Jujutsu Kaisen Villain Groups Guide: Release Date PS5/Xbox

In the Naruto universe, a large portion of the series’ darkest momentum is tied to a single coalition of cruelty: the Akatsuki. For years, they served as the shonen gold standard for what a “proper” villain organization looks like—complete with ominous motives, memorable members, and escalating threats. But as stories and audiences move forward, even legends like the Akatsuki would have to adapt to new kinds of antagonists and new power systems.

From runaway shinobi and homegrown terrorists to creatures that don’t even belong to the same world, the strongest villains in Naruto occupy their own bracket. Their influence isn’t just about raw harm—it’s about the way they redefine what “villainy” can mean in shonen anime.

That’s where Jujutsu Kaisen steps in. With its curses and curse users colliding in a constant fight for survival, it’s tempting to ask whether the Akatsuki would still be the top benchmark—or whether another villain tier has already taken the crown. In a head-to-head clash between curse users and rogue ninja, it’s hard to predict who walks away first. The Akatsuki, after all, have the exact kind of lethal mix that makes villains stick: shattered personal history, warped philosophies, and the kind of morally ugly choices that fuel the most satisfying antagonists in Naruto.

Still, Jujutsu Kaisen brings its own roster of nightmare factions, plus a long list of cursed techniques and even longer lists of mass-casualty outcomes. The series’ sharper, more relentless enemy groups often go further than what some Akatsuki members—and in some cases, even their most iconic “assets”—could comfortably handle. In other words: the bar is higher now.

Release and platform notes

The source material frames this as a cross-series matchup discussion between characters from Naruto and Jujutsu Kaisen. It does not provide any release dates, platform storefront details, or edition information for either franchise.

10 Haruta Shigemo Would Outfox the Fox

The Akatsuki match of choice: Zetsu
The wickedness shade in focus: Opportunistic scavenging

In a confrontation between Haruta’s cruelty-on-a-leash and Zetsu’s talent for control, Haruta would likely seize the advantage quickly. The problem is that both characters thrive on underhanded behavior, meaning the fight could stall into a grim standoff where they wait each other out until something—or someone—ends it for good.

Many fans will tell you that the story confusion around Black and White Zetsu in Naruto doesn’t land in a satisfying way. Zetsu’s extremely smooth takedown of Madara—already a villain whose threat level had surged with an overwhelming power spike—left viewers without the emotional payoff they wanted. Even so, Zetsu’s lesser-discussed malice is broad enough to do more than embarrass the Akatsuki’s rivals; it can also shake up the logic of Naruto power scaling itself.

Haruta’s brand of childish violence stays consistent throughout Jujutsu Kaisen. His role is positioned as a plot catalyst leading into the high-stakes clash between Sukuna and Mahoraga. If Haruta looks like he belongs among the smarter shonen antagonists, that still doesn’t close the gap against definitive threats like Sukuna. Both of these supporting villains are known for taking advantage of people who are already weakened or exposed in some way. Beyond Zetsu’s shapeshifting mind games, Haruta shines as a genuinely competent scavenger—until his own nature turns into the punchline.

9 Naoya Zenin Would Make Hidan Wish for His Forest Retirement

The Akatsuki match of choice: Hidan
The wickedness shade in focus: Posthumous malevolence

Hidan and Naoya share a level of corruption that goes well beyond typical ego-driven villain habits. Their malicious energy overlaps so strongly that they feel like they’re built on the same wavelength of cruelty. Naoya’s edge over Hidan comes from the fact that his harm doesn’t end when he dies—it keeps going.

Naruto introduces Hidan as a blood-obsessed maniac with a three-bladed scythe and a tongue sharp enough to match. His religious fanaticism forces him to turn every killing into a ritual tied to Jashin, and it’s also his biggest weakness. Hidan’s character becomes a kind of one-note threat: a recurring obstacle that never really evolves past its own limitations.

Naoya, meanwhile, functions as a systemic villain in a way that feels more refined. Coming from a major power clan, he grows into a genius who can use Projection Sorcery—one of the rare abilities that underscores how jujutsu society keeps control of cursed energy deployment locked away from everyone else. Naoya’s abuse targets people he considers weak, and that contempt stretches beyond death itself. Once he becomes a Vengeful Cursed Spirit, his hatred becomes part of his continued existence.

