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Todo is one of the strongest smartest and most controversial characters in Jujutsu Kaisen.
He has a ridiculously fast paced character arc and goes from brutal borderline berserker
to charming gentle giant in under 3 episodes. He has a self proclaimed IQ of 530.000; judges
people based on their type of woman; manages to creep Itadori out, which is a real feat;
And on top of all that, with Boogie Woogie, he one of the most fascinating powers in the
story. - In this video you will learn everything there is to know about Todo. How strong he
is. How smart he is. That his awesome voice actor is actually German; - I know! The hell?!
- And of course the hidden genius behind his philosophy and design as a character, that
make him one of the most loved characters by fans and one of the most disliked characters
in the story. This is the character analysis of Aoi Todo. -
Okay, let's get the elephant out of the room, as in let's talk about the elephant. Remember
how these guys are all supposed to be high schoolers? Well, Todo looks like a 28 year
old philosophy student f***d a truck-load of protein powder. ... now that I think about
it, that actually sums up his personality pretty perfectly as well. Huh.
In terms of power, Akutami introduces Todo as a realistic measuring stick for Itadori
and co. Someone who is a whole level or two above them all, but more in reach than the
walking and talking calamity that is Satoru Gojo. In fact, Todo is undoubtedly one of
the, if not THE strongest among the current students. And yes, Fushiguro doing a kamikaze
attack does not count. Despite being only a second year student, Todo is already a full-fledged
first grade sorcerer. Just so you have some comparison, that is the same grade as Nanami
or Yaga, who is a school director. As if this wasn't enough however, most of the time, Todo
doesn't even use his extraordinary cursed ability, but simply raw physical ability.
Not only does he have a ridiculous amount of brute strength, but is also surprisingly
agile. - When things turn dark however, which pretty much only means special grade kind
of bad, Todo unpacks his innate jujutsu ability: The Boogie Woogie, that allows him to switch
the positions of anything with cursed energy within his range with a clap of his hands.
He can change himself out with the location of another person, or switch two different
parties other than himself as well. -
Now, is this technique powerful? Obviously. But I want you to appreciate for a moment,
what an unusual match-up this power is for a hulk-like guy like Todo. Because once again,
here, as you know from my other videos, Akutami loves playing with expectations. Usually,
the trope of the beefcake character in Anime is kind of predictable. Either he is a lot
weaker and more stupid than all the weak looking people around him, or he gets a boring power,
like making his body harder than it already is... or a big weapon or something...basically
that's the guy who always goes down first. The idea being that we as the audience go:
Oh he looks strong, how will our skinny hero beat him. And then we are surprised how powerful
the small guy actually is. The trope was basically dead after David vs Goliath. But it keeps
coming back for some reason. Anyways, Todo flips that trop on its head
in the sense that he looks incredibly strong, and he is incredibly strong. And not only
that he also has an ability that requires him to basically play 4D chess with his opponent
all the time, trying to figure out if, what, when and where he is gonna switch. A buff
dude, who is actually buff and has an elegant ability that requires brains. Hey Anime industry,
Was it really so hard to come up with a character like this?
Because on top of his power, oh boy, Todo is a pretty sharp cookie. Not sure if he's
530.000 IQ points sharp, as he likes to claim, but he's definitely no dummy either. So let's
talk about Todo's big brain, and what exactly is going on in there, so that we can get two
as different sounding exclamations from him as this - nature, type - So, let's talk about
Todo's personality.
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Out of all the things to love about Todo, my favorite thing is probably the way he gets
introduced into the story. Basically Akutami hits us with the worst part of his personality
to paint this picture of a blood-hungry idiot, who judges people based on their taste of
women...which he does, but as you will see, surprisingly there is lot more behind this.
Anyways, so after basically beating Megumi into a pulp for having a decent view of women,
- We get a pretty rapid turnaround for his character. First we see him going against
the plan to assassinate Yuji, basically having as little respect for his classmates and teachers
as for Megumi. Still no reason to like him, but at least we get, that this man acts on
his own principals and isn't just a dick for the sake of it. And the we of course get his
interaction with Itadori. And oh boy, is it no surprise that these two click. - After
making up a fake flashback in his head, that has more plot development than most regular
anime do, Todo suddenly sees Itadori as his best friend and from then on mentors Yuji
and brings him to a completely different level in a number of minutes, suddenly turning him
into an absolute fan favorite. Oh and can we talk about the fact, that Todo got rejected
in his own fantasy AND chose Itadori over his love. What a true bro.
