Thought I'd make a Nanami post for his birthday.

As most of us know, Shibuya Yuji's Striking Strength is directly compared to that of Nanami by Ino (Image 2, Chapter 94). However, besides this one line of comparison, we aren't given much, which is kind of a problem because there is a lot that goes behind the strength of an attack. In this post I'll go through the different variables that come into play and why I don't think it's as close as a direct comparison may make it out to seem.

Why it doesn't include Ratio

This is the easiest one to debunk, and has been talked about time and time again. It's one of those things that you're either convinced of or you aren't at this point, and others have already went into more detail over, so I won't spend as much time on it, but it is still crucial to talk about when addressing the entirety of their comparison.

Simply put, Nanami's Ratio Technique doesn't actually make his attacks hit harder, it makes the enemy weaker at the critical point, thus inflicting more damage (Image 3, Chapter 20). The strength and force behind the hit remains roughly the same, and it's all derived from how hard Nanami himself can hit independently of Ratio's debuff. Thus, it cannot be part of the equation when discussing striking strength, which luckily for us, Ino made sure to specifically make the point of comparison.

Why it almost certainly doesn't factor in Overtime

Nanami's second most important buff, and probably the most important topic of discussion of this post, is his Overtime binding vow. As we should already know, Nanami has an active BV at all times which restricts his output to 80% during working hours, in return for it to increase to 120%. While it may not seem as much at first, this may as well put Nanami in a different tier during OT, as it gives him a 50% increase in output from his On the Clock performance, 2.5x larger than the 20% given by domain amp, which can make or break fights.

However, it is imperative to understand that Overtime is the exception, not the rule. While we see it both times Nanami has an important showing (vs Mahito and in Shibuya), this is just a sampling bias shown to the audience as the show focuses on the important events of the verse. In-verse, Nanami is an employed sorcerer, he does this for a living first and foremost. Jujutsu Society employs him at his On the Clock output, because being on their clock is literally what he's getting paid for, so all of his in-verse comments are On the Clock, unless otherwise stated or implied. This makes him a Grade 1-level sorcerer even at an output reduced by 20% (with more raw strength than their strongest Grade 1 at the time, at that).

Even internally, Overtime to Nanami exists purely for the sake of existing as little as possible. Nanami has a very low estimation of jujutsu society, the cyclical labor that makes it go round (Image 4, Chapter 19), and the role he plays in that (Image 5, Chapter 99). High Grade 1 Sorcerers are insanely strong for Pre-Shibuya standards, they can virtually one-tap any threat below their level. So, being effective enough as a Grade 1 at his 80% output, the OT boost is only there in case something is not that easy to deal with, to wrap things up fast and spend as little additional time in the line of work he despises as possible. Just compare how the tempo shifts in his fight with Mahito pre and post Overtime.

Regarding Ino; it's important to remember that even though Ino is like 22 years old (and actually closer in age to Nanami than the JJH students), he is still his Grade 2 Acolyte who's up for promotion, and Nanami is his patron. Being with Ino is, in the most literal sense of the word, being On the Clock for Nanami. The days he brings Ino along, Ino is his assignment for the 8-hour shift. They're not partners on equal footing, and it's doubtful that most assignments they've been in have went into Overtime (which the previous paragraphs should clear up on their own, but I will also address more in the following section). Remember, Nanami's Overtime isn't bound by a strict time limit, but rather his working hours. He says he started work at 10, so he must get off by 6 (Image 6, Chapter 22). Given his next Mahito assignment starts at dawn, it's clear it's bound by when he starts and an 8-hour counter following that, rather than by a binary 10-6. It would make sense that sorcerer working hours are not so set in stone, as it's not like curses follow shifts of their own.

