Naruto: The Mangekyo Sharingan, Explained (2024)

The Naruto anime franchise features a vast panethon of jutsu, weapons, and kekkei genkai, some of which are just a cool power for one arc and others of which are staples of the entire franchise. While bloodline jutsu like Haku's ice crystal mirrors and Kimimaro's bone techniques faded away after their exciting debuts, the Sharingan remained an essential part of Naruto's combat system for hundreds of episodes. That also includes the Mangekyo Sharingan, which made its debut remarkably early in the story.

While many Uchiha awaken their Sharingan to use in battle, only a handful of Uchiha clan members ever awakened the ultimate form of this legendary dojutsu, the Mangekyo Sharingan. This is the ultimate weapon for the Uchiha clan, a fearsome and costly fighting style that has radically shaped how many battles and storylines in the Naruto franchise turned out. There is much to know about how these eyes are obtained, what they can do, and who has used them and to what effect.

How the Mangekyo Sharingan is Awakened and Used

While the standard Sharingan is obtained with emotional distress, the Mangekyo Sharingan is unlocked with the painful and traumatic loss of a loved one. The exact circ*mstances may vary, such as seeing a teammate get killed in battle or seeing an aging parent expire in peace, but the Uchihas historically misunderstood all that. Uchiha shinobi were under the false impression that they actually needed to kill someone close to them and dirty their own hands as the price for such a formidable dojutsu, so they embraced that as a tradition. That's why certain Uchihas said as much in the Naruto anime, leading fans to also believe that murder was the price for the Mangekyo Sharingan. That's another emotional cost of being an Uchiha, alongside the ongoing Curse of Hatred.

The Mangekyo Sharingan can do everything that the default Sharingan does, such as reading the opponent's motions to predict their next move and thus read their opponent more thoroughly than any other ninja could. Also, like the default Sharingan, the Mangekyo Sharingan can be manually turned on and off, and it's just as well, because this dojutsu costs a lot of chakra to use in exchange for its awesome power. These eyes can even be transferred to non-Uchiha ninja, as Kakashi Hatake showed in Naruto Shippuden, and Kakashi could turn his Mangekyo Sharingan on and off at will. Curiously, the default Sharingan is always active for non-Uchiha users and cannot be turned off.

When a shinobi uses the Mangekyo Sharingan, they must be prepared to pay a steep price in chakra to wield its abilities, and it's easy to imagine a shinobi rationing their chakra to make room for these eyes. It may be difficult for shinobi to use chakra-heavy jutsu while also using tbe Mangekyo Sharingan, but given the Mangekyo Sharingan's power, perhaps a heavy-duty jutsu isn't even needed to secure victory when fighting someone. With such eyes, even basic taijutsu and weapons may be sufficient to defeat a jutsu-wielding opponent. And, of course, the Mangekyo Sharingan comes with three unique jutsu packaged into it, all three of which were seen in use many times in the Naruto anime, along with other techniques that even non-Uchiha ninja like Kakashi could use.

The Mangekyo Sharingan comes at another cost, a more serious cost than chakra: physical deterioration. The Mangekyo Sharingan is a serious burden even for the most talented Uchiha, such as Sasuke's morally ambiguous brother Itachi, and the user's eyeballs will deteriorate over time as the Mangekyo Sharingan is used. The shinobi will even start losing their eyesight, and may eventually become completely blind, but there is a workaround. An Uchiha may transplant a blood relative's Mangekyo Sharingan eyeballs into their own body, and thus restore their sight and unlock the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. Those eyes will never suffer the loss of sight or other bodily costs of using such a dojutsu. The ninja may even gain new Mangekyo Sharingan abilities from the donor.

The Mangekyo Sharingan Features the Tsukuyomi, Amaterasu, Susano'o, and Kamui

The Mangekyo Sharingan eyes offer a wide variety of jutsu and abilities, but the Naruto anime mainly focused on four particular ones that help define how this astonishing dojutsu works. The main three are the Amaterasu, Susano'o, and Tsukuyomi, which derive their names from Shinto. The first seen in action was the Tsukuyomi, an overwhelmingly powerful genjutsu that can utterly trap the target in another reality in their own mind. Itachi Uchiha used the Tsukuyomi against Kakashi Hatake not long after Hiruzen Sarutobi's death, trapping Kakashi in a color-inverted world where Itachi tortured Kakashi for three grueling days, nearly breaking Kakashi's mind in the process. It wasn't obvious at the time, but that usage of the Tsukuyomi was Itachi's way of defeating his opponents without killing or even injuring them, as per his pacifistic ideals.

