contains spoilers 400https://static1.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wpcontent/uploads/2023/03/yujiitadorimegumifushigurosatorugojoandnobarakugisakiinjujutsukaisen.png? Have you ever felt like a character is not blessed with a situation where they can make the most of their talents? You feel like the character is super interesting and has potential but theyre never satisfyingly used by the narrative. Well thats how I used to feel not towards a character but towards a story as a whole: Jujutsu Kaisen. What I felt was indifference: I perfectly understood why people liked it and it shouldve been a story I loved myself yet I felt like it didnt take any risks and I couldnt fully feel involved with its stakes concurrently. In reality it was simply due to my preferences and tastes but after experiencing the Hidden Inventory The Shibuya incident arc I realized the root of all evil: Gojo. This little goofball plainly existing was one of my biggest hold back from wholly being immersed in JJK. His sealing is the best event that occured in the story and this is what Im going to demonstrate in this review. 400https://www.dexerto.com/cdncgi/image/width=828quality=75format=auto/https://editors.dexerto.com/wpcontent/uploads/2023/07/07/jujutsukaisenyoungsatorugojo.jpeg Hiddens Inventory Arc: THE DESACRALIZATION OF GOJO Gojo is perfect. He was born with the sixeyes which gives him access to high levels of understanding capacity and analyzation. Both as a sorcerer and as a human being he stands above others. His mere birth caused the world to change and blah blah blah. Point is all these factors made him a problem narratively wise. The first obvious one would be that hes broken: his ability quite litteraly being infinity he could easily overpower any antagonist in the series in S1 keep in mind which can undermine the stakes for the viewers. Another thing which was my personnal issue is that it made him appear flat as a character. It was always hinted that his conflict resided in his loneliness his infinite barrier being a metaphor for the distance between him and other characters. And his will for the sorcerer society to change without him simply having to kill everyone geto vibes added depht to his motives but... If Im being honest these were treated as subsubplots. His main characterization throughout season 1 was him being cool and confident. I could also add to the list that he stole the show but thats a little bit too silly even for me. The Hidden Inventory Arc made me realize that what could have been interpretated as flaws was just something called build up 500https://butwhytho.net/wpcontent/uploads/2023/07/TojiFushiguroButWhyTho1.jpg Toji is an impressive antagonist. Despite his little screentime he managed to become memorable due to his characterization made only possible by his opponent: He is the first character to ever beat Satoru. And boy what a beating. I never thought Id see Gojo arboring such panicked facial expressions. I like how Tojis insane speed was symbolized by the fact that we ourselves as viewers werent ablet to see him. Not only did it add to his characterization but it also put us at the same level as Gojo. For the first time we were not viewers meant to simply be amazed by Gojos powers and confidence but we were his equals sharing his fears and distress. His terrible loss taught us that he wasnt invulnerable. Later on he improves his technique which pretty much makes him invulnerable but keep in mind that Im talking about how it affected our perception him as viewers. This fight also put in perspective the ideology of Gojo. Were reminded of his discourse with Geto in the first episode of the season. While Geto thought that it was the strong duty to protect the weak Gojo was displeased with the idea of placing moral obligation on the concept of strenght. If you are strong you are strong if you are weak you are weak. Only the weak would put restrictions and morals upon the strong to justify their own weakness and existence. Which makes sense because in a world ruled by the law of the strongest the weaks have no right to live. Edgy but that sums it up. Thats the meaning behind that goofy braindestroyer quote Are you Gojo Satoru because youre the strongest or are you the strongest because youre Gojo Satoru that could also be phrased as Did you earn the title of the strongest or were you simply born as such? as well as Does being the strongest define you or are you the one typifying it?... Well you get the gist of it. The point of this quote is to question the nature of the cause of Gojos identity and strenght. Innate or acquired? Inevitable or preventable? How will a guy that made such bold statements about the strong and the weak react when hes put in a situation where hes outbested? 500https://i.pin.com/564x/9f/15/9d/9f159d299060e9c4e4635d27a781e5de.jpg GOJO AS BUDDHA AND TOJI AS SUN WUKONG This might be common knowledge at this point but Toji versus Gojo round 2 is a tribute to/inspired by the tale of Sun WuKong and Buddha. Sun WuKong is the chinese trickster god also known as Monkey King that inspired many characters such as Goku Luffy MoriJin etc. He represents humans unbreakable spirit against fatality. He became insanely powerful but his negative emotions such as his greed anger and pride led him to challenge Buddha the awakened. Buddha made a bet with him. The Monkey King was to win and claim the Jade Emperor was he able to escape the palm of Buddhas hand. Sun Wukong jumped and flew to the end of the world. Seeing nothing but five pillars the Monkey King thought he had finally reached the far reaches of the universe. He returned triumphantly to Buddha only to find out that the five pillars were Buddhas fingers and that he never even left his palm. We can see many correlations with Jujutsu Kaisen. Firstly similarly to Sun WuKong Toji is himself a man who fought fatality. From the day he was born his fate was sealed and his value as a human was already decided yet he refused his predestination and became the strongest Zenin despite not having any cursed energy. Hes ridiculously strong but three things led him to fight the awakened Gojo. One his anger. The anger he felt when kid Gojo noticed him despite of all the things he had to go through to become invisible to the eyes of sorceres. Two his ego. As he said it himself he wouldve normally just made