Highlights
- Heroes struggling against Sukuna in “Sukuna Cycle”, Gojo’s return crucial for victory.
- Gojo’s fight with Sukuna showcased his power, his return could turn the tide.
- Possibility of Gojo’s return hinted at by lotus flowers, fans speculate on Shoko’s involvement.
Ever since Gojo’s death in Chapter 236 of the Jujutsu Kaisen manga, the heroes have been fighting against Sukuna one after another, but to little success. Sukuna has more than lived up to his reputation as the strongest sorcerer of all time as he has been finishing off some of the strongest characters in the entire series, oftentimes many of them at once, putting him at a level even far above Special Grade.
This repeated sequence of events has been dubbed by fans as the ‘Sukuna Cycle’, where a new character enters the fight, is hyped up to have incredible powers that impress Sukuna, but then is ultimately defeated by the King of Curses, who still isn’t at his full power yet. Therefore, due to Gojo faring far better alone against the villain than all others together, his return to Jujutsu Kaisen is needed now more than ever.
The Events Following Gojo’s Death
As stated previously, Gojo’s death marked a significant turn of the tide in the fight against Sukuna. After a very hard-fought battle, the Limitless sorcerer eventually lost to the King of Curses due to the latter’s far superior knowledge of Cursed Energy and his versatility in using Megumi’s Ten Shadows Cursed Technique. By getting Mahoraga to adapt to Infinity, Sukuna unlocked an incredibly powerful attack that allowed him to kill Gojo.
Just as this fight ended, Kashimo immediately stepped into the battle, with Uraume seen transporting Sukuna’s old weapon, Kamutoke, to him. Though this didn’t do anything to Kashimo, Sukuna rejoiced at having his old weapon again, as the fight against the strongest sorcerer of the Edo period began. Kashimo fought well and used his formidable Mythical Beast Amber technique on Sukuna to deal substantial damage, but the villain eventually regenerated his legendary Heian Era form and easily killed his opponent.
Analyzing Sukuna’s true form with X-rays, Kashimo came to a single conclusion… Utterly immaculate.
After Kashimo’s defeat, Yuji and Higuruma jumped onto the battlefield and did quite well against Sukuna. Wasting no time, Higuruma opened his Domain Expansion, taking Sukuna to trial and succeeded in issuing the death penalty to the King of Curses. However, instead of taking away his Cursed Technique, the Domain confiscated Kamutoke instead, leading Yuji and Higuruma, armed with the Executioners’ Sword, to attempt to kill Sukuna, who still had Dismantle and Cleave.
However, this failed as well, as Sukuna eventually killed Higuruma. Eventually, Yuta and Rika joined the fight, where Yuta also immediately opened his Domain Expansion. Here, Sukuna was the closest he got to losing after the fight with Gojo, but alas, after failing to save Megumi, Sukuna regained enough exposure to fire off his Space Dismantle and took Rika and Yuta out of the fight, only for Maki to step in.
Sukuna revealed that he was looking forward to fighting Maki the most due to her Heavenly Restriction, but the hype for this fight also quickly died down as he beat her pretty easily. After yet another unsuccessful bout for the heroes with Kusakabe, Miguel joined the fight and, as of Chapter 256, the heroes plan to take on the King of Curses yet again, as Miguel, Yuji, Choso, Maki, and Larue are all getting ready to keep fighting.
Why Gojo Needs To Return
Though the efforts of Jujutsu High against Sukuna have been quite commendable, their performance has still been lackluster compared to how Gojo fought. The strongest sorcerer of the modern age proved himself to be just that, as he held the upper hand against Sukuna for most of their fight, even taking on Sukuna, Mahoraga, and Chaos Beast Agito all at the same time.
In a lengthy fight that lasted 13 chapters of the manga, Gojo showed how powerful he truly was, as he used his technique and Cursed Energy to their maximum potential and did so well that Sukuna himself got nervous for the first time in 1000 years. Though many would argue that Sukuna wasn’t going all out and still had his Heian Era form to fall back on, it should be noted that without Mahoraga’s adaptation, Sukuna would never have been able to bypass Infinity, so even if he was in his Heian Era form, he wouldn’t be able to kill Gojo.
You did well, Gojo Satoru. I won’t forget you for as long as I live.
The only things that Sukuna had to bypass Infinity were his Domain Expansion and Domain Amplification which, to be fair, did see quite a bit of success for him in their battle. However, after both of them used their Domains 5 times in a single day, both of their brains were so drained that they simply couldn’t use Domain Expansion again. This proved to be an advantage for Gojo, though, as he was the far superior hand-to-hand combatant.
By using his fighting skills to their maximum output, Gojo even knocked Sukuna out. The damage that was inflicted on the King of Curses in this fight is the only reason why the others are still able to fight him, as Sukuna used up almost all of his Reverse Cursed Technique, so he can’t heal quite as efficiently and his Domain Expansion is still out of commission. With Gojo returning and teaming up with Jujutsu High to fight Sukuna, it might just be what the heroes need to defeat the villain for good.
How He Can Return
The only thing fans talked about more than Gojo’s death was their speculation about when he would return. To be fair, there are quite a few hints about how this could happen, especially when looking at the airport scene that happened when Gojo died.
The main thing that points to this is the presence of the lotus flowers in the airport scene, which are flowers that signify resurrection and return in Japanese culture, so showing them in the context of Gojo’s death is what many fans have clung to as being the most telling evidence about his return. Moreover, his conversation with Nanami presented him with a choice of going North to stay dead with everyone he knows or going South and essentially becoming a new person.
I’ve always told my students… “When you die, you’ll be alone”.
His eventual choice is left purposefully ambiguous, as if to open a pathway for his return far later on in the series. Currently, Ui Ui is gathering the bodies of everyone Sukuna has defeated and is teleporting them away, seemingly to Shoko. This includes Gojo’s as well, so many fans think that Shoko is about to use a binding vow or maximum output of her technique to bring Gojo back into the fight. Only time will tell if this is correct!
Jujutsu Kaisen can be streamed on Amazon Prime and Netflix.
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