⚠️VERY LONG!!!⚠️ My SatoSugu Argument (here from jujustufolk🙄)

I'll repost this here because while I'm fighting this battle on r/Jujutsufolk to get my post back up, at least some community will appreciate it. So in the meantime, here yall go:

INTRO:

There is a mountain of circumstantial, implied, and logic-based evidence for this ship being canon, and I will also provide supplementary Japanese culture lessons for nuances that went over many foreign viewers’ heads. All of these points have varying levels of credibility and weight ranging from small nitpicks to difficult to debunk details.

For anyone who would like a tldr, this post already IS the tldr of a 21 page google doc. I will link it in case you would like further elaboration on any point. But 21 pages is 21 pages, so good luck. For anyone wondering, this shortened tldr ended up being about 8 pages long, a lot of which caused by having way more frequent paragraphs. It is definitely a WAY shorter read.

Disclaimers (some copied from doc):

-I like emdashes. Ive used them for years :/ and I am very anti AI. No AI was used here
-I will be using Gojo/Satoru and Geto/Suguru interchangeably, as well as a few other character names/surnames occasionally the same way
-I know this ship has not been confirmed and likely never will, we will actually get into that
-I understand that art is supposed to be up for interpretation. I may present it as absolute but this is still only my personal argument for it
-I am not Japanese and still have a lot to learn about both the culture and the language, but my points regarding Japanese culture and words will be fairly well-researched and I have been studying both for several years now. Still, correct me if I am wrong
-I have watched JJK in almost exclusively the original japanese with subs and my manga references are in english. For the manga references, very few of these points will harp on language/translation differences. Most of my manga comparisons are scenes/shots visibly present or not between the manga/anime and have nothing to do with dialogue

If you would rather start with the whole thing so all the points actually have explanations, then read it here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nx1qGmYySoEj6MDWlAphbr0dZYCqBhHimmy7kpgQgzM/edit?tab=t.0

Otherwise, cross-reference the doc at your own leisure/want. If there is something I couldn't shorten into a small point, or context I felt was too long to add to an already longer point, I will add a note directing you to the doc for more elaboration with a bolded, enlarged, red matching number in the top left of the paragraph to help you find it. You don't have to read these notes, but they will greatly help your understanding. There will also be most of the sources I used in a comment below.

Argument Foundation:

Before we can get into things, there are some key points to first understand.

1. "Why does everything have to be gay?" It's not everything, and there is already less gay representation in media than is proportionate in real life. Queer friendships are also fundamentally different than straight friendships, and one of the most common experiences is having unrequited love for especially close friends--straight people not picking up on this doesnt mean its not happening. Plus, all of my points are more than enough for queer people to correctly identify queerness in real life.
2. I wouldnt push this^ point as much if not for JJK being explicitly NOT homophobic or transphobic. My best example, Kirara, is genuinely great trans representation. Gege understands that he doesnt have to confirm anything and hold people's hands when we have more than enough information to figure it out. Kirara also doesn't need to be labeled just to make certain fans more comfortable. This is a genuinely respectful way to handle a trans character.
3. JJK is not only not transphobic or homophobic, but seemingly has something for everyone. This includes but is not limited to: the character design (the men’s designs being particularly attractive to people attracted to men, likely inspired from Gege being a BL fan), actually well-written and rarely sexualized women in general, Todo HIMSELF accommodating verbally for gay people when asking the “what is your type” question, Gojo taunting Jogo by interlocking fingers with him, Hanami being built like an aggressively masculine man but still being female internally and referred to as such, an actually well-made PASSING trans character in a loving relationship (with her english VA being a trans woman), the fact that Kenjaku was doing that for so long that his scars healed, and more. Though the main appeal is for straight men, it would be foolish to dismiss this anime’s many queer and progressive aspects.

Now the actual details of the argument.

The general structure of things will go as follows: Geto's details in movie, Hidden Inventory, then Gojo's details in movie, Hidden Inventory, and Shibuya Incident, followed by some misc. points at the end.

GETO SUGURU

JJK 0

-I'll mention a lot of "changes made for the movie" made to increase intimacy between Gojo and Geto, these were approved by both the director and Gege and confirmed to have been made for that explicit purpose (source in comment).

-Gojo and Geto are not their given names (and this is fairly common knowledge). In Japan, you refer to somebody that you don’t know that well with their surnames (Gojo/Geto in this case) and somebody’s given name (Satoru/Suguru) is reserved for people closer to them, such as friends or family members. Gojo and Geto are the only two characters in the whole series that regularly refer to each other with their given names and this starts with the movie.

-A lot of prolonged silence and eye contact was added in the movie to seemingly add more tension between Gojo and Geto than was in the manga.

