Gosh. Can we pleeeease just like... have a moment of silence for the one and only...THE Man, Gojo Satoru.
Ok, time's up.
Moving on.
Word vomit under the cut.
The process of reading this chapter was a very interesting one this week because the fandom got really noisy as soon as the leaks dropped.
Between allegations of bad writing and the utter sense of grief Gojo fans were expressing, it was quite the 💩 storm.
And then the actual scanlations started dropping, and little by little they replaced most of the noise with the utter sense of calm and peace and satisfaction that Gojo felt in his last moments in this plane of existence.
I gotta say that I just absolutely loved how Gege depicted those emotions (outside of Gojo's "dream") through shots of the devastated Shinjuku district.
The remnants of the battle of The Strongest, as if the landscape and the buildings themselves represented the end of an era, the devastation of the structure of Jujutsu society itself.
After all, as The Strongest sorcerer in the modern era, Gojo represented the very system he was trying to destroy.
Gege loves his irony.
Now, I would normally say that the words in the speech bubbles are superfluous because Gege creates such a beautiful atmosphere through the setting alone. But it is the words themselves that re-contextualize not just the battle, but also shed more light on Sukuna's interest in Megumi, which I feel we haven't seen the extent of what he had in mind.
Now I'm hoping this isn't a dream
Listen, I must admit I've never cared for Gojo.
I don't hate him, I don't love him, I simply never really cared for him.
That, of course, changed with this chapter.
And it is perhaps Gojo's death that really solidified in my mind the idea that one of the underlying themes in jjk is... dun dun dun... DEATH.
Yeah, I know. Sue me, I'm late to the party lmao.
But it's not just death itself that is a theme, but rather the face we put on when death comes knocking at the door.
There aren't many things that we can be certain of in this life, but death is one of them. So how we confront death and our mortality shapes the sense of self.
I know a lot of people were dissatisfied with the transition from 235 to 236 and Gege not showing how/when Gojo got slashed in half, but I find the abrupt transition makes sense, and I even dare say was... quite poetic.
For one, now knowing that Gojo knew Sukuna was holding back, a lot of incidents throughout the battle are given new meaning. Like that look of confidence on Gojo's face as he "thinks" he's finally managed to "get through" to Sukuna.
So I have to say that I loved that Gege starts the chapter with Gojo becoming aware that he has died or is dying.
In other words, Sukuna's attack was so sudden that Gojo's next moment of awareness as "Gojo Satoru" is in what we would normally think of as "the light at the end of the tunnel" where he is greeted by people who were of significance to him in his youth.
And can we please just talk about how Geto is the first person he sees when he becomes aware that he is dying?
Please. This is fucking poetry!
Insert keyboard smash.
Screaming in jjk.
Go South
I literally lack the words to explain why I love this whole chapter so much. Which is a lot to say because I am about to word vomit about it. But like...
Again, hindsight is 20/20.
I always thought of the panel above as Geto being jealous of Gojo surpassing him in strength but, in retrospect, I think Geto's disappointment had more to do with Gojo's sense of self over-identifying with the title "the strongest" and how that made him harder to relate to, which is one of the main themes in this chapter. I'll come back to this in a sec.
But first...
Quick depth psych segway. I think I've said this before, but it bears repeating again that an overwhelming sense of self is all ego. There's nothing wrong with ego per se.
The problem is that an over-identification with ego means inherent separateness because, as an organ of the psyche, the ego sense of self is what gives us a separate identity from the collective.
On the other hand, soul/heart (another organ in the psyche) is the principle of relatedness--love, the single energy that can bring us all together as a collective.
But as we already know, the stronger the sorcerer, the more overwhelming the sense of self.
Unfortunately, because an overwhelming sense of self = separateness, this also means the person in question can't relate to others.
And is this not thematically perfect for a sorcerer whose perfected cursed technique was meant to render others unable to "reach him"?
In other words, Gojo saw himself as separate (because he was "The Strongest") and that made it harder for him to relate to others, but only because he self-identified as "The Strongest".
Infinity ∞, in this sense, is also about the self-fulfilling prophecy Gojo was stuck playing out in his life in regards to seeing himself as "The Strongest".
But like a serpent eating its own tail, Gojo came back full circle, and in the moments before his death, learned that what really mattered to him was not strength for the sake of strength, but rather the connections he had fostered with others.
PLEASE. GEGE. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCKING FUCK?!!!!!!!!!!!
To bring it back to "Satoru became 'The Strongest'"...
I just loved so much that seeing Geto as soon as he becomes aware he's died felt like an encounter that meant Gojo had returned to the person he was before he self-identified as "The Strongest".
But more importantly, Gojo's imagination of himself as back when he was young also speaks both to how much he cherished that period of his life, and to how he was emotionally frozen in time due to his encounter with Toji.
It makes me wonder whether Gojo was afraid of dying alone when Toji almost killed him. So it's almost like what he took away from that battle was that he was always alone, and so he sought to push others away.
The kicker is that he simultaneously feared his existential isolation and yet craved the very source of his fear--human relations.
But in choosing self-preservation, he was a selfish to the very end.
What an idiot (tragically affectionate).
Anyways. How much of this is hc? Someone tell me please 😂. I feel like I went off the deep end in the last few paragraphs.
Like everyone else in this fandom I've lost all objectivity when it comes to Gojo because his departure from the story was truly one of the most heartbreaking moments in jjk.
I understand people's complaints about the "execution," but I think the world-wide phenomena that Gojo's death has spurred speaks to Gege's ability to elicit deeply archetypal emotional responses as a story teller.
With Gojo's death, a part of our own psyche too has died. And what's most significant about this death is that it was, true to Gojo's character, "something that needed to die because it represented the very thing it sought to destroy."
And this would be why I love Gege's writing.
A fitting way for Gojo to go out
I know not everyone agrees, but I really appreciated that he was satisfied and at peace in the very end.
He got his cake (battle to death with Sukuna) and got to eat it too (reconnected with his loved ones).
Sukuna
But we can't talk about Gojo without talking about Sukuna as the one who liberated Gojo from the burden of his existential isolation.
Sukuna gave Gojo a fun battle, but if it weren't because Sukuna figured out how to cut through Gojo's metaphorical defenses by learning to cut through space-time itself--the very fabric of reality, Gojo might not have found his humanity once again.
The outcome of this battle spells out in no uncertain terms how dire the situation is as Sukuna has proven himself to be the uncontested "Strongest".
But in a sense, the end is a new beginning, and this time, there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
JJK is generational
I get the feeling that everyone will remember where they were when this panel dropped.
I was in bed. It was 6 am and Tasokare, my miniature panther, was demanding attention.
A moot was on the way to the gym. They never made it out of the house after seeing the panel.
Another moot was completely avoiding Twitter to avoid leaks, but her brother, who does not even read jjk, saw the panel on Facebook and showed it to her.
Yet another moot was on vacation at the beach.
JJK is generational like that and there's just so much more I can say about this chapter and its implications (like the idea that Sukuna can now cut through space-time, why?! what does he want to get out of this ability?), but I just don't even know what more I can say right now.
Anyways, thanks for reading. I'm looking forward to any thoughts you might have. Just a heads up, I'm very, very slow at replying.
Needless to say, chapter 236 has sparked a lot of criticism. So, to keep a long story short, I've rewritten chapter 236 to try minimise some of the common issues people have with the chapter, issues that I also personally share.
I've kept a lot of the dialogue the same, but I've added some major tweaks that I believe would drastically improve the execution of this chapter. So if you're one of the ones who are disappointed with chapter 236, I hope you also find this rewrite to be an improvement.
Jujutsu Kaisen Chapter 236: Go South
-- Page one --
[Narration text: Gojo stands victorious?!]
Gojo: Well, it's time to get this over with, any last words?
Sukuna faces Gojo with a serious demeanour, struggling to stand upright.
Sukuna: Hmph.
Sukuna: Just one.
Sukuna aims his only remaining arm directly towards Gojo, gesturing his hand in the shape of a knife.
Sukuna: Dismantle.
Gojo smiles arrogantly as Sukuna, in an act of desperation, resorts to using to his default technique in an attempt to harm him.
