Jujutsu Kaisen: Haibara Yu's Catastrophic Impact on Nanami and Geto

Haibara Yu is a cheery and optimistic first year at Jujutsu High, first introduced in the "Hidden Inventory" arc soon to be animated in Jujutsu Kaisen's highly anticipated second season. Haibara is the polar opposite of his classmate Nanami Kento, with his upbeat, outgoing personality emphasized in contrast to Nanami's seriousness.

While being close to his classmate, Haibara also looks up to the upper-grade students, namely Geto Suguru. This feeling is not at all one-sided either, as Geto admires Haibara's outlook on life and optimistic approach to the harsh world of Jujutsu sorcery.

How Haibara Yu Inspired Geto Suguru

Second-year Geto was on the verge of spiraling into a dark place when Haibara enrolled in Jujutsu high. The optimistic teen became the only person to give the sorcerer a positive perspective on becoming a Jujutsu shaman, despite the evil Geto fixated on. The only reason Geto continued his studies and didn't deviate was because of Haibara; he gave Geto another outlook on Jujutsu, especially following the horrors he witnessed first-hand on the Riko mission he undertook with Gojo Satoru.

With Haibara's presence, Geto continued to try seeing the best in people and felt as though humanity was worth saving, staving off a violent spiral. What finally pushes him over the edge was Haibara's untimely death. Here Geto realized his own and all of his friends' futures, believing they were destined to be corpses upon a mountain of sorcerers. Haibara's passing was what cut Geto loose of the one strand tethering him to the good side of Jujutsu sorcery. Following this, Geto began his massacre of humankind, going down his chosen path of violence and murder seen in Jujutsu Kaisen 0.

How Haibara Yu's Death Affected Nanami Kento

Nanami takes Haibara's death differently from Geto, but both are affected similarly. The passing of their close friend changed both Nanami and Geto's perspectives on Jujutsu, but it drove Nanami to give up entirely. His whole attitude is built around the trauma of losing Haibara, beginning his belief that Jujutsu Sorcery is an unending pit of despair that led him to give up on the burden of being a sorcerer in the first place.

Since rejoining Jujutsu Society, Nanami has been mentoring the series' protagonist Itadori Yuji, the first-year who undoubtedly reminds him of Haibara. Itadori's positive can-do attitude and the way he likes people to the point of sympathetic anger are reflective of Nanami's old classmate, which is why he strives to protect Itadori. In his own final moments, Nanami even passes on the same curse he felt Haibara gave to him, forwarding the baton to become a Jujutsu sorcerer and keep exorcising curses. From Haibara to Nanami -- and Nanami to Itadori -- the burden of Jujutsu will be continually passed until there are either no more sorcerers or no more curses.

The important part of Haibara Yu's tragedy is not centered on his death itself, but the two people it most affected. Had he not passed away, Geto may never have spiraled into a murderous antagonist. Haibara's death showed Nanami there was no point in becoming a Jujutsu Sorcerer, but the guilt that followed his leaving drove Nanami back into the society he despises -- the same guilt he gave to Itadori. If Haibara had survived, the world of Jujutsu Kaisen that fans know and love may have been unrecognizable, possibly for the better.