a run for it upon seeing the awakened Gojo. His job was done and he wouldve gained nothing by continuing the fight yet his pride didn not allow him to retreat. Three his greed. His greedy will for getting back on the sorcerer world by killing their greatest asset proving his worth got the better of him. His sacrificed his true self because of his negative emotions. On the other hand Gojo got rid of his negative emotions /took complete control over it becoming imprenetable and transcending his human nature attaining a higher state of consciousness making him almost omniscient in peace with himself and the world surrounding him. As if he was at the center of the universe unleashing the true power of his sixth eye throughout heavens and earth he alone became the honoured one. As he said himself he no longer felt any sadness nor anger towards Rikos death he was simply in a state where his omniscience made him perceive everything and nothing all at once. This is an obvious allegory to Buddha when he reached Nirvanna. It is a place of perfect peace and happiness like heaven. It is a state of enlightenment meaning a persons individual desires and suffering go away as well as any negative mental states. Gojo killing Toji wasnt an act of malice but simply the consequence of Tojis actions. Gojo simply followed the laws of the universe rather than his mere will. Toji who tried to denied his determinism was nothing but a monkey in the hand of Gojo embodying determinism itself in a positive light. And the pillars he mistook for his way to freedom were the pillars thatd encage him against this inevitable truth and his demise. This can get too theoretical so Ill leave it there but I think the scene was very much understandable anyways. 500https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/711862997638971486/1189940303289925642/F29yOskXgAASqod.png?ex=659ffd44is=658d8844hm=eedb934fb11a1cbd01ffd1bdf81c9cc95af18be752e7084b63d634b94d816870 GOJOS AND GETOS DUALITY While fighting Toji made Gojo realize his place in the universe Getos defeat against Toji and Rikas death caused him the greatest of existential crisis. Taking in a cursed spirit is like swallowing the liquid of a rag that has just absorbed vomit. Geto sacrificed himself for regular humans. He had to bear all sorts of disgusting things for their sake only to find himself surrounded by them being overjoyed over the death of a little girl. What was he fighting for? He reaches a nonturning point after having massacred an entire vilage including his parents because the villagers had plans to execute two little girls for attracting demons. In reality these girls were just more sensible to seeing cursed spirit. Not only are regular humans the technical cause of all cursed spirit but they also put the blame on the only humans capable of saving them. Geto started to hate humans or as he likes to call them monkeys hes not beating the allegations Im afraid. On the other hand Gojo starts to developp a similar ideology to preRikas death Geto. When the two of them confront each other and Geto breaks up with Gojo the supremacy of Gojo is once again questioned. Gojo could figuratevely see everything but the depression of his closest friend. This made me wonder what does Gojo truly sees? What he wants to see. He believe he found his place in the universe but thats only as the one and only center of it. He knows that in a world without cursed spirit the basis itself of his authority would be shaken off. Without the weak to protect Gojo would have no identity as he was basically born to defeat curses. The gojobeinggojobecausehesstrongandthegojobeingstrongbecausehesgojo really does come in play here. Gojos strenght is only justifiable due to curses existing just as Getos plan wouldnt seem that unreasonable if he was as powerful as Gojo. From a coolfactor merchant to a layered character thats also a complex philosophical allegory for Buddha lmao Gojos departure started from here. One could argue his awakening sacralizes him but to me seeing him struggle and fail to understand his friend is more viewchanging about Gojo than the awakening scene. We already saw him as some sort of superior existence in the story knowing that he attained this power through an harsh defeat makes him more human to my eyes. The Shibuya Incident Arc: A WORLD WITHOUT GOJO 500https://static0.gamerantimages.com/wordpress/wpcontent/uploads/2023/08/jujutsukaisenseason2shibuyaincidentpostercropped.jpg? Im going to keep this section short and concise. Similarly to All Might in MHA Gojo was the best thing that could happen to society as his precence alone was enough to dissuade bad things from happening and he is powerful enough to wipe the vast majority of dangerous cursed spirits. The downside is that the sorcerer society relied too much on him. The moment hes gone Japan turns into an actual nightmare. He prevented nasty things from happening but he also prevented the growth of the rest of the cast. As long as there was Gojo around sorcerers would never be pushed passed their limits which is essential to improve on their cursed energy handling. Although I think Gojo stealing the show being a problem is easily refutable theres still a good case to be made about him preventing Yuji from taking the spotlight. His sealing allowed Yuji to grow as a character figuratively because his motives changed and he got huge developments and litteraly because it allowed him to be part of some of the most iconic scenes of the story WHERE YOU GO I GOOOO. You probably got it by now but Gojo is a sort of metaphor I used in order to talk about my appreciation for Jujutsu Kaisen in S1 he had less depth but he had the potential to be great and this was basically my opinion of JJK. With Hiddens Inventory arc the characterization of Gojo changed making him much more intersting to me and this is also where I started to be fascinated by this story. I started to absolutely love JJK right when he got sealed the fck away take it as you please lmao. Figuratively speaking to me Gojo being sealed is like the old JJK being sealed away the jjk with stakes that didnt work for me the jjk that was a relatively safe story to let a new fresh one appear. A tragedic story about grief loss and despair mixed with the well known nekketsu shounen formula and a colorful cast that I love dearly. 500https://i.flip.com/8aofxj.jpg