However, as Sukuna releases his attack, Gojo's smile immediately vanishes, now replaced by a bewildered expression.
-- Page two --
The scene transitions to Gojo's imagination, where a younger Gojo is seen sitting at an airport, wearing the same bewildered expression.
Geto: Yo, Satoru.
Gojo: Blegh!
Gojo: You're kidding me. This sucks.
Gojo sulks, leaning back on an airport chair.
Geto: Pretty rude thing to say after seeing someone's face.
-- Page three --
Gojo: I've always told my students, "when you die, you die alone", so please tell me this is just some stupid dream.
Geto: Does it matter?
Gojo scratches the back of his head in irritation.
Gojo: *Sigh* And I was gonna tell Megumi about his dad too...
Gojo: But I guess I asked Shoko to handle that.
Geto: So, how was the king of curses?
Gojo: Man, he was pretty damn strong. I got the feeling that he had more tricks up his sleeve too.
-- Page four --
Gojo: I wonder how different the outcome would've been if Sukuna didn't have the ten shadows technique.
Geto: It's weird to hear you talking like this, he must've been really strong, huh?
Gojo: Still, I kinda feel sorry for him.
Geto: ?
Gojo: I know all too well, the loneliness that comes with being at the top. There was always a gulf between me and everyone else, even if they adored me.
Gojo: You can admire a blooming flower, but you can't ask it to understand you.
-- Page five --
Gojo looks down at his clenched fist.
Gojo: I really gave it my all to beat him. All my physical training, the techniques I'd mastered. My explosiveness, quick thinking and attempts at humour. I put everything into it, but it still wasn't enough.
An image of Sukuna's cold gaze is shown, surrounded by shadows.
"The loneliness that comes with unrivalled strength. The one who will teach you about love is-"
Gojo is shown with a melancholic smile, still looking at his fist.
Gojo: I had fun.
-- Page six --
Gojo: I couldn't push Sukuna to his limit though, and I think that's sad.
Geto rests his head on his hand.
Geto: I'm jealous. You at least had the satisfaction of going out with a bang.
Gojo: Satisfaction, huh?
An image of an older Geto stands smiling amongst Gojo's friends as they see him off before his final battle.
Gojo: Maybe I would have been satisfied, if you were there to give me a slap on the back as well.
Geto faces down with his eyes shut, still resting his head against his hand, he smiles.
Geto: Heh heh.
-- Page seven --
Gojo: At least I got to die against someone as strong as me, instead of being stuck in that stupid box forever.
Unknown voice: What are you, a samurai?
Gojo is surprised by a familiar voice and looks behind him to see a younger Nanami and Haibara sitting right behind him.
Nanami: Seriously. You should know it's in poor taste to think like that in the present.
Gojo: Huuuh?
Nanami: Then again, that mindset of yours is probably why you outlived me.
Haibara: You and Gojo-san just miscalculated a little bit.
Gojo reaches behind to annoy Nanami by grabbing his head. Nanami tries to wave Gojo's hand off him.
Nanami: I remember once asking Geto why we couldn't just leave everything to you.
Nanami: After all, you didn't care much for jujutsu sorcery, or for protecting people, it was mostly just a game for you.
Gojo appears to be mildly offended by Nanami's blunt criticism.
-- Page eight --
Haibara: Truth is, we all thought that about Gojo-san! But we couldn't bring ourselves to say it out loud.
Nanami: Why are you bringing it up now then...
Haibara: Sooorry!
Nanami: Well, that feeling about you...
Geto: Was just proven right by your actions a second ago.
Gojo looks unnerved.
Gojo: ...
Nanami: Can't say I approve, but I do sympathize.
Gojo: Yeah, yeah, thanks. And how do you feel about your demise?
-- Page nine --
Haibara: Ahhh, I kinda butted in back then...
Nanami: Curses can bring people back to life. The same way sorcery can.
Nanami: I once asked Mei-san about where I should go to live.
Nanami: She said if you'd like to become someone new, go north. If you'd like to return to who you once were, go south.
-- Page ten --
Nanami: Back then, I didn't hesitate on choosing south. I've always looked at the past, so I found it ironic when I died betting on the future.
Nanami: As final moments go, it wasn't bad. I'm grateful to you as well, Haibara.
Haibara awkwardly scratches the back of his head.
Haibara: You're too kind!
Gojo looks down again with a faint smile.
Gojo: I see.
-- Page eleven --
Gojo looks up and spots principal Yaga nearby.
Gojo: Hey, principaaal! 'Thought ya said no jujutsu sorcerer dies without regrets!
Yaga: *Sigh* Even in death, you're too loud.
Gojo laughs with everyone, including Riko and Kuroi who are also shown nearby, and Toji can be seen walking by in the distance.
-- Page twelve --
Gojo walks over to the airport window and looks up at the clear blue sky.
Gojo: I do have one regret though. All you guys will have to take over for me now. Sorry Megumi, it'll be in their hands now to get you back.
Images of Gojo's students are shown as he thinks about each of them, causing him to smile with hope.
Gojo: That's okay though, after all... I have faith in everyone.
Gojo continues to stare at the sky before he closes his eyes.
-- Page thirteen/fourteen --
The scene transitions back to reality. A double page spread shows Gojo's upper body, lying on the ground, staring at the same clear blue sky with lifeless, half-open eyes. Blood can be seen flowing from his mouth as well as being splattered below the upper half of his body.
-- Page fifteen --
Everyone who was spectating the battle is shocked and speechless at what has occurred. Yuji and Yuta are seen particularly distraught. Maki places her arm on Yuta's shoulder as she looks on with a serious expression.
Yuji: Gojo Sensei!!!
Shoko's unfinished cigarette falls from her mouth.
Shoko: How...
Kusakabe: That shouldn't be possible!
Kashimo: It's time.
Kashimo is seen turning away and walking briefly before disappearing from the room at lightning speed.
-- Page sixteen --
Sukuna: Mahoraga's adaptation begins after the first attack. Then it takes time to analyse. Completing adaptation is only a matter of time.
Sukuna: If it receives another identical attack during that calculation period, the adaptation will accelerate.
Sukuna: Once a technique has been adapted to, the analysis doesn't stop there. It continues to adapt further.
Sukuna: What I wanted from Mahoraga was a "model". A model of how to cut through your infinity.
-- Page seventeen --
Sukuna: At first, Mahoraga was altering the nature of its own cursed energy in order to neutralise and nullify your infinity.
Everyone who was watching the battle from the room stands up, still watching, unsure of what to do next.
Sukuna: That was something I was unable to do, so I waited. I waited for Mahoraga to discover another adaptation to counter your infinity, one that I would be able to imitate.
Sukuna: The second adaptation was exactly what I was looking for. Mahoraga was sending slashes like my own, but these slashes could bypass your infinity.
Sukuna: I theorized that Mahoraga was expanding the technique's target. That the target of these slashes wasn't Gojo Satoru, but space itself. Therefore, it could cut everything within those slashes.
-- Page eighteen --
Gojo's entire body is revealed, showing his upper body lying on the floor while his lower half remains standing. It becomes clear that Gojo was cut in half from Sukuna's attack. Gojo's body is covered in blood.
Sukuna remains standing, facing Gojo as he continues his explanation.
Sukuna: As long as you existed within space like everything else, your infinity was powerless to stop my attack.
Sukuna: Even after being shown how it was done, I wasn't sure if I could replicate it myself, so I had to make a gamble.
Sukuna: After being backed into a corner, I waited for you to drop your guard and give me an opportunity. Then, I put all my focus into recreating that attack.
Sukuna: It proved to be an effective model after all.
-- Page nineteen --
Sukuna smiles with satisfaction.
Sukuna: But I have to admit, this is truly the furthest I've ever been pushed. Well done, Gojo Satoru, you have my respect. I won't forget you for as long as I live.
Hearing these words, a faint smile can be seen from Gojo's bloodied mouth. Sukuna turns away.
Sukuna: Now then...
Kashimo can be seen rushing towards to the battlefield from the distance.
Sukuna: I'm in a good mood. So you better entertain me.
[Narration text: Kashimo, the thunder God, dashes toward near-certain death.]
