Overpowered characters are a staple in the Shounen genre. They are used to either give the protagonists a challenge or as a symbol of hope. Take, for example, Anime’s Big Three. Ichigo, Luffy, and Naruto are all overpowered in their own right. However, they did not get there being strong from the start. Even then, they used their abilities to protect everyone they cared about.
However, this is not always the case. One Punch Man’s Saitama features the comedic struggles of an overpowered character. Hellsing’s Alucard is a powerful vampire who does not hesitate to shoot first and ask questions later. The way overpowered characters are used varies depending on the story. In the case of Jujutsu Kaisen, it’s a bit more serious. In this article, we will be discussing why is Gojo so OP and the powers that make him so. Spoilers Ahead!
Why is Gojo so OP?
Gojo is designed to be overpowered on purpose. Gege Akutami wrote him to be the “Superman” symbol of the series. Even his history backs this up. From the birth of Gojo, the entire world changed as a consequence. The sheer power he had over fate and his potential gave birth to stronger Curses. If it weren’t for Gojo, then monsters like Jogo, Hanami, and Mahito wouldn’t have been born. Gojo is used as a benchmark for characters who seek to become the strongest. He is the “mountain” that the main cast has to overcome to be able to stand on their own.
However, Gojo being overpowered does come with a lot of consequences. Gojo’s abilities make it easy to power creep the series. As more Jujutsu Sorcerers are introduced, they have to be as ridiculous if not outlandish as Gojo. This comes with a whole new set of problems, particularly on power scaling. Gojo being overpowered makes it truly difficult to know how strong he is. Other characters in the series make all of these crazy feats, but we cannot say Gojo truly scales to them.
For example, Gege Akutami has claimed the speed of Mach 3 is one of the fastest in the series. The character of Naoya was able to achieve this feat. However, previous panels in the manga have shown that Maki was way faster than this. This puts Itadori Yuji and Gojo Satoru’s speed feats into question. Were their reactions really just as instant? Or were their scenes shorter to save on paper and ink?
Thus, we need to discuss Gojo’s powers in detail. By knowing his powers, we can justify Gojo being overpowered despite the power scaling issues.
What is Gojo’s Power?
As part of the Gojo clan, Gojo has a whole case of powers that he inherited. Most of these he wasn’t able to perform until his loss against Toji Fushiguro. Since then, he was able to use his abilities with mastery. All of Gojo’s abilities rely on his Cursed Energy. Without Cursed Energy, he wouldn’t be able to perform any of them.
The Gojo Clan Cursed Techniques: Limitless
Gojo Satoru inherited this ability and practiced it as a child. The powers of Limitless rely on mathematical understandings of the concept of infinity. Surprisingly, it is not as reality-warping or ground-breaking as people would like to think! Unlike other techniques, Limitless is all based on practical and theoretical science. Thus, Gojo is still restricted to the laws of reality as he performs this technique.
This technique is applied in various ways as seen below.
Infinity
The primary application of Limitless is Gojo’s barrier. Infinity acts as a defensive shield based on one of Zeno’s mind-numbing paradoxes. Gojo can divide an object’s velocity aimed to hit him until it is infinitely close to zero. This makes it so that there is an “infinite space” between him and his opponent. He learned how to use this ability passively and filter everything that comes towards him. Those who encounter Infinity will experience visual manipulations. They will think that they hit Gojo, when, in reality, they didn’t. However, this side effect only showed up during his fight against Jogo.
Blue, Red, and Purple
Through sophisticated tactics, Gojo can redirect his Cursed Energy to perform these techniques. These three are Gojo’s primary “energy attacks” if he chose not to fight in close combat. Each of these attacks has vastly different applications.
- Blue “attracts” masses by creating a void in space. This is then used to crush those caught up in the void as space refills itself.
- Red is the opposite of blue. It expels energy instead of attracts which works like a typical Shounen energy blast.
- Purple is a combination of Blue and Red. It is a blast of destruction said to affect on an “atomic scale”. However, previous victims were shown to survive the attack and even retain bones and guts. Purple is likely just another atomic blast with the properties of erasing matter.
