I think the big thing that keeps Gojo from seeming like a villainous, nightmarish character is that he could absolutely be one... but chooses not to. We see how ludicrously powerful he is, but we don't ever seem him abuse that power except against the literal manifestations of evil that are the only thing he fights. This man could, if he wanted, enact ever dark desire or twisted thought that ever passed through his mind... but he doesn't. It's the refinement of Lord Acton's axiom: Power doesn't corrupt, Power *reveals.* When the guy has all the power to do whatever he wants to do, you learn exactly what he wants to do, and Gojo... wants to kill evil spirits and hang out with his friends.
Not only that, but Gojo also does abuse his power to brute force get what he wants...when does he do that? When the bureaucratic cowards at the top of the jujutsu hierarchy try to snuff out young lives cause they MIGHT be a threat. Yuji and Yuta. He stands up for them to save them from execution by the higherups, and on what authority does he stop them, well, he threatens them that if they do kill the kids, he will turn on them. We know he is not above using his status to force his way, but we only see him do it to protect people who he feels would be punished undeservingly for things they had little choice in, and who have the potential to be good people and a great help to the world, the next generation of strong sorcerers that could also maybe even take the torch from him at some point.
yes, and he doesnot enjoy killing he just likes to be pushed to his limits thats why he let the disaster curses getaway few times before he started to kill them, becaused he wanted to be in a situation like shibuya
Gojo doesnt have any external weaknesses, but boy does he have internal ones. All of his failures come from his emotional attachments and that in itself is humanizing.
Black rope, Inverted spear of heaven, prison realm, the angel, etc can all nullify cursed techniques, and a few of these are used against him effectively. (Most) Of these are not inside of him, and thus are external weaknesses.
What I love about Gojo is his realization that despite all his supremacy, he can't do much alone. He failed in almost all matters that truly matter to him, wheter it's saving the girl or being there for his best friend. Seeing everything all at once doesn't change the fact that you can choose to do few things a time. His power also make it harder for him to work with others. He is OP, but not invincible and that's what rare in story telling.
I usually don't like OP characters, I hate a character that almost never bleeds in a fight, or only gets a small nose bleed after receiving a hit that destroys a planet. And example is the main character in the Manhwa Solo Leveling, the character has basically activated cheat in a game. Never once after becoming powerful have I seem him break a bone or get a bruise.
@@ikka489 I think the gimmick to making good OP characters on the good side is to make them side characters instead of the MC. People that are at the top of the world but won´t always be around because they re just one person and in Gojo s case can be circumvented thought good planning.
@@ShinobudRUski I think this is the key to execute "OP" characters and keep stories interesting. One Punch Man, for what I have seen, is a stellar example. The guy is basically invincible, but the situations presented by the story cannot usually be solved by physical strength alone.
the most interesting aspect of gojo is how it’s the thing that most stories in this genre push, the idea that bonds are important and powerful, that ends up being his downfall. using the civilians as a shield was a good idea but it’s really his bond with geto that is ultimately how he gets sealed. his technique separates him (literally) from everything else in existence and therefore it’s fitting that this technique accepts the sight of geto, but his (human) soul rejects it. he is sealed because he remembers a time when that technique was still fallible, where he wasn’t at all times an infinite distance away from others and could still form a genuine human connection. ‘when is satoru gojo at his best? when he’s alone’
i agree, when he killed geto at the end of the movie we know that gojo always saw geto as his only rival and true friend once that was gone and he had his awakening nothing could touch him expect for those memories and vunerables the only things that really grounded him as human enough to like.( oh and gege hating him so plot is also his weakness:()
Sorry to revive this, but this also relates to how Sukuna aludes to true power, absolute power is achieved by throwing away everything and burning the world down for your own selfish needs for even more power. Gojo, who probably has THE BEST ability combination and talent to boot, who embodies this sentiment on a mechanical level (just like you said)still held for his connections, friendship and all and ultimately got sealed from it.
One thing you didn’t mention is how even the heroes fear Satoru Gojo (except his students). It’s talked causally about how Gojo could wipe out every person in Japan by himself if he wanted to, but doesn’t. Gojo himself talks casually about killing his higher ups, but doesn’t. Even All-Might and Kakashi, for all the similarities they share with Gojo, never talked about murdering their superiors as a solution, even as a joke. All-Might can level cities, but this is only used as a threat against the bad guys, never as something the good guys are wary of him possibly doing just because he could, or if someone points it out, they’re quickly shamed for thinking that way. And yet we, as the audience, still love Satoru Gojo. When Gojo says, ‘hey, maybe I should just kill this entire room full of people’, we think *maybe he should’ve*. After the star plasma vessel arc, there were, and still are, discussions on whether Geto was right to stop Gojo from murdering that entire room full of innocents. Not cursed spirits. Human beings. People that did nothing wrong except be in a cult. And yet, if they’d all died, I wouldn’t have liked Gojo any less for it. Gege is a brilliant writer. Gojo is only held back by himself, and it makes him great. Anyone else with a god complex would be the final boss, like Ozai or Cell or Madara. But when Gojo calls himself the Honored One we’re all just like ‘yep, true’.
It’s interesting (doubly so if you watch it dubbed) because what makes Gojo a compelling hero, and a jerk in the prequel, is beat for beat what makes Gilgamesh someone you just want to punch, as you watch him slither his way through backstabs and betrayal. They’re both, fundamentally, Demi-gods. But Fate/Zero’s Gilgamesh is _differently_ arrogant. He’s arrogant, and the fact that he _could_ just drop a super tanker on someone out of the Gate of Babylon, is exacerbated by the fact that he _has_ no rivals. I do believe that time, probably(?), will at least eventually humble Gojo, just naturally. Unless his particular Cursed technique eventually gets so highly refined that he just can freeze time around himself. Which… yeah, okay, everyone can go home. Gojo wins, and can still make an active _human_ choice to not hurt people, despite him not really caring one way or the other, most of the time. Gilgamesh, within the confines of being summoned to fight in a proxy war, while powerful, and bored, and arrogant, is constrained by rules. If my memory serves, the entire conceit of the Throne of Heroes was the Earth/Universe itself didn’t know what to _do_ with him once he had abandoned his quest for immortality and died. So the Throne was constructed to contain him, in all of his potential summon forms. That Archer’s NP (Rin’s Servant; Fate/SN) is the only one who can _hope_ to meet Gate of Babylon in a straight fight, and even that I’m fairly sure Archer would lose to Gil if he didn’t get under his skin, is made compelling because of VAs. I don’t think it was a conscious choice to cast Archer as Gojo and Gilgamesh as Nanami, but it ends up being this fascinating blend of voice acting. And because that is gnawing away at things, when Gojo as a character who _is_ more powerful than the constrained Gilgamesh (as a Servant) comes out and just acts like a pretty benevolent and reasoned god… yeah I’m not gonna argue with him. (I also think one could argue that after 5/6,000 years that Gilgamesh simply doesn’t _care_ anymore. His callousness and inhumanity has been brought to the finest of edges by centuries of boredom, of knowing what will happen, of witnessing events play out again and again.)
@@subhadramahanta452 And argubly, that makes Gojo even more compelling as a Character. Gilgamesh is only stopped because of his arrogance and desire to "see something interesting". His motivations are almost no different to a serial murder killing just because "its interesting" and its only stopped because he gets bored by the equivalence of stepping on ants. Gojo though, actively stops killing because he doesn't want to turn out like Geto, someone so bitter towards the world that he trys to destroy it. Yet at the same time, he's similar to Gilgamesh in that he doesn't want to kill the guy who represented everything he fights for now. He's caught in a beautiful catch-22 yet found the perfect way to get out of it by training another generation of youths to not be like him and create a better world.
@@pergys6991 Archer Gilgamesh, yes, 100%, he views himself fully above humanity, at a blood, and deity level. Caster Gilgamesh is much less… everything that makes you want to watch the 6k old king of Uruk fail in his plans to turn the world into some weird form of mush corrupted by the Greater Grail’s corruption. And honestly? That’s because both Gojo and Caster Gilgamesh, lost someone deeply important to them. (And Gojo is not by blood a literal Demi-god no matter how powerful a sorcerer he is.) Gojo lost Geto to the darkness of human arrogance (a path Gojo could have kept/gone down had he not made an effort to change his morality) and Gilgamesh lost Enkidu as punishment for defying the gods/Ishtar (at least in _Fate_ ), and when he failed in his quest for immortality… it essentially was a sobering aspect of his personal life/character arch. He became a better king, a proper king, and (at least as far as _Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia_ is concerned) he did all of that in honor of Enkidu. Which is why Archer Gilgamesh is a villain you want to punch, repeatedly, in the face, and Gojo is someone you’re willing to root for and forgive.
I find it interesting in the flashback he felt like an asshole. A type of person who borderline a narcissistic and individualistic mindset. Scenes where he easily forgets caring about people's lives, openly hating ideas that the strong should take care of the weak, and how The leaving of his friend made him reevaluate his personal beliefs and insights. Let's be blunt if he was a real person a fair chunk of the world would hate him for being a borderline supremacist. - from a Gojo Fan
Too true, and that's why its such an important arc. He was kindof a shit person. He had the people he liked, and anyone else wasn't worth caring about more than necessary. But Geto's final speech to him really hit him, and would lead to his eventual plan to raise a better generation of sorcs. If he was a real person, he'd be that politician that a lot of people don't like, but he gets shit done and they just keep voting for him.
That is the thing. He is very much intended as a character with zero respect for authority, who regularly preaches a selfish mindset and, generally, exists as an isolated individual. Eventually, he might have done something so terrible that it would have pitted him against society, not necessarily out of mean intent, but because he literally wouldn't care about protecting other people outside his immediate circle. Gojo, of then, absolutely would've just popped his domain and slaughtered everyone in that subway if he hadn't have changed. The flashback was him and Geto switching paths. Instead, Geto broke and became a supremacist, building his own family, while Gojo sought to change Sharman society from the inside through its youth, something that seemed more in line with Geto's beliefs up to that point. Ultimately, both had chosen to take over the world through two separate paths because their individual powers were peerless, but interestingly. In a sense, Toji had changed Gojo's life for the better completely, both allowing him to obtain a whole new understanding of himself and gifting him the perfect apprentice to get a hook into the Zenin clan. At the same time, Toji had stolen everything Geto had ever believed in, including his best friend indirectly and his faith in the people he was protecting.
At the same time, Geto is similar to me. He seems like he is the " nicer" one in comparison to Gojo, but he actually believes the thing Gojo believes but in a paternalistic sort of way until he goes full blown with his prejudice.
You are missing one BIG piece of the puzzle that is Saturo Gojo and what it is that makes him so appealing in JJK. Its his empathy and compassion. Yes, his shear power is awe inspiring but Gojo is one of the only characters in the entire series to actually care about and fight for the people. Whether we are talking about Yuta, Itadori, Maki, Fushiguro, or any of the others the other characters in power at JJK have shown time and time again that they are willing to use them as either disposable pawns or treat them as threats that need to be strangled in the cradle. Gojo is the only one to ever fight for their futures and put himself out there on their behalf. Add that to the fact that Gojo has the power to kill every single corrupt sorcerer in Japan in less than an hour and has even admitted on serval occasions to being tempted to do just that but instead decided to dedicate his life to raising the future generation of sorceress so he can build a brighter future and you can see why he is so looked up to.
Exactly. The man understands his seemingly infinite strength will not bring the change he wants. He has to lead by example with his word and being alone.
I do believe he is the only character we have actually seen mourn the loss of a student, isn't he? That also makes him incredibly human. We obviously see in his flashbacks that he does care about people, and that he isn't as selfish or cold blooded as people could easily mistake him for, but even before that, we actually see that he cares for his students with Yuji's death. It is the first time in the series we actually see him lose the free spirited and joking persona as he thinks about killing all of the higher ups. There is no joke, he is really thinking of wiping them all out for getting Yuji killed, and we can easily understand it. He cares about his students to a fault, and that helps him avoid the fall into villain territory. Though, I am not actually sure if he wouldn't have killed them all if Yuji didn't come back to life.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. All the powerful and godlike abilities of gojo makes him popular. But what solidified him as a fan favourite were these moments and cracks of vulnerability that showed a deeper side to him.
One of the things I love about Gojo is that, for all of his godlike powers and status within the jujutsu world, it's always his humanity that ends up being his undoing. He goes overseas and leaves Yuuji in Nanami's care, trusting Nanami to protect him, and what happens? Junpei dies, Nanami almost dies, and Yuuji gets traumatized. Then during the Kyoto School Event, after he's done dealing with Hanami, he senses that somebody is still within the vicinity breaking into Jujutsu Tech, but instead of pursuing the culprit, he chooses to stay behind to make sure the students are okay. That results in the cursed spirits obtaining ten of Sukuna's fingers and the Death Paintings, which they put to use in Shibuya. Him not being able to properly dispose of Geto's body leads to Geto's body getting hijacked and used against Gojo during Shibuya, which results in Gojo getting sealed. So many times, it's been Gojo's humanity, his care for others, his desire to not be alone in his strength anymore, that makes him put his faith in others, but ultimately that faith almost always ends up backfiring in the end. It's like that one line he says to Jogo during their first fight: "It's ironic, isn't it? When granted everything, you can't do anything..." Gojo has the power to kill everyone and remake the world, but he knows that wouldn't actually change anything. It wouldn't actually solve anything, so he has to find a different means of obtaining his ideal reality without the use of his powers. Another thing I really like about him is his dichotomy with Sukuna. Sukuna also loves the thrill of a fight, but whereas Gojo will simply belittle and humiliate his opponents simply because he can and he genuinely has no qualms with reminding his opponents how weak they are compared to him, Sukuna actually wants to give others a chance to give him a challenge. He wants others to let themselves loose and show their true potential against him. If you manage to give him a good fight, or if you manage to simply entertain him, then he'll even compliment you on it.
There is a phrase you uttered in the final stretch of the video that sort of called out to me in a strange way. "Satoru Gojo wants to save human lives and protect the world, but only if he gets to do a lot of murder along the way". I'm actually kind of surprised at this take because I absolutely disagree with that assessment, which is kind of funny since I agreed with most of the info you presented up until that point. Gojo takes pleasure and derives enjoyment from fighting and killing his enemies, but he still fundamentally is someone who wants to do the right thing. Saying "he only wants to save humans if he gets to kill" paints him as a sociopath that prioritizes the thrill of killing over his moral duty as the strongest sorcerer protecting humanity, which to me just seems like a woeful misinterpretation of his character and sort of flies in the face of many of his development scenes (Geto's turn to darkness or Yuji's death and him considering killing the higher-ups). Gojo is a protector first and a killer second; that's the main contrast between him and Sukuna. Where Sukuna endlessly talks about needing to be selfish and malicious to gain ultimate power, Gojo instead nurtures students and allies and takes pride in their successes as sorcerers. Gojo absolutely _could_ be a second Sukuna if he wanted to, chasing the thrill of fighting and combat against the strongest sorcerers around, but he actively chooses not to, because his enjoyment of fighting is not as strong as his sense of morality as a sorcerer and human. Murder is a fun bonus to his main objective of protecting humanity, not the other way around. And even then, it's more of a side effect of him letting loose, rather than the main objective in itself: Gojo doesn't necessarily seem to derive enjoyment from the act of taking a life, more so he enjoys fighting and letting loose his otherwise ever-present self restraint: murder just happens to follow when he does that to stop bad guys.
This, 100% Gojo is mad, totally, and enjoys crushing curses and releasing his full sorcery, but this is a thrill he handles responsibly - like driving fast on a racetrack instead of on the highway.
I would disagree as if geto did not exist his morals would be more aligned with sukunas, he is doing the teaching thing as a pass time as he finds it interesting for now, this can be seen many times when he was lonely as a kid and let's manito and jogo get away easily causing more death.
@@shaheljawad5863 Whether Geto had an influence or not is not really relevant to the point I was making though. Fact is that he ended up the way he is now because of the way he has lived his life. That aside, there is a _big_ difference between "I think we shouldn't bother with curtains" that Gojo believes and the "kill everyone because it's fun" philosophy Sukuna believes. Saying that without Geto Gojo believes the same as Sukuna is a Tumblr fanfic "Villain Deku" level of understanding of the narrative and character. And I have zero clue where you got the "teaching is a pastime for now" idea from. Ever since he was introduced as an adult in Volume Zero, his role as a teacher and his desire to change Jujutsu Society through it were central motivations to his character, not something he just did absentmindedly because he was bored and _teaching teenagers_ sounded like fun. Again, Villain Deku fanfic levels of understanding of the character.
Gege Akutami did a great job with a lot of characters and Gojo is one of the best because they made a character who could be easily textbook and unlikeable, and made him a fan favorite. He was feral at some points, but my favorite scenes are where he truly shows how he’s doing this for his students and the future generations of sorcerers. This is great timing for a video as JJK has become my hyper fixation as of late. Thanks!
@@robadob55 Dude, I remember seeing that everywhere! It’s actually really hilarious to me. I think I remember seeing somewhere that Toji is his favorite?
@@robadob55no. He doesnt hate gojo as a character. He hates writing gojo, because due to his power he is very restricting to the series. He cant realistically lose a fight so gege has to write around him in order to keep tensions up.
@@mattimeikalainen6963 Yeah that's basically admission of incompetence. gege fucked up when they made gojo this powerful and spent the entire manga trying to find a workaround.