As you might have heard chapter 236 of Jujutsu Kaisen ends with the death of Gojo Satoru. The fandom is making a pretty big deal about it. As someone who predicted from the beginning that Gojo was going to lose against Sukuna, the reaction is fascinating to me. This is perhaps the most controversial chapter of Jujutsu Kaisen I've ever seen. So I've decided to throw my hat into the ring.
The central theme of Jujutsu Kaisen is death, so the death of one of the main characters isn't too surprising, but what does Gojo's death mean for the story? What does it say about his character?
As I said above I am a little bit shocked by the extreme controversy over Gojo's death. Gojo was never going to win the fight in the first place, because Jujutsu Kaisen is a story and the story would be over if he defeated Sukuna. He'd easily be able to take care of Kenjaku afterwards and the main conflcit would be resolved. Would it really be an interesting story if Gojo one shotted the villains while the kids just wathced on Television?
The story is also not about Gojo, it's about the students. Gojo may think he's the protagonist of reality but he's not the protagonist of the story.
Once again, Jujutsu Kaisen is a story and stories have themes. We may grow personally attached to characters, but characters are just narrative tools to convey the themes of a story, no different from prose, dialogue, and art. Characters are a tool to be used well or used poorly, and sometimes yes that means killing them. Whether Gojo's death was naratively satisfying though isn't the purpose of this post though we're only asking what does it mean?
Finally, Jujutsu Kaisen is not only a fictional story, it's specifically a tragedy. Full disclosure, it's a manga about death.
The Protagonist of a Tragedy
So, number one shout out to me for making this post 4 months ago where I called the way Gojo would end the fight.
Excuse me while I fist pump for calling it!
The question on everyone's minds is why does one of the most powerful characters in the manga die offscreen in a pretty humiliating way, cut in half and helpless on the ground just like Kaneki. The reason Gojo didn't get a more heroic (or cooler) death is because we're not reading My Hero Academia, this is not a story about heroes or even a typical Shonen manga it is a tragedy.
In poetics Aristotle defines tragedy as:
"an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions" (51).
To paraphrase a tragedy is about human action, actions characters make in a tragedy often have dire consequences. One of the most common consequences if the reversal of a hero's fortune, a hero of a tragedy usually starts out on top and ends up on the bottom because of the bad choices they make. If in normal shonen manga characters overcome their flaws through effort and persistence, in Jujutsu Kaisen we see characters more often than not lose to their flaws.
The reason I posted that Kaneki panel specifically is because it was a brilliant moment of narrative punishment for Kaneki's central character flaw. Kaneki the hero's main flaw is that he always fights alone, and he constantly makes that same choice over and over again to fight alone. One of the characters helpfully explains it as well.
Stories are primarily about change. If a character doesn't change they're not serving the plot, unless that specifically is the point. People have pointed out how abrupt it is for Gojo to get sealed in Shibuya, get let out, and then immediately die afterwards but that's kind of the point. Gojo made more or less the exact same choice (he asked for Utahime's help for a buff but otherwise fought the entire battle himself). The definition of insanity and what not, why would doing the same thing over and over again net him a different result?
Not only did Gojo choose to fight alone, but as I've been hammering on and on about in previous meta the entire fight Gojo cared more about fighting a strong opponent then he did saving Megumi, the child he was responsible for.
Jujutsu Kaisen is not a typical shonen manga where everything is resolved by beating a strong villain in a fight. That's specifically why I used the Tokyo Ghoul reference, because the reason Kaneki is defeated offscreen like that is because he thought the world worked like a shonen manga. He has a fantasy sequence where he's fighting Juzo in a shonen battle tournament like this is Yu Yu Hakusho right before it snaps back to reality and he's limbless on the ground.
Gojo is a major character in the manga Jujutsu Kaisen, literally "Sorcery Fight" and he is the best sorcerer in the whole world. His entire identity revolves around being a sorcerer. Since he is so good and beloved at what he does, he thinks that everything is resolved by exorcising a curse or defeating a strong opponent. He has basically no identity outside of that. Which is why when he's fighting the possessed body of his student, a person he's been mentoring since childhood his priority is not to save Megumi but to beat a strong opponent. Gojo is a sorcerer, before a human being. That's who he is, that's who he always has been since day one.
I think part of the negative fan reaction comes from fans being really attached to this scene in the manga and deciding Gojo's entire character revolves around being a good mentor figure to children.
Which is just incorrect, Gojo's entire character revolves around being the strongest. On top of that though, Gojo can care about children and also care about being the strongest he can care about multiple things at once and have those things contradict each other because humans are complicated. I'd point out even in this panel where he's stating motivation he's not trying to raise these kids up into being healthy adults, he wants them to be strong Jujutsu Sorcerers. Even when he's raising kids, his intention is to turn them into Jujutsu Sorcerers because everything in Gojo's mind revolves around Jujutsu Sorcery. Gojo does not exist outside of the world of sorcerers. Gojo may be the chosen one but he'd never be able to hold down a job at Mcdonalds.
I think in general readers put more investment in the things characters say out loud, rather than their actions. You can say one thing and do another. I can say "I should never eat sweets again I'm going to improve my diet", and then go and eat ice cream five hours later. Gojo can state out loud his intention to foster children and protect their youths, but then fail to properly do that in the story. Characters are not always what they say they are, that's why they're interesting to interpret. This isn't me calling the readers stupid, just pointing out that Gojo is made up of contradictions. He wants to get rid of the old guard and replace them with something new, but Gojo IS THE OLD GUARD.
If the culling games arc has shown us one thing, it's that ancient sorcerers brought to the modern age do not care that much about human life on an individual level, they are all of them egoists. There's a reason Gojo resembles someone like Sukuna more than he does any other character in the manga. I'm not saying Gojo is exactly like Sukuna, he's far more altruistic and uses his genuinely noble ideals but at the same time Sukuna is a shadow archetype to Gojo he represents Gojo's flaws. The flaws that Gojo succumbs to in tragic fashion.
Which if you believe that Gojo genuinely does love his students, and the ideal he's fighting for is to raise up a better generation and allow them to live out their youths, then Gojo throughout the entire Sukuna fight is acting against those ideals. He cares far more about fighting Sukuna then he does saving Megumi, it's shown over and over again in the battle, Megumi is an afterthought to him. If Gojo care moredefeating the big bad and saving the world is more important than helping a child that Gojo is responsible for then Gojo is acting against his stated principles. Why should Gojo win the fight when he's fighting for all the wrong reasons?
Tragedies are like visual novels, if you make the wrong choice the novel will give you a red flag. If you ignore the red flag then you get locked into the route with the bad ending. Gojo always fights alone. Gojo only ever fights for himself, even if he's using that selfishness in support of a more noble ideal like creating a better generation of sorcerers. If Gojo consecutively makes the same changes then in a tragedy he's not going to be rewarded for it.
Gojo wants the old generation out and the new generation in, but Gojo resembles the old generation too much. Old sorcerers like Hajime and Sukuna respect him, Hajime argues that Gojo being able to fight for his pride is far more important than him living to the end of the battle when Yuta wanted to interfere and help him.
Gojo's death isn't a surprise curve ball that Gege is throwing us for shock value, it's a result of his choices throughout the manga. A manga about change, and the change between generations is not going to punish a character for remaining roughly the same. Of course you might find it disappointing that Gege didn't give Gojo the chance to grow and change and experience a character arc like Megumi or Yuji, but Jujutsu Kaisen is a tragedy, and the way Gojo's arc ended is consistent with what Gege wrote.
Jujutsu Kaisen is not just a tragedy though, it's a manga about death. The manga begins with Yuji's grandfather warning him not to die alone the way that he did. His grandfather's dying words are what motivate Yuji throughout the beginning of the manga as he's searching for a "proper" death.
One of the major themes of Yuji's character is a contemplation of death. He accepts that death is inevitable, so he wants to save them from the gruesome deaths they'd experience if they became victims to curses and allow them to have a more satisfying death. Yuji's grandpa died an unsatisfying death because he died alone in a hospital room. Yuji even tries to make his own death a satisfying one because he believes by dying to seal away Sukuna he'll reduce the total number of casualties to curses.
