NobaMaki

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

Canon
Maki and Nobara first meet when both Fushiguro and Kugisaki are mourning their classmate Yuji's premature death. Nobara and Megumi appear extremely sad, so when Maki approaches them, she tries to joke, saying that they look like somebody just died. Panda interrupts and quickly informs Maki on her strategic mistake. Maki gets angry at Panda noting that he should've informed her on that earlier, since now Maki will seem like a monster to their juniors. She quickly recovers and apologizes for her unthoughtful behavior.

Maki and her classmates ask the first-years whether they want to participate in the Kyoto Sister School Exchange Event. Nobara has never heard of such thing, but Maki is quick to provide an explanation. Maki says their third-year is suspended so Nobara and Megumi don't have a choice but to join them in the competition. Nobara seems surprised that jujutsu sorcerers would figth each other, but Maki is very enthusiastic about the event, and she makes sure Nobara and Megumi give them a verbal confirmation they will participate with them.

Later Maki, Nobara, Megumi, Inumaki, and Panda are shown training. While Panda and Nobara are engrossed in physical practice, or so called "falling practice", Maki and Megumi stand aside and talk as they watch them. One day, as the second-years and Megumi continue training, Nobara is seen being lost somewhere in the city after she went on a shopping-spree.

On the day of Kyoto students' arrival, Maki sends Nobara and Panda to buy bring them cold drinks form the vending machines. That's when Nobara and Fushiguro run into the Kyoto students, Mai Zenin, Maki's sister, and Todo Aoi. Even before they start talking, Nobara notices Mai's resemblance to Maki, noting that they have the same "vibe". Mai confronts Nobara both physically and verbally. They echange insults, that conclude in Nobara saying that Maki is much prettier than Mai. When Mai seemingly defeats Nobara, Maki suddenly appears to lend a hand to Kugisaki. Maki and Mai are engaged in a conversation, and Nobara, who was previously lying on the floor seemingly unconscious, attacks Mai from behind. Nobara thinks that Maki tried to distract Mai on purpose and thanks her, however Maki looks a little stunned as she clearly didn't expect such turn of events.

When Mai tries to provoke them and Nobara allows her to, Maki hits her with the end of her staff and Nobara immediately comes to her senses. As they leave, Maki tells Nobara that she doesn't have any cursed energy and in order to see curses she has to wear special glasses. Maki says that she wants to become as strong as she possibly can, so when she comes back home to the Zenin family, she can show everyone who undervalued her for who she really is. Nobara looks impressed as she tells Maki that she respects her a lot.

When the event begins, Nobara is confronted by Momo Nishimiya, who tells her about the Zenin family's situation, and how hard Mai has to work in order to win her family's favor. Nobara says that Mai's sister, Maki, who had the same upbringing, has it even worse, and out of the two she actually likes her. Later, when Maki faces Mai and the two fight, Maki remembers how Nobara tried to support her. In that memory, Maki overhears Nobara asking Yuji what he thought about Maki. Yuji, internally squirming, thinks to himself that Kugisaki would be mad no mattering what he says, meaning that Nobara would be overprotective of Maki if Yuji says something inappropiate. Scared Yuji stutters that Maki is a "nice lady". Then Nobara makes the question clear, explaining that she meant Maki as a sorcerer, not a woman, and Itadori visibly relaxes. After Itadori gives his honest opinion on Maki's abilities, Nobara makes sure he knows about Maki's difficult family situation, too, noting that despite Maki's skill, they were interfering with her promotion to a higher rank after Maki left the clan. Panda joins their conversation and notices that if she shows herself in the exchange event, and it would be spread around, her family would stop mistreating her. This has an affect on Nobara, who proposes they should try their best to win in the group battle for Maki.

Maki ovearhears their secret conversation and interrupts them, saying that she and her classmates can hear them. Nobara, Yuji, and Panda seem nervous and flustered, while Nobara seems the most nervous out of three as Maki noticed them. Maki fondly smiles at that memory as she says that she shouldn't let herself be distracted by it.

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.
 * During one of the Jujutsu Stroll episodes, Nobara eagerly asks Maki to get a hamburger with her.
 * 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.
 * During the 17th episode, Maki gets distracted and has a flashback about Nobara during a fight with Mai
 * 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 were 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. Since the official fanbook mentions Nobunaga as the type of Nobara, fans of the ship often interpret this as a reference to the Maki, drawing parallels between their powerful clans and their ruthless fighting nature.

Sadly this ship has become the target of an ongoing fanon controversy both internally and externally JJK fandom. This is mainly due to the lack of any real romance and the associated lack of noticeable interest from Nobara in guys, many of the ship's supporters interpret her as lesbian or bisexual, which was negatively received by another part of the fandom that would like to see girls in het ships.

Outside JJK's fandom, this ship is often compared to the MomoJirou as a popular femlash ship in the shonen franchise, whose shipping tends to slash mostly due to the overwhelming number of male characters. This only intensified after JJK became one of the most popular ongoing shonen franchises, and similarly to MomoJiro, NobaMaki also hit the spotlight due to its popularity and arguments with het ships fans.

Trivia

 * They're seen in back-to-back scenes in the first opening.
 * They are often put side by side in the official promotional art.
 * In episode 21, when the students play baseball, Maki shows Nobara a "hand-horns" sign (or the so called "rock'n'roll salute"), but with the thumb out. In American Sign Language, the gesture means “I love you”.
 * On the Jujutsu Kaisen relationship chart, Maki is labeled as being respected by Nobara.
 * During her fight with Mahito, Nobara loses her left eye, and Maki has her right eye cut in the battle with Ogi.
 * Nobara likes cats, and Maki likes dogs. Maki prefers rice, and Maki — bread.
 * During the live stream of Juju Fest 2021, Maki's Japanese VA Mikako Komatsu admitted that she loves Nobara. During the same event, both Maki and Nobara's VAs live dubbed the "I respect you" scene, and later Nobara's Japanese VA Asami Seto said that she chose this as her favorite scene because it is when she (the actress) fell in love with Maki. In return, Maki's VA said "I like Nobara the most", and Seto-san added that they both love each other.
 * Their English VAs ship each other's characters since Episode 8, calling their heroines girlfriends. For example, Allegra Clark, Maki's VA, tweeted about how "there is no heterosexual explanation" for the way Nobara looked at Maki before she admitted she respects her.

Fandom
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