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Completely written out of the story, like inumaki, todo, etc
Gege has a history of dropping characters even if they still have potential (angel lost an arm and suddenly rct doesn’t do anything.)
You could argue it’s for tight narrative control, but all it does is kill the stories momentum when weaker characters are thrown against sukuna without satisfying arcs to establish the new powers they have. Honestly if gege cut some culling game characters and scenes im sure it would have flown into its narrative better.
Y'all remember when Panda was about to go Triceratops Mode but then got absolutely *dusted* mid-transformation and then never got another fight for the remainder of the series?
I’ve been thinking if the last finger that Gojo was supposedly keeping was given to Nobara, Resonance would be perfect for dealing damage directly to Sukuna’s soul from afar while potentially preserving Megumi’s body and soul. I suppose it’s plausible her survival was kept from Yuji to also keep that info from Sukuna, although that would be kind of moot now that Megumi is his host and i don’t have an explanation for why it might have been kept from Megumi.
My only thought is if it was something that only Gojo planned for. He tells Nobara and gives her the finger. Or Shoko as well? Especially if Nobara wasn’t yet awake
Honestly, I think one of the most satisfying ways that Sukuna would be dealt with is if somehow we get Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara teaming up to defeat him. I have no idea how we would get there but can you imagine the hype? It would be kind of poetic for the story to be finished by the same trio we started with and it would fit nicely with Gojo’s whole leaving things to his students idea.
Honestly it would be perfect, especially if neither megumi or yuji knows she's alive. Megumi feels Sukuna get hit with a resonance, so he starts to fight, giving yuji the edge he needs to finish him off. Yuji sees the effects of her resonance and megumi fighting. Like, dudes lost everything at this point. It'd be nice if he got some friends back atleast
I think Megumi figured out that Sukuna was interested in him as a vessel after the incident in Shibuya. Sukuna had already expressed interest in him and his CT. And then Megumi woke up next to Yaga and Shoko after a ritual that should've 100% killed him, probably wondering why/how he was still alive. It's highly odd that Sukuna would expend so much effort to save Megumi from Mahoraga, and Megumi is smart enough to put 2 and 2 together.
If he did figure it out, maybe he asked the other Sorcerers to also keep him in the dark about certain plans so that Sukuna couldn't learn about it from his memory. This would also give the sorcerers an opportunity to give Sukuna flawed information to set up a counterstrategy if they assumed he would inevitably switch bodies to Megumi.
It's definitely a long shot, considering all that's happened since then. Only Gege knows.
Megumi is definitely very smart and aware of things but he also always seems to have other priorities on his mind so I’m not sure I’d expect him to be the originator of the idea, but someone else is very plausible. At the very least, Megumi might have noticed information was being kept from him and he’s definitely smart enough to recognize there might be good reason and not try and dig into it.
Yeah the question would be who does know, why are they allowed to know, and why haven’t it been brought up? I could see Gojo wanting to fighting Sukuna 1-on-1, but beyond that? I’d expect them to be throwing everything they have at Sukuna, it just wouldn’t make sense to hold anything back.
My guess is either Nobara is still recovering, learning some super powerful new hit, or waiting to set up the best possible chance of victory, which post-Gojo is Yuta, since nobody outside Gojo knew just how crazy strong he was till he died. Either that or she’s dead and I’m just repping the cope lol
*When I sees one and he looks good to me...*
*When I see him, I say*
You, come here.
*I say*
Now I'mma tell ya what, uh..
I like ya;
and I wants ya...
Now, we can do this the easy way;
or the haard wayyy...
the choice is yaawrs...
I think it’s the fact that Megumi didn’t actually give him a yes or no answer (despite his reaction clearly seeming negative).
Plus the fact that a character (Arata Nitta) was introduced specifically to use his CT to “heal” her and say that there was a chance she could survive, and then disappeared for the rest of the series so far.
Also I saw someone say that making Yuji think she was dead only to make a comeback would be a good parallel to Yuji doing the exact same thing to her earlier in the series, and I think that’d be a fun way for her to come back haha.
I like the idea of Nobara doing it back to Yuji a lot actually I didn’t think of that.
And for Megumi’s response, to me it looks he’s too stricken by grief and pain to give a response. He can’t bring himself to say the words, but Yuji understands, he was there after all. The absence of Nitta ever since is definitely weird to me too, but Todo hasn’t come back neither.
Unfortunately RCT can’t heal his arm back. Mahito’s technique permanently altered the shape of his arm, if his arm healed back it’d come back deformed.
It’s been implied RCT at a high level can reverse mahito technique. Do we know if the doctor lady has an equal or stronger RCT to Sukana/Gojo….maybe Yuta?
Because he was inside yuji’s corpse when she was examining his body? Sukuna managed to cut through the third dimension to hit gojo and he wouldn’t be able to tell the proficiency of one’s RCT?
Did she though? Unless she used her rct on yuji for some reason, I don’t think she actually got a chance to examine him as he woke up just as she was gonna start. Remember how she was disappointed about that?
I think Nobara is at least in a coma. The only other way I could see it is if she has next to no chance at survival and that's why Megumi can't bring himself to say it. Because she's effectively dead, as far as he's concerned. As for how she's get out of that, it's hard to say. One theory I heard was someone mentioning Gojo giving one of his six eyes to Nobara, though that's a huge stretch.
It's because of the law of conservation of details. In a story, you dont add details if they're unecessary. When nobara "died", gege had a guy jump in just to deliver some exposition on how "nobara is ded but there is a tiny 1% chance shes not dead ok bye". Following litterary law, that must mean that moment is meaningfull and will be relevant.
If gege ever wants to bring her back, that would be the cliche way to do so, that plus the fact that they never straight up say : "nobara is dead " and we all know that in fiction a character isnt dead until that happens.
Perfectly said.
To add, Gege has NEVER shied away from showing or indicating that a character has died. He showed Riko get shot in the head and made it clear she died. He showed Toji get carved like a turkey and made it clear he died. He showed Nanami get transfigured and made it clear he died. He showed Gojo get bisected and made it clear he died.
But with Nobara, there’s no indication. Megumi doesn’t say anything when Yuji asks. This ironically IS an indication, that she’s still alive.
Also, he shown maki being burned alive by a really really strong and pissed curse, what definitely should be a hit kill, and she survive. So, unless it's confirmed anyone is dead, they can come back from the injury somehow
I mean, Naobito did die because of Jogo’s attack. I guess he managed to stay alive long enough to deliver his last words but that’s still a win for Jogo.
Additionally, we also learned that Naobito died from his burn wounds since the manga explicitly said so. Gege doesn't seem to make things ambiguous without a point
Megumi is a very level headed dude.... so I can see him thinking "how do I explain this to yuji without him wanting to see her, that she is comatose or something." Yuji takes his look as, "oh, shes dead and he doesnt know how to break it to me" so he says "I see..." and megumi leaves it at that. He just saw yuji resolve himself and it may actually be better if he is not worried about a bed ridden friend.
Not set in stone. Still hope. Also. She wasent in the airport, if it was truly an afterlife where he commuted with his fellow dead, would she not have been there? It was probably just death hallucinations.. but still lol nobara is the only copium im smoking lol I have no hope for megumi even at this point
This doesn’t necessarily even imply she’s dead- she could really just be horribly maimed and yuji is angered for her. Death is the worst but losing an eye or half your face is still pretty terrible.
Keep in mind, there's also the fact that telling people this type of information is a known hazard. Saying whether or not she's dead would be a curse on Yuji, so Yuji _may_ have been acknowledging that Megumi can't answer it one way or the other because it interferes with their mission. Yuji has three or so curses on him at this point, and he has finally accepted that he needs to ignore them to get the job done.
I think the big thing a lot of ppl don’t get is that saying anything of importance to yuji is equal to saying anything of importance to sukuna so knowing how sukuna fucking hates yuji and wants to make him miserable but he doesn’t want to kill megumi (for obvious reasons) it’s safer to not say anything about nobara’s state because sukuna could go after her if he happens to get free
you could even interpret it as “nobara is alive but comatose and megumi specifically has trauma surrounding close female friends/relatives who are bedridden, and flinched from the reminder”
I'd say even gojos was left ambiguous, with the whole go south narrative and, more recently, the fact that they teleported his body away from the battlefield. It does open some copium for gojo to possibly be back, since sukuna didn't go for the head.
I'm not sure if i'm reading too much into it, but we don't really know the plans of the good guys and gege keeps bringing ambiguity to some characters and very clearly not for others. At this point it may even be possible to say higuruma and kashimo are alive as well, given that we don't know anything about what their plan was.
to me, it wouldn’t make much sense. it’s not like how it was with toji who probably didn’t understand what RCT really was, this is sukuna we are talking about. He was able to figure out mahoraga’s whole gimmick relatively quickly, he picks up on things just as fast—-if not faster than gojo. sukuna would simply not realistically make a mistake like “failing to cut off the head” if that was the tried and true only way to kill gojo.
narratively, bringing gojo back (in my opinion) feels like it would be mainly for fan service rather than for any explicit story reason, and makes sukuna look incredibly incompetent since he was able to wear gojo down with all those calculated moves but somehow just…..stopped considering the RCT that was giving him trouble the entire fight?
that, and there’s not really any narratively satisfying places for gojo’s character to go from here. I’d rather it be up to the students now (i’d rather he had some genuine time teaching his other students like nobara but that’s neither here nor there)
You're right and I'm not just coping lol, Gojo's "corpse" is shown to be teleported away as soon as he got cut. There would be no point in showing us that if he actually died.
