Inuyasha/Headscratchers

For the sake of saving headaches, let's just skip over anything to do with time-travel paradoxes, okay?

• When we first see Koga, he's unabashedly ordering his wolf pack to EAT an entire village of defenseless people. Why are the heroes so friendly with him in every episode after this?
  • This may not answer your question completely, but I think it was mainly due to Kagome finding a reason to see "good" in Kouga when he stopped his wolves from eating Shippou when he was found to have been also taken along with Kagome, also when Kouga was keeping her safe during the attack from the birds of paradise. Because of that, she decided to forgive him...and let's face it, she not only bothered to get along with Inuyasha right after he tried to kill her, but even fell in love with him, so suggesting that she'd be friendly with someone who didn't directly kill an entire of village of people she didn't know isn't that farfetched. Kagome can (and I know any serious Kagome fans will be flaming me for this) be pretty shallow in terms of which youkai she trusts...with the only exception being Jinengi (who never even did anything wrong to be hated), any youkai she has been willing to forgive or trust all look human (and were even bishounen worthy). Also, an outstanding majority of the time, Miroku, Sango and Shippou will take Kagome's side in most disputes, regardless that there may not be a proper reason as to why they should just be agreeing with her side when the issue was never even explained. As far as Kagome trusted Kouga, they were willing to do so too, even though it makes little sense for at least a Buddhist monk taught to exorcise evil spirits and a Youkai Exterminator trained in disposing of youkai that threaten humans to have forgiven the wolf demon without a good reason. Then again, this probably was because Rumiko didn't want to spend too much time in having Kouga to prove himself as a "good" guy anymore than what the fans have seen at that point just for the fact that the other characters were not there to see it; so letting everyone else take it as "if Kagome decided to give him a chance, than we should too" was just a quick and easy fix to just move on. Also, on a special note for Inuyasha, although they are "rivals" Inuyasha isn't a saint himself and doesn't have anything against killing when necessary (actually... that's usually just how he resolves most of his disputes in the first instance) so of course he was not going to find any problem with that. He'd only find a problem in Kouga declaring love for Kagome, which was the only basis for their constant dislike of the other.
    • What? Inu Yasha has no problem killing in self defense or the defense of others. He really hates youkai that slaughter humans without provocation, once he stops hating humans for betraying him. And even back then, the most you could say is that Inu Yasha wouldn't go out of his way to save humans, not that he approved of their murders.
      • That wasn't the point. The OP wanted to know why the heroes act friendly to Kouga after ordering his wolves to eat the remaining villagers in their first meeting. Also I did say Inuyasha has nothing against killing when necessary. I wasn't implying that he'd go on a rampage and kill a bunch of humans just cause.
    • We should bear in mind a couple of things. In canon (ie, ignoring anime filler), Kouga and Rin never met after the day she was killed and Kouga and Sesshoumaru never met at all. Also, Inuyasha's group never learned about Rin's history with the wolves or Kouga's involvement in that. Further more, the manga's ending excluded Kouga completely - he was written out of the manga as soon as Naraku obtained his shards and, at the very end of the manga, when there was talk of everyone's futures moving on together and on the paths the readers were now familiar with, while that covered Inuyasha's group and Sesshoumaru's ground, that noticably did not include Kouga. I think there's a good reason for that. Sesshoumaru's change of heart took most of the manga to develop and came at heavy price. There was no such change in path indicated for Kouga Kouga's entire focus resided around his people - his enmity with Naraku, his association with Inuyasha's group, even his initial interest in Kagome and certainly any use Kagome could be to his tribe. Even his departure was based on this focus, as Takahashi didn't take the shards from him until she had given him a tribal-specific power upgrade to replace them as well as an anvilicious encounter with two young children of his tribe that made him realize he was neglecting the living people because of his focus on avenging the dead. In the end, his association with Inuyasha's group was temporary and not permanent. I can't help thinking even that temporary relationship wouldn't have survived if the truth about Rin had come out (ie, putting a face on the crimes they knew he had committed in the past). Ultimately, the manga seemed to be suggesting that Kouga and Inuyasha's group weren't very compatible at all. They associated for a time but not permanently.
• Where are all the demons in the present day? They seem to be everywhere in the feudal era, but the only supernatural things shown in the present day are the possessed mask and the ghost kid. Did they all die out between then and now? Or are they all hiding, like the dinosaurs in Dilbert?
  • And why doesn't Kagome think to ask about this? I'd sure be asking my grandpa what happened to all the youkai between then and now.
  • I think Takahashi intended to do the "separation of the worlds" thing in the final episode. It would make sense, as well as force Kagome's hand in choosing eras.
    • Especially considering all the other anime like Yu Yu Hakusho, where the Demon World is split off into another dimension.
      • It can't be, because the past affects the present. The bald spot on Goshinboku.The jewel shard found to be in the sacred tree in the first movie . The explanation I would give would be that demon power comes from belief. As people lost culture, and fear, which would start seeming fairly irrational and stupid eventually, the demons eventually just went into hiding, getting only enough power to be immortal. But not nigh invulnerable. Then world war 2 came, and they, with the bombing of Hiroshima, saw that there was no point anymore. So they just used what little magic they had left and joined humanity, though needing to create new people each time because of living thousands if not millions of years. I would have made some links, but it doesn't work for some reason.
      • After all, that's exactly what happens in Karas. Demons still exist on earth- most humans just don't see them because their minds are closed to the belief in the supernatural.
    • Considering the sheer ridiculous number of demons that were killed during the course of this series, I wouldn't be surprised that they all just died away. Certainly their numbers were pretty badly knocked down by the Jewel Crisis and Naraku. Then combine that with the growing control of humans over Japan's environment. Demons went the way of the wooly mammoth.