Why it most likely isn't comparing Nanami and Yuji at the same exertion

While significantly less important than whether Nanami is in Overtime or not, it's also important to compare where the points of striking strength are coming from. For Yuji, we have a very clear point of comparison: Right before Ino makes his comment, a fresh Yuji that is so locked in his eyes went blank is seen throwing a fully charged up haymaker at a large, stationary, lifeless target that is the Shibuya veil (Was meant to be Image 7 but I forgot to upload it, it's in the comments, Chapter 94). This can very easily be assumed to be the absolute strongest punch this Yuji has the capabilities of throwing.

Nanami though hasn't really thrown anything comparable in Shibuya at this point, so we can only take Ino's comparison to come from previous experience with Nanami. Now, a little context which also ties to why I don't think Ino was talking about Overtime: Nanami is notoriously careful with younger sorcerers, with it being a very sensitive topic to him and all. Yes, even though Ino isn't that old, he's very juvenile in behavior and it's clear Nanami has some sort of paternal instinct regarding him; he admits that Ino is fit for promotion but still feels uncomfortable promoting him (Image 7, Chapter 95), likely as it would mean higher risk missions and more exploitation by JJH, and Ino himself gets anxious when he's left with Transfigured Humans, which should be multiple grades below him in effect, as Todo mentions them being around the level of Grade 3-2 Curses, so right above Grade 4-3 Sorcerers (Image 8, Chapter 129). Yes, he mentions the awkwardness of them being human, but stops caring about that and becomes ecstatic as soon as Nanami says he'll promote him if he does it, and his first concern is that there's a lot of them (Image 9, Chapter 26).

Having addressed that, I don't think Nanami has often, if ever, taken Ino into missions where he has had to go into Overtime or use a lot of strength, because Ino is clearly not used to high-intensity missions. It is entirely in character for Nanami to think of these missions as too much for a young sorcerer who still hasn't been confirmed as a standalone Grade 1. They're not even together in the Night Parade of 100 Demons, with Ino being seen with Kusakabe instead, hoping that Nanami is around and somehow sees his performance. Given that Ino is canonically the one interviewing him about Black Flash, I don't think he got to see that magnificent performance either. Now, that's important because we know how Nanami feels about excessive force. He's not Gojo, he's not going to throw a Hollow Purple to impress the students. Even when he is actively participating in his duty as a jujutsu sorcerer, he makes it a point to not get carried away and only give things the appropriate effort required, no more (Image 10, Chapter 19). This is much more eloquently stated by the man himself in the anime as "Where moderate effort will suffice, use moderate effort". "Nanami's level", to Ino, is actually just what Nanami has needed to put out, rather than the maximum of what he can put out. Remember, their CE control is canonically "immeasurable" (Image 11, Chapter 48), it's not that easy for Ino to read Nanami.

Yuji's Striking Strength

Unlike the rest which are in relation to Nanami, this is in relation to Yuji. The argument is that Yuji's Striking Strength, at least at this part of the series, is an outlier stat that is much stronger than his other stats. I say this because the bulk of Yuji's strength at this point is still derived from having a superhuman base strength even before applying CE Reinforcement. Looking back even at his pre-sorcerer days, his strength has always shined. He can bend a pole with a shot put ball from 30 meters, which is an absolutely insane feat, but his running speed is just about twice that of an athlete, with his classmates even commenting that he's known as tiger (speed) but should really be known as gorilla (strength) (Images 12 & 13, both from Chapter 1).

Even later on in Shibuya when he's familiar with CE, the very version of Yuji that's compared to Nanami in SS, can get cut by regular knives from very low level opponents unless he specifically puts his mind to reinforcement. Given that he had been fighting for a while here, his baseline level of reinforcement was already up, but it took effort on his part to get his Durability up to par with his Striking Strength. He remembers the same event later against Yuta, saying that he can't get lenient around a sharp blade, implying it takes a pretty long time for him to get the hang of proper Durability reinforcement (Image 14, Chapter 141). Image 15 just for aura. Haruta and Yuta are completely incomparable foes, but it illustrates that Nanami's stat profile is a lot more well rounded because he's no selling and putting BTA effortlessly at the same time.