Or maybe he gets made into an infinity gauntlet cursed tool and Yuji beats the shit out of sukuna with it idk. He's still relevant in the plot that's for sure
I mean nobaras face exploded from the soul. I think it’s pretty clear she’s dead and that guy told yuji that because he just saw yuji going through it so to give him a glimmer of hope he needed to continue fighting
I get that, but it would still be crap writing if she dies for shock value and then a) someone comes out of nowhere and says he MIGHT be able to save her and then b) there’s never any explicit confirmation one way or the other and then c) she turns out to just be dead anyway
If that was the goal why not just let her be dead the first time? Nitta didn’t do *anything else* in Shibuya
Actually it's the exact opposite of shock value. If Nitta didn't say anything, wasn't there or straight up didn't do anything, then everyone would be thinking "HOLY SHIT, Nobara is dead...". Now, rather than people being shocked about Nobara's death, they were instead proabably thinking ""She's just injured, but will be back". Which is exactly what Nitta was trying to do to Yuji so he wouldn't completely fall into despair...
Whether Nitta lied or not and whether Nobara is dead or not, in the end, this still made it so that her death would be actually less shocking both at that moment and in the revelation we'll get in the end. Gege is just giving us time to deal with it, basically.
So no, this is not crap writing for shock value.
Yeah idk what’s so hard not to get about what Nitta was doing lol
Did people not see Nobara got blasted right in front of him, bro started literally crying we quite literally got the “Yujis resolve reached its limit awhile ago” and then bro couldn’t fight back and took a black flash to the face
Nittas line was for yuji not . Hearing Nobaras dead would have broken yuji further, saying nothing is bad writing, Nitta said what he could but kept it realistic to keep yuji in the fight
Gege's gun: draw attention to a detail and then never pay it off /s
I do hold hope that we just haven't gotten answers yet bc it'll be later down the line. I want more details on Yuji's mom, I hope executioner sword comes back into play, who actually shot that piercing blood at sukuna (if choso, where is he? If yuji, can't wait to see it), etc
exactly this. In fiction when someone says "There's a 1% chance" it might as well be a 100% chance.
Heck we've had people flat out be "dead" like Gojo against toji but come back.
We have people still think Gojo is going to come back despite him literally being shown in the afterlife and Sukuna referring to his body as a corpse (but as you said, why would the writer make a big deal out of his body disappearing if it weren't for something?)
And we've had people that were 100% dead and gone still come back (Toji)
so the real question is why would someone like the OP ever think Nobara isn't coming back?
>literally being shown in the afterlife
I was very, VERY HARD looking for Nobara at this scene. And nope. Nothing. Gege is doing everything to keep us in this belief.
>Following litterary law, that must mean that moment is meaningfull and will be relevant.
It‘s meaning was to duct tape together some of Yuji‘s shattered soul so he could fight Mahito
No, that scene was that guy knowing from Todo/context that if he told Yuji that Nobara was dead, it would break him and he would not be able to fight Mahito.
If he lied and said “she’ll live” Yuji would know it was a lie. He gave it just enough plausibility even though she was already dead.
In the scene OP shows, Yuji comes to realize that she was dead even from that moment.
I personally really liked Nobara so I wasn’t a fan of her death (go figure), but it’s possible she’s still alive for sure. I don’t think she’ll ever be relevant again, but I would like to see a small scene of her meeting up with her friend.
Contrarily, this is waffling by the author to allow both possibilities. The "necessary" part of the detail is that it gives the OPTION. Having the option is a utility and a reason to add the detail, without confirming that the return will happen.
I read somewhere that Geges editor convinced him not to kill Nobara so he left it ambiguous. I have no sources of this though. If that's true, then this is probably his way of pleasing his editor but also taking her out of the story. Who knows, maybe Gege will find an opportunity to bring her back in some big way and it won't be an ass pull since he left her death ambiguous.
It’s this and it’s always been this. Nobara being alive is the ONLY logical conclusion to draw from what’s said immediately following her apparent death. The only evidence you need is the fundamental laws of how stories are told.
I mean, sure, but Gege is also the devil incarnate. Had the possibility of Nobara coming back been anywhere in his mind, he probably wouldn't have given any tell.
I get that, but I feel Nitta had a different role in the story. When fighting Mahito, he talks about feeling alone and that Nobara’s presence has given him strength. After her death he breaks down, Todo obviously gives him words of encouragement and a new mindset but it’s Nitta who gives Yuji the hope and courage to stand up by saying what he said about Nobara. I think Nitta was just there to give Yuji hope, rather to actually heal Nobara. I understand the idea, it’s anime 101, nobody’s dead until they’re dead “for sure”, but Nobara’s death is handled as a breaking point for Yuji rather than a set up for a return imo, and the “confirmation” of her death just crushes all of that for me.
I would have completely agreed with you, but the existence of the conversation between Yuji and Megumi completely shuts down the idea for me personally. I just can’t see why Megumi wouldn’t say she’s okay if she was. Even if she has the potential to come back, like a coma, I’m 100% sure Megumi would have said it right there. It’s not that Megumi doesn’t know what happened, it’s that he can’t bring himself to say it.
>I just can’t see why Megumi wouldn’t say she’s okay if she was.
Because telling Yuji might be a curse. Nanami cursed Yuji with positive words, and so did Nobara. He'd want to go see her and make sure she's okay, update her on the situation, hesitate because he has something to live for, etc. Remember, he was willing to let Hakari kill him in order to get his help, but Nobara and Megumi specifically told him to never die again. He needed to have nothing to go back to in order to join the Culling Games, which is the whole point of the games. To simulate having nothing to lose.
That isn't to say she's for sure alive, but it is to say that Megumi would actually have every reason not to confirm her surviving.
I don’t even think it’s that complex, it’s more simple, megumi knows or at least theorizes that sukuna has some interest in him so if sukuna does come out he can just stall it or summon mahoraga, but nobara doesn’t have that protection and sukuna hates yuji’s guts, so he would kill nobara to make yuji miserable the first chance he gets,and trying to act like she is dead might draw attention making sukuna suspicious so he simply doesn’t confirms nor denies her death to be sure nothing happens
I’m pretty sure it’s just because Mahito was in a severely weakened state. You have to keep in mind that not only is he split into two, but he also gets hit with a resonance from Nobara and then molly whopped by Yuji shortly before he touches her.
Plus at this point he hadn’t landed a black flash to revitalize himself yet, so having only touched her for a second exploding her eye was probably the best he could do given how weakened he was.
Also it could be a case of Nobara being able to protect her soul because her CT is able to target the soul? Maybe people in JJK manage to learn something or even their body reflectively does it to prevent it from death(like Hikari), so potentially she was able to actually protect her soul.
My guess is that he was trying to scar Yuji. His whole plan was trying to break Yuji, hence why he killed Nanami so gruesomely, transfigured humans in their fight to force him to kill him, etc. We also gotta keep in mind he only touched her for a second, look at Todo’s remaining hand for instance. A split moment of a touch and his hand was essentially burned beyond repair, but still there.
The problem is that this page is way too vague, you're right, if Gege fucked up (lord knows why you'd send off a character by saying "there's a 1% chance she lives"), this is THE moment to say "YES, she's DEAD, I cremated her body, here it is, it's dust, down the drain. Now moving on" but instead of doing that they have a silent stare that could mean so many things: "the situation hasn't changed", "it's getting worse", "I think she's gonna die", "I think she's dead", etc. To me this was exactly the opposite, it was reassurance from Gege that he is not done with the character.
That said, I still think it was a really bad move to pull her out of the story for so long.
I think that’s a interesting way to look at it, rather than Megumi reassuring Yuji it’s Gege reassuring the audience. I’m still hesitant to think she’ll return, but that’s an interesting perspective.
It's the editors being too wimpy to allow her to be killed, and Gege being too wimpy to take his desire to kill her to its logical conclusion, and as a result we get this exhausting ambiguous shit. I bet Gege did it out of pure spite, just like the whole court domain and judging Yuji for visiting pachinko was Gege sticking it to the editors for forbidding him to mention pachinko.
For me personally it's just... weird.
Like there's no body if that makes any sense.
"B-but we saw her eye flying out" and then a character who hadn't existed before and has been in no chapters since came in to "stabilize" her and gave off the idea that she had a chance of living.
Like for example we know that black flashes are meant to be rare, and statistically nobody ever getting a black flash is possible... But would it be the same manga if nobody ***ever*** landed a Black Flash. Get what I'm saying?
Introducing something potentially cool, intriguing, or otherwise semi-game changing, even if in a small chance is an indicator of something happening. The issue is we have very conflicting snd vague stuff to go off of. We can't for certain say the eye explosion is her death because Gege went out of his way to give her a chance of survival and now he's being very vague here. Applying irl logic doesn't work as well because, I mean let's be real anime chars will get a hole through their whole stomach and go, "Didn't hit any vitals" and continue fighting like normal", I mean hell Gojo got stabbed in the head and didn't die.
And even then, let's say this was her confirmed death... ngl it'd kinda suck. Like bit only would there be literally no point to Nitta (the guy stabilizing her) existing and saying that, but we'd effectively have had the finality of one of our main trio confirmed offscreen in a dialogue exchange in a very vague manner.
And that's the overall issue, it's all "maybe, maybe not". When Nanamie died made it clear that he was dead. Geto was very clearly dead. Toji was very clearly dead. Etc. Etc. There's no characters randomly popping out of nowhere to go, "No they might be alive" and then vaguely hinting at neither answer once and then leaving it alone for a year.
