Episode 3.) Girl of Steel
Picking right up after where we last left off, Gojo explains to Yuji and Megumi that tomorrow they’re going to pick up their last fellow 1st year and complete their little trio of students. Megumi looks displeased as usual but Yuji perks up with excitement. Cut to a train station located near Tokyo where we finally meet Nobara in full swing, more than excited to be in Tokyo later on. Megumi and Yuji could be seen chilling next to a railing, with Megumi explaining to Yuji how little 1st years there are. They mention that Yuji was the third 1st year, making Yuji question who was the first.
This hints at the character Yuta, another first-year but currently traveling overseas for training exercises on his cursed techniques. This mention of Yuta plays a major role later on and is a recurring factor whenever someone starts naming some of the strongest sorcerors known today. Besides Yuta, Gojo finally breaks the conversation between Megumi and Yuji, even mentioning how the new outfit the school gave Yuji fits him perfectly. Yuji tugs on his hoodie and expresses how it fits his style a lot. Even stating, “Yeah, they got my style incorporated into it. The red makes me pop, you know?”
Even with his satisfaction with the outfit, Yuji wonders why he is the only one with a hood, to which Gojo explains how each uniform could be customized to the user’s taste, Gojo personally making Yuji’s outfit himself. Megumi warns Yuji about Gojo’s bad habit but blows off the conversation to the next, asking why they’re even waiting in that spot anyway. Gojo explains it’s because of Nobara’s request to meet there, their waiting being all they have to do.
A little further away amidst a massive crowd of shoppers, Nobara could be seen yelling at a businessman looking for models, expressing how she’s more than beautiful enough for a newspaper or magazine. With Gojo watching and smiling, Yuji staring more confused than ever, and Megumi getting a bad feeling and frowning, they all finally meet up and create their squadron, Gojo exclaiming how he’s the smart and handsome leader. Nobara shrugs off Gojo’s honesty and takes a good look at Yuji and Megumi. She insults Megumi’s lack of a personality, being an edge lord as she explains, and Yuji looking like the group’s idiot. She also acts with high honor, considering she’s the only girl in the group. She states, “Congratulations boys, I’m the only girl in the group, you should feel honored.”
After their small introductions, Gojo speaks up and says they’re going to Tokyo for their first mission. Yuji and Nobara perk up in excitement and start chanting “Tokyo” over and over while bouncing around Gojo. As Megumi is staring at them with displeasure, she eventually asks what’s even in Tokyo they’re needed for. Gojo says they’re taking a little detour to Roppongi, to which Yuji and Nobara scream in excitement. Not even a second later we cut to an abandoned apartment building with cursed energy leaking out of it. Nobara and Yuji express their disappointment but Gojo explains that they need to exorcise a curse in the building to test their skills.
Since Yuji doesn’t yet know how to use any cursed energy or techniques, Gojo hands him a cursed weapon. It’s a sharp bowie knife with cursed fur near the handle, allowing even someone without cursed energy to exorcise curses. The codename, “Slaughter Demon,” is a powerful tool indeed. Nobara calls it lame and pulls out her hammer and nails, her cursed weapon. Yuji asks how a simple little hammer and some nails will do her any good, to which Nobara claims, “Once your brain fixes itself a little bit you’ll truly see my potential, now move it.”
Yuji expresses his distastefulness towards that insult, but regardless they head inside together.
Once inside, Yuji can be seen sneaking around walls and even giving hand signs to Nobara, which she blatantly ignores and struts her way through all of the segments. At the stairs, Nobara exclaims how annoyed she is to be stuck with Yuji and storms upstairs on her own. Yuji, who would’ve been soon to follow her, gets stopped by a curse, a large grotesque creature looking to kill.
A large blade on the curse’s hand gets launched at Yuji and purple blood can be seen in the next frame. Yuji, although looking like he got hit offscreen, cuts off the curse’s hand and slides backward, smirking at his first genuine fight. The curse launched toward Yuji at top speeds and with one swift movement, Yuji dodged the initial attack, swung back around, stabbed the curse in the chest, and continued cutting all the way down towards the curse’s backside until it was cut in half. Yuji then spins around, cuts the front left and back right leg, backflips over another attack, and lands with the knife submerged into the curse’s head. Yuji removes the knife and smirks while standing up. He then says, “Ha, do I have some moves or what?”
