Kinji Hakari

Kinji Hakari is a character in the Jujutsu Kaisen series. He is a third-year student at Tokyo Jujutsu High who is currently suspended for clashing with authority. While away from the school, Kinji is running the Gachinko Fight Club, a venue for hand-to-hand combat between sorcerers for money.

Appearance
Kinji is a tall young man with tan skin and a muscular build. He has small magenta-colored eyes with thin slitted eyebrows and a thin mustache made of stubble. While at Jujutsu High, Hakari had black hair styled into short twisted locks with a fade below his brow line. His hair is currently dyed light purple and in the shape of a puffy, tapered afro that slicks back toward the rear of his head.

As the boss of Gachinko Fight Club, Kinji dressed the part of a bookie. He sported a white tank-top beneath his dark fur coat along with gray pants and light-colored boots. After agreeing to combat the Culling Game, Hakari sports a Jujutsu High uniform jacket with the same jeans and boots. Unlike Yuji Itadori's hooded jacket, Kinji's uniform's hood is entirely connected and the same color as the rest of his jacket.

Personality
Kinji is a very self-absorbed type of person who cares little for the rules and regulations of Jujutsu High. Yuta Okkotsu describes him as moody and apparently, all the other students that are around Kinji's age think of him as a good-for-nothing.

Kinji is an individual who enjoys watching people get lost in their passions. He describes this as people's "fever" burning hot. Kinji is clever and pours his own fever into manipulating others. He believes people are desperate to change their lives and an easy way of directing their fever is through gambling. He doesn't believe there is a single person that exists without the fever and his goal is to manipulate all of Japan's fever with his fight club.

According to Kirara Hoshi, Kinji's fever burns hottest when he's working as a sorcerer for jujutsu high. However, Kinji's attitude and modern cursed technique don't mesh well with the higher-ups. He was suspended for assaulting a conservative member and decided to act outside their regulations. Kinji is willing to take advantage of the chaos caused by the public reveal of curses to advance his fight club. Eventually, his goal is to get his club recognized by jujutsu officials for the coming changes in their regulations.

Kinji is only willing to put his life on the line with another sorcerer if they show him a proper fever. Initially, upon encountering Yuji, Kinji felt that the first-year's fever was weak because Yuji was sent to him on the recommendation of others. Yuji explained that he's just a cog in the system of jujutsu sorcerers, which Kinji thought was boring. However, Yuji proved he's a cog in fever, burning hot enough to gain Kinji's attention. Kinji agreed to cut a deal with Yuji and his allies simply because he believes the fever never lies.

Despite his brash disposition, Kinji is very grateful for those who took care of him. He was fairly distraught learning that Masamichi Yaga died and Satoru Gojo was sealed, claiming he hadn't been so bummed since his friend Yakul got shot in the butt with an arrow. Yuji, Megumi, and Panda found this comment strange and they assumed Kinji must live a relatively calm life.

Kinji agreed to help Megumi and his allies but clarified that this isn't a personal favor, but a deal between both parties. Panda asked what exactly Kinji wanted and "sea-urchin head" (Megumi) somewhat answered for him, annoying Hakari. He felt bad for Yaga and Gojo, but Hakari was even more surprised to learn Megumi was head of the Zenin clan. Almost instantly, Hakari was nicer to Megumi and asked him to be best buds in order to gain a close ally within the Big Three Families.

Kinji comes off as very selfish and rude, but he has a kind heart who respects other people's passions. Upon meeting Charles Bernard, a potential enemy, Hakari was willing to hear him out over the stress caused by the Culling Game. He put on a tough act and claimed to have felt weird about joining another guy on a ferris wheel and only did so to scout out the amusement park for a potential place to take a girl. Hakari was confident that Japan will return to normal while Charles believed his dreams could never be achieved under the circumstances. Charles needed to take out his rage and Hakari recognized that, so he provoked Charles by insulting his passion. After their fight, Hakari made sure to check up on Charles and even asked to read his manga. Hakari asked if Charles felt better after finding an avenue for his stress through fighting and encouraged him to keep pursuing his dreams once the Culling Game ended.

Fearsome Womb Arc
Maki mentions to Megumi and Nobara that the third year student has been suspended and can't participate in the Kyoto Goodwill Event.

Gojo mentions Hakari as one of his students that can rival him in the future.

Perfect Preparation Arc
Analysis of the culling game is done and Maki instructs Megumi, alongside Yuji, to rendezvous with Hakari as earlier planned between them.

Abilities and Powers
Overall Skill Level: Hakari is widely recognized as one of the most powerful students at Tokyo Jujutsu High. Satoru Gojo, the undisputed strongest sorcerer in the world, believes that Hakari and Yuta Okkotsu will have the potential to rival his power one day. As Yuji stated, all of his senpai have stated that Hakari is exceptionally strong. Yuta even believes Hakari is the stronger of the two of them when he's worked up.

Kinji is not only an elite close-quarters combatant who possesses cursed energy that has an edge but an extraordinary jujutsu user armed with a dynamic domain. He distinguished himself in the Culling Game by defeating Hajime Kashimo, not only one of the strongest players in the death game, but one of the most powerful sorcerers Kenjaku ever encountered in one thousand years. Kinji's domain is unique and his luck is reliable, making for a combination capable of opposing any threat. Charles Bernard could see briefly into Kinji's future but he was instantly bested as soon as Kinji hit the jackpot of his domain. Kashimo nearly killed Kinji on several exchanges but he was able to repeatedly open his domain and successfully hit the jackpot to enter his unkillable mode. Kinji's strategic thinking and expert battle sense are ultimately what complemented his techniques and spurred him to victory against Kashimo.

Master Hand-to-Hand-Combatant: Kinji is an exceptionally capable hand-to-hand combatant, able to apply life-threatening pressure to Yuji, a very proficient taijutsu specialist. Yuji stopped resisting in order to win Kinji's approval and ended up suffering several blows that dealt serious damage to the first year.

While his fighting style is very direct, Kinji isn't just a brawler, but a skillful martial artist with a wide range of physical attacks in his arsenal. He uses combinations of punches, kicks, and elbows among other strikes to take out his opponent with maximum force.

Kinji's pure hand-to-hand combat skills were enough to put pressure on Charles even while the latter could see into his future. Charles acknowledged that not for this ability, Kinji would've defeated him right away with physical prowess alone. While Kinji's base state couldn't challenge Kashimo's mastery of martial arts, his close combat abilities shine the most when he's amped up by his jackpot's domain. Fueled with limitless cursed energy, Kinji's taijutsu skills were on full display, enabling him to overpower Kashimo in several exchanges.

High Tactical Intellect:

Immense Luck:

Trivia

 * Hakari ranked 54th place in the manga's 1st Character Popularity Poll with 101 votes.
 * According to Jujutsu Kaisen Official Fanbook:
 * He is a gambler.
 * He was present for the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons in Kyoto. (An event that took place during the Jujutsu Kaisen 0: Jujutsu High prequel series.) He had a disagreement with a conservative member of the jujutsu higher ups and beat them up. Kinji was suspended as a result.
 * Hakari's outfit as a bookie is directly inspired by the one worn by Tyler Durden in the movie, Fight Club.