I was thinking today actually it’s interesting how Gojo acts like a villain by the way he talks and acts towards cursed spirits while Sukuna on the other hand is clearly a villain but oddly gives support to his “enemies.” He sees potential in Megumi, he compliments Jogo…interesting inversion going on there even if it’s minor.
Sukuna wants something from megumi. Its not a "oh this kid could be strong" its a "i can use this kid" And the dream sequence with jogo is a weird scenario that isnt 100% understood to this day
@@mattimeikalainen6963 Sukuna recognized that Jogo WAS a real nigga, and he had the POTENTIAL to be an even realer nigga. Real nigga radar transcends fiction.
@@mattimeikalainen6963 And I don't get the Jogo reference. Jogo didn't count Gojo as a strong person. He literally said he was an overestimation by the weak, but not until Gojo showed him the power gap which slapped it into his face. So Gojo retaliated with the same statement. Even in the Shibuya arc, Gojo says the reason why he didn't like Jogo and Hanami. He said they see as being weak which pisses him off. Sukuna on the other hand, who was trolling Jogo throughout the fight calling him pathetic. The reason Jogo feared sukuna was that Sukuna's presence has pure malice, which forces his foes, and even friends(if any), submit to him.
My statement about Gojo: He's Alucard. He is, functionally and by virtue of causing the entire narrative to circle around him like a black hole, Alucard from Hellsing. He is *functionally omnipotent* in the story, and that makes him an extraordinarily difficult character to write. It's very, very easy for an Alucard-like to dominate the entire story around their presence. So most of JJK occurs when Gojo is off-screen, when the villains have various plans to distract/retreat from him, or the story openly states 'yeah he's off on another job right now, kay?' The problem with introducing an Alucard is you set a high water mark. You set up a point of comparison. The character is set up to be so powerful they warp the fabric of the fictional world...and trying to figure out what to do without them is an extremely difficult task.
The moment I got through this video, my first reaction was to CTRL+F Alucard, and I'm surprised you're the only one so far who has mentioned him. Everything I was hearing about Gojo was making me think of Hellsing's Alucard. Sure, he had a weakness that got exploited in the end, but it was a very convoluted weakness that went clean over my head when I read it way back in high school. As you said, functionally omnipotent. I suppose another useful element of stories with Alucards in them is to make the key conflict less about their survival and more about the their ability to be heroes despite themselves, focusing on things like collateral damage, or moments when their sadism actually gets in the way of their heroing. Having a secondary character, like Integra or Seras, who are actually invested in saving lives can help make the moments when the show's Alucard goes too far, seem like dark moments, even if the character is having a blast while doing it.
to be fair gojo is not omnipotent,he is simply the strongest of his generation/arguably the best sorcerer ever people like yuta are close to getting on his level
Gojo doesn't enjoy KILLING, I wouldn't say, so much as he enjoys demonstrating the raw power which he is uniquely capable of. Remember the end of Hidden Inventory to support that point, where he's literally drunk on his own power. High on the sheer volume and understanding of his own cursed energy. Now, demonstrating his raw power does usually end in something dying, and the catalyst through which he demonstrates that power is beating the everliving shit out of (to all intents and purposes) sentient beings, but the reason I make the distinction is that Gojo doesn't take pleasure in the act, the idea, of killing or causing pain. His pleasure in battle is derived from showing off what makes him the Honored One.
not really? gojo doesn't like to hamr people, but curses aren't humans, not even animal, they are evil spirits, manifestations of the fears and hatreds of humanity, no one should feel bad for exorcising them, quite the contrary and after geto left he really had a mind change, of course he likes showing off TO HIS STUDENTS not just to do it (most of the time), just think about how hard it was for him just to decide to open his domain in shibuya
@@darkcust4478Consider his second fight with Toji, who is very much human, but which he enjoyed because he was literally high on his own power at the time. Edit: come to think of it, he's enjoyed every fight with a curse user except Geto, and it's always more for demonstrating his sheer superiprity over them than killing them.
@@darkcust4478no gojo loves fighting curse users too, not just cursed spirits. Even with the spirits, some higher grade ones are literally just humans in another form, killing borderline human characters isnt something a typical hero character should enjoy. Its also stated multiple times that gojo loves the power and skill he is capable of and loves using it, just for his own sake.
Gojo does not derive enjoyment from the act of taking a life, but rather from the thrill of a fight and being able to let loose. It just happens to usually coincide with him slaughtering people.
I think big key as to why Gojo is written is this way is that at the base level all Cursed Energy is formed from negative emotions. Gojo HAS to have that "villainous" side to him otherwise he wouldnt be a Jujutsu Sorcerer in the first place; we see this with every character in JJK that is powerful. It's also the difference between our 2 MCs Yuta & Yuji. Yuta has immense Cursed Energy from a traumatic event in childhood as well as depression/lack of self confidence, meanwhile Yuji is basically a Golden Retriever and we see still to this day he hasnt even developed a Cursed Technique.
A cursed technique is innate, its not something you can develop by developing your skills. And a big part of yujis growth has been that he has gone from a pretty laid back comfortable life to having his mind and whole world destroyed and demolished over and over.
I think the stuff we learn about gojo helps too. We realize that his motivation is to end his lonliness as the strongest being, to put someone up there with him as his rival or partner, so that he isn't just the strongest. He also states that he understands just abusing his godlike power won't accomplish that. He knows that he can't brute force that. so he doesn't and he becomes a teacher.
12:35 I think what is an additional point of why the character is likeable, is that he is a dream. Something that many of watchers would utterly enjoy to be if that was an option. He sells being this limitless force, that loves doing what he does, very, very well.
[Minor Manga spoilers for immediately after the current shibuya arc] Satoro Gojo inspires fear not only the villains, but also the leadership of Jujitsu society. He can single handedly convince the leadership to let him handle Yuta and Itadori instead of killing them, simply because they can't stop him. Geto said it perfectly, if Gojo wanted to kill all non-sorcs he could. His goal is to raise up sorcs who will shake up and revolutionize the Jujitsu world from within, because while he can do whatever he wants he did take some things away from Geto all these years after their parting......And he'll happily disrespect those in power while doing it too. Like, the weight he holds over the authorities is so great, that once he was finally out of the way they made is a literal crime punishable by death to try and free him, and they quickly made moves on Itadori and another familiar character because they finally could. He's not our (humanity's) old testament god. He's our (humanity's) old testament god, minus the traditionalists in jujitsu society
Personally, what I find most interesting about Satoru Gojo is just how much his own author, Gege Akutama, publicly admits to hating both his character and Yuji's for the very reason that he DOES violate so many storytelling rules. He doesn't like how there really can't be any struggle with Gojo in the story and how perfect he is and eve admitted that he was looking forward to having him face Sukuna, a character he likes much better. Which is funny, because all the issue Akutama has with Gojo as a character also apply to Sukuna but since he is the antagonist it doesn't matter as it makes it EASIER to tell the story instead of harder.
Specifically hates writing gojo in the story, not necessarily him as a character. And if sukuna was free to move around, the whole story would revolve around him. As we see both times this has happened, the entire story has shifted. Sukuna spent like 95% of the story so far sealed though, so the same roadblocks gege had with gojo were dealth with with sukuns
We are so used to a villain being the single strongest being in existence to the point where protagonists must toe the line that we have so few stories where an ally is the Supreme Force of the world. Gege did a great job outlining how that would shift the power balance of the world of Jujutsu while also writing around him so he doesn't solve every problem the protagonists end up facing. Huge kudos to him.
Gojo was dangerously close to becoming a full blown villain in his past arc. Seeing him stay a good guy for the most part because of Getos influence alone really shows how much that friendship meant to him. He indirectly pushed Geto away when he thought taking all the dangerous work for everyone would be a relief to Geto and everyone else though. Geto slowly radicalized over a few months after the star plasma vessel incident and Gojo doing everything solo progressed it faster and Geto ends up breaking away from the moral code that used to keep him in check and still keeps Gojo in check. After that incident, Gojo realizes his strength alienated him from everyone else including his best friend but instead of simply remaining the strongest, he tries his best to raise his students to his level one day. Hoping that there are multiple equal strong sorcerers capable of handling everything together and without any single one having to take all the brunt alone. I think Gojos whole character arc and goal will be complete once this happens.
I don't think he loves killing per se. I think he loves letting loose and doesn't care if he kills as long as it aligns with his morals. I think a lot of the letting loose kinda ties to the whole "strongest" thing. At least that's the way I've read him from the Manga and Anime. Small difference but a difference. Edit * it's like a mix of JL Superman v Darkseid and Superman talking about being able to cut loose and Gojo validating the only identity he's ever known.* Also I love when you started talking about gods and clipped Badgey. I'd love to see a Lower Decks video!
I was thinking of the same comparison to SM and Darkseid. "I have to act like the entire world is made of paper, but you can handle it can't you? I can finally cut loose."
I also love the fact that Gojo's strength is why he can almost never get anything significant done. Gojo is so overwhelmingly powerful that every single attack by the enemy is carefully constructed around him either by distracting him, sealing him, just trying to remove him from the situation in any way because they know they can't fight him head on. Every time the enemies strike it's always perfectly set up to give Gojo as many disadvantages as possible, and while Gojo still powers through most of them with a little time, rarely does he actually stop them from accomplishing their goals outright, and that's a great way to write an antagonist with such an op hero.
You could also add Deadpool to this characterization to some degree. Also, I think it's fair to say the people/ cursed spirits Gojo is killing are very evil, and he's not even close as a lesser evil.
@Gadget-Walkmen I mean in the sense that they are very powerful compared to the people they normally fight, they seem to enjoy killing but it never turns us against them, and they're both childlike. But outside of that, yeah, Deadpool is an anti-hero
@@bradley8614 deadpool doesn't enjoy killing, he just acts and kills recklessly and childishly, but yeah. I wouldn't say that deadpool is "very powerful" tho, he's just borderline immortal with haxxed comedic regen.
I honestly disagree with the way you characterized Gojo. You say that he is a sadistic person who enjoys killing and you say that we like him because he’s cool and kills things we don’t like but you completely ignore his “kryptonite”: innocent people. Gojo will NOT kill innocent people, this is the ONLY reason Gojo got sealed in S2 in the first place. The villains took advantage of the fact that Gojo has morals and used that as a weakness. So he does in fact have a “kryptonite” and there IS a reason for the audience to like him other than his “cool factor”. He CARES about humans, he wants to protect them and he would never hurt anyone innocent. That is without a doubt a LIKEABLE trait. It’s not as simple as “he likes killing and he’s cool”. Not dissing the video or anything I really enjoyed it, but I disagree with that aspect of the video.
Same thoughts exactly, it was an interesting interpretation for him to get from Gojo's character seeing as we see very clearly that Gojo is unwilling to take an innocent life and he himself saying that Gojo enjoys killing bad guys. Instead of seeing that Gojo enjoys vanquishing evil, he simply stopped at "Gojo enjoys vanquishing." And that was weird to me. Especially after JJK0 shows very clearly Gojo developing a staunch position of fighting for good and to protect innocent lives without exception. But prior to that, I think the video was pretty good as an exploration.
I'm not sure if Satoru enjoys killing cursed spirits, but more that he enjoys stretching his power and going all out. He rarely can, so the few opportunities where he can hit the nuclear button must feel like climbing out of a claustrophobic cage. He also processes things supernaturally fast because of his special eyes, so it makes sense that the usual steps of shock, denial, shame, resignation, and determination that anyone else might go through to take a life, he just speed-runs the process with his super-computer-like brain.
This video has some uncanny timing. I was thinking about writing a character for my story exactly how you described Gojo - "villain, but our villain". The idea seemed a bit far-fetched to me, but it clearly can work, huh.
He had every opportunity to become much more powerful to exceed Sukuna and Kenjaku but he didn't seize them. If he had Sukuna's mentality, think of what he would've done to acquire over the curses and the JJK world using his best friend, Tengen (through Riko Amanai) or develop unescapable insta-kill techniques using Nobara. Heck, he met Megumi when he's just a kid. Mahoraga and the 10S could've served him. The show highlights the consequences of every single choice he made.
The price would have been his own humanity even though Gojo feels separated from the rest of human kind he still cherishes his humanself and was proud to fight and die as human.
People in jjk get stronger from fighting others stronger than them and their strength of their eras reflects that i.e kashimo was the strongest of his era after sukuna had already been dead for 400 years, so kashimo's peak was lower than sukuna because while sukuna peaked in the golden age of sorcery kashimo ha peaked when it had begun to fall off. gojo is the same way, he couldnt really get any stronger and definitely had no need to because he was the strongest and by such a large margin that nobody could hold a candle to him. like sure he couldve kept trying to invent techniques and alternatives but to kill who? to fight who? everyone was already just fodder to him so he peaked just like sukuna and kashimo did.
Fun Fact, and a bit of a spoiler warning: Gege has stated multiple times that he hates writing Gojo, simply because he is JJK's version of the dragon balls. As a result, any fight Gojo finds himself in he will always win due to how powerful he is. this became a problem as theoretically JJK should have ended in shibuya (because Kenjaku was present during the incident and Gojo could have just used Hollow Purple to kill him there and then, the affects of domain expansion on the user be damned), so Gege ended up sealing Gojo away just so that the plot can develop. And even after sealing him for an entire year Gege had to kill him off because it would be an anti-climatic end to the story if he beat Sukuna during their second clash (and believe me, when he used his last hollow purple, Sukuna should have died) Edit: the last parenthesis is just my personal opinion
maybe, but sukuna still had his resurrection ready, it wasnt an aimed hollow purple at 200% like the one in the beggining and it still damaged him pretty badly, probably the worst he has ever been damaged, but that would not kill sukuna
I just want to correct you in a thing, (not in a offensive way) the thing is, it wouldn't make sense for Satoru to use a Hollow purple in Shibuya, because it would literally kill everyone, including normal people, and also, i don't think Gojo knew Kenjaku was there before he uses his domain expansion. (Just to make it clear, i am not trying to offend you.)
you could've fixed all of this with some simple arc restructuring. One major grip I have with JJK is how useless Geto's character is. He's built up decently in the hidden inventory, then dies in a prequel chapter and gets taken over by "I took backshots for the plan" Kenjaku. He should've been a strong villain, and I'm not gonna remove Kenjaku from the equation too. What I'd do is splice the hidden inventory arc with the shibuya arc, bringing both to the present. We can see Geto's downfall in real time, and we can watch him betray the sorcerers to fulfill his plan alongside Kenjaku (who would be in Yuji's moms body). And finally, Toji would appear as a wild card, and Kill Gojo. For Good. To set up what would be a monster of an arc, I'd add 2 more arcs that would help in developing the main cast, and showcase Geto's increasing dislike of humans. I'm literally making this on the fly btw, so This is very rough on the edges. I'd also partially insert JJK 0 into the latter arcs post shibuya, with edits to fit the new narrative.
@@danielluis8680 I get that, I'm just saying that JJK could have ended (or at least one plot point) at shibuya had Gege not sealed Satoru away. And it does make sense for Gojo to use a dangerous CT that could easily kill all the citizens in the train station as he used unlimited void for 0.2 seconds to subdue everyone present, and if he has such fine control of his domain expansion, wouldn't it make sense that his mastery of a technique like hollow purple be so high that he can hit one specific target with it? Also don't sweat it blud, I am all for healthy discussion so I tend not to get offended easily👍
Ive heard the term "antivillain" thrown around a bit but this is the first time i would say its an accurate description. But he's likable for more than those reasons as well. He's also an extremely human character. Like he actually feels like a real person rather than a fictional character a lot of the time because he's complex and contradictory just like real humans are. We don't fit into a mold and often don't make sense or remain constant. We act irrationally and erratically and like things we shouldn't and do both good and bad and are defined but thousands of events in our lives, not just one "backstory" and that is captured by Gojo. I love him because he's not just well written for an anime character he's well written period and frankly anime character writing is simply a lesser category so he stands out so much more due to his surprising genre
Enjoying the killing of curse spirits is not the same as enjoying killing humans. If curse spirits did exist and were as grotesque as they are in JJK I'm pretty sure 99% of us would take pleasure in cleansing them. Gege does a great job humanising the curses. For example, we are made to emphasise with Jogo and even feel sorry for him in his battle against Sukuna. Let's not forget this is the curse who burns multiple people alive in the cafe in season 1 for fun.
I think I disagree on one point: Satoru Gojo DOES have a Kryptonite, and that's: Morality Gojo is shackled by this phantom force throughout the show and manga, he treats his enemies and combatants with absolute prejudice, but many times we see that he doesn't exercise his power of murder on them. The "higher ups" for example, he doesn't involve non-sorcerers as well, even in situations where his normal disregard for life would serve him incredibly well. In the face of these non-combatants, Gojo has no strength to affect them.
Gojo coulda fixed the whole series if he had simply fully expanded his domain and sacrifice the 200+ people there. I’d be disappointed but honestly that would be a pretty cool end to a show in general.