The second major dojutsu in the Mangekyo Sharingan is the Amaterasu, which can be used for both offense and defense. This technique creates deadly black flames that cannot easily be extinguished, and they can burn anything they touch to ashes. This reflects the Uchiha clan's focus on fire, as their Fireball jutsu once symbolized, not to mention the uchiwa fan that is the clan's symbol. The Amaterasu's black fire can create a protective barrier to keep enemies away, either blocking them from reaching a certain part of the battlefield or simply shielding the Mangekyo Sharingan user's own body from attack. Those flames can be focused to envelop just the user, perhaps for the convenience of any allies the Mangekyo Sharingan user has. Such flames can also be used on offense to burn the enemy into nothing, and there's not much the target can do to deflect or avoid such an attack.

The third major jutsu in the Mangekyo Sharingan is the mighty Susano'o, which envelops the user in a large suit of chakra armor that may resemble a mythological warrior, which may even be armed with weapons such as swords. The Susano'o has the potential to be an Uchiha's strongest move of all, serving as its user's shield and sword at the same time. In a way, it adds a mecha anime element to Naruto, especially if the Susano'o is fighting something equally large and powerful, such as a jinchuriki's ultimate form or another Susano'o user. A Susano'o's form, strength, and weapons may vary from one user to another, too.

An additional fourth ability with the Mangekyo Sharingan is the Kamui ability, which enables the user to teleport people in part or in whole to another dimension. The user can do this either on their enemies or on themselves, meaning it's excellent at both offense and defense, just like the Amaterasu's black flames. The Kamui can be used to completely avoid enemy attacks, rob the enemy of body parts to defeat them, or simply get rid of someone and put them in storage by sending their entire body into that alternate dimension. The Kamui ability can be used even if the user only has one eye of the Mangekyo Sharingan.

How the Mangekyo Sharingan Was Used in Naruto's Anime

In several different story arcs, the Mangekyo Sharingan played a major role in certain battles or even world events, and the Mangekyo Sharingan was a personal staple of a few notable Naruto characters as well. It was first seen in the brief arc following Hiruzen's death, when Itachi Uchiha used the Tsukuyomi not once, but twice against his enemies, which strained his body a great deal, as Kisame noted. That was the time Itachi mentally tortured Kakashi to knock him out, which allowed both Itachi and Kisame to escape their jonin opponents and continue their hunt for Naruto Uzumaki, which in turn brought the Uchiha brothers face to face for the first time in years.

The Mangekyo Sharingan had a far bigger role to play after the anime's time skip in the Naruto Shippuden era, especially since the power levels were rising higher than ever. Kakashi Hatake made some use of the Kamui ability with his recently awakened Mangekyo Sharingan to rob Deidara of an arm, but fans didn't see the Kamui's true potential until Obito Uchiha, then going by Tobi, used it on himself. He confused everyone with his usage of that dojutsu, allowing everyone to believe that he could turn his body intangible to evade all attacks, while he was actually teleporting parts of his body away with precise timing. He even used that jutsu to capture two hostile Leaf ninjas and bring them back later to use as sacrifices for Edo Tensei. The Kamui was also seen in heavy use during Obito's final battle both against and with Team 7 late in the Fourth Great Shinobi War.

The Tsukuyomi technique returned in a big way in Naruto Shippuden when Madara Uchiha wielded it with his own Mangekyo Sharingan. While Itachi had once tortured Kakashi and Sasuke with it, Madara used it to trap the entire world in a gilded cage, casting the Infinite Tsukuyomi and reflecting his dojutsu off the moon itself to cast its effect on everyone around the world. That was Madara's endgame, forcing the world to exprience peace while everyone was trapped in their own happy illusion worlds. Hinata imagined herself with Naruto, for example, while Kiba saw himself as the new Hokage and Mei Terumi got married, with the other Kage present as wedding guests. Eventually, that all-encompassing dojutsu was foiled, and the fight resumed.

A few notable Naruto characters used the Mangekyo Sharingan as staples of their fighting style, most of all Sasuke and his brother Itachi, who both made good use of this mighty dojutsu during their final battle. That battle of brothers helped showcase how powerful the Susano'o was, and Itachi threatened to seize Sasuke's eyes to restore his fading sight after using his own Mangekyo Sharingan for so long.

After Itachi's death, meanwhile, Sasuke used the Mangekyo Sharingan in practically all of his battles, such as when he used the Amaterasu against both Killer Bee and the Raikage in separate battles, with the Mangekyo Sharingan being part of his best abilities of all. Sasuke discouraged attacks by enveloping himself in those black flames, only for the reckless Raikage to attack him anyway with taijutsu, setting his left arm on fire. The Raikage then sliced off his own arm to contain the spread of that black fire, showing his incredible resolve. Someone facing the Mangekyo Sharingan could do no less.

Naruto

TV-PG

Action

Adventure

Naruto Uzumaki, a mischievous adolescent ninja, struggles as he searches for recognition and dreams of becoming the Hokage, the village's leader and strongest ninja.

Release Date

September 10, 2002

Cast

Junko Takeuchi , Maile Flanagan , Kate Higgins

Main Genre

Anime

Seasons

1

Creator

Masashi Kishimoto

Production Company

Pierrot, Staralis Film Company

Number of Episodes

220