How Satoru Gojo possesses the power of the universe
I like anime and I like astronomy, so it is safe to say that I am a nerd². When I started watching Jujutsu Kaisen, Satoru Gojo’s technique instantly caught my attention. In this blog post, I will first describe the technique and then I will explain what I associate the power with.
Disclaimer
This is not an explanation of his power, it is simply what the different techniques reminded me of when I read the manga and watched the anime.
I am in no way anything near a professional astrophysicist (I actually only had one year of physics during high school which was five years ago…), I am simply someone who enjoys learning new stuff about the universe and watching anime. Most of my knowledge comes from YouTube videos. Hence, take everything written in this article with a grain of salt.
“The “Limitless” technique of the Gojo Family uses jujutsu to bring the convergence and divergence of an infinite series into reality, allowing the user to freely manipulate and distort space.”
Neutral Limitless: Infinity — Event Horizon
Infinity possesses the power to stop. It acts as a shield for the user. When activated, nothing can touch Gojo, the reason being the invisible barrier created by the technique. The barrier is obviously not an ordinary barrier, is it based on the mathematical fact that there are an infinite amount of numbers between 1 and 0 (or any two consecutive numbers). No matter how many times the number 1 is divided, the quotient will never be zero. By using Infinity, Gojo divides the finite space between him and his opponent an infinite amount of times and thus creating infinite space.
Reminder: manga panels are read from right to left
Why this technique reminded me of the event horizon was because of the way the opponent perceives it. It is not an invisible barrier that stops everything a defined distance before it touches Gojo, it continuously slows down the enemy till they appear to freeze. The process of the target experiencing Infinity and an outside observer watching an object falling into a black hole is more or less the same.
It is a well-known fact that space and time curve around massive objects and black holes have a lot of mass. For an outside observer in a fixed position, an object that’s approaching a black hole seems to slow down. The nearer the object gets to the black hole, the more space-time stretches and the farther light has to travel. The intervals between the outside observer receiving the signals from the object get bigger, making it appear to slow down.
Time and space stretch to infinity at the event horizon. This means that the signal from the crossing of the object has to travel infinitely long to reach the observer, ergo it never reaches them.
In both cases, someone (the opponent and the outside observer) sees something (the hand and the object) slowing down while approaching a defined border (Gojo’s skin and the event horizon), but the something never reaches the defined border.
It goes without saying that my Infinity — Event Horizon theory is not a fool-proof theory, because Gojo creates new space while space around a black hole just stretches and the outside observer and the object are both the target in this example. But still, the similarities are there, right?
Strengthened Limitless: Blue—Gravity
Blue possesses the power to attract, the strengthened form of Infinity. While Infinity only creates space, Blue creates negative distance by attracting the space around a target until it becomes negative, something that is not possible in our world. There is no negative space.
When a user uses Blue on an opponent, the target gets literally crushed to death. Blue acts similar to a magnet except for the fact that the point of attraction is in the negative, leading to space getting pulled to an impossible point. Blue does not only work on other people or — in the Jujutsu’s Kaisen world — on cursed spirits, but also on inanimate objects like buildings. It can also be used to attract targets to another across wide distances.
Why this technique reminded me of gravity is because both Blue and gravity attract. In other words, the targets gravitate toward each other. Blue is described to act like a magnet and often times I’ve heard people use the same explanation for gravity. Which makes sense. If you would put two objects into empty space, they would start to approach each other and meet at the center of mass, as if they were magnetic. Gojo can create such a center of mass with Blue and thus attract everything around him to that point.
Another reason why Blue reminded me of gravity is that the more mass or energy something has, the stronger gravity acts. I italicized the word energy because there is a simple but important reason for that: Blue (or any cursed technique) is nothing but cursed energy, a power source in the JJK world. By using Blue on an opponent, the user “infects” the opponent’s body with cursed energy which then leads to a greater gravitational pull due to the higher energy level, and eventually, it is so strong that the opponent gets crushed.
