Gege Akutami’s Jujutsu Kaisen is a manga that has seen a recent boom in popularity, with the manga currently being in the midst of its final arc and the second season of the anime having won the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2024 by a landslide. A major part of the series’ popularity comes from its most iconic side character, Satoru Gojo.
This goofy, laidback high school teacher holds immense power and isn’t afraid to use it. Despite not being a main character, he completely stole the show. Here, I am attempting to break down his character arc and exactly what makes him so compelling.
A Little Background
Jujutsu Kaisen is an urban fantasy where people’s negative emotions are manifested as monsters known as curses. These curses are fought by Jujutsu sorcerers, who control their negative emotions to use abilities known as cursed techniques. Both curses and sorcerers are native only to Japan, thanks to the barrier surrounding the country created by the immortal sorcerer Tengen.
Note: this character analysis contains major spoilers for the Jujutsu Kaisen manga.
Backstory
Satoru Gojo was born into the Gojo clan, one of the three noble families that controlled the Jujutsu world. He was born with the most powerful cursed technique, the Limitless. His birth was an event that shifted the entire balance of the Jujutsu world, as he was so powerful curses had to grow stronger to compensate. He was designated a special-grade sorcerer, someone outside of the normal ranking system.
Gojo started out as an incredibly arrogant person, completely detached from others. Fitting, considering that his own ability was to create an infinite distance between himself and his attacker, rendering him immune to any kind of damage. His arrogance was a product of his strength. If you have never felt pain, or fear, or helplessness, how do you relate to those who feel these things every day?
The only person he truly considered an equal was his best friend, Suguru Geto. Geto was also a special-grade, but unlike Gojo he was kind and empathetic to those weaker than him. He served as a young Gojo’s moral compass, pointing him towards a path of greater good.
The first change in Gojo’s character came when he met Riko Amanai. This young girl was destined to merge with Tengen in order to reverse the immortal sorcerer’s body’s process of evolution before they turned into a monster. This would effectively kill her, but she faced her fate with courage. Spending time with her, Gojo realized that she, despite her inability to fight, possessed a kind of strength that even he lacked. The experience, together with his battle against the assassin Toji Fushiguro, allows him to face his own shortcomings and overcome them to achieve his full potential.
This directly resulted in the second change in his character. By reaching the pinnacle of his strength, he became distant from everybody else. He began to fight alone, because he was so far above everyone else that they would simply get in his way – even his best friend, Geto.
Thus, he did not realize it when Geto became disillusioned with the Jujutsu system. He wasn’t there for his friend when he lost faith in humanity, falling so low that he decided that the only way to end curses for all was to wipe out humans altogether. When Geto went into hiding after killing humans who tormented young sorcerers, Gojo was unwilling or unable to kill him.
One of the major themes of Jujutsu Kaisen is that with absolute strength comes absolute loneliness. Left without anybody he could call an equal, Gojo was left truly alone, with nobody who could fully relate to and understand him. So, he decided to confront the inequalities and corruption in the Jujutsu system which had incensed Geto. He decided to reform the system from the inside, by becoming a teacher and raising a new generation of powerful, reliable sorcerers. His secret hope was to find a student that surpassed him, putting an end to his loneliness.
The true tragedy is that despite his power, Gojo constantly failed to protect the people who mattered to him the most – people like Riko, Geto, Nanami, Yaga, Nobara and Megumi. It is an ironic reflection of his ultimate ability, Unlimited Void, which allows his enemies to experience everything while being unable to do anything.
Chapter 236 and Chapter 261
I am not a fan of chapter 236. While interesting conceptually, it was poorly written with zero setup in advance. However, the ideas that concluded Gojo’s character arc are solid, even if their execution was not.
Gojo learned to be kind, but was still an inherently selfish person. He fought to save people, but mostly because he enjoyed fighting. It is fitting that he died fighting someone even more powerful than him. In Sukuna, he found the equal he had been searching for. He gave the battle everything he had and acknowledged the enemy’s strength, leaving everything to his students.
In chapter 261, his body is possessed by his student, Yuta, in hopes of defeating Sukuna. While the others protest, saying that it is inhumane and they are worried about him, he asks them why they never worried about Gojo. His old allies used to let him do the things they couldn’t. In Yuta’s words, they let him be the monster in order to keep their hands clean. Yuta refuses to do this anymore. When Gojo goes to kill the corrupt Jujutsu officials, his students refuse to leave and let him do the work alone.
Satoru Gojo is what many consider to be the heart of Jujutsu Kaisen, but many also misunderstand him. Beneath his goofy exterior and immense power lay a truly lonely man. Yet, in the end, he was no longer alone, and died without regrets.
Great post as always! I agree with you regarding the conclusion to Gojo's arc, I think the ideas behind it are good but the execution is lackluster at best (many such cases when it comes to JJK later writing...). I also feel that Gojo should have been given more interactions with other characters, especially his students, but i guess it ties into how lonely he is and how most of the characters never really cared for him as a person