INUYASHA, THE HALF-DEMON
Inuyasha is the titular character of Inuyasha, he is one of the main protagonists of the story. The half-demon travels alongside his companions in hopes of restoring the Shikon Jewel and defeating Naraku, who is responsible for a number of tragedies in his life.
BACKSTORY
Inuyasha was born of a human-mother and a dog-demon, during a time when such a union was seen as blasphemous, leading to him being ostracized by both humans and demons alike. His mother died while he was still young, and his father died the night he was born, leaving no one to care for him. He spent the course of his childhood fending off and hiding from stronger demons that loathed him because of his nature as a half-breed, and eventually learned of an artifact that could turn him into a full-fledged demon, the Shikon Jewel.
His attempts at obtaining the Shikon Jewel failed because it was protected by an abnormally strong priestess, Kikyo. Through their constant meetings, the pair slowly fell in love with one another, until the machinations of Naraku led to her sealing him to a tree using a sacred arrow. He remained there, sleeping, until Kagome frees him fifty years later.
PERSONALITY
Inuyasha is brash, aggressive, and immature, due to a combination of factors. During his youth, he’d spent a significant portion of his life fighting tooth and nail against other demons to become stronger. He came to hate those willing to commit acts of cruelty simply for the sake of doing so, because he had undergone such treatment by those who hated him because of his nature.
He has a sense of honor and loyalty to his companions, not willing to let others fight his battles for him or be harmed for his sake. His romance with Kikyo is one of the things that made him reconsider abandoning his goal to become a full-fledged demon, but Naraku’s actions force him to close his heart and ignore his growing feelings of kindness and warmth. Over the course of the story, Inuyasha learns to trust his allies and slowly but surely begins to remember and embrace those feelings.
POWERS
Being half-demon, Inuyasha is gifted with strength, speed, and durability above the average human. His claws alone can rend steel and defeat weak demons with little-to-no trouble, and only during moments when he is pure-human does he lose these powers. Inversely, when his life is in danger or other factors come into play, he can become a full-demon and gain extreme strength at the cost of his sanity and restraint. Shortly after the series begins, he comes into possession of the Tessaiga, a sword forged from his father’s fang that can keep his demonic nature in check and gain abilities from other sources.
INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER CHARACTERS
With few exceptions, Inuyasha is ruthless in dealing with his enemies because he knows they will kill him if given the chance. His relationship with his companions gradually improves as the series continues, and his love for Kagome grows until he no longer bothers hiding it. He treats children and half-demons with a level of compassion that he shows few others, being able to sympathize with them.
KAGOME HIGURASHI, THE REINCARNATED PRIESTESS
Kagome is a modern girl who ends up in the past at the start of the series. She serves as one of the main protagonists. She is the reincarnation of Kikyo, which is how she came into possession of the Shikon Jewel. After she accidentally shatters it, she travels with Inuyasha and her other companions to restore the jewel.
BACKSTORY
Kagome starts as a regular teenage girl who lives with her mother, brother, and grandfather in a house located next to a shrine. One day, while chasing her cat, she ends up near the Bone Eater’s well and is pulled through time by a demon known as Mistress Centipede. In hopes to save her own life, Kagome helps free Inuyasha, who is pinned to a tree nearby. This seemingly destined encounter changes Kagomes "regular life" forever.
Later on in the series, a demon crow steals Kagome's Shikon Jewel. In an attempt to shoot the jewel down with a sacred arrow, Kagome accidentally hits and shatters it into jewel shards that fly all over Japan. This is the beginning of an epic journey to retrieve them.
PERSONALITY
Unlike the rest of her companions, Kagome was born in a peaceful era and thus lacks the emotional turmoil and tragic past that they have suffered through. This leaves her unused to the horrors and supernatural aspects of the era she finds herself in, but she adapts quickly enough during their journey across Feudal Japan.
Kagome dislikes being compared to Kikyo, her previous incarnation, because she cannot initially compare to her. She hates seeing others suffer and will not standby if she can do something to help them, more than occasionally throwing herself into danger. She possesses a strong sense of justice and often inspires others to do the right thing when needed, acting as a moral anchor in the darkest of times.
POWERS
Kagome possess a vast amount of spiritual powers, only surpassed by a select few individuals in the series. This gives her a number of innate abilities, such as being able to purify demonic energy and ward away demons. However, she lacks the control and experience to use these powers to their fullest effect until late in the series.
Kagome is the weakest member of her group in terms of physical strength and often needs the others to cover for her. Combined with her purification power, she becomes adept at using bows and arrows to make up for this. She can also sense the jewel shards, allowing the party to track them down.
INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER CHARACTERS
Kagome is compassionate and friendly to most individuals she meets, capable of showing sympathy to even her enemies. Among her companions, she acts as a surrogate mother to Shippō, a best friend to Sango, and she respects Miroku as a skilled monk.
Her relationship with Inuyasha is the most complex, beginning on a rough note as the two only worked together because she can find the jewel shards and he can take them from enemies. The presence of Kikyo, who she feels inadequate when compared to, only complicates matters further. As the series progresses, she gradually gets over these feelings and moves on, allowing a full-fledged romance to develop.
MIROKU, THE LECHEROUS MONK
Miroku is one of the main characters and a traveling companion of Inuyasha. A monk-by-trade, he possesses an unusual ability called the Wind Tunnel. He seeks to rid himself of this hereditary curse that was placed on his family by killing Naraku. He also has a servant named Hachi, who occasionally lends him a hand.
BACKSTORY
Miroku was born into a family of monks that was cursed by Naraku. His grandfather had been a powerful monk, capable of rivaling the demon several times, until he was deceived and struck through the hand. This wound formed the Wind Tunnel, a curse that was passed down between male descendants.
In his youth, he witnessed his father being sucked into his own Wind Tunnel and decided to find and kill Naraku to break the curse. He was trained by a monk named Mushin and worked alongside Hachi to run exorcism scams. One day, he tried to take the jewel shards Kagome possessed and ended up working alongside the group to find Naraku.
PERSONALITY
Miroku is lecherous, a trait he seems to have picked up from his father and grandfather, often hitting on women and asking them to bear his children without hesitation. He cheats wealthy clients who ask for his services out of their money and often cons others to get free food and boarding during his travels. Despite this, he does take his duties as a monk seriously and often prays for the departed to find peace.
Miroku is arguably the most intelligent of the main characters, capable of coming to conclusions and understanding circumstances as they develop. He is the first of the party to note that those who seek out the jewel shards for power lose their hearts to them, and he often acts as an intermediary between his group and others due to being mature and well-spoken. He displays a self-sacrificing nature for others when the need arises, which is something exploited by his enemies.
POWERS
Miroku is a trained monk with the ability to use his spiritual powers and sutras to great effect during combat. He can exorcise demons possessing people or objects, create barriers, and bind demons into place. He is also a capable fighter using his staff, easily able to fend off humans and demons.
Despite being a curse, Miroku’s Wind Tunnel is one of the strongest abilities in the series. It conscripts anything that it absorbs into oblivion, with the only notable weakness being that any poison that is absorbed by the technique will pass into his body and ultimately leave him weakened. The drawback to this is that he must use prayer beads to seal it when not in use and the more he uses it the quicker it reaches the point where it will consume him.
INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER CHARACTERS
Miroku is openly lecherous when he comes by eligible women who suit his tastes, asking them to bear his children because he knows his life will be short due to the curse of the Wind Tunnel. The only exception is Sango, whom he works alongside the most and treats as an equal. He falls in love with her over the course of the series.
He treats his other companions as younger siblings somewhat, offering his wisdom and insight when needed. He sees Inuyasha as a friend and respects his relationship with Kagome, protecting her when Inuyasha cannot. He does have a somewhat bad influence on Shippō, who chides him for his behavior, but still offers his advice when it comes to romance.
SANGO, THE DEMON-SLAYER
Sango is one of the main characters and a traveling companion of Inuyasha. She is a demon-slayer, a human who specializes in the destruction of demons through the use of weapons and tools, and has worked alongside Kirara since she was a child. She seeks to hunt down Naraku to get revenge for the destruction of her clan and controlling her brother through a jewel shard implanted in his neck.
BACKSTORY
Sango was born to the head of a village that specialized in exterminating demons and grew up alongside Kirara and her brother, Kohaku. On the day of Kohaku’s first assignment as a demon-slayer, he ended up being possessed by a demon and killed his family, severely wounding Sango in the process. She was thought to be dead until she dug herself out of her grave.
She learned soon after that her village had been wiped out by demons, led by Inuyasha. She sought revenge until it was revealed Naraku manipulated her into attacking them. Naraku then used a jewel shard to bring her brother back to life as his puppet, leading to Sango joining the party to kill Naraku and save her brother.
PERSONALITY
Sango is a trained warrior, leaving her prideful at times, but calm and quiet outside of battle. She does not give up easily, and will see things through to the end no matter how difficult. However, because of her upbringing, she has trouble with romance and dislikes lecherous behavior. She is the one who disciplines Miroku for his bad habits, but also holds the most affection for him.