      • That was pretty much how I've tried to answer that question. The humans are typically population-checked by the demons up until they have a lot of internal political strife, and they essentially forget to keep their numbers down. The humans grow, gain technological advancements (as in, guns), and with Kagome's and Inuyasha's unwitting help (prior to this), take over and turn genocidal. Kagome, being a very powerful priestess (by the end of the series) presumably spends the end of hte manga onward keeping humans safe...by killing off the demons that pose a threat, typically the powerful ones. Inuyasha doesn't realize that this is what has happened to all the demons in the modern era, and goes about helping her, aiding in a kind of Butterfly Effect - they start small, going after ones deemed "threats" (both big political players in the demon world and small pests), and the consequence is that entire civilizations and races - including his father's own, are killed off. Kagome doesn't see the effects of what she's doing until it's too late to reverse the damage, and at first, she sees nothing wrong with killing powerful demons (because it's protecting the humans, right?). The demons, once they figure out that they're being hunted and their numbers are falling far faster than they ever imagined, are too disorganized and still caught up in the politics that led to the lapse in watch to put up a front. Curb Stomp Battle occurs. Demon abilities, it turns out, don't beat small metal balls that can smash bone from great distances and bring bacterial infection to an open wound, despite their Healing Factors. In addition, I assumed there was a Stable Time Loop making it so that events that have already occurred in the future (extinction of demons) will happen regardless of what is done in the past, having already happened. If Kagome were to die before finishing her role in said events, someone else would eventually continue on and take her place. But that's just how I worked it out. Feel free to correct me here.
  • The daemons aren't the only thing that seems to vanish, just look at the effectiveness of Miroku's spells vs Kagome's grandfather's (miroku's charms actually work, Kagome's grandfater's, not so much) so it seems that spiritual powers in general have left the world.
    • That's not necessarily a fair comparison, though. Miroku, in spite of his faults, demonstrates on several occasions that he has a genuine core of deep spirituality, whereas Kagome's grandfather is almost entirely interested in tradition and lore - going through the motions without observing the spiritual significance behind them.
• And seeing how as there were no demons or such things in the present, and no-one but Inuyasha or Kagome could go through the well, why didn't Kagome leave the jewel shards at home instead of carrying them around? She was practically asking for them to be stolen. And furthermore, if it was so dangerous for Inuyasha to be out and about while human, why didn't he hide out at Kagome's for the night?
  • Well, the present isn't 100% monster-free, especially not in the anime - in addition to the mask, there's also the soul piper, which implies that there could very well be at least a few other hidden supernatural critters lurking around. The last thing that Kagome wants to do is leave any shards lying around unattended where they might attract something nasty to her family while she's not around to deal with it. (The anime further attempts to establish that Kagome has to have the shard/s with her in order to time travel through the well, although admittedly that falls apart eventually during the periods in which the storyline requires that the heroes have no shards at all.)
    • As Yura showed, even non-Inu Yasha characters can travel through the well if they had shards. The last thing they want to do is give Naraku a reason to go through the well, as I don't remember if he was ever shown knowing when Kagome is from, or how she gets there (he did effect the well in the final battle, but the well's time-powers were already somewhat known in that area beforehand.
    • No, no ,NO! The well being affected was due to the Shikon Jewel's Forced-On-Naraku's wish to... affect Kagome somehow.
    • To get her to be the next miko after Midoriko to fight endlessly in the Sacred Jewel.
    • thank you. as i was saying, the shikon jewel feared Kagome, and as a result, tried to force her into being a dumbass and wishing to go back to her own time (and being locked in the Sacred Jewel) by trapping her in a commonly-feared-by-humans scenario, being alone in the dark.
    • Ohhh... so THAT's why they didn't just say, "Let's just tell Kagome to keep her jewel shards at home, because since Naraku's not Inuyasha/Kagome, he can't get through the well." Although that would ruin the plot...
      • The "affect the well" point was only to show that he knew the well existed, and possibly that Kagome came from beyond the well though it could be that the Bone Eater's well is just another magical artifact that Naraku's heard of. Yura's attack was enough to show that one shard is enough to let a youkai invade her time if they've got a reason to.
  • Not to mention the very first episode, Kagome was going about her life, minding her own business as a normal student before being forcibly dragged into the past by the centipede daemon? The inverse seems to be the head scratcher is to why the other party members CAN'T use the well.
• The above question leads me to ask something else...where are all the monsters in Inuyasha's present era? Were they driven to extinction when Mankind developed guns and they reached Japan, leaving only a few exceptions? The Noh Mask was kept in a box for who-knows-how-long and easily missed, and the Soul Piper has been implied to be benign and on a different plane than humans, how could they shoot it.
  • The answer is never clearly stated in either version of the series, and thus is open to speculation; my guess is that the progress of technology etc, combined with sheer numbers, eventually gave humans the edge against youkai and most of them were forced into extinction and/or hiding.
    • Weeeellll, as we saw somewhere in the middle of the series, a strong enough youkai can cause other youkai to go into hiding just by being active even if they don't actively pursue them, like Naraku with youkai in the castle basement. Maybe everyone found out that Sesshoumaru likes humans now and are scared spitless of crossing a guy who can smell them from across the country and kill them with a scratch, or something.
      • • I don't think I'd go so far as to say that Sesshoumaru likes humans now. At the end of the series, it still seems to be only Rin that he can tolerate.
    • In addition, youkai thrive during times of war and chaos, the reestablishment of an effective central government ended that for centuries, the civil war of the Menji Restoration was brief, and the end of WWII was brief also. There is a lot of Japan that is wildness preserve, plenty of space for youkai to hide from humans, even if they don't have access to other realms as folklore ascribes to kitsune. Not to mention the possibility of The Masquerade.