Jujutsu Kaisen keeps investigating the theme of death and what exactly would make for a satisfying death. At one point it's all but stated that death is the mirror that makes humans analyze their lives.
When Yuji fails to save Junpei from the "unnatural death" it calls into question whether or not his goal of saving people from unsatisfying deaths and the gruesome deaths caused by curses is even feasible. Nanami even says that Yuji might not be able to accomplish his goal and warns him away from the path.
We see repeated unsatifying deaths in the manga, each time someone reflecting on their deaths that they weren't able to get what they wanted out of life. This list comes via @kaibutsushidousha by the way I'm quoting them.
Nanami's a character who chose to work as a sorcerer because he didn't want to evade the responsibility of doing all you can to help people, he wanted to believe he's somewhere where he's needed. He never runs away from responsibility like Mei Mei does so he quite literally works himself to death, living and dying as a sorcerer. Nanami or Gojo's dying hallucination of Nanami even says as much, his death is the result of him choosing to go south and returning to be a sorcerer.
Maki chose revenge against the Zen'in over her sister, and as a result Mai is dead. Maki has all the power in the world now, her revenge complete but she's left with a sense of "now what?" She's as strong as Toji now but she failed to protect her sister, and it's the result of the choices she made. Maki's reflection isn't triumph, it's "I should have chosen to die with her."
Even Yuji himself is robbed of his narrative purpose. The manga began with Yuji saying he wants to choose how he's going to die and he'll die taking out Sukuna with him so he can reduce the number of people killed by curses in the world. Both of those things are thrown in Sukuna's face. Number one the amount of people Yuji can save by permanently killing Sukuna is now a moot point because he let Sukuna rampage in Shibuya.
Number two, Sukuna isn't even in Yuji anymore. To build on what Comun said though, this repeated tragedy has a purpose to it and understanding requires understanding that Jujutsu Kaisen is an existentialist manga. Existentialism is basically a school of philosophy centered around the question of "Why do I exist?"
There's nothing about the invetability of death to make you question why you're alive in the first place. In the myth of Sispyhus, Albert Camus boils down all of philosophy to one question.
"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. "
All of philosophy is should I shoot myself in the head or should I keep living? Everything comes after that question, which is why in Jujutsu Kaisen a lot of the characters motivations revolve around them contemplating death. Sorcerers exist in a world where they can die any moment, and as Gojo says most of them die alone. It might be the nature of sorcery itself that causes so many people to die, not only are they dying because they are trapped in an uncaring system, but the characters themselves aren't really attempting to live outside of it. They live and die as sorcerers, replaceable cogs in the machine.
All of these unsatisfying deaths may just be the result of all these characters making one choice, to live as sorcerers rather than people. Because to exist means to live in the world.
Even in Mechamaru's case, his goal is deeply existentialist by what I defined, all he wants to do is live in the world with everyone else rather than be stuck in his hospital room but his actions contradict that goal. Instead of letting his friends come and visit he's obsessed with the idea of getting a normal body because he feels that's the only way he can exist with everyone else, he makes a deal with the devil, he lies and goes behind their backs. He wasn't living with everyone else in the world and he could have chosen to, he chose wrong and his death is the result of that choice.
Jujutsu Sorcerers aren't living in the world. They're living in a little snowglobe far removed from the world with its own rules, most of them regressive and disconnected from the rest of society. If you define existentialism as just "living in the world' then a lot of these characters aren't, because they only exist in the world of sorcery.
INVISIBLE BUFFY: What are you talking ab-
SPIKE: The only reason you're here, is that you're not here. (drinking) INVISIBLE BUFFY: Right. Of course, as usual there's something wrong with Buffy. She came back all wrong. (moving around on the bed) You know, I didn't ask for this to happen to me.
SPIKE: Not too put off by it though, are you? (drinking) INVISIBLE BUFFY: No! Maybe because for the first time since ... I'm free. She tosses the sheet aside. Spike looks around, trying to figure out where she's going.
INVISIBLE BUFFY: Free of rules and reports ... free of this life.
SPIKE: Free of life? Got another name for that. Dead.
Not living in the world with everyone else is the same as being dead.
A lot of these characters either make the choice to act alone, or be a jujutsu sorcerer rather than a person and because of that they die as sorcerers, b/c sorcerers die that's what they do. Mai didn't want to keep living as a hindrance to Maki so she kills herself. Maki didn't want to be anything other than a sorcerer, so her little sister dies and she's not a big sister anymore. Nanami chose to leave his job behind and become a sorcerer again, he dies as one.
Of course I don't think the manga is punishing characters for being too egotistical, but rather too unbalanced. If anything Mai is too selfless and that is why she died, she didn't want to live for herself and chooses self sacrifice for her sister. An unbalance between selfishness or selflessness results in an underdeveloped ego. Jujutsu Kaisen doesn't punish individualism per se, moreso if you're not a fully developed individual you won't last long. Because it's also a manga about growing up in the world, and a person who doesn't have a healthy, mature, well-balanced sense of self is not a grown up.
This twitter user det_critics points out that Gojo (and also Yuki + Yuji's) failures in the manga can be attributed to the fact they don't have real senses of self.
Gojo has an identity crisis as outlined by Geto, "are you Satoru Gojo because you're the strongest, or are you the strongest because you're Satoru Gojo?"
It's a challenge for him to find some reason to live outside of being the strongest, and in tragic fashion Gojo just doesn't find it in time. Gojo lived for fighting others, and proving to himself that he's the strongest, and that's how he dies.
There's something I like to say about narrative punishment in stories. There are two ways to punish a character, you either don't give them what they want, or you give them exactly what they want. This is the latter, Gojo wanted to find someone stronger than him because deep down he believed that nobody could understand him unless they were on his level. He wanted to be surpassed, and that's why he focused on creating stronger young sorcerers, but he never shook himself of the belief that only someone as strong or even stronger than he was could ever be emotionally attached to him so he made a deliberate choice to draw a line between himself and others.
Gojo's essentially gotten what he wanted from that choice in the worst way possible. The student he picked to succeed him Megumi, has his body stolen and kills him. Gojo is surpassed, but it's not by one of his own students it's by an enemy that's not only trying to kill Gojo but is going to massacre his students afterwards.
Gojo's spent his entire life believing that because he's more powerful that makes him inherently different and above others, and being lonely because he himself believed he couldn't relate to ordinary people and he dies like an ordinary person, an unsatisfying death where he wasn't able to bring out Sukuna's best, where he gets unceremoniously cut in half offscreen but yay he's no longer the strongest. He's gotten exactly what he wanted. Megumi is still not saved, Sukuna's probably going to kill more people because Gojo failed to stop him here, but hey at least he stopped to compliment Gojo.
It's empty, but it's empty because of the choices Gojo made in life to just not bother connecting to people or develop any kind of identity besides being a sorcerer. Gojo lives and dies as a sorcerer, and his dying dream is returning to a teenager being surrounded by everyone he was with during his school days, because that's the happiest time in his life. Ironically he was happier before he became the strongest, because that was the only time in his life that he allowed himself to connect to people.
However in the eyes of others, he is someone who has it all. That's why he is always alone. There was no one who could hold the same sentiments and mutually understand him. Geto was the only one who could understand what he was trying to say, and the only one who could communicate well with him.
It's no coincidence Gojo and Geto die exactly a year apart on the same day, if anything I'd say the reasons they die are similiar to at least thematically. They both die because they don't want to live in the world. Geto thinks the world is too corrupt and GOjo doesn't want to be anything other than a sorcerer, both of them fail to adapt.
「 'It's just. . .'
It's just that it was what Geto had to do.
[...] To someone like him, the reality that the world of sorcerers presented to him was just too cruel.
'. . .that in a world like this, I couldn't truly be happy from the bottom of my heart.'」
They can't be happy in a world like this from the bottom of their hearts, so narratively they both die. The things they chose to live for at the end of their life they fail to accomplish, Gojo is no longer the stronget, Geto fails to wipe out mankind or make major changes to the world and they die as normal people unsatisfied because they weren't trying to live in the world and make connections to others. They die almost karmically a year apart because their main connection for both of them, the thing which made them feel connected to the world and other people was each other.
