Maki Zen’in goes through some of the darkest and most brutal development in Jujutsu Kaisen , but she is very much alive and becomes one of the strongest characters in the series.

Quick answer: what happened to Maki?

  • She was born into the Zen’in clan as a “failure” with almost no cursed energy and was treated like trash by her family.
  • During the Perfect Preparation / Zen’in clan massacre events, Mai sacrifices herself for Maki, taking all of Maki’s cursed energy and “completing” her Heavenly Restriction, turning Maki into a Toji‑level physical monster.
  • Empowered by this new state, Maki slaughters the Zen’in clan, including her father, and cuts ties with the family that oppressed her.
  • Later arcs show her calmly taking down high‑level threats like Naoya’s cursed spirit, fully embracing this cold, liberated, almost Toji‑like role.

So in short: she loses her sister, becomes terrifyingly strong, wipes out her clan, and keeps fighting as a key player in the later story.

Early Maki: “failed” Zen’in

  • Maki is born into the Zen’in family, daughter of Ogi and older twin of Mai.
  • Because she can’t see curses and has negligible cursed energy, she’s bullied, underestimated, and written off as inferior within the clan.
  • She leaves the clan for Jujutsu High, vowing to get strong and one day become head of the family, using weapons and physical skill instead of cursed techniques.

Her early character is all about grit: stubborn, blunt, “cold” on the surface, but driven by a need to prove the Zen’in wrong.

The turning point: Mai’s death and Maki’s new body

The real break comes with the Zen’in clan internal conflict:

  • Maki and Mai are pushed into a situation where they’re both on the verge of death.
  • Inside a dream‑like space, Mai tells Maki she will die so that Maki can be free; she uses her ability and life to take all of Maki’s remaining cursed energy, “perfecting” Maki’s Heavenly Restriction.
  • When Maki wakes up, her body is transformed: no cursed energy, but overwhelming physical power and presence comparable to Toji Fushiguro.

It’s both an emotional and power‑scale shock: Maki gains insane strength but at the cost of her twin sister’s life.

Zen’in clan massacre and darker Maki

After Mai’s sacrifice, Maki snaps the chains the clan had on her:

  • She kills her father instantly and then proceeds to annihilate the Zen’in clan’s elite fighters, including units like the Kukuru and Hei with ease.
  • This is framed as her fulfilling the promise to destroy the clan and break the system that crushed her and Mai.
  • Emotionally, she becomes colder, more detached, and far more reminiscent of Toji: pragmatic, lethal, and almost serene in battle.

From this point on, a lot of fans talk about whether this is “peak Maki” or “character assassination,” and there are big forum debates about how her writing shifted.

Later Maki: top‑tier fighter

In later arcs:

  • Maki fights Naoya’s cursed spirit form while barely acknowledging his attacks, staying calm and almost bored as she overwhelms him.
  • She demonstrates precise, controlled brutality, showing she’s not just a berserker, but a composed, tactical fighter at Toji‑like levels.
  • She advises others like Noritoshi not to repeat her mistakes, hinting that under the steel exterior she’s still processing Mai’s death and everything she did to the clan.

So the “latest news” in manga terms is that she’s a fully realized Heavenly Restriction monster, one of the strongest on the battlefield, with her old emotional warmth buried under trauma and purpose.

TL;DR: Maki didn’t die; she lost Mai, completed her Heavenly Restriction, massacred the Zen’in clan, and evolved into a Toji‑tier, terrifyingly strong sorcerer‑killer who still carries the weight of her sister and past.

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