SPOILERS AHEAD It's a really interesting analysis of Gojo's characters, but I think you have missed a few points expecially in regards to Megumi and how his relationship to Gojo makes him more complex and reveals his weaknesses. Gojo was 100% for killing Yuuji if Megumi hadn't said he didn't want that. He asks Megumi if sparing Yuuji is his selfish wish and when Megumi says yes, Gojo goes OK (y) even though he knows it's suuuuper risky to keep a part of Sukuna alive. It's also hinted by Satoru himself that Megumi is the only one capable of standing as his equal as he tells Megumi about their ancestors with the same cursed techniques who duelled (and the winner was not known). SPOILER FOR THE MANGA Sukuna also needed Megumi's body/technique to definitely win over Gojo. Megumi and his other human connections are his weaknesses (as seen how both Geto and Kenjaku used this to their advantage). It's actualy really interesting to see that for all his god like powers he is still human in the end.
@@josephrush8078 he let mahoraga do all the work he needed 10 shadows. and satoru did say that yuta/yuji/and megumi could all reach his level some day. talks about it when yuji dies breifly early on in the anime.
@josephrush8078 he said it himself, he waited for mahoraga to find a solution to infinity, mahoraga changed his ce the first time so he waited waited for mahoraga do to all the work and create a blueprint to beat gojo. Trust I read it too
Every rule has an exception. Like for anime we say the world should be well made and plot points should come into play for one Hxh basically doesn't do that. Gon and killua don't go to the top floor to fight the strongest in heaven's arena. We get 100 cards but they only use or actually show 20-40 at best. Hisoka says he will fight Gon again someday. That's never going to happen but it works as life isn't so simple as making promises
Gojo reminds me a lot of Beerus. All-powerful, loves to kill, but does actually care about people. The only difference is Beerus still pretends he doesn't care because he hasn't been put in an ultimatum position (yet).
Personally I think another fact that makes Gojo so likeable is that with all the power that he he has, he still cannot do a thing. Quite ironically, the most powerful and most respected sorcerer of the modern era has dominated every foe he has faced almost instantly, though he failed to accomplish anything every time. He lost to Toji, basically resurrected and killed him, only after the damage was done -> leading to Geto turning evil, dying and getting his body taken over by the most evil sorcerer to ever live. He absolutely bullied Jogo in S1, but ultimately failed to kill him. He managed to stop the fighting against Hanami in S1, but failed to kill Hanami for good as well. It just keeps going, because in S2 he fights against Hanami and Jogo a second time, and though he kills Hanami, he once again fails to kill Jogo, creating a possibility for Jogo to feed Yuji 10 of Sukunas fingers, creating the biggest massacre in all of JJK. He on top of that, gets sealed in the most important moments of the entire manga. He is the honored one, the pinnacle of Jujutsu. He is given all of this power, yet he remains to be someone who accomplished nothing. As Gojo himself said: "Ironic, isn't it? When granted everything, you cannot do anything" It is quite ironic, because these words fit perfectly to describe his very existence. But thats what makes him so likeable. He is no comedic answer to every problem like for example Saitama from One Punch Man, rather he could be, but has always been to arrogant, or in the wrong spot at the wrong time to actually fullfill his role. He is flawed, and that makes him likeable. (EVEN BIGGER MANGA SPOILERS) And to top it all off, he gets unsealed only to die in a hell of a fight against no other but the strongest in the Verse, Sukuna (though it is argueable who of the both is actually the strongest, since Sukuna had to use 10 Shadows of Megumi)
10:16 I'd say he doesnt enjoy killing but instead enjoys the fight and acknowledges his job is pest control. So he enjoys the process not the result but that doesnt mean he will hold back the result like goku would.
If this dude doesn't point out how gojo still cares about those he is sworn to protect and the first times we are shown him losing in both cases was because he has a limit himself to protect the innocent as much as possible... We gon throw hands
5:46 he can't (won't) use his powers in confined spaces with people he doesn't want to hurt nearby, so yeah I guess technically "no weaknesses/limitations" besides the ones he places on himself
What kept Gojo interesting for me when i watched the show, was the power fantasy that came with the idea of being "so strong that you terrify the villains".
One of the big things is that the things we see him kill 99.9% of the time with joy are things that aren't human, it's curse spirits, evil incarnate, our fears and hate, monsters. If he we changed nothing else about Gojo and the story but simply made it so that he wasn't killing monsters, he was killing people, his perception would change. However I'm relatively certain that the only guy we saw him kill so far was Toji, and at that point he was kinda druged out of his mind by his own power and I mean, Toji killed him first, killing him back is reasonable. (and Geto, but Gojo got no joy from that kill) I'm also gonna put a comment replying to @DoragonShinzui with my 2nd point.
I would add that killing Geto was the last thing he wanted to do - he literally avoided it for 10 years, letting him run the cult despite knowing he was the only one who could execute him. Geto didn't leave him a choice by attacking the school and not intending to stop. and even with Toji, he listened to his last words and granted his last wish (though I'm sure he did it for Megumi and the future generation, not Toji). the only time he was close to killing humans was with cultists but he was still high on his awakened power (ironically, Geto stopped him)
@@valeriyav2149 he didnt do it for toji but in his way he did, toji fucked it all, we could say he was the start of the end, but for gojo thanks to him he became ''the honored one'' (or so he thought) and was able to obtain a power with which protect nuture and create a better jujutsu society and future, i think, in a way gojo thanked toji for makin him realize that he wasnt as strong as he thought back then, and that he should always give his 100% to improve
10:17 He’s the villain on our side. It’s a theory for why psychopaths exist within our societies: when two clans go to fight, the clan with the strongest psychopaths (on their side) will win. That’s why Gojo is so badass: he’s a literal insane psychopath, that loves killing, but is on our side; he loves killing our enemies & bullies. Instant love for the man.
It's important to acknowledge that Gojo is a villain but not from the perspective of our protagonists. He's a villain from the perspective of the cursed spirits who have so many humanizing qualities that it's difficult for the audience to not perceive them as living beings who deserve a chance at life. I know many people- myself included- who actually felt sad when Hanami died in such a gruesome way. Jogo as well. These characters were antagonists, but not inhuman. They killed with reckless abandon, but there was reason behind their actions, which is very important. But this omniscient perspective can really only be held by the viewer. To characters in the universe, curse spirits are utter scum. Worse than any predator that has plagued humanity. When a tiger burst forth from the shadows and kills your friend you feel horrible but you know it's just an animal. When a curse spirit kills your friend as a Jujutsu sorcerer it's much worse because you know these things are aware enough to understand what they're doing. Most of them will even gloat while they do it. There's no shared humanity in the eyes of sorcerers, lifetimes of pain and grief have made it impossible for them to empathize. And it's no different for Gojo- the strongest. He might be invincible, but his allies aren't. By the time we meet him for the first time he's lost so many dear friends to cursed spirits that there can be no mercy. Of course he takes pleasure in doing it. Every limb torn and every head crushed must feel like the tiniest bit of retribution for his fallen comrades.
This comment is long, but bear with me. 6:19, Neither John nor Gojo have a specific weakness, though both of them do have limitations and any other vulnerabilities they may have are portrayed aa being more general than anything. While for the most part, these characters are ostensibly invincible, in reality, they only have the illusion of invincibility reinforced by the threats they face often paling in comparison to their capabilities. And in both these cases specifically, there are often psychological or situational struggles that their abilities cannot protect them from and in some ways only worsens those struggles. John’s limitation was his endurance and stamina being finite as well as his main drive being emotion rather than logic, which is how his rampage in the first film nearly got him killed had it not been for Marcus’s repeated interventions when he was in a moment of vulnerability. He often requires the assistance of others to either supply him with resources, guide him to a target or objective, or help him recover when he is too heavily injured to continue operating freely, while his opponents would often have to strategize to find ways to catch John in vulnerable situations, such as Viggo luring John to the club to get him overwhelmed by guards, Kirill taking advantage of John’s overly aggressive assault on Viggo’s entourage to ambush him with a car and subdue him, Santino coercing John into fulfilling a contract and then having him ambushed and hunted down by assassins until he had to seek refuge in the Bowery, Winston persuading John into abandoning his renewed obedience to the High Table only to betray him to remove their focus on the Continental for the time being, and the Marquis’ attempt to prevent John from getting to the dueling ground on time only being thwarted by the intervention of Mr. Nobody. On top of this, John’s victories each come at a severe price, as he is forced into one massacre after another, trapped in a cycle of violence that he is repeatedly told only death could free him from, when his true goal had been to return to a peaceful life and be allowed to properly process his grief, and he is denied this goal up until he killed in an effort to earn peace for his remaining allies (who have either suffered or died simply for helping him) with the High Table. Gojo, meanwhile, is rarely pitted up against anyone who could exploit any general vulnerabilities or limitations he has (a need to eat, sleep and breathe, his barrier’s inability to repel poisons, Hanami’s ability to distract they’re opponents with its flowers through a kind of hypnosis, or his inability to affect cursed items with sufficient power imbued into them like Sukuna’s fingers) until he faced Toji, who managed to partially exhaust Gojo by getting him to constantly stay awake protecting Riko (which gave him an advantage in their fight that would soon be nullified when Gojo learned how to use his power to heal and refresh his body and brain), again when he was sealed in the Prison Realm after being distracted by Kenjaku using Geto’s appearance to get Gojo to hesitate and finally Sukuna overwhelming Gojo with sheer power and damaging him beyond his ability to repair himself. But beyond this, Gojo’s power and status also create an inherent disconnect with everyone around him, as he acts like an irreverent god among mortals how well meaning he is despite realizing neither his power nor status were enough to improve upon sorcerer society and the wider world, and even his attempts to create a better next generation are someone disrupted by this disconnect, as he cannot really relate to his students or inspire them to be better people, especially when they are forced to become soldiers for the very system Gojo seeks to change, just as he is perpetually trapped in the role of an elite super soldier, a weapon to be used by his superiors in order to maintain the peace, up until his power proves to be insufficient to deal with the strongest of the cursed spirits, leading to his death.
I came across this video randomly and I'll be honest in saying that I really don't know much about storytelling, maybe the basics, if even that much, but... I like Gojo exactly because he breaks the mold. Sure, he has one of the coolest and most overpowered abilities I've seen in fiction, but that's not why I like him so much. I love the fact that he breaks the mold, that he doesn't represent good or evil, he is neither and both at the same time and all of his personality traits have "a backstory" and what made him the way that he is - Which, to me, regardless of how his abilities and skill make it seem like he's a God and beyond understanding - make him relatable and humanize him. I could go on and on about every little thing that made him so likeable to me. Love the video. You got yourself a sub.
Gojo kinda reminds of an another Anime character in his sadistic treatment of his enemies: Accelerator, he has the ability to redirect anything and while he becomes much less murderous after his redemtion arc, he still greatly enjoys inflicting harm on anybody stupid enough to attack him. I never really interacted wit ToAru or it's spin offs, but I find this specific character very cool.
In reference to the power balance point. I always laughed and loved when the manga was like, "He became the fastest sorcerer, other than Satoru Gojo, of course"
I feel like fans don't see Gojo as a problem because he often shows care for people as he won't use his powers around civilians because of how much damage he could do. it's even evident he cares for people as he barely got to know Yuji and Yuta before going to the higher ups and telling them to give the boys a chance
I think another reason Gojou stays so likeable is because of how he treats his students. They - and especially Yuuji - serve as the audience surrogates, the ones who are being introduced to this world and learning along with us. Even though Gojou pushes them, he also guides them and protects them. So, even though Gojou is a terribly dangerous individual, it's natural for the audience to find that danger reassuring.
Funny story, before I watched Jujustu Kaisen myself I saw a bunch of hubbub about Gojo on social media and stuff and I thought he WAS a villain. I thought there was no way a character who looks and is animated like this is a good guy and is this popular. He just has that energy. Color me surprised when I found out he was one of the good guys. "We like him because he's on our side," pretty much sums it up. XD Honestly, the most endearing Gojo moment to me was when he took a selfie with Miwa in season 1. "Awww, okay he's chill for real."
Aside from him looking cool and being goofy, I think the only reason Gojo still works as a hero is because whenever he isn't fighting, he works as a surprising force of good in the story. Hidden Inventory in particular made it seem Gojo would've come out of the series of events like Geto did, yet the opposite came to be true. And yet despite being the God of his respective world, and in a league of his own, he chooses to help others reach his level and stands against the worst of Jujutsu society. The way he acts with the obligation he has as the strongest also add to him being a hero as opposed to not, despite how malicious he is when he fights.
I don't think I'd call Gojo murderous, considering a jujutsu sorcerer who hesitates to kill a curse is a dead jujutsu sorcerer and that seems to be something they teach them from the start. He doesn't go after humans the way he does curses, even when he could and maybe even should, considering how that Star religious group or the jujutsu world's elders treat others' lives. In fact, he is so not-murderous towards humans that he continues to struggle against the elders for the sake of Yuuji and Yuta when he could easily deal with it all with a revolution, but he recognizes that won't fix the problem and instead takes the long rout to deal with the problems by fostering a new stronger generation as a teacher. He certainly seems to take plesure in fighting strong opponents and killing curses, but each time he decided to toy with an opponent, it was after seeing them do something despicable, like how Jogo, Mahito and Hanami killed the traped humans in Shibuya. (Or after Jogo nearly staged an amush that would have certainly killed Ijichi and then proceeded to disrespect Gojo, so Gojo decided to show him the difference between them because he IS a bit too proud.) Instead of murderous, I'd say he's more sadistic than anything, but only in certain moments, or when he gets carried away. The 'rack rack!' guy is the only real example we see of Gojo going after a human with enough power to potentially kill - not counting Toji here, 'cuz that was different - but even then he goes that far because he's trying to protect the students trapped within the barrier. Toji, on the other hand, is the only time we see Gojo seek revenge and he's the only confirmed human-kill we have so far. And even then, it was Toji who started that whole fight. Gojo is arrogant and self-centered, without a doubt, and he could easily be a villain considering his power makes him downright oblivious to the value of lives around him, at least in the beginning, but I still wouldn't call him murderous.
I think one of the reasons Gojo is so interesting is that he obiviously enjoys being strong but not the strongest. He hates being the only strong one, he feels lonely and responsible for protecting everyone when functionally he can only be in one place at a time.
I think most people here got this nailed down by now, but I will chime in with this- Gojo is to curses, what Sukuna is to everyone else. The simple fact here, is that Gojo is not a hero, or a villain, he's a soldier fighting a war that never ends, but unlike many characters in similar situations, he's seemingly perfectly equipped for the job. There's just one problem that Gojo faces which is..."The Superman problem", and no, I'm not talking about kryptonite. Gojo is, unlike the curses he faces in the show, fundamentally heroic even in spite of all his eccentric and non-heroic traits, because he actually gives a damn about something other than himself. He does still have a bit of a self-centered attitude, but at the heart of it, EVERYTHING Gojo cares about, are the things he can't control. The Superman problem is this. No matter how powerful this individual is, they will never be strong enough, fast enough, or capable enough for what they're trying to do. Superman, Spider-Man, any heroic character really, will never have a true day off, because there's always someone that needs saving. And for all Gojo's power, his one primary goal, is to protect people, he needs to "save the cat", and that's what separates him from the true villains in the story, because he will NEVER save all the cats, even if he dedicated his every waking moment to exterminating them all...more would just manifest again, because as long as there are humans, there will also be curses. All he can do, is prepare others to cover more ground than him, and hope they can defend themselves when he's not around. The weakness of Gojo is the same as the weakness of the second player in chess, no matter how perfectly the second player plays, if they're also competing against a perfect opponent, they will never win. The advantage of initiative can't be overcome no matter how powerful he is, because he's always stuck indefinitely reacting to threats, with no way of truly regaining the initiative. The perfect villain will always strike first. Which makes every hero an underdog fundamentally. Which is why I think everyone is so fascinated with the duality of Gojo and Sukuna. They're both nearly omnipotent entities, but there's just one problem. Gojo will always have something to lose, while Sukuna doesn't. I think Gojo is best summed up when he's talking about his domain, a limitless void full of infinite knowledge and information that paralyzes those stuck inside. "It's ironic isn't it? When granted everything, you can't do anything..."
About Gojo's lack of weaknesses, I'd like to argue otherwise. I think that Gojo's weakness isn't an object, a magical artifact or whatnot, but a person, more specifically Geto. We see this in the Shibuya arc but the only one who stopped Gojo (even if temporarily and he just sealed him) is "Geto" (I know it wasn't him since he died in the movie and this is a curse using his body but still). The thing that paralyzes Gojo, a God, was seeing his best friend turned villain. He just stood there in shock, giving the villains an opportunity to "stop" him. It took Geto leaving for Gojo to reevaluate his believes and ideals and it took "Geto" reappearing and just greeting him for Gojo to be stopped. In a way, Geto is Gojo's kryptonite
Honestly, it baffles me how people can like Gojo so much when most of the discourse around him(including this video) does not even contemplate the amazing contrast bettween his clearly "jerky" personality, but the fact that, in his ideals, he is actually a very selfless and compassionate person. Eh, i guess that westerners would be less likely to pick up on the actual cultural meaning of his "transcendence" thing... That's the beauty of JJK for me.
Why does it feels like he gets it and doesn't get it at the same time? He describe Gojo right BUT skips the human heart aspect of Gojo and reduce the "we like him bc he's pretty eyes and god powers"... Gojo is more than powerful and pretty eyes his human, he gets the need for a future generation that can deal with powerful threat, that the world need to change bc old gen corrupt them and Gojo wants to break the cycle and he care for people and his friends.
