Naoya bullies Maki in Jujutsu Kaisen mainly through misogynistic verbal abuse, belittling her abilities, and mocking her appearance and status within the Zenin clan.

Basic idea

  • Naoya sees himself as a “genius” Zenin heir and looks down on Maki as inferior, both as a woman and as someone rejected by the clan.
  • His “bullying” is less schoolyard teasing and more systemic emotional abuse, harassment, and power-tripping inside a toxic family structure.

How Naoya bullied Maki

Verbal and ideological abuse

  • He makes openly sexist comments, treating women as lesser and implying Maki should “know her place” instead of trying to be a sorcerer on equal footing with men.
  • He talks about Maki as someone who “doesn’t deserve to live” despite acknowledging her beauty, while saying Mai is more acceptable because she fits the submissive role the clan expects.

Mocking her status and dreams

  • Naoya attacks Maki’s ambition to become a strong jujutsu sorcerer, framing it as ridiculous for a woman and for someone the clan deemed a failure.
  • He leans on his clan status and inherited technique to constantly remind her she is “beneath” him, reinforcing the Zenin clan’s hierarchy as a weapon against her.

Insults about her appearance and injuries

  • When Maki returns to the Zenin household after Shibuya with severe burns, Naoya immediately insults her face instead of showing concern, using her trauma as another angle to hurt her.
  • This isn’t just shallow teasing; it’s a way to minimize her suffering and deny her dignity after she barely survived life-threatening events.

Emotional bullying within the clan

  • Naoya’s behavior reflects the broader clan’s abuse: he embodies the attitude that “strong men” decide everything and that women and the “weak” are tools or obstacles.
  • By constantly belittling Maki in front of others and framing her existence as an embarrassment, he reinforces the isolation and rejection she faces from her own family.

Fandom and “hug bit” interpretations

  • Some fans discuss a “hug bit” headcanon where Naoya would taunt Maki with lines like “come in for a hug” before attacking, reading it as another way he mixed mock affection with cruelty to mess with her boundaries.
  • These interpretations emphasize that Naoya’s bullying was not only physical or verbal but also psychological, designed to humiliate and unsettle her rather than just defeat her in a straight fight.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.