Which is why this panel breaks my heart and is so narratively satisfying because of how unsatisfying it is...
"If you were among those patting my back... then I might've been satisfied."
Gojo reflects that he's not satisfied dying against Sukuna, not because he failed to give him a good enough challenge but because Geto wasn't there to pat him on the back. The one thing that would have satisfied him he couldn't have, because he didn't live to connect to people he lived to be the strongest and he died alone as the strongest. There's just something deeply upsetting about Gojo's dying dream fantasy just him being there talking with all of his dead friends who he never appreciated or connected to properly when he was alive. Knowing that if something had just gone a little differently, that even if he had to die no matter what he could have died happier if Geto was among the people saying goodbye to him because that connection with Geto is what gave his life meaning.
Dazai Osamu: "A life with someone you can say good-bye to is a good life, especially when it hurts so much to say it to them. Am I wrong?"
-Bungou Stray Dogs Beast
Another week. Another Jujutsu Kaisen. So the question on everybody's mind again is "Is Gojo crazy after coming out of the box?" and as an additional question "How did the Box affect him?" With both the sudden timeskip and Gojo's tendency to mask his emotions, the answer so far has been ambiguous. However, I think a lot of the fandom agrees that Gojo's behavior has been somewhat "off" so let's take a closer look at Gojo in the past two chapters under the cut.
1. The Timeskip
A lot of people have complained about the timeskip between 221-222, and let's just give Gege the benefit of the doubt here instead of calling it bad writing. The same way that the narrative is skipping to the conclusive battle between Gojo and Sukuna, it seems like Gojo is also blindly rushing his way through things.
Obviously, Gojo is not naturally the type to sit down and process his emotions, but there's something just OFF about the fact he does not show any reaction at all to the deaths of several key people in his life.
Gojo's "Oh well" reaction to Nanami's death, and his refusal to hold Gakuganji for the death of principal Yaga stand out as two such moments. You could make this out to be Gojo secretly hiding his feelings, because he's just too broken up inside, and there's probably an element to that.
Rather than saying he's hiding his feelings though, I'd point out his response has always been outward callousness rather than showing his deeper emotions. When asked to process deeper grief or face an emotionally heavy situation Gojo's reaction is usually to just act flippant about it. As shown in his reaction to Sukuna possessing Megumi's body, being just openly taunting him about it.
Once again, he's obviously concealing his deeper feelings but also Gojo's pretty cold about Megumi's possession. If you take into consideration the fact that Megumi is someone Gojo is supposed to be responsible.
Megumi is an orphan that Gojo recruited to be a sorcerer, basically showing up and offering him protection from the Zen'in on the premise that he come and train as a sorcerer under him Gojo is the one who put this orphaned kid in the line of danger and then failed to protect him.
The very promise Gojo made to Megumi, that if he became a sorcerer and went with Gojo instead of with the Zen'in, that Tsumiki might have a chance of being happy is broken now. Sukuna murdered Tsumiki and Megumi's body was taken away from him on Gojo's watch.
This is also a long-time running hypocrisy on Gojo's part, he only goes out of his way to save Yuji and Yuta because they are potentially useful to him as allies in his plan against the higher-ups. He deliberately sends Panda and Inumaki to get beaten up by Geto in order to trigger Yuta's growth on the flimsy belief that Geto wouldn't kill them. Gojo goes out of his way to protect his students, and at the same time treats them like tools to further his agenda.
I'd say this hypocrisy arises not out of any bad intentions on Gojo's part necessarily, but a lack of self-reflection. Gojo's a product of the sorcerer system, and he fits the role of the strongest so well he cannot imagine himself outside of it. Gojo treats his students essentially the same way he was treated, because that's what works for him.
Gojo has flaws, but just like anyone else he has the potential to reflect on himself and fix those flaws. Gojo being boxed and the fallout of that is a pretty big failure on his part, one he could grow from but he's not doing that. If anything Megumi being possessed should be a wakeup call to the danger that Gojo has put this orphaned kid who he's supposed to be responsible for in, but Gojo just doesn't think about it too hard.
That's why I say the rushed pacing of the chapters, sort of reflect Gojo's mental state right now. He's not stopping to think through things. Now this next part hinges on if Gojo was the one who killed the elders, but if he did that says a lot about his post boxing mentality.
If Gojo killed the elders, he's directly contradicting something he said in the first few chapters. That he could physically kill the people on top, but a massacre number one wouldn't be popular with people, and number two wouldn't actually result in any lasting change because they'd be replaced.
Now, a lot of people have taken Gojo's supposed slaughtering of the elders as a sign that he's now realizing that he has to be more radical in his change and reform, but the fact that he immediately tries to appoint Gakuganji as the new head after his massacre shows he isn't.
Gojo's not actually making any lasting structural change in the way things are handled, he just killed the people on top of then replaced them with someone he approves of. Gakuganji is barely any better than the elders that Gojo slaughtered, but Gojo is in a hurry and needs someone in charge so he's compromising on his morals.
It's also an extension of why Gojo's goals were kind of wrong-headed from the start, he genuinely does want to make Sorcerer Society better, but his plan was always just to replace the elders with his own personal people. He was never going to change the structure of the whole system or redistribute power, he was just going to put his guys in office. Not only that, he was going to raise children as political allies and groom them to be on his side.
So, Gojo's plan hasn't changed he was always just going to try to replace the elders at the top rather than make the elder system different, the only thing that's changed is the timeframe. Obviously, if he's resorting to massacre now than being in the box has made him impatient. Gojo doing the thing he said at the manga was a bad idea to do, and wrong of him is not character growth it's regression.
Gojo may not have come out of the box insane (debatable) but he's clearly regressed on several fronts, Shoko herself said that Gojo's worst tendency is to act like he's all alone when he's not. There's plenty of people in Gojo's life who want to be there for him emotionally, but Gojo ignores him because he thinks his power makes him too different from other people.
Gojo's trained by his society to think a certain way, and he's at the absolute top of the society that tells him that power is everything and might is always right. As much as Gojo wants to subvert that society's corrupted ideals, he's also kind of the embodiment of the exact same ideals he's fighting against. He derives his whole identity from this fact.
Gojo being flippant about the danger that Megumi is in, and the deaths of these important people to him, is just more of Gojo isolating himself all over again. If anything his slaughter of the elders is a sign of the negative effect that this is having on his mentality, because Gojo held back from just massacring people before because he thought it was wrong for him as just one person to make these world altering decisions just because he had the power to do so.
Geto's emphasis on their roles as Jujutsu Sorcerers and the responsibility of the strong, made Gojo into a very responsible person in regards to how he uses his power, and now he's going back on that.
It's almost poetic that the story is skipping straight to Gojo's fight with Sukuna, as if that is the magic fix to everything currently wrong post Shibuya. It's extremely tempting for both Gojo and the people surrounding him to believe that everything will be solved with one final big battle against the big bad.
Another thing I've commented on before is that Gojo is really good at one thing and that is exorcising curses, and because of that he doesn't really notice where he fails in other aspects of life. Sukuna challenging Gojo to a battle of the strongest vs. the strongest really appeals to that simple narrative Gojo has in his head that everything can be fixed with a fight. Soemthing Gojo has learned time and time again in the past, that sometimes being the strongest is not enough.
Sukuna being such a one note villain, and someone who like Gojo centers his entire life around the fact that he's strong in battle presents Gojo with what seems to be a very easy fix to the current problems. Kill Sukuna, kill Kenjaku and everything will return to normal.
In fact, Sukuna almost represents the worst of Gojo. Someone who only cares about fighting strong enemies and has no identity outside of the fact that he's the peak of the sorcery world. Someone who has no relationships, no regard for weak people, and wields his power however he wants. A person who Gojo is tempted to think like. If Gojo did slaughter the elders, then it's no coincidence then Gojo immediately goes to face Sukuna after committing that abuse of his power.
Once again the elders are bad, but Gojo is just one person he shouldn't make the decision of who gets to be in charge all by himself. In fact, Sukuna said early on in the manga when he learned Gojo takes orders from the elders that the only hierarchy that should matter is who's the strongest.