Bonus comments

I don't think I need to address why, but the comparison obviously doesn't include Black Flash, Black Flash Zone Amp, or Revealing One's Hand. The first one is an outlier attack treated as a gift by the gods, the second is even more niche than that, and the third is even more excessive effort than hitting as hard as you can. Yes, Nanami uses it to teach it to Yuji, but not again in his presence or against low level enemies. Ino has graduated from JJH. I think he knows these basics.

A lot of people argue that this is an inconclusive statement because Ino wouldn't be honest about putting his goat on the level as some random kid. If this was Ino saying it, or thinking it much after the fact, I would agree. But this is Ino thinking it to himself on first instinct, the fact that he doesn't say it to Yuji when it would be a great compliment I think actually helps the case that this is an honest, unfettered assessment with the might be instead of a certain is being part of that unfiltered truth. It's one of those statements that are there for a reason; Nanami is still very strong by this point, and the fact that Yuji is getting there goes to show how much he's grown. But ultimately, he is still a kid.

A Grade 1 Sorcerer is a big title by Shibuya standards. Even among Grade 1, the Grade 1 Sorcerers specifically dispatched to Shibuya are the best batch Jujutsu Society had to give, given the gravity of thousands of civilians trapped in a veil. This is further proven by the fact that THE Satoru Gojo is on the same mission, and that this is the first appearance of Naobito, who can safely be assumed to be the strongest sorcerer out of the 3 Big Clans, & Kusakabe, for a FACT the strongest non-clan affiliated Grade 1. Yuji has gotten very strong, yes, but he still has catching up to do. This is best portrayed comparing his performances against Ko-Guy and Jiro to Nanami's against Haruta.

Conclusion

A brief view at a simple statement is going to give you a brief conclusion, which in turn can be interpreted a magnitude of ways. The baseline you can deduct from this statement is Nanami ~ Yuji, right? But what does that mean? Does it mean they're fully equal? Is it in OT and Yuji already outclasses Nanami? Does it factor in Ratio, meaning that Yuji cliffs the life out of him in the other stats that Nanami can't boost with Ratio? These are all assumptions you can very easily make out of such a vague conclusion, but they don't take the full picture into account.

So, instead of a simple "Nanami ~ Yuji", the statement can be better interpreted as "On the Clock Nanami SS ≥ Shibuya Yuji SS", or if we're being generous "On the Clock Nanami SS ~ Shibuya Yuji SS", if you are doubtful of the moderate effort clause. This still puts him > Shibuya Yuji in a full stat profile, >> in OT, and >>> in AP with OT + Ratio.

Base Nanami's non-Ratio hits were grazing Mahito, his Base Ratio hit blew his arm up, and his OT Ratio hit cleaved his leg as if it wasn't there. The first and the third are almost exactly how Shibuya Yuji's hits compare to OT + Ratio in AP. Full comparison in Image 16.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful king ❤️🥳🥹🏖️

We all know that the Heavenly Restricted represent the peak of human physicality due to, ironically, not being restricted by cursed energy. This shows up often in the series, through their remarkable force, immense speed, and near-precognitive sensory detection. But I feel like their Striking Strength (or their barehanded AP) is just okay, and it gets piggyback carried a lot by their others stats, which are actually by all accounts busted.

It makes sense why one would logically think that they hit incredibly hard. As I said, we have their other stats doing a lot of the heavy lifting, there's the narrative around them being brutes, their musculature is drawn in a physically imposing way, and, I think most importantly, and what I'm going to address here, Maki just murking Hei members, who are supposedly the cream of the Zen'in crop, effortlessly through her bare hands. But I think delving into it a bit deeper reveals that that doesn't really stand for all that much.

