Jujutsu Kaisen: Is Yuko Ozawa Yuji’s Girlfriend? Relationship Explained!

Romantic relationships aren’t really the focus of Jujutsu Kaisen, which isn’t unusual for a shonen series. Such series often have one or two hints at romance, but these are either never confirmed or are confirmed in the epilogue of the series. Numerous hints have been provided in relation to the main characters, but the recent addition of Yuko Ozawa has made things complicated when Yuji and, in a way, Nobara are concerned. So, is Yuko Ozawa Yuji’s girlfriend? Keep reading to find out.

As of the current timeline, Yuko Ozawa is (still) not Yuji Itadori’s girlfriend. Yuko was Yuji’s high school classmate and Yuji openly stated that he liked her even though she was short and fat, which resulted in all the other boys in school disliking her. She heard that secretly; since then, she has liked Yuji but never dared to approach him. Once she moved to Tokyo, she grew an additional 15 centimeters and lost a lot of weight, so her appearance changed, and she thought she could approach Itadori. But, since their meeting, she has not appeared, and it is unknown whether something will happen between them, as Akutami hasn’t really explored that aspect further.

The rest of this article will explore the relationship between Yuji Itadori and Yuko Ozawa while focusing, in particular, on the nature of their relationship and whether they are in love with each other or not, i.e., whether Yuko Ozawa is actually Yuji Itadori’s girlfriend in the series or not. If you’re not fully up-to-date with the events of Jujutsu Kaisen, this article might contain some important spoilers, but we have to state that no new information will be presented here, as we will focus on old and well-known facts about the two of them.

Yuko Ozawa likes Yuji Itadori but blame Akutami for not revealing to us whether Yuji likes her back

At the beginning of the Shibuya Incident Arc, while Nobara and Yuji are discussing what to do, a girl is seen observing them. As Yuji heads out to the cinema by himself and Nobara does her shopping, she is suddenly approached by that same girl, who is somewhat taller than her and has a very confused and insecure appearance.

Nobara is somewhat freaked out, but when the girl asks about Yuji Itadori, she becomes openly confused. Namely, it is obvious that the girl is interested in Yuji, and since she saw Nobara being on friendly terms with him, she thought she would approach her to find out more information about him. The two of them end up in a cafe.

The girl is actually Yuko Ozawa, and she is Itadori’s former classmate who left school because she moved to Tokyo with her family. She had liked Yuji for a time, but nothing happened between them because she went away; now that she had seen him in Tokyo, she wanted to try, and Nobara was her best way of approaching the situation.

Nobara was a bit confused by her interest in Yuji, which prompted Yuko to ask her whether she is also in love with him, suggesting that Yuko would back out in such a scenario, but Nobara outright rejected the idea (although, deep inside, she wondered whether she skipped a beat there, although she later explained to Megumi that she realized that she would be quite annoyed if Yuji got a girlfriend before she got a boyfriend).

When Yuko asked Nobara whether Yuji had a girlfriend, she immediately called Megumi, as she though that he would know more about Yuji than her, and she was right. Megumi stated that he thought that Yuji did not have a girlfriend based on the fact that he had a pin-up poster in his room and that he didn’t really spend time with anyone, which made Yuko happy.

When she asked him whether he knew what type of girls Yuji liked, Megumi said that he thought that Yuji had mentioned that he liked taller girls, to which Nobara and Yuko cheerfully concluded that she had a chance. Nobara then immediately called him over, and he arrived in record time, but an issue arose as there was a chance that Yuji wouldn’t recognize Yuko and that he would say something stupid. Why is that, you ask?

Well, Yuko looked profoundly different in high school. Namely, she was small, she was fat, she had a different hairdo, and she was overall a completely different person. Due to her appearance, Yuko was detested by all the boys in the school, save for Yuji, who actually said he liked her.

Namely, one day, after school, Yuko overheard a conversation between Yuji and two of his friends. They had asked Yuji whom, from their class, he liked, and while he initially said no one, when asked again, he picked Yuko. His friends were freaked out, saying that she was fat and ate all the time, but Yuji said that she was different, that there was something beautiful in her manner of eating, and that he had beautiful handwriting as well. When his friends told him that he liked tall girls with big butts, he said it was something completely different.

This made Yuko feel special, and as she remarked back then, she had initially hated all the boys in school, but from that moment on, she did not hate Yuji anymore. Of course, she never dared to approach him, and Yuji is just Yuji. He is a bit stupid regarding such stuff, so nothing happened.

Soon, Yuko moved with her family to Tokyo, where she grew an additional 15 cm and also lost a lot of weight due to the stress. So when she approached Nobara, she was a beautiful yet shy and insecure girl, but she also looked wholly different than before.

But, surprisingly enough, when Yuji came and observed her, he recognized her immediately, which prompted Nobara and Megumi to congratulate him, as he did the right thing. As they went home, Yuji and Yuko separated themselves and talked a bit alone, and Yuji said that he would see her around before leaving. Megumi commented how it was stupid that they did not exchange numbers, but Nobara added that it would be fine since she had exchanged numbers with her.

So, as you can see, Yuko cannot be considered as Yuji’s girlfriend at the moment, but there is some potential there, as Yuji seemed to enjoy her company. Now, we can blame Akutami for not exploring this further, as Yuko has not appeared since. The Shibuya Incident will soon follow; after that, Yuji will be targeted for execution, followed by the Culling Game Arc and currently, everyone’s just waiting to see how the fight between Gojo and Sukuna will end.

We cannot applaud Akutami for his pacing and world-building here, but things might change in the future, so we’ll just have to wait it out a bit to see what happens. The good thing is that Yuko is still alive and well, so not all hope is lost for those who are shipping the two of them.