#stsg meta

almost immediately, we see geto running through the rain. the stylistic choice to portray him holding his bag over his head is deliberate, because it emphasizes what he conspicuously doesn’t have but so clearly needs: an umbrella.

gojo, on the other hand, is not operating with the same sense of urgency, seen through him taking his time looking at a cat. gojo has what geto needs, but he's not rushing. their behaviour is incongruous; geto is hurrying to get out of the rain, and gojo remains still, because he’s absolutely not hurrying at all.

the sense of urgency is compounding, seen through geto bouncing his leg. he’s waiting impatiently in the rain, and he's not using his bag to cover up his head anymore. geto knows gojo is coming; that's why he's impatient— because he's waiting for someone who has what he needs that hasn’t shown up yet.

geto needs him, yet gojo doesn’t pick up the pace. this is despite the fact that he needs to because it’s raining and geto doesn’t have an umbrella. we, as the audience, feel geto's impatience and we're urging gojo on, yet he still doesn't go any faster.

sharing an umbrella is an established trope in japan. it’s widely recognized and practiced enough to have its own designated terminology.

gojo is bringing an umbrella for them to share. that's why it’s repeatedly reinforced to the audience that geto doesn't have one. that’s also why the shots cut between them; it highlights what gojo has that geto doesn’t, and in doing so, ties the narrative together through the umbrella.

by the time gojo finally shows up, the sun has come out. gojo lowers the umbrella and smiles sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. contrarily, geto almost seems resigned, like he’s accepted the fact that gojo took too long. they can’t share the umbrella anymore because they missed their chance to use it.

we can see that geto is saying something to gojo when he finally shows up with the umbrella. you know what i would bet actual money it probably was?

Hidden Inventory is Satoru’s memory of his high school days with Suguru, and what had all went wrong.

So why is Suguru the one narrating it??

“Things were busy that summer. Cursed spirits were springing up like maggots.”

“Satoru had become the strongest.”

“I hate monkeys. That’s the true feeling I chose.”

It was all Suguru’s thoughts. But it’s supposed to be Satoru’s perspective?

My theory—Satoru was remembering Suguru telling him his side of the story. At some point during the 10 years Suguru was a curse user, they met and talked. I just don’t believe with how close they were, Satoru never tried getting Suguru back multiple times. He could have found Suguru (because we all know how easy it is for him to sense him) and questioned him more. Suguru could have told him his point of view.

I wanna be your one and only / If something just ain't right, it will be because you left / I waited way too long to say a thing / Ghost of my past haunts my present / He said I′ll be gone before you know / look at my baby shining eyes / Been searching for a light to guide my soul tonight / The bridge between winter and summer seems like a bummer / I hope that I can catch up to you in the end / Say a thing or talk to me, but don′t try to convince me I should stay / Figured that I'd best be gone if I couldn't find a purpose with my ways / Swear I want to be alone until the day I die as of now / But who knows, maybe you and I will grow old in another life

It's not just the lyrics, it's the hazy, reverberating tones running through the whole album, imparting a dreamlike nostalgia where each moment of recollection bleeds into all the others in a saturated wash of emotion. It flows non-linearly between moments of hopeful infatuation, grief and heartbreak, longing for connection, blossoming affection, memorium for a deep love, and the descent into endless sorrow.

The ache of lost love permeates through every recollection of youthful optimism, and deep-seeded fondness is the unavoidable root of every bit of dulled regret. At moments, the barriers between the longing of the past and the loss of the present seem to blur together, and every unsure, hopeless emotion can be felt at once. It's an endless blue spring, three years of youth, and 10 years passed all at once.

Take a moment to listen through this short album (its runtime is just over 30 mins), and follow along with the condensed lyrics, and accompanying quotes for each song, under the cut.

We meet him after it’s happened in the first season of JJK. He’s flippant, has no regard for his own safety, and focuses mostly on protecting and nurturing his students. He’s selfless. And yes, it’s out of kindness and the trauma he experienced as a teenager, but I think it’s also because he simply has no reason to care about whether he lives or dies anymore. His goal was to teach the next generation to be strong and smart, to protect their youth.

He’d seen his future with Suguru. I feel like that’s relatable to us—when we’re young, we picture the people we care about most in our lives forever. Going to their weddings, raising our kids to be friends, etc.

It isn’t far-fetched to say Satoru also saw Suguru in his future, by his side. So when that was taken from him, when Suguru died and that became a complete impossibility, Satoru gave up on having a future on his own.

His whole life he was treated like either a weapon or a monster. He got used to it, but he was never allowed to just be a person. He was tired. The one person who understood him and protected his weak points was gone. He was alone.

He only made it a year without Suguru.

And when he went into that fight, I think he knew he was going to lose. He chose December 24th for a reason—to die the same day Suguru did. He knew he’d been on borrowed time.

He was finally able to go all-out in his fight against Sukuna.

So a few people have talked about how Satoru’s eyes are a place of vulnerability for him (the windows to the soul and whatnot), and one of the reasons why his eyes are always covered is so that everyone around him (and us, the audience) can’t see him in a vulnerable state.

Even when Kenjaku had him ensnared in the Prison Realm, there’s a frame where his eyes are strategically blocked. Same thing happened before he killed Suguru. His eyes were just out of frame. He was breaking on the inside and when he’s really vulnerable, the only one to see it is Suguru.

1. He only gets that way when Suguru is involved

2. He only feels comfortable enough to get that way when Suguru (or even just an echo of him, his body) is around

And I just realized rewatching that scene in Okinawa (S2, Ep3, 7:17 timestamp) when Suguru is telling Satoru about how he knows he hasn’t slept or rested his technique, and that it isn’t good for him, Suguru is meeting his eyes from the side. Not through the glasses. Genuinely looking straight into his eyes.

And just, the expression Satoru has on. It’s so vulnerable.

There’s something so poetic about the fact that the only person he ever lets see him in a vulnerable state is Suguru.

I don’t know how to word it, but I don’t think this is a conscious decision on his part. His walls just come down around Suguru—no, actually, they don’t apply to Suguru at all. He feels no need to defend his weak points against Suguru, because he knows Suguru can see them anyway.

But, in spirit of playing devil’s advocate, I have something else that works.

“I’m sorry.”

In Japanese, the way he would have said it for it to fit would have been a very informal way one uses with close friends/family/significant others.

ごめんね “gomenne”.

I watched the scene in the movie back and the lip movement matches so well.

It would work with the context of the light novel, and Suguru’s reaction too. Something that had never been said before, something that made him blush. Satoru never said “I’m sorry”. He would say “my bad” or “you’re not at fault”, but never “I’m sorry.” The weight of him saying that, of him taking the blame for everything that happened in Suguru’s final moments would cause Suguru to get flustered and feel self-conscious.

Oh god. Okay. In Season 2, Episode 3 during that beautiful piano compilation in Okinawa (timestamps 8:05-8:11 for exact reference), Satoru and Suguru are walking through a field of hydrangeas. I know how detailed MAPPA is with flower symbolism so I figured I should look into it. I have no clue if someone already did and said this but I just want to point this out.

According to Japanese legend, there is a story about an emperor who apologized to his beloved with hydrangeas for neglecting her by being so busy with work. As such, hydrangeas have an association with love, sincere emotion, regret, and apology.