Before getting into the chainscaling, let's address a few narrative implications to set the stage: For starters, despite all the other portrayal details of HRs we discussed earlier that make them look like street-fighting boxers, there's a very important detail that hints at this not necessarily being the case as well: They always use weapons. Yes, that is partly due to the fact that they cannot exorcise curses without something CE-imbued, but have you ever thought about how rarely we actually see HR users fight curses? Toji was known as the Sorcerer Killer, not the Curse Exorcist, and despite gapping literally every sorcerer in his time (The next strongest was Naobito, depending on when Yuki was active, if ever), went out of his way to secure a curse to help him carry around a shitload of weapons. Remember that before Gojo's birth curses were pretty weak, so someone with Toji's physicality could probably kill 99% of curses (and most sorcerers, in case he was morally concerned with creating VCSs) with a Slaughter Demon-tier weapon alone. It's clear that the acquisition of that many weapons greatly complimented the other traits that came with his power, rather than it being a slight edge over going barehanded. And yes, while a weapon is a fine addition to any arsenal, you have other sorcerers like Naobito and Hakari who are so confident in their raw hands that they don't carry anything. Toji not only carries, but he carries a lot, and he went out of his way to make it as easy and as undetectable as possible. And let's not even talk about the lengths Maki will take to use weapons. She was literally swinging that boy Yuji around like a club.

The next narrative points are the corruption that's rampant in the big clans and the fact that there are levels to being a Grade 1 Sorcerer. The Zen'in Clan didn't like Maki and that was enough to keep her in Grade FOUR, below Miwa, Momo and Mai; extremely blatant favoritism that isn't even trying to conceal itself. It would only make sense that these senile old men, CONSTANTLY hinted at to be running things inefficiently and with disregard for actual meritocracy, can just sway things their way, especially to gain prestige where it is undeserved. The "Special" Grade 1 grade is literally reserved for them, for crying out loud.

But even if these clan members truly were Grade 1 level (Nobuaki's Grade isn't even given and he isn't actually part of the Hei unit, which dips as low as Semi-Grade 1, but whatever), it doesn't really mean much for their relativity to other Grade 1s. Not only do JJH Grade 1s undoubtedly have a harder time making it to Grade 1, but Grade 1 isn't really capped in the same way as other Grades are, since it's the peak of conventional sorcery rather than the stage before Special Grade. The best way I can think to portray it numerically would be that Grades 4-Semi1 have a floor and a ceiling, while Grade 1 only has a floor (with an undefined ceiling).

So, if (numbers not for scale, entirely for illustrative purposes) G4 = 0-15; G3 = 16-35; S-G2 = 36-50; G2 = 51 - 65; S-G1 66-100, Grade 1 isn't 100-200 per se, but rather just 100+. What makes a sorcerer Special Grade isn't just being stronger than Grade 1s in a conventional sense, but the inclusion of special/unusual abilities which make them an outlier in the system. As far as regular sorcery goes, Grade 1 is uncapped, and Grade 1s don't have to be relative unless specifically implied (which is the case for most of them, but NOT for the Hei, as we know Ogi is much weaker than Naobito).

CHAINSCALING

Now, onto the actual comparisons.

HR SS only really shows itself twice. One, during Maki's fight in the Zen'in estate, and the other we'll get to in a bit (although it's not awfully important and if you scrolled the images prior you'll have seen what it is already). In that fight, Maki kills Chojuro and Nobuaki with two swift finger jabs to their throats. Okay, pretty impressive as a standalone feat, if you're not thinking about it too much. But where the scale really comes into play is her punching Naoya. Important to note going forward, as far as physical prowess goes this is a fully awakened Maki as the burden of CE has left her body, her Sakurajima power-up only regards her heightened senses / combat awareness.

To get to the gravity of this punch we must first scale Naoya. And the most reliable way to scale him is through Choso.