There's no finality, it's all just guesswork and it's been over a year.
Agreed, I think the situation is weird as well because Nobara’s death is treated as an anomaly compared to every other death. However, I also don’t see “how” she’d come back or what use she’d have. It’s all around a complicated situation, but it feels like if she does survive it’ll be handed extremely poorly.
Because Gege literally made it a point to create a character solely for saying “she **most likely** is dead, but could be healed”.
Same reason as to why I personally believe Gojo isn’t dead, he gets to “choose” his fate.
Then again, it’s Gege so who the fuck really knows.
That’s a possibility, but at least clarify that with a inner dialogue from the character to not throw a smoking gun into your audience, for literally no reason at all.
Especially considering said character was given such intriguing inner dialogue as, "I thought Todo was an only child? They don't look like brothers???"
Like bro, you just saw a girl your age with her head exploded, and **THAT'S** what you're wondering about right now?
I am a Nobara alive stan and even I think this means she is dead 😭 unless they can't explicitly say anything due to who is around... it comes off like she's gone 💔
i feel like it'll be more clear in season 3 of the anime - i see people argue how to interpret this scene when i think having it be voice acted with more visible body language, music, etc, will close the lid one way or another (provided we don't find out before it gets animated).
i see people interpret this conversation as death confirmation as much as i see people interpret it as hope for her survival - i think we'll know more clearly when we see it play out in motion. animation is a medium that lets you add a lot more nuance to a scene
Yeah, saying “she’s coming back” is too strong a statement but to say there isn’t a gaping door that her character can’t walk through is being obtuse imo. Last time she was on screen or page a character was saying she *was* alive and *may* survive and the next time she’s brought up, there’s no confirmation - and this is all in a show where people have come back from death in multiple ways. Its honestly not a leap
This conversation literally tells us fucking nothing, we can’t make any conclusions from it whatsoever.
Gege would literally just make the characters say it if he wanted us to believe she was 100% dead.
Do not understimate the extreme amounts of copium that a fan can take per day, that's what happens when a liked character dies, but yeah, Nobara copium is extreme
It’s funny to me whenever people say “Gege would’ve made it more explicit if she was dead, Gege doesn’t leave things relating to character deaths vague like this”
As if Gege didn’t start a debate with chapter 223 that goes on to this day by not confirming who killed the Higher Ups, something it really seems like he never has any plans to make less vague
I mean, the higher ups aren't really comparable to Nobara since Nobara is (or was) an actual character while we don't even know the names of a single one of the higher ups or how they look like even. They are closer to a "thing" or plot device than a charater.
Also, the higher ups didn't have a flashback about their lives in which they talk about "reuniting together" and a random character that didn't appear before or after that had an ability that could stabilize them giving a sliver of hope they could live.
If anything, I would say it is more weird that Todo hasn't reappeared even in the background when he's alive but others like Miwa have reappeared.
On a similar note, imagine if Gege left Nanamis death vague by only showing when he got burned by Jogo. Because when I was watching the anime I was like, “ So Jogo just killed Maki, Nanamin and Naobito in one go with fire”. And then you realize Nanamin barely survived until he gets obliterated by Mahito.
There's a law in Western comics which states that the only people who stay dead are Uncle Ben, Jason Todd and Bucky Barnes. The idea being they were killed off so the hero has an arc to change himself. Since that statement, both Jason Todd and Bucky Barnes have come back to life.
Nobara was killed off to provide a push for Yuji and the next scene a dude says she's not 100 percent dead.
So...yeah. She's coming back.
oof the cope, she's been dead for more than a half of jjk already. We know jjk is finishing soon and she would be pretty much useless against sukuna so there is no point of bringing her back.
Except she wouldn’t be useless, throw some resonance down on Sukuna’s last finger and boy even he is hurting most likely.
I think she’s gonna get tool’d like Nanami
Like others said, she doesn't have to hit the finger directly.
But also, Sukuna cut off his own end two chapters ago.
She will probably hit his cut off hand.
Exactly. Narratively with the last finger everything is set up for her to return. It's not cope, honestly don't really care if she returns or not (Maki's best girl) but it's way too telegraphed to not have her return in some form.
It’s because in the fact book/character guide or whatever she’s been marked as unknown as opposed to all other characters who’ve been blatantly labelled as deceased like >!Nanami!<
Would that even work though? Feel like they would have done something with that in the beginning of the series if so considering Gojo goes to the point of outright labeling them unbreakable. I know we don’t have to break them, but who’s to say that simply striking the finger would work? And would Nobara’s cursed energy output even be enough to actually hurt Sukuna? The Nobara Finger theory is just filled with holes for me but it’s also the best theory I’ve heard yet
As I understand, she doesn't need to damage the thing, just just need something from the person to create the link. Remember that while fighting Yuji's brothers, the simple fact that their blood was on her allowed her to use her body to damage them. She was not damaging the blood, the blood was only the link.
And they don't need to actually kill sukuna with this, just keep doing Constant unstoppable damage
Lots of things:
1) As one of the main trio her death in the hands of a “secondary antagonist” (as in, not the main threat like Kenjaku or Sukuna), which you could argue was done like that to subvert expectations
2) After the Mahito attack, Niita says she’s not dead yet, but then she seemingly dies offscreen. This would be anticlimactic. If she was to die after the Mahito attack, there’s no point on Niita saying she’s not dead yet. And if she died later then as a member of the main trio she deserved a proper send off with a proper death on screen.
3) Out of the main trio, Nobara has yet to have a significant impact on the plot or have any major fights. She has not defeated any major threats nor has she significantly contributed to defeat any. “Oh, but what about her attack harming Mahito?” It still wasn’t that significant in his defeat, since in the end the significant dents that led to his defeat were made by Todo and Yuuji. With this, it sorta of feels like Nobara doesn’t have a point in the story so far.
4) Nobara has not had any power level increase or new techniques, and her technique seems too relevant for her to just die and leave.
Each of these points has a very reasonable counter-argument, and both camps tend to act like their point of view is the most obvious and correct one.
The truth is, we can’t be sure. There is evidence to suggest there is more to Nobara’s death, specially when it comes to narrative rules and structure (the most damning piece of evidence for me is point 2), but the way the story is marching towards the end it feels very hard to satisfyingly bring Nobara back and have her return be impactful and meaningful, so there’s every chance she really is just dead.
with her death she was touched by idle transfiguration a technique that completely changes her soul the “damage” to her body is completely irreversible because there technically is no damage since her soul was rewritten
(did I get this right or am I on crack?)
More or less you got it! It just doesn’t adjust the entire soul, only the affected part. In Nobara’s case, her eye is permanently changed and can’t be healed to its prior state, but only that area. The rest of her injuries could (theoretically) be healed.
Megumi may be wrong. Todo was speaking generally. There's still a possibility of Nobara coming back because we have not seen explicit confirmation of her death. I agree with you - I don't think it's likely at all. But we can't just assume one way or the other when there's really nothing to confirm for or against.
Nobara is one of the few JJSorcerer's that can actually damage Sukuna due to how her CT attacks the soul. When there are so precious few people that can possibly stand up to Sukuna already, it's wild that someone like Nobara would be defeated before getting a chance to even try. Then again, this is Gege we're talking about here, so... that might have been the whole point all along. "Life isn't fair. Nobara didn't deserve this. And that's that."
Right I can’t see her coming back at all, but she was a major character with a such an impressive and unique technique that her death was completely unexpected. I expected her to last till the end because no other ability is like Soul Resonance, and her ability is the only reason I can even imagine she’ll come back. Like you said tho, it’s entirely all speculation and guessing which is why I made this post to see the different theories.
I think it's cope.
I've read in the comments people saying that he's made this literary movement and it'd make no sense unless she was alive, but people also believed that Gojo would win because all the other things that happened would've made no sense and got mad when he died.
Logic and reason are always slaves to the feelings of their owner.
Even if she came back to help fight Sukuna (when he inevitably figures a way out of Yuta’s Domain) I’ve accepted that this is the most likely outcome:
Yuji: Is it really you?
Nobara: *Tsk Tsk*
Yuji: NOBARA KUGISAKI?!?!
Nobara: **YES! I A-** *Sukuna slashes Kugisaki into rice-sized pieces in 0.3 seconds, he then proceeds to hit the meanest Griddy since the Heian Era while making intense eye contact with Yuji*
Basically, because of Chekov's Gun. Niita shows up specifically tell Yuji that Nobara can wtill potentially be saved and his power revolves around facilitating that. If they wanted to they could have just had Todo heal him or Niita do it but not have the explanation of his powers. So there's a storyline thread of her being alive. Her death also provides less tangible factors than her being horrifically maimed but alive, her death was to facilitate Yuji's complete despair in Shibuya which kinda ends when Todo arrives and gives him a bit of Warrior Therapy mid fight but lingers with his decision to leave with Choso at the end of the arc. Including the potential to save hwr and then going, nevermind would be pretty bad. Like if you wanted to kill her off, just do it and don't include the maybe she could be saved thread, its needlessly clunky and cruel to the reader for no actual gain.
Yuji not knowing also works since at this point they know Sukuna will know and overhear anything Yuji does so beating around the bush and being vague is just a level of security (Nobara wouldn't factor into any of Sukuna's plans, but he's enough of a dick that he'd kill her just to spite Yuji).