Because she lost her family and village in such a short time, Sango suffers from bouts of loneliness and guilt over the course of the series. She devotes herself to her companions, her brother, and Miroku, willing to sacrifice everything for them, including her own life, if it means they’ll survive.
POWERS
Sango is the most skilled of the human members of her team when it comes to combat, having trained at an early age in the art of demon-slaying and second only to Inuyasha in strength. She is familiar with a number of weapons, keeping them hidden on her body at all times, as well as various tactics to handle demons of different natures.
Her favored weapon is the Hiraikotsu, a boomerang forged from several demon bones that she uses with great skill. It is heavy and hard, allowing it to carve through most demons and armor with little trouble or block attacks like a shield. Late in the series it is destroyed and remade, endowing it with a new ability to deal with Naraku.
INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER CHARACTERS
Sango considers Kagome her best friend, someone she can share secrets with and talk to without reservation. She sees Shippō as a younger sibling, and both of them feel the same way about Miroku’s flirtatious habits. Her relationship with Inuyasha started rough because of Naraku, but she comes to trust him as well.
Sango has known Kirara since she was a child and thus treats her as a companion whom she loves as though family, which is returned by the nekomata fully. Sango devotes herself strongly to Miroku, whom she falls in love with over the course of the series, and Kohaku, her younger brother. To her, their lives are a priority and she is willing to sacrifice her weapon, her life, and even her soul to save them.
SHIPPŌ, THE FOX-DEMON
Shippō is one of the main characters and a traveling companion of Inuyasha. He is a fox-demon and the youngest of the group. He follows Inuyasha and Kagome after they avenge the death of his father, murdered by the Thunder Brothers, and travels with them on their quest to retrieve the jewel shards.
BACKSTORY
Shippō was orphaned when his father was murdered by the Thunder Brothers, who skinned him and wore his belt. He tries to get the jewel shards from Kagome to avenge his father's death, eventually leading to Inuyasha doing the job for him. He joins them in gratitude and also because he has nowhere else to go.
PERSONALITY
Shippō is cheerful and lively because of his youth, finding entertainment where he can, amusing himself with toys and pranks. He is immature at times, but when circumstances require him to be serious he does so without hesitation. He is often scared by the many dangerous situations his companions find themselves in, but he still assists them and refuses to run away when needed.
He respects the elderly and the wise, grateful for their wisdom when he receives it. He wears his heart on his sleeve, expressing his emotions openly, and is sensitive to the emotions of others.
POWERS
Shippō is a child with little-to-no offensive power, and thus cannot participate in combat directly with the others. However, as a fox-demon, he has power over illusions and transformations, allowing him to support the others in his own way. He combines his fox magic with various toys to provide a distraction or keep his injured or otherwise helpless companions from harm.
INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER CHARACTERS
Being the youngest of the group, Shippō comes to see the other members of the group as family and they see him as a younger child they need to look after and protect. He clashes the most with Inuyasha and dislikes Miroku’s flirtatious habits, but he does see them as older brothers and protectors. He gets along much better with Kagome, who pampers him, and Sango, who acts as a stern but kind older sister, and takes their side if an argument breaks out. He’s close friends with Kirara and understands her as well.
KIRARA, THE TWIN-TAILED DEMON CAT
Kirara is one of the main characters and a traveling companion of Inuyasha. She is a nekomata, a demonic cat that has lived for a long time and has served the Demon-Slaying village for generations, ending up in the care of Sango. She follows Sango in her quest to save her brother and defeat Naraku out of loyalty, providing the group with a means of transportation when needed.
BACKSTORY
Kirara has served Sango’s family since her grandfather’s time and saw Sango off that fateful night that spelled the end of their clan. She had been in the village when it came under attack and fought to defend them, only to end up as the sole survivor. Once she reunites with Sango, she remains by her side in her journey to avenge her fallen village and save her brother.
PERSONALITY
Kirara acts as a normal cat would, despite possibly being the oldest of the group, playing and enjoying attention when given to her. She does what’s asked of her with no complaints, and is protective of those in her care.
POWERS
Kirara is a demonic cat and has a keen sense of smell, sight, and hearing. She’s also capable of transforming into a larger, saber-toothed form wreathed in flames. In this state, she’s stronger, faster, and able to fly quickly cross vast distances and wrestle demons even larger than her to the ground, using her claws and fangs to deal with them.
INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER CHARACTERS
While her strongest loyalties belong to Sango and Kohaku, having fond memories of them both, Kirara is generally protective of the others also and will transform if she senses any danger approaching them. She is often doted on by the others, and allows them to use her as a mount when they need to travel. She often tries to cheer up anyone who is upset and is usually seen with Shippō whenever not in the company of Sango, having a strong friendship with him.