-Geto reads almost like a queercoded Disney villain with how theatrical he can be at times. This is a more personal interpretation than concrete fact though

-The climax takes place on Dec 24th, which is essentially Japanese Valentine's Day. Geto picked this date likely because the main theme of the movie is love, but scheduling things on the 24th is often seen as making date plans. He also makes the date while saying something to the effect of "let us curse each other with no restrictions," something that will take on a new meaning later into this post.

-After Gojo and Geto meet for the first time in 9 years, they both ruminate on their breakup while watching a sunset in almost identical poses. This was added for the movie and not in the original manga

-There's an odd scene where Geto tries to correct a woman about her own name to "Sato-san" as opposed to "Saito" and then says that he just, decided it was better. "Sato" of course sounds closer to "Satoru," Gojo's given name, and this is the only possible explanation for doing this. "Satou," though not said the same way, also means sugar, so there may be an intended pun in Gojo's name as he is a known sweets lover.

-There's a popular rumor that the VAs for Gojo and Geto were directed to call each others names like spouses, but I couldnt find a source. I did find something saying the director had them retake lines to be more intimate in general (source in comment)

HIDDEN INVENTORY

-This arc has a lot of physical touch between Gojo and Geto, some of which was added in the anime. Even in America this is seen as pretty intimate, and this is even moreso in Japan. One anime-adjusted scene even seems to imply the difference between acceptable touch vs unacceptable touch with Gojo and Geto as the "acceptable touch" reference (see doc 1)

-Suguru and Satoru not only use each others' given names, but also without honorifics. There is also more linguistic nuance to when these instances happen that further adds to their intimacy (see doc 2)

-When Haibara asks Suguru about bringing back a souvenir from his mission, he says to bring back something sweet in case Satoru might have some. Japanese souvenir culture is something lost on foreign viewers and this one sentence contains far more nuance than meets the eye (see doc 3)

-"What woman is your type?" is a psychological gauge of someone's character and the very reason it's a recurring question in the series. However, when Yuki asks Suguru, he does not answer, and she also asks without adding a gay option like Todo does. We are even reminded that he didn't answer long afterwards, as if the reason he didn't answer was important. This also happens just after the Haibara souvenir scene, when he is being thoughtful of Gojo.

-Episode 2 features an added scene of Suguru making english tea and adding sugar. It is somewhat uncommon for Japanese people to add sugar to black tea, and this scene seems to exist to show another connection between Geto and Gojo, since Gojo was seen adding sugar cubes to a drink only 2 episodes earlier.

-At this point, let's begin questioning why Gege would greenlight so many added scenes that focus on these two's intimacy and relationship. Though we have not yet covered all of it, this is already quite a lot of detail to consciously add into the movie and hidden inventory, including the jaw-dropping amount of characterization we get in the outro.

-Speaking of the outro, the song "Akari," for the part featured in the outro, is canonically from Geto's own perspective during Hidden Inventory. Many lines reference intimate wants like asking to see (likely Gojo's) "blushing face" or to have conversations about nothing important, but just to have them at all. The word love is also used, but it can range from platonic to romantic in this case.

-The intro for Hidden Inventory features a scene where Gojo and Geto are riding on a bicycle together. This is an extremely common, specifically romantic trope in anime and I struggle to see why else it was added if that is its known connotation. The only exceptions I can think of are not only few and far between, but nothing like how these two are riding the bike, which is more typical for the trope.

-The outro features a scene where, between Suguru and Satoru's hands, there are orange osmanthus flowers. Osmanthus flowers are known in Japan to often represent love, especially one's first love, and are frequently seen at weddings (source in comment).

-"They're just brothers/brotherly bond" argument doesn't seem to make sense. In an anime where this is brought up fairly often, it is strangely absent with these two specifically, despite them getting an entire arc to themselves as well as a prominent role in a movie about love. This lack of explicit brotherhood almost seems intentional to raise exactly these questions. I have also personally witnessed a best friendship where the straight one misinterpreted his relationship with the other as brotherhood while the other secretly had a crush. It seems that if you dont assume anything queer is going on, you're not going to consider it a possibility--even if you're wrong.

-(doesnt go anywhere so Im putting it here) There is a season 2 ep 17 scene where we see a flashback of Geto with the girls. I cannot explain why this is interesting in only a few sentences, so (see doc 4)

SMALL INTERMISSION

JJK is a story that, while not a perfectly thought out masterclass in writing, still has a great wealth of scenes, dialogue, and even singular shots, that are frequently followed up on, serve as foreshadowing, and more. JJK is not a lazy story and I genuinely believe that everything we have covered, and will, is not lazy either. If Sukuna tried eating popcorn and drinking soda in season 2 because he saw Yuji doing it for his training in season 1, then why would we dismiss the things in this list that clearly have more than that going on (or were ADDED to further emphasize things from the manga)? Writing off even half of these details genuinely seems naive.

