Episode 3 – Girl of Steel
I’m the one woman in your group
Jujutsu Kaisen, episode 3, Girl of Steel, introduces us to the third first-year, Nobara Kugisaki. She’s a brash, confident woman that’s occasionally silly. Nobara doesn’t take to Megumi or Yuji right away. Gojo takes the trio to an abandoned building to “test” Kugisaki’s ability. She and Yuji enter the build and split up. Alone Yuji is attacked by a curse and kills it with the cursed tool, Slaughter Demon. Gojo notes that Yuji is capable of fighting curses without fear. Jujutsu sorcerers often quit due to fear and disgust that curses cause them. Like Yuji, Nobara doesn’t appear to fear them. She casually tells the curse possessing the mannequin to “come out.”
The Girl of Steel
She exorcises it with her hammer and nails curse tools. Nobara notices a boy hiding behind several boxes. Suddenly, a curse appears and captures the boy using him as a hostage. Curses can be intelligent or as Gojo puts it “cunning.” This curse was too low level to be a physical threat, so it had to rely on threats to innocence. Jujutsu Kaisen is setting our expectations for future curses. If the weak curses have intelligence then so could the strong ones. It’s unlikely that they will get off as easily in future battles. Regardless, Yuji punches through the wall behind the curses. He cuts its arm off and rescues the little boy. Losing its leverage, the curse flees. However, Nobara uses a straw doll and her cursed tools to pierce the arm of the curse. The curse’s heart is then pierced by large nails.
Nobara’s backstory didn’t impact me but it was centered not on her childhood, but on her relationship with her neighbor Saori. I wonder if Saori will return in this series. If she does I don’t think it will end well for her. The relationship between Yuji and Nobara is typical for an anime with the bickering sibling dynamic. Jujutsu Kaisen episode 3 ends on an ominous note, several non-jujutsu sorcerers witness a “curse womb” and three first-years are sent to investigate. One dies. We are lead to believe three students are our trio but I think they might be different first years.
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