Cut to upstairs, Nobara is seen standing in an empty classroom with mannequins. She threatens, “What’s up curse? You’re not hiding from anyone just standing there trying to blend in. Get a move on or I’ll blow your head right off.”
Some time passes and Nobara gets ticked off, yelling about how she warned the curse prior. She pulls out some nails and smacks them full force at the cursed mannequin, with the curse’s scream echoing in the classroom. Nobara takes a step back as the curse grows quiet, to which she then gets startled. Outside, Gojo is explaining to Megumi that although Nobara has experience exorcising curses, Tokyo curses are on a different level from the countryside ones, so this test was to see how strong she is against what Gojo states as, “Real curses, no small fry in some random town. Tokyo curses, where negativity is pouring from all directions into a singular spot.”
The mannequin then starts to move but Nobara smirks. Her cursed technique can work wonders once her nails are already implemented into her target, with Nobara announcing one of her special move’s names, “Hmph.. hairpin!”
And with that, the curse’s head explodes and Nobara smiles. A minute later, a lone child peeks around the corner with fear in his eyes. Nobara thinks the kid must have snuck in while playing and was taken hostage by the curse. As she goes over to pick up the kid and bring him outside, a curse phases through the wall and takes the child hostage. Gojo, outside continues his explanation to Megumi, “When I say Tokyo curses are real curses, I don’t just mean their cursed energy amount. They grow in intelligence and could potentially force harsh decisions on us sorcerors, making their level of curse more deadly than ever.”
Nobara starts to sweat and thinks about her options at this point. She concludes that if she dropped her weapon, the curse would kill her and let the boy live. To her shock, the curse sinks its finger deeper into the boy’s neck and Nobara expresses how much of a fool she was for thinking that curse would be logical. She sweats even more because her weapon is now out of reach and decides this is it, as she closes her eyes to not witness the poor child die. Just as the curse is about to kill the child, a fist slams through the wall, and we hear from behind it, “Oops, I missed haha..”
Not even a second later, Yuji comes bursting through the wall and the curse tries to threaten Yuji with the child’s death. Yuji, without a second thought, cuts off the fingers and left hand of the curse, kicks the curse into the wall, and grabs the child, letting Nobara know it’s her time to shine. Nobara smiles with vengeance in her eyes and the curse phases through the wall to run away. She yells at Itadori to quickly pass the cut-off fingers or hand of the curse, and he throws over the hand. Nobara reveals a straw doll in her jacket and puts it on top of her arm. With that, she states, “Strawdoll technique… Resonance!”
This causes the curse’s heart to explode and eventually kill it, all while its cursed ashes fall below onto Megumi and Gojo, eventually disappearing for good. Gojo smirks and exclaims he’s got some pretty good students on his hands. Even stating, “Oh yeah, she’s crazy alright.”
Cut back into the building, Nobara shows a sign of relief for beating it. Her face quickly fades from any emotion as she sinks into a flashback.
To sum it up, it’s a story about how Nobara, a country girl, met a town girl, Saori. Saori showed her all the good of the town but eventually got kicked out for rumors starting over her. Nobara thanks Saori even to this day for all the good she’s done for her, and for growing her into the person she is today.
Back at the building, Nobara snaps out of her flashback and she and Yuji talk about some personal questions. Yuji, after some talking with Nobara, understands why she’s so aggressive and self-centered, developing a deeper self-respect for her as a teammate. Nobara breaks her high and mighty character and thanks Yuji, only to immediately snap back to it after she states they’re even now.
They help the kid make it back home and Gojo surprises them with a trip to a diner. They all share a cute little moment outside in the sunset and Yuji laughs as the screen fades to black. Before the episode ends, we cut to a future log stating,
“Unamed Appariation of Potential Special-Grade… Due to its emergency nature, three Jujutsu High first years were dispatched to the scene, and one of them died.”
And with that, the episode ends. Before anything, I love the ending of this episode, with the mindset of “Which of the trio is going to die?” I mean, we just met them so one of them already dying is insane. Regardless, this episode was mainly just focused on Nobara’s skills and revealing her techniques, which I’m not crazy about but she still makes for an entertaining character overall. Her role in the story is especially important during later events so I have a liking to Nobara, not to mention Itadori just being as cool as usual. Besides that, I’d seriously recommend watching season 2 of Jujutsu Kaisen, which yes is random but trust me when I say that the new episode was awesome and so emotional. Either way, thanks for reading!
