Even if you are not particularly into Jujutsu Kaisen—the manga created by mangaka Gege Akutami and its anime adaptation produced by studio MAPPA—chances are you’ve caught sight of one of the story’s most iconic characters all over the internet.
With his snowy white hair and dazzling blue eyes, Gojo Satoru is impossible to miss. Those eyes are so gorgeous that they likely eat up all of MAPPA’s animation budget. Unless, of course, they’re covered by his signature black blindfold. One could say that his striking physical appearance reflects the pivotal role he occupies in the Jujutsu Kaisen universe—the Honored One, the strongest sorcerer in the world, the first in a century to be born with two of the most powerful cursed techniques known to mankind, supreme annoyance to the elders of the jujutsu world, and the teacher every student loves to pretend to hate.
Gojo is the perfect example of the mentor character we see in pretty much all shōnen stories. He’s very powerful or skilled, usually snarky, and sports an “I don’t care if you live or die” attitude. Of course, that doesn’t really hide just how desperately he DOES care, and like the best mentors, he comes equipped with his own tragic backstory. But it all starts with the age difference between him and the teenage protagonist, or protagonists.
So how old is Gojo at the start of the story?
Per canon lore, Gojo was born on December 7, 1989—which makes him 29 in 2018, when Itadori Yuji decides to try his hand at eating a finger that once belonged to Ryomen Sukuna, also known as the King of Curses, and is subsequently shoved into the jujutsu world as a consequence. That puts him at the perfect age difference with his teenage charges to give us that good Annoying Mentor™ content—since Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara all range in age between 15 and 16, while the second-years Maki, Toge, and Yuta are all 16 to 17. Panda is, well, a Panda, but we couldn’t calculate his age since he doesn’t have an official birth year.
Since the official Jujutsu Kaisen prequel, Jujutsu Kaisen 0, was set one year before Yuji’s enrollment in Jujutsu High, that means that Gojo was 28 during the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons—which is incidentally also when he ended up killing the love of his life his best friend, Geto Suguru.
And speaking of Geto, what about the Hidden Inventory arc, where we find out the history between him and Gojo and the deep bond they shared? The whole dreadful incident with Amanai Riko and Fushiguro “Father of the Year” Toji takes place in 2006, meaning that second-year student Gojo is 17 when he realizes that he’s not as untouchable as he believed to be all his life.
(featured image: MAPPA)
