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Jujutsu Kaisen has a lot of strengths as a series, but one of the most interesting is the dynamic between different characters and how they influence the greater plot. This is particularly evident with one of the main characters, Satoru Gojo, arguably the strongest sorcerer in the franchise, and his friendship with Suguru Geto, another extremely powerful sorcerer.
Known as the “Strongest duo”, Satoru and Suguru had a very good friendship, but as the latter descended into darkness and chose a path that the former couldn’t follow, things took a turn for the worse. However, was Geto’s fall into darkness inevitable? Did Gojo have an impact on his heel turn? This article will attempt to analyze the same.
Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen.
Exploring Gojo and Geto's friendship in Jujutsu Kaisen
Understanding Geto
Suguru Geto was a classmate from Satoru Gojo’s generation as they were both training to become sorcerers in the mid-2000s. They would end up becoming two of the strongest at the time, nicknamed the “Strongest duo.”
The two, however, have very opposing personalities, with Gojo being rude and having an attitude while Geto being polite and well-mannered.
However, there was a huge flaw in Geto’s character, and that was that he was extremely hateful of non-sorcerer humans. He deemed his class as superior and felt that regular humans had no role to fulfill in the future, thus calling them "monkeys" and undermining them. Geto would even go as far as getting disinfected with spray when he was around humans because he hated the “monkey stench”.
As Gojo kept rising through the ranks and became the most powerful sorcerer, at least as of this writing, in Jujutsu Kaisen, Geto started to go on more and more dangerous missions on his own, with his ideas becoming more radical and extremist. Eventually, Geto ended up going insane and killed one hundred humans in one night, resulting in Gojo having to take his life and hide his body from the higher-ups, resulting in Kenjaku taking hold of it.
Was Gojo responsible for Geto's downfall?
In simple terms… no. Gojo is not responsible for Geto going insane, and making a massive heel turn in his life. It is a bit more complicated than that and stems from the kind of person that Geto is, and the influences that author Gege Akutami used to come up with the character.
Suguru Geto was a very strict and rigid man with a very clear worldview that was challenged throughout what was shown in the Jujutsu Kaisen manga. The first major example of this was their battle against Toji, with the latter even mocking them for losing “against a monkey”. Geto’s philosophy was challenged here and there, and he didn’t like it, which was something that slowly made him resentful towards humanity.
It is often mentioned that Gojo’s progress, which led him to more solo missions and somewhat leaving Geto behind, made Suguru feel insecure and worthless, and while there is an element of that, assuming that Satoru is the one responsible for what happened to him is reaching, to say the least. This was a man who was already warped from the beginning of Jujutsu Kaisen.
Influences for the character
Jujutsu Kaisen author Gege Akutami has gone on record saying that Geto is inspired by Shinobu Sensui, one of the main antagonists of Yoshihiro Togashi’s 90s cult classic, Yu Yu Hakusho. And going back to Sensui can make a lot of sense when it comes to understanding who Geto is and what he represents.
Sensui was a Spirit Detective, that series’ equivalent of a sorcerer, and, much like Geto, he had a strong sense of what is right and wrong. He believed humans to be good and demons to be bad, but as he went through a traumatic experience watching the former torturing the latter, his entire worldwide made a drastic turn, leaving him wanting to extinguish humanity and protect demons.
It’s important to understand this because both characters have a very similar beginning, middle, and end: they both start as righteous, albeit flawed individuals, but certain events highlight the extremist within them, pushing them over the edge and cementing their new place as villains. They both hate humanity, and they are both disgusted by what they perceive as evil.
This needs to be highlighted because, while Gojo’s growth and rising through the ranks could have played a role because he left Geto on his own, this was a man already at a breaking point and only needed a push.
Toji, his views being challenged, feeling weak and undermined because of Gojo’s success - it wasn’t just one event but rather a combination of many, although it has to be said that this was a man already with the potential to go insane.
Final thoughts
Suguru Geto is one of the most interesting characters in the entirety of Jujutsu Kaisen, but there is no denying that he already had some loose screws and his career as a sorcerer was bound to push him over the edge.
However, the importance that he has in the plot, considering his impact and influence, makes him one of the most significant characters in the series and one that is essential to understand Satoru Gojo.
