What did Gojo say to Geto? Nobody outside the author knows for certain, because both the manga and the film hide his last words (CBR). Gege Akutami has said only that the words were revealed "somewhere" in Volume 0, and Gojo's English voice actor, Kaiji Tang, has said the localised line was three words, which is why many fans, and CBR, read it as "I love you".
This is the third story post in our Jujutsu Kaisen series, and it picks up ten years after Gojo let Geto walk away.
Spoilers: the whole of Jujutsu Kaisen 0, manga and film. The final reveal touches Season 2's Shibuya arc.
Pick your path: the hidden words, the story in scenes, when it takes place, or whether to watch it before Season 2.
YourCrush.AI has Suguru Geto as a chat character, so once you have read this you can talk to Suguru Geto yourself.
What did Gojo say to Geto?
Canon does not show it: Gojo's final words to Geto are concealed in both the manga and the film (CBR). What exists is a set of clues: Akutami says the words were revealed "somewhere" in Volume 0, Kaiji Tang says the localised line "was localized" and was "three words", and director Sunghoo Park had Gojo crouch so he could say them "at the same eye level" (Screen Rant).
The alley
It is the night of December 24, 2017. Shinjuku and Kyoto have been full of curses all night. In a narrow alley, a man in monk's robes is walking away from a fight he lost, one arm gone.
Our imagining of Gojo stepping into the alley, in his voice, in our words: "You picked a bad street to walk down, Suguru. It's a dead end. I checked."
Spoiler: who finds Geto in the alley, and what we are allowed to hear
Gojo finds the fleeing, wounded Geto in an alley and kills him "after reflecting on their friendship" (Wikipedia, the JJK 0 film; Wikipedia, Suguru Geto). Before he does, he crouches to Geto's eye level and says something. We do not hear it. In the film, Geto answers with a smile that hides his tears (CBR).
Director Sunghoo Park explained the crouch: "because I wanted Gojo to say his final words to Geto at the same eye level" (Screen Rant). In 2007 Gojo could not kill Geto and let him go (Wikipedia, Suguru Geto). In 2017 he does it himself, at eye level, and our reading is that the story keeps the one thing he said for itself on purpose.
To see how they got here, go back thirteen months.
Is "I love you" what Gojo said to Geto?
It is a deduction, not a confirmation: CBR reads "I love you" from Kaiji Tang's three-words clue and Akutami's comment (CBR). A second popular fan reading, "you are my best friend, my one and only", has even less behind it, and canon has not settled either one.
Here is what each piece of evidence actually says, and what it does not.
| Clue | Who said it | What it supports |
|---|---|---|
| The words were revealed "somewhere" in Volume 0 | Gege Akutami | The line exists in canon in some form |
| The line "was localized" and was "three words" | Kaiji Tang, Gojo's English voice | The English line has three words |
| Gojo crouches to say them "at the same eye level" | Sunghoo Park, director | The director wanted the two at eye level |
| Geto answers with a smile hiding tears | The film | Geto answers with a smile, not words |
Sources: CBR, Screen Rant. None of the four names the words. A reply line for Geto circulates widely online too; we could not verify it against a source we trust, so it is not quoted here.
So what did Gojo say to Geto? Our view: three words, said by a man who once let his friend go and is now ending him, fit several sentences, and that is the point. Readers who want an answer will keep picking the one that fits the friendship they see.
What is Jujutsu Kaisen 0 about?
Sixteen-year-old Yuta Okkotsu is haunted by Rika Orimoto, his childhood friend who died six years earlier. Her cursed spirit kills the bullies who torment him, so jujutsu society wants him executed. Gojo enrols him at Tokyo Jujutsu High instead, and Geto, Gojo's old friend turned curse user, comes for Yuta to take Rika's power (Wikipedia, the JJK 0 film).
JJK 0 is Gege Akutami's four-chapter prequel manga, first serialised in Jump GIGA in 2017 and adapted by MAPPA into a 2021 film, about 16-year-old Yuta Okkotsu, who is haunted by the cursed spirit of his childhood friend Rika (Wikipedia, JJK 0). Yuta and his classmates are minors, so their part of the story is told plainly.
Yuta and Rika
Yuta is 16, and something follows him. Six years ago his childhood friend Rika Orimoto died in an accident. When they were small, the two of them promised to marry when they grew up (Wikipedia, JJK 0; Wikipedia, character list).
Spoiler: what Rika does to the boys who bully Yuta
Rika's cursed spirit kills the bullies who torment Yuta, and jujutsu society decides Yuta must be executed (Wikipedia, the JJK 0 film).
