I Can’t Stop Vibing to These Unapologetically Black Anime Edits

Last week was the season finale of Jujutsu Kaisen, a series I’ve thoroughly enjoyed ever since Yuji decided that the best part of waking up was a cursed finger in his mouth. There were a lot of spectacular moments in the finale, all of which I praised in my regular anime round-up, but as always, Satoru Gojo had to come in and steal the show with a single scene.

Yes, this man is attractive, with a level of sass that’s on par with his extremely overpowered jujutsu. To be Satoru Gojo is to fully embrace being an absolute troll with an inhuman amount of swagger. Gojo will go from making extremely valid points about the way of the jujutsu world, imparting wisdom on his students, to pissing everyone off—enemies, and especially friends. To associate with Satoru Gojo is to go from this:

via GIPHY

To this:

via GIPHY

In seconds.

Something about this particular screenshot, though, hit the fandom community real hard. Is it the sly smirk on his face? The little head tilt to the side? The fact that he knows he’s a pain in the ass and delights in how it annoys others?

Whatever it was, it inspired an INCREDIBLE fan edit:

Um.

Yes hi.

Hello.

The edit comes courtesy of blkitachi, who’s been doing edits like this since October 2018, “When I made a Naruto side blog on Tumblr,” they said when I reached out to ask about this fine ass Gojo who’d been all over my timeline. (They were kind enough to give us permission to feature their work here.) “Then I moved to Twitter and started editing other shows when I saw how much people liked my edits.”

Like is an understatement.

I was content with leaving it at that, but then I thought, “What happens if I click on their Twitter handle?” After all, they mentioned this starting with a Naruto blog.

What if.

There were more?

Any other fandoms? I wonder…

Oh, and here’s Gojo without the blindfold, so we can get a good look at those hypnotic eyes of his.

Listen.

That’s how he looks at you when he asks if he can stay the night because he got kicked out of his place. He stopped paying the rent, you see, because they forgot to send the bill in the mail. Now that you know the truth he’s gonna ask to stay for just a week. Tops. Until he’s back on his feet, you know? He’s got some places lined up and he’ll sleep on the couch. He’s got a job interview in the morning, too.

Oh yeah, he got fired. Oops.

Before you realize it, a week’s gone by, he’s got his toothbrush next to yours, and he’s moved from the couch to your bed.

All extremely accurate headcanons aside (Gojo’s a disaster man, you know he’s probably living with Nanami, right?) what I really love about blkitachi’s edits is the hair. I love the various skin shades of Black with each character, too, but seeing my favorite characters with hairstyles similar to my own is really cool. As a cosplayer who’s wondered if I should get a wig or use my own damn hair, seeing my faves like this is extra validation to just be a natural hair version of whatever character I want.

I also adore that the characters with wild hair colors keep those colors. Langa from SK8 the Infinity keeps his blue hair while Naruto’s Sakura keeps her pink. I remember growing up with this idea drilled in my head that all the vibrant colors I’d see on white girls wouldn’t work on me, that it was ghetto when a Black girl decided to play around with bold oranges or, well, any color that wasn’t her own, so to see these characters not default to natural colors and, instead, keep those anime greens and cloud colored whites is amazing.

You can check out blkitachi at the following links:

Twitter

Tumblr

Twitch

Ko-fi

For a pleasant melanin boost, I recommend just scrolling through their feed and looking at the edits AND the art/cosplay it’s inspired from others. You will not be disappointed.

(Image: blkitachi)

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Briana Lawrence

Briana (she/her - bisexual) is trying her best to cosplay as a responsible adult. Her writing tends to focus on the importance of representation, whether it’s through her multiple book series or the pieces she writes. After de-transforming from her magical girl state, she indulges in an ever-growing pile of manga, marathons too much anime, and dedicates an embarrassing amount of time to her Animal Crossing pumpkin patch (it's Halloween forever, deal with it Nook)

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