Jujutsu Kaisen: Is Nobara Kugisaki Dead?

Nobara Kugisaki is the female protagonist of the Jujutsu Kaisen manga and anime series. Debuting in the very beginning, Nobara Kugisaki has become a fan-favorite character, and it was quite surprising for many fans to see that she might be dead. However, knowing Akutami, this wouldn’t be the strangest of scenarios, as many fan-favorite protagonists have or will end up dying in Jujutsu Kaisen. In this article, we will tell you what happened to Nobara Kugisaki during the Shibuya Incident Arc, how she got injured, and what happens to her in the series’ future.

What happened to Nobara Kugisaki in Jujutsu Kaisen?

At the beginning of the Shibuya Incident Arc, Nobara, along with Yuji and Megumi, encounters Satoru, who then sends them to see Utahime. Once with her, Utahime explains that they will interrogate one of the two agents they think is a traitor. Utahime also informs them that they suspect Kokichi Muta, Ultimate Mechamaru’s true identity, is the infiltrator and explains his ability.

They find he is not there once they reach where Kokichi is supposed to be. On October 31, Nobara is with Naobito Zenin and Maki at the Restaurant Avenue entrance of Shibuya Mark City Mall when they are briefed on the situation by Akari, who also tells them to stay back. Later, Nobara, Naobito, and Maki rescue civilians being attacked by transfigured humans inside the curtain surrounding Shibuya.

After the transfigured humans are neutralized, Akari tracks them down and again informs them of what happened. Maki then asks Nobara and Akari to go to where Kiyotaka is while she takes care of the rest of the altered humans. However, the two run into Haruta Shigemo. Nobara tells Akari to go hide while she takes care of Haruta.

The latter discovers where Akari is fleeing and pursues her while Nobara does the same. As Haruta manages to reach and injure Akari, Nobara tries to attack the flail master but is ultimately injured by him.

Haruta tells Nobara he can’t do anything against him as the latter tries to figure out her goal. As Haruta attacks Akari, Nobara tells him to stop, but Haruta taunts her. Nobara is about to attack him but notices that Kento Nanami has arrived. Nobara then watches Kento take care of Haruta easily. When Haruta tries to take down Kento from behind with his sword, Nobara uses his nails to pin the sword to the wall.

Once Haruta is defeated, Nobara sees Kento’s power. Afterward, Nobara and Akari listen to Kento explain that Kiyotaka is alive and that Satoru has been sealed. When he explains that he will join Naobito and Maki in saving Satoru, Nobara wants to join him, but Kento tells him she would only be annoyed. The latter then tells the two to stay here while he leaves.

Later, Nobara encounters a double of Mahito, and the two prepare to fight. Nobara remembers what Mahito is capable of and then throws several nails at him, but Mahito dodges them. Using a fallen nail, Nobara uses the Hairpin on the flail. Annoyed, Mahito gets Nobara’s Resonance, which acts directly on his soul, causing him heavy damage. As both the original body and Mahito’s duplicate are riddled with nails, leaving them bewildered, Mahito’s vulnerability allows Yuji to unleash a flurry of blows.

As he recovers, Mahito flees while Nobara pursues him. As the double meets the original, the two Mahitos cross paths, and the original touches Nobara’s face. Yuji smashes the second Mahito against the wall and runs to check Nobara’s status. Nobara then sees her life flash before her eyes and thinks back to her life in the countryside with Saori and Fumi. She then appears standing in a room filled with empty chairs, seats that she reserves for the people in her life.

When she looks around, Megumi, Yuji, Satoru, Panda, Toge, and Maki can be seen laughing together in their seats as the room fills with people. When she later notices Fumi in a dejected state, she recalls her earlier assurance to her that she, Fumi, and Saori would all reunite. She then expresses her regret to Fumi for breaking her word. She then turns to face Yuji in the present. She wants him to tell everyone it wasn’t that horrible while grinning. Mahito suddenly transforms Nobara’s left side of his face, breaking it and taking out her left eye in the process.