I feel like calling Gojo a villain or malicious is missing the point of his character. Honestly, it doesn’t even require any subtext, it’s extremely obvious he only enjoys hurting and killing spirits or people who directly hurt the people he cares about. He’s not even “our villain”, he just isn’t a villain. He’s sadistic and egotistical, but those are things that good people can be. Tiring himself out to such a degree that the prison realm can be placed next to him just to save as many people as possible and subsequently being shocked and disgusted at seeing his old friend’s body being puppeteered for so long that he can be sealed should disprove the whole thesis of this video to anyone watching… He definitely has many personality traits associated with villains, yes, but so do many other fictional heroes. Granted, I don’t know any of those heroes who are also the powerscaling peak of their story, so Gojo is unique in that front. But, no, not a villain. This feels like people who don’t like calling Goku a superhero or Luffy a good guy because they don’t think it’s edgy or macho enough for them lmfao
He seems like less of a villain when geto explicitly states that his ideals would be taken seriously if he had gojos power. This makes gojo seem responsible with the power
I think what makes Gojo so compelling is that doing good and being a teacher are not in his nature. That is to say, they're roles that don't come naturally to him. He enjoys flaunting his immense power and shirking responsibility - it's what makes him happy. And yet, he controls that power to not hurt others if he can avoid it and he takes up the mantle not just of a mentor to the next generation, but a pillar of the whole jujutsu society that he has such deep philosophical disagreements with. Because even though it means compromising on what makes him happy, he views it as the right thing to do. The events that transpired in Hidden Inventory propelled his growth in terms of power, but stunted his ability to move on as a person. In a way, he's still stuck in that long, long summer. Yet he still came to see the limits of pure power, along with the injustice and cruelty of a system that values power above all else. It's a hard lesson for him, because he is the crown jewel of that system: in a culture of might makes right, no one has more might than Satoru Gojo, wielder of Limitless and the Six Eyes. There's this aspect of him where his very nature is propelling him towards being bloodthirsty and utterly selfish, but it's always being held in check by his compassion for others and his moral compass he gained from what he saw as a student. Something about that is so much more fascinating to me, a character who has to compromise between what he wants and what he knows is right. And I think that's what's so lovable about him: winning a fight is a foregone conclusion for him, but his struggles are all internal or based in how he relates to his students, his friends, the culture around him, and his shared future with all of the above.
I still see him as a hero, not because he's one of "the good guys" but because he operates on finer morals. I dont see him as absolute good but he is objectively good. In my eyes a good person isnt defined by their demons but their character as a whole, there are so many things that you think could qualify any one person that exists on this earth as "evil" yet we define so few by that label. Gojo has expressed dark thoughts, shown dark feelings, and at times been fairly violent, he hasn't done anything truly malicious though. So why is Gojo a villian as apposed to a hero in your eyes? Because he scares you. He's written to be a morally gray character, and calling him a villian disgraces that. That's all i have to say.
I think the lesson here is that any character works if they're cool / awesome / likeable enough. It's like cats. We frankly should view cats as narcissistic sadistic jerks. But we don't, because they're just so cute and likeable. As you can see, any being who maxes out their charisma stat can get away with anything.
Gojo cares for kids so much that he is lkeable. like, his refusial to follow orders from the higherups that ruin the lives of children is a very important aspect of his character
I love that villans are terrified and keep their heads down because of the entity known as Satoru Gojo. I love that they teamed up and came up with a multi level plan with the aim of just sealing him away. It's a fantastic story dynamic. It's been played out over and over, the example that stands out to me is batman villains. It's done so well in JJk
I started to like gojo when he said he could kill everyone and take over but no one would follow him he didn't want to leave by fear. But I knew he was a villain in the Shibuya Arc
The thing I find impressive about Gojo and Geto is that in the flashback it felt like Gojo was more likely to become the unhinged villain, where Geto was likely to become the tragic stoic hero. However, because the roles were essentially reversed, it created two characters that seem much more human and relatable. I don’t blame Geto for becoming the villain, I mean he saw the worst of humanity. I also like Gojo because he has character flaws, I mean the guy is an egotistical jerk. It’s some amazing writing
One important character trait that you may have overlooked was that Gojo tries to set an example for the next generation. There are very few sorcerers left in the world, so he needs to inspire the next generation to aspire to grow stronger in a world where their kind get picked off easily but are hard to replace. His "sadistic" nature helps comfort the students knowing that they have the potential to be nearly as strong as him and overlook fear. (Lets be real curses are scary looking AF) Gojo states multiple times that he wants Yuji, Yuta, Megumi, Todo, etc. to surpass him. So I wouldnt say Gojo is "our villain," more so Id say he's a false sense of hope and comfort to the students.
On the topic of Gojo having no weaknesses, Gege does a cool thing here. Gojo straight up says that he's the strongest, but a bit later he adds that most of a sorcerer's power comes from their technique, and soon after we get an explanation of his technique, which truly is overpowered. This creates both for the reader and the antagonists the illusion that it's just his technique that's the strongest, and if you bypass it somehow, Gojo's toast. Which the antagonists try to do, only for Gege to reveal that _Gojo_ is the strongest and so is _everything_ about him. You can't bypass his strengths, because he's all strengths
For me its Toji he got me started on a 12 week bulk and at the start. I was doing 5-8 reps of some stuff. Now I can do 100+ of some of the standard stuff and 40-60 of the difficult stuff like lat raises and overhead presses for me. Pretty safe to say those 20 pounds gained were muscle since I couldnt do those feats before. Now 3 weeks later. Down to 153 from 160 pounds and the goal is to cut to 138 since I got the short end of the stick in the height department. I dont have to be at a high weight to stack muscle. So thank you whoever made Gojo and Toji❤.
@savagebooks7482 hell yea. Not stopping until I completely destroy the worst image that exists of myself. 💪 The me that was 185 pounds after surviving ecmo life support.
3:29 I don't think it was intended this way for Kakashi from the start. It always seemed like he was meant to represent a tier of ninja astronomically far from our protagonists, but in that tier of ninja he is only average or slightly above average. All of his respect and accolades came later in the series and didn't really do anything to make Kakashi seem cooler to me, it just made the entire rest of the world a little less cool.
Yeah. To me it was always intended that the next generation would always be greater then the last, and was always willing to sacrifice itself so the new leaf would be stronger. There are some exceptions to that rule (Might Guy is probably one of the strongest in the entire leaf despite not having any special linage) but Kakashi always struck me as a guy who had seen some serious action and had a pretty good, if tainted track record and starting off as a pretty cold and isolated individual. To me, Kakashi always represented the numbness of the ninja world and that how the kids had both brought light, and heartbreak, into what was a bleak and stagnant world of bloodshed and sacrifice.
lol what? what is this "came later in the series" as Kakashi's status of a legendary ninja was established in Part 1 VERY earlier on before the chunin exams even happened. I would say that it definitely DID make kakashi seem MUCH cooler as a whole as he's already have all these feats he's accomplished but than other high tiers like Orochimaru showcase how much greater they are to him. Wouldn't AT ALL say that made the "entire rest of the world" a "little less cool" AT ALL, lol where is THAT coming from?
@@Gadget-Walkmen It's been a few years, but I don't remember them establishing Kakashi as "top 20 ninjas in the world" good until Shippuden. The reason that I say it makes the entire rest of the world a little less cool is because Kakashi is already the coolest ninja we've seen by this point, We know he's great and we're led to believe that ALL jonin level ninja are just as powerful and infamous as Kakashi. We're told Kakashi is A top-tier leaf ninja, not THE top-tier leaf ninja. Not 4th in line for Hokage top-tier... so by telling us he's so much better than the other jonin, all we hear is "The guy you thought is cool is still cool, the other jonin aren't as cool as you thought".
@@kevingriffith6011 I'm not saying he was "top 20 ninjas in the world" good AT ALL NOR was that established EVER in the story, he was just a remarkable ninja known by ALOT of people. He was first known by Zabuza and THAN FEARED by Orochimaru's sound 4 ninja to NOT approach him when both Kakashi and Sasuke were talking. Kakashi was ALWAYS been marked as a remarkable ninja known by alot of people because of his sharingan eye of "a thousand jutsu". All the other Jonins are NOT as powerful OR as strong as kakashi, that's NEVER been a thing as he's been mainly the only real stand out one. But Kakashi has never been "top tier leaf ninja" but HIGH enough to a widely known status. Kakashi is a hokage candidate to be one, but not the ONLY one. I wouldn't say that the other jonin aren't AS cool just because kakashi is stronger than most of them EXCEPT for Might Guy, because they're STILL highly skilled ninjas in the world.
@@Gadget-Walkmen Top 20 ninjas in the world isn't something that you said, it's actually how things shook out between the Kage, the Akatsuki, the Saanin and that wibbly wobbly space between where the rest of the uncategorized strong ninja are... there just aren't 20 ninjas who are currently alive that are stronger than him, and even Guy is only stronger than him for about a minute before he dies. He was known by Zabuza, but that didn't eliminate the other Jonin from being just as legendary. From our perspective his thousand Jutsu wasn't what made him better than everyone else, it was what put him on that level to begin with. The sound ninja four would have been afraid of ANY Jonin. All the concessions that were given to Kakashi could be just as easily given to the others at this point since we knew so little about them. By telling us that Kakashi is in a whole other league above them all that does is diminish what we don't know. One of the things that makes the world of Naruto so compelling in the early series is that we don't know the scope of the world. We see it from the ground level while following Naruto and from that perspective the ceiling seems limitless, we get to catch glimpses of it here and there through encounters with Orochimaru or the Akatsuki. The more special the things we already know become the lower that ceiling gets to the point where it's basically on the ground in Shippuden where Team Seven is the only thing in the world left standing against Madara.
As someone who has written a character very inspired by Gojo and someone very similar in terms of characterisation, this is a great analysis of Gojo's character.
Gojo DEFINITELY has a weakness and it’s exploited multiple times. His emotion is his fall. Relentlessly so. You can see him recognize the prison realm and know how to avoid it but it all goes out the window the second a SEMBLANCE of his lost love shows up.
I realized about halfway through this that Frieren is very similar to Gojo in their enjoyment of killing demons/cursed spirits respectively. They’re amazing characters honestly.
I think Gojo working shows the change in veiwer tastes in the narrative. People are tired of the “Jesus” character who is good and does the “righteous" thing no matter the circumstances. In contrasts, characters like Gojo actually closer represent the average person. So what maybe considered losing likeability from the previous narative, you gain relatability which is enhances overall veiw engagement.
I love how psychotic he appears at times, tbh he's the only character I really care about in jjk, none of the others interested me as much as him and getou
This is such a spot-on comparison tbh, I definitely see how they are similar! Check this out: As a member of the audience, you’re introduced to the protagonist - Yuji or Harry, respectively, you then get exposed to a secret magic world hidden in plain sight, and all the good and evil that it holds. Sooner or later (depending on JJK or HP) you find out about the absolute evils of the respective worlds, and how there are these powerful figures fighting for the right thing, the latter being Gojo and Dumbledore, respectively. They even both have a plan to kill the protagonist at the right moment since both of them have a part of the cruelly evil genocidal antagonist inside them. Both Dumbledore and Gojo are not always there to save the day, they are oftentimes distanced and remote and not there for the protagonist who relies on them, etc. (I’ll stop it there, iykyk) The more I think about it, the more parallels I can find, what an epiphany you’ve elicited in me, thanks!
One thing that i think works for Satoru Gojo is the fact that the guy thinks he's unbeatable but deep down knows that he's not. Season 2 of JJK shows it how he very well almost lost, despite his power, to someone who , in the context of the world should never have had a chance at beating him. Sure he got his 'revenge' against him but you can kind of tell that moment has stuck with him with the way he acts, almost trying to convince his enemies and himself that he can't be beat because he can never let himself be beat again.
I am a villain lover, yet I ADORE Gojo. Despite being one of the heroes he has this vibe that just works. I like him more than I like the JJK villains, and in most shows that is rare for me.
Scrolling back down to say oh crap I forgot about Sukuna and Mahito. But of all the JJK characters, Gojo is my hands down favorite. Again, that's not normal for me.
You raised some very good points in this video and so have many of the commenters. I would like to add one thing I personally enjoy about a character like Gojo and others like him. Gojo for me is a great character because the storytelling has to react to him rather than him having to react to the story. What I mean by this is a story doesn't always flow naturally when you notice that a character makes a decision or can do something that is required for the story to move forward. By making Gojo so powerful he's an obstacle to the villains which means they have to deal with him, a strategy is needed and so the villains naturally react to an obstacle in order to move forward. This also then causes the characters like his friends, colleagues or students to be drawn into the story because they also have to react to the villains reacting to Gojo. This also creates compelling storytelling because we need to see the outcome, we need to see if the villains will win or how they can pull off a feat like beating Gojo. It's also interesting because depending on the outcome changes the landscape of the story. As an example with All Might in MHA he was the symbol of peace but by him losing his powers off set the balance of the world, villains weren't afraid and became bolder and heroes felt the pressure of their safety net being removed, it also then caused a ripple effect with students of UA High because new heroes are needed to fill the void. Characters like All Might and Gojo are great for a story if used correctly because they help the story move forward naturally. Also as a storyteller they are great devices to use because they create multiple branches for your story to take depending on what happens to them or how they and others around respond to a situation.
I actually think it's more the opposite of your conclusion. We didn't choose Gojo. Gojo chose us. What I mean by this, is that Gojo adopts the main characters in a very literal sense. Megumi was left fatherless after Gojo defeated the would-be assassin of him, but still chose to save Megumi from family politics. He chose to defend both Yuji and Yuta from certain death under the judgement of the elders. Time and time again we see that Gojo chose us, and continues to choose us even against the very laws of the world around him. What makes it more important, is that in choosing us, in choosing the main younger cast, Gojo suffers. He constantly has to be on the lookout for betrayal from higher up, he constantly has to scrutinize every action made around him should someone use his students as a scapegoat to harm him and his goals. The power comes at a major cost of uneasy distrust and a constant target on his back, and yet he chooses his side so firmly that he's willing to go through hell to uphold it.
Might be the best comparison I’ve ever seen, the playfulness of Goku, seriousness of Vegita, cockiness of the both of them - very true indeed and remarkably engaging character
lol Alucard is not really a "hero" and he's barely "good", he's just necessary evil to wipe out an even greater set of evil than he is since he's overall WORKING for the good guys while not being all that good himself.
Great video. its a good dissection of how the audience and the characters in story view gojo the fact that he just canonically enjoys flexing on/ embarrassing his opponents is pretty spot on. im not sure if you read the manga but the rest of the characters view on him get more stressed further down the line. so catching it from only anime only context is quite the skill
You should do a video over the Sukuna and Gojo fight now that it’s over. They have such an interesting dynamic that makes you feel like it’s not necessarily good vs evil the entire time. Of course Gojo is a good guy and Sukuna is a personification of evil, but they both revel in the thrill of a good challenge regardless of the damage.
A "villain". Would a villain waste his time, his life, saving people and sorcerers alike again and again for years, giving his all to change a rotten society and no go on a murder spree whenever he likes it? Eh, I believe the tag demi-god fits him better than a mere villain. He's arrogant because he can back it up.
I think the big thing that keeps Gojo from seeming like a villainous, nightmarish character is that he could absolutely be one... but chooses not to. We see how ludicrously powerful he is, but we don't ever seem him abuse that power except against the literal manifestations of evil that are the only thing he fights. This man could, if he wanted, enact ever dark desire or twisted thought that ever passed through his mind... but he doesn't. It's the refinement of Lord Acton's axiom: Power doesn't corrupt, Power *reveals.* When the guy has all the power to do whatever he wants to do, you learn exactly what he wants to do, and Gojo... wants to kill evil spirits and hang out with his friends.
He kind of reminds me of Alucard from Hellsing, now when i'm thinking about it.
I totally agree with that "power don't change, power reveals" part, it is a HUGE truth
I fully support this comment.
Not only that, but Gojo also does abuse his power to brute force get what he wants...when does he do that? When the bureaucratic cowards at the top of the jujutsu hierarchy try to snuff out young lives cause they MIGHT be a threat. Yuji and Yuta. He stands up for them to save them from execution by the higherups, and on what authority does he stop them, well, he threatens them that if they do kill the kids, he will turn on them. We know he is not above using his status to force his way, but we only see him do it to protect people who he feels would be punished undeservingly for things they had little choice in, and who have the potential to be good people and a great help to the world, the next generation of strong sorcerers that could also maybe even take the torch from him at some point.
yes, and he doesnot enjoy killing he just likes to be pushed to his limits thats why he let the disaster curses getaway few times before he started to kill them, becaused he wanted to be in a situation like shibuya
Gojo doesnt have any external weaknesses, but boy does he have internal ones. All of his failures come from his emotional attachments and that in itself is humanizing.
This. His EGO, His loneliness, etc. Gojo wasnt perfect.
Black rope, Inverted spear of heaven, prison realm, the angel, etc can all nullify cursed techniques, and a few of these are used against him effectively. (Most) Of these are not inside of him, and thus are external weaknesses.
@@shinycat1232I feel like you're missing the point
@@mischief5149 well they are counters to his abilities, and are not inside him (generally)
@@shinycat1232Even those weaknesses he's overcome. You're definitely missing the point though.
What I love about Gojo is his realization that despite all his supremacy, he can't do much alone. He failed in almost all matters that truly matter to him, wheter it's saving the girl or being there for his best friend. Seeing everything all at once doesn't change the fact that you can choose to do few things a time. His power also make it harder for him to work with others. He is OP, but not invincible and that's what rare in story telling.
