Who is Rika Orimoto in Jujutsu Kaisen?

If you haven’t watched Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie, you may be a bit confused by mentions of Rika Orimoto. Or why the character Yuta Okkotsu chooses to call his Cursed Technique Rika. So just who is this mysterious girl, and what’s her role in Jujutsu Kaisen’s story? Here’s everything you need to know about Rika Orimoto in Jujutsu Kaisen.

Beware spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen and Jujutsu Kaisen 0.

Who is Rika Orimoto?

First introduced in Jujutsu Kaisen 0, Rika Orimoto is the childhood friend of special-grade sorcerer Yuta Okkotsu. A petite girl with long dark hair and dark eyes, a young Rika is shown to have a strong love for Yuta, gifting him a ring on his birthday with the promise to marry when they are both older.

Rika’s Fate and the Queen of Curses

Unfortunately for Yuta, his and Rika’s time together was not to last. Rika dies in a car accident shortly after the two’s promise. As Yuta watches her bleed out on the pavement, he unconsciously places a curse on her, fueled by his desire to have her stay with him. 

This gives rise to the monstrous looking curse Rika that we see repeatedly in both the anime and Jujutsu Kaisen 0 movie. As a curse, Rika is extremely powerful, earning her the moniker “Queen of Curses”. But she is also motivated by love for Yuta, protecting him from anything she considers a threat while still listening to him and respecting his wishes. 

Related: What Happened to Yuta in Jujutsu Kaisen?

Breaking the Curse and the New Rika

Towards the end of the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 movie, the curse on Rika fully breaks as Yuta cancels the bond. We see Rika in her human form once again as Yuta blames himself for turning her into a curse. In response, Rika comforts him, and thanks him for giving her more time, saying that the past six years she spent with him were happier than the time she was alive. She then bids him goodbye and fades away.

A heart touching farewell, certainly, except for one problem. When we see Yuta in the future, he’s still got Rika with him. How can that be if the original curse was broken? Turns out, the Rika we see in the later parts of the anime and manga isn’t the same Rika we see in the movie. Instead, she’s a copy of the original Rika that can engage in combat, store weapons, and act as an energy reservoir for Yuta.