaves of cursed energy tear through the technique’s effective hit zone, demonstrating the devastating effects of this method.

By using the Collapse technique, he is able to strike a larger area, dealing more damage in the process. This is in sharp contrast to Nanami’s usual cool and collected style of play, acting like an uno-reverse in battles.

The impact of this technique is so OP it creates shockwaves of cursed energy that rip through its effective hit zone.

Collapse is fundamentally similar to Yuji’s attack—a physical blow from his fist infused with huge amounts of cursed energy.

And this brings us to the one commonality that Nanami and Yuji share: the Black Flash.

Black Flash

When cursed energy is delivered within 0.000001 seconds of a physical hit, it causes a space distortion known as Black Flash. When a sorcerer achieves this, their cursed energy glows black and their destructive power is comparable to a normal hit to the power of 2.5.

We’ve seen in Season 1 of the anime that Yuji pulls off an impressive Black Flash against Hanami with the help of Todo.

Why this technique is important is because both Yuji and Nanami share the record for its most successive uses for four freakin’ times! While it may seem like such a small number, even performing it at will once is difficult, as Unleashing Black Flash demands enormous focus, and no jujutsu sorcerer, not even Satoru Gojo, is capable of doing it at will. It does not happen at random and requires a great deal of ability and battle prowess to pull off.

Nanami, however, thinks using it repeatedly is nothing impressive. Heh, bro doesn’t know that he’s HIM.

Whether your success was due to skill or pure chance, you will eventually reach a point where controlling your cursed energy will feel as natural as breathing. Creating an illusion of control as if your life were the center of the universe. This results in the user being able to perform at 120% of their maximal capacity in combat, which is a significant improvement over their previous levels of performance.

Final thoughts

Nanami’s style of fighting stems from his personality. His extreme businessman-like mentality kinda limited his capacity to feel compassionate towards others. He wasn’t always like that though, as his attitude was influenced by Haibara, who wore completely different glasses to view the world around him.

He took great satisfaction in being a jujutsu sorcerer, despite his lack of intellectual sophistication, because it was something he could actually be good at.

They say that opposites attract, and that’s exactly the case with Nanami and Haibara. The self-contained sorcerer, despite having respect for his seniors, had this inferiority complex in him, which told him something was ALWAYS going to go wrong. Whether it was caused by him or someone else, that voice told him that his fate would never leave him unscathed.

This is also coupled with the fact that sorcerers DO NOT feel regret.

Haibara is an exception to this rule by giving color to Nanami’s dark world. His positive outlook on the world instantly attracted everyone around him, including Nanami.

According to teachings of Asian Philosophy, the type of people you associate with defines your character. Association acts just like a crystal stone, which will reflect anything that is put before it.

Hanging around with a drunkard for too long makes even the strictest of tea-tootlers think, “Eh, what’s a small drink going to do to me?” On the other hand, associating with a monk can make even a non-believer a saint.

Therefore, in the chapter where Gojo died, Nanami felt at peace because he’s finally able to be with the person he cared for the most (no Homo).