I usually don't like OP characters, I hate a character that almost never bleeds in a fight, or only gets a small nose bleed after receiving a hit that destroys a planet. And example is the main character in the Manhwa Solo Leveling, the character has basically activated cheat in a game. Never once after becoming powerful have I seem him break a bone or get a bruise.
Gojo has immense power, but his biggest issues can’t be solved with those.
@@ikka489 I think the gimmick to making good OP characters on the good side is to make them side characters instead of the MC. People that are at the top of the world but won´t always be around because they re just one person and in Gojo s case can be circumvented thought good planning.
@@ShinobudRUski I think this is the key to execute "OP" characters and keep stories interesting. One Punch Man, for what I have seen, is a stellar example. The guy is basically invincible, but the situations presented by the story cannot usually be solved by physical strength alone.
*ahem Kirito
the most interesting aspect of gojo is how it’s the thing that most stories in this genre push, the idea that bonds are important and powerful, that ends up being his downfall. using the civilians as a shield was a good idea but it’s really his bond with geto that is ultimately how he gets sealed. his technique separates him (literally) from everything else in existence and therefore it’s fitting that this technique accepts the sight of geto, but his (human) soul rejects it. he is sealed because he remembers a time when that technique was still fallible, where he wasn’t at all times an infinite distance away from others and could still form a genuine human connection.
‘when is satoru gojo at his best? when he’s alone’
i agree, when he killed geto at the end of the movie we know that gojo always saw geto as his only rival and true friend once that was gone and he had his awakening nothing could touch him expect for those memories and vunerables the only things that really grounded him as human enough to like.( oh and gege hating him so plot is also his weakness:()
Excerrento
Sorry to revive this, but this also relates to how Sukuna aludes to true power, absolute power is achieved by throwing away everything and burning the world down for your own selfish needs for even more power. Gojo, who probably has THE BEST ability combination and talent to boot, who embodies this sentiment on a mechanical level (just like you said)still held for his connections, friendship and all and ultimately got sealed from it.
One thing you didn’t mention is how even the heroes fear Satoru Gojo (except his students). It’s talked causally about how Gojo could wipe out every person in Japan by himself if he wanted to, but doesn’t. Gojo himself talks casually about killing his higher ups, but doesn’t.
Even All-Might and Kakashi, for all the similarities they share with Gojo, never talked about murdering their superiors as a solution, even as a joke. All-Might can level cities, but this is only used as a threat against the bad guys, never as something the good guys are wary of him possibly doing just because he could, or if someone points it out, they’re quickly shamed for thinking that way.
And yet we, as the audience, still love Satoru Gojo. When Gojo says, ‘hey, maybe I should just kill this entire room full of people’, we think *maybe he should’ve*. After the star plasma vessel arc, there were, and still are, discussions on whether Geto was right to stop Gojo from murdering that entire room full of innocents. Not cursed spirits. Human beings. People that did nothing wrong except be in a cult. And yet, if they’d all died, I wouldn’t have liked Gojo any less for it.
Gege is a brilliant writer. Gojo is only held back by himself, and it makes him great.
Anyone else with a god complex would be the final boss, like Ozai or Cell or Madara. But when Gojo calls himself the Honored One we’re all just like ‘yep, true’.
It’s interesting (doubly so if you watch it dubbed) because what makes Gojo a compelling hero, and a jerk in the prequel, is beat for beat what makes Gilgamesh someone you just want to punch, as you watch him slither his way through backstabs and betrayal. They’re both, fundamentally, Demi-gods. But Fate/Zero’s Gilgamesh is _differently_ arrogant. He’s arrogant, and the fact that he _could_ just drop a super tanker on someone out of the Gate of Babylon, is exacerbated by the fact that he _has_ no rivals. I do believe that time, probably(?), will at least eventually humble Gojo, just naturally. Unless his particular Cursed technique eventually gets so highly refined that he just can freeze time around himself. Which… yeah, okay, everyone can go home. Gojo wins, and can still make an active _human_ choice to not hurt people, despite him not really caring one way or the other, most of the time. Gilgamesh, within the confines of being summoned to fight in a proxy war, while powerful, and bored, and arrogant, is constrained by rules. If my memory serves, the entire conceit of the Throne of Heroes was the Earth/Universe itself didn’t know what to _do_ with him once he had abandoned his quest for immortality and died. So the Throne was constructed to contain him, in all of his potential summon forms.
That Archer’s NP (Rin’s Servant; Fate/SN) is the only one who can _hope_ to meet Gate of Babylon in a straight fight, and even that I’m fairly sure Archer would lose to Gil if he didn’t get under his skin, is made compelling because of VAs. I don’t think it was a conscious choice to cast Archer as Gojo and Gilgamesh as Nanami, but it ends up being this fascinating blend of voice acting. And because that is gnawing away at things, when Gojo as a character who _is_ more powerful than the constrained Gilgamesh (as a Servant) comes out and just acts like a pretty benevolent and reasoned god… yeah I’m not gonna argue with him.
(I also think one could argue that after 5/6,000 years that Gilgamesh simply doesn’t _care_ anymore. His callousness and inhumanity has been brought to the finest of edges by centuries of boredom, of knowing what will happen, of witnessing events play out again and again.)
Someone cheering the death of an innocent high school girl aren't innocent people
@@subhadramahanta452 And argubly, that makes Gojo even more compelling as a Character. Gilgamesh is only stopped because of his arrogance and desire to "see something interesting". His motivations are almost no different to a serial murder killing just because "its interesting" and its only stopped because he gets bored by the equivalence of stepping on ants.
Gojo though, actively stops killing because he doesn't want to turn out like Geto, someone so bitter towards the world that he trys to destroy it. Yet at the same time, he's similar to Gilgamesh in that he doesn't want to kill the guy who represented everything he fights for now. He's caught in a beautiful catch-22 yet found the perfect way to get out of it by training another generation of youths to not be like him and create a better world.
@@pergys6991 Archer Gilgamesh, yes, 100%, he views himself fully above humanity, at a blood, and deity level.
Caster Gilgamesh is much less… everything that makes you want to watch the 6k old king of Uruk fail in his plans to turn the world into some weird form of mush corrupted by the Greater Grail’s corruption.
And honestly? That’s because both Gojo and Caster Gilgamesh, lost someone deeply important to them. (And Gojo is not by blood a literal Demi-god no matter how powerful a sorcerer he is.) Gojo lost Geto to the darkness of human arrogance (a path Gojo could have kept/gone down had he not made an effort to change his morality) and Gilgamesh lost Enkidu as punishment for defying the gods/Ishtar (at least in _Fate_ ), and when he failed in his quest for immortality… it essentially was a sobering aspect of his personal life/character arch. He became a better king, a proper king, and (at least as far as _Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia_ is concerned) he did all of that in honor of Enkidu.
Which is why Archer Gilgamesh is a villain you want to punch, repeatedly, in the face, and Gojo is someone you’re willing to root for and forgive.
All these strong heroes feared by their peers in some way. Then Saitama getting bullied by the 10th group of people in his way to get groceries
I find it interesting in the flashback he felt like an asshole. A type of person who borderline a narcissistic and individualistic mindset. Scenes where he easily forgets caring about people's lives, openly hating ideas that the strong should take care of the weak, and how The leaving of his friend made him reevaluate his personal beliefs and insights. Let's be blunt if he was a real person a fair chunk of the world would hate him for being a borderline supremacist.
- from a Gojo Fan
Too true, and that's why its such an important arc. He was kindof a shit person. He had the people he liked, and anyone else wasn't worth caring about more than necessary. But Geto's final speech to him really hit him, and would lead to his eventual plan to raise a better generation of sorcs. If he was a real person, he'd be that politician that a lot of people don't like, but he gets shit done and they just keep voting for him.
That is the thing. He is very much intended as a character with zero respect for authority, who regularly preaches a selfish mindset and, generally, exists as an isolated individual. Eventually, he might have done something so terrible that it would have pitted him against society, not necessarily out of mean intent, but because he literally wouldn't care about protecting other people outside his immediate circle. Gojo, of then, absolutely would've just popped his domain and slaughtered everyone in that subway if he hadn't have changed.
The flashback was him and Geto switching paths. Instead, Geto broke and became a supremacist, building his own family, while Gojo sought to change Sharman society from the inside through its youth, something that seemed more in line with Geto's beliefs up to that point. Ultimately, both had chosen to take over the world through two separate paths because their individual powers were peerless, but interestingly. In a sense, Toji had changed Gojo's life for the better completely, both allowing him to obtain a whole new understanding of himself and gifting him the perfect apprentice to get a hook into the Zenin clan. At the same time, Toji had stolen everything Geto had ever believed in, including his best friend indirectly and his faith in the people he was protecting.
@@lordbiscuitthetossable5352exactly
@@GamerX13Xditto
At the same time, Geto is similar to me. He seems like he is the " nicer" one in comparison to Gojo, but he actually believes the thing Gojo believes but in a paternalistic sort of way until he goes full blown with his prejudice.
You are missing one BIG piece of the puzzle that is Saturo Gojo and what it is that makes him so appealing in JJK. Its his empathy and compassion. Yes, his shear power is awe inspiring but Gojo is one of the only characters in the entire series to actually care about and fight for the people. Whether we are talking about Yuta, Itadori, Maki, Fushiguro, or any of the others the other characters in power at JJK have shown time and time again that they are willing to use them as either disposable pawns or treat them as threats that need to be strangled in the cradle. Gojo is the only one to ever fight for their futures and put himself out there on their behalf. Add that to the fact that Gojo has the power to kill every single corrupt sorcerer in Japan in less than an hour and has even admitted on serval occasions to being tempted to do just that but instead decided to dedicate his life to raising the future generation of sorceress so he can build a brighter future and you can see why he is so looked up to.
Exactly. The man understands his seemingly infinite strength will not bring the change he wants. He has to lead by example with his word and being alone.
@@NastaraI'll take 'being alone' out, because Gojo's tryna build people up who can stand together with him.
I do believe he is the only character we have actually seen mourn the loss of a student, isn't he?
That also makes him incredibly human.
We obviously see in his flashbacks that he does care about people, and that he isn't as selfish or cold blooded as people could easily mistake him for, but even before that, we actually see that he cares for his students with Yuji's death.
It is the first time in the series we actually see him lose the free spirited and joking persona as he thinks about killing all of the higher ups. There is no joke, he is really thinking of wiping them all out for getting Yuji killed, and we can easily understand it.
He cares about his students to a fault, and that helps him avoid the fall into villain territory. Though, I am not actually sure if he wouldn't have killed them all if Yuji didn't come back to life.
“one BIG piece” ONE PIECE 😱 😱
That’s exactly what I was thinking. All the powerful and godlike abilities of gojo makes him popular. But what solidified him as a fan favourite were these moments and cracks of vulnerability that showed a deeper side to him.
One of the things I love about Gojo is that, for all of his godlike powers and status within the jujutsu world, it's always his humanity that ends up being his undoing.
He goes overseas and leaves Yuuji in Nanami's care, trusting Nanami to protect him, and what happens? Junpei dies, Nanami almost dies, and Yuuji gets traumatized. Then during the Kyoto School Event, after he's done dealing with Hanami, he senses that somebody is still within the vicinity breaking into Jujutsu Tech, but instead of pursuing the culprit, he chooses to stay behind to make sure the students are okay. That results in the cursed spirits obtaining ten of Sukuna's fingers and the Death Paintings, which they put to use in Shibuya. Him not being able to properly dispose of Geto's body leads to Geto's body getting hijacked and used against Gojo during Shibuya, which results in Gojo getting sealed.
So many times, it's been Gojo's humanity, his care for others, his desire to not be alone in his strength anymore, that makes him put his faith in others, but ultimately that faith almost always ends up backfiring in the end. It's like that one line he says to Jogo during their first fight: "It's ironic, isn't it? When granted everything, you can't do anything..." Gojo has the power to kill everyone and remake the world, but he knows that wouldn't actually change anything. It wouldn't actually solve anything, so he has to find a different means of obtaining his ideal reality without the use of his powers.
Another thing I really like about him is his dichotomy with Sukuna. Sukuna also loves the thrill of a fight, but whereas Gojo will simply belittle and humiliate his opponents simply because he can and he genuinely has no qualms with reminding his opponents how weak they are compared to him, Sukuna actually wants to give others a chance to give him a challenge. He wants others to let themselves loose and show their true potential against him. If you manage to give him a good fight, or if you manage to simply entertain him, then he'll even compliment you on it.
Holy shit thats an amazing point, sumuna low key fights like an anime protagonist when you think about it, he even mourns you if you fight well
There is a phrase you uttered in the final stretch of the video that sort of called out to me in a strange way. "Satoru Gojo wants to save human lives and protect the world, but only if he gets to do a lot of murder along the way".
I'm actually kind of surprised at this take because I absolutely disagree with that assessment, which is kind of funny since I agreed with most of the info you presented up until that point. Gojo takes pleasure and derives enjoyment from fighting and killing his enemies, but he still fundamentally is someone who wants to do the right thing. Saying "he only wants to save humans if he gets to kill" paints him as a sociopath that prioritizes the thrill of killing over his moral duty as the strongest sorcerer protecting humanity, which to me just seems like a woeful misinterpretation of his character and sort of flies in the face of many of his development scenes (Geto's turn to darkness or Yuji's death and him considering killing the higher-ups).
Gojo is a protector first and a killer second; that's the main contrast between him and Sukuna. Where Sukuna endlessly talks about needing to be selfish and malicious to gain ultimate power, Gojo instead nurtures students and allies and takes pride in their successes as sorcerers. Gojo absolutely _could_ be a second Sukuna if he wanted to, chasing the thrill of fighting and combat against the strongest sorcerers around, but he actively chooses not to, because his enjoyment of fighting is not as strong as his sense of morality as a sorcerer and human.
Murder is a fun bonus to his main objective of protecting humanity, not the other way around. And even then, it's more of a side effect of him letting loose, rather than the main objective in itself: Gojo doesn't necessarily seem to derive enjoyment from the act of taking a life, more so he enjoys fighting and letting loose his otherwise ever-present self restraint: murder just happens to follow when he does that to stop bad guys.
This, 100%
Gojo is mad, totally, and enjoys crushing curses and releasing his full sorcery, but this is a thrill he handles responsibly - like driving fast on a racetrack instead of on the highway.
Yeah I really disagreed with that sentence too. He's not a murder fiend, he likes saving and protecting people.
Absolutely agree!
I would disagree as if geto did not exist his morals would be more aligned with sukunas, he is doing the teaching thing as a pass time as he finds it interesting for now, this can be seen many times when he was lonely as a kid and let's manito and jogo get away easily causing more death.
@@shaheljawad5863 Whether Geto had an influence or not is not really relevant to the point I was making though. Fact is that he ended up the way he is now because of the way he has lived his life.
That aside, there is a _big_ difference between "I think we shouldn't bother with curtains" that Gojo believes and the "kill everyone because it's fun" philosophy Sukuna believes. Saying that without Geto Gojo believes the same as Sukuna is a Tumblr fanfic "Villain Deku" level of understanding of the narrative and character.
And I have zero clue where you got the "teaching is a pastime for now" idea from. Ever since he was introduced as an adult in Volume Zero, his role as a teacher and his desire to change Jujutsu Society through it were central motivations to his character, not something he just did absentmindedly because he was bored and _teaching teenagers_ sounded like fun.
Again, Villain Deku fanfic levels of understanding of the character.
I like Gojo because of the sheer fucking SWAGGER they gave him in JJK's first ending.
Now I have to go watch it again!
Gege Akutami did a great job with a lot of characters and Gojo is one of the best because they made a character who could be easily textbook and unlikeable, and made him a fan favorite. He was feral at some points, but my favorite scenes are where he truly shows how he’s doing this for his students and the future generations of sorcerers. This is great timing for a video as JJK has become my hyper fixation as of late. Thanks!
The crazy thing is Gege HATES Gojo
@@robadob55 Dude, I remember seeing that everywhere! It’s actually really hilarious to me. I think I remember seeing somewhere that Toji is his favorite?
@@CozieGhosty he said Nanami and Mechamaru before but i think Toji is also an obvious favourite
@@robadob55no. He doesnt hate gojo as a character.
He hates writing gojo, because due to his power he is very restricting to the series. He cant realistically lose a fight so gege has to write around him in order to keep tensions up.
@@mattimeikalainen6963 Yeah that's basically admission of incompetence. gege fucked up when they made gojo this powerful and spent the entire manga trying to find a workaround.
I was thinking today actually it’s interesting how Gojo acts like a villain by the way he talks and acts towards cursed spirits while Sukuna on the other hand is clearly a villain but oddly gives support to his “enemies.” He sees potential in Megumi, he compliments Jogo…interesting inversion going on there even if it’s minor.
Sukuna wants something from megumi. Its not a "oh this kid could be strong" its a "i can use this kid"
And the dream sequence with jogo is a weird scenario that isnt 100% understood to this day
@@mattimeikalainen6963 Sukuna recognized that Jogo WAS a real nigga, and he had the POTENTIAL to be an even realer nigga. Real nigga radar transcends fiction.