Additionally, gravity surely could crush someone or something with no problem. The only reason why I make a comparison between them and not use gravity as an explanation for Blue is because of the “negative distance”. There is no negative distance when describing gravity, it is simply the curvature of spacetime.
Reversed Limitless: Red — Supernova
Red possesses the power to repel, the opposite of Blue. The main difference — apart from their ability — between Blue and Red is that Red can be seen at all times. In the anime, the cursed energy materializes as a bright red sphere on top of Gojo’s finger which then explodes and pushes away everything in its way.
Why this technique reminded me of a supernova is pretty obvious in my opinion. A supernova is an explosion at the end of a lifetime of a star. Supernovae (type II to be precise) happen when the core of a star collapses because of the gravitational pull of the core. The star collapses and bounces back as a massive explosion. As one would expect, such an explosion creates an immense shockwave and is so bright that it can be seen across astronomical distances.
In the anime, Red looks more like an explosion whose shockwave pushes the enemy away rather than simply repelling something as the description of the power would imply. In my opinion, it has obvious similarities to a supernova: the dense, hot core before an explosion, the shockwave and brightness even though the “core” was rather small.
This comparison is mainly based on the visual appearance of Red and not the similarities based on physics. Because first of all, there is no star. Gojo simply creates a “core”. Secondly, for a supernova type II to happen, the star would need to have at least eight times the mass of our sun, and even though Gojo is my favorite Jujutsu Kaisen character, I don’t think he would be able to create a core that big.
My favorite fun fact about supernovae: Iron is created when a supernova happens and blood contains iron which means we literally have leftovers from a supernova flowing in our veins! Isn’t that cool?
Colliding Limitless: Purple — Antimatter
Purple possesses the power to erase, the combination of Red and Blue. While one might think combining two opposite forces would compensate for each other, Gojo uses it to create a mass that annihilates everything in its way.
Why this technique reminded me of antimatter is probably self-explanatory by only knowing a bit about the topic. When “normal” matter and antimatter come in contact, both types of matter obliterate, leaving behind pure energy (which, by the way, would be the perfect energy source, but that’s beside the point). The definition of what happens when a user uses Purple and when normal matter meets antimatter is the same.
Since I cannot say much more to this, I personally believe that this is a foolproof theory except for the fact that the Jujutsu Kaisen wiki describes Purple as an “imaginary mass”. Antimatter is neither a mass nor is it imaginary. Physicists have been able to artificially create antimatter, but it is generated in natural processes like cosmic rays collisions as well.
Domain Expansion: Unlimited Void— Black Hole
Unlimited Void possesses the power to trap the user’s target inside a created empty space, formed from the user’s mind. When the opponent gets trapped inside Unlimited Void, their brain gets flooded with unlimited information which causes them to stay still as if paralyzed.
While it is not true that a person inside a black hole sees the truth about the universe, it is a widespread thought. One would sadly also not see the entire history of the universe in fast forward when falling inside a black hole. It is believed that the only view one would see would be the outside universe slowly contracting until it is a small spherical blob over one’s head.*
I think it would be quite the big coincidence if the anime’s adaption looks kind of like the explanation of someone falling into a black hole and then also shows what looks to be a black hole.
Once inside a black hole, everything flows towards the singularity and there is no way of escaping it. When an opponent is trapped inside the Unlimited Void, the only way for them to escape would be to overpower Gojo’s domain expansion with their own. This means that no one can escape Unlimited Void because Gojo is the strongest character in Jujutsu Kaisen and no one can counter his domain expansion.
Maybe. I won’t be getting into the debate about whether Gojo or Sukuna is stronger. I haven’t caught up to the manga, so no spoilers please (in case they fought against each other or something was said).
Thank you for reading! I hope I worded my thoughts in an understandable way and if not or if you disagree, feel free to criticize me :) I love learning new stuff and especially about the universe.
I, unfortunately, cannot list all my sources since I gained all this scattered knowledge of space by watching random YouTube videos before I fall asleep, but I can tell you my favorite YouTube channels: Arvin Ash, PBS Space Time, SEA, ScienceClic English, and Sabine Hossenfelder.
