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Tucked beneath Jujutsu Kaisen’s cursed battles and supernatural disruption lies a heartbeat shaped by something older and deeply rooted in another titan of the shonen world. While Gege Akutami has never hidden his admiration for Bleach, the threads of inspiration run deeper than flashy fight choreography and spirit-based power systems.
Among all the nods to Tite Kubo’s legacy, one of the most poignant mirrors is in the bond between Megumi Fushiguro and his step-sister Tsumiki, which is a dynamic quietly echoing that of Byakuya and Rukia from Bleach.
Some tid-bits:
★ Sukuna targeting Megumi & Gojo’s death were planned from the beginning
★ Megumi caring about his sister is based on Rukia’s relationship with her brother from Bleach
★ In original storyboard, Utahime is also present in the page where Gojo gave the big grin pic.twitter.com/HSK1RuXPhX
— Myamura (@Go_Jover) April 20, 2025
Tsumiki! Megumi’s First Shield
The resemblance isn’t just surface-level sibling sentiment. Both pairs share bonds forged not by blood but by circumstance and unspoken devotion. Megumi and Tsumiki weren’t blessed with parental warmth. Instead, it was abandonment that pushed them closer and turned them into each other’s shelter.
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Tsumiki took on the quiet burden of care, becoming more guardian than sister, anchoring Megumi during years when no one else did. That love, born out of absence, became the very chisel that carved Megumi’s core. And it’s precisely that emotional foundation that Sukuna weaponized with surgical cruelty.
Sukuna’s Cruel Precision
When Sukuna reemerged, his insidious grip on Megumi wasn’t forged through brute force, but through exploiting that single thread of love—Tsumiki. He saw what Megumi held sacred and used it to loosen his resolve, poisoning his heart just enough to slip in. It’s a betrayal so personal it stings like family tragedy, not just plot development. And it’s this kind of layered storytelling where Akutami’s reverence for Bleach becomes more than homage.
Byakuya and Rukia followed a similar path, only reversed. Where Tsumiki mothered Megumi, it was Byakuya who had to learn how to be a brother. Initially cold and emotionally barricaded, he slowly embraced his role in Rukia’s life. The bond grew, not easily or perfectly, but undeniably. And when it came down to it, Byakuya would bleed before letting harm touch her. Akutami clearly saw something beautiful in that evolution.
These are not only background character arcs but emotional scaffolding that gives Jujutsu Kaisen its soul. It’s Akutami picking up the brush from Kubo’s palette and painting his own pain-drenched ode to familial love and loss. Before Jujutsu Kaisen existed, there was a young Akutami, moved enough by Bleach to write poems about it. That quiet obsession grew roots, and a new world of curses and connections emerged from it. Megumi and Tsumiki’s story is a ghost of another tale, living in a new form.
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