Nobara Kugisaki

Nobara Kugisaki arrives at Tokyo Jujutsu High fresh from the countryside and determined never to look back. She fights curses with a hammer, nails, and a vicious straw-doll technique, dresses exactly how she likes, and refuses to apologize for wanting money, style, and respect on her own terms.

She could have been a stock tough girl, but the writing gives her real appetite — for beauty, for winning, for a life bigger than the one she left — and Asami Seto plays that hunger with a snarl instead of shame. Her fights are inventive and nasty in the best way, and she never once performs modesty about her own skill.