Gojo is just one person, and the reason he was able to kill the elders is because he just so happened to be given that much power. He was born with it, he didn't do anything to earn it, he wasn't elected by anybody. He doesn't get to appoint himself as judge, jury and executioner, even if he is doing so because he thinks it would legitimately bring about good change (which it isn't he appointed Gakuganji to replace them).
However, Gojo right now is going for easy fixes. Defeat Sukuna, slaughter the elders, problem solved. Jujutsu Kaisen is a story that usually punishes characters for thinking they are in a shonen manga, for employing narrative thinking rather than facing the complex reality they are in.
Gojo's facedown with Sukuna reminds me of this scene from another manga Tokyo Ghoul, where the main character assumes that everything will be solved with an epic shonen battle with his rival.
A scene which is quickly followed up by this:
Gojo is heading into his fight with Sukuna practically the same way. He's ultra confident, he's not holding back whatsoever even though it's Megumi's body. His attitude is very "Kill Sukuna first, figure out everything afterwards."
In Tokyo Ghoul this is a scene where Kaneki makes a major mistake, because he believes he is the protagonist of some story where everything can be solved with a fist fight. It's him losing strategically because he doesn't want to admit that reality is more complicated than that and he makes a pretty major mistake by choosing to fight all alone. Of course Gojo's not choosing to fight alone this time he at least, had help from other people which is an imrpovement, but he's making the same basic assumption that everything will come down to this fight between him and Sukuna. I don't think it's a direct reference but even the panelling here looks like the parody of a shonen manga panelling shown above.
This is where Gojo is in his wheelhouse, he's in his element. After being boxed, it seems like everything has come down to him just exorcising a curse, winning a fight against his enemy, something he is great at. Kill the enemy, and save the day.
However, Jujutsu Kaisen is much more complex than most shonen manga which is why I believe this showdown will turn out very different than how Gojo planned. If anything, the worst might happen and Gojo will be forced to actually rely on his students to cover for him if he failed against Sukuna. This would also be more true to the theme of the manga, because as many people have pointed out the point of the kids is to replace Gojo. Therefore, them getting Gojo out of the box and relying on Gojo to solve everything for them is pretty contradictory to this message.
Anyway, in case anyone is taking bets, I'm putting fifty dollars on Sukuna as the winner of this fight. If you want to join the betting pool let me know.
Corruption arc Megumi truthers unite!!! In all serious the recent despair and tragedy Megumi is facing is a part of a long-running arc Gege has set up for him from the very beginning. A character arc does not necessarily mean positive growth, it just means a change in who the character was at the start of the story. A corruption arc then follows the change between a place of moral strength to moral weakness. So underneath the cut let’s see how Megumi’s changed from the start of the story, and where he may be going in the future.
Well that's a spicy first jjk ask to be sent to me. First off, I'll answer this as if Todo/Tsukumo were asking me this question in person, since it's made me ponder what I would actually say if someone just bluntly asked me this out of the blue. After that, I'll talk about what girl in Jujutsu Kaisen is actually my type/who I'm interested in seeing more of.
I'm actually very torn on this because I could see myself answering in the same way as both Yuji and Megumi did, despite them having completely different answers. Yuji's answer appeals on an instinctual, physical level; meanwhile Megumi's answer appeals on an intellectual, mental level. Without diverging too far from the original question, I think it's important to point out that these answers from Yuji and Megumi are a narrative comparison to show us the contrast between their immediate thought processes, as well as the areas they each lack awareness in. Both Yuji and Megumi's answers to this question are one-sided. Would Yuji really be interested in a physically attractive woman if she had a cruel personality? Of course not. Likewise, would Megumi really be interested in a kind woman if her appearance was revolting? I wouldn't imagine so.
So, this brings me to my personal answer to this question, what kind of girls am I into? Well, to give a balanced answer, it's not just *insert physical characteristics of a woman*, nor is it "as long as a person is compassionate, then I don't need anything else", my answer would be more like this:
Moving on from that, when it comes to Jujutsu Kaisen, what girls in the story am I into? This is also an interesting question I've given some thought, as I have a long list of criticisms of how Gege Akutami writes his women in the story, but that's for another time.
So far I'd say the girl I'm into the most right now in jjk would probably be Hana Kurusu. She has pleasantly surprised me as I really did not expect much from her character, who I initially anticipated to be a boring plot device. Instead, within a short period of time, her character has been fleshed out considerably, and she has really broken the mould compared to the majority of jjk's female cast, who are typically hyper masculine, assertive and independent women. Hana really stands out in the story as she is the inverse of this; she is portrayed to be very feminine, both in her appearance and in her behaviour, as well as showing clear romantic interest in Megumi. Also, compared to the other reincarnated sorcerers who are abundant throughout the culling games, Hana manages to maintain a degree of her own agency by co-operating alongside the reincarnated soul who dwells within her. I'm very intrigued to see where her character goes and how her involvement affects the overarching story.
Oh yeah, I'm not sure if anyone has noticed, but she's kinda adorable:
Guess who’s back? Back again? Sukuna’s back. Tell a friend. Sukuna’s plans for Megumi were a long running plot thread, with a lot of foreshadowing in the story that’s finally being chased in. Sukuna’s plan seemed to have gone up without a hitch. What exactly does this mean for both Yuji and Megumi, and how exactly could they both have let this happen? Thoughts underneath the cut.
With the jjk hype ramping up I want to post more but need some inspiration, so if you’re a jjk reader and you’re reading this then please send me jjk asks, I’m desperate.
In Jujutsu Kaisen, Satoru Gojo is the character who is presented both to the story and to its readers as perfect; the very pinnacle of humanity and the most powerful being in all of existence. Gojo portrays a common ideal that each and every one of us has, of a human who is untouchable, a human who has complete control of the universe where nothing is outside their grasp. With his esteemed heritage, he is the Limitless man. Nothing can contain him.
Yet, the more you pay attention to the character of Satoru Gojo, the more you’ll realise how limited he really is. The entire premise of Gojo’s character within Jujutsu Kaisen is a façade. Within the story’s narrative he is constantly heralded as the absolute strongest by those around him and proclaims as much himself, going as far as to declare to his opponent: “Throughout heaven and earth, I alone am the honoured one.” while in the midst of battle. This is Gojo’s most iconic line and for good reason, because it not only defines his personality but it also exhibits the greatest contradiction to his character.
Despite being deemed the strongest by so many, it isn’t even clear that this is actually the case. Yes, his power far exceeds almost everyone in the story, to the point that the main antagonist Kenjaku had completely abandoned the idea of killing him. Kenjaku, who had centuries of knowledge, experience and resources around his belt; who alone was capable of destroying a nation by himself, and even had multiple allies, each with capabilities rivalling his own. Despite ALL of these factors, Kenjaku concluded that it would still be impossible to kill Satoru Gojo. This plot point couldn’t emphasise more just how ridiculously powerful Gojo is when compared to almost everyone else in the series.
However, as I was hinting at earlier, there is one other character who sits atop the same pedestal of power as Gojo, and this character is also given a very intentional parallel to Gojo within the story’s narration. While Gojo states himself to be the “honoured one”, the narration specifically refers to Sukuna in the exact same way, in this case from a third person perspective. This is an interesting parallel as these are the only two characters to be associated with this title, while also being the only two characters who have been portrayed to be leagues stronger than even the other top tiers within the series. There’s also a foiling between Gojo and Sukuna here, as Gojo is arrogant enough to state himself that he alone is the “honoured one”, meanwhile Sukuna has the narration state this for him and does not feel the need to speak of these sentiments himself. At the beginning of the story, Gojo declared that if he and Sukuna were to fight each other at their strongest, he would win. However, over the course of the series it’s been made clear that when Gojo and Sukuna fight for real, the outcome of their fight could go either way. Both of them strive to be the strongest character in Jujutsu Kaisen, so from the context of the story it should be inevitable that these two will eventually fight each other, possibly to the death. So, Sukuna serves as one factor in the narrative which contradicts the notion of Gojo being the very best, what about his other limitations?