@@mattimeikalainen6963
And I don't get the Jogo reference. Jogo didn't count Gojo as a strong person. He literally said he was an overestimation by the weak, but not until Gojo showed him the power gap which slapped it into his face. So Gojo retaliated with the same statement. Even in the Shibuya arc, Gojo says the reason why he didn't like Jogo and Hanami. He said they see as being weak which pisses him off. Sukuna on the other hand, who was trolling Jogo throughout the fight calling him pathetic. The reason Jogo feared sukuna was that Sukuna's presence has pure malice, which forces his foes, and even friends(if any), submit to him.
He also says how he will never forget about Gojo for as long as he lives
@@mattimeikalainen6963 it's been pretty much confirmed the dream sequence is real after kashimo
My statement about Gojo:
He's Alucard. He is, functionally and by virtue of causing the entire narrative to circle around him like a black hole, Alucard from Hellsing. He is *functionally omnipotent* in the story, and that makes him an extraordinarily difficult character to write. It's very, very easy for an Alucard-like to dominate the entire story around their presence. So most of JJK occurs when Gojo is off-screen, when the villains have various plans to distract/retreat from him, or the story openly states 'yeah he's off on another job right now, kay?'
The problem with introducing an Alucard is you set a high water mark. You set up a point of comparison. The character is set up to be so powerful they warp the fabric of the fictional world...and trying to figure out what to do without them is an extremely difficult task.
The moment I got through this video, my first reaction was to CTRL+F Alucard, and I'm surprised you're the only one so far who has mentioned him. Everything I was hearing about Gojo was making me think of Hellsing's Alucard. Sure, he had a weakness that got exploited in the end, but it was a very convoluted weakness that went clean over my head when I read it way back in high school. As you said, functionally omnipotent.
I suppose another useful element of stories with Alucards in them is to make the key conflict less about their survival and more about the their ability to be heroes despite themselves, focusing on things like collateral damage, or moments when their sadism actually gets in the way of their heroing. Having a secondary character, like Integra or Seras, who are actually invested in saving lives can help make the moments when the show's Alucard goes too far, seem like dark moments, even if the character is having a blast while doing it.
to be fair gojo is not omnipotent,he is simply the strongest of his generation/arguably the best sorcerer ever
people like yuta are close to getting on his level
Gojo doesn't enjoy KILLING, I wouldn't say, so much as he enjoys demonstrating the raw power which he is uniquely capable of. Remember the end of Hidden Inventory to support that point, where he's literally drunk on his own power. High on the sheer volume and understanding of his own cursed energy.
Now, demonstrating his raw power does usually end in something dying, and the catalyst through which he demonstrates that power is beating the everliving shit out of (to all intents and purposes) sentient beings, but the reason I make the distinction is that Gojo doesn't take pleasure in the act, the idea, of killing or causing pain. His pleasure in battle is derived from showing off what makes him the Honored One.
not really? gojo doesn't like to hamr people, but curses aren't humans, not even animal, they are evil spirits, manifestations of the fears and hatreds of humanity, no one should feel bad for exorcising them, quite the contrary and after geto left he really had a mind change, of course he likes showing off TO HIS STUDENTS not just to do it (most of the time), just think about how hard it was for him just to decide to open his domain in shibuya
@@darkcust4478Consider his second fight with Toji, who is very much human, but which he enjoyed because he was literally high on his own power at the time.
Edit: come to think of it, he's enjoyed every fight with a curse user except Geto, and it's always more for demonstrating his sheer superiprity over them than killing them.
@@darkcust4478no gojo loves fighting curse users too, not just cursed spirits. Even with the spirits, some higher grade ones are literally just humans in another form, killing borderline human characters isnt something a typical hero character should enjoy.
Its also stated multiple times that gojo loves the power and skill he is capable of and loves using it, just for his own sake.
Gojo does not derive enjoyment from the act of taking a life, but rather from the thrill of a fight and being able to let loose. It just happens to usually coincide with him slaughtering people.
I think big key as to why Gojo is written is this way is that at the base level all Cursed Energy is formed from negative emotions. Gojo HAS to have that "villainous" side to him otherwise he wouldnt be a Jujutsu Sorcerer in the first place; we see this with every character in JJK that is powerful.
It's also the difference between our 2 MCs Yuta & Yuji. Yuta has immense Cursed Energy from a traumatic event in childhood as well as depression/lack of self confidence, meanwhile Yuji is basically a Golden Retriever and we see still to this day he hasnt even developed a Cursed Technique.
A cursed technique is innate, its not something you can develop by developing your skills.
And a big part of yujis growth has been that he has gone from a pretty laid back comfortable life to having his mind and whole world destroyed and demolished over and over.
I think the stuff we learn about gojo helps too. We realize that his motivation is to end his lonliness as the strongest being, to put someone up there with him as his rival or partner, so that he isn't just the strongest. He also states that he understands just abusing his godlike power won't accomplish that. He knows that he can't brute force that. so he doesn't and he becomes a teacher.
12:35 I think what is an additional point of why the character is likeable, is that he is a dream. Something that many of watchers would utterly enjoy to be if that was an option. He sells being this limitless force, that loves doing what he does, very, very well.
[Minor Manga spoilers for immediately after the current shibuya arc]
Satoro Gojo inspires fear not only the villains, but also the leadership of Jujitsu society. He can single handedly convince the leadership to let him handle Yuta and Itadori instead of killing them, simply because they can't stop him. Geto said it perfectly, if Gojo wanted to kill all non-sorcs he could. His goal is to raise up sorcs who will shake up and revolutionize the Jujitsu world from within, because while he can do whatever he wants he did take some things away from Geto all these years after their parting......And he'll happily disrespect those in power while doing it too. Like, the weight he holds over the authorities is so great, that once he was finally out of the way they made is a literal crime punishable by death to try and free him, and they quickly made moves on Itadori and another familiar character because they finally could.
He's not our (humanity's) old testament god. He's our (humanity's) old testament god, minus the traditionalists in jujitsu society
Personally, what I find most interesting about Satoru Gojo is just how much his own author, Gege Akutama, publicly admits to hating both his character and Yuji's for the very reason that he DOES violate so many storytelling rules. He doesn't like how there really can't be any struggle with Gojo in the story and how perfect he is and eve admitted that he was looking forward to having him face Sukuna, a character he likes much better. Which is funny, because all the issue Akutama has with Gojo as a character also apply to Sukuna but since he is the antagonist it doesn't matter as it makes it EASIER to tell the story instead of harder.
Specifically hates writing gojo in the story, not necessarily him as a character.
And if sukuna was free to move around, the whole story would revolve around him. As we see both times this has happened, the entire story has shifted.
Sukuna spent like 95% of the story so far sealed though, so the same roadblocks gege had with gojo were dealth with with sukuns
We are so used to a villain being the single strongest being in existence to the point where protagonists must toe the line that we have so few stories where an ally is the Supreme Force of the world. Gege did a great job outlining how that would shift the power balance of the world of Jujutsu while also writing around him so he doesn't solve every problem the protagonists end up facing. Huge kudos to him.
Gojo was dangerously close to becoming a full blown villain in his past arc. Seeing him stay a good guy for the most part because of Getos influence alone really shows how much that friendship meant to him. He indirectly pushed Geto away when he thought taking all the dangerous work for everyone would be a relief to Geto and everyone else though. Geto slowly radicalized over a few months after the star plasma vessel incident and Gojo doing everything solo progressed it faster and Geto ends up breaking away from the moral code that used to keep him in check and still keeps Gojo in check. After that incident, Gojo realizes his strength alienated him from everyone else including his best friend but instead of simply remaining the strongest, he tries his best to raise his students to his level one day. Hoping that there are multiple equal strong sorcerers capable of handling everything together and without any single one having to take all the brunt alone. I think Gojos whole character arc and goal will be complete once this happens.
I don't think he loves killing per se. I think he loves letting loose and doesn't care if he kills as long as it aligns with his morals. I think a lot of the letting loose kinda ties to the whole "strongest" thing. At least that's the way I've read him from the Manga and Anime. Small difference but a difference.
Edit * it's like a mix of JL Superman v Darkseid and Superman talking about being able to cut loose and Gojo validating the only identity he's ever known.*
Also I love when you started talking about gods and clipped Badgey. I'd love to see a Lower Decks video!
I was thinking of the same comparison to SM and Darkseid. "I have to act like the entire world is made of paper, but you can handle it can't you? I can finally cut loose."
I also love the fact that Gojo's strength is why he can almost never get anything significant done. Gojo is so overwhelmingly powerful that every single attack by the enemy is carefully constructed around him either by distracting him, sealing him, just trying to remove him from the situation in any way because they know they can't fight him head on. Every time the enemies strike it's always perfectly set up to give Gojo as many disadvantages as possible, and while Gojo still powers through most of them with a little time, rarely does he actually stop them from accomplishing their goals outright, and that's a great way to write an antagonist with such an op hero.
You could also add Deadpool to this characterization to some degree. Also, I think it's fair to say the people/ cursed spirits Gojo is killing are very evil, and he's not even close as a lesser evil.
Deadpool is more of a definite Anit-hero character because of his unconventional means OF heroism, Gojo just seems to enjoy it killing, that's it.
@Gadget-Walkmen I mean in the sense that they are very powerful compared to the people they normally fight, they seem to enjoy killing but it never turns us against them, and they're both childlike. But outside of that, yeah, Deadpool is an anti-hero
@@bradley8614 deadpool doesn't enjoy killing, he just acts and kills recklessly and childishly, but yeah. I wouldn't say that deadpool is "very powerful" tho, he's just borderline immortal with haxxed comedic regen.
@Gadget-Walkmen It feels like we're saying the same thing with different words
@@bradley8614 maybe but not entirely.
I honestly disagree with the way you characterized Gojo. You say that he is a sadistic person who enjoys killing and you say that we like him because he’s cool and kills things we don’t like but you completely ignore his “kryptonite”: innocent people. Gojo will NOT kill innocent people, this is the ONLY reason Gojo got sealed in S2 in the first place. The villains took advantage of the fact that Gojo has morals and used that as a weakness. So he does in fact have a “kryptonite” and there IS a reason for the audience to like him other than his “cool factor”. He CARES about humans, he wants to protect them and he would never hurt anyone innocent. That is without a doubt a LIKEABLE trait. It’s not as simple as “he likes killing and he’s cool”. Not dissing the video or anything I really enjoyed it, but I disagree with that aspect of the video.
This is very well said and I think brings a good point to the argument
@@Dools1217 Thanks I don't think he'll ever see it sadly
Same thoughts exactly, it was an interesting interpretation for him to get from Gojo's character seeing as we see very clearly that Gojo is unwilling to take an innocent life and he himself saying that Gojo enjoys killing bad guys. Instead of seeing that Gojo enjoys vanquishing evil, he simply stopped at "Gojo enjoys vanquishing." And that was weird to me. Especially after JJK0 shows very clearly Gojo developing a staunch position of fighting for good and to protect innocent lives without exception. But prior to that, I think the video was pretty good as an exploration.
What is true innocence?
I'm not sure if Satoru enjoys killing cursed spirits, but more that he enjoys stretching his power and going all out. He rarely can, so the few opportunities where he can hit the nuclear button must feel like climbing out of a claustrophobic cage. He also processes things supernaturally fast because of his special eyes, so it makes sense that the usual steps of shock, denial, shame, resignation, and determination that anyone else might go through to take a life, he just speed-runs the process with his super-computer-like brain.
This video has some uncanny timing. I was thinking about writing a character for my story exactly how you described Gojo - "villain, but our villain".
The idea seemed a bit far-fetched to me, but it clearly can work, huh.
Minus the ridiculous power-level, tho.
It definitely can. You got this
@@savagebooks7482 Thanks! Have a great day!
He had every opportunity to become much more powerful to exceed Sukuna and Kenjaku but he didn't seize them. If he had Sukuna's mentality, think of what he would've done to acquire over the curses and the JJK world using his best friend, Tengen (through Riko Amanai) or develop unescapable insta-kill techniques using Nobara. Heck, he met Megumi when he's just a kid. Mahoraga and the 10S could've served him. The show highlights the consequences of every single choice he made.
The price would have been his own humanity even though Gojo feels separated from the rest of human kind he still cherishes his humanself and was proud to fight and die as human.
People in jjk get stronger from fighting others stronger than them and their strength of their eras reflects that i.e kashimo was the strongest of his era after sukuna had already been dead for 400 years, so kashimo's peak was lower than sukuna because while sukuna peaked in the golden age of sorcery kashimo ha peaked when it had begun to fall off. gojo is the same way, he couldnt really get any stronger and definitely had no need to because he was the strongest and by such a large margin that nobody could hold a candle to him. like sure he couldve kept trying to invent techniques and alternatives but to kill who? to fight who? everyone was already just fodder to him so he peaked just like sukuna and kashimo did.
then he would've become sukuna 2.0 and his goals would never prosper.....
Fun Fact, and a bit of a spoiler warning: Gege has stated multiple times that he hates writing Gojo, simply because he is JJK's version of the dragon balls. As a result, any fight Gojo finds himself in he will always win due to how powerful he is. this became a problem as theoretically JJK should have ended in shibuya (because Kenjaku was present during the incident and Gojo could have just used Hollow Purple to kill him there and then, the affects of domain expansion on the user be damned), so Gege ended up sealing Gojo away just so that the plot can develop. And even after sealing him for an entire year Gege had to kill him off because it would be an anti-climatic end to the story if he beat Sukuna during their second clash (and believe me, when he used his last hollow purple, Sukuna should have died)
Edit: the last parenthesis is just my personal opinion
Spoiler for non manga readers. Just to let y'all know.
maybe, but sukuna still had his resurrection ready, it wasnt an aimed hollow purple at 200% like the one in the beggining and it still damaged him pretty badly, probably the worst he has ever been damaged, but that would not kill sukuna
I just want to correct you in a thing, (not in a offensive way) the thing is, it wouldn't make sense for Satoru to use a Hollow purple in Shibuya, because it would literally kill everyone, including normal people, and also, i don't think Gojo knew Kenjaku was there before he uses his domain expansion. (Just to make it clear, i am not trying to offend you.)
you could've fixed all of this with some simple arc restructuring.
One major grip I have with JJK is how useless Geto's character is. He's built up decently in the hidden inventory, then dies in a prequel chapter and gets taken over by "I took backshots for the plan" Kenjaku. He should've been a strong villain, and I'm not gonna remove Kenjaku from the equation too.
What I'd do is splice the hidden inventory arc with the shibuya arc, bringing both to the present. We can see Geto's downfall in real time, and we can watch him betray the sorcerers to fulfill his plan alongside Kenjaku (who would be in Yuji's moms body).
And finally, Toji would appear as a wild card, and Kill Gojo. For Good.
To set up what would be a monster of an arc, I'd add 2 more arcs that would help in developing the main cast, and showcase Geto's increasing dislike of humans. I'm literally making this on the fly btw, so This is very rough on the edges.
I'd also partially insert JJK 0 into the latter arcs post shibuya, with edits to fit the new narrative.
@@danielluis8680 I get that, I'm just saying that JJK could have ended (or at least one plot point) at shibuya had Gege not sealed Satoru away. And it does make sense for Gojo to use a dangerous CT that could easily kill all the citizens in the train station as he used unlimited void for 0.2 seconds to subdue everyone present, and if he has such fine control of his domain expansion, wouldn't it make sense that his mastery of a technique like hollow purple be so high that he can hit one specific target with it?
Also don't sweat it blud, I am all for healthy discussion so I tend not to get offended easily👍
Ive heard the term "antivillain" thrown around a bit but this is the first time i would say its an accurate description. But he's likable for more than those reasons as well. He's also an extremely human character. Like he actually feels like a real person rather than a fictional character a lot of the time because he's complex and contradictory just like real humans are. We don't fit into a mold and often don't make sense or remain constant. We act irrationally and erratically and like things we shouldn't and do both good and bad and are defined but thousands of events in our lives, not just one "backstory" and that is captured by Gojo. I love him because he's not just well written for an anime character he's well written period and frankly anime character writing is simply a lesser category so he stands out so much more due to his surprising genre
Enjoying the killing of curse spirits is not the same as enjoying killing humans. If curse spirits did exist and were as grotesque as they are in JJK I'm pretty sure 99% of us would take pleasure in cleansing them.
Gege does a great job humanising the curses. For example, we are made to emphasise with Jogo and even feel sorry for him in his battle against Sukuna. Let's not forget this is the curse who burns multiple people alive in the cafe in season 1 for fun.
I think I disagree on one point: Satoru Gojo DOES have a Kryptonite, and that's:
Morality
Gojo is shackled by this phantom force throughout the show and manga, he treats his enemies and combatants with absolute prejudice, but many times we see that he doesn't exercise his power of murder on them. The "higher ups" for example, he doesn't involve non-sorcerers as well, even in situations where his normal disregard for life would serve him incredibly well. In the face of these non-combatants, Gojo has no strength to affect them.
Gojo coulda fixed the whole series if he had simply fully expanded his domain and sacrifice the 200+ people there. I’d be disappointed but honestly that would be a pretty cool end to a show in general.
Gojo also have another weakness:
Maho daddy
0-| / -
thats everyones weakness lol@@iZelmon
SPOILERS AHEAD It's a really interesting analysis of Gojo's characters, but I think you have missed a few points expecially in regards to Megumi and how his relationship to Gojo makes him more complex and reveals his weaknesses. Gojo was 100% for killing Yuuji if Megumi hadn't said he didn't want that. He asks Megumi if sparing Yuuji is his selfish wish and when Megumi says yes, Gojo goes OK (y) even though he knows it's suuuuper risky to keep a part of Sukuna alive.
