NobaMaki

NobaMaki is the femslash ship between Nobara Kugisaki and Maki Zenin from the Jujutsu Kaisen fandom.

Canon
Maki and Nobara met in the moment when both Fushiguro and Kugisaki were feeling down becausse of Itadori's "death", Maki acted a bit strict with them but then apologized when her second-year upperclassmen told her about the reason that both were mooded down. Then they told them about the Kyoto Sister School Exchange Event, Nobara asks about this event, and after getting explained, Nobara concluded that they had to fight with another jujutsu sorcerers, Maki smiled at this saying that the event was jujutsu battle where everything but killing would go. The second-years upperclassmen then told Nobara and Kugisaki that they would train them before getting on the battle.

Although both aren't seen training together, Maki sees on the way that Panda was training Nobara doing the with "falling practice" by spinning her by her legs and dropping her to the ground.

After Nobara and Fushiguro ran into with the high-up students, Mai Zenin (Maki's sister) confronted Nobara while Fushiguro was busy with the other high-up student. Before Nobara was going to get shot by Mai, Maki suddenly appears to lend a hand to Kugisaki. Before Mai proposed fight to Maki, Nobara attacks Mai from behind as she was pretending being injured in the floor, thanking Maki in the process for the supporting that she gave to the struggle. Both then are seen walking together while chatting, then Nobara placed her head on Maki's shoulder saying that she respected her.

During the Kyoto Goodwill Event Arc, while Nobara was dealing with Nishimiya Momo, she tells Kugisaki about the Zenin family's situation, mostly about Mai, and that she was confusing curses with friends, Nobara then says that she couldn't stand [Mai] even regardless of her upbringing on her past and that she loved Maki because she endured the same as Mai before. Later, in Mai vs Maki's scene, it's shown in a flashback about Nobara, Yuuji, and Panda together. Nobara asks Yuuji what did he think about Maki, Yuuji, internally, he said that [Kugisaki] would be mad no mattering what he would answer, showing that Nobara would be overprotective towards Maki if Yuuji said something inappropiate. Then Nobara cleared the question while saying about what he did think about her as a sorcerer, Itadori then gets relieved about it. After Itadori finished on describing her, Nobara made clear about her and Maki's family too, while saying that they were an annoying clan of sorcerers as they were interfering with her promotion of being promoted to highest sorcerer after Maki had left the clan. Panda then proposes that if she improved herself in the exchange event, and it would be spread around, her family wouldn't harass her like that anymore, in which Nobara told both guys that they had to start winning in the group battle for Maki, as Itadori agreed while being a bit confused about it.

Maki then notices about it, and she interrupted the three of them saying that they could hear them, while the three were a bit scared about it and so a bit flustered, while Nobara seemed the most nervous there as Maki noticed them. After Maki had that flashback, she smiled as she said that she shouldn't let herself distracted by that.

Moments

 * In Juju Stroll of the 5th episode, it's seen Nobara and Maki in a full scene after Fushiguro mentioned that Panda's smell was like the sun.
 * Maki and Nobara are shown together in the 18th episode, when Nobara had finally woke up after being hit by one of Mai's bullets.
 * They're seen playing in the water at the beach along with the upperclassmen and Megumi while Yuuji recorded them all during the second ending.
 * Nobara and Maki are seen smiling at each other for a moment in the same ending.

Quotes
"I can't stand [Mai], regardless of her upbringing, and i love Maki-san, who endured the same upbringing."

- Nobara to Momo, episode 17.

"Maki-san, let's go eat hamburger together next time!"

- Nobara to Maki in the Audio Drama from the 7th episode.

Fanon
Despite of the ship having a small fanbase, it gained popularity as the 8th episode was aired out, quickly receiving a considerable amount of shippers and with the pass of time while more episodes are aired, NobaMaki received more followers. It is the most popular femslash ship in all the Jujutsu Kaisen fandom. It has several followers on Tumblr, a fanbase on Twitter, and a few fics on AO3. It's the most written ship for both characters. It can be shipped alongside with ItaFushi and SatoSugu.

A rare famslash in the slash-filled shonen franchise, the NobaMaki is often compared to other yuri ships with a similar destiny like the MomoJiro. For example, both ships are composed of a tomboy girl, whom many read as lesbian, and a more feminine oujo, who has a potential love interest in the form of a emotionless op character.

Sadly, not only do the two ships have similar origins, they've also both become the target of an ongoing fanon controversy both internally and externally JJK fandom. This is mainly due to the fact that due to the lack of any real romance and the associated lack of noticeable interest in Nobara in guys, many of the ship's supporters interpret her as lesbian or bisexual, which was negatively received by another part of fandom that would like to see girls in het ships.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

PIXIV

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Trivia

 * They're seen in back-to-back scenes in the first opening.