I mean, by Yuji's own admission he's kind of an idiot. He even yells at Todo to stop kicking him in the face and says:
Edited by RebelFalcon on Jul 15th 2021 at 4:20:38 AM
Rodimus: Self-sacrifice, Magnus— It's cheap. It's a cheap way out. I need to live so I can make amends.So we may got the date for the return of the manga.
https://twitter.com/JujutsuKaisen/status/1415619687447154691
Chapter 153 back on August 2nd in issue 35 of Jump.
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."Well that was quick. Here's to hoping Gege is feeling better though. Their health takes priority.
Rodimus: Self-sacrifice, Magnus— It's cheap. It's a cheap way out. I need to live so I can make amends.I feel like Itadori's an idiot, but not an Idiot Hero. He has a very clear and concise justification for why he refuses to kill people when he's asked about it.
There is no war in Ba Sing Se.Going by the trope page and its examples Yuuji qualifies, though more that he’s Book Dumb and simple-minded as opposed to being as lacking in brains as Nobita from Doraemon.
Hmmmm. Itadori's listed as a downplayed example of the subtrope Stock Shōnen Hero. I think that's pretty accurate.
There is no war in Ba Sing Se.Idiot Hero says:
The Idiot Hero is a common character in action series. Often, they are both The Protagonist and the central character of the narrative. They will frequently use the Indy Ploy, will be too stupid to be afraid of imminent peril, and will often have a short memory span. Despite all of this, they are the most effective member of the cast at fighting. They will also usually be the leader of a tight-knit group of characters, despite the fact they don't have the brains to lead a cat out of a paper bag. This is because they are so stupid as to be incorruptible, and has the ability to maintain a childlike innocence and faith in people that inspires those around them.
So yea, i don't think Itadori qualifies for this. He may not be a genius, but he just seems of fairly average intelligence mostly.
Stock Shonen Hero says:
"Most franchises will start with a big-hearted, energetic Kid Hero. Intellectually, he's nothing to write home about, but this average simple-minded boy is actually a cunning genius when it comes to the Serious Business of choice. He's got a natural gift that blows others out of the water. On the rare occasion he loses, he'll train so hard that he catches up to and outsmarts masters of the craft one after the other."
Which isn't really Itadori in that he's not really that simple minded. Like, examples cited for this are Goku (doesn't understand many basic social conventions), Naruto (can't even do basic techniques), Natsu (book dumb) and Asta. Itadori doesn't really fit any of them.
A stock shonen hero is often so dumb that they don't even know basic things to make the audience feel good, but Itadori's good at sports, from what we know he's fine at school and he understands the nuance of Sorcery when taught. Just compare that to Naruto, who could only do these things through relentless inhuman training.
That's true, but the entry for Downplayed on the playing with page for Stock Shonen Hero describes a character with Idiot Hero tendencies that only come out during moments of stress. Itadori definitely qualifies for that. He comes up with most of his battle plans on the fly, and many of them (like switching out with Sukuna or charging in to save Junpei with the Power of Friendship) aren't particularly smart. I'd argue that his tendency to keep fighting when he's full of holes is also an Idiot Hero / Stock Shōnen Hero trait.
So I did mention earlier that Gojo was alright and upon talking things over with my GF, I realized I've never really seen a shounen where the absolute strongest person is a prominent protagonist. Yes yes there's All Might but from the outset he had his debilitating time limit and his reign ending was a foregone conclusion. So he's the absolute best but he's got a Superman weakness and is on borrowed time.
I don't know of anything like that with Gojo. The good guys just straight up have the absolute beastiest character in the series. That's kinda neat and different. If you have an OP power player like say Yamamoto from Bleach they're neutral at best as opposed to straight up heroes and they're also kept far away from the action. Gojo is benevolent and while he isn't omnipresent, he's around enough that his presence does diminish any need to fear these S Grade Curses and Geto. Not completely, poor Junpei really shows nobody is 100% safe, but I hope you get my meaning.
I'm intrigued to see where they can go with this alternative approach. Why I gotta tune in NEXT SEASON to see if Geto's plan works. I'm sure it won't which just further complicates the issue of Gojo being OP.
Edited by Nikkolas on Jul 18th 2021 at 12:45:18 PM
> I realized I've never really seen a shounen where the absolute strongest person is a prominent protagonist
I take it you mean an ally of the protagonist. Usually, if the strongest person is a good guy, they're the protagonist, but Gojo isn't.
Otherwise, you'd be talking about something like One Punch Man or Mob Psycho, but i doubt that's the comparison you wanted to make
I thought protagonist just meant anybody who was the hero of the story. Maki would be a protagonist although obviously not the main protagonist. Ron Weasley would be anotehr example.
Or to continue the comparison, Gojo is like if Dumbledore was always around and his power level was way higher than Voldemort's, instead of being roughly comparable.
Edited by Nikkolas on Jul 18th 2021 at 3:29:14 AM
Meliodas and Escanor in Seven Deadly Sins, kinda, though they preserve the sorting algorithm by having most of their power sealed by circumstance and their powerups being more about remembering or regaining their old power rather than strictly getting stronger.
Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

He's more trying to go along with the flow and being a generally nice and cheerful guy, but he's got a whole heap of repressed issues that keep mounting up.
Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.