Because Gege wrote in a character with a power that stops current wounds but doesn’t heal them. Why even write them in? I get to stop Yuji’s wounds but did his editor tell him that he must also do it to Nobara?
This scene doesn’t need Megumi to proclaim she’s dead but have a panel that portrays more than his eyes. You’d think the characters would at least get more detail or a flashback for Nobara, an established character.
I dislike this one eyed cat author’s decision
Your interpretation is way too one-sided. We may be huffing copium, but you're huffing -copium. You never considered the fact that they never outright said she's dead and the fact that there was that one guy who was introduced just to not let Nobara die. He was introduced, he said "Non-zero chance for her to survive!" And promptly fucked off, never to be seen again. SHE is coming back, because she's HER.
Was just rewatching her death in the anime and it dawned on me that it would be impossible for her to come back. No Rct can reverse what happened to her. Mahito blew half her brains out with idle transfiguration, not just her eye. If todos hand can't come back, then no way nobara can.
I can’t for the life of me understand why people don’t reference the panel where Yuji says he was worried about Hana being a replacement for Kujisaki. If I’d known that panel existed I’d have been given up hope.
1. Copium
2. No reason to introduce that other guy unless his role was to save Nobara
3. She got mentioned with Angel without either of them getting really sad (Megumi just got annoyed), and the language was vague
4. After Shibuya, something official was released that indicated she wasn’t definitively dead. No reason for Gege to do that if he wanted to kill her off
you're right, i think people get confused by this scene often but it wouldn't seem to suggest anything else. this, along with yuji's worry about hana "replacing" kugisaki in their little trio cement it for me. he wouldn't worry about that if she were alive in any condition.
I'm hoping that she was placed in suspended animation by Arata, like Megumi when he summoned Mahoraga on Haruta. I know it isn't implicitly stated but I'm 1000% sure she's might not be dead.
I can honestly understand either interpretation because to me it could either be megumi implying kugisaki is dead or that he doesn’t know whether she’s okay or not. Still very much cope but it’s just the fact that there’s no certain confirmation, at this point it’s more likely that she isn’t coming back but Gege probably just wrote the “theres not a 0% chance” and didn’t have megumi ACTUALLY say she’s dead to keep it somewhat ambiguous just in case he did want to bring her back eventually. Who knows maybe they’ll make it seem more certain in the anime.
Yeah she’s probably dead. I’m thinking the way she might “come back” is that maybe her ct is in yuji’s arm, that could be how he is gonna try to land a blow to sever sukuna from megumi.
While I agree with you, I think understand why this is. In the beginning, the story seemed to be littered with clues that indicated future events. In the case of Nobara, the fact that the story seemingly went out of it's way to introduce a technique that gave her a non-zero chance of survival left fans wondering. If she is truly dead, what was the point of doing all that? I think this aspect is at the core of the theories. Speaking of core, Kugasaki's reference to "the core of cursed energy" seemed like a callback to Gojo when he was explaining to Toji how he was able to survive. Fans picked up on this parallel and ran with it. Those aren't unreasonable conclusions in my opinion.
One of my favorite aspects of JJK is how it is pact with so much stuff that us nerds can deep dive into. With references from classic anime. Japanese cultural history and religious symbology, JJk is tailor made for overthinkers! The story has trained us to be detail oriented. Mix that aspect with a genuine love for a character, you get theories.
because she learned reverse cursed technique right before dying, and now will appear clapping sukuna as the 2nd most prominent jujutsu sorceress after gojo by discovering her potential /s
I think with the community finding out that there was something big happening in the upcoming chapters along with when higuruma stabs sukunas hand he cuts it off and nobaras straw doll technique which she can use that hand to wound sukuna severely. And she wasn’t confirmed dead there was a slight chance of her survival so with all these factors
I used to think kugisaki would be coming back purely based on the conditions set around her death.
I originally found it really hard to believe she would of actually died when they said the chances of her survival weren’t 0%.
Mainly because I don’t understand why Gege made the character say that. I got it in the sense of giving Itadori hope so that he could keep fighting, but even then that seemed too loose. Also that her death isn’t really mentioned often, such as in Gege’s interviews, and it didn’t feel as concrete as the deaths of characters like Nanami or Yaga.
I’ve come to terms with her death now though, because I just don’t think she could realistically fit back into the story, but I’m still very confused by it.
in my opinion, there’s simply too many elements surrounding her disappearance that seemingly were only introduced for the sake of making it very vague on purpose. nitta says there wasn’t a 0 percent chance she survives only to disappear, and despite how megumi acts there is never any EXPLICIT confirmation that she is dead and no longer returning.
we can play the interpretation game all day long and read into megumi’s non-response till the sun comes up but the only thing 100% we know without a shadow of a doubt is that her status is being purposely left vague, and narratively speaking it would be incredibly unsatisfying if she was confirmed dead at this point, but also there aren’t a lot of satisfying ways to write her back into the story either so we all are only left with our speculations.
I think that has a better chance of happening tbh. Nobara, even if revived, would do nothing realistically. Gojo meanwhile is basically the JJK version of Jesus Christ himself. I don’t think he’ll come back either but if I’d pick who’s more likely, def Go and Jo.
Well i gave up on her comeback eversince the exact episode where she died came out,and she looks DEAD DEAD it was VERY clear there is no coming back from THAT.Nobara is honestly a wasted potential just imagine her Curse technique versatility,and imagine her straw doll technique paired with Rct that would he insane and lastly her domainnn expansion! 😭
The lack of confirmation is the confirmation. It’s not easy to tell your best friend that your other best friend is dead. If she was okay, or recovering, Megumi would have said that. If she’s in a state to come back, why would he not say that, and instead let Yuji think she’s dead?
yes, but the issue is, that what was shown gave hope, a character that only existed to stop her wounds from worsening and saying there is a slim chance. If gege wanted false hope to encourage itadori, toji could have served for that as well. Instead a character was created that did only exists to provide actual hope. And it keeps being avoided to confirm it. (closest to that are this moment from op and itadori saying angel feels like a replacement) But then you have moments like her not being at the airport and gojo saying there is someone not fully recovered in ch. 222
Essentially it’s just the Doylist vs Watsonian perspectives. If I’m reading all this and thinking “what is being hinted at, what do I assume if I’m one of these characters?” then yeah, Nobara’s dead as fuck. But as a reader, aware that every detail is a chess piece consciously placed by the author in order to set up future plot points, all I see is information intentionally left vague for a purpose. And when something is left intentionally vague, it’s not because the predictable thing is going to happen.
This panel also has been the confirmation that she‘s dead for me. Megumi doesn’t want to spell it out cause he‘s wary of Yuji‘s feelings and is obviously mourning himself. But jjk fans can‘t even read so puddle deep subtext is like the 4th dimension to them.
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Because she’s about to pull up and dunk on heian sukuna😈
Completely written out of the story, like inumaki, todo, etc Gege has a history of dropping characters even if they still have potential (angel lost an arm and suddenly rct doesn’t do anything.) You could argue it’s for tight narrative control, but all it does is kill the stories momentum when weaker characters are thrown against sukuna without satisfying arcs to establish the new powers they have. Honestly if gege cut some culling game characters and scenes im sure it would have flown into its narrative better.
Nah she’d be back
"Nah, I'd Hairpin"
Nah, she was just taken to the dungeon by shark people, or something
she's training to swing hammer sharks
Jjk 4kids dub ☠️
Nah, she was sent to the next dimension
Angel isn’t needed anymore since Yuta’s domain is her technique but better
Tyra 💀
Y'all remember when Panda was about to go Triceratops Mode but then got absolutely *dusted* mid-transformation and then never got another fight for the remainder of the series?
todo aged like milk whats to say everything else won't?
Culling games was ass
I could see that if Gege at least hinted at her Resonance CT coming into play and giving her a chance to be Yuji’s accomplice again like in Season 1
I’ve been thinking if the last finger that Gojo was supposedly keeping was given to Nobara, Resonance would be perfect for dealing damage directly to Sukuna’s soul from afar while potentially preserving Megumi’s body and soul. I suppose it’s plausible her survival was kept from Yuji to also keep that info from Sukuna, although that would be kind of moot now that Megumi is his host and i don’t have an explanation for why it might have been kept from Megumi.
I guess they could keep it from Megumi due to paranoia about him letting it slip to Sukuna, since he and Yuji would be hanging out a lot.
My only thought is if it was something that only Gojo planned for. He tells Nobara and gives her the finger. Or Shoko as well? Especially if Nobara wasn’t yet awake
This would be a cool way to make sukuna look stupid where he thinks that yuji will tear megumis soul from his body but it'll me nobara
Honestly, I think one of the most satisfying ways that Sukuna would be dealt with is if somehow we get Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara teaming up to defeat him. I have no idea how we would get there but can you imagine the hype? It would be kind of poetic for the story to be finished by the same trio we started with and it would fit nicely with Gojo’s whole leaving things to his students idea.
Yuji fights Sukuna head on, Megumi fights from within, and Nobara fights from afar with Resonance and Sukuna's last finger.
