Jujutsu Kaisen Was Right to Kill Off Gojo

Jujutsu Kaisen started its final arc, Shinjuku Shodown, with a bang. Ryomen Sukuna finally had his fight with Satoru Gojo, and the huge battle that ended with Gojo’s death had fans in an uproar. However, Gege Akutami was right to kill off Gojo in Jujutsu Kaisen.

Satoru Gojo Was Always Destined to Die in Jujutsu Kaisen

Satoru Gojo was always meant to be a power ceiling for the main characters of the anime and manga. Continually dubbed as “The Strongest” by almost every character, a big part of why Gojo’s death was so impactful was largely due to how Akutami characterized him. Gojo is a character that exudes confidence and charm. Moreover, when paired with his Limitless cursed technique that allows him to make the concept of infinity real, Akutami was able to create a character that readers truly believed was untouchable in every sense of the word.

However, the character’s invulnerability was a double-edged sword. Just as nothing negative could touch the character, physically or emotionally, the same goes for any sort of friendship or positive connection. Strength is a big theme in Jujutsu Kaisen, and the loneliness it brought Satoru Gojo is never more evident than in the Hidden Inventory arc. This arc explores Gojo’s past and how his connection with best friend Sguru Geto is severed by not only their different ideals but also the continually growing gap in strength. It’s the loss of Geto’s friendship that serves as a lynchpin for the events of the entire series and, in turn, Gojo’s inevitable death.

Unlike Some Characters, Gojo’s Death Means Something

Without Gojo’s death in Jujutsu Kaisen, most of his story up to that point loses its weight. Satoru Gojo is a character who stood without a peer, attempting to guide his students on a path that he hoped would allow them to stand by his side as equals. Underneath the character’s unending confidence and bravado was someone looking for understanding, a character that wished to know about others as much as he wished to be understood himself. Unsurprisingly, Gojo would find this understanding in his battle with Ryomen Sukuna, the King of Curses. The start of the final story arc of Jujutsu Kaisen would also signal the end of Satoru Gojo. Thankfully, his death would not be without purpose.

After first being teased in the earliest chapters of the series, Satoru Gojo would finally go up against Sukuna in the Shinjuku Showdown arc. Dubbed as the strongest sorcerer in history versus the strongest sorcerer of today, Gojo would pull out all the stops in a battle that lasted 15 chapters. Both of the characters are pushed to their absolute limits, although Sukuna ends up killing Gojo using an entirely new world-cutting technique developed by Mahoraga and learned by Sukuna. The initial shock of Gojo being cut in half would send fans into a frenzy (myself included). However, as time passed, Gojo’s death made more sense.

Related: Jujutsu Kaisen: Where Has Toge Inumaki Been in the Manga?

Satoru Gojo, as evident by the airport conversation in chapter 236, was satisfied with the fight. Without this conflict with Sukuna, Gojo would not only still be searching for meaning in his strength but also would handicap the development of his students. As long as Gojo was around, there was no need for Yuji Itadori or Megumi Fushiguro to grow stronger. A large reason why the Shibuya Incident arc works so well is that Gojo was sealed, and the characters came to the grim realization that no one would be bailing them out. With Gojo immediately out of the picture at the start of Yuji’s greatest battle in Shinjuku, there is no room for error as he goes up against Sukuna.

Moreover, Gojo’s death prevented him from becoming like Sukuna, the strongest sorcerer of the Heian era, who believed that his unrivaled strength meant that he would have to do heinous and cruel acts to entertain himself to stave off his boredom and loneliness. As tragic as the character Gojo is, the only logical conclusion (and the one with the most emotional weight) to end his story is his death. For both the story and his individual character arc, it works in all the right ways. Not only does it raise the stakes to be nearly insurmountable by killing off the strongest character, but it also takes away any ceiling or stopping point, allowing Yuji’s growth to potentially surprise us by the time the final battle ends.

Gojo’s Legacy Will Endure

It’s an entirely different story if readers believe that Gojo didn’t have enough interactions with his students. However, that’s an article for another day. As it stands, Gege Akutami was right to kill off Gojo in Jujutsu Kaisen. The character’s death serves as an emotional gut punch, as the hundreds of chapters of convincing readers he was untouchable made the death hit that much harder. Moreover, the character was able to give his students one last push to become stronger together.

The legacy of Gojo lives on in the final arc of the manga. We see the likes of Yuji, Yuta, Hakari, Maki, Todo, and so many more all fighting together against Sukuna. While Gojo may have been alone, he was able to accomplish his goal of ensuring that his students were not. Without his death, none of that would have happened. It’s because of this that Jujutsu Kaisen was right to kill off Gojo.

Jujutsu Kaisen is available to read on VIZ and other platforms.