Spoiler Warning: This articles includes spoilers for the Jujutsu Kaisen manga.
Megumi Fushiguro and Nobara Kugisaki were introduced to us as the main characters, alongside Yuji Itadori, at the beginning of Jujutsu Kaisen. In fact, Megumi was the first one to meet the main protagonist and push him towards the society of the sorcerers. On the other hand, after Yuji joined Jujutsu High, he became the closest companion of Nobara and Megumi.
Following the popularity of Gojo Satoru, it was Megumi whom fans loved even more than Yuji, and Nobara was seen as the epitome of bravery. Every JJK fan knew that both characters were meant to achieve something big, but the final arc came with disappointment, and we can’t deny that author Gege Akutami wasted the potential the duo had.
Megumi and Nobara Get Sidelined in the Story
When the JJK series started, apart from Gojo, Nobara and Megumi received huge appreciation and adoration from the fandom. They quickly became two of the most popular characters of Jujutsu Kaisen. In fact, their popularity rose to the extent that we became skeptical about whether Yuji was really the main protagonist.
Nobara was a confident and brave young woman who would not shy away from facing any danger for the sake of others. Even though she wasn’t as powerful as Yuji and Megumi, she was someone whose character remained unshakable, no matter how hard the circumstances got. Nobara trained harder to gain physical prowess like his peers.
On the other side, Gojo raised Megumi for half his life so no one else knew about the young man’s true potential more than the gifted sorcerer with the Six Eyes. And it was Gojo who once said that Megumi’s potential would someday take him to the position in which he sits today.
However, before Megumi could polish his skills, he was taken as the vessel by Sukuna, the King of Curses, and our boy didn’t showcase his potential until the final arc. Even though he did help his friend win the final battle against Sukuna in the Shinjuku Showdown Arc, he simply remained a bystander and side character for most of the story.
Nobara, on the other hand, gets touched by Mahito and presumed dead in the Shibuya Arc; the series never came up with a clarification about the character. Initially, fans believed that she hadn’t died, but when the series didn’t give any answer, everyone forgot about her. In the end, several fans even stopped caring whether she was alive or truly dead. The most pivotal characters were treated as supporting characters in the latter half of the series.
Megumi and Nobara’s Underwhelming Role in the Final Arc
Megumi, Nobara, and Yuji fought several monsters together, and that’s when the trio bonded with each other. Megumi used the Ten Shadow Technique, which overwhelmed several curses, and even the strongest ancient sorcerers were defeated by him in the Culling Game. His potential was even acknowledged by Sukuna, and not to forget, the King of Curses was always interested in taking Megumi as his host.
However, he couldn’t help his peers when the evil curse managed to take possession of his body. In fact, the nightmares started happening – Megumi, possessed by Sukuna, killed his sister and even killed his mentor, Gojo. Besides them, he also killed several sorcerers, but Megumi responded when Yuji talked to his soul after capturing him in his domain in the final battle. He even helped Yuji to take down Sukuna, but the sequence remains underwhelming as fans had higher expectations from the character.
Nobara remained a character who was almost forgotten, and fans stopped craving her return in the series. Well, Gege Akutami brought her back, and fans rejoiced, but the way she helped Yuji in the fight couldn’t impress the fandom as she didn’t even come face-to-face with the curse to knock him down. In the end, both Nobara and Megumi fought the main villain of the series from the shadows.
Honestly, if other characters from the series did what Nobara did to defeat Sukuna, it wouldn’t have mattered. The outcome would have remained the same. However, things would have been different if she, and Megumi for that matter, was brought back a little earlier.
Of course, Megumi was held hostage, sort of, but Nobara’s return feels nothing more than a fan service. In the end, fans cared less about Megumi and Nobara and more about Yuta, who, let me remind you, was introduced a lot later in the story. He contributed much more to the fight than Megumi and Nobara.
Surely, some fans wouldn’t agree with all of this, but many would nod their heads in agreement when asked a simple question – Could Megumi and Nobara’s stories have been handled better in Jujutsu Kaisen? I am sure many would say “Yes” to this question. So, let us know your opinion in the comment section.
Aparna Ukil