Within the Akatsuki comparison, Hidan’s stagnation would still fit the broader idea of what he represents. But Naoya is different: his hostility evolves, and the Vengeful Cursed Spirit form he rebirth into is enough to make Hidan remain trapped—sealed away in his own grim “pit” of punishment.

8 Jogo Would Save Deidara the Trouble

The Akatsuki match of choice: Deidara
The wickedness shade in focus: Exploding finesse

Deidara and Jogo share more than just being treated as comedy-adjacent villains in their respective shonen anime entries. Both know how to make their villainy show up as an unmistakable explosion. Handling explosive power, though, requires steadiness, and that’s exactly where Jogo would force Deidara to bite the dust—literally.

In the early stretch of Naruto Shippuden, Deidara looks like he’s gathering momentum. He even manages to beat Gaara, the Fifth Kazekage, through tactics and execution. Unfortunately for Deidara, that momentum doesn’t last because his ego turns into a trap. He becomes fixated on the quality of his own clay fireworks—and he overlooks everything else. His explosive personality ultimately leads to one of the series’ most memorable “comedy villain” deaths: he chooses to go all in on his art, then injures himself with no meaningful impact on the opponent he intended to harm.

Jogo, on the other hand, is built like a walking volcano. His kit can call down volcanic events and meteors, and he doesn’t need to act frantic to be dangerous. Even when he pushes a vision where Cursed Spirits make humans irrelevant, he still keeps his strategy intact. The exception is his taste for opponents: Jogo is famous for picking fights that are, in hindsight, painfully hopeless—Gojo and Sukuna are the obvious examples. In the end, Jogo’s abilities include Domain Expansion, which is something Deidara can’t replicate even if he somehow got his ego under control.

7 Uraume Would Turn Konan Into a Frozen Meat Delicacy

The Akatsuki match of choice: Konan
The wickedness shade in focus: Right-hand ruthlessness

When a villain doesn’t care about their own life, it’s hard to imagine they’ll care about anyone else’s—especially if their entire existence is built on devotion to a master. With Uraume and Konan, what fuels their cruelty is absolute loyalty to twisted, god-like leadership. And their power doesn’t stay theoretical: their environmental manipulation abilities turn devotion into something horrifyingly practical.

Konan may look cold and holds the “second-in-command” position among the Akatsuki, but she isn’t evil by nature. She’s a war orphan who aligns herself with Yahiko’s dream of peace worldwide, and she commits to protecting Nagato while he remains the acting leader of that vision. Unlike some other Akatsuki members, Konan isn’t motivated by harming people for entertainment. Her willingness to end lives is tied to Nagato’s warped interpretation of how peace should be achieved across the Shinobi World.

Uraume, however, is no saint. Their darkness is rooted in the same mixture of reverence and fear that only shows up in fanatic worship of a deity. With a heart of ice built to satisfy Sukuna’s darkest cravings, Uraume has no reservations about killing en masse—and they do it without hesitation until there’s nothing left to stop. Freezing everything in the way of their master, Uraume’s Ice Formation feels like a nuclear winter made real.

Konan facing Uraume would be fascinating, especially if you watch their elemental constructs collide—Konan’s Dance of the Shikigami versus Uraume’s Ice Formation might become a battle of attrition. Still, in villain matchups, “being bad” only gets you so far; there’s always someone worse. In this case, that “worse” is Uraume’s stone-cold right-hand malice.

Jujutsu Kaisen is one of the biggest ongoing anime series. The next section highlights basic character info and cast connections as fans meet the characters through the story.

6 Dagon Would Drown Kisame in Deep Sea Horrors

The Akatsuki match of choice: Kisame
The wickedness shade in focus: Jaws

Kisame’s worldview is built on disillusionment and disgust. His contempt for deception and his commitment to honor make him a fan favorite among the Akatsuki. Compared to his rogue ninja teammates, Kisame also has one of the standout deaths in Naruto: he uses his own power against himself to avoid betraying anyone. Even with his chakra-absorbing Shark Skin Sword of the Mist, a jaded shark-ninja still can’t compete with a monster that commands the ocean itself.