But anyways, we have more ground to cover. If you thought the points with Geto were a little nitpicky or a stretch at times, the points for Gojo are… something else.

GOJO SATORU

JJK 0

-Here’s a question: Gojo could have easily hunted him down, right? Or he could have easily kept tabs or attempted to stop his friend, or something? But he didn’t. He let Suguru do WHATEVER HE WANTED for 9ish years?

-Gojo is able to tell that Geto is back, and even pinpoint where he was sitting, by smelling his residuals. Remember that this is after not seeing him for 9 years. And this was not in the original manga, it was added for the movie.

-We are given 2 different scenes of how Gojo and Geto separate, one of which during the movie. Each represents what really happened vs how Gojo remembers it. What Gojo remembers is also incredibly telling to his feelings about it (see doc 5)

-The parallel line of "love is the greatest curse" from Gojo, depending on the translation, suggests that he is speaking from experience. However, Gege has gone on record to say that Gojo has never dated anyone due to not being able to open up (source in comment), so this begs the question of what prior experience Gojo could possibly have for reference.

-This line is also immediately followed by the first appearance of Geto in the movie. If you know anything about movies, its that you shouldn't really waste time on details that don't matter (if nothing else, due to the amount of time the movie has to tell its story), so this is likely intentional. It is also a change from the manga.

-Unpacking all of the nuance in the final scene between Gojo and Geto would take too long to do here, so (see doc 6)

-The word "curse" in the movie seems to have a double meaning with the word "love" depending on the context. It is likely that this is also applies to Geto's earlier war declaration to Gojo of "let us curse each other freely," though Geto's final words seem somewhat exempt in order to imply something else.

-The censorship in this final scene is not only intentional, but directly parallels the censorship of Yuta and Rika's kiss not 5 minutes earlier. The fact that the only 2 moments of privacy for intimate moments in the movie are afforded to a canon couple and two "best friends" is certainly an eyebrow raise. (see doc 7)

-Gojo tells Yuta that his ID came from his only best friend, and with minimal information, Yuta is able to figure out who that was as indicated in season 3. If Yuta didn't need much to put this together, then why does the audience need it to do the same thing? Are we really being shown 2 significant departures from the main storyline just to understand that they were "best friends" and nothing more?

-This movie's main theme is the curse that comes with love. Gojo and Geto are the relationship instrumenting the underlying plot of the movie, as well being a confirmed parallel to Yuta and Rika (source in comment). So why exactly would they be exempt from the movie's own theme?

Are you starting to understand what I mean when I say it's hard to explain all of this platonically? But don't worry, we still have more.

HIDDEN INVENTORY

-Gojo tries to put his arm around Suguru during the outro of this arc. Though it could be him messing around, many queer people can attest to doing "joke romance" gestures when too afraid to actually make a move.

-The intro song of this arc, Ao no Sumika, is canonically from Gojo's perspective and feelings about Geto and the events in the arc. Gojo uses a comparison to describe how he felt trying to save Suguru with being as difficult as trying to communicate a silent love, and failing to do so. The word for love in this case is also exclusively for romantic love, and it is suspicious that he would think of this to help describe how he felt. (see doc 8)

-The outro points to more evidence of their bond by having a complete story arc about it. The bottom line is that the outro suggests that the only thing keeping Geto together was being with Satoru, despite the cracks already forming.

-They broke up in front of a KFC. The only connotation Im aware of KFC having in Japanese culture is, actually, its extreme popularity during Dec 24th (Japanese valentines day). This marks yet another typically romantic connection between the two and is something added for the anime not in the manga. Is is probably foreshadowing? Yes. Does that disprove this point? No.

-One of the major themes for Hidden Inventory is a japanese cultural association with youth known as "Blue Spring," something that cannot be quickly explained here, so (see doc 9). This will be important for understanding a later section, so if you read here, make sure to read the other as well.

-The soundtrack cover art for season 2 features Gojo, both during his youth and in the present day. Though the comparison between the two is already interesting, for the half showing his youth, you can see Suguru reflected in his glasses. Of all of the things to represent all of Hidden Inventory (and subsequent events in the Shibuya incident), that is quite a hauntingly beautiful one.

