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 they're never satisfyingly used by the narrative. Well, that's 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 should've been a story I loved myself yet I felt like it didn't take any risks and I couldn't 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 I'm going to demonstrate in this review.

Gojo is 'perfect'. He was born with the six-eyes 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 he's 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 I'm being honest, these were treated as sub-sub-plots. 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 that's 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'

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 I'd see Gojo arboring such panicked facial expressions. I like how Toji's insane speed was symbolized by the fact that we ourselves as viewers weren't 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 Gojo's powers and confidence but we were his equals, sharing his fears and distress. His terrible loss taught us that he wasn't invulnerable. (Later on, he improves his technique which pretty much makes him invulnerable but keep in mind that I'm talking about how it affected our perception him as viewers).

This fight also put in perspective the ideology of Gojo. We're 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. That's the meaning behind that goofy braindestroyer quote "Are you Gojo Satoru because you're the strongest or are you the strongest because you're 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 Gojo's 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 he's put in a situation where he's outbested?

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, Mori-Jin etc. He represents human's 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 Buddha's 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 Buddha's 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 Zen'in despite not having any cursed energy. He's 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 would've normally just made a run for it upon seeing the awakened Gojo. His job was done and he would've 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 Riko's 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 person's individual desires and suffering go away as well as any negative mental states. Gojo killing Toji wasn't an act of malice but simply the consequence of Toji's 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 that'd encage him against this inevitable truth and his demise. This can get too theoretical so I'll leave it there but I think the scene was very much understandable anyways.

GOJO'S AND GETO'S DUALITY

While fighting Toji made Gojo realize his place in the universe, Geto's defeat against Toji and Rika's 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 non-turning 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' (he's not beating the allegations I'm afraid).

On the other hand, Gojo starts to developp a similar ideology to pre-Rika's 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 that's 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 gojobeinggojobecausehe'sstrongandthegojobeingstrongbecausehe'sgojo really does come in play here. Gojo's strenght is only justifiable due to curses existing just as Geto's plan wouldn't seem that unreasonable if he was as powerful as Gojo.

From a cool-factor merchant to a layered character (thats also a complex philosophical allegory for Buddha lmao), Gojo's '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 view-changing 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.

I'm 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 he's 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 there's 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).

Spoiler, click to view

Additional notes: I love the art direction of season 2 to death. I have an obsession with drawings that 'simplify' things while keeping the accuracy of the thing itself. If you compare some of the shots image to image with season 1, you might think season 1 is superior but you can't compare a still image to an actual animation. What I'm saying is that season 1 looked good and had insane wallpaper use potential but animation is motion, it's not meant to be watched as a frame but as an overall clip. Due to Mappa's horrendous management, the latest episodes weren't as polished as the earlier ones but I honestly do not care about the downgrades, this is cinema. I particularly like Hidden's Inventory arc for turning JJK into Jujutsumonogatari. The art isn't just a tool to convey the story anymore. It's the story. I adore this scene because it puts so much emphasis on both characters. Despite having long bodies, Geto distorts his back (he's just like me) and keep himself low which serves as good characterization and Gojo is relatable af. As someone as tall Gojo I swear to you that I do not know what to do with my legs and my arms sometimes. You can feel he has to carry his own weight by the way he walks but he still keeps himself high which perfectly embodies him. Not only is it funny and nice from an art persepective but it's also realistical despite the exaggeration. The anime did a great job in Yuji vs Choso. They found the perfect way to make Choso's power understandble through visuals alone and they pulled an Ufotable by adding numerous actions scenes into the fight while still being coherent with the source material. The tone of the anime as a whole is a success.

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 Hidden's 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 f#ck 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 didn't 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.