Jujutsu Kaisen 0 seemingly contradicts the fate of one character in the anime, but there's a good reason for how and why they're still around.

Warning: Contains spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen 0 and Jujutsu Kaisen volumes 11 and 17.

There’s one lingering question from Jujutsu Kaisen 0 that needs to be addressed: how is Geto still alive in the Jujutsu Kaisen anime? The movie heavily implies that Geto died in the end, yet the anime, which takes place a year after the movie, still has him as an antagonist. There’s an explanation for why that is, although it’s a little more complicated than it might initially appear.

At the end of Jujutsu Kaisen 0, Gojo confronts a heavily wounded Geto with a clear intent to kill him for everything he’s done, but the movie never actually shows Gojo killing him, so there’s a bit of ambiguity as to whether or not he truly died. The Jujutsu Kaisen anime, which takes place a year after the movie, has Geto as an antagonist, so at a glance, it would seem that Jujutsu Kaisen's Gojo spared Geto and let him escape because of their old friendship. As for his injuries, it’s possible to use curse energy to heal wounds and regrow limbs, so Geto could have found someone to do that for him, which could be why he looks the same in the anime, save for a scar across his head.

None of that is the case, however, as Gojo truly did kill Geto at the end of Jujutsu Kaisen 0 - something that’s explicitly confirmed in the manga in Jujutsu Kaisen chapter 90. As for how Geto is still around in the anime, it’s because it’s not actually Geto, but Kenjaku, an ancient sorcerer who’s survived into modern-day by implanting his brain into other peoples’ bodies, with Geto being his latest victim in the aftermath of Jujutsu Kaisen 0. Geto having his body taken over by someone is likely to be covered in Jujutsu Kaisen season 2, although the specifics of who’s controlling his body probably won’t be revealed until a hypothetical season 3.

Kenjaku is the true antagonist of Jujutsu Kaisen, with his goal being to evolve as many people as possible into powerful sorcerers and unite their consciousnesses into one; this is also a point of contrast to Geto, who sought to kill as many non-sorcerers as possible. Kenjaku has been taking over people’s bodies for centuries to realize his goals, including the ancestral Noritoshi Kamo, with Kenjaku then using his body to create the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings. Not only that, but in the aftermath of the Shibuya arc, it’s revealed that Kenjaku once possessed the body of Jujutsu Kaisen protagonist Yuji’s mom, possibly even giving birth to him, and with the manga implying that Kenjaku and Sukuna are working together, it could be that Yuji’s superhuman abilities are the result of Kenjaku trying to create the perfect vessel for Sukuna.

Kenjaku serves as a great antagonistic foil for Geto. While Geto saw humanity as something that needed to be eliminated, Kenjaku sees it as something that should be preserved, if only for the sake of his own goals, and while Kenjaku doesn’t appear to have any compassion for anyone, Geto, in spite of his actions, does care about other people, deep down. Kenjaku’s true goals and motives are currently unknown, but what little is known about him still helps make Jujutsu Kaisen a vastly different story from Jujutsu Kaisen 0, and with the manga set to end soon, those differences are likely to become even more apparent in the upcoming months.

More: Jujutsu Kaisen 0's Biggest Manga Differences Explained