You are lucky, my brother spent probably a half-hour trying to get his '13's hood to open to no avail, pulling the hood release gave no resistance. His 12v was also too low to start his Leaf but would turn the Leaf on. I drove to his place and spent another half hour with him, having him pull the cable while I tried opening the hood, all to no avail. Luckily I had brought my 12v cigarette lighter to cigarette lighter jump starter cable and since the battery had enough power to turn the Leaf on, I was able to jump-start his Leaf through the cigarette lighter.
It got me thinking though, if his 12v was too low to turn his Leaf on, we would have been SOL as we had no access to his 12v battery under the hood. Well, I suppose I could have maybe found a 12v always hot connection in his fuse box in the cab but then I would have needed clip leads, which I hadn't thought to bring,
A few days later I had his Leaf at my place and spent another hour trying to get his hood open all to no avail. I tried tips I had read about going through the charge port lid but they were for '12 Leafs and '13 and on's are different, requiring bolts be removed from under the hood before one could gain access and since we couldn't open the hood, that was no good. I believe the end of his hood cable has come loose or fell off so pulling the release does no good. If you got your hood open I'd suggest you NOT close it before figuring out what might be wrong, if you do you may never get it open, or at least without destroying the hood. My brother's battery has been OK after that jump and has still yet to get the hood open. I suggested he take it to either the dealer or a shop and they might have a trick to get it open and allow them to replace the cable or whatever else might have broken.
Note you can still lower your hood and let the first catch latch, just don't slam it all the way.