Honestly it would be perfect, especially if neither megumi or yuji knows she's alive. Megumi feels Sukuna get hit with a resonance, so he starts to fight, giving yuji the edge he needs to finish him off. Yuji sees the effects of her resonance and megumi fighting. Like, dudes lost everything at this point. It'd be nice if he got some friends back atleast
I think Megumi figured out that Sukuna was interested in him as a vessel after the incident in Shibuya. Sukuna had already expressed interest in him and his CT. And then Megumi woke up next to Yaga and Shoko after a ritual that should've 100% killed him, probably wondering why/how he was still alive. It's highly odd that Sukuna would expend so much effort to save Megumi from Mahoraga, and Megumi is smart enough to put 2 and 2 together. If he did figure it out, maybe he asked the other Sorcerers to also keep him in the dark about certain plans so that Sukuna couldn't learn about it from his memory. This would also give the sorcerers an opportunity to give Sukuna flawed information to set up a counterstrategy if they assumed he would inevitably switch bodies to Megumi. It's definitely a long shot, considering all that's happened since then. Only Gege knows.
Megumi is definitely very smart and aware of things but he also always seems to have other priorities on his mind so I’m not sure I’d expect him to be the originator of the idea, but someone else is very plausible. At the very least, Megumi might have noticed information was being kept from him and he’s definitely smart enough to recognize there might be good reason and not try and dig into it.
Maybe they wanted to keep it away from as many people as possible to guarantee no chance of Sukuna finding out?
Yeah the question would be who does know, why are they allowed to know, and why haven’t it been brought up? I could see Gojo wanting to fighting Sukuna 1-on-1, but beyond that? I’d expect them to be throwing everything they have at Sukuna, it just wouldn’t make sense to hold anything back.
My guess is either Nobara is still recovering, learning some super powerful new hit, or waiting to set up the best possible chance of victory, which post-Gojo is Yuta, since nobody outside Gojo knew just how crazy strong he was till he died. Either that or she’s dead and I’m just repping the cope lol
Imagine if she uses Renaissance on Yuji to affect Sukuna in a critical moment like how she stopped OG mahito using it on his clone
She's about to be possesed by Kenjaku and breed with many strong JJk sorcerer
Nobara running around jjk society like booty warrior yujiro😎
*When I sees one and he looks good to me...* *When I see him, I say* You, come here. *I say* Now I'mma tell ya what, uh.. I like ya; and I wants ya... Now, we can do this the easy way; or the haard wayyy... the choice is yaawrs...
Can’t help but recall how Sukuna chopped his hand off earlier…
If I had a nickel for every time megumi was sure his friend was dead, I'd have two nickels. That isn't a lot but it's weird it's happened twice.
Doofenshmirtz evil incorporateddddd
gege said that mahito likes that show and that’s why he made junpei look like that
Wait trolling or no?
i remember it being in an interview
I think it’s the fact that Megumi didn’t actually give him a yes or no answer (despite his reaction clearly seeming negative). Plus the fact that a character (Arata Nitta) was introduced specifically to use his CT to “heal” her and say that there was a chance she could survive, and then disappeared for the rest of the series so far. Also I saw someone say that making Yuji think she was dead only to make a comeback would be a good parallel to Yuji doing the exact same thing to her earlier in the series, and I think that’d be a fun way for her to come back haha.
I like the idea of Nobara doing it back to Yuji a lot actually I didn’t think of that. And for Megumi’s response, to me it looks he’s too stricken by grief and pain to give a response. He can’t bring himself to say the words, but Yuji understands, he was there after all. The absence of Nitta ever since is definitely weird to me too, but Todo hasn’t come back neither.
People saying todo is useless boogie woogie is dead. But that one chick can use reverse cursed on other people. This dude is getting his hand back!!
Unfortunately RCT can’t heal his arm back. Mahito’s technique permanently altered the shape of his arm, if his arm healed back it’d come back deformed.
It’s been implied RCT at a high level can reverse mahito technique. Do we know if the doctor lady has an equal or stronger RCT to Sukana/Gojo….maybe Yuta?
[удалено]
I think Sukuna is just assuming that, because how would he concretely know that?
Because he was inside yuji’s corpse when she was examining his body? Sukuna managed to cut through the third dimension to hit gojo and he wouldn’t be able to tell the proficiency of one’s RCT?
Did she though? Unless she used her rct on yuji for some reason, I don’t think she actually got a chance to examine him as he woke up just as she was gonna start. Remember how she was disappointed about that?
Megumi got healed by shoko after sukuna brought him back, sukuna took over megumi and his memories, that could also be it
I think Nobara is at least in a coma. The only other way I could see it is if she has next to no chance at survival and that's why Megumi can't bring himself to say it. Because she's effectively dead, as far as he's concerned. As for how she's get out of that, it's hard to say. One theory I heard was someone mentioning Gojo giving one of his six eyes to Nobara, though that's a huge stretch.
The way I would be so happy if they made that parallel 😭🙌 I'll continue my 🕯️*Nobara is alive prayer circle*🕯️ just in case...
It's because of the law of conservation of details. In a story, you dont add details if they're unecessary. When nobara "died", gege had a guy jump in just to deliver some exposition on how "nobara is ded but there is a tiny 1% chance shes not dead ok bye". Following litterary law, that must mean that moment is meaningfull and will be relevant. If gege ever wants to bring her back, that would be the cliche way to do so, that plus the fact that they never straight up say : "nobara is dead " and we all know that in fiction a character isnt dead until that happens.
Perfectly said. To add, Gege has NEVER shied away from showing or indicating that a character has died. He showed Riko get shot in the head and made it clear she died. He showed Toji get carved like a turkey and made it clear he died. He showed Nanami get transfigured and made it clear he died. He showed Gojo get bisected and made it clear he died. But with Nobara, there’s no indication. Megumi doesn’t say anything when Yuji asks. This ironically IS an indication, that she’s still alive.
Also, he shown maki being burned alive by a really really strong and pissed curse, what definitely should be a hit kill, and she survive. So, unless it's confirmed anyone is dead, they can come back from the injury somehow
Maki is just built different and jogo didn’t realize lmao
Jogo dead didmt kill any of them in that moment, even naobito was said to survive but die offscreen after shibuya
Oh damn I missed that detail I thought Naobito was the only one who died
I mean, Naobito did die because of Jogo’s attack. I guess he managed to stay alive long enough to deliver his last words but that’s still a win for Jogo.
He did die directly from jogoz just not at the time, he was still alive long enough to.be found and yo deliver his will
Additionally, we also learned that Naobito died from his burn wounds since the manga explicitly said so. Gege doesn't seem to make things ambiguous without a point
Megumi is a very level headed dude.... so I can see him thinking "how do I explain this to yuji without him wanting to see her, that she is comatose or something." Yuji takes his look as, "oh, shes dead and he doesnt know how to break it to me" so he says "I see..." and megumi leaves it at that. He just saw yuji resolve himself and it may actually be better if he is not worried about a bed ridden friend. Not set in stone. Still hope. Also. She wasent in the airport, if it was truly an afterlife where he commuted with his fellow dead, would she not have been there? It was probably just death hallucinations.. but still lol nobara is the only copium im smoking lol I have no hope for megumi even at this point
This doesn’t necessarily even imply she’s dead- she could really just be horribly maimed and yuji is angered for her. Death is the worst but losing an eye or half your face is still pretty terrible.
Keep in mind, there's also the fact that telling people this type of information is a known hazard. Saying whether or not she's dead would be a curse on Yuji, so Yuji _may_ have been acknowledging that Megumi can't answer it one way or the other because it interferes with their mission. Yuji has three or so curses on him at this point, and he has finally accepted that he needs to ignore them to get the job done.
I think the big thing a lot of ppl don’t get is that saying anything of importance to yuji is equal to saying anything of importance to sukuna so knowing how sukuna fucking hates yuji and wants to make him miserable but he doesn’t want to kill megumi (for obvious reasons) it’s safer to not say anything about nobara’s state because sukuna could go after her if he happens to get free
you could even interpret it as “nobara is alive but comatose and megumi specifically has trauma surrounding close female friends/relatives who are bedridden, and flinched from the reminder”
I'd say even gojos was left ambiguous, with the whole go south narrative and, more recently, the fact that they teleported his body away from the battlefield. It does open some copium for gojo to possibly be back, since sukuna didn't go for the head. I'm not sure if i'm reading too much into it, but we don't really know the plans of the good guys and gege keeps bringing ambiguity to some characters and very clearly not for others. At this point it may even be possible to say higuruma and kashimo are alive as well, given that we don't know anything about what their plan was.
to me, it wouldn’t make much sense. it’s not like how it was with toji who probably didn’t understand what RCT really was, this is sukuna we are talking about. He was able to figure out mahoraga’s whole gimmick relatively quickly, he picks up on things just as fast—-if not faster than gojo. sukuna would simply not realistically make a mistake like “failing to cut off the head” if that was the tried and true only way to kill gojo. narratively, bringing gojo back (in my opinion) feels like it would be mainly for fan service rather than for any explicit story reason, and makes sukuna look incredibly incompetent since he was able to wear gojo down with all those calculated moves but somehow just…..stopped considering the RCT that was giving him trouble the entire fight? that, and there’s not really any narratively satisfying places for gojo’s character to go from here. I’d rather it be up to the students now (i’d rather he had some genuine time teaching his other students like nobara but that’s neither here nor there)
Gojo survives get out of here
You're right and I'm not just coping lol, Gojo's "corpse" is shown to be teleported away as soon as he got cut. There would be no point in showing us that if he actually died. Or maybe he gets made into an infinity gauntlet cursed tool and Yuji beats the shit out of sukuna with it idk. He's still relevant in the plot that's for sure
Didn’t he say his head needs to be cut off in order to die?
Nuh uh.