Throughout their fight in Chapters 139-142, Naoya hits Choso with tens of hits. He kicks his torso, barrages him with an insurmountable amount of fists against a wall, and grabs him and slams him at a distance. None of this leaves any real damage on Choso. He is worn out by the end of the fight and gets one-tapped by Yuta, but largely due to the wound from Naoya's knife, using a lot of blood, and exhaustion from the fight, not really any meaningful physical damage from Naoya's blunt hits. Now keep in mind these are not merely reinforced hits from Naoya, they are all technique-amped; while AP increase isn't necessarily the first thing you think of when you think of Projection Sorcery, it greatly improves limb speed, thus combat speed as well rather than just movement. And a faster punch/kick carries significantly more kinetic energy, thus more force, thus more potency, than a regular one. It's just physics.

Now, the scale we can put this on is Yuji. Sure, Choso may have gotten slightly stronger from when he met Yuji to here, but not by a crazy amount, as he hasn't really hit any new landmarks as a sorcerer. In a verse where a jump from 100% to 120% can make or break a fight, I can't imagine Choso has gotten stronger in any way that meaningful. And Shibuya Yuji, during the duration of their fight, almost took Choso out in three hits, to the degree where it scared Choso so much for his life that he instead chose to risk death through thrombosis by using Blood Armor than try to dodge or take a fourth one, something he did not do with Naoya. That very comfortably puts Shibuya Yuji's Reinforced SS >> Naoya's Reinforced + Technique Amped SS.

This Yuji's Striking Strength is compared to Nanami's. Now, what version of Nanami that is is up to interpretation, I personally think it's non-exerted/casual On the Clock Nanami (comparable to what we see during the start of the Vs Mahito Arc) as it seems most in line with what Ino would associate as "Nanami's level", and I go more in detail as to why I think that here, but it is certainly without Ratio as Ratio doesn't increase the strength Nanami punches with. Striking Strength is also an outlier stat for Yuji given his natural body buffs, much higher than his other stats, as we see back in his school days he can casually bend a pole with a shot put ball, which is absolutely inhuman, but only runs at about twice the average speed (3 seconds for a 50-meter dash), and later on in Shibuya gets cut by a knife unless he specifically puts his mind to reinforcing (which he was already doing to a degree, as he was fighting). This puts Nanami, in any state, comfortably above Yuji in other stats, as he doesn't have an unnatural edge in any stat, he's buff and built but at the end of the day only possesses a normal human body (if anything, he leans towards higher Durability a bit).

Unless you want to somehow argue that either: 1) SS is a weak outlier stat for Naoya and his other stats are much better, or 2) His Durability is a strong outlier stat and he can withstand much more than he can take, neither of which have any implications to be true, this puts him significantly below Nanami in reinforced physicals, and, whether more or less than Nanami depending on your interpretation of the Dagon fight, undoubtedly Naobito as well. This reinforcement cliff would also explain why Naobito is faster despite using the same technique but having the much weaker physical body of a 71 year old alcoholic.

Despite all this, Naoya still has the best reinforcement of the elite Zen'ins (besides the goat of course). Why do I say this? BECAUSE MAKI DOESN'T KILL HIM! Ogi is featless, just stated weaker than Naobito, and dies to SSK, so we can't know his reinforcement levels. Chojuro and Nobuaki die like fodder to the finger tap we mentioned earlier in Image 1. Ranta dies to... holding her back lmfao. Inumaki's technique works similarly and he's made it out alive using it on 3 Special Grade threats (Geto, Hanami Sukuna). Jinichi dies off-screen so we can't know for certain, but it is entirely possible that Maki just ripped his head off with her raw hands, as she doesn't have the SSK when she's entrapped by Ranta's gaze and it's bloodless when she's holding it in Image 2. Either way, doesn't change much of what's implied.

Naoya though doesn't go down as easily. In fact! He doesn't go down at all! Maki fails to kill him! And this wasn't her fooling around either. This was Maki realizing Naoya is a formidable foe, taking her time to think, arching back, punching Naoya, SLAMMING him into the ground, breaking the ground his face hits, and still... failing to kill him. No, sorry, failing to knock him out period. Naoya is visibly damaged, but he's not knocked out, hell he hardly seems concussed as he can still think and crawl. The part of his face that's against the ground that cracks isn't even really harmed all that much.

