How Toji Could Have Walked Away Victorious

There are many moments in Jujutsu Kaisen that are so important that they change the story’s trajectory. Quite often, these moments typically don’t mean much when they’re first shown, though the sheer gravity of their importance is felt much later on in the series. Whether such a moment comes because of a character’s direct involvement or not, the consequences are felt for years to come.

One such, and perhaps the most important, example of this is Toji Fushiguro. Although he was an outcast from his clan and worked as a mere assassin-for-hire, his direct involvement in Jujutsu Kaisen’s Hidden Inventory arc was so pivotal that it shaped the way the rest of the story played out. So, let’s go over why Toji was so important and how he could have walked away victorious from his altercation with Gojo and Geto.

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The Importance Of Toji Fushiguro

The One To Forge His Own Path

Toji made his debut in the Hidden Inventory arc as the central antagonist for young Gojo and Geto. He was cast out from the Zenin clan due to being born with no Cursed Technique, though instead, he had a Heavenly Restriction that allowed his physical abilities to be far greater than anyone else’s due to not even having a drop of Cursed Energy within his body. More than this, his senses and reflexes were also dialed up to 11.

In the arc, Toji was hired by the Time Vessel Association to kill Riko Amanai to facilitate the evolution of Master Tengen, which proved to be quite a challenge for the Sorcerer Killer as she was being protected by Gojo and Geto; the two strongest sorcerers on the planet. However, the legendary assassin was able to successfully complete his assignment as he seemingly killed Gojo, easily defeated Geto, and successfully assassinated Riko.

This was, perhaps, the most important moment in all of Jujutsu Kaisen, since, due to Toji’s overconfidence, Gojo was able to learn Reverse Cursed Technique and Cursed Technique Reversal, becoming the single strongest sorcerer in the entire world. Moreover, this also led to Geto feeling alienated and left to stir in his rage, leading him down the path of villainy, subsequently leading to the events of Jujutsu Kaisen 0.

Because Gojo and Geto had now flipped their belief system on how to treat the non-sorcerers of the world, they became enemies, with the latter wanting to force every non-sorcerer to evolve or die in the process, and the former realizing his solitary strength meant he had a duty to protect them. After Gojo was forced to kill Geto, Kenjaku eventually found the body and gained his Cursed Technique by taking it over, leading to the events of Jujutsu Kaisen proper, all because of Toji’s involvement.

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How Toji Could Have Walked Away

The Internal Battle Within Him

Toji and Gojo both had the same problem when they first came across one another, which was overconfidence. Gojo was the inheritor of the Limitless Cursed Technique and the Six Eyes, which gave him unparalleled control and understanding of Cursed Energy, while Toji had built up quite a reputation as the Sorcerer Killer who managed to successfully assassinate every single target he was thrown up against.

However, in their first meeting, Toji’s Heavenly Restriction proved to be superior as he was able to defeat Gojo quite easily. In the final blow, he stabbed Gojo viciously and dealt damage to him that would have killed anyone else, causing his overconfidence to get the better of him as he walked away from the scene, leaving his brain intact. Because of this oversight, Gojo finally unlocked the secret behind Reverse Cursed Energy, allowing him to heal from all of this damage and realize an entirely new way of using Limitless.

The truth of the matter is that, more than just completing his contract, Toji had quite an apparent inner conflict within himself. Due to being cast out of the Zenin clan because of his lack of Cursed Energy, Toji began to resent those who had it. So, his battle with Gojo was more than just him finishing his assignment, as it was a subconscious battle for him to prove that he was superior to all sorcerers as a means of lashing out against those who had cast him aside.

He wanted to prove to the world that even if you’re the strongest sorcerer in the world, you can always be defeated as a response to how the Zenin clan treated him. However, there was no one there to hear him. The quickness by which he left Gojo proved to be his downfall, as was even stated by Gojo at the start of their second confrontation. Because of his surety of having defeated Gojo and proving himself to be superior to Cursed Energy itself, he didn’t go back to tie up all loose ends about Gojo’s survival.

Toji was incredibly knowledgeable on Cursed Energy, so he knew that the brain was the source of everything related to it. To make sure that Gojo couldn’t survive, Toji should have cut his head off to ensure that Cursed Energy wouldn’t be used to heal him. If this were the case, he would have walked away victorious, free to do whatever he wanted for the rest of his days, since the only person able to stop him lay dead at his feet.

However, this would just sink Toji to further depths of depravity and isolation. Because of Gojo’s return, Toji died and entrusted Megumi to his enemy, making sure that his son turned into a good person and not like him. When he was brought back in the Shibuya Incident, he was only really able to complete his character arc after seeing Megumi, knowing that, in his last moments, he made the right choice by entrusting his son to Gojo. So, perhaps due to this completion of his character arc, Toji was somewhat redeemed.

Jujutsu Kaisen can be streamed on Crunchyroll and Amazon Prime.

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Jujutsu Kaisen

Based on Gege Akutami’s Jujutsu Kaisen manga, Mappa’s battle shonen anime envisions a world where Jujutsu Sorcerers battle against entities born out of Cursed Energy. One day, a teenager named Yuji Itadori is dragged into this conflict when he eats a possessed finger.

Seasons

2

Creator

Gege Akutami

Number of Episodes

47