Now we don't really know if theses fake memories have something to do with Yui or wether they
simply are part of quirky personality, as I personally like to think. After all, in
his fight with Hanami, Todo has an entire imaginary tactical meeting with his favorite
pop idol in the blink of second. - So I think that crafting a made up back story for one
few people he can respect in the world, next to anyone who is stronger than him, in other
words special grades like Gojo, is very much in character for Todo. And I think this proves
how smart a cookie he actually is. After all you will find it hard to describe this creative
ability together with the ridiculously fast analytical information processing as anything
but intelligent. On top of all this Todo is an extremely smart and dexterous fighter when
he has to, unpacking his cursed technique to its fullest against Hanami, an enemy he
cannot beat with power alone.
However, this sort of intelligence, while without any doubt impressive, pales in comparison
to the part of Todo's character that I find truly impressive. His abs. I'm just kidding,
the truly impressive part about Todo is his philosophy and approach to the central moral
question of the story, that make him one of the most wise characters in the story. -
Todo's answer to 'what makes a good life worth living?' is basically existentialism. While
jus like Nanami or Mahito, he understands that life doesn't have meaning in itself and
that very much in the Buddhist way of thinking, everything is fleeting, Todo believes that
people are capable of making their own purpose and find a reason to love and embrace life.
His understanding of the natural world even gives him a better understanding of cursed
energy. And other than Mahito, who as I explained in my last video, wants to fully embrace his
nature, Todo gives Yuji agency, by telling him to accept being part of nature, while
still having his own will and swallowing his anger. Todo is someone who fights against
the natural order of things, for the sake of the love he feels for other people. He
even literally fights Hanami, who is an embodiment of nature. In fact, as ironic as it might
seem, - believe me I know - love is actually the big theme behind Todo's character. So
much so, that Akutami even draws his cursed energy as taking the form of little hearts.
Love in general is a very prominent theme in Jujutsu Kaisen, that often is contrasted
with the curses. -Junpei-
What appears as comical and over the top on the outside, when Todo suddenly treats Yuji
as if they had known each other since birth, is actually Todo embracing his friendship
and brotherly love for Yuji as one of the driving factors in his life. Just as his love
for Takada. Even though, they aren't even real, to Todo they are and they give him meaning
and happiness. Not by accident, but by choice.
And even his seemingly macho-like habit of judging people based on their type of partner,
gets twisted on his head, when we learn that he isn't just a superficial duche, but actually
inherited this quirk as well as his philosophy from the mysterious motorbike woman we meet.
What Todo actually does by asking the question, is figuring out whether or not people can
state their true feeling and know what they love. It's not that everyone needs to love
Jennifer Lawrence, it's that Yuji has no issues saying what he loves, while Megumi does. Though
I think you agree, that that doesn't mean you have to punch him into the ground. The
fact that not everyone is able to state what they love or even know what they love is something
todo has to learn to understand. His basic need as a character.
As a result Todo is written as a twist on the unwind trope that strong guys are always
stupid and for some reason weak, making him one of the strongest and wisest characters
in the story, while still being as bat shit crazy as all of them really are. He is one
of the central guides to Itadori's growth and without any doubt part of the relationships
that Yuji will someday have to discover as his true source of meaning and happiness in
life. In short, pretty much as most characters in Jujutsu Kaisen, Aoi Todo might as well
be the main character. Like Maki or Fushiguro, he's pretty much peak Shounen protagonist
material. And that's what makes him such a lovable character.
What better way to continue, than talk about Todo's major enemy in the story, both physically
and philosophically. -
Watch my analysis of Hanami, an absolutely fascinating character, by clicking right here.
Or check out my other Jujutsu Kaisen character analysis here. Thanks for watching. Peace.