It's also hinted by Satoru himself that Megumi is the only one capable of standing as his equal as he tells Megumi about their ancestors with the same cursed techniques who duelled (and the winner was not known). SPOILER FOR THE MANGA Sukuna also needed Megumi's body/technique to definitely win over Gojo.
Megumi and his other human connections are his weaknesses (as seen how both Geto and Kenjaku used this to their advantage). It's actualy really interesting to see that for all his god like powers he is still human in the end.
He didn’t need megumi to beat gojo but he needed him to bypass infinity the way he did
@@josephrush8078 he let mahoraga do all the work he needed 10 shadows. and satoru did say that yuta/yuji/and megumi could all reach his level some day. talks about it when yuji dies breifly early on in the anime.
@@bla0005551 I just explained “what he needed mahagora”try paying attention
@josephrush8078 he said it himself, he waited for mahoraga to find a solution to infinity, mahoraga changed his ce the first time so he waited waited for mahoraga do to all the work and create a blueprint to beat gojo. Trust I read it too
@@bla0005551 he needed a blueprint to BYPASS infinity NOT beat gojo he could of won without mahagora
0:42 THIS could be Villain Gojo deciding he doesn't want to wait in line today...
Every rule has an exception. Like for anime we say the world should be well made and plot points should come into play for one
Hxh basically doesn't do that. Gon and killua don't go to the top floor to fight the strongest in heaven's arena. We get 100 cards but they only use or actually show 20-40 at best. Hisoka says he will fight Gon again someday. That's never going to happen but it works as life isn't so simple as making promises
I love how the hidden inventory arc showed that Gojo could've very easily become the villain in the series
Gojo reminds me a lot of Beerus. All-powerful, loves to kill, but does actually care about people. The only difference is Beerus still pretends he doesn't care because he hasn't been put in an ultimatum position (yet).
Personally I think another fact that makes Gojo so likeable is that with all the power that he he has, he still cannot do a thing.
Quite ironically, the most powerful and most respected sorcerer of the modern era has dominated every foe he has faced almost instantly, though he failed to accomplish anything every time.
He lost to Toji, basically resurrected and killed him, only after the damage was done -> leading to Geto turning evil, dying and getting his body taken over by the most evil sorcerer to ever live.
He absolutely bullied Jogo in S1, but ultimately failed to kill him.
He managed to stop the fighting against Hanami in S1, but failed to kill Hanami for good as well.
It just keeps going, because in S2 he fights against Hanami and Jogo a second time, and though he kills Hanami, he once again fails to kill Jogo, creating a possibility for Jogo to feed Yuji 10 of Sukunas fingers, creating the biggest massacre in all of JJK.
He on top of that, gets sealed in the most important moments of the entire manga.
He is the honored one, the pinnacle of Jujutsu. He is given all of this power, yet he remains to be someone who accomplished nothing.
As Gojo himself said: "Ironic, isn't it? When granted everything, you cannot do anything"
It is quite ironic, because these words fit perfectly to describe his very existence.
But thats what makes him so likeable. He is no comedic answer to every problem like for example Saitama from One Punch Man, rather he could be, but has always been to arrogant, or in the wrong spot at the wrong time to actually fullfill his role. He is flawed, and that makes him likeable.
(EVEN BIGGER MANGA SPOILERS)
And to top it all off, he gets unsealed only to die in a hell of a fight against no other but the strongest in the Verse, Sukuna (though it is argueable who of the both is actually the strongest, since Sukuna had to use 10 Shadows of Megumi)
10:16 I'd say he doesnt enjoy killing but instead enjoys the fight and acknowledges his job is pest control. So he enjoys the process not the result but that doesnt mean he will hold back the result like goku would.
If this dude doesn't point out how gojo still cares about those he is sworn to protect and the first times we are shown him losing in both cases was because he has a limit himself to protect the innocent as much as possible... We gon throw hands
5:46 he can't (won't) use his powers in confined spaces with people he doesn't want to hurt nearby, so yeah I guess technically "no weaknesses/limitations" besides the ones he places on himself
What kept Gojo interesting for me when i watched the show, was the power fantasy that came with the idea of being "so strong that you terrify the villains".
One of the big things is that the things we see him kill 99.9% of the time with joy are things that aren't human, it's curse spirits, evil incarnate, our fears and hate, monsters. If he we changed nothing else about Gojo and the story but simply made it so that he wasn't killing monsters, he was killing people, his perception would change. However I'm relatively certain that the only guy we saw him kill so far was Toji, and at that point he was kinda druged out of his mind by his own power and I mean, Toji killed him first, killing him back is reasonable. (and Geto, but Gojo got no joy from that kill)
I'm also gonna put a comment replying to @DoragonShinzui with my 2nd point.
I would add that killing Geto was the last thing he wanted to do - he literally avoided it for 10 years, letting him run the cult despite knowing he was the only one who could execute him. Geto didn't leave him a choice by attacking the school and not intending to stop. and even with Toji, he listened to his last words and granted his last wish (though I'm sure he did it for Megumi and the future generation, not Toji). the only time he was close to killing humans was with cultists but he was still high on his awakened power (ironically, Geto stopped him)
@@valeriyav2149 he didnt do it for toji but in his way he did, toji fucked it all, we could say he was the start of the end, but for gojo thanks to him he became ''the honored one'' (or so he thought) and was able to obtain a power with which protect nuture and create a better jujutsu society and future, i think, in a way gojo thanked toji for makin him realize that he wasnt as strong as he thought back then, and that he should always give his 100% to improve
10:17 He’s the villain on our side. It’s a theory for why psychopaths exist within our societies: when two clans go to fight, the clan with the strongest psychopaths (on their side) will win.
That’s why Gojo is so badass: he’s a literal insane psychopath, that loves killing, but is on our side; he loves killing our enemies & bullies. Instant love for the man.
He is not a psychopath
Yeah he def isn’t. He’s a man who has all the power in the world, but understands that power will not bring the world he wants into fruition.
He does NOT have the qualities of a psychopath. First of all, he has empathy
It's important to acknowledge that Gojo is a villain but not from the perspective of our protagonists. He's a villain from the perspective of the cursed spirits who have so many humanizing qualities that it's difficult for the audience to not perceive them as living beings who deserve a chance at life. I know many people- myself included- who actually felt sad when Hanami died in such a gruesome way. Jogo as well. These characters were antagonists, but not inhuman. They killed with reckless abandon, but there was reason behind their actions, which is very important. But this omniscient perspective can really only be held by the viewer. To characters in the universe, curse spirits are utter scum. Worse than any predator that has plagued humanity. When a tiger burst forth from the shadows and kills your friend you feel horrible but you know it's just an animal. When a curse spirit kills your friend as a Jujutsu sorcerer it's much worse because you know these things are aware enough to understand what they're doing. Most of them will even gloat while they do it. There's no shared humanity in the eyes of sorcerers, lifetimes of pain and grief have made it impossible for them to empathize. And it's no different for Gojo- the strongest. He might be invincible, but his allies aren't. By the time we meet him for the first time he's lost so many dear friends to cursed spirits that there can be no mercy. Of course he takes pleasure in doing it. Every limb torn and every head crushed must feel like the tiniest bit of retribution for his fallen comrades.
This comment is long, but bear with me.
6:19, Neither John nor Gojo have a specific weakness, though both of them do have limitations and any other vulnerabilities they may have are portrayed aa being more general than anything. While for the most part, these characters are ostensibly invincible, in reality, they only have the illusion of invincibility reinforced by the threats they face often paling in comparison to their capabilities. And in both these cases specifically, there are often psychological or situational struggles that their abilities cannot protect them from and in some ways only worsens those struggles.
John’s limitation was his endurance and stamina being finite as well as his main drive being emotion rather than logic, which is how his rampage in the first film nearly got him killed had it not been for Marcus’s repeated interventions when he was in a moment of vulnerability. He often requires the assistance of others to either supply him with resources, guide him to a target or objective, or help him recover when he is too heavily injured to continue operating freely, while his opponents would often have to strategize to find ways to catch John in vulnerable situations, such as Viggo luring John to the club to get him overwhelmed by guards, Kirill taking advantage of John’s overly aggressive assault on Viggo’s entourage to ambush him with a car and subdue him, Santino coercing John into fulfilling a contract and then having him ambushed and hunted down by assassins until he had to seek refuge in the Bowery, Winston persuading John into abandoning his renewed obedience to the High Table only to betray him to remove their focus on the Continental for the time being, and the Marquis’ attempt to prevent John from getting to the dueling ground on time only being thwarted by the intervention of Mr. Nobody. On top of this, John’s victories each come at a severe price, as he is forced into one massacre after another, trapped in a cycle of violence that he is repeatedly told only death could free him from, when his true goal had been to return to a peaceful life and be allowed to properly process his grief, and he is denied this goal up until he killed in an effort to earn peace for his remaining allies (who have either suffered or died simply for helping him) with the High Table.
Gojo, meanwhile, is rarely pitted up against anyone who could exploit any general vulnerabilities or limitations he has (a need to eat, sleep and breathe, his barrier’s inability to repel poisons, Hanami’s ability to distract they’re opponents with its flowers through a kind of hypnosis, or his inability to affect cursed items with sufficient power imbued into them like Sukuna’s fingers) until he faced Toji, who managed to partially exhaust Gojo by getting him to constantly stay awake protecting Riko (which gave him an advantage in their fight that would soon be nullified when Gojo learned how to use his power to heal and refresh his body and brain), again when he was sealed in the Prison Realm after being distracted by Kenjaku using Geto’s appearance to get Gojo to hesitate and finally Sukuna overwhelming Gojo with sheer power and damaging him beyond his ability to repair himself. But beyond this, Gojo’s power and status also create an inherent disconnect with everyone around him, as he acts like an irreverent god among mortals how well meaning he is despite realizing neither his power nor status were enough to improve upon sorcerer society and the wider world, and even his attempts to create a better next generation are someone disrupted by this disconnect, as he cannot really relate to his students or inspire them to be better people, especially when they are forced to become soldiers for the very system Gojo seeks to change, just as he is perpetually trapped in the role of an elite super soldier, a weapon to be used by his superiors in order to maintain the peace, up until his power proves to be insufficient to deal with the strongest of the cursed spirits, leading to his death.
It's Timone and Pumba looking at Simba and going "What if he's on our side?"
I came across this video randomly and I'll be honest in saying that I really don't know much about storytelling, maybe the basics, if even that much, but...
I like Gojo exactly because he breaks the mold. Sure, he has one of the coolest and most overpowered abilities I've seen in fiction, but that's not why I like him so much. I love the fact that he breaks the mold, that he doesn't represent good or evil, he is neither and both at the same time and all of his personality traits have "a backstory" and what made him the way that he is - Which, to me, regardless of how his abilities and skill make it seem like he's a God and beyond understanding - make him relatable and humanize him.
I could go on and on about every little thing that made him so likeable to me.
Love the video. You got yourself a sub.
Gojo kinda reminds of an another Anime character in his sadistic treatment of his enemies: Accelerator, he has the ability to redirect anything and while he becomes much less murderous after his redemtion arc, he still greatly enjoys inflicting harm on anybody stupid enough to attack him.
I never really interacted wit ToAru or it's spin offs, but I find this specific character very cool.
In reference to the power balance point. I always laughed and loved when the manga was like, "He became the fastest sorcerer, other than Satoru Gojo, of course"
I feel like fans don't see Gojo as a problem because he often shows care for people as he won't use his powers around civilians because of how much damage he could do. it's even evident he cares for people as he barely got to know Yuji and Yuta before going to the higher ups and telling them to give the boys a chance
I think another reason Gojou stays so likeable is because of how he treats his students. They - and especially Yuuji - serve as the audience surrogates, the ones who are being introduced to this world and learning along with us. Even though Gojou pushes them, he also guides them and protects them. So, even though Gojou is a terribly dangerous individual, it's natural for the audience to find that danger reassuring.
Funny story, before I watched Jujustu Kaisen myself I saw a bunch of hubbub about Gojo on social media and stuff and I thought he WAS a villain. I thought there was no way a character who looks and is animated like this is a good guy and is this popular. He just has that energy. Color me surprised when I found out he was one of the good guys. "We like him because he's on our side," pretty much sums it up. XD
Honestly, the most endearing Gojo moment to me was when he took a selfie with Miwa in season 1. "Awww, okay he's chill for real."
This guy has a better understanding of Gojo than a lot of JJK manga readers.
Well most are just horny for Gojo, I mean same.. but you get the point
I may be crazy, but I feel like he might even have more of an understanding than Gege, the writer of JJK. Gege is known to hate Gojo.
Aside from him looking cool and being goofy, I think the only reason Gojo still works as a hero is because whenever he isn't fighting, he works as a surprising force of good in the story. Hidden Inventory in particular made it seem Gojo would've come out of the series of events like Geto did, yet the opposite came to be true. And yet despite being the God of his respective world, and in a league of his own, he chooses to help others reach his level and stands against the worst of Jujutsu society. The way he acts with the obligation he has as the strongest also add to him being a hero as opposed to not, despite how malicious he is when he fights.
Satoru's main inspiration is actually Kisuke Urahara. Anyone who ever watched Bleach can see it right away
I don't think I'd call Gojo murderous, considering a jujutsu sorcerer who hesitates to kill a curse is a dead jujutsu sorcerer and that seems to be something they teach them from the start. He doesn't go after humans the way he does curses, even when he could and maybe even should, considering how that Star religious group or the jujutsu world's elders treat others' lives. In fact, he is so not-murderous towards humans that he continues to struggle against the elders for the sake of Yuuji and Yuta when he could easily deal with it all with a revolution, but he recognizes that won't fix the problem and instead takes the long rout to deal with the problems by fostering a new stronger generation as a teacher.
He certainly seems to take plesure in fighting strong opponents and killing curses, but each time he decided to toy with an opponent, it was after seeing them do something despicable, like how Jogo, Mahito and Hanami killed the traped humans in Shibuya. (Or after Jogo nearly staged an amush that would have certainly killed Ijichi and then proceeded to disrespect Gojo, so Gojo decided to show him the difference between them because he IS a bit too proud.)
Instead of murderous, I'd say he's more sadistic than anything, but only in certain moments, or when he gets carried away. The 'rack rack!' guy is the only real example we see of Gojo going after a human with enough power to potentially kill - not counting Toji here, 'cuz that was different - but even then he goes that far because he's trying to protect the students trapped within the barrier.
Toji, on the other hand, is the only time we see Gojo seek revenge and he's the only confirmed human-kill we have so far. And even then, it was Toji who started that whole fight.
Gojo is arrogant and self-centered, without a doubt, and he could easily be a villain considering his power makes him downright oblivious to the value of lives around him, at least in the beginning, but I still wouldn't call him murderous.
I think one of the reasons Gojo is so interesting is that he obiviously enjoys being strong but not the strongest. He hates being the only strong one, he feels lonely and responsible for protecting everyone when functionally he can only be in one place at a time.
I think most people here got this nailed down by now, but I will chime in with this-
Gojo is to curses, what Sukuna is to everyone else.
The simple fact here, is that Gojo is not a hero, or a villain, he's a soldier fighting a war that never ends, but unlike many characters in similar situations, he's seemingly perfectly equipped for the job.
There's just one problem that Gojo faces which is..."The Superman problem", and no, I'm not talking about kryptonite.
Gojo is, unlike the curses he faces in the show, fundamentally heroic even in spite of all his eccentric and non-heroic traits, because he actually gives a damn about something other than himself.
He does still have a bit of a self-centered attitude, but at the heart of it, EVERYTHING Gojo cares about, are the things he can't control.
The Superman problem is this.
No matter how powerful this individual is, they will never be strong enough, fast enough, or capable enough for what they're trying to do.
Superman, Spider-Man, any heroic character really, will never have a true day off, because there's always someone that needs saving.
And for all Gojo's power, his one primary goal, is to protect people, he needs to "save the cat", and that's what separates him from the true villains in the story, because he will NEVER save all the cats, even if he dedicated his every waking moment to exterminating them all...more would just manifest again, because as long as there are humans, there will also be curses.
All he can do, is prepare others to cover more ground than him, and hope they can defend themselves when he's not around.
The weakness of Gojo is the same as the weakness of the second player in chess, no matter how perfectly the second player plays, if they're also competing against a perfect opponent, they will never win. The advantage of initiative can't be overcome no matter how powerful he is, because he's always stuck indefinitely reacting to threats, with no way of truly regaining the initiative.
The perfect villain will always strike first. Which makes every hero an underdog fundamentally.
Which is why I think everyone is so fascinated with the duality of Gojo and Sukuna. They're both nearly omnipotent entities, but there's just one problem.
Gojo will always have something to lose, while Sukuna doesn't.
I think Gojo is best summed up when he's talking about his domain, a limitless void full of infinite knowledge and information that paralyzes those stuck inside.
"It's ironic isn't it? When granted everything, you can't do anything..."