As a Disaster Curse, Dagon—often compared to a Cthulhu-like presence—embodies the sea’s dual nature in a way that’s bad news for anyone trying to fight him. If Kisame gets caught inside Dagon’s chaotic elemental current, he becomes the meal. Dagon’s endless swarm of flesh-devouring fish monsters bites with pinpoint accuracy, turning the encounter into a feeding frenzy. That’s exactly what Kisame would face in a confrontation between the “realm of villains” whose abilities reflect the dark wonders beneath calm ocean tides.

5 Choso Would Kill Them All for the Family

The Akatsuki match of choice: Sasori
The wickedness shade in focus: Toxic fluid manipulation

Choso and Sasori are both driven by tragic backstories, which makes them classic examples of sympathetic villains in anime. But the overlap goes beyond their tone. They also share an expertise in weaponizing toxic fluids, creating another villain bridge between Naruto and Jujutsu Kaisen.

Sasori’s unresolved grief pushed him toward becoming a self-styled gruesome commander of a puppet army. He personally crafts those puppets from the corpses of specially selected ninja—tailoring each creation for specific purposes. He also turns himself into a puppet, and that choice exposes his core flaw: he never truly moves past the pain of being an orphaned child. What makes him especially lethal, though, is his signature poison: a purple toxin that can stun with a single scratch and then guarantees a slow death over several days.

Choso, in turn, is a rare hybrid: a human body combined with sorcerer blood, carrying cursed energy within the Jujutsu Kaisen system. His blood is inherently hostile to humans, and his physiology can replenish blood using cursed energy stored in an abundant reservoir. Put together, Choso becomes a walking biowarfare tool. Unlike Sasori, Choso’s motivations stay grounded: first he pursues a misguided vendetta against Yuji, then he shifts into redemption—focused on protecting his newly found half-brother from Sukuna.

Choso’s moral compass isn’t just about avoiding emptiness; it’s about action. His toxic blood causes immediate harm and can be replenished indefinitely. Sasori’s approach—lifelong escapism, limited puppet resources, and delayed poison damage—looks weaker by comparison. If these two villainous characters ever met, Choso’s conviction and his more unusual, highly specific ability would likely overwhelm Sasori.

4 Toji Fushiguro Would Teach Kakuzu What Actual Stealth Is

The Akatsuki match of choice: Kakuzu
The wickedness shade in focus: Death-dealing mercenary mastery

Kakuzu, the Akatsuki’s sellsword, finds purpose wherever greed leads him, and his practicality is why he kills. That mercenary mindset gives him a decent parallel to Toji Fushiguro. Where the similarity ends, though, is in Toji’s approach: he doesn’t chase more money—he seeks more lethality through pure mastery.

Toji is driven by revenge against everything that reminds him of the family wounds he suffered. His contempt toward magical powers doesn’t stop him from shaping the Jujutsu Kaisen timeline through skill alone. He’s defeated sorcerers as strong as Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto without relying on sorcery gimmicks.

If you imagine a showdown between them, you don’t need long to reach the result. Toji would reduce Kakuzu’s entire fighting plan as efficiently as someone dealing with a handful of cockroaches. Even with Kakuzu’s multiple lives and his elemental mask defenses, Toji’s lack of an energy signature and his superior stealth make him extremely hard to even understand—let alone catch. On top of that, Toji’s Inverted Spear of Heaven would likely cancel Kakuzu’s magical tricks before they matter.

3 Suguru Geto Would Still Give Itachi Uchiha an Epic Fight

The Akatsuki match of choice: Itachi Uchiha
The wickedness shade in focus: Descending angels

Itachi and Geto both start from intentions that feel noble. Neither of them imagines themselves walking the long road toward anime’s most brutal villain club. Even so, their shared descent into malevolence makes them believable candidates for a hypothetical clash—despite the fact that their combat styles are otherwise completely different.