• There are many things that were extremely valuable in medieval times that are cheap today, such as salt, spices, cloth, and pins and needles. Did Kagome ever stop to think that, with a minimal capital investment, she could live like a queen in the past?
  • It's hard to live like a queen when you're busy chasing down Plot Coupons and/or the Big Bad and getting into scenery-destroying fights every time you turn around. While Kagome could in theory invest in luxuries like a baggage train and armed guards, doing so would only slow down the group's progress - at least, for the short period of time before the Monster Of The Week laid waste to the whole business and the main characters were obliged to do without again. Since between Kagome bringing supplies through the well and Miroku's skills as a con artist, the group's needs are almost always covered, anything else would only be a distraction.
  • Define "live like a queen". If you mean building some sort of feudal mini-empire in the past, even if she had the expertise to administrate a mini-kingdom, Kagome isn't really the type of person who would want to do that.

• What were the laws of heredity, vis-a-vis demonic powers? Every half-demon shown with known parentage had a demon father and a human mother. If the mother was demon and the father human, would the child still be half-demonic?
  • Yes. Although youkai heredity is quirky to say the least, one human parent plus one youkai parent equals a hanyou regardless of which was which, and if memory serves the anime does provide one example of a hanyou with a human father and a youkai mother in the person of Izumo, the hanyou who was manufacturing faux Shikon Jewels.
  • There's also the "Thunder Brothers" from an early episode; this troper distinctly remembers a scene where one of the brothers discussed his parentage and noted that his mother was a youkai.
    • Both of the Thunder Brothers' parents were youkai, so they don't really count. They were just different types of youkai, and Hiten and Souten seemed to have taken after their father while Manten took after their mother.

• When everyone was shown three years later in the last chapter, where the hell was Koga?
  • With his pack.
  • The question you really should be asking is where the hell was Kouga after he got conveniently written out of the series? Considering the guy spent near 400 chapters chasing after Naraku just like anyone else for revenge, why did he suddenly drop all of that after losing the shards? Sure, he probably realised that Kagome only had feelings for Inuyasha, but really, after gaining a weapon that finally made him useful, why did he just drop all that "avenge my comrads" motive and leave?!
    • You have to remember, Naraku was pretty powerful at that point, having absorbed Moryomaru and Hakudoshi, along with having most/all of the jewel. Koga was barely able to keep up a fight, and that was with his jewel shards. Powerful weapon or not, if he didn't have speed to get in and out of close range (as that was the type of weapon he had), he would be killed. Not wanting to be a burden, (or perhaps cause unnecessary grief to Kagome) he could've decided that leaving with as much dignity as possible was the best solution. At least, it appears that way. In the second anime, they handwave it by Kagome mentioning a rumor that he got married to Ayame.
      • All of that makes sense, but the last thing with Kagome saying that Kouga married Ayame was never in the manga. So as far as the manga is concerned, Kouga just disappears.

• What was up with the ending (unmarked spoilers)? I get that the jewel wanted Naraku and Kagome to replace Midoriko and the sealed demon within itself. So why was Naraku's wish for Kagome to be dragged into hell? Why didn't he wish for love like he was contemplating? Besides, Byakuya slashed Kagome with the stolen Meidou Zangetsuha katana a few hours beforehand. Why didn't she get sent to hell at that time?
  • Well in the end, Naraku just wanted to go to hell and end up with Kikyou's soul there for eternity. Which really makes no damn sense because, if he wanted to go to hell with Kikyou's soul that badly, why not just let Inuyasha kill him all the way at the beginning of the series? Honestly, this troper saw it as an Ass Pull for Naraku to get some sympathy. As for the delayed Meidou Zangetsuha, it was probably just to give the reader fake relief that it failed, before it did work; or blame it on Willing Suspension of Disbelief.
    • I assumed that it wasn't literal hell, and that his death shoved his soul entirely into the Shikon no Tama, which is the perfect moment to cause Kagome to corrupt herself with a selfish wish and be trapped there with him. Just wishing her to love him wouldn't suffice as she was basically able to purify the effects of the jewel pretty well even before the majority of her power got unsealed, and Onigumo's greatest wish was always to corrupt Kikyo's pure heart. Besides, I don't think the Shikon no Tama was ever shown to grant wishes as non-physical as that.
  • As Kagome pointed out, the Jewel tricks people. It takes a rather simple wish and twists it to it's own purposes. Kikyo had wished to see Inuyasha again, look how that turned out. It's possible that Naraku's dying wish was to cause Inuyasha and/or Kagome pain. He had set up Kagome to be taken away from Inuyasha before the fight even moved outside, he didn't really need to wish for her to be pulled into "hell." The Jewel used this has a chance to snare them both. Perhaps his wish was for immortality, something the Jewel would give him by dooming the two of them to fight within it for eternity. Maybe he wished to be the ultimate power, which he would be... as part of the Jewel.

