How Do Characters Awaken Mangekyou Eternal Sharingan?

There’s a cool, brutal logic to how the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan works in-canon, and the short, concrete list of folks who actually obtained it keeps the power feeling rare and meaningful. From the pages and panels of 'Naruto', the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan (EMS) is only achieved when someone with a Mangekyō Sharingan transplants the Mangekyō eyes of a close blood relative into themselves. That transplant cancels out the progressive blindness caused by using the Mangekyō and fuses the ocular abilities into a stronger, more stable form. In canon, the two explicit, confirmed cases are Madara Uchiha — who took his brother Izuna’s eyes — and Sasuke Uchiha — who received Itachi’s eyes. Those two moments are framed as pivotal: Madara’s gaining EMS cemented his legendary power, and Sasuke’s transplant after Itachi’s death was a major turning point for his battles in 'Naruto Shippuden'. I still get chills reading those scenes; the artwork and the weight of Uchiha tragedy make the mechanics feel tragic and intimate. It’s also why characters who had lots of Sharingan, like Danzo, or outsiders who borrowed eyes, like Kakashi, never ended up with EMS — the transplant has to be from a compatible Uchiha bloodline, not just a random eye swap or a hoard of stolen eyeballs. So, canonically, if you’re asking who can obtain EMS: only Uchiha with Mangekyō Sharingan who transplant a Mangekyō from a close blood relative can — and we’ve only seen Madara and Sasuke actually get there in the official story. That rarity is part of what makes the EMS so memorable in 'Naruto'.

Some nights I’ll stay up rewatching the fight scenes in 'Naruto' and get hung up on how much power comes with real consequences — the 'Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan' is a perfect example. On the surface it looks like a cheat-code: it cancels the progressive blindness that Mangekyō users suffer and gives a person far more stable access to powerful techniques. But that doesn’t mean it’s free of cost. First, there’s the physical toll: even with the eternal upgrade, using high-end ocular jutsu — think Susanoo, Amaterasu, heavy genjutsu — chews through chakra and stamina like nothing else. Full-body Susanoo, for instance, can drain someone to the point of near-collapse or shorten their lifespan if used recklessly. Second, getting the Eternal Mangekyō requires transplanting another Uchiha’s eyes; that’s an invasive, permanent procedure with huge ethical and emotional costs. Families are torn apart, donors are often incapacitated or killed, and the recipient carries the weight of that sacrifice. There’s also the compatibility issue — eye transplants only work reliably within the Uchiha line, and you’re stuck with whatever visual abilities merge into your new pattern. Finally, don’t underestimate the mental strain. The visions, trauma, and temptation to rely on overwhelming ocular power can warp tactics and personality. You gain an immense advantage, but it rewires how you fight, how you relate to others, and how much you can realistically push your body without paying a severe price. It’s not a free upgrade — it’s trading one set of limits for a different, often darker, set of consequences.

There’s something almost poetic about how two eyes can mean entirely different destinies in 'Naruto'. For me, the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan feels like a perfected family heirloom — it keeps everything that made the Mangekyou powerful (the sharper perception, the monstrous genjutsu, the Susanoo upgrades) but strips away the tragic price: the progressive blindness. Mechanically, it’s still a Sharingan-based dojutsu. You get amplified visual genjutsu, faster reflexes, more precise chakra control tied to the eye, and Susanoo that’s more stable and less taxing. The key lore point is how it’s obtained: transplanting another Uchiha’s Mangekyou eyes into someone who already has Mangekyou unlocks a permanent, non-degenerative form. That’s why Madara and later others could keep using their ocular powers without going blind. The Rinnegan sits on a different throne. It’s not just an upgrade of visual acuity; it’s a fundamentally different toolset. Rinnegan grants access to the Six Paths techniques, planetary-level abilities (think gravity or soul manipulation in certain hands), chakra receivers, and command over life-and-death when tied to the Outer Path. In-story, it’s often connected to a broader, almost divine inheritance — Hagoromo’s chakra, combining Uchiha and Senju elements, or long-term jutsu and implants. Where Eternal Mangekyou refines and removes the downside of a very Uchiha-centric power, the Rinnegan opens a whole new array of abilities that change how a fight is fought — from eye duels to cosmic-scale techniques. In practical terms I like to think of it like tools in my gaming inventory: Eternal Mangekyou = upgraded legendary weapon optimized for the same playstyle; Rinnegan = unlocking a whole new class with unique skills. Both are ridiculously powerful, but they come from different trees and tell different stories about lineage and sacrifice. Personally, I prefer watching the interplay between them — it’s where strategy and tragedy collide in the best way.

I get nerd-chills talking about this one — the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan is basically the Uchiha's 'stopgap turned upgrade'. In practical terms, the regular Mangekyō Sharingan slowly robs its user of sight the more you use its techniques. When someone with that degeneration receives another Uchiha's Mangekyō eyes (usually via transplant), the result is the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan and the most obvious immediate effect is that your vision is restored and the progressive blindness stops. In other words, the blurring and eventual loss of eyesight caused by continual Mangekyō usage is cured. Beyond just preventing blindness, I've always loved how the Eternal form feels like a qualitative upgrade in battles: eyesight becomes sharper, reactions get crisper, and you can use Mangekyō techniques more freely without fearing the ticking clock of blindness. It also tends to merge or augment the ocular abilities of both donors, so you can access a broader set of techniques or stronger variants. Canon examples like Madara and Sasuke show that patterns can change and power spikes significantly after the transplant. There's also an intangible edge — improved perception of chakra flow, faster target tracking, and stronger resistance to genjutsu. That said, it's not a magic get-out-of-everything card. Techniques still cost chakra and strain the body, and the transplant itself is grim and risky in-universe. I usually end up picturing the scene from 'Naruto' where characters make that terrible choice — it fixes the eyes, but it leaves a complicated legacy, which always gets me thinking about the cost of power.