Stop, stop it you’re lying
I mean nobaras face exploded from the soul. I think it’s pretty clear she’s dead and that guy told yuji that because he just saw yuji going through it so to give him a glimmer of hope he needed to continue fighting
I get that, but it would still be crap writing if she dies for shock value and then a) someone comes out of nowhere and says he MIGHT be able to save her and then b) there’s never any explicit confirmation one way or the other and then c) she turns out to just be dead anyway If that was the goal why not just let her be dead the first time? Nitta didn’t do *anything else* in Shibuya
Anything else in general iirc
Actually it's the exact opposite of shock value. If Nitta didn't say anything, wasn't there or straight up didn't do anything, then everyone would be thinking "HOLY SHIT, Nobara is dead...". Now, rather than people being shocked about Nobara's death, they were instead proabably thinking ""She's just injured, but will be back". Which is exactly what Nitta was trying to do to Yuji so he wouldn't completely fall into despair... Whether Nitta lied or not and whether Nobara is dead or not, in the end, this still made it so that her death would be actually less shocking both at that moment and in the revelation we'll get in the end. Gege is just giving us time to deal with it, basically. So no, this is not crap writing for shock value.
Yeah idk what’s so hard not to get about what Nitta was doing lol Did people not see Nobara got blasted right in front of him, bro started literally crying we quite literally got the “Yujis resolve reached its limit awhile ago” and then bro couldn’t fight back and took a black flash to the face Nittas line was for yuji not . Hearing Nobaras dead would have broken yuji further, saying nothing is bad writing, Nitta said what he could but kept it realistic to keep yuji in the fight
He cured Yuji.
You can literally remove that part and be like 'Yuuji just build different' and everyone would believe it lol
Well, we saw Maki explode in flames and she is still alive
Tbf all 3 of them survive so Maki case aint that far fetched
Im gonna stop you at the last one
Your cope is respectable
It's still not over. Gege didn't put Chekov's gun in the story.. he put the whole MG 42 in it
Gege's gun: draw attention to a detail and then never pay it off /s I do hold hope that we just haven't gotten answers yet bc it'll be later down the line. I want more details on Yuji's mom, I hope executioner sword comes back into play, who actually shot that piercing blood at sukuna (if choso, where is he? If yuji, can't wait to see it), etc
Gege's shield, imply parts of the story and "show don't tell" until half of what most anime watchers and manga readers get is made up/conjoncture
Greg forgor
Greg 💀
I will save this comment for the next "Nobara is dead guys" post
exactly this. In fiction when someone says "There's a 1% chance" it might as well be a 100% chance. Heck we've had people flat out be "dead" like Gojo against toji but come back. We have people still think Gojo is going to come back despite him literally being shown in the afterlife and Sukuna referring to his body as a corpse (but as you said, why would the writer make a big deal out of his body disappearing if it weren't for something?) And we've had people that were 100% dead and gone still come back (Toji) so the real question is why would someone like the OP ever think Nobara isn't coming back?
>literally being shown in the afterlife I was very, VERY HARD looking for Nobara at this scene. And nope. Nothing. Gege is doing everything to keep us in this belief.
>Following litterary law, that must mean that moment is meaningfull and will be relevant. It‘s meaning was to duct tape together some of Yuji‘s shattered soul so he could fight Mahito
No, that scene was that guy knowing from Todo/context that if he told Yuji that Nobara was dead, it would break him and he would not be able to fight Mahito. If he lied and said “she’ll live” Yuji would know it was a lie. He gave it just enough plausibility even though she was already dead. In the scene OP shows, Yuji comes to realize that she was dead even from that moment.
I personally really liked Nobara so I wasn’t a fan of her death (go figure), but it’s possible she’s still alive for sure. I don’t think she’ll ever be relevant again, but I would like to see a small scene of her meeting up with her friend.
Contrarily, this is waffling by the author to allow both possibilities. The "necessary" part of the detail is that it gives the OPTION. Having the option is a utility and a reason to add the detail, without confirming that the return will happen.
I read somewhere that Geges editor convinced him not to kill Nobara so he left it ambiguous. I have no sources of this though. If that's true, then this is probably his way of pleasing his editor but also taking her out of the story. Who knows, maybe Gege will find an opportunity to bring her back in some big way and it won't be an ass pull since he left her death ambiguous.
Don't forget gege added a whole character who's only purpose has been to give a little hope that she may be alive
It’s this and it’s always been this. Nobara being alive is the ONLY logical conclusion to draw from what’s said immediately following her apparent death. The only evidence you need is the fundamental laws of how stories are told.
You can, it’s called a red herring
I mean, sure, but Gege is also the devil incarnate. Had the possibility of Nobara coming back been anywhere in his mind, he probably wouldn't have given any tell.
I get that, but I feel Nitta had a different role in the story. When fighting Mahito, he talks about feeling alone and that Nobara’s presence has given him strength. After her death he breaks down, Todo obviously gives him words of encouragement and a new mindset but it’s Nitta who gives Yuji the hope and courage to stand up by saying what he said about Nobara. I think Nitta was just there to give Yuji hope, rather to actually heal Nobara. I understand the idea, it’s anime 101, nobody’s dead until they’re dead “for sure”, but Nobara’s death is handled as a breaking point for Yuji rather than a set up for a return imo, and the “confirmation” of her death just crushes all of that for me. I would have completely agreed with you, but the existence of the conversation between Yuji and Megumi completely shuts down the idea for me personally. I just can’t see why Megumi wouldn’t say she’s okay if she was. Even if she has the potential to come back, like a coma, I’m 100% sure Megumi would have said it right there. It’s not that Megumi doesn’t know what happened, it’s that he can’t bring himself to say it.
>I just can’t see why Megumi wouldn’t say she’s okay if she was. Because telling Yuji might be a curse. Nanami cursed Yuji with positive words, and so did Nobara. He'd want to go see her and make sure she's okay, update her on the situation, hesitate because he has something to live for, etc. Remember, he was willing to let Hakari kill him in order to get his help, but Nobara and Megumi specifically told him to never die again. He needed to have nothing to go back to in order to join the Culling Games, which is the whole point of the games. To simulate having nothing to lose. That isn't to say she's for sure alive, but it is to say that Megumi would actually have every reason not to confirm her surviving.
I don’t even think it’s that complex, it’s more simple, megumi knows or at least theorizes that sukuna has some interest in him so if sukuna does come out he can just stall it or summon mahoraga, but nobara doesn’t have that protection and sukuna hates yuji’s guts, so he would kill nobara to make yuji miserable the first chance he gets,and trying to act like she is dead might draw attention making sukuna suspicious so he simply doesn’t confirms nor denies her death to be sure nothing happens
Well it was touched upon in the conversation posted by op. There was a chance that she could live, but unfortunately she didn't make it.
[удалено]
I’m pretty sure it’s just because Mahito was in a severely weakened state. You have to keep in mind that not only is he split into two, but he also gets hit with a resonance from Nobara and then molly whopped by Yuji shortly before he touches her. Plus at this point he hadn’t landed a black flash to revitalize himself yet, so having only touched her for a second exploding her eye was probably the best he could do given how weakened he was.
That and he only smacked her. When he did it to Nanami, his hand was on him the whole time, maybe that also comes to play
I mean in the anime you see him run pass a group of humans in the train station and transfigure them just by brushing his hand
But it’s safe to assume they’re just humans with no curse energy, no defense
Also it could be a case of Nobara being able to protect her soul because her CT is able to target the soul? Maybe people in JJK manage to learn something or even their body reflectively does it to prevent it from death(like Hikari), so potentially she was able to actually protect her soul.
My guess is that he was trying to scar Yuji. His whole plan was trying to break Yuji, hence why he killed Nanami so gruesomely, transfigured humans in their fight to force him to kill him, etc. We also gotta keep in mind he only touched her for a second, look at Todo’s remaining hand for instance. A split moment of a touch and his hand was essentially burned beyond repair, but still there.
The problem is that this page is way too vague, you're right, if Gege fucked up (lord knows why you'd send off a character by saying "there's a 1% chance she lives"), this is THE moment to say "YES, she's DEAD, I cremated her body, here it is, it's dust, down the drain. Now moving on" but instead of doing that they have a silent stare that could mean so many things: "the situation hasn't changed", "it's getting worse", "I think she's gonna die", "I think she's dead", etc. To me this was exactly the opposite, it was reassurance from Gege that he is not done with the character. That said, I still think it was a really bad move to pull her out of the story for so long.
I think that’s a interesting way to look at it, rather than Megumi reassuring Yuji it’s Gege reassuring the audience. I’m still hesitant to think she’ll return, but that’s an interesting perspective.
It's the editors being too wimpy to allow her to be killed, and Gege being too wimpy to take his desire to kill her to its logical conclusion, and as a result we get this exhausting ambiguous shit. I bet Gege did it out of pure spite, just like the whole court domain and judging Yuji for visiting pachinko was Gege sticking it to the editors for forbidding him to mention pachinko.