But the single most important part here isn't that Maki just failed to kill him. Naoya was visibly dealt mortal damage here and given that there were no medics nearby and he has no RCT, he would've likely died regardless. But what stands out here is that this is a surprised and intercepted fully stacked Naoya. The same way physics ensures hitting something with higher force will cause more damage to it, the counterforce works the other way. Hitting /being hit by something while you are at an increased velocity will GREATLY increase the damage you take and put you past your UTS in the stress-strain curve, as illustrated by the car accident fatality graph in Image 4. This Naoya was much, MUCH more vulnerable than a regular Naoya just standing there, and still with everything into account, failed to put him down.

The other case of Barehanded HR SS is when Grandson hits Ino after he gains Toji's body in Image 5. This one is mentioned less and honestly kind of forgotten, and I've heard people say he was "holding back" or "playing around" which is just lol. He's not even slapping but straight up punching and gives him a real kicker which caves his cheek in just one page before this and throws him off the roof right after. I don't know in what world you live in where you can interpret that many punches being fully drawn with such great attention to contrast (even Gege's signature impact dots which imply serious/strong hits) and flinging around and think "yeah this dude must be foolin around", not to mention that Grandson has never been Toji before this moment so it's not like he would know the difference and just how much he can punch to have fun. Remember Nanami's been Nanami his entire life and he was still killing Haruta by accident when he was trying to beat questions out of him. When you gap someone by that much you can't really know what's what.

So yeah, tl;dr HR's barehanded feats include killing random who is this's, and failing to put down Shibuya Ino (Semi-G1 tops, good technique so unclear where physicals lie) and a very vulnerable Naoya, whose reinforcement is below Shibuya Yuji, Choso, Nanami, Naobito and who knows how many other Grade 1s.

Some of these characters he knows from TikTok. I was gonna ask him to rethink some of the joke picks at first (like Inumaki and Miwa) but I think it's best we go with the unfettered product.

This is something I wasn't very big on or even fully convinced of myself at first, but as time has passed I have grown to consider it among the most important aspects of Nanami scaling. Ratio has 1) Always been visually displayed to us when it's been activated, even if characters in-verse can't see it and 2) Stated to be something Nanami needs to create and aim on a target, so it's absolutely reasonable for us to assume that not only is it not an option in every hit, but it can also be missed where it is. Most of the argumentation for this can be found in the first image. While I'm not a fan of anime scaling as it often introduces things which weren't in the manga, I have no issue with using it to clear up things which were also present in the source material, and I think this is a great example of it as in the anime there is no Ratio axis whatsoever and the sound it makes as it's skidding on Dagon's forearm is very different from the sound that comes with almost every other Ratio.

Where that Ratio axis was aimed is where opinions among those who believe that it was missed start to diverge, though. I don't have a strong opinion on it either way personally. The most common opinion seems to be that it was aiming for Dagon's head, but he was blocked by the forearm halfway through. The major dissenting opinion is that it was aimed for the forearm but activated too late since the block came last second and missed. Either way, an impromptu block has some interesting implications, because wherever the Ratio was drawn, Nanami didn't get there with attacking Dagon's forearm in mind, so his swing was stopped in motion. Stopping an accelerated attack before it's allowed to reach the point the attacker is projecting to reach greatly reduces its acceleration and impact. This is applicable in real life too if you want to look it up, a more refined/defensive version of it referred to as jamming/wedging is found in boxing. The head argument allows for more lost force (higher cap on a full blown swing) due to also introducing the element of surprise/shock to being caught halfway, but I don't think it makes a big difference either way. I leave the rest of that to you.

On a semi-related note, when are we getting Nanami flairs smh