Jujutsu Kaisen: Nobara Kugisaki (ESTJ)

The Jujutsu Kaisen characters have been taking us a little longer than expected to publish analyses on. Thus far, we’ve written Kento Nanami, Satoru Gojo, Suguru Geto , and Aoi Todo. The final three (Kugisaki, Fushiguro, and Itadori) have been a little trickier. However, after some discussion, we finally settled on ESTJ for Nobara Kugisaki, so we will be presenting that case below. Nobara Kugisaki took us extra time to settle on as an ESTJ, because the show doesn’t focus too much on her compared to some of the other characters. Although, she gets a reasonable amount of character development, so ultimately, we’re confident in our conclusion. Other than ESTJ, we primarily considered ENTJ and ESFP for Kugisaki. Hopefully, our reasoning makes sense.

Te:

“Let’s save some time. You and I should split up. I’ll start from the top and investigate floor by floor. You start from the bottom. Let’s knock this out and grab some sushi and ginza!”

“I don’t want to hear it from someone who last week was a clueless normie. Now get moving.”

“Come out and say what you think.”

“Drop it! I’ve given you my thanks already. We’re even now.”

Kugisaki is assertive, structured, and goal oriented. From the moment she enters the show, she demonstrates a need to be in control of her environment and those in it. On her first mission with Itadori, she gives him orders, which include a systematic approach to investigating the building. Her focus is on saving time so that they can accomplish their goal as quickly as possible. The structured approach is indicative of high Te, but the over eagerness to sacrifice caution indicates that she does not prioritize an introverted perceiving function (Ni or Si).

Kugisaki’s dominant and assertive nature applies to everyone, including curses, whom she enjoys antagonizing by telling them what they should do while she’s removing their option to do it. She particularly does not appreciate her authority being questioned, which is why she lashes back at Itadori for questioning her approach to their first mission. Kugisaki gets offended, attacks his lack of experience, and then barks orders once again. This hyper-aggressiveness is fairly common for her, even expanding to include random strangers. Even as a child, Kugisaki maintains this temperament, rarely showing soft emotions.

Kugisaki is willing to recognize the accomplishments of others, and offer her thanks. However, she tends to diminish such pleasantries, making them purely transactional. For instance, when Itadori saves her on their first mission, she offers a sincere “thank you”, but then immediately afterward tells him to drop it, because she’d already given him thanks. Essentially, the transaction was over, so it was time to move on.

Si:

“This was the only way a poor girl like me could move to the city without worrying about money.”

“Why are you two talking about losing after you already got rolled once?”

“Trouble sleeping? You’ve got open pores.”

Becoming a Jujutsu sorcerer appears to be a means to an end for Kugisaki, rather than something she actually desires to do. In fact, she complains to Itadori during their first mission, saying, “I come all the way to Tokyo and I still have to deal with dumb curses!” It later surfaces that this occupation was her only way to move to the city without having to worry about money. A choice of career focusing on financial security (Si) and achieving a realistic goal (Te), rather than desire or a personal sense of meaning, is common for STJs. In addition, a significant part of her reasoning for wanting to move to Tokyo appears to be her desire to reconnect with a long, lost friend. This could potentially be Si, if she’s trying to recreate a part of her past.

Kugisaki’s instinct is to point to past experience when interacting with others. For instance, when Itadori questions her orders, she points out that he was a “clueless normie” up until the week prior. In another instance, when Itadori and Fushiguro discuss not wanting to lose, she makes a crack about how they had “already got rolled once”.

Lastly, Kugisaki frequently shares her observations along with her conclusions, rather than keeping things vague or unsaid. As an extremely minor example, she does this when making a snide comment about Mai’s open pores. However, in another instance, in the middle of fighting Mahito’s double in season two, Kugisaki lists out all of her observations for Mahito, one by one, leading up to her final conclusion: that she was fighting a double rather than the real Mahito.

Ne:

“[About Itadori] He looks like a potato. He’s definitely the type that ate his own boogers as a kid. [About Fushiguro] And just his name? I can’t stand high and mighty dudes. I bet he likes setting oil slicked seagulls on fire.”

Kugisaki’s Ne surfaces mostly during the few moments that the show allows the viewer to hear her thoughts. For instance, after first meeting Itadori and Fushiguro, Kugisaki internally speculates about them based purely on their appearance, or the vibes they’re giving her. She likens Itadori to a potato, and assumes that he was the type to eat his boogers as a kid. As for Fushiguro, she determines that he likes to set oil slicked seagulls on fire. That last one especially is a wild speculation with no real basis.

Kugisaki also uses the occasional metaphor, when trying to get a point across. Later in season one, she likens her life to a bus ride, to explain to Itadori that she can’t let too many people have sway over her heart. Overall, however, Ne is not something we see a lot in this character, since it is only her tertiary function.

Fi:

“…if I think of my life as a bus ride, you know, I don’t want to get my heart swayed by someone who shouldn’t have had a seat in the first place. Too mean?”

“I would…since it means being true to myself.”

“I’m not the type to break down and fall to pieces when a guy I barely know dies.”

Kugisaki is very forceful when it comes to expressing her identity or getting others to validate her high opinions of herself, which can be a sign of inferior Fi. When first being introduced to the group, she tells them that they should be honored to have her as their group’s girl. Before meeting them, she practically attacks a man, trying to get him to tell her that she has the potential to be a model. Even as a child, she runs around beating bullies up while declaring that she’s number one. However, spinning all that in the positive, she knows what she wants and will stop at nothing to get it.

Kugisaki is good at sectioning off her emotions, which can make her come across as mean or unsympathetic at times. While she can be very loyal and committed, she’s very careful about who she lets in, because she doesn’t want just anyone to be able to sway her. As a kid, she wasn’t known to be a crier, which is why her friend is caught off guard by her reaction to losing Saori.