• Inuyasha's heightened senses make him easily overcome by strong tastes and smells, like curry or India ink. What do you think his alcohol resistance would be?
  • Smell has nothing to do with metabolism.
  • No, but it DOES have to do with getting into your system at all. If he got it past his nose to drink it, he'd probably have had a conniption at the taste, especially if it were very strong.
    • We have seen an instance of Inuyasha versus alcohol when the group ran afoul of the sake mist in "The Last Banquet of Miroku's Master." He got kind of wobbly, but held up better than the girls and Shippo did, and didn't seem especially bothered by the smell.
  • Inuyasha also has a better immunity to poison (whether gas or liquid) compared to everyone else in his group. Where others are seen struggling to breathe in Naraku's or any other demon's Miasma, Inuyasha either ignores it completely or just has to loosely cover his mouth and nose with his sleeve for a moment before moving on like nothing happened. And as we all know alcohol is poisonous, so it could be the reason why he's resistant to it is because of its poisonous nature.

• Why did Kagome keep going back in time in her school uniform? Wouldn't jeans and some hiking boots have been a better idea?
  • Takahashi stated that she kept Kagome in her uniform intentionally, as a way of maintaining her identity. Dunno why it bothers everyone so much, since wearing the uniform seemed to work out in the end.
  • I read somewhere (it might have even been on another page of this site) that in the anime Kagome says she wears her uniform because its easy to get blood out of it. Which really doesn't make any sense.
    • She lives with a guy who routinely eviscerates, decapitates, and disembowels giant demonic beasts. How does it not make sense?
      • Because it doesn't make sense that a white school uniform would be particularly easy to get blood stains out of.
      • Apparently, most students have only one uniform, so the uniforms themselves are very easy to care for.
      • Because pouring bleach on white uniform is much easier then trying to get the same stain out of say a black one. Her skirt and the other green parts have the same problem as a black uniform would but they're less likely to get anything on them.
      • It doesn't make sense because it's her school uniform, and thus something she needs to wear to school. She can just buy a normal outfit that's easy to clean so that she wouldn't have to go in civilian clothes to school when Inu Yasha bleeds all over it, again.
      • It seems to simply be a case of Limited Wardrobe for the sake of the artist not having to design new outfits for whatever reason. Otherwise it makes no sense.
  • What about her choice to wear a skirt? She travels across Japan by straddling the back of a male hanyou (who has the age appearance of a 15 year old) who clearly is running fast enough for a lot of wind to be blowing around them, enough for her small skirt it easily be lifted. Also, with one of their friends being the Chivalrous Pervert there is really nothing stopping him from getting a "nice view" especially if Inuyasha has decided to run in front of Kirara. What logic does she see in wearing that?
    • Maybe it's come to a point where it no longer matters to Kagome.
    • I'd wonder forget the possible indecency, it could be severely cold, her legs are exposed to bugs, rough branches, and other wildlife, and she has no pockets to carry anything in, she always has to grab something from her bag which could take several agonizing seconds. It would seem more practical to just wear pants, she did in the very beginning for a brief few moments so she does own some.
  • I've always wondered why it never occurs to Kagome that maybe wearing period-appropriate clothing would be a better idea than just running around in her 20th century clothes. You'd think that that would be dangerous as the strange clothes make her stick out like a weirdo and she'd be easier to recognize at a glance.
    • She hangs around Inu Yasha, Shippou, Kirara and Sango. True, the fact that only her appearance gets noted was used as a punchline once (the punchline being that they thought that SHE was the youkai of the group), but who in their right mind is going to mess with her when she's hanging around armed hanyou, monks and humans, especially once she starts carrying around a bow and arrow herself, which she masters to levels that are beyond peak human in the real world, even without magical abilities. Besides, if anyone so much as nicks her within a mile of him, Kagome can rest assured that Inu Yasha will kill them to death soon after.
  • I agree. I mean, fine, wear a skirt, but at least do it like Xena, with heavy boots and armor. Seriously, if I were to walk around in such a place, where every second something could attack me, I'd wear heavy steel toe boots (or at least carry them along and wear them when we're looking for something evil), a chain vest and probably gloves without fingers. Not to mention that instead of bow and arrow, I'd use a semi-automatic rifle or a shotgun and, if necessary, a machine gun. Or at least a crossbow, if it had to be arrows. And I'd carry at least two hidden knives on my body. Basically, I'd follow every rule in the Crazy Prepared book.
    • Regarding the weaponry, its unlikely that a fifteen year old could easily get their hands on high powered firearms even in modern Japan, and she probably doesn't have the preternatural affinity to them that she does to short/longbows and arrows, and most of those weapons probably don't have the holy connotations that bows and arrows have in Shintoism, where even twanging a bowstring is a powerful charm. Not to mention that she can do a lot more damage (and eventually a lot more accurately) than any modern hand-held weapon, albeit with a much slower rate of fire (though Kikyou could fire around five arrows almost simultaneously) and with a much smaller ammo stock.
    • And most of that armor would be pretty useless against almost any youkai that's actually capable of catching her when she's not being weighed down, considering how easily they snap swords. Not to mention that most youkai of note tend to do stuff like breathe fire or have corrosive auras (which she's almost immune to as it is), which armor would be useless against, and normal human enemies are pretty much comic relief when you hang around her friends. And as she's got nowhere near the hand to hand combat training to try and effectively use armor and knives at close range in an era of constant war and bloodthirsty, centuries old, wandering spirits, she's probably best served by being able to run and dodge as fast as possible, until she's far enough away to use her magical arrows and let her superhuman boyfriend nuke the area.
      • Given her family does know about the situation though, carrying a switchblade would not be a terrible idea. That or a taser either. Sure they wouldn't be effective against the big threats, but some of the smaller ones it would help if they were too close and she needed an emergency out. It would still be recommended to use her arrows, they're powerful weapons, but having backup doesn't hurt.
    • Besides which, in Japan it's illegal to own firearms unless you work for the military or law enforcement. There's no way Kagome would be able to get a hold of some.
  • I'd kind of accept her wearing the uniform for the sake of recognition. However, in the rare instances she visits Inu Yasha in different clothes, she still wears a skirt! Fine, she had no time to change when they confronted Yura, but there is no excuse for her choice of dress the next time she went to the past, in a short white skirt.
• During the Band of Seven arc, why did everyone keep calling the feminine one (whose name escapes me) "He"? After all, he-or-she sounded feminine and had a crush on Inuyasha.
  • Because he was a dude, that's why.
  • That's Jakotsu, and yes, he's male. It's fairly obvious in the scenes after his kimono gets trashed and he's going about wearing his armor over his bare chest.
    • Also, his overwhelming misogyny.
  • They call him he for exactly the same reason they call Sesshoumaru he - because they are both male. They also both look extremely feminine (Sess eventually starts to actually look masculine but ye gods his first appearances in the manga), but that doesn't necessarily mean anything in this series.
  • He's played by a female voice actor in both the Japanese version and the dub, which just adds to the confusion.
• In one episode Kagome is in a hurry to go back to the feudal era and is throwing stuff into her backpack (which generally seems to way more stuff than it should) One of the items she packs to take to FEUDAL Japan is a plug in hair dryer.
  • This is undoubtedly intentional, as a subtle but cute indication of just how much of a rush Kagome is in: she is throwing things into her bag without any consideration for what she's really going to need or what will actually be usable.