SHIBUYA INCIDENT

-Gojo was sealed because Kenjaku's plan was to flashbang him with his best friend. And it actually worked

-Kenjaku's plan, on the surface, seems far to risky to carry out with everything that we are told. As the audience, we have to assume that Kenjaku must be aware of something that makes this plan far more reliable than it seems. This will be elaborated on later, but this fact alone is worth mentioning

-Despite Kenjaku's nearly perfect imitation of Geto, Gojo is still able to figure out that he is an imposter, and quickly at that. And Kenjaku is amazed that he was able to do this at all. The way this scene happens also has a lot of intimate emotion (see doc 10)

-Understanding how Gojo was able to figure this out is its own mental gymnastics that eliminates everything other than, simply, how Kenjaku said Gojo's name, and notably, how he was not able to recreate the same warmth and love that Geto said it with.

-This appears to be supported by the Japanese dub, because this distinction is actually noticeable enough for the viewer to hear as well with careful listening (example here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTF9fDkXoTw&list=PLvw7MskibhPmkIbAF-mWakL_M2cu7fr1s&index=24). Combine this with the voice direction rumors and it adds up very convincingly

-The reason Kenjaku knew this plan would work is likely because, since the memories of the body are transferred to his brain, he would have known what Gojo said to Geto during that one moment. So, it is fair to assume that the real Geto would not have acted so nonchalant knowing whatever Gojo said to him in his final moments. Memories or not, Kenjaku could not recreate intimate behavior towards somebody he did not actually know. This is also the only other possible explanation for how Gojo figured it out.

-Once he understands that someone is puppeting Geto's body, we see Gojo become the most upset we have ever seen him in the entire series. The way he says that he knows in his soul that the one before him is an imposter is also made with a gut-wrenching delivery, no matter the language.

-There is yet more to understand about how Blue Spring continues to be directly relevant to this scene that cannot be quickly explained here, so (see doc 11)

-This scene also becomes both an example of and explanation for why we spent so much time seeing these two's relationship, as well as demonstrating how what happened between the two is STILL relevant to the story even now. Despite being the strongest modern sorcerer, Gojo's trauma regarding losing Geto two separate times has resulted in him being sealed away and his reaction in this scene is proof of just how deep their bond was (see doc 12)

-Suguru reviving from being dead for a year at so much as a suggestion from Satoru is really... something. We are told this is because the soul and the body are connected, so Suguru's leftover soul reacted to hearing his best friend saying "hey, wtf are you doing?". And this is yet another thing that thoroughly surprises Kenjaku (see doc 13)

Sorry about how many doc refs there are here, but I promise you are better off for actually reading them. There really is a lot of missing context for each of these.

-You Are My Special, while hilarious to reference with friends, is a very serious intro that's extremely dense with nuance, themes, and interpretation, all applicable to Gojo and Kenjaku and how they appear in it. So, sorry to do this again, but (see doc 14)

Anecdotes/Rhetorical Points

-Youre telling me, GOJO, is SINGLE???? Look, that already speaks for itself, but I have already talked about Gege's confirmation on why this is. Still, for more elaboration, (see doc 15)

-Surely there is an aspect of people not wanting Gojo, mr. aura farmer rizzler sex icon himself, to be gay in any way at all because being a gay powerscaler godlike figure is just too woke I guess and would make him less cool (aka, homophobic JJK fans). I know so many people would definitely be mad if he was ever confirmed to be gay, I can just feel it in my bones. Still, there are even better points in the doc, so (see doc 16)

-I have personally lived Gojo's experiences to a close enough degree for it to be genuinely relatable. Obviously, it is not 1 to 1, but I can attest to how the events unfolded and how he reacted to them being genuinely realistic. For more elaboration, (see doc 17). But be warned, this one is especially long.

-I don't really ship characters very often. But not only is there enough evidence here for this to be an exception to the rule, I have seen other ships, straight or not, defended on far less. Again, for more elaboration, (see doc 18).

-The only even somewhat useful counter to this ship I have ever seen is Gojo having his phone wallpaper be a female model and saying that she's hot. So, he’s bi then?? Genuinely this proves nothing, it’s not the smoking gun people act like it is.

-If we're not supposed to assume they're gay, then how exactly ARE we supposed to read all of this? Youre really telling me that the wedding flowers, bike trope, voice direction, censored movie scene, added anime scenes under Gege's direct influence, and way more, are all genuinely platonic? If not even one of the things above has managed to make you question this even a little bit, and if you can, with a straight face, say that you think there was absolutely nothing going on at any point, then there's nothing more I can do. Have fun platonically smelling your homie's alpha pheromones ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

My own personal verdict on what’s going on between them is that Gojo is bi, Geto is gay, and one or both of them had feelings that they never expressed before things were broken off. It personally reads to me like JJK 0 takes place after at least one of them realized what was really going on, now old enough to understand, but I think there’s a lot of other interpretations that still work within the evidence I have here.

If you really made it to the bottom, youre a real G. But I am not quite free yet, so everyone else who has something to say, it's your turn