The recruit
Gojo reads the file on a boy the higher-ups want dead and decides he would rather have him as a student.
Spoiler: the sentence hanging over Yuta when Gojo finds him
In November 2016, Gojo enrols Yuta at Tokyo Jujutsu High, and that saves his life. Yuta's classmates are Maki Zen'in, born into the Zen'in clan without cursed energy but with superhuman physical ability from a Heavenly Restriction; Toge Inumaki, whose Cursed Speech means he talks only in rice-ball ingredients; and Panda, a sentient Cursed Corpse made by principal Masamichi Yaga (Wikipedia, the JJK 0 film; Wikipedia, character list).
Our imagining of Gojo arguing his case to the higher-ups, in his voice: "You want to execute the one boy who might learn to control that curse. Give him to me for a year. If I'm wrong, you can be smug about it at my funeral."
The Night Parade
A year later, Geto, who walked out of jujutsu society in 2007, makes a declaration.
Our imagining of Geto announcing it, in his voice: "On the twenty-fourth, I will open the doors in Shinjuku and Kyoto at once. Stop me if you can. You will have to choose which city to save first."
Spoiler: what Geto's thousand curses are really for
Geto declares the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, which would release a thousand curses to wipe out non-sorcerers (Wikipedia, the JJK 0 film). It takes place on December 24, 2017, in Shinjuku and Kyoto at the same time, which leaves Yuta and a few others alone at Jujutsu High (Game Rant). Geto's real goal is to pull Gojo away so he can kill Yuta and take Rika. He infiltrates the school and overpowers Yuta's classmates.
Why Rika? Geto wants a world of sorcerers only, and Rika's power is a means to it. The parade is a diversion to pull Gojo away (Wikipedia, the JJK 0 film). Ten years after the village, he still has the purpose he found there. He has just found a bigger tool.
Geto vs Yuta
Yuta finds his classmates beaten. Geto is calm, polite, and standing between him and them.
Spoiler: the promise Yuta makes to Rika to win
Enraged, Yuta pledges himself to Rika as a sacrifice. That strengthens their bond and lets him badly wound Geto (Wikipedia, the JJK 0 film). Geto uses his strongest technique, "Maximum: Uzumaki", and loses an arm (Wikipedia, Suguru Geto). He flees, which is how he ends up in the alley.
Who cursed whom
When it is over, Gojo explains something Yuta has had backwards for six years.
Spoiler: the truth about Rika's curse, and how she leaves
Gojo reveals that Yuta cursed Rika, not the other way round. Yuta could not accept her death, and his desire for her to survive turned her into a cursed spirit. He drew that power from his ancestor Sugawara no Michizane, whom Akutami also made an ancestor of Gojo, as a tribute to a former editor (Wikipedia, JJK 0; Wikipedia, Yuta Okkotsu). The curse is broken and Rika passes on peacefully. Yuta stays a sorcerer and keeps wearing her ring (Wikipedia, the JJK 0 film).
This is the turn the whole film was built on, and our reading is that it mirrors the alley. Yuta held on to Rika so hard that he made her a curse. Gojo let Geto go in 2007, and ten years later had to finish what letting go cost.
Kenya, and the body
After the credits, the story jumps continents. Geto's ally Miguel is having lunch with Yuta in Kenya, and Gojo joins them (Wikipedia, the JJK 0 film).
Spoiler (Shibuya): who takes Geto's body
Geto's corpse is taken over by Kenjaku, whose technique transplants his brain into other bodies, and who uses Geto's Cursed Spirit Manipulation (Wikipedia, Suguru Geto). Game Rant says the takeover happened after the Night Parade, because Gojo killed Geto without destroying the body (Game Rant).
Ten months later, on Halloween night 2018, Gojo walks onto a crowded subway platform in Shibuya and sees the face of the friend he killed (CBR, Prison Realm). The Shibuya story starts on that platform.
When does JJK 0 take place?
From November 2016, when Gojo recruits Yuta, to December 24, 2017, the night of Geto's Night Parade (Wikipedia, the JJK 0 film; Game Rant). That puts it about a year before Season 1, which is set in 2018.
In story order, it lands after the 2006 to 2007 flashback of Season 2 and before Season 1 (CBR).
Is JJK 0 canon?
Yes. It's Akutami's own prequel, first titled Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School, published in Jump GIGA from April 28 to July 28, 2017, and collected in Japan as "Volume 0" on December 4, 2018 (Wikipedia, JJK 0).