Gojo Satoru’s Cursed Techniques
Even though most of Gojo’s powers were inherited, he did have a few in his arsenal. It was through these that he was able to become as strong as he is!
Six Eyes
This is the power that makes Gojo as Overpowered as he is. Six Eyes are a pair of eyes Gojo inherited through ocular jujutsu. It is a form of genetic mutation that allows him to see Cursed Energy. Other than that, the eyes enable Gojo to manipulate Cursed Energy to its finer details. For more details on this, check out our previous article!
Reverse Cursed Technique
Although all the other powers in this article have been bonkers, this is what enables them! Through this technique, Gojo can convert his negative energy to positive energy. The conversion allows him to heal himself in the process. The “healing” acts more as a replacement of cells to keep them fresh. This is what allows Gojo to constantly use Limitless.
Domain Expansion: Unlimited Void
Ah, yes. The ability that makes every Gojo fan believe Gojo can beat anyone. The Unlimited Void is Gojo’s Domain Expansion. Anyone trapped inside this domain will be fed with all the information in the universe. It turns the target into a vegetative state and dies if they stay long enough.
Gojo has shown incredible mastery over this ability when he was able to deploy it for 0.2 seconds. For more details, check out our previous article!
Every Other Jujutsu Technique
As a Jujutsu Sorcerer, Gojo has access to techniques everyone has. Curtains, Binding Vows, Black Flash, and the use of Cursed Energy are part of his arsenal. He could also levitate! However, these abilities don’t fully contribute to Gojo’s OP nature.
What is Gojo’s Weakness?
As seen above, Gojo has quite the arsenal! His abilities would easily place him in any top tier. However, like every other character, he does have his flaws. Gojo has multiple weaknesses, but his primary one is his arrogance. It is through this that he was able to be captured and imprisoned later on.
Infinity’s Weakness
You would think Infinity is foolproof. In reality, it is! Not all objects thrown at Gojo get slowed down. For example, an eraser was able to get past his defenses. He didn’t consider it threatening enough to use Infinity on it. This would make him susceptible to attacks that don’t look threatening but can kill him in a second.
There was also the case that Infinity only works against attacks with mass and disposition. If the attack was spiritual or didn’t target Gojo, Infinity would not work. Probably. It also has a unique weakness to poisons. He is unable to break them down fast enough which leaves him vulnerable.
This ability is also not exempt from weapons or abilities that disable Cursed Techniques. This is how he got imprisoned by the Prison Realm.
Gojo’s Poor Cursed Energy Pool
It is only thanks to the Six Eyes that Gojo can fight as long as he can. Without Six Eyes, Gojo has a poor Cursed Energy tank compared to other characters. The longest he could last without Reverse Cursed Technique is three days. After three days elapsed and he had to deactivate his ability, he was exhausted. So much so that Toji was able to kill him with ease! Although, the man didn’t die. He was simply too stubborn to die alongside the use of Reverse Cursed Techniques!
Absence of Cursed Energy in Domain Expansions
As demonstrated by Zenin Maki, a domain cannot register a person as a target if they have no Cursed Energy. Any attacks or effects will not work on them, even the sure-hit attacks. This means that if they are fast enough, a person with no Cursed Energy can fight back against Gojo. This ability is also powered by Cursed Energy.
Is Gojo the Strongest in His Verse?
By all intents and purposes, yes! Gojo is the strongest in his universe. While there are other characters stated to become stronger than him, they currently aren’t. As it stands, Gojo is still at the top of the Jujutsu Society.
Who’s More Powerful than Gojo?
Yuta Okkotsu is likely to become stronger and more powerful than Gojo in the future. This man deserves an entire article dedicated to himself! However, I’ll keep it brief here for everyone. Okkotsu has the ability to copy Cursed Techniques. He also has higher levels of Cursed Energy than Gojo, can manipulate positive energy, and has a Special Grade Curse as a bodyguard. Talk about a full package!
Is Gojo the Strongest Anime Character?
No. Gojo is not the strongest anime character. He may be Overpowered, but there are other more ridiculous characters in anime. Many of them can even beat Gojo with ease. Gojo is not strong enough to contend for the title of the strongest anime character.