On Itachi’s side, his techniques are built to land decisive hits and reinforce Akatsuki dominance. Under certain conditions, Itachi’s Susanoo titan and Yata Mirror could blunt Geto’s cursed spirit army. Meanwhile, Amaterasu—or even Izanami—could potentially end Geto if it connects. The catch is that Itachi’s medical condition limits how freely he can use those powers.

Geto’s cursed spirit force, however, isn’t just large—it’s massive, with well over 6,000 fighters. And his commander-level strategic skill helps the army function like an extension of his will. That means Geto would likely target Itachi’s two biggest vulnerabilities: Itachi’s need for continuous focus to access his most impactful moves, and the limited duration he can sustain that pressure.

So Geto wouldn’t necessarily need a “fair fight.” He could simply choose not to engage directly, then drown Itachi from the Naruto side using other methods. Geto’s transformation arc into something monstrous only strengthens that advantage. Unlike Itachi, he doesn’t offer empathy a second chance—and in a villain’s path, the absence of empathy can be converted directly into more power.

2 Kenjaku Would Dissect Obito’s Mind

The Akatsuki match of choice: Obito Uchiha (Tobi)
The wickedness shade in focus: Morbid fascination

When a tragic escapist trying to reshape the Shinobi World collides with a mad scientist who treats the structure of jujutsu society like a toy, only one of them survives. In a duel between these masterminds, the grim future that each finds fascinating would only be proven through one intense, high-stakes battle.

Kenjaku’s macabre habits are part of the point. From body-hopping to the grotesque “Death Paintings” that function like art experiments, he’s done it all to push toward his ultimate vision: humanity merging with cursed energy. With a mind like that, he has a brutal set of tools ready to entertain himself on the way to his deranged dream. His version of Domain Expansion in Jujutsu Kaisen is framed as one of the most terrifying, and his stolen Idle Transfiguration gives him endless fuel for his unhinged experiments.

Obito Uchiha brings a different kind of dominance. His Ten-Tails Jinchuriki transformation grants him broad elemental mastery. He also has access to space-time manipulation via Kamui, and he can shape how reality is perceived in an opponent’s mind through Izanagi. Still, Obito’s abilities are constrained by time limits, and they also depend on trauma he hasn’t processed. That’s exactly the sort of psychological vulnerability Kenjaku’s manipulative intellect would quickly probe.

With Kenjaku’s talent for destroying minds and exploiting how other characters’ abilities work, his kit would gain a terrifying advantage in a showdown against Obito. And this isn’t a “recent” obsession—Kenjaku has been doing this kind of mental warfare for more than 1,000 years.

These Naruto characters are presented as the strongest individuals in the series.

1 Ryomen Sukuna Would Extend the Meaning of Pain

The Akatsuki match of choice: Nagato (Pain)
The wickedness shade in focus: Boss villain savagery

It’s possible to argue that Pain is the strongest Akatsuki member—at least when it comes to the organization’s public image. But Pain doesn’t realize that a villain like Sukuna doesn’t care about appearances in the Jujutsu Kaisen universe.

Ironically, the biggest top showdown on this list is framed as the quickest one. During their brief hypothetical walk through the Shinobi World, Sukuna’s deadliest innate techniques appear made to humble the Akatsuki. Sukuna’s “culinary masterclass” in human brutality—powered by Dismantle, Cleave, and the World-Cutting Slash—would render Pain’s Deva and Preta Paths ineffective due to Sukuna’s speed and the mechanics behind World-Cutting Slash. Even more, Sukuna’s Domain Expansion variant, Malevolent Shrine, would erase all Six Paths of Pain the moment a ninja headband comes undone.

With Sukuna, there’s no space for moral debate and no tragic justification to soften the impact. The King of Curses rejects mercy, laughs at human suffering, and enforces his own will simply because he can. With enough power to dismantle not only Nagato but the entire organization behind him, Sukuna pushes the idea of a shonen villain into a new level of cruelty—where the Akatsuki are just another course.

Jujutsu Kaisen cast (as listed)

Cast

Junya Enoki — Yuji Itadori
Yuichi Nakamura — Satoru Gojo