Jujutsu Kaisen’s Most Controversial Moment Ruins Nobara Kugisaki

Gege Akutami’s manga Jujutsu Kaisen has one of the most in-depth power systems and worldbuilding in recent memory. However, the character development of the supporting cast of Jujutsu Kaisen leaves something to be desired, especially in the case of Nobara Kugisaki.

Nobara Kugisaki’s Creation in Jujutsu Kaisen

After Akutami’s Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School, a one-shot story, turned into Jujutsu Kaisen 0, a whole new set of characters was created. The series would begin its serialization as Jujutsu Kaisen, and instead of Yuta Okkotsu, the main character would be Yuji Itadori. With Yuji’s introduction as a first-year student at Jujutsu High (with the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 protagonists becoming second-year students), two classmates were introduced in the story to serve as the new trio of first-years alongside the new protagonist. Enter: Megumi Fushiguro and Nobara Kugisaki.

In most marketing for Jujutsu Kaisen, Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara were depicted as the central trio to the story of the manga and anime. The first season of the anime did a good job of depicting the group as essential to each other’s stories. Nobara and Megumi’s importance is especially evident in the season 1 finale of the anime. Nobara and Yuji engage in a tag-team battle against two special-grade cursed wombs, which puts Nobara’s abilities on par with Yuji’s as the beautifully animated sequence shows the two characters fighting perfectly in sync.

Moreover, Megumi got his own solo battle, with each fight highlighting the potential direction each character could go in the future of the story. The first season ended on a high note, with the promise and potential of the trio being shown as only beginning. Unfortunately, the Shibuya Incident would cause what I believe to be the most controversial moment of the series and put limitations on the story that undoubtedly shocked fans of Jujutsu Kaisen.

Nobara Kugisaki’s Death in Jujutsu Kaisen

The Shibuya Incident arc would arguably shift the tone of the entirety of Jujutsu Kaisen. The basic premise of curses and regrets is something that would seep into earlier arcs in the series, such as Yuji’s fight with Junpei and Mahito. It’s in these smaller stories that the severity and cruelty of Jujutsu Kaisen would briefly appear. However, it wasn’t until the Shibuya Incident that Akutami would accentuate the darkness. From Sukuna’s massacre in his battle with Mahoraga to the sealing of Satoru Gojo, pure chaos and hopelessness erupted on the side of Jujutsu Sorcerers and would only be accentuated by major character deaths.

Kento Nanami’s untimely demise would be the first of the more well-known characters to go, as his body is transfigured and essentially blown up by Mahito. However, Nanami had plenty of development at that point, and his power ceiling was set early on. The character had done all he could to serve the story, especially in regard to his relationship with Yuji Itadori. So, when his time did come, it was a tragic but powerful narrative device that is still brought up and pushed Yuji Itadori to grow as a sorcerer and a person.

Related: I Tried McDonald’s Jujutsu Kaisen Sauce, And It Made Me Enjoy a Shitty Corporate Gimmick

Nobara Kugisaki, on the other hand, feels like an unexpected gut punch done for shock value. More than that, Kugisaki’s sudden demise at the hands of the curse Mahito would be left feeling like an unresolved plot thread due to its needlessly ambiguous nature. The episodes and chapters themselves that give Nobara one last reflective moment before her demise are done beautifully. Unfortunately, it’s the moments that follow that undermine the death, as a character named Nitta uses their cursed technique to halt any further damage or pain that Nobara’s fatal injury caused.

Nobara Kugisaki’s Fate in Jujutsu Kaisen

Nitta’s vague explanation, along with Yuji’s sudden resolve thanks to this small glimmer of “hope,” suddenly gave fans of the series a reason to hold on to a character that would, unfortunately, be set aside for the next hundred chapters. Besides two brief mentions of the character in the Culling Games arc, Nobara would not be of any significance to the development of the story or the growth of her fellow first-year students. Unlike Nanami, whose death was accepted, Nobara would be left in a state of limbo in the hearts and minds of fans of Jujutsu Kaisen.

The moments after Nobara’s death are some of the most controversial in the series, with many fans debating whether or not the character will make her triumphant return. With the manga in its final arc and a recent art exhibition on the series all but confirming her death, some are left in disbelief that a character with as much potential for growth as Yuji and Megumi was so suddenly written out.

While there is always the slimmest of chances for the character to still return, it would be practically pointless, given the state of the characters and world. With Sukuna defeating Gojo and many other of the strongest sorcerers and Yuji rising to the occasion to show that he’s the exception against the King of Curses, there isn’t much room for Kugisaki to get her hundreds of chapters in lost development. While that controversial moment in Shibuya may have ruined Kugisaki’s potential, we can at least take solace in the first few story arcs that showed Gege Akutami’s talent for writing a strong female character, even if so briefly.