Well, another glaring contradiction is of course his cursed technique, which is aptly called the “Limitless”. Unsurprisingly, the name and abilities of this technique are a ruse to trick everyone into believing that Gojo’s cursed technique is unquestionably unbeatable and cannot be rivalled by any other power in the series. If you pay attention to the story however, you’ll already know this not to be true. Despite possessing the Limitless, Gojo once lost to and almost died fighting against Toji Fushiguro. While yes, this was a much younger Gojo who had far less experience and skill at the time; and yes, Toji had prepared various tactics beforehand which were specifically designed to counter Gojo; this doesn’t detract from the fact that the Limitless can be beaten. To top it all off, Toji was merely a human who only possessed heightened physical abilities in exchange for having absolutely zero cursed energy. After losing to Toji, in his desperation, Gojo had awakened various new abilities which until that point were inaccessible to him. This event led to Gojo officially becoming recognised as the strongest, where he could now beat Toji with relative ease.
Over a decade later, Gojo had refined all of his skills even further, placing himself far above his other fellow special grade sorcerers. However, despite being called the “Limitless”, it appears that Gojo has now completely mastered his powers and has achieved the peak of his abilities. The concept behind the Limitless is in reference to the infinite space there is in the universe, yet this power ironically has defined limitations which prevent it from evolving further. Even more ironically, Gojo’s closest friend Suguru Geto happens to possess a cursed technique which, within Jujutsu Kaisen’s power system, could be considered more boundless than the Limitless itself, “Cursed Spirit Manipulation”. In its most basic function, cursed spirit manipulation is the total control of cursed spirits, and essentially allows the user to absorb and stockpile an unlimited amount of cursed energy. In theory, this technique is more worthy to be given the title “Limitless”, yet this is heedlessly overlooked because of the characters associated with their respective techniques. This dynamic between Gojo and Geto’s abilities are kept subtle to the readers as Gojo just happened to master his cursed technique while Geto remained stagnant due to his personal shortcomings, which resulted in him deviating from his healthy rivalry with Gojo and ultimately led to him becoming an enemy of Jujutsu society.
Another point could also be made here that, regardless of being the strongest at this point, Gojo was incapable of stopping his closest friend from straying down a dark path, which is perhaps Gojo’s greatest failing in the series. This failure also comes back to bite him much later on as Kenjaku’s ace in the hole to finally checkmate Gojo involved surprising him with the now possessed body of Geto, which distracted Gojo long enough for him to be successfully sealed by the prison realm. Once again, the vast amount of power that Gojo had attained turned out to be completely useless in preventing his own sealing, which has now placed him in an inactive role for over half of Jujutsu Kaisen’s duration. Earlier in the story, Gojo once said: “Ironic, isn’t it? Given everything, but unable to do anything.” when referring to the function of his own domain. This was another intentional use of foreshadowing to describe the dilemma that Gojo was inevitably going to face himself. Satoru Gojo is no limitless man, for no one man is without his limits.
One more meta for chapter 208, Choso's discussionYuki in the chapter bring up a question asked to us again and again by the plot of Jujutsu Kaisen? What exactly is a curse? What is a human? If curses have human intelligence does that make them more or less human? Fascinating questions all of these but for Choso it's a question of his existence itself, him being a human curse hybrid. Let's discuss this idea of humans and curses underneath the cut.
1. An Allegory Within the Dark
If you're looking for how much of Choso is human and how much is a curse, you could go the biological route. After all, Choso's true form is an aborted fetus. He wouldn't even have a body if Mahito had not stuck him in another person's body.
Choso is paradoxically, the oldest of nine brothers but he was never truly born. He is once again an aborted fetus. Presumably, Kenjaku made him either by ripping him out of his mother's womb before he was done, or he was a miscarriage at nine months, either way everything about his birth is unnatural and wrong, he even lives with the knowledge that he was only created because his mother was violated and experimented on. You could go so far as to say that the nine brothers are sort of a manifestation of their mother's "curse" towards the man who violated her.
Choso is human in the fact that unlike other cursed spirits, Choso has a physical body, and can interact with the world around him. Mahito for instance, despite being perhaps the most humanlike curse does not have a physical body and cannot be seen by non-sorcerers, whereas Choso can manifest in a physical body (even if it's not his own body), he can be seen by people, if you cut him he will bleed.
Mahito in fact provides a contrast to Choso, they are so different they may as well be opposites, Mahito is someone who strives to be a true curse whereas for Choso it is ambiguous and unknown to himself whether he is a curse or a human. Mahito if anything shares that ambiguity between his true nature of being a curse or being a human with Choso, because Mahito was created specifically not from the fears of natural forces, but the fears human beings have of each other.
Mahito is also the curse most curious about human emotions and human life, again unlike Jogo, Hanami and Dagon who are pure natural forces, Mahito watches human movies and reads human books as shown in his short story in he light novel.
For Mahito, who analyzed human souls through books and movies, this old man’s knowledge and conversation helped in its own way.
When do humans get angry? Why do they grieve?
How do they trust and in what ways are they betrayed?
Mahito lived with a different sense of ethics compared to humans, so there were many things he struggled to interpret.
Mahito is literally created by human emotions, but he doesn't understand them and just like Choso he is effectively an outsider looking in, an alien in a society of human beings who understands nothing about them, to the point where they may as well be speaking an incomprehensible foreign language. They both make opposite choices however, Choso imitates humans and their relationships to one another by treating him and his brothers esentially like a normal human family, whereas Mahito destroys Junpei the one human he ever got close to, and then goes even further and tries to become something entirely inhuman.
In Mahito's mind the fights between humans and curses isn't a battle between good and evil, but rather a war where two different species are essentially fighting for what side will dominate the other.
If you go by Mahito's logic not only is being a curse not human, but it's at war with being human, Mahito defines himself as being not-human but can't leave it alone at that he also has to be the antithesis of humanity by making himself the polar opposite of Yuji, someone who slaughters humans without a thought the same way Yuji saves.
Mahito is made of human emotoins yet his desire is to be "a true curse" going so far as to want to essentially purify human emotions from himself, believing the only way he can be reborn as something more like a curse is to kill Yuji first someone who reminds him so much of himself. Why does Mahito want to go so far? I think he's driven to such extremes by fear. Remember, Mahito is made up of human emotions, he's created by fear, specifically the fear humans have for each other. When he loses to Yuji, that is what he's revealed to be. Afraid. A fleeing rabbit when he thought himself a wolf.
Mahito also reacts strangely when a human he thought it was safe to be around, a blind homeless man who gave up on life and therefore, did not really express any sort of emotions or attachment to the world, started to express a single emotion near his death.
Being able to make sure of that with his own two eyes, Mahito felt considerably relieved. In the same way he would watch a flower wither and fall, he observed the old man’s death.
Nevertheless…
“Jii-san?”
He had a feeling.
It’s like seeing a plot twist you don’t want to see if you keep turning the pages of a book.
Or like knowing the contents of a present before you open it.
That kind of buzz spread through Mahito’s chest.
While he puzzled over the instinctive alarm bells screaming at him to stop watching, everything was heading toward its end.
“…I thought I would die alone.”
The old man’s soul dimly flickered.
A smile was on his swollen face.
“…To have someone… here to witness this old fool’s last moments…”
The flicker might have been insignificant, like a single drop breaking the water’s surface. Even so, for an instant near death, at the end of it all…
The old man’s soul ‘metabolized’.
“…Tha…nk… y…”
The old man died smiling.
“…”
Mahito’s eyes opened wide, and for a moment, he was frozen.
He thought the old man was different when compared to other humans. To Mahito, he seemed unfettered.
Mahito thought the unique philosophical views stemming from such an extraordinary state of mind had freed him from all the shackles of this world.
But despite all of that, the old man was still captured right in his last moments.
On the brink of death, he clung to someone else so he could avoid a lonely end.
The old man was only human.
For a human, it was likely satisfying enough. Perhaps it was even the proper way for one to die.
“…”
Mahito said nothing.
Mahito's disappointed, almost downright disturbed by the human emotion the man shows in his final moments. This makes sense in regards to the way much stronger curses like Sukuna view human emotions, Sukuna calls the desires Jogo, Hanami and Mahito had to work together as a weakness.
