Nanami Kento

Kento Nanami is a supporting character in Jujutsu Kaisen. He was a former student of Tokyo Jujutsu High where he was an underclassman of Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto. Nanami initially left Jujutsu High after graduating to become a salaryman, but returned four years later to continue working as a jujutsu sorcerer. While working as a Jujutsu High sorcerer, Nanami was ranked grade 1 and operated primarily out of the Tokyo campus. With Satoru's introduction, he also became a close mentor to Yuji Itadori.

Nanami is a tall, well-built man with blonde hair styled with a neat part. Nanami has very thin eyebrows as well as small eyes that are usually covered by his signature sunglasses, which don't have arms that wrap around the ears. Befitting a former office worker, Nanami is usually fully dressed in a business suit. His usual suit consists of a white dress shirt underneath a tan blazer with matching slacks and light shoes. Attached to his dress shirt, there is a holster that sheaths Nanami's blunt sword, hidden by the back of his blazer. He also sports a necktie that shares the same dotted pattern as the bandages around his blunt sword. After graduating from Jujutsu High and working for corporate, Nanami wore a vertical striped jacket over a white button-down shirt and dark-colored tie with white dots all over it, vertical striped pants, and black shoes. As a student, Nanami wore a normal Jujutsu High uniform. His hair was styled slightly differently when he was younger.

Nanami's personality is that of a wise and reserved individual who appears calm and indifferent, often coming across as stoic and aloof. He is highly practical, straightforward, and doesn't engage in impractical optimism or vague conversations. Despite his serious demeanor, Nanami is sociable and enjoys intelligent conversations. His impatience is evident in his dislike for working overtime, and he's serious about adhering strictly to his required work hours. Beneath his tough exterior, Nanami has a practical and serious perspective on life, finding adulthood to be the accumulation of life's little inconveniences rather than age or experience. He initially treated Yuji as a child to protect his youth, but later acknowledges Yuji's growth and abilities. Nanami has a hard time respecting those in the jujutsu sorcerer profession, despite being one himself. He returned to this life from being a salaryman due to the small bits of appreciation he received from innocent people, which he values more than his previous work's lack of impact. Haunted by his failures and haunted by his past mistakes, Nanami's past experiences, such as his classmate Yu Haibara's death, have left a lasting impact on his perspective. In summary, Nanami's personality is a mix of practicality, seriousness, and a hint of social interaction beneath his tough exterior. He's driven by a desire to find meaning in his work and make an impact in a world filled with curses and danger. Nanami is a very wise and reserved kind of man, often appearing so calm and indifferent that he comes off as stoic and aloof. He seems like the kind of person who's too serious about his work, but Nanami just knows how to separate sentimentalism from service. He's blunt and straight to the point in most conversations and doesn't care for impractical optimism[3] or questions left open to interpretation.[4]

Additionally, Nanami is very avid and quick to express his irritation, either on his face and verbally with his words. Nanami is often very impatient. He hates working overtime and is very serious about not going a single minute over what's required of him.[5] Beneath his tough exterior, Nanami is actually quite sociable and doesn't mind intelligent conversations.[6] He's practical and overly serious to an almost comedic point on occasion as well. He claims he only became a jujutsu sorcerer because it's slightly less idiotic than being a salaryman. In the role of one of Yuji's mentors, Nanami is a very big contrast to Satoru, who is far more outspoken and easy-going.[7] Yuji and Satoru describe Nanami as "gloomy" and the former didn't believe they would get along at first. Nanami is just a normal man weighed down by the mundane day-to-day practices of life that stole his youth from him. Nanami doesn't believe age or life-threatening experience propels one into adulthood. Instead, he feels that it's the build-up of all the little inconveniences throughout life that transform people into adults.[9] He initially treated Yuji as a child because he didn't want to see him abandon his youth for the sake of being a jujutsu sorcerer. However, Yuji eventually proved himself and forced Nanami to acknowledge him.

Nanami knows being a jujutsu sorcerer is a dangerous and demanding job for crazy people, and so he has a hard time respecting people in the profession. Even though Nanami and Satoru are longtime friends, the former claims he doesn't respect Satoru despite their mutual trust in one another.[11] He returned to being a sorcerer from the life of a salaryman because he never felt truly appreciated and didn't believe his work had any significant impact on anyone. In contrast, work as a sorcerer allowed him to build up small bits of appreciation from innocent people. For Nanami, this was more than enough to allow him to live without regrets.[12] Nanami had a similar yet naturally less mature personality while he was a student at Jujutsu High. He saw missions as a burden but his negativity was always offset by his classmate Yu Haibara's extreme optimism.[13] Haibara's death affected Nanami greatly and likely played a role in his initial decision to leave life behind as a jujutsu sorcerer. One of the reasons he believes jujutsu sorcerers are trash is because they must force their comrades to accept that they must willingly sacrifice themselves. He recognizes that this lead him to "run away" from the profession, admitting that it's a more befitting phrase than suggesting he "quit".[14] Nanami wants to believe he's never been frustrated by his own uselessness, but many of his failures haunt him, such as allowing Haibara to die