About Gojo's lack of weaknesses, I'd like to argue otherwise. I think that Gojo's weakness isn't an object, a magical artifact or whatnot, but a person, more specifically Geto. We see this in the Shibuya arc but the only one who stopped Gojo (even if temporarily and he just sealed him) is "Geto" (I know it wasn't him since he died in the movie and this is a curse using his body but still). The thing that paralyzes Gojo, a God, was seeing his best friend turned villain. He just stood there in shock, giving the villains an opportunity to "stop" him. It took Geto leaving for Gojo to reevaluate his believes and ideals and it took "Geto" reappearing and just greeting him for Gojo to be stopped. In a way, Geto is Gojo's kryptonite
Honestly, it baffles me how people can like Gojo so much when most of the discourse around him(including this video) does not even contemplate the amazing contrast bettween his clearly "jerky" personality, but the fact that, in his ideals, he is actually a very selfless and compassionate person. Eh, i guess that westerners would be less likely to pick up on the actual cultural meaning of his "transcendence" thing... That's the beauty of JJK for me.
Why does it feels like he gets it and doesn't get it at the same time?
He describe Gojo right BUT skips the human heart aspect of Gojo and reduce the "we like him bc he's pretty eyes and god powers"... Gojo is more than powerful and pretty eyes his human, he gets the need for a future generation that can deal with powerful threat, that the world need to change bc old gen corrupt them and Gojo wants to break the cycle and he care for people and his friends.
I feel like calling Gojo a villain or malicious is missing the point of his character. Honestly, it doesn’t even require any subtext, it’s extremely obvious he only enjoys hurting and killing spirits or people who directly hurt the people he cares about.
He’s not even “our villain”, he just isn’t a villain. He’s sadistic and egotistical, but those are things that good people can be.
Tiring himself out to such a degree that the prison realm can be placed next to him just to save as many people as possible and subsequently being shocked and disgusted at seeing his old friend’s body being puppeteered for so long that he can be sealed should disprove the whole thesis of this video to anyone watching…
He definitely has many personality traits associated with villains, yes, but so do many other fictional heroes.
Granted, I don’t know any of those heroes who are also the powerscaling peak of their story, so Gojo is unique in that front.
But, no, not a villain. This feels like people who don’t like calling Goku a superhero or Luffy a good guy because they don’t think it’s edgy or macho enough for them lmfao
Satoru gojo? You mean Satoru from JoJo? The 89 years old rock guy?
He's likeable, he provides guidance, the world is safe with him around... hmm yeah, I think they set him up to die.
He seems like less of a villain when geto explicitly states that his ideals would be taken seriously if he had gojos power. This makes gojo seem responsible with the power
I think what makes Gojo so compelling is that doing good and being a teacher are not in his nature. That is to say, they're roles that don't come naturally to him. He enjoys flaunting his immense power and shirking responsibility - it's what makes him happy. And yet, he controls that power to not hurt others if he can avoid it and he takes up the mantle not just of a mentor to the next generation, but a pillar of the whole jujutsu society that he has such deep philosophical disagreements with.
Because even though it means compromising on what makes him happy, he views it as the right thing to do. The events that transpired in Hidden Inventory propelled his growth in terms of power, but stunted his ability to move on as a person. In a way, he's still stuck in that long, long summer. Yet he still came to see the limits of pure power, along with the injustice and cruelty of a system that values power above all else. It's a hard lesson for him, because he is the crown jewel of that system: in a culture of might makes right, no one has more might than Satoru Gojo, wielder of Limitless and the Six Eyes.
There's this aspect of him where his very nature is propelling him towards being bloodthirsty and utterly selfish, but it's always being held in check by his compassion for others and his moral compass he gained from what he saw as a student. Something about that is so much more fascinating to me, a character who has to compromise between what he wants and what he knows is right. And I think that's what's so lovable about him: winning a fight is a foregone conclusion for him, but his struggles are all internal or based in how he relates to his students, his friends, the culture around him, and his shared future with all of the above.
I wanna see Savage Books take on the odyssey that is One Piece one day.
I still see him as a hero, not because he's one of "the good guys" but because he operates on finer morals. I dont see him as absolute good but he is objectively good. In my eyes a good person isnt defined by their demons but their character as a whole, there are so many things that you think could qualify any one person that exists on this earth as "evil" yet we define so few by that label. Gojo has expressed dark thoughts, shown dark feelings, and at times been fairly violent, he hasn't done anything truly malicious though. So why is Gojo a villian as apposed to a hero in your eyes? Because he scares you.
He's written to be a morally gray character, and calling him a villian disgraces that. That's all i have to say.
I think the lesson here is that any character works if they're cool / awesome / likeable enough.
It's like cats. We frankly should view cats as narcissistic sadistic jerks. But we don't, because they're just so cute and likeable. As you can see, any being who maxes out their charisma stat can get away with anything.
Gojo cares for kids so much that he is lkeable. like, his refusial to follow orders from the higherups that ruin the lives of children is a very important aspect of his character
I love that villans are terrified and keep their heads down because of the entity known as Satoru Gojo. I love that they teamed up and came up with a multi level plan with the aim of just sealing him away. It's a fantastic story dynamic. It's been played out over and over, the example that stands out to me is batman villains. It's done so well in JJk
Gojo's cool, but I was all in when the MC's special move was revealed to just be an Electric Wind God Fist.
I started to like gojo when he said he could kill everyone and take over but no one would follow him he didn't want to leave by fear. But I knew he was a villain in the Shibuya Arc
The thing I find impressive about Gojo and Geto is that in the flashback it felt like Gojo was more likely to become the unhinged villain, where Geto was likely to become the tragic stoic hero. However, because the roles were essentially reversed, it created two characters that seem much more human and relatable. I don’t blame Geto for becoming the villain, I mean he saw the worst of humanity. I also like Gojo because he has character flaws, I mean the guy is an egotistical jerk. It’s some amazing writing
One important character trait that you may have overlooked was that Gojo tries to set an example for the next generation. There are very few sorcerers left in the world, so he needs to inspire the next generation to aspire to grow stronger in a world where their kind get picked off easily but are hard to replace. His "sadistic" nature helps comfort the students knowing that they have the potential to be nearly as strong as him and overlook fear. (Lets be real curses are scary looking AF) Gojo states multiple times that he wants Yuji, Yuta, Megumi, Todo, etc. to surpass him.
So I wouldnt say Gojo is "our villain," more so Id say he's a false sense of hope and comfort to the students.
On the topic of Gojo having no weaknesses, Gege does a cool thing here. Gojo straight up says that he's the strongest, but a bit later he adds that most of a sorcerer's power comes from their technique, and soon after we get an explanation of his technique, which truly is overpowered. This creates both for the reader and the antagonists the illusion that it's just his technique that's the strongest, and if you bypass it somehow, Gojo's toast.
Which the antagonists try to do, only for Gege to reveal that _Gojo_ is the strongest and so is _everything_ about him. You can't bypass his strengths, because he's all strengths
For me its Toji he got me started on a 12 week bulk and at the start.
I was doing 5-8 reps of some stuff.
Now I can do 100+ of some of the standard stuff and 40-60 of the difficult stuff like lat raises and overhead presses for me.
Pretty safe to say those 20 pounds gained were muscle since I couldnt do those feats before.
Now 3 weeks later.
Down to 153 from 160 pounds and the goal is to cut to 138 since I got the short end of the stick in the height department. I dont have to be at a high weight to stack muscle. So thank you whoever made Gojo and Toji❤.
Get them gains bro
@savagebooks7482 hell yea.
Not stopping until I completely destroy the worst image that exists of myself. 💪
The me that was 185 pounds after surviving ecmo life support.
What i like the most about Gojo is the fact that all the characters he's close with feel save around him because he's the strongest
Dude incredible and insightful video. I'm so glad for the typo I got in the notification, I forgot why I had subbed.
lol appreciate the kind words
3:29 I don't think it was intended this way for Kakashi from the start. It always seemed like he was meant to represent a tier of ninja astronomically far from our protagonists, but in that tier of ninja he is only average or slightly above average. All of his respect and accolades came later in the series and didn't really do anything to make Kakashi seem cooler to me, it just made the entire rest of the world a little less cool.
Yeah. To me it was always intended that the next generation would always be greater then the last, and was always willing to sacrifice itself so the new leaf would be stronger. There are some exceptions to that rule (Might Guy is probably one of the strongest in the entire leaf despite not having any special linage) but Kakashi always struck me as a guy who had seen some serious action and had a pretty good, if tainted track record and starting off as a pretty cold and isolated individual. To me, Kakashi always represented the numbness of the ninja world and that how the kids had both brought light, and heartbreak, into what was a bleak and stagnant world of bloodshed and sacrifice.
lol what? what is this "came later in the series" as Kakashi's status of a legendary ninja was established in Part 1 VERY earlier on before the chunin exams even happened. I would say that it definitely DID make kakashi seem MUCH cooler as a whole as he's already have all these feats he's accomplished but than other high tiers like Orochimaru showcase how much greater they are to him. Wouldn't AT ALL say that made the "entire rest of the world" a "little less cool" AT ALL, lol where is THAT coming from?
@@Gadget-Walkmen It's been a few years, but I don't remember them establishing Kakashi as "top 20 ninjas in the world" good until Shippuden.
The reason that I say it makes the entire rest of the world a little less cool is because Kakashi is already the coolest ninja we've seen by this point, We know he's great and we're led to believe that ALL jonin level ninja are just as powerful and infamous as Kakashi. We're told Kakashi is A top-tier leaf ninja, not THE top-tier leaf ninja. Not 4th in line for Hokage top-tier... so by telling us he's so much better than the other jonin, all we hear is "The guy you thought is cool is still cool, the other jonin aren't as cool as you thought".
@@kevingriffith6011 I'm not saying he was "top 20 ninjas in the world" good AT ALL NOR was that established EVER in the story, he was just a remarkable ninja known by ALOT of people. He was first known by Zabuza and THAN FEARED by Orochimaru's sound 4 ninja to NOT approach him when both Kakashi and Sasuke were talking. Kakashi was ALWAYS been marked as a remarkable ninja known by alot of people because of his sharingan eye of "a thousand jutsu".
All the other Jonins are NOT as powerful OR as strong as kakashi, that's NEVER been a thing as he's been mainly the only real stand out one. But Kakashi has never been "top tier leaf ninja" but HIGH enough to a widely known status. Kakashi is a hokage candidate to be one, but not the ONLY one.
I wouldn't say that the other jonin aren't AS cool just because kakashi is stronger than most of them EXCEPT for Might Guy, because they're STILL highly skilled ninjas in the world.
@@Gadget-Walkmen Top 20 ninjas in the world isn't something that you said, it's actually how things shook out between the Kage, the Akatsuki, the Saanin and that wibbly wobbly space between where the rest of the uncategorized strong ninja are... there just aren't 20 ninjas who are currently alive that are stronger than him, and even Guy is only stronger than him for about a minute before he dies.
He was known by Zabuza, but that didn't eliminate the other Jonin from being just as legendary. From our perspective his thousand Jutsu wasn't what made him better than everyone else, it was what put him on that level to begin with. The sound ninja four would have been afraid of ANY Jonin. All the concessions that were given to Kakashi could be just as easily given to the others at this point since we knew so little about them. By telling us that Kakashi is in a whole other league above them all that does is diminish what we don't know.
One of the things that makes the world of Naruto so compelling in the early series is that we don't know the scope of the world. We see it from the ground level while following Naruto and from that perspective the ceiling seems limitless, we get to catch glimpses of it here and there through encounters with Orochimaru or the Akatsuki. The more special the things we already know become the lower that ceiling gets to the point where it's basically on the ground in Shippuden where Team Seven is the only thing in the world left standing against Madara.
Gojo ain’t REALLY a main character. He just a really important side character
Omg thank you for not spoiling a lot of stuff I was scared to watch but I couldn’t resist cause I love your videos
As someone who has written a character very inspired by Gojo and someone very similar in terms of characterisation, this is a great analysis of Gojo's character.
Thank you!
Gojo DEFINITELY has a weakness and it’s exploited multiple times. His emotion is his fall. Relentlessly so. You can see him recognize the prison realm and know how to avoid it but it all goes out the window the second a SEMBLANCE of his lost love shows up.
I realized about halfway through this that Frieren is very similar to Gojo in their enjoyment of killing demons/cursed spirits respectively. They’re amazing characters honestly.
I think Gojo working shows the change in veiwer tastes in the narrative. People are tired of the “Jesus” character who is good and does the “righteous" thing no matter the circumstances. In contrasts, characters like Gojo actually closer represent the average person. So what maybe considered losing likeability from the previous narative, you gain relatability which is enhances overall veiw engagement.
I love how psychotic he appears at times, tbh he's the only character I really care about in jjk, none of the others interested me as much as him and getou
4:15 could also include Dumbledore in this group
This is such a spot-on comparison tbh, I definitely see how they are similar!
Check this out:
As a member of the audience, you’re introduced to the protagonist - Yuji or Harry, respectively, you then get exposed to a secret magic world hidden in plain sight, and all the good and evil that it holds. Sooner or later (depending on JJK or HP) you find out about the absolute evils of the respective worlds, and how there are these powerful figures fighting for the right thing, the latter being Gojo and Dumbledore, respectively. They even both have a plan to kill the protagonist at the right moment since both of them have a part of the cruelly evil genocidal antagonist inside them.
Both Dumbledore and Gojo are not always there to save the day, they are oftentimes distanced and remote and not there for the protagonist who relies on them, etc. (I’ll stop it there, iykyk)
The more I think about it, the more parallels I can find, what an epiphany you’ve elicited in me, thanks!
@@kasyanchik Happy to be of service
One thing that i think works for Satoru Gojo is the fact that the guy thinks he's unbeatable but deep down knows that he's not. Season 2 of JJK shows it how he very well almost lost, despite his power, to someone who , in the context of the world should never have had a chance at beating him. Sure he got his 'revenge' against him but you can kind of tell that moment has stuck with him with the way he acts, almost trying to convince his enemies and himself that he can't be beat because he can never let himself be beat again.
I am a villain lover, yet I ADORE Gojo. Despite being one of the heroes he has this vibe that just works. I like him more than I like the JJK villains, and in most shows that is rare for me.
Scrolling back down to say oh crap I forgot about Sukuna and Mahito. But of all the JJK characters, Gojo is my hands down favorite. Again, that's not normal for me.
You raised some very good points in this video and so have many of the commenters. I would like to add one thing I personally enjoy about a character like Gojo and others like him.
Gojo for me is a great character because the storytelling has to react to him rather than him having to react to the story. What I mean by this is a story doesn't always flow naturally when you notice that a character makes a decision or can do something that is required for the story to move forward. By making Gojo so powerful he's an obstacle to the villains which means they have to deal with him, a strategy is needed and so the villains naturally react to an obstacle in order to move forward. This also then causes the characters like his friends, colleagues or students to be drawn into the story because they also have to react to the villains reacting to Gojo.
This also creates compelling storytelling because we need to see the outcome, we need to see if the villains will win or how they can pull off a feat like beating Gojo. It's also interesting because depending on the outcome changes the landscape of the story.
As an example with All Might in MHA he was the symbol of peace but by him losing his powers off set the balance of the world, villains weren't afraid and became bolder and heroes felt the pressure of their safety net being removed, it also then caused a ripple effect with students of UA High because new heroes are needed to fill the void. Characters like All Might and Gojo are great for a story if used correctly because they help the story move forward naturally. Also as a storyteller they are great devices to use because they create multiple branches for your story to take depending on what happens to them or how they and others around respond to a situation.
I actually think it's more the opposite of your conclusion. We didn't choose Gojo. Gojo chose us. What I mean by this, is that Gojo adopts the main characters in a very literal sense. Megumi was left fatherless after Gojo defeated the would-be assassin of him, but still chose to save Megumi from family politics. He chose to defend both Yuji and Yuta from certain death under the judgement of the elders. Time and time again we see that Gojo chose us, and continues to choose us even against the very laws of the world around him.
What makes it more important, is that in choosing us, in choosing the main younger cast, Gojo suffers. He constantly has to be on the lookout for betrayal from higher up, he constantly has to scrutinize every action made around him should someone use his students as a scapegoat to harm him and his goals. The power comes at a major cost of uneasy distrust and a constant target on his back, and yet he chooses his side so firmly that he's willing to go through hell to uphold it.
Gojo is what would have happened if Vegito never defused.
Might be the best comparison I’ve ever seen, the playfulness of Goku, seriousness of Vegita, cockiness of the both of them - very true indeed and remarkably engaging character
"Heroes cant be overpowered and enjoy killing" Laughs in alucard from hellsing
lol Alucard is not really a "hero" and he's barely "good", he's just necessary evil to wipe out an even greater set of evil than he is since he's overall WORKING for the good guys while not being all that good himself.
Great video. its a good dissection of how the audience and the characters in story view gojo
the fact that he just canonically enjoys flexing on/ embarrassing his opponents is pretty spot on. im not sure if you read the manga but the rest of the characters view on him get more stressed further down the line. so catching it from only anime only context is quite the skill
Can we get a video on Sakuna and Mahito. They would be a textbook example on how to do pure evil villians.
You should do a video over the Sukuna and Gojo fight now that it’s over. They have such an interesting dynamic that makes you feel like it’s not necessarily good vs evil the entire time. Of course Gojo is a good guy and Sukuna is a personification of evil, but they both revel in the thrill of a good challenge regardless of the damage.
A "villain". Would a villain waste his time, his life, saving people and sorcerers alike again and again for years, giving his all to change a rotten society and no go on a murder spree whenever he likes it? Eh, I believe the tag demi-god fits him better than a mere villain. He's arrogant because he can back it up.
Great video man! Your story telling reminds me of TH-camrs I used to watch that talk with you rather than to you