YutaMaki and Itakugi, possible endgames?
I wanted to talk about the possibility of Yuta/Maki and Yuji/Nobara being canon at the end of the show. Or at least, having some romantic confirmation.
Now before we begin I just want to say that I would GLADLY make an entire presentation about Nobara and Yuji's and Yuta and Maki's development and their relationship but because people are going to ram my post with comments like "oh so you only ship them because the boy is nice to the girl??? Or because the girl is nice to the boy?? heteronormative!!" so for now we'll be focusing on the romantic aspects of their relationship, aka the blushing and etc.
This is just my opinion and you're free to express yours, by the way.
Let's start off with the fact that Jujutsu Kaisen has zero romantic relationships. Shounen anime are often known to not know how to write romances well since half of the anime is action, but Jujutsu Kaisen shows us romance subtly yet still effectively.
Yuta and Maki's conversation. Yuta is the first person (besides Toge and Panda) to know about Maki's upbringing.
Now I know this might be hard to explain for those who don't see it so I'm going to try my best.
Maki and Yuta's conversation showed that she was flustered about his response. Maki blushes as she leaves and deflects his compliment that he thinks she's strong and resilient, Yuta already holds a deep respect for Maki however the way he talks about her suggests more personal feelings rather than just talking about Maki like she's his friend.
He tells Rika to hold an unconscious Maki gently, almost as if she were a butterfly or a flower. He gets angry at Rika for screaming at Maki. And you know what Rika screams at Maki for? Because she got angry that Yuta is always thinking about Maki.
Not to mention there have been plenty times where romance was subtly shown between Yuta and Maki. Such as:
In an interview, Gege Akutami said that Yuta could potentially fall in love with another girl since Rika is gone.
Maki’s view on Yuta changed from an “irritating beansprout” to an “amazing beansprout”. (source)
Panda asks Yuta if he prefers women with large or small chests, and after Yuta replies with "Medium-sized", Panda begins teasing Maki by saying that they have a chance on getting together.
In Jujutsu stroll for episode 15, when asked "What's your type?", Maki says "At least someone stronger than me." Yuta, a Special Grade Sorcerer, could easily fit that description.
Not to mention when the 2nd years were introduced, Panda once said that Maki’s softer with Yuta when he’s around.
I think it's notoriously easy to understand that there is romance hinted between the two.
Now let's look at Yuji and Nobara.
Now before you say "impossible they're sibling-coded!!" or anything about Nobara finding interesting in girls, please read the Manga before making accusations over HEADCANONS popularized by the fandom. After Nobara and Yuji defeat the curse womb brothers and walk back, we get to see their first one on one conversation without Fushiguro.
Nobara in the English translation of the Manga considers Yuji her "ride or die" and that he had crashed her way into her life, their discussion inevitably leads Nobara to say that this makes her and Yuji accomplices.
In the original translation by Gege and in the anime it was differently.
"There are only so many open seats in my life, and I don't want to let my heart be swayed by anyone who's not sitting in them. Is that mean? Of course, there are also people like you who bring their own seat and sit down." Nobara tells Yuji that she doesn't want her heart to be "swayed" by those who don't have a seat in her life. And yet she says that Yuji is the one who brought his OWN seat in her life. Which means that Yuji had swayed her heart in a sense.
It's the same translation here too except there's something else,
Nobara tells Yuji about her heart not wanting to be moved by those who didn't take a seat in her life, she used the Kanji "心" which means heart but it also means "core" core is most familiar used as a noun referring to the central or most important part of something. So in that case, Nobara is telling Yuji that she doesn't want her core/heart to be swayed by people who don't have a seat in her life. But she follows that saying that Yuji is the one who brought his own chair into her core/heart. Which means he has an important role into her heart.
Moving onto chapter 64, Nobara (after watching movies with Yuji) meets Ozawa. Ozawa had a crush on Yuji since middle school and has always wanted to tell him that. Their conversation leads to Ozawa asking Nobara if she had a crush on Yuji too, which Nobara responds that even if heaven and earth danced to lambada there would be no way. And you can see a tiny illustration of "heaven" and "earth" dancing on the cups, and guess what happens?
Her heart skips a beat at the thought of that.
Now if you've watched a lot of anime you would know that this is the most obvious trope that's often used in romance anime including tsundere's. But it's also so convenient by itself that this happend, she says that even if heaven and earth were to dance there would be now way, yet, when heaven eand earth dance together her heart skips a beat.
Yuji and Nobara have a mutual trust towards each other, in chapter 5 they even blush at each other (multiple times if you've paid attention to the panels).
As for additional information:
Gege mentioned that chapter's title "Accomplices" refers to all duos who appeared in Ch.63. It makes Yuji and Nobara accomplices too.
When Nobara fights Momo Nishimiya, there is a scene where she gets a flashback of Yuji. In the Manga the panel made him look funny, however in the anime that was changed and Yuji looked more happy, presumably from Nobara's point of view.
In an official art created by Mappa, I made a post about how Nobara gives Yuji flowers that have a lot of romantic meanings. You can read that here to add onto this.
There is also Nobara's flower language that can add onto Itakugi as well and this analysis I made of their relationship.
I guess that's all I had to discuss about. Sorry if this is badly explained, just wanted to share my thoughts and all.
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