Jujutsu Kaisen’sSatoru Gojohas become a cultural sensation, but few fans realize his relationship to anime’s greatest hero,Goku. Understanding the reasons behind Gojo’s broad cultural influence can be challenging, but by looking atDragon Ball’s own massive impact, it’s easier to understand. Both Gojo and Goku have become definitive pinnacles of the anime world, spreading far beyond the manga/anime subculture itself.
Goku and Gojo have something in common: one can find them everywhere. This profound influence on Gojo’s end is surprising, since few characters from past decades have been so ubiquitous. From Megan Thee Stallion to Cillian Murphy, one can see Gojo andJujutsu Kaisenbeing referenced, even in gestures as minor as mimicking his domain expansion. Just what is it about Satoru Gojo that makes him more present in pop culture than other huge shōnen heroes?
Gojo And Goku Share An Inimitable Greatness
The Blue-Eyed Sorcerer Is The First Since Goku To Be So Effortlessly Cool
One of the greatest ironies ofJujutsu Kaisenis that the character who would most capture the public’s heart wasn’t its hardy protagonist Yuji but, instead, the spectacular force that is Satoru Gojo. It makes sense, in a way. Gojo shares something very special with Goku: an overpowering strength combined with an untouchable sense of cool.
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While other anime heroes have cultural staying power, Gojo is embedded in a unique set of iconography: the trademark black sunglasses and the domain expansion finger gesture are on their way to becoming as recognizable as the Kamehameha or the Super Saiyan power-ups. This doesn’t just extend to Gojo, but all ofJujutsu Kaisenas a whole.Jujutsu Kaisenshares a sort of name recognition withDragon Ballas a paragon of anime style.
While certain anime likeNarutoorDeath Notehave achieved similar notoriety,Jujutsu Kaisenpushes the same cultural buttons asDragon Ball. In its own day and age, the nameJujutsu Kaisenhas become synonymous with a maturity and storytelling that seems to have, overall,transcended shōnen as a genre. Shows likeNarutoorBleachmight be just as recognizable, but they lack some undefined social x-factor thatJujutsu KaisenandDragon Ballpossess.
Gojo, like Goku before him, has become emblematic of the very things that makeJujutsu Kaisena one-of-a-kind series, churning out lifelong fans. Just likeDragon Ballcarved out a cultural niche, with its soap opera elements and its fantastical powers that charted out an analog to the Western superhero,Jujutsu Kaisenspeaks to its own time and place’s culture.
Gojo And Goku Reflect A Core Demographic’s Desires
An Old Cliché Is Proven True Once Again
“Girls want him, and boys want to be him”—so the tired adage goes. However, when it comes to understanding what makes Gojo and Goku part of a pop-cultural lineage, it’s actually crucial. It goes without saying that Gojo is pretty, but that doesn’t go very far toward explaining the fascination thatviewers of all kindshave—including straight men. Although it might seem like a stretch at first, understanding howGojo and Goku both appeal to masculine ideals in different erascan provide a very interesting view of their pop success.
In a time of relative cultural optimism, the idea that a character like Goku could train hard and always surpass his limits to become a representative of a raw, unsurpassable strength had a particular draw.
Goku was a product of the more straightforward and brazen masculinity of the 1980s when bodybuilders like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger were everywhere. In a time of relative cultural optimism, the idea that a character like Goku could train hard and always surpass his limits to become a representative of a raw, unsurpassable strength had a particular draw. This likely resonated with male viewers, young and old, who were able to project themselves onto Goku. Goku was, in other words, a character whofelt goodto watch.
Gojo is similar: the perfect hero for a different age—an age that is more pessimistic and disaffected. Contrasting Goku’s open quest to become the strongest, Gojoisthe strongest already, and it leads him to great solitude. This dissatisfaction with a conventional sort of greatness, and the aloofness with which Gojo treats his own unparalleled ability, resonates with male viewers on an unconscious level today the same way that Goku appealed heavily to the 1980s' absurdly earnest depictions of hypermasculinity.
Goku represents total optimism, particularly for men: whatever one sets one’s mind to, with a combination of talent, luck, and hard work, can be achieved. Other shonen heroes like Naruto,Demon Slayer’s Tanjiro, orBlack Clover’s Asta would follow this path: through sincerity and heart, anything is possible. Gojo serves as the ultimate response, undermining Goku’s call.
Gojo is the strongest already; it’s awful.Gojo is neither humble nor “good-hearted"nor particularly hard-working. He’s, in effect, a parody of the worldview that made Goku and his progeny possible. In the same stroke, as he’s a parody, he’s also a realization of the total impossibility that the parody would seem to target. Itispossible to be the greatest, but becoming the greatest is so absurd that it’s not worthwhile. Today, with prosperous futures foreclosed by existential uncertainty,Gojo is both a comforting affirmation and a snide denial of Goku’s unconscious symbolism.
In all this complexity, the effortlessness culminates in one of shōnen’s most magnetic personalities in decades. When Gojo does his iconic strut or coldly tells Kenjaku that he’d win against Sukuna, it’s hard not to hear an echo of Goku’s unwavering confidence and desire to be the best. What exactly that echo sounds like is the bigger mystery. There’s an inexplicable dialogue betweenJujutsu Kaisen’s Gojo andDragon Ball’s Goku, and it’s key to understand why Gojo will be a cultural landmark for years to come.
Jujutsu Kaisen
Jujutsu Kaisenis a Japanese anime and manga series created by Gege Akutami. The story is set in a world where Cursed Spirits, born from negative human emotions, prey on humanity. It follows high school student Yuji Itadori as he becomes entangled in the world of Jujutsu Sorcery after swallowing a cursed talisman—Ryomen Sukuna’s finger—and becomes the host for one of the most powerful curses. Yuji joins the Tokyo Metropolitan Magic Technical College to learn how to combat curses while searching for the remaining fingers of Sukuna to exorcise him permanently.
Dragon Ball
From the creative mind of Akira Toriyama, Dragon Ball is a mega multimedia franchise that spans back to the 1980s. Dragon Ball expanded quickly, starting as a serialized manga for Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan. It made its way overseas via manga and an anime adaptation that is enjoyed worldwide. Dragon Ball was the initial starting animated series that followed the adventures of the young Son Goku as he sought after the Dragon Balls. These mystical orbs would grant the wish of any who gathered them together. Then, the series would branch off into the immensely popular Dragon Ball Z, which followed Goku as an adult and featured high-intensity battles and Goku’s never-ending search to be the strongest. The series has also enjoyed several popular video game adaptations and continues to release several new animated series and theatrical films up to the recent popular Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.
