Jujutsu Kaisen Season 1 Episode 3 Recap – Girl of Steel

New Girl

The new student arrives at the train station. While they wait, Yuji asks Megumi why there are only three first-years. He tells him not a lot of people can see curses. Gojo arrives and compliments Yuji’s new uniform.

The new student overhears an old man trying to recruit a girl for a modeling agency. She asks if she can be a model, but the old man makes an excuse and storms off.

Gojo finds her. She joins them for introductions. Her name is Nobara Kugisaki. She looks at her two classmates and thinks they’re both weird. Gojo invites them for sightseeing around Tokyo. Nobara and Yuji light up immediately. Gojo tells them they‘re going to Roppongi—where they have to perform an exorcism in a cursed building near a graveyard. Nobara and Yuji hilariously get frustrated.

Gojo wants to appraise their skill levels, so he asks Nobara and Yuji to defeat the cursed spirit inside. Yuji asks if he can do it, as he cannot perform a curse on his own. Gojo tells him there’s already cursed energy inside him from Sukuna’s fingers but it may not be enough, so he gives him a cursed tool: a cleaver named Slaughter Demon that can work on curses.

Before they enter, Gojo warns Yuji not to let Sukuna out as it can harm the other humans around. Nobara rushes inside and they explore the abandoned floors. Outside, Megumi wants to help but Gojo stops him due to his injuries.

Cursed Building

Nobara suggests they split up. She takes the upper floors while Yuji takes the lower. She wants to get it over with quickly to have some sushi. Yuji tells her not to rush it but Nobara kicks him, telling him she doesn‘t want a newbie to comment on her work.

As she leaves, a curse emerges from the ceiling to attack Yuji. He slices it just in time and kills it.

Nobara goes into a room full of mannequins and realizes there’s a curse there. She takes out her nails and imbues them with energy before launching them with a hammer. The mannequin buckles; eyes appear on its head.

Nobara snaps her fingers and the nails dig deeper into the mannequin, killing it. She hears a sound and finds a little boy hiding in the corner. The boy doesn’t want to leave as there’s a curse behind him who appears and uses him as a hostage.

She tries to regain composure and drops her weapons, but the curse won’t back down. Suddenly, a fist smashes through the wall behind them. Yuji punches through and slices the curse’s hand, freeing the boy.

Tough as Nails

The curse passes through the wall and tries to escape, but Nobara won’t let it. She takes a voodoo doll from her pocket and puts it on the curse’s severed hand. She does her Straw Doll Technique: Resonance and the curse dies.

Nobara remembers her friend Saori who transferred to her town a few years back. She admired her, but she was ostracized by the villages, accusing her of mocking the country folk. They chased Saori away and vandalized their car. Saori had shared snacks with her as a kid. She fears the same might happen if she stayed, or worse.

Yuji tells her they shouldn’t have split up while screaming at how he managed to barge through a solid wall. Yuji asks him why she joined Jujutsu High School. All she says is she hates the countryside and loves the sights in Tokyo.

Nobara thanks Yuji for their success, and they let the boy go home. Gojo congratulates them, and they go out to dinner.

Our Thoughts

Nobara is not your average third-lead anime girl. I can’t wait to see this whole team dynamic work. I rate this a 3.8/5.