Highlights
- Sukuna’s Cursed Technique, ‘Dismantle and Cleave’, is his most used tool and allows him to send out invisible slashes of cursed energy that can cut opponents open.
- The ‘Dismantle’ slash is a basic cut used against inanimate objects or Cursed Spirits, while ‘Cleave’ is a precision-based technique used against Jujutsu sorcerers.
- Sukuna’s strongest attack, the ‘Great Dismantle’, targets the space inhabited by his opponent, cutting through the very concept of space itself. His hidden abilities, such as the flame arrow, make him even more powerful.
In Jujutsu Kaisen, Sukuna is known as the King of Curses for a reason. In the anime, he has made very light work of all different kinds of opponents, from Jujutsu sorcerers to Special Grade Cursed Spirits, each of whom has failed to truly even damage Sukuna. In the manga, Sukuna is shown to be on a level of power far beyond anyone else in the whole series and his understanding of the nature of Jujutsu is second to none.
One of the reasons why Sukuna is as powerful as he is is due to his incredibly broken Cursed Technique. Jujutsu Kaisen does a very good job of showing why his Cursed Technique ‘Dismantle and Cleave’ is one that not even the strongest heroes in the series can properly defend against. Though many fans argue that ‘Dismantle and Cleave’ is not his main technique and may only be a small part of his overall arsenal, the series, so far, has still shown it to be the most used tool in Sukuna’s repertoire, so let’s take a look at it!
Dismantle
Sukuna’s technique, Dismantle and Cleave, allows him to send out invisible slashes of cursed energy that can cut his opponents open. Two types of slashes are included here, with the basic and far more used of the both of them called his Dismantle slash, which is essentially a basic cut that fans have found Sukuna to mostly have used against either inanimate objects or Cursed Spirits. This slash was seen to be used against Jogo.
Another observation of Dismantle is that it acts similar to a fairly controlled outburst of cursed energy, as Sukuna uses it multiple times to cut entire buildings or other objects in half with just one slash. However, Dismantle isn’t only used against inanimate objects. Throughout the series, Sukuna has been shown to use this attack multiple times against Cursed Spirits or even Shikigami. The way that it works on them is by delivering a simple slash across their bodies in an attempt to cut them open, as seen in his battle against Mahoraga.
Cleave
Cleave is the second kind of slashing attack that comes with Sukuna’s Cursed Technique and can be considered to be his bread and butter when it comes to how he fights against other Jujutsu users. Despite being an expert in hand-to-hand fighting, Sukuna operates at his strongest when he fights in conjunction with the usage of his Cursed Technique, as he was able to use Cleave masterfully against Jogo, making it seem as if the Cursed Spirit couldn’t even touch him.
When compared to Dismantle, Cleave can be considered to be a much more precision-based technique, prioritizing accuracy and efficiency before all-out destructive output. Cleave is mostly used against other entities with cursed energy such as Jujutsu sorcerers, though this is not always the case. Cleave cuts the opponent very cleanly into many pieces and the technique can do this because it has the ability to adjust itself to the cursed energy and toughness of the opponent that it is being used against, dicing them down.
Dismantle is seen as Sukuna’s default slash attack and Cleave is used much more strategically and sparingly by the King of Curses. This suggests that Cleave is far more taxing on Sukuna’s cursed energy due to it being able to adjust and cut down virtually any opponent. Cleave is also very versatile and its shape can change to something more complex, as seen when he uses it in a spiderweb pattern against in the manga.
**Warning: Massive spoilers for the Jujutsu Kaisen manga from this point onwards**
Dismantle to cut Space
Sukuna’s tough battle against Gojo proved the King of Curses to be the greatest Jujutsu user of all time. After possessing the body of Megumi Fushiguro and using his Ten Shadows technique to fight Gojo, Sukuna was able to summon Mahoraga and observe the Shikigami’s adaptation ability to find a way to bypass Gojo’s Infinity, the most powerful defensive technique in Jujutsu Kaisen.
After Mahoraga adapted to the technique and found a way to get past Infinity, Sukuna was able to use the Shikigami to figure out that he needed to expand the target of his Dismantle. Instead of targeting Gojo, Sukuna had to target the space that Gojo inhabited and cut that very space itself, making it so that anything within it was cut as well. This slash was dubbed the ‘Great Dismantle’ by the fans and it is perhaps the strongest attack in all of Jujutsu Kaisen.
Sukuna’s quick mastery of this attack was seen in his following battle against Kashimo, where he used the massive slash against the thunder god. It was here that the difference between Dismantle and Great Dismantle was made quite apparent, as the new slash could be seen, was incredibly massive and could cut through the very concept of space itself!
Finally, it was shown that perhaps Sukuna had adapted his Cleave to a similar state as his Dismantle, to cut space as well. After knocking Kashimo back, the strongest of the Edo period regains his composure and looks back only to find a massive grid of slashes coming his way, similar to what the series has shown Cleave to look like before.
Sukuna has some of the most broken abilities in all of Jujutsu Kaisen. To add to the strength of his Cleave and Dismantle attacks, the King of Curses also has a whole host of hidden abilities that fans have very seldom seen in the series, such as the extremely powerful flame arrow that Sukuna used against Mahoraga and Jogo that was powerful enough to completely obliterate an entire section of Shibuya.
Due to this, many fans don’t even believe Cleave and Dismantle to be Sukuna’s main technique. It is theorized that Sukuna’s true technique is either some storage ability that allows for him to keep different techniques, or even a copy ability that lets him steal and fully utilize the potential of his opponents’ techniques, as was seen with the fire he used against Jogo.
Jujutsu Kaisen can be streamed on Amazon Prime and Netflix.
