Who is Panda in Jujutsu Kaisen?- All Abilities and Cores Explained! (2024)

If you have been missing Kungfu Panda for the past five years, this is high time to move on to ‘Jujutsu Panda.’ Yes, I am talking about our cute and fluffy Panda senpai from the Jujutsu Kaisen series. However, don’t be deceived by his fluffy appearance. He is a daydream dressed like a nightmare and can turn into a ruthless monster within seconds.

Among all the seniors of Jujutsu High, Panda has the most complicated back story and even more complicated cursed techniques. He is not a human, nor an animal, not even a cursed puppet, but rather a combination of bits and pieces of everything I just mentioned. You know Panda is considerably strong from the fact that he threw Todo off with a single hook. But what’s the secret behind this power? Is he a cursed puppet? or far more than that? We bring you everything that we know about Panda so far.

Panda’s Origin Story

Panda is undoubtedly the finest masterpiece of Yaga, whom he raised like his own child. To begin with, Masimichi Yaga was one of the puppet jujutsu sorcery, a technique too complicated for any ordinary to understand. Unlike any other cursed corpse, Panda doesn’t run out of cursed energy, and neither is he controlled by anyone.

Principal Yaga ultimately laid down his life protecting this forbidden jujutsu. He knew that if it fell under the wrong hands, anyone could have raised an army of cursed corps having a self-replenishing supply of cursed energy.

Thanks to Akutami sensei’s descriptive style of explaining a cursed technique, we aren’t clueless about Panda’s birth. Yaga started by creating the cores of the cursed corpses that hold the soul information. In the case of an Abrupt Mutated Cursed corpse-like Panda, he used three compatible souls that go perfectly with each other. Gradually, after weeks of hard work, the cursed cores stabilized, thereby granting self-awareness to the cursed corpse. These complicated procedures continued for months, and the cursed object learned to self-replenish its cursed energy like a jujutsu sorcerer. This is how Panda was born.

Also Read: Top 10 Most Adorable Characters Of Jujutsu Kaisen

Abilities of Panda’s Cursed Cores

Panda’s anatomy stands out from anything we have seen in Jujutsu Kaisen. According to Yaga, Panda has two siblings within him from whom he can lend powers when required. As you must have already guessed, Panda and his two siblings together form the three cores that enable him to alter his body and abilities according to his needs.

Panda Core

This form is of balance type and is often known for being an all-in-one purpose transformation. Panda usually stays calm and composed while being in this state. Moreover, he prefers to stick to this form for the most part of the day as it consumes a very little amount of cursed energy to retain it. While in this state, he rarely does anything recklessly and is best for mid-range combats. It is the perfect match for stealth or surveillance-type missions.

Gorilla Core

For worse situations that are beyond the scope of a panda, we may require a gorilla to deal with the task. Now, what better than having a Gorilla power up your sleeves? And all he needs is a simple trigger to transform into a fully-featured Gorilla. As you can guess from its enraged face, the Gorilla core is far more aggressive than the previous one.

Once he resorts to this core, he is a completely different person, and you may even find it difficult to understand his band. This mode gives him an instant boost in strength, stamina, and speed and is perfect for close combat fights. Even a skilled sorcerer like Mechmaru didn’t stand a chance before Gorilla mode’s heavy blows. However, this incredible power comes at a cost; it quickly drains Panda’s cursed energy reserve. Thus, he prefers not to sustain this form for long.

What is Panda’s Third Core?

Panda’s third sister core hasn’t been revealed in the series yet. Sadly, this core has already got crushed in his fight against Mechamaru, and there’s no way of telling if it’s repairable or not.

In any case, we can deduce a rough image of his third core from how he described it. He called it the shy and bashful one, and it only makes sense since the third core is supposed to be the opposite of Gorilla. (Panda is the balance between the two other cores) Can you think of an animal that fits this description? Something between squirrel and Koala, which is small, stealthy, and sturdy.

Other Notable Features of Panda

Panda is a cursed corpse, so naturally, it can take a huge amount of damage without breaking down. He relies a lot on predicting his opponent’s movements and adapting accordingly. As I just mentioned, the huge cursed energy reserve within him flows through three different cores, making it almost impossible to read his movements.

‘Unpredictibility’ is the word that defines him and sets him apart from all the rest. Coming to his personality, he is more humane than most other Jujutsu Kaisen characters. He can go the extra mile for his friends and genuinely cares for everyone around him. So it’s safe to say that in this messed up world of shamans, curses, and all other cool beings, all it takes is a panda to steal the show.

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