• Why didn't Inuyasha ever succumb to his evil side in the many, many years (and episodes) before he ever got a hold of the sword?
  • I think it was only a problem when the sword actually broke. Then he had to keep it with him at all times.
  • Well, ya know, if you paid attention, the sword was in his freakin eye. Isn't that an extreme example of possession?
    • Technically, his eye only contained the black pearl that acted as a portal into the world between life and death, landing him near his father's grave where Tessaiga was kept.
  • Yes, the implication is that the seal originally repressed his demon blood regardless of its proximity to Inuyasha himself, but after the sword was broken, the seal couldn't be entirely recreated and thus was no longer effective unless Tessaiga was in Inuyasha's immediate possession.
    • Wonderful of his dad, then, to not put the sword in, say, a titanium safe in the bottom of the ocean. That whole plotline simply made no sense. (And if Inuyasha wanted to become a full demon so badly, why doesn't he just chuck the sword?)
      • Inuyasha specifically answers the latter question with a mild Heroic BSOD after the second time he transforms, when he freaks out over how indiscriminately he attacked people during his Unstoppable Rage. He explicitly protests that when he said he wanted to be a full demon, he did not want this.
      • He hid the sword in Inuyasha's eye. Kind of hard to get any more secretive or closer than that.
        • Technically, he hid it in another dimension, which can only be accessed by getting a jewel created by an apparent friend/vassal who is an incredibly powerful—and incredibly moral—daiyoukai (or by ripping out Inu Yasha's eye, which is a lot harder than it sounds and at which point going youkai is probably among the least of his problems), going through a portal that turns anyone without an otherworldy weapon (of which we only ever see one, which belongs to one of the most dangerous people in the series; said weapon is also the only thing that can hurt the portal's violent guardians) into stone, by turning the blood of a hellborn youkai into a river, or just plain dying. Oh, and even someone with Sesshoumaru's youki levels couldn't touch it without being repelled (normal humans are even less likely to get there). And the only clue to any of this was hidden in Inu Yasha's subconscious, so far down that even he has no idea that it was there. Titanium boxes at the bottom of the ocean would be a walk in the park, comparatively.
        • Even more wonderful of his dad to make it into a sword, i.e. something that people would want to take out of the seal and bring into combat situations where it could break. Why didn't he just make it into a rock?
        • The sword predated Inu Yasha, so its likely that Inu no Taisho just put the seal and human-protecting barrier on it after Inu Yasha's conception. Besides, giving his weaker son a weapon that let him use daiyoukai levels of power would probably help him survive the kind of fights that sealing Inu Yasha's daiyoukai power would have gotten him killed in.
          • It probably did not occur to Inu no Taisho that the sword would break. It's not a normal sword, after all; it's a very powerful magical artifact. The first thing that anyone knows about it is that it can kill a hundred youkai with one swing. Inu no Taisho couldn't have predicted Naraku or the kind of abuse Inuyasha would put it through, and besides that, it was made from his fang, so there would be a level of personal pride involved as well. He was having the sword made anyhow to grant Inuyasha greater strength to protect himself and others... having the seal incorporated into it probably seemed like it would be the most efficient way to do things at the time.
  • I don't know if the Tetsaiga could seal Inuyasha's demon blood from a distance. It was never even implied before or after it broke. The reason that the Inu no Taisho gave Inuyasha the sword was so that he could use it's power to protect himself and his loved ones, without turning into a deranged monster. The fight against the incarnation of Naraku that broke Tetsaiga was the first fight that he was in where he couldn't run away or defeat it with his own power. Prior to making an enemy of Naraku, Inuyasha tended to steamroll everything he fought, so it's possible that the situation never came up before hand. Also, given that Sesshomarou didn't realize what happened, it's possible that the Inu no Taisho neither knew that the Tetsaiga could do that, nor realized that it would have to.
    • Actually, it is stated in the series, by Totosai. He says that the seal broke when the sword broke and could not be recreated completely when the sword was reforged. Even if he hadn't stated it, we do see instances of Inuyasha struggling in combat prior to the breaking of Tessaiga, most notably in the fight in which Sesshoumaru took Tessaiga away from him. If that fight had happened after Tessaiga had been broken and reforged, Inuyasha certainly would have transformed. We also see flashbacks to a very young Inuyasha having to run and hide from larger youkai, so it's not possible to say that the fight with Goshinki was the first time it ever came up.
      • Also, Myoga tells the group that the seal was broken because of Inuyasha's strong will to live. It can be argued that, prior to the events of the series, Inuyasha had fewer ties to this life and thus not as desperate to hold on to it. With his new-found friendships and drive to protect Kagome at all costs, he has more to lose. Not only did he fear for his life, but also feared what would happen to her if he failed (as he failed to protect Kikyo, in his mind) and therefore finally crossed the threshold of the seal. Given all of his father's other foresight, perhaps putting an extra protection on the sword was deliberate. After all, the sword could only be wielded by a someone with a desire to protect a human. Once Inuyasha had such a person in his life, the likelihood that he would find himself in a situation that could result in a transformation out of desperation increased. And the sword served as double protection, sealing his youkai blood at the same time it made him stronger, making the blood rage unnecessary.
      • One of my pet theories as to all the questions regarding the swords was that Inuyasha's father really knew what he was doing. He gave Sesshomaru a sword that seemed useless but actually inevitably helped Sesshomaru gain compassion for others, and he gave Inuyasha a sword that would help him protect his loved ones by giving him power he would only have if he were a full demon—the loss of this sword turns him into a full demon which Inuyasha's father knew, in my opinion, would make him realize he didn't want to be a full demon after all. So Inuyasha's father simultaneously gave him a weapon that would give him an epiphany, keep him from turning into something he doesn't want to be, and bestow him with the power he would have without it.