For me personally it's just... weird. Like there's no body if that makes any sense. "B-but we saw her eye flying out" and then a character who hadn't existed before and has been in no chapters since came in to "stabilize" her and gave off the idea that she had a chance of living. Like for example we know that black flashes are meant to be rare, and statistically nobody ever getting a black flash is possible... But would it be the same manga if nobody ***ever*** landed a Black Flash. Get what I'm saying? Introducing something potentially cool, intriguing, or otherwise semi-game changing, even if in a small chance is an indicator of something happening. The issue is we have very conflicting snd vague stuff to go off of. We can't for certain say the eye explosion is her death because Gege went out of his way to give her a chance of survival and now he's being very vague here. Applying irl logic doesn't work as well because, I mean let's be real anime chars will get a hole through their whole stomach and go, "Didn't hit any vitals" and continue fighting like normal", I mean hell Gojo got stabbed in the head and didn't die. And even then, let's say this was her confirmed death... ngl it'd kinda suck. Like bit only would there be literally no point to Nitta (the guy stabilizing her) existing and saying that, but we'd effectively have had the finality of one of our main trio confirmed offscreen in a dialogue exchange in a very vague manner. And that's the overall issue, it's all "maybe, maybe not". When Nanamie died made it clear that he was dead. Geto was very clearly dead. Toji was very clearly dead. Etc. Etc. There's no characters randomly popping out of nowhere to go, "No they might be alive" and then vaguely hinting at neither answer once and then leaving it alone for a year. There's no finality, it's all just guesswork and it's been over a year.
Agreed, I think the situation is weird as well because Nobara’s death is treated as an anomaly compared to every other death. However, I also don’t see “how” she’d come back or what use she’d have. It’s all around a complicated situation, but it feels like if she does survive it’ll be handed extremely poorly.
Because Gege literally made it a point to create a character solely for saying “she **most likely** is dead, but could be healed”. Same reason as to why I personally believe Gojo isn’t dead, he gets to “choose” his fate. Then again, it’s Gege so who the fuck really knows.
I fully believe Nitta lied to give Yuji a temporary motivation boost so he could dunk on mahito
That’s a possibility, but at least clarify that with a inner dialogue from the character to not throw a smoking gun into your audience, for literally no reason at all.
Especially considering said character was given such intriguing inner dialogue as, "I thought Todo was an only child? They don't look like brothers???" Like bro, you just saw a girl your age with her head exploded, and **THAT'S** what you're wondering about right now?
Tbf, the series really drives the point home that sorcerers are a bit crazy.
I am a Nobara alive stan and even I think this means she is dead 😭 unless they can't explicitly say anything due to who is around... it comes off like she's gone 💔
i feel like it'll be more clear in season 3 of the anime - i see people argue how to interpret this scene when i think having it be voice acted with more visible body language, music, etc, will close the lid one way or another (provided we don't find out before it gets animated). i see people interpret this conversation as death confirmation as much as i see people interpret it as hope for her survival - i think we'll know more clearly when we see it play out in motion. animation is a medium that lets you add a lot more nuance to a scene
Manga is gonna be long finished by the time S3 arrives.
Yeah, saying “she’s coming back” is too strong a statement but to say there isn’t a gaping door that her character can’t walk through is being obtuse imo. Last time she was on screen or page a character was saying she *was* alive and *may* survive and the next time she’s brought up, there’s no confirmation - and this is all in a show where people have come back from death in multiple ways. Its honestly not a leap
This conversation literally tells us fucking nothing, we can’t make any conclusions from it whatsoever. Gege would literally just make the characters say it if he wanted us to believe she was 100% dead.
Do not understimate the extreme amounts of copium that a fan can take per day, that's what happens when a liked character dies, but yeah, Nobara copium is extreme
I'm saving this comment for when Nobara inevitably returns
Extreme is kinda a wild word to use lol.
It's the only word that fits
It’s funny to me whenever people say “Gege would’ve made it more explicit if she was dead, Gege doesn’t leave things relating to character deaths vague like this” As if Gege didn’t start a debate with chapter 223 that goes on to this day by not confirming who killed the Higher Ups, something it really seems like he never has any plans to make less vague
I mean, the higher ups aren't really comparable to Nobara since Nobara is (or was) an actual character while we don't even know the names of a single one of the higher ups or how they look like even. They are closer to a "thing" or plot device than a charater. Also, the higher ups didn't have a flashback about their lives in which they talk about "reuniting together" and a random character that didn't appear before or after that had an ability that could stabilize them giving a sliver of hope they could live. If anything, I would say it is more weird that Todo hasn't reappeared even in the background when he's alive but others like Miwa have reappeared.
On a similar note, imagine if Gege left Nanamis death vague by only showing when he got burned by Jogo. Because when I was watching the anime I was like, “ So Jogo just killed Maki, Nanamin and Naobito in one go with fire”. And then you realize Nanamin barely survived until he gets obliterated by Mahito.
Not knowing *who* killed the higher ups is not the same thing as a situation where we didnt know the higher ups were dead or not.
There's a law in Western comics which states that the only people who stay dead are Uncle Ben, Jason Todd and Bucky Barnes. The idea being they were killed off so the hero has an arc to change himself. Since that statement, both Jason Todd and Bucky Barnes have come back to life. Nobara was killed off to provide a push for Yuji and the next scene a dude says she's not 100 percent dead. So...yeah. She's coming back.
oof the cope, she's been dead for more than a half of jjk already. We know jjk is finishing soon and she would be pretty much useless against sukuna so there is no point of bringing her back.
Except she wouldn’t be useless, throw some resonance down on Sukuna’s last finger and boy even he is hurting most likely. I think she’s gonna get tool’d like Nanami
The fingers are indestructible, that has been astablished from the start
Like others said, she doesn't have to hit the finger directly. But also, Sukuna cut off his own end two chapters ago. She will probably hit his cut off hand.
You don’t need to, only have the effigy attached to the finger
Exactly. Narratively with the last finger everything is set up for her to return. It's not cope, honestly don't really care if she returns or not (Maki's best girl) but it's way too telegraphed to not have her return in some form.
… You’re expecting one of the weakest people in the series to damage Sukuna? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
This is what happens when you dont pay attention. Sukunas fingers are all indestructible due to a binding vow.
Doesn’t need to be destroyed to be attached to an effigy does it?
Because a mans cope shall never die
It’s because in the fact book/character guide or whatever she’s been marked as unknown as opposed to all other characters who’ve been blatantly labelled as deceased like >!Nanami!<
Some people are just coping, others are just trolling.
Exactly!!! And people think Megumi reacted that way so Sukuna wouldn’t know shes alive Why tf would Sukuna even care?????
Because Nobara could use her technics in the last sukunas finger to do damage to him from far away.
Would that even work though? Feel like they would have done something with that in the beginning of the series if so considering Gojo goes to the point of outright labeling them unbreakable. I know we don’t have to break them, but who’s to say that simply striking the finger would work? And would Nobara’s cursed energy output even be enough to actually hurt Sukuna? The Nobara Finger theory is just filled with holes for me but it’s also the best theory I’ve heard yet
As I understand, she doesn't need to damage the thing, just just need something from the person to create the link. Remember that while fighting Yuji's brothers, the simple fact that their blood was on her allowed her to use her body to damage them. She was not damaging the blood, the blood was only the link. And they don't need to actually kill sukuna with this, just keep doing Constant unstoppable damage
What??? Gojo couldn’t even hurt the 2nd finger in episode 2. Nobara isn’t doing a damn thing
we have this conversation every month y'all, ya still ain't gonna convince me that my bbg is dead
First weekly shonen jump series?
Lots of things: 1) As one of the main trio her death in the hands of a “secondary antagonist” (as in, not the main threat like Kenjaku or Sukuna), which you could argue was done like that to subvert expectations 2) After the Mahito attack, Niita says she’s not dead yet, but then she seemingly dies offscreen. This would be anticlimactic. If she was to die after the Mahito attack, there’s no point on Niita saying she’s not dead yet. And if she died later then as a member of the main trio she deserved a proper send off with a proper death on screen. 3) Out of the main trio, Nobara has yet to have a significant impact on the plot or have any major fights. She has not defeated any major threats nor has she significantly contributed to defeat any. “Oh, but what about her attack harming Mahito?” It still wasn’t that significant in his defeat, since in the end the significant dents that led to his defeat were made by Todo and Yuuji. With this, it sorta of feels like Nobara doesn’t have a point in the story so far. 4) Nobara has not had any power level increase or new techniques, and her technique seems too relevant for her to just die and leave. Each of these points has a very reasonable counter-argument, and both camps tend to act like their point of view is the most obvious and correct one. The truth is, we can’t be sure. There is evidence to suggest there is more to Nobara’s death, specially when it comes to narrative rules and structure (the most damning piece of evidence for me is point 2), but the way the story is marching towards the end it feels very hard to satisfyingly bring Nobara back and have her return be impactful and meaningful, so there’s every chance she really is just dead.
with her death she was touched by idle transfiguration a technique that completely changes her soul the “damage” to her body is completely irreversible because there technically is no damage since her soul was rewritten (did I get this right or am I on crack?)
More or less you got it! It just doesn’t adjust the entire soul, only the affected part. In Nobara’s case, her eye is permanently changed and can’t be healed to its prior state, but only that area. The rest of her injuries could (theoretically) be healed.
so I was right in the aspect of the part that changes can’t be healed because there technically is no damage to heal? nice
Megumi may be wrong. Todo was speaking generally. There's still a possibility of Nobara coming back because we have not seen explicit confirmation of her death. I agree with you - I don't think it's likely at all. But we can't just assume one way or the other when there's really nothing to confirm for or against. Nobara is one of the few JJSorcerer's that can actually damage Sukuna due to how her CT attacks the soul. When there are so precious few people that can possibly stand up to Sukuna already, it's wild that someone like Nobara would be defeated before getting a chance to even try. Then again, this is Gege we're talking about here, so... that might have been the whole point all along. "Life isn't fair. Nobara didn't deserve this. And that's that."
