After reading (or watching) the Shibuya Incident arc in Jujutsu Kaisen, everyone must be feeling perplexed about the Prison Realm. What if I say that this topic was already foreshadowed in JJK anime season 1? Yeah, the Prison Realm was teased earlier and brought back into play in the second season to shock us with the series’ most unexpected twist of all time. So, for those curious anime fans, we’ve compiled a quick explainer about the Prison Realm in Jujutsu Kaisen. Keep reading to learn about what is the Prison realm and how it work, how to seal and unseal someone in it, etc.
Spoilers Warning: This article includes spoilers for the Prison Realm and a few characters in Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2. We suggest you watch the anime and read the manga to avoid ruining the intended experience.
What is the Prison Realm in Jujutsu Kaisen
A Prison Realm which is also known as Gokumonkyō literally translates to “Prison Gate or Hell’s Gate”. As seen by its appearance, you can already predict that it’s a special cursed object. It features a powerful living barrier that has the capacity to confine anything or anybody to a pocket realm from which that thing/person sealed can’t escape forever. Also, remember that there is nothing in this world that this Prison Realm cannot seal. It is also referred to as a ‘Taboo object’ in the Jujutsu Universe.
Furthermore, it is also mentioned that this Prison Realm originated from the dead remnants of the Buddhist Monk Genshin. Now that you know about what it is. It’s time to learn about how it works which we have discussed below. There are lots of factors and sets of rules to get it into play. Of course one of the most powerful cursed objects has to come up with some sort of rules, isn’t it?
How the Prison Realm Works in Jujutsu Kaisen
The Prison Realm looks like a Rubik’s cube and can perfectly fit into the hands of one. So how one can use it to trap someone/something is to follow some set of rules and conditions. This is how the Prison Realm basically works:
- The first step to open the prison realm by a spell and set off the curse
- As a response to the request, the cube starts to unfold itself into a giant flesh with a big eye in the center of its body. Its body is elongated by its four corners like pulling it by its edges.
- It has a giant bleeding eye at its center which is kept open by sutures so that it may focus on its intended victim to trap/confine them.
- Once it opened near the target it ambushes and captures the target with ease and the Gate is closed with another spell.
As for the rules and regulations to be followed. I’ll list them out step by step for your understanding, it is as follows:
- The targeted person or object must be placed and maintained within a four-meter range for a specific time period (varies from person to person).
- And then the“Gate Open” spell is used to open the cursed object so that the cursed object can devour and seal them inside it.
- After trapping the victim, the “Gate Close” spell is used to wrap up the whole process, and the cube returns to its normal small cubic form.
What Is Inside a Prison Realm in Jujutsu Kaisen
You may be now wondering, how it feels or what it’s like to be inside this mini dimension. We do have an answer for that too, thanks to Gege. The person who is trapped becomes immovable once they are sealed like they are in a literal prison. More importantly, they are unable to use any of their cursed energy. Furthermore, Time stands still inside the Prison Realm, it is surely a place that will make you lose your mental peace and go insane. And last but not least, the confined individual is said to be inside an unsettling and creepy environment that is surrounded by gloomy skulls and bones.
How to Unseal Someone From the Prison Realm
There comes a twist in the tale of the Prison Realm which is that it exists as two halves actually known as the “Front Gate” and “Back Gate”. The front gate is the main piece that is used for sealing and as you can predict already, the back is used for unsealing. However, that is not easy one thinks as it also includes various factors to deal with. The holder of the front has the absolute control and power to unseal or unlock the sealed person/thing from the Prison Realm. The carrier of the back gate can’t open it like the front gate bearer instead they have to force it to open with a cursed technique that can cancel or negate other cursed techniques. It’s a little bit complex process that has to be explained with more details for better understanding.
Master Tengen knowing the presence of such a powerful cursed object like this wanted it to remain hidden. Thus they sealed the Back Gate to conceal the existence of Prison Real. But things didn’t go the way they planned as Kenjaku eventually tracked the Front Gate of Prison Realm somewhere else and got his hands on it. This is how he ensnared Gojo during the Shibuya Incident arc (read this article to see how Gojo got trapped by Geto).
And that’s everything we know so far about the Prison Realm in JJK. We hope we were able to explain this cursed prison in a simple and concise manner. This played a bigger role in the Shibuya Incident arc and for those confused souls, this will clearly help them gain a better view. Stay tuned for more articles on the Shibuya Incident and in the meantime, tell us what you think of this Prison Realm in the comments below.
Frequently Asked Questions
The prison Realm in JJK is a cursed object which has the power to capture any person or thing within it.
The only person capable of going against Gojo is Sukuna. And Gojo vs Sukuna is really happening in the manga right now, you can check out our article on it.
Kenjaku who is in the body of Geto used the Prison Realm to trap Gojo. You can read more about that in our How Geto Trapped Gojo using Prison Realm in the JJK article here.