Ishigori later on says that true strength is overhwelming aggression that disregards all else like a calamity. Therefore Mahito's, and also Sukuna's philosophy seems to be by ridding themselves of any human emotoins, they also rid themselves of any weak points and vulnerability in order to grow stronger. Which once again we return now to Choso, who says something incredibly similiar when he gives the reason why he chose to live as a curse at first.
He was too afraid to see his two younger brothers suffer as human beings, instead of dominating and killing everything in their path like a curse would. Yet, when he met Yuji he realized that Yuji was someone who was a hybrid much like him, but could choose to suffer and keep trying to live as a human. At that point Choso makes his mistake he tried to live as Mahito did, as Sukuna did. He tried to be like a curse, a calamity, someone who hurts others without thinking in order to prove how strong they were, yet in doing so he left Yuji all alone.
The super curse brothers clearly are meant to use their abilities together as a team, Choso can draw strength from his younger brothers and imitate them, and Yuji someone who insists on fighting alone could have had all three of them fighting alone as implacable allies.
Choso is a much more sympathetic character than Mahito, and yet he made the same choices earlier on in his arc, during Shibuya he essentially slaughtered people en masse both because the world of curses that Fake-Geto promised them was a place it would be easier to live than trying to survive among human beings. Mahito is frightened of human beings and human emotions themselves, wheras Choso is frightened of their rejection.
Choso is also not the perfect big brother he strives to be, he is weak moreoften then he is strong, Yuki points out right away that if he believed living as a curse was taking the easy way out and living as a human is the right choice then by choosing to die now he's taking the easy way out once more. Once again his wish to die is away of protecting himself, number one he will no longer have to feel the crushing force of his guilt, nor the sting of being alone, number two he won't have to do the hard work of living to atone for what he has done.
In that way Yuji and Choso are truly brothers, because Choso is now reflecting Yuji's worst tendency, despite the fact Choso believes Yuji is trying to live as a human he's really not, since the start of his arc Yuji has more or less been looking for the quickest exit out of this life.
How can Choso expect Yuji to do the work of continuing to live, if he's not even willing to do that? Which is utlimately I think, the difference between living as a curse and living as a human. As I said at the beginning of this post, unlike curses that are invisible tot he human eye, Choso has a physical body, he can be seen by people, he can reach out and touch people, if you cut him he bleeds. If living and dying as a curse is taking the easy way out, then the most difficult thing of all would be for Choso to just try to live in this world. Which is ultimately what he must do, for Yuji's sake, and for his own.
Kenjaku reveals that Tengen is keeping secrets from the main characters this chapter, but he’s interrupted by Yuki’s fists before he can reveal all of it. However, even before this there have been several hints that Tengen is not someone who can entirely be trusted. I’ll be going over them underneath the cut. Remember, Jujutsu Kaisen is a manga about change. If the commonly held notion is to respect your elders, then in Jujutsu Kaisen you should always disrespect your elders and never trust them.
Jujutsu Kaisen portrays a long list of interesting characters, each with important roles to play within the story, but amidst them all there is one character who lies in the very centre of the story’s core themes, and that is Choso.
Choso is introduced in Jujutsu Kaisen as a seemingly unimportant character with his only purpose to be a mere obstacle that the jujutsu sorcerers and Yuji need to overcome, very much like one of the many generic cursed spirits present in the story. This idea is driven further by his two brothers Eso and Kechizu, who were introduced only to be swiftly and unceremoniously killed off by Yuji and Nobara.
The natural path for Choso’s character at this point was simple and predictable, a basic revenge plot against Yuji for killing two of his younger brothers. However, the entire assumption of Choso’s purpose in the story was flipped on its head after the big twist that Choso is in fact a distant blood relative of Yuji. Choso’s innate cursed technique is blood connection, so upon being given the chance to finally kill Yuji after beating him in their fight, he decides on a whim to refuse as a result of his mind, body and soul sensing something wrong when he prepares to kill Yuji.
After walking away and spending time alone to ponder the meaning behind his unexpected connection to Yuji, he realises the truth that both he and Yuji are born experimentations of Kenjaku (known to him as Noritoshi Kamo at the time). After this, Choso’s alignments shift completely, deciding to ally not only with Yuji but all of the jujutsu sorcerers who were previously his enemies. He even goes so far as to completely forgive Yuji for killing his two brothers as he now understands that Yuji was simply ignorant of the truth, just like himself.
The whole purpose of Choso’s character is that despite the extremely unfortunate circumstances of his existence as a cursed human hybrid born from malicious experiments, with every reason to lash out at the world for causing his suffering, he still chooses to care for others. Choso currently being the only living cursed human hybrid in the story is also symbolic for him being the mentally healthiest character who understands both sides of the conflict.
Choso bears no ill will against humans, sorcerers or cursed spirits. This is implied early in the story while he was still aligned with the curse group as unlike the rest of them (Kenjaku, Mahito, Jogo, Hanami and Dagon), Choso was completely uninterested in killing as he had no personal investment. Choso chooses to fight only against the things that threaten him and the things he cares about, just like any other healthy minded person.
Despite his introduction as a background character who also possesses an unremarkable level of power within the context of the story, Choso is actually one of the most spotlighted characters in the story’s narrative. He has been shown in several long and intense fights where he pushes himself to the limit time and time again to fight for the things he cares for, often surprising much stronger characters in the story who belittle him. Choso parallels Yuji in this way for being his only distant blood relative to be shown in the story. Both of them are constantly looked down upon by their enemies including their own parent Kenjaku, as well as Sukuna.
Jujutsu Kaisen’s core themes revolve constantly around the struggle of making selfish or selfless decisions and Choso is the one character who is closest to achieving balance between these two extremes, being the only one who can’t be distinguished between a human or a cursed spirit. Choso is the character who wears his heart on his sleeve. Or in this case, his blood.
Hey, so it’s been an exact year today since I last posted on my blog. As time progressed I’ve been wanting to return back to posting so I thought I’d may as well force myself by being super extra (despite the likelihood that less than a handful of people will actually remember me lol).
So yea, ever since Tokyo Ghoul finished last year I lost all interest in posting, which was to be expected considering my blog was entirely TG focused.
At the time I had been contemplating changing my blog into one that didn’t focus on a particular series or fandom, since there were other series I read and fandoms I enjoy being involved in.
Sadly, I just lacked the same passion for other series that I did for Tokyo Ghoul, and combined with the habit of having made this blog purely for TG content, I just wasn’t interested enough at the time.
So basically my mind has changed now, and with the year hiatus I’ve really missed posting my thoughts, theories and shenanigans. Now I’m hoping to do that again.
For anyone who actually read this and remembers me, I appreciate it a lot.
P.S. It’s Hairu’s birthday again just like last year and she’s still my best girl so I’m waiting anxiously to see new art of her from Ishida. I’ll be so mad if there won’t be :(
I hope you and everyone who despises tg get over it soon, it's not really good to indulge in something that only brings you negative thoughts and feelings. Peace out!!
Thank you, I strongly agree with your points here. Thankfully for me I've now managed to get over the parts I disliked the most in TG, which was mostly the final arc for me.
There really isn't anything to be gained in dwelling on the things you dislike which are never going to change. Otherwise you’re forcing yourself into a cycle of negativity.
In hindsight, despite strongly disliking the ending of the Tokyo Ghoul series, I still do not feel regret for keeping up with the series for over four years. I feel like reading the series has helped me grow as a person, and it sounds like there are many long-term fans who share this sentiment.
I have also met many great people by involving myself in the TG fandom, so I'm overall happy with the experiences I've went through. I hope most of the fandom was able to take away something positive from reading Tokyo Ghoul.
You tell people to stop being a little bitch yet you elitist scum involve yourselves in matters that have absolutely fuck all to do with you and proceed to be a little bitch about it. Here's a tip, keep your lanky nose out of business that doesn't involve you. Elitist scum.
I’m sorry that you feel this way. For people who know my blog, I made my latest reblog post appear intentionally absurd, and I didn't expect that such a post would be taken seriously.
However seeing that such an absurd post has made you this angry and upset, I highly suggest that you do some self-reflecting so that you can figure out your anger issues.
I hope you feel better soon.
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