Is Mechamaru in love with Miwa in ‘Jujutsu Kaisen?’

Warning: Spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen up until season two episode seven.

Jujutsu Kaisen certainly has its moments of fun and lightheartedness, with the series being known among fans for its modern sense of humor which tends to include a lot of real-life pop culture references. The levity is undoubtedly necessary as a contrast to the harrowing and tragic moments as well as for enhancing the effect of the latter.

Scenes like the one we had at the beginning of season two, episode six, with the main trio, Yuji, Nobara, and Megumi just momentarily being carefree teenagers, allow viewers to further the bonds with the characters while they are in an everyday setting before they are thrown into sticky situations that we fear they may not be able to come out of unscathed.

Having said that, while it is clear that creator Gege Akutami has a great sense of humor and can balance the happy and the sad masterfully, like other Shonen authors, it doesn’t seem like writing romance is his forte. Or rather, any seeming potential romantic storyline can only appear to us when it is doomed from the get-go. It certainly doesn’t help that the fate of Junpei in the first season and Riko during the Hidden Inventory Arc can give anyone trust issues, something studio MAPPA plays with by making the intro sequences seem like everything is going to be sunshine and rainbows only for it to end up being the exact opposite.

It doesn’t mean there aren’t romantic implications. In fact, the two first episodes of the Shibuya Arc hint at the special feelings of the two characters. One is the newly introduced Yuko Ozawa, who has had a crush on our wholesome main character since middle school, and the other is Kokichi Muta, better known since season one as Mechamaru.

Does Kokichi Muta love Kasumi Miwa? Does she love him back?

If it wasn’t clear before, season two episode seven, “Evening Festival,” made it obvious that Muta had feelings for Miwa. Of course, this is more for the emotional manipulation of the viewers than something that has any happy payoff. In fact, if you’ve watched enough anime you’d see all the death flags with the way Kokichi’s brain went to the blue-haired girl as he thought about returning to his classmates and being able to enjoy hanging out with everyone in his new, restored body.

Before Mahito defeats him, Kasumi is also on his mind. And because that’s not enough for the sadistic Gege Akutami, the story cuts back to the room where Mechamaru “went to sleep” and where Miwa talks to him about enjoying their time together, wanting to get to know each other better, and to one day visit his real body, completely unaware that that will never come to pass.

There’s an additional manga scene from the Shibuya Incident Arc, which isn’t yet animated at the time of this writing, and that further corroborates the feelings Muta had for Miwa. But was it requited love? That’s more debatable. “He liked her,” wrote a fan under a Reddit post discussing the relationship.

“It’s unclear what exactly she thought about him, but she definitely at least liked him as a friend and colleague.”

It is easy to speculate that something may have come out of the relationship if Muta and Miwa had gotten the opportunity to hang out with each other in person and the time to get to know each other better, instead of the semi-first-grade sorcerer having to interact with her solely through his puppet. But as another Redditor justifiably said: “Too bad Gege loves hurting us.”