• What I really don't get is WHY after getting some progress in finding Naraku's whereabouts do the entire Inuyasha-tachi just decided to go return to Kaede's village, effectually losing all the ground they covered? Sure, Kagome has her life in the modern day era, but does that girl have no common sense to realize if Naraku or any other big evil for that matter caused a lot of damage in the Sengoku era of Japan which isn't meant to historically happen, then it's going to change the world she's currently living in, therefore making any effort to keep up in her current life pointless if it all changed? It doesn't even seem like Naraku's new whereabouts are any closer to where the Bone Eater's Well is. In fact, in this troper's opinion it seems more like Naraku is just moving further away. However, the gang never have any problem in getting back to their previous "check point" once they return from that village by the next episode, or sometimes even in the same episode. Despite it taking an entire season or so to reach Naraku once they get a clue as to where he is (and that takes a long time in itself) time becomes irrelevant when it comes to going and leaving the village with the well. Unless Inuyasha and Kirara can travel faster than the Shinkansen (which can take you between 2–3 hours to travel from Tokyo to Osaka depending which Shinkansen you take), there is no reason as to why it takes them so little time to get to and from this one village, yet taking almost an entire season to travel around the rest of Japan.
  • They probably weren't traveling in a straight line. The group would go one direction, see Naraku wasn't there, double back, and go off in a different direction. Kaede's village was a good central point to map out their progress. Plus, the three humans of the group can't heal as fast as Inuyasha. Whenever they returned to the village Kagome could get medical supplies (and other supplies) from her own time.

• How does Sango change into her Demon Slayer outfit so quickly, and get her hair in a ponytail in time for it as well? She's like a superheroine.
  • Combination of Hammerspace and some unexplained super power she has?
  • She's wearing it underneath and just has to strap on a few extras. Years of practice have mastered it to an art like Fire Fighters suiting up.

• After seeing the first episode again, this Troper just found something ridiculous. In the very first scene of the series, we have Kikyou standing by the stairs and torii of the village, shooting an arrow at Inuyasha who was running by the Goshinboku (the God Tree). Now this would imply that the Goshinboku is besides the village, you'd think so? However, later in that same episode, when Kagome comes to the past for the first time, when she goes to the Goshinboku we see that it's completely surrounded by forest, with no part of the village in sight. So what the hell happened to the geographic location of the Goshinboku and the village? Did the village just decide to remove apart of itself away from the Goshinboku, or does the Goshinboku have some sort of magical teleportation skills that caused it to appear next to the village just for Inuyasha to be pinned to it then disappear and find a nice place in the middle of the forest to hide, or what? And it wasn't just the anime that had this problem - the manga did this to! So clearly Rumiko stuffed up somewhere here, on the very first CHAPTER.
  • Fifty years passed between the time fakenuyasha trashed the village and the real one got shot and the time when Kagome came through the well. It's not too much of a stretch to imagine the villagers rebuilt the village several meters away from the tree where their attacker was sealed, but close enough to keep an eye on him.
    • They might have built the shrine housing the Shikon no Tama a bit away from the village (and right next to the Bone Eater's Well) in order to keep the potential civilian casualties to a minimum and allow easy disposal of youkai corpses.
    • Real!Inuyasha trashed the village after Naraku!Kikyo attacked him at the tree. Naraku put the Jewel back in the shrine to lure both of them together and Inuyasha rampaged and stoke the Jewel in revenge. In all likelihood, the villages did choose to rebuild further away. In the first episode, they are clearly still fearful of Inuyasha and have named the area after him. Also in that episode, Kaede expresses shock that Kagome can see the demonic aura of the forest around the Goshinboku. It's reasonable to think they would relocate.
  • Inuyasha wasn't much of a good guy back when he got shot, so it wouldn't be hard to believe the villagers moved away from him and the tree. Then again, maybe it just looks different/farther away because of the angle we see the forest, causing visual-distance confusion.
    • You mean Inuyasha was perceived to be the "bad guy" when he got shot. Remember, Naraku did deceive both Inuyasha and Kikyou into thinking the other betrayed them.
    • He's still a bit of an ass, though. And he rampaged their village as well.

