Gojo fans in and around New York City were in for a treat last week after a fan contest for Gojo lookalikes took place in Washington Square Arch on December 13, but not for long as the organizers ended up with a $250 fine. The organizer, Zander Small, who is a self-described “tall man” who makes “anime content and codes stuff,” spread the word on his social media channels in late November.
Zander’s TikTok and Instagram accounts have well over 500k followers each. He shared a poster with details on November 23, asking people to sign up so that the final headcount would be in. However, on the day of the event, things took a turn as over 25 Gojo lookalikes, followed by over 400 members of the audience, showed up.
Anime Corner reached out to Zander, who explained his original idea behind the contest “I was planning a Christmas trip to New York to see some of my friends, and we honestly were looking for some funny shenanigans to do. I saw that the YouTuber Anthpo recently did the Timothée Chalamet [lookalike contest], and I thought “Well, all of us have a decently sized fanbase, I wonder how many people we could get to show up to a Gojo lookalike contest.” I was expecting maybe 200 max, but we more than doubled that when 500 people showed up.”
As the gathering was not registered and due to the size of the crowd, the organizers ended up with a $250 fine issued by officers from the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation’s Parks Enforcement Patrol. To register events of this size, organizers need a permit and in order to get the permit, they also need business insurance, and as Zander explained, he doesn’t have a business. Still, things took a turn when he found out that the English dub cast trio offered to pay the fine.
Adam McArthur (Yuji) shared a video on his Instagram, in which him and Anne Yatco (Nobara) stated that the cast will be paying the fine, as a gift to the community. Kaiji Tang, who voices Gojo, is tagged in the video.
“One of my friends Maria is a friend of Adam’s, so they were texting about the lookalike contest. Adam said he was down to pay the fine in that video he made talking about the lookalike contest. My brother, who follows Adam, ran into my room and was like “CHECK ADAM’S TIKTOK,” and the rest is history,” says Zander.
Zander told us that the first anime he ever watched was Jujutsu Kaisen, in English dub, and that seeing them come together for something like this was truly a surreal experience. We asked if he’d consider organizing similar events in the future. “Honestly, if the community wants it, I’m down. The cast of JJK wanted to be at the contest from what I saw, so maybe there will be something down the line that involves the voice actors. We shall see.”
All photos courtesy of Zander Small.
Amended the article to specify the unit the fine was issued by.
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