Jujutsu Kaisen's Gojo Is Actually Worse Than The Series Villains

Gojo has long been portrayed as a good guy in Jujutsu Kaisen, but his recent actions are showing that he has a very dark potential.

Gojo has always done whatever he pleases without regard to the powers that be in Jujutsu Kaisen but in a recent chapter of the manga, he takes this to the extreme. The popular Shonen Jump series by Gege Akutami is entering its final arc which makes drastic actions like this make sense on a narrative level. It also shows how scary Gojo can be despite his upbeat demeanor.

In chapter #223 of Jujutsu Kaisen, translated by John Werry, Gojo has an important chat with Yoshinobu. Yoshinobu has long served as an unpleasant representative of the sorcerers in charge of Jujutsu Society. As such he was also the one who killed Gojo's friend Yaga after Gojo was sealed. Surprisingly, Gojo doesn't hold this against him, saying that he was just acting on orders. He also mentions that he has always thought that Yoshinobu would be a much better leader of Jujutsu Society. The manga then shows an image of all the higher-up Sorcerers dead, implying that after Gojo made his epic return, he killed them all.

It's a brutal and shocking image, but it perhaps shouldn't be surprising given Gojo's experiences. Again and again, Gojo has seen the heads of Jujutsu Society harm innocent people. While Yaga is the most recent example, Gojo also saw this firsthand when he was tasked with protecting Tengen's Star Plasma Vessel Riko in his flashback arc. While Toji was ultimately the one who murdered Riko, even if he hadn't, she would still have had to sacrifice herself to serve as Tengen's host, a fact that didn't sit well with Gojo. This was one of the major reasons why he began to rebel against Jujutsu Society, all of which culminated in chapter #223.

It is unclear how this massacre will affect Jujutsu Society going forward. Gojo said that he wanted Yoshinobu to lead instead of the old guard, but it is unclear how many sorcerers there will be to lead after the Culling Game concludes. Especially given that many powerful sorcerers are participating in the battle against Jujutsu Kaisen's two biggest villains Sukuna and Kenjaku and will likely die in the process. This isn't even including the sorcerers who fled the country once the Culling Game began, like Mei Mei. There is also the question of whether the remaining sorcerers will even follow Yoshinobu or whether they will rally around someone more aligned with the traditional leaders.

Gojo's shocking murder of Jujutsu Kaisen's leading sorcerers leaves readers with many questions, but one thing it proves for certain is that beneath Gojo's fun exterior is a much darker core. While he has seemed reasonable so far, if Gojo ever did want to do something bad, no one could stop him. If Gojo emerges victorious from his current all-out battle with Sukuna, perhaps he could decide that it's time to put Jujutsu Society, or entire Japan, under his rule. While some readers may find Gojo's murder of Jujutsu Kaisen's old guard cathartic, it is also a worrying indication of the dark potential of the manga's most powerful sorcerer that may make him a more dangerous threat than the series’ main villains.

All chapters of Jujutsu Kaisen are available to read from Viz Media.

Ben Sockol has been writing articles for the comics section of Screen Rant since early 2022. Growing up watching a variety of Saturday morning cartoons and then voraciously reading through the comics they were based on, Ben developed a love of the superhero genre from an early age. And upon discovering anime in high school and college he became a manga fanatic as well. After double majoring in Physics and Mathematics at MIT and doing a brief stint as an Analyst at an investment firm, he realized that writing about his nerdy interests was his true calling. When Ben isn’t writing about comic books, he is most likely reading them or engaging in one of his many other hobbies like card magic. Ben has his own YouTube channel YGOFrom0 where he does deep dives into historic formats of the Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game. You can occasionally find him on Twitter @bsocks8.