In 'Naruto', it's Sasuke who unlocks the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, not Naruto. Naruto doesn't have the Sharingan—that's an Uchiha clan trait. Sasuke achieves it by transplanting Itachi's eyes after their emotional final battle. The process isn't about training but a brutal exchange of power between brothers. The Eternal Mangekyou stops the blindness curse of overusing the regular Mangekyou, giving Sasuke permanent access to abilities like Amaterasu and Susanoo. While Naruto grows through Sage Mode and Kurama's power, Sasuke's path is darker, relying on Uchiha legacy and sacrifice. Their rivalry shows how different their power systems are—one born of friendship, the other of bloodline.

I get a little giddy thinking about how the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan reshapes a fight—it's like swapping out a Swiss Army knife for a full-on war chest. On a practical level, the biggest immediate change is reliability: technical genjutsu, space–time jutsu, and the Susanoo become tools you can count on turn after turn without the looming threat of blindness that the regular Mangekyou brings. That changes tempo and risk calculus. Where a Mangekyou user might play cautiously to conserve eyesight, an Eternal user can lean into long exchanges, layered trap setups, and extended defensive stands. Tactically, the Eternal eye shifts how both offense and defense are structured. Offensively, you can commit to multi-stage combos—use ocular space-time to erase their reposition, then follow with a full Susanoo assault or a precision genjutsu to collapse enemy coordination. Defensively, a sustained Susanoo opens up roles like area denial and protection for high-value allies, letting other teammates be more aggressive. It also alters battlefield positioning: opponents must respect range and projection of ocular techniques, so flanking and indirect approaches gain priority. I always imagine a commander adjusting placement like moving chess pieces—sensors, traps, chakra reserves, all tuned to neutralize those particular eye techniques. There's a psychological side too. Knowing your opponent has eternal eyes forces them into paranoia—are they baiting with Tsukuyomi? Will they teleport? That mental fatigue can be exploited by feints and attrition tactics. The one caveat I always mention when debating strategy with friends is resource management: eternal sight removes the permanent blindness risk, but chakra expenditure and cooldowns still matter. In practice, I picture teams training specifically against an Eternal user: sealing jutsu, interfering with ocular line-of-sight, or targeting chakra sources. It's such a deliciously complex shift; it doesn't just make someone stronger, it fundamentally rewrites battlefield priorities.

I still get a little giddy thinking about that reveal — the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan is one of those moments that rewired how I read 'Naruto' for the rest of the series. In-universe, the concept shows up first in the Uchiha backstory: Madara transplanting his brother Izuna's eyes and thereby achieving an 'eternal' form of the Mangekyō is the origin. In the manga that origin is shown in flashbacks during the war-era chapters (the Uchiha/Madara history scenes), so chronologically Madara’s awakening is the earliest event that establishes the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. If you ask about the first time we as readers actually saw the pattern on a living character during the original run, that happened later — when Sasuke receives Itachi’s eyes after their battle and then awakens the Eternal Mangekyō. That transition from Mangekyō to Eternal Mangekyō is presented right after Itachi’s death and the eye transplant sequence, so for many fans the first visible instance they remember is Sasuke’s new eyes. Either way, the idea — that transplanting another Mangekyō-bearing eye prevents blindness and produces a new, stable form — was introduced through the Uchiha flashback and then reinforced visually with Sasuke.

There’s a real joy in watching a mangekyou—or an eternal mangekyou—come together on the page. I usually start by thinking about personality and history: whose trauma or bond created this eye? That backstory dictates whether the pattern leans sharp and geometric, like intersecting blades and pinwheels, or organic and flowing, like petals and spirals. Artistically, people exaggerate contrast: a deep, saturated red iris, near-black inky slashes for the pattern, and bright highlights or a faint glow to sell supernatural power. I like to play with symmetry—sometimes perfect radial symmetry for an ominous, mechanical feel, other times purposeful asymmetry to hint at instability or unique lineage. Technically, I layer shapes and textures. A hard-edged vector shape for the core motif, then a textured brush set to multiply for shadowed veins around the eye, a soft overlay glow to suggest chakra, and small white pupils or pinprick lights for intensity. Motion is important too: artists often add radial blur or rotation lines for animated versions, or ghosted duplicates of the pattern to show phasing. When combining two mangekyou patterns into an eternal variant, I either merge complementary elements—like fusing a spiral with a star—or mirror one pattern across a new central motif so the result reads as both familiar and new. Lighting, color balance, and negative space are what make the design pop; without them, even a complex pattern can read muddy. I usually test designs at small sizes to make sure it’s readable on a comic panel or avatar, and I’ll tweak line weights until the pattern still sings when shrunk down.