• In the first episode of the anime, we see Inuyasha breaking out of the temple and escaping with the real Jewel. He is quickly pinned to the Goshinboku. I'm very much aware that Naraku tricked both Kikyo and Inuyasha into believing the other betrayed them, using impersonations of Inuyasha and Kikyo on each person, respectively. But, if the fake Inuyasha (impersonated by Naraku that attacked Kikyo) supposedly was the one who destroyed part of the village, then how the hell did the real Inuyasha, who obviously stole the Jewel from the shrine after the Kikyo impesronator replaced it, manage to destroy the shrine (and other parts of the village, that looked undamaged before)? Basically, who the hell actually trashed the village: the impersonator, the real Inuyasha, or both?
  • I would guess that Naraku, in the guise of Inu Yasha, tore up the village en route to returning the Jewel to the shrine before attacking Inu Yasha in the guise of Kikyou. The real Inu Yasha then went to get the Jewel in his grief and rage, and either assumed that another youkai had attacked while Kikyou was distracted by trying to murder him, or just didn't care why the town was on fire, and stole the Jewel before becoming the world's worst birdfeeder for the next fifty years.
  • No, that was Real!Inuyasha. In his anger over being betrayed, he revels in destroying Kikyo's "hometown." Notice he doesn't actually kill anyone. Naraku!Inuyasha would not have restrained himself. He merely replaced the Jewel in it's shrine in order to let Real!Inuyasha steal it and be found in possession of it when Kikyo makes it back.

• Miroku is a monk in the medieval Japan, yet he appears to be extraordinarily skilled in riding Kagome's bike. He doesn't even seem to wonder which kind of transportation he uses, seriously, what the hell?
  • Maybe he's just naturally talented at it. Inu Yasha stated that he found it to be very tricky... which prompted Kagome to ask him if he's been trying to ride it when she's not looking, much to his embarrassment. Still, Miroku and Inu Yasha are superhumanly strong, fast and agile -- I'm more curious as to how Kagome, a normal 15 year old girl, is able to ride a street-class Bicycle all over Feudal Japan. A mountain-bike would be feasible, but her bike looks like it would grind to a halt if you gave it a dirty look, much less tried to ride it up a grassy hill.
  • Miroku is also generally really smart, so a case could be made that he figured out the basics of how it worked from seeing Kagome on it, and natural physical ability did the rest.
  • Some people just happen to be good at riding bikes the first time they try. It took this troper weeks to learn to ride without training wheels, but her brother mastered a two-wheeler in half an afternoon.
  • I wouldn't object to him riding the bike that much if he didn't also carry Kagome while doing so. I mean... how?! I've been riding the bike for years, and I'm pretty sure that I couldn't just carry someone on my lap. Also, he was riding it on a rather rough path. Hell, with that bike, riding over grass is probably tough enough. How could you even dream of riding it where he did?

• So... did Sesshoumaru's arm that Inuyasha cut off in his first episode just sort of... grow back, or did literally everyone just forget he lost it?
  • It pretty explicitly grew back just before/during the beginning of the very last arc. At a couple of points he used a human arm (to let him activate Tessaiga) or a couple of youkai arms (to replace it, temporarily, but they could never really handle the paces he put them through), but Inu Yasha tore off any that Sesshoumaru used against him. In the Shishinki fight, Shishinki blasts off his sleeve and is mildly surprised to find out that there was no arm under it and Sesshoumaru reminisces about how IY tore it off and that he doesn't mind since it just forced him to become even stronger. It spontaneously grew back when Sesshoumaru got over his daddy issues, bringing with it an insanely powerful youkai sword.
    • It just sort of threw me off because I haven't found a single fanart made that showed him having any missing or different limbs, and fanfictions don't seem to even reference it that often.
      • Yeah, its a bit odd that the fanbase hasn't really picked up on that fetish, but I guess that if Sesshoumaru wears such loose clothing and is so competent at fighting that even someone of Shishinki's (and thus Inu no Taisho's) calibur didn't even notice that he was minus an arm, its not too unusual that it slips the minds of the fans as well.

