Gege giving Jujutsu Kaisen's most controversial character Nanami's dream doesn't make sense, and that's the whole point

Something about Kento Nanami in Jujutsu Kaisen has always bothered me. No, it is not his death, although I will have to admit that it was pretty heartbreaking. What got to me was how the dream he carried for so long was left unfulfilled.

It's not like he wanted fame or fortune; his dream was to simply quit his current lifestyle, move to a tropical country, and live a quiet, peaceful life. But in the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, that dream almost felt like a cruel joke.

When Nanami told Itadori that he had planned to retire and move to Malaysia, I had a little hope, but more of it was dread, because Gege Akutami always throws in a twist that leaves the audience, myself included, completely shaken. The creator of Jujutsu Kaisen had made a world that constantly rewards the corrupt and punishes the virtuous.

Maybe that is why, in my opinion, this dream of Nanami’s feels so disconnected from everything else in the story that it starts to look less like a character goal and more like a narrative tool. Honestly, the Jujutsu world is broken beyond repair. From the very beginning, Jujutsu Kaisen establishes that strength, manipulation, and selfish ambition are what get rewarded.

And he was not like Gojo, who had so much power that he could stand up against this system without the system trying to quiet him down. Nanami didn’t fit in with the sorcerer world. He tried to leave it. He became a salaryman because, as he put it, at least the evil in the corporate world was predictable.

But to understand his situation, I want to talk about Mei Mei. What my understanding about her character is that she is self-serving to the bone. She says she only does things if they make money. She’s not particularly concerned with others’ lives. Her approach to curses is transactional.

And the consequence of her being like this is that she is rewarded. She gets to live, she escapes the bloodshed, and she even manages to flee to Malaysia, a twisted parallel of Nanami’s dream.

She treated Jujutsu sorcery like a business and admits she doesn’t care about anyone but herself gets to survive and retire. But Nanami had to lose everything. This parallel between them is too huge to be chalked down as a coincidence. I believe they are Gege’s commentary.

Jujutsu Kaisen is showing us that in this corrupt society, the people who play by the rules or try to change them do not get their happy ever after. But those who adapt to the rot seem to thrive and live unaffected by the chaos.

Why was Nanami controversial, and meaning behind his dream in Jujutsu Kaisen?

Here’s what I think makes Nanami in Jujutsu Kaisen’s most controversial character: he reflects the pain of real life. We either know someone like him or are like him. What I am getting at is, sometimes people quietly carry their burden, do the right thing, keep their head down, and dream of a simple escape. And just like in real life, many have to face the bitter truth of not always getting what one deserves.

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Also, his dream of shifting to Malaysia had some meaning. Because think about it, if he wanted to move somewhere, Nanami could have chosen to settle down in Kyoto or Okinawa. I think it’s because Malaysia represents a clean break. It’s far enough from Japan, from Jujutsu society, from curses, from death. It’s almost like a dreamland.

In my opinion, he doesn’t want just rest, he wants freedom. To never again be part of this violent machine. He dreams of running away from everything. But in this story, his dream is deliberately vague, because it seems like he never fully believes he’ll get it. That’s the most painful part. It’s not that Nanami’s dream didn’t make sense; it’s that it made too much sense in a world that refused to allow it.

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