Akutami wrote it before the main series began in Weekly Shonen Jump in March 2018, and VIZ published it in English on January 5, 2021 (Wikipedia, JJK 0). The main story treats its events as fact: Yuta returns in chapter 137 (Wikipedia, Yuta Okkotsu).
Do I watch JJK 0 before Season 2?
In release order, yes: Season 1, then the JJK 0 film, then Season 2 (CBR). It matters because Yuta returns in the main story, and because Geto's body is central to Shibuya.
The full release-order list, with every season and arc, is in our Jujutsu Kaisen watch order guide. The film is the one piece you can watch out of order without getting lost. Skip it, though, and Season 2's flashback loses its ending.
How old is Yuta in JJK 0?
Yuta is 16 in Kaisen 0 and 17 in the main story. He was born March 7, 2001 (Wikipedia, JJK 0; DualShockers). His classmates are minors too: Maki is 15, Inumaki is 16, and Panda is a fellow student.
The adults in the film are Gojo, who is 28 by the time Kaisen 0 concludes according to The Escapist, and Geto, who is 27 (The Escapist; ComingSoon). Classmate ages come from ComingSoon and Game Rant (Game Rant).
How do you build a character who kept a promise past a death?
You build one by putting the promise in the backstory and the thing she will not talk about yet in the greeting. Yuta and Rika are children in canon, so the recipe below is an original adult inspired by the film's theme, a promise that outlived a death. Every field fits the YourCrush.AI character creator.
Name (12 of 40 characters): Emi Watarase
Behaviour mode: natural
Category: Anime
Traits (5, from the list of 32): Gentle, Loyal, Emotional, Curious, Honest
Speaking style (4 words): soft, wry, careful, warm
Description (223 of 2,400 characters): Emi is 29, a restorer of old shrines who still wears an engagement ring on a chain around her neck. She is kind in a slightly teasing way, notices when you are avoiding a subject, and is far less fragile than people assume.
Backstory (266 of 2,400 characters): Emi's fiance died in a mountain accident four years ago, the week before their wedding. Everyone tells her it is time to take the ring off. You met her while she was repairing a shrine gate in your town, and she has started saving the end of each day to talk to you.
Greeting (166 of 500 characters): You came back. Good, I need someone to hold the ladder. No, I'm not going to tell you about the ring yet. Ask me something easier first and we'll see how far you get.
The ring is the conversation she is not ready for. The greeting tells you so, which makes it the first thing you will want to ask.
How YourCrush.AI lets you finish a conversation the story cut short
Kaisen 0 hides the one line its ending turns on, and a chat with your own character lets you write the conversation the film refuses to show. YourCrush.AI lets you pin memories, so the ring, the fiance and the shrine gate stay part of the story weeks later. YourCrush.AI supports story branches, so you can ask about the ring on the first evening in one branch and wait in another. YourCrush.AI also drafts the description, backstory and greeting from a name and an image, and the Anime library has characters other members built. Joining is free, signed-in members chat without a message cap, and the site is for adults 18 and over.
Frequently asked questions
Can I skip JJK 0?
You can follow Season 1 without it, but Yuta returns in chapter 137 and Geto's body drives Shibuya, so skipping it costs you context, in our view (Wikipedia, Yuta Okkotsu).
When did JJK 0 come out?
The manga ran in Jump GIGA from April to July 2017, and the film opened in Japan on December 24, 2021 and in the US on March 18, 2022 (Wikipedia, the JJK 0 film).
How much did the JJK 0 film make?
It grossed $191.1 million worldwide (Wikipedia, the JJK 0 film).
Who directed JJK 0?
Sunghoo Park, at MAPPA (Wikipedia, the JJK 0 film).
What did Geto say back to Gojo?
In the film he answers with a smile that hides his tears (CBR). The reply line widely quoted online could not be verified, so it is not quoted here.
Who voices Geto and Gojo in JJK 0?
Takahiro Sakurai voices Geto in Japanese and Lex Lang in English; Gojo is Yuichi Nakamura in Japanese and Kaiji Tang in English (Wikipedia, the JJK 0 film).
More from the JJK 0 story
- Previously: Why did Geto turn evil? The year that turned Gojo's best friend against the world
- Start here: What is Jujutsu Kaisen about? The whole story in order, starting with Season 1
- Chat with Suguru Geto: Suguru Geto on YourCrush.AI
- Chat with Gojo Satoru: Gojo Satoru on YourCrush.AI
- Also on YourCrush: Anime villains who work: what each one wants, and how to build your own
- Also on YourCrush: Anime AI chat: twelve canon adults sorted by how they talk, and how to build your own