• Why is Inuyasha still wearing the prayer bead necklace on the final page? I mean, three years later, Inuyasha is a Nice Guy, they're married to each other, and Kagome doesn't trust him enough to take the necklace off? Giving them the benefit of the doubt, perhaps he just trusts her, or she had it de-enchanted, or he likes it for sentimental reasons, or they're just that kinky, but I'd still feel better seeing the necklace gone.
  • Well aside from the fact that the SIT! command is a ready-made source of comic relief, I like to think of it as a symbol of trust and fealty, kind of like a wedding ring. Husbands and wives both consent to wear a wedding ring as an outward symbol of the fact that they belong to another person. Just the same, Inuyasha consents to keep wearing the necklace (or at least stops complaining about having to wear it) as a sign of his trust in Kagome not to abuse it. If Inuyasha suddenly asked Kagome to take the necklace off it would probably mean their romance is in shambles.
    • That can be reversed against Kagome as well, as at the end of one of the movies he clearly doesn't have the beads until Kagome tells him to close his eyes, then puts them back on. He acted just fine without them, but this implies Kagome doesn't trust him at all as he even asks her why and she doesn't answer him, she only says SIT while smiling. It seems almost sadistic, and that it's more like a safety mechanism for Kagome against a possible danger that doesn't exist. This means there is no romance already, the only way to fix it would to trust the man she is with and take the things off. 1) She's worried he'll turn any minute, or 2) Kagome enjoys her power over Inuyasha, whether she uses it for some form of self power or simply to constantly use it to teach him to not be rude, although there are plenty of examples where she simply uses it to take out her frustration when Inuyasha clearly hasn't done anything. 3) Kagome is worried he only likes her because he has the prayer beads on and is therefore tied to her. It'd be perefectly understandable for him to want them off considering Kagome seems to go off like any adolescent, but this has serious ramifications against Inuyasha's physical health.
      • To be fair, the bead scene at the end of the movie was because well, the movie is essentially filler, thus can't change the status quo of the series (an awkward contrivance of Status Quo Is God really), it should be noted however that the beads only ever really served there ORIGINAL purpose a handful of times, most were at the beginning of the series, when Inuyasha really would have killed Kagome because of his resentment towards Kikyo, the other times being when Inuyasha's demon blood took over. The rest of the times the beads are used are mostly a form of bitch slap.
      • Physical health? The Sit command only ever did more than startle and mildly annoy him exactly once in the entire series, and it was when she used it multiple times in rapid succession and caused him to drop a boulder (which he was planning to use to trap her in the past) on himself. And besides, even ignoring that the movies aren't canon to either the manga or the anime, there's also the fact that the beads have shown the ability to knock him out of his youkai state, and each time he transforms without Tessaiga in hand, his bloodlust has been getting worse and worse throughout the series (though his resistance has also been increasing, but if Sesshoumaru is right, eventually it could turn him into an uncontrollable beast), so IY might actually prefer if his soulmate had a way to at least momentarily stop him long enough for her to do some sort of (preferably) nonlethal uber-miko thing to keep him from attacking her and anyone else if he gets into a situation where he transforms again.
    • The beads were originally enchanted by Kaede. One would presume that Kaede could also take cancel the spell, and may have done so, after which Inuyasha might just have chosen to continue to wear it for sentimental reasons.
  • The logical reason would be that Rumiko's been drawing Inuyasha with those beads for ten years or there abouts, so she was probably just too used to drawing those beads on that she never thought whether those beads should be there or not in the end. Also, I tend to notice that the fandom puts way more significance to those beads more than how it's treated in the actual manga. It's probably not as much as a big issue to her - it was mostly for comic relief (YMMV on how comical it was).
• Something that always bothered me personally is the fact that a single shard of the jewel is as strong as the whole jewel. At least when it comes to boosting a demon's powers. It at least seems that way.
  • I disagree. It only seems the same sometimes because "demon powers" are difficult to quantify. But it is strongly implied throughout the series that more jewel shards = more power enhancement. For example, take the Thunder Brothers. For most of the episode they feature in both Brothers have a couple shards each (one has two and the other has three IIRC), but when one of the Brothers dies the other one takes his jewel shards and becomes instantly more powerful.

• From an above entry, I just have to wonder, why did Kagome always return to her time for school? I mean I get that she'd want to see her family every once and a while, or that she could pick up medical supplies, but what I don't get is why her NUMBER ONE reason is for SCHOOL. Okay, so she wants to pass, but hell girl, you're going up against one of the most evil demons of all time. Try to set your priorities straight. She's aware that she could die - it's shown in a number of episodes that she does know how dangerous it is but she'll still go through with it - so how can school be that important to stop their journey? If she's going to die, then it won't even matter that she passed the year. Why waste the time with school when there are villages in feudal era Japan being killed by a villain they're going after during that time they're not doing anything to find him? (And please, don't give me the "they also do other things" during that time. Resting, getting medical supplies, seeing her family all come second to her exams, so I want to know why should it be so important)
  • I always thought she wanted to leave some options open; what would she do if after all her adventures were over? She didn't figure that she'd stay in the feudal era forever.
  • There's probably some Values Dissonance at work, since success in school and getting into a good high school are bigger deals for Japanese teenagers than for American ones. In any case, for most of the series, Kagome is operating under the assumption that when Naraku is defeated, she's going to need to pick up her life in the present where she left off, and while her family will be there regardless, if she simply drops out of school to focus on fighting in the feudal era, it could mess her up for the rest of her life.
    There's also some indication that it's Kagome's way of keeping some control over her life. She's a stubborn, strong-willed person; things in the feudal era are crazy and Naraku jerks everyone around six ways to Sunday, but dammit, she is not going to let that keep her from getting into high school successfully. Note that she also goes through the full three years of high school even though by the time she's finished she's already made up her mind to go back to live with Inuyasha in the feudal era - it's something that she wants to see all the way through even if, ultimately, the situation in the feudal era ends up making it irrelevant after all.

• Why didn't Kaede just tell Kagome to destroy the Shikon Jewel once it came back into the picture? They've seen first hand what it could do when a bad guy got a hold of it, not to mention the Jewel bringing nothing but misery to those around it. Instead, Kaede just tells Kagome "You are entrusted to guard this thing that could plunge the land into darkness if some jerk got his or her hands on it.", setting in motion the bloody events of the story and making Kaede look like a total dumbass.
  • Destroying it may simply not have been possible. Burning it with Kikyou's body didn't destroy it, it just sent it with her into her reincarnation. Smashing it resulted in approximately a billion shards all over Japan. What else are they supposed to do?
    • However, in the end