Jujutsu Kaisen is an anime that cannot be described without the mention of Satoru Gojo. This white-haired over-powered jujutsu sorcerer is not even the protagonist of the show but despite that his popularity among the fans and his importance in the story is over the charts. For many, including myself, Satoru Gojo was the favorite character of the show. However, what happened to him was both shocking and infuriating but as I would explain in this post, was also inevitable.
Needless to say, this post will contain major spoilers about Satoru Gojo of the Jujutsu Kaisen.
There is something about overpowered characters that makes fans instantly like them. I don’t know whether it’s about the power or what comes with that power, but there sure is something that mostly when we see a character so OP, we get very drawn to them. Some examples are Saitama from One-Punch Man, Homelander from The Boys, Levi from Attack on Titan and more. Yes, these characters have different aspects of them that make them likable but we can’t deny that their primary charm is being sheer dominant.
Now, Satoru Gojo is also one of these characters. Both the wielder of Six Eyes and Limitless technique, he was almost untouchable in the show but this is exactly why his death was bound to come at some point.
Gojo Satoru’s Demise
In Jujutsu Kaisen Chapter 236, the fan-favorite Satoru Gojo met his demise at the hands of the King of Curses, Sukuna. It was a shocking scene because, in just the last chapter, Gojo was declared as the victor. This made almost the entire fandom furious over the author, Gege Akutami – who has frequently displayed contempt against Gojo, his own character. The fans’ major reason for the rage was both about the death of their favorite character and that how he died.
For me, the death was understandable, as I would explain shortly. But what was shocking for me was how Gege wrote the scene. One of the most important characters of the series and the author killed him offscreen. To this day, this boggles my mind. I hope that when that part gets animated, there will be some scenes added to it so that it won’t seem to come out of nowhere.
Now, let me explain why such fate of Satoru Gojo was inevitable.
Barrier for Antagonists
When a character is so powerful as Gojo was in the manga, there comes a huge narrative problem which is that the antagonists of the series become unable to do literally anything. For a story to proceed, both the protagonists and antagonists play a role. Usually, the villains are powerful and have their own agendas. They act accordingly, and then the plot moves. But in Jujutsu Kaisen, this was a problem from the very beginning. As explained by Kenjaku – one of the major villains – that he along with the Disaster Curses was unable to meet his goals while Satoru Gojo was in the wild.
If you think about all the major events of Jujutsu Kaisen, anytime the villains (except for Sukuna) got to shine it was when Satrou Gojo was blocked, captured, or dead on the battlefield. Even though the villains in Jujutsu Kaisen are pretty damn strong when compared with the people on the good side, they were useless because of Gojo being around.
Imagine Saitama from One-Punch Man always showing up first in front of the main villain of an arc and one-shotting him. How boring that story would be. In a similar context, the author of One Piece stated once that if Sakazuki Akainu, one of the Navy Admirals, were to be the protagonist of the show, the whole One Piece saga would have ended in just two years because of how powerful he is.
Therefore, it was understandable for me that if Jujutsu Kaisen needed to do something pivotal with the rest of the characters, particularly the antagonists, sooner or later Gojo would have had to go. One may question that was killing him the only option. I would say that Gojo Satoru had already been distracted, blocked, and trapped in the story only for the villains to act and the story to proceed. Anything else in a similar fashion would have made Jujutsu Kaisen rather repetitive.
No growth for Protagonists
The same thing I would say for the protagonists of the show. Whether it may be Yuji Itadori – the main character of Jujutsu Kaisen, or other professional sorcerers, nobody had anything to worry about when Gojo was active and alive. I remember Nanami saying on a particular occasion that “at this point, they should assign all the missions to him (Satoru Gojo)”.
Like I said previously, for the story to proceed, the characters of the show need to play their respective roles but if they are not left with any role to play then it’s just a stale story with boring characters.
We saw a substantial character development from both the heroes and the villains after the Shibuya Incident where Gojo got trapped in the Prison Realm. Particulary, after Gojo died, there was a major development both in the main characters and in the story itself.
As much as I hate to say it, but Jujutsu Kaisen has never been better after the death of Satoru Gojo. Because only after the strongest sorcerer of modern times got out of the action, we have been able to see the true potential of the other sorcerers. Not only that, but now the stakes are much higher and there is a lot of uncertainty, this makes the new chapters of Jujutsu Kaisen very thrilling and exciting to read.
Yes, I loved Satoru Gojo being around and was infuriated with how Gege killed him but I must say that perhaps Gojo dying was good for the overall plot and giving the main character of the show the chance to finally become an actual main character.
What do you think? Was Gojo a hurdle to the plot of Jujutsu Kaisen? Was his death justified in the show? I would be interested in knowing your thoughts in the comments.
