Nobara Kugisaki
In the "Jujutsu Kaisen" anime adaptation, she is voiced by Asami Seto in Japanese and Anne Yatco in English. Her character has been widely praised by critics alongside other female characters in the series for being more layered and true to herself than other female "shōnen" characters. Concept and creation. Her name, Nobara, was meant by creator Gege Akutami to be "thorny", with the kanji characters for "No" and "Bara" meaning wild and rose while the character used to denote "Kugi" in her last name means nail or peg in order to demonstrate the two sides of her  personality being rebellious and refined. He came up with her name at the same time as he came up with her powers and abilities, as they come hand-in-hand with each other. Akutami found her dialogue to be the easiest to write of the three main characters, but struggled with her composure in action scenes. Akutami felt it interesting to give her the sharp desire to go to Tokyo contrasting against her grandmother's wish for her to be raised normally in her small hometown. Nobara was designed to be more true to herself than the other two protagonists , her authenticity on full display at multiple points in the series including during the Kyoto Goodwill Exchange event where she declares that she will only ever be herself and refuses to try to follow expectations from others. According to Akutami, she is best described by the songs "Seishun Kyosokyoku" by Sunny Day Service and "Ano Depaato" by Natsuko Nisshoku which contrast rock with heartfelt vocals and plucky piano playing to show her country upbringing and creativity. According to Anne Yatco, her English voice actress, "she is confident, sassy, and snarky—and I love all of it! I also really appreciate  that the dynamic between Nobara, Yuji, and Megumi isn’t affected by their gender. So, even though she’s “the girl” in the group, no one treats Nobara with kid gloves or thinks that she’s weaker than them." She also touched on Nobara's journey of self-discovery after leaving her home, saying that "I really came into my own as a person after l left home. I think Nobara wants to grow, not just as a sorcerer but also as a human being, and she outgrew her hometown long ago." Japanese voice actress Asami Seto struggled to voice  Nobara as her own personality contrasts heavily with Nobara's brashness, and had to consult and rehearse many times with the producers to get the personality down through her voice acting. Appearances. She first appears in "Chapter 3" of the manga after arriving in Tokyo by train. She is introduced to the other first-year sorcerers by Gojo, and aids Yuji in rescuing a child from a cursed spirit in an apartment complex. She is present during the "cursed womb" invasion of a detention facility, though is taken out early in battle after being separated from the others. After training  with the second-year students in preparation for the Exchange Event against Kyoto Jujutsu High, she becomes annoyed and emotional when Yuji reveals his survival to her and the others. During the fight, she pairs off against Kyoto students where she argues about her worth and how she ignores the rules set by society about being a woman sorcerer but is knocked out after being shot by a rubber bullet. Investing Cursed Wombs called "Death Paintings" with the other first-year students, she helps Yuji kill one of the attackers but realizes too late that they were not actually cursed  spirits but had a physical form, meaning they had human ancestry. She tells Yuji afterwards that she feels no regrets about having to kill others. In the "Shibuya Incident" arc, Nobara is one of many jujutsu sorcerers dispatched to stop the cursed spirits from waging their war against humans. She aids the other sorcerers in the battle and eventually comes across Mahito, a cursed spirit with the ability to reshape souls and fatally disfigure opponents. As she slips up and lets Mahito touch her, her life flashes before her eyes as she remembers her greatest regret of witnesses Saori, a  girl from Tokyo, be ostracized and forced to leave the city. In her final waking moments, she blasts open her face using sorcery to counter the effects of Mahito's transfiguration, losing her eye and putting her on the brink between life and death. Powers and abilities. Nobara possess high pain tolerance, tactical intellect, and a careful understanding of jujutsu arts. She has performed a Cursed Energy Manipulation – Black Flash which creates a spatial distortion when the user comes into contact with the impact of cursed energy in a 0.000001 second window of a physical attack. Her innate technique is  the Straw Doll Technique and Resonance, allowing her to use a straw doll to attack her opponent from a distance by hitting a nail with a cursed energy imbued hammer, such that curses feel whatever she inflicts onto the straw doll. Reception. Ana Diaz of "Polygon" praised Nobara's inclusion in "Jujutsu Kaisen" and the series' portrayal of women as a whole. She called a scene where Nobara calling out society's standards on gender roles "poigant" and "stunning", adding that "the scene has staying power, because Jujutsu Kaisen goes a step further than avoiding gender tropes...It’s not  like there’s any right way for these young women to deal with the unique pressures they face. The story lets them disagree, and fight for their perspectives and their place." Komla Kwao praised the way Nobara's depiction was more than just a " clichéd, high school 'mean girl' who’s obsessed with her physical appearance and incapable of empathy" and how she and fellow sorcerer Maki Zenin "wholeheartedly embraced each other at first glance with no forced rivalry between them just because they’re both women." Theo J Ellis of "AnimeMotivation" said of Nobara: "She's undeniably independent, is  an individual, and is NEVER reduced to a girl needing help from the knight in shining armor." Barrett Edwards Smith of "Game Rant" highlighted the way how "despite her aggressive personality, Nobara still embraces her femininity" and how she is more complex than being "traditionally female or not." Other praise was focused on how Nobara is "loud, aggressive, and always speaks her mind. However, she is more complex than being a mere badass fighter." James Beckett from Anime News Network listed her as his favorite anime character from 2021 due to her aggressive personality and how she stands out in  the story.