omg!!! the thing abt nanago is that it stands at the center of a lot of intersecting tropes i really love: tsundere x clingy yapper, person who looks cold but is actually warm and loving x guy who looks lackadaisical and chill but can be Monstrous when enraged, two fundamentally damaged and traumatized people who still choose to love and be loved anyway, #TeamParents to a group of wayward children, i could go on and on and on.

i also actually do enjoy the power differential between them, if only because it's a facet of their identities that makes their relationship more interesting. gojo's the strongest sorcerer but still thought of nanami as someone who could survive anything. nanami is Very Aware of gojo's status but then treats him like a person anyway. (and i don't wanna hear anything about nanami throwing gojo's power in his face when they were in high school, he was a freshly traumatized teen processing the death of his friend. he very obviously doesn't think that way by the main timeline of the story.)

it's a Fascinating interplay of belief and humanity; gojo has such Strong belief in nanami even though by everyone's metric, he's a weaker sorcerer than gojo. nanami looks at gojo and sees his humanity, first and foremost, in all of its annoying glory.

they're also just really funny together man like idk KLSHDFLKHSFD nanami cuts gojo down to size, gojo needles him anyway. and i think their more lighthearted dynamic belies the depth of trust, too. like i will never let anyone forget that gojo Followed nanami to hokkaido to talk to him about yuuji, and that gojo asking him to look after yuuji was a very Dangerous thing to ask for, for both him and nanami. gojo trusted him enough to do that, and nanami trusted gojo enough to accept.

i think it's also that gojo's naturally drawn towards people who have a lot of compassion. which really tracks since he's a guy who's been somewhat alienated all his life, reduced to a weapon or a pawn in some larger game of power. even as (and also directly because of the fact that he's) the strongest sorcerer and the head of his own clan, he's still extremely restricted and dehumanized.

nanami on the other hand is unencumbered in those ways. he hasn't the strong jujutsu lineage, was raised with a normal home life, and although he might be stoic, he has a deeply empathetic and caring nature. nanami Understands people and he Cares about them. and i think that gojo, whose upbringing was as unconventional, impersonal, and sheltered as could be, just can't help but be attracted to that energy. i mean, it would explain why nanami's there every single time gojo and the kids hang out (the promo materials/additional illustrations of them taking the 1st and 2nd years to the beach or to the store); gojo isn't a Great teacher and doesn't really know how to relate to/interact with people much (altho he's marginally better now as an adult), but nanami being there makes it easier to be an adult.

so yeah!!!! i just really REALLY like the people they turn into when they're around each other.