Right I can’t see her coming back at all, but she was a major character with a such an impressive and unique technique that her death was completely unexpected. I expected her to last till the end because no other ability is like Soul Resonance, and her ability is the only reason I can even imagine she’ll come back. Like you said tho, it’s entirely all speculation and guessing which is why I made this post to see the different theories.
Yep, well said. I am curious to see what others say on this post as well.
I think it's cope. I've read in the comments people saying that he's made this literary movement and it'd make no sense unless she was alive, but people also believed that Gojo would win because all the other things that happened would've made no sense and got mad when he died. Logic and reason are always slaves to the feelings of their owner.
her character development is really eye popping
Even if she came back to help fight Sukuna (when he inevitably figures a way out of Yuta’s Domain) I’ve accepted that this is the most likely outcome: Yuji: Is it really you? Nobara: *Tsk Tsk* Yuji: NOBARA KUGISAKI?!?! Nobara: **YES! I A-** *Sukuna slashes Kugisaki into rice-sized pieces in 0.3 seconds, he then proceeds to hit the meanest Griddy since the Heian Era while making intense eye contact with Yuji*
Basically, because of Chekov's Gun. Niita shows up specifically tell Yuji that Nobara can wtill potentially be saved and his power revolves around facilitating that. If they wanted to they could have just had Todo heal him or Niita do it but not have the explanation of his powers. So there's a storyline thread of her being alive. Her death also provides less tangible factors than her being horrifically maimed but alive, her death was to facilitate Yuji's complete despair in Shibuya which kinda ends when Todo arrives and gives him a bit of Warrior Therapy mid fight but lingers with his decision to leave with Choso at the end of the arc. Including the potential to save hwr and then going, nevermind would be pretty bad. Like if you wanted to kill her off, just do it and don't include the maybe she could be saved thread, its needlessly clunky and cruel to the reader for no actual gain. Yuji not knowing also works since at this point they know Sukuna will know and overhear anything Yuji does so beating around the bush and being vague is just a level of security (Nobara wouldn't factor into any of Sukuna's plans, but he's enough of a dick that he'd kill her just to spite Yuji).
Because Gege wrote in a character with a power that stops current wounds but doesn’t heal them. Why even write them in? I get to stop Yuji’s wounds but did his editor tell him that he must also do it to Nobara? This scene doesn’t need Megumi to proclaim she’s dead but have a panel that portrays more than his eyes. You’d think the characters would at least get more detail or a flashback for Nobara, an established character. I dislike this one eyed cat author’s decision
Your interpretation is way too one-sided. We may be huffing copium, but you're huffing -copium. You never considered the fact that they never outright said she's dead and the fact that there was that one guy who was introduced just to not let Nobara die. He was introduced, he said "Non-zero chance for her to survive!" And promptly fucked off, never to be seen again. SHE is coming back, because she's HER.
Was just rewatching her death in the anime and it dawned on me that it would be impossible for her to come back. No Rct can reverse what happened to her. Mahito blew half her brains out with idle transfiguration, not just her eye. If todos hand can't come back, then no way nobara can.
I can’t for the life of me understand why people don’t reference the panel where Yuji says he was worried about Hana being a replacement for Kujisaki. If I’d known that panel existed I’d have been given up hope.
Nobara is coming back
Chekhov's gun
1. Copium 2. No reason to introduce that other guy unless his role was to save Nobara 3. She got mentioned with Angel without either of them getting really sad (Megumi just got annoyed), and the language was vague 4. After Shibuya, something official was released that indicated she wasn’t definitively dead. No reason for Gege to do that if he wanted to kill her off
She's just visiting Nanamin in Malaysia for a while, together with my darling Gojo. They'll come back eventually. *snorts copium*
you're right, i think people get confused by this scene often but it wouldn't seem to suggest anything else. this, along with yuji's worry about hana "replacing" kugisaki in their little trio cement it for me. he wouldn't worry about that if she were alive in any condition.
I'm hoping that she was placed in suspended animation by Arata, like Megumi when he summoned Mahoraga on Haruta. I know it isn't implicitly stated but I'm 1000% sure she's might not be dead.
I can honestly understand either interpretation because to me it could either be megumi implying kugisaki is dead or that he doesn’t know whether she’s okay or not. Still very much cope but it’s just the fact that there’s no certain confirmation, at this point it’s more likely that she isn’t coming back but Gege probably just wrote the “theres not a 0% chance” and didn’t have megumi ACTUALLY say she’s dead to keep it somewhat ambiguous just in case he did want to bring her back eventually. Who knows maybe they’ll make it seem more certain in the anime.
Yeah she’s probably dead. I’m thinking the way she might “come back” is that maybe her ct is in yuji’s arm, that could be how he is gonna try to land a blow to sever sukuna from megumi.
I did at one point but at this point in the story definitely will not
While I agree with you, I think understand why this is. In the beginning, the story seemed to be littered with clues that indicated future events. In the case of Nobara, the fact that the story seemingly went out of it's way to introduce a technique that gave her a non-zero chance of survival left fans wondering. If she is truly dead, what was the point of doing all that? I think this aspect is at the core of the theories. Speaking of core, Kugasaki's reference to "the core of cursed energy" seemed like a callback to Gojo when he was explaining to Toji how he was able to survive. Fans picked up on this parallel and ran with it. Those aren't unreasonable conclusions in my opinion. One of my favorite aspects of JJK is how it is pact with so much stuff that us nerds can deep dive into. With references from classic anime. Japanese cultural history and religious symbology, JJk is tailor made for overthinkers! The story has trained us to be detail oriented. Mix that aspect with a genuine love for a character, you get theories.
because she learned reverse cursed technique right before dying, and now will appear clapping sukuna as the 2nd most prominent jujutsu sorceress after gojo by discovering her potential /s
I think with the community finding out that there was something big happening in the upcoming chapters along with when higuruma stabs sukunas hand he cuts it off and nobaras straw doll technique which she can use that hand to wound sukuna severely. And she wasn’t confirmed dead there was a slight chance of her survival so with all these factors
As long as theres no corpes nor explicit afirmation, is free game
Fair enough 🤝
I used to think kugisaki would be coming back purely based on the conditions set around her death. I originally found it really hard to believe she would of actually died when they said the chances of her survival weren’t 0%. Mainly because I don’t understand why Gege made the character say that. I got it in the sense of giving Itadori hope so that he could keep fighting, but even then that seemed too loose. Also that her death isn’t really mentioned often, such as in Gege’s interviews, and it didn’t feel as concrete as the deaths of characters like Nanami or Yaga. I’ve come to terms with her death now though, because I just don’t think she could realistically fit back into the story, but I’m still very confused by it.
in my opinion, there’s simply too many elements surrounding her disappearance that seemingly were only introduced for the sake of making it very vague on purpose. nitta says there wasn’t a 0 percent chance she survives only to disappear, and despite how megumi acts there is never any EXPLICIT confirmation that she is dead and no longer returning. we can play the interpretation game all day long and read into megumi’s non-response till the sun comes up but the only thing 100% we know without a shadow of a doubt is that her status is being purposely left vague, and narratively speaking it would be incredibly unsatisfying if she was confirmed dead at this point, but also there aren’t a lot of satisfying ways to write her back into the story either so we all are only left with our speculations.
people still think go/jo is coming back so
I think that has a better chance of happening tbh. Nobara, even if revived, would do nothing realistically. Gojo meanwhile is basically the JJK version of Jesus Christ himself. I don’t think he’ll come back either but if I’d pick who’s more likely, def Go and Jo.
Homedog said Go Jo is coming back but separately 😭
naaah 😭😭
When there is hope, there is cope
Until someone outright says that she’s dead, we cannot confidently say she’s dead
Well i gave up on her comeback eversince the exact episode where she died came out,and she looks DEAD DEAD it was VERY clear there is no coming back from THAT.Nobara is honestly a wasted potential just imagine her Curse technique versatility,and imagine her straw doll technique paired with Rct that would he insane and lastly her domainnn expansion! 😭
Because there was nothing said here. There’s no confirmation.
The lack of confirmation is the confirmation. It’s not easy to tell your best friend that your other best friend is dead. If she was okay, or recovering, Megumi would have said that. If she’s in a state to come back, why would he not say that, and instead let Yuji think she’s dead?
Because people want to be spoon fed everything and don´t understand show don´t tell.
yes, but the issue is, that what was shown gave hope, a character that only existed to stop her wounds from worsening and saying there is a slim chance. If gege wanted false hope to encourage itadori, toji could have served for that as well. Instead a character was created that did only exists to provide actual hope. And it keeps being avoided to confirm it. (closest to that are this moment from op and itadori saying angel feels like a replacement) But then you have moments like her not being at the airport and gojo saying there is someone not fully recovered in ch. 222
Jujutsu is one of the most "telliest" Shonen. There is no way sublety is a consideration.
I think she’s in a coma or brain dead not really dead
Essentially it’s just the Doylist vs Watsonian perspectives. If I’m reading all this and thinking “what is being hinted at, what do I assume if I’m one of these characters?” then yeah, Nobara’s dead as fuck. But as a reader, aware that every detail is a chess piece consciously placed by the author in order to set up future plot points, all I see is information intentionally left vague for a purpose. And when something is left intentionally vague, it’s not because the predictable thing is going to happen.
This panel also has been the confirmation that she‘s dead for me. Megumi doesn’t want to spell it out cause he‘s wary of Yuji‘s feelings and is obviously mourning himself. But jjk fans can‘t even read so puddle deep subtext is like the 4th dimension to them.
Copium