After the latter falls, Yuji is completely wiped out. Later, Arata Nitta, while helping Yuji and Aoi confront Mahito, reveals to the Tokyo student that he used his technique (Pain Killer) on Nobara and that since her injuries were recent, her chances of survival are not zero. However, he also tells Yuji not to get too hopeful about his comrade’s survival. Sometime after the Shibuya Incident Arc, Yuji asks Megumi how Nobara is doing, but Megumi doesn’t answer, leaving her condition unknown.

Sometime later, during the Culling Game event, Itadori and Megumi discussed their situation as they prepared for the next Culling Game event round. Itadori seems worried, and he explicitly says that he is not that comfortable working with Hana Kurusu and Angel, who have been assigned to them for the next round. But, aside from the obvious reasons that Itadori does not want to work with them, the protagonist of Jujutsu Kaisen also states that he is worried that by doing that, they are actually replacing Nobara.

Megumi immediately reacts, telling Itadori that he is stupid for even thinking that and that there is no way that they would ever replace Nobara, regardless of her condition. Megumi also told Itadori to apologize for even thinking it, which somewhat reassured Itadori, but it also confirmed that no one knew what was happening with Nobara.

How could Nobara Kugisaki be alive?

As was explained by Arata, Nobara’s chances of survival aren’t zero, but they’re also not that great. Namely, she has put herself in a better position due to her skills. By using her spell, she reduced the damage taken, and seeing how her injuries were new, her chances were certainly greater than one would think.

Yet, what caused concern is the fact that Megumi refused to tell Itadori how Nobara was doing after the Shibuya Incident Arc. Still, there is a possibility that it’s just a teaser to keep fans interested.

We honestly hope that Nobara is alive. We don’t know Akutami as an author that well to state that he would not kill off a protagonist this early in the story, but we assume he wouldn’t. Sure, practically everyone’s expandable aside from Itadori, but we do think that Nobara is more important to the author than some other characters and that we are going to see her again.

On top of that, there is the unwritten anime and manga rule that if you don’t see a character die, they are not dead. We did not see Nobara die, which probably means that she will return. We do not know when that is going to happen; it’s still too soon to tell, but based on what we know and how manga and anime usually function, we think that Nobara’s chances of survival are pretty decent and that we are going to see her back in action very soon.

With Chapter 210 stirring things up, we updated the article with our thoughts about Nobara’s survival chances. Namely, as we’ve said above, Itadori feared that they would replace Nobara for the Culling Game, interpreted as a pretty grim foreshadowing of her fate in the series. Still, Megumi brushed it off easily, meaning we’re back to square one as far as Nobara’s fate is concerned.

Namely, these events don’t really reveal much, and it is nothing grim like some people interpreted. It is a tease stating that the author has not forgotten about Nobara, and also probably a sign that her fate will be revealed sooner rather than later.

We still stand by our opinion that Nobara is probably going to make a comeback. Namely, Maki Zen’in has also experienced life-threatening injuries, and although she was heavily disfigured, she is still alive. Nobara’s injuries seem to be bigger, but it has been hinted that she has a chance, and knowing how such tropes usually work, we still don’t think this has any deeper or darker meaning, as some people suggested.

To us, this seems like an ordinary tease and a sign that Nobara will be talked about soon. Now, ultimately, Akutami might opt for something different in his series. However, we still don’t think that there is any innate logic that dictates Nobara’s death in Jujutsu Kaisen, so we’re still quite hopeful.

And while the recent happenings in the manga did not reveal much about Nobara and her future, Akutami’s writing has resulted in the storyline getting more and more chaotic (there is a running theory that Akutami wants to get it over with, so he just wants to finish the story quickly, disregarding the narrative logic), so it could very well happen that he simply kills Nobara off-screen or that he doesn’t even show her again, leaving her fate up in the air for good. We cannot predict anything Akutami does anymore, so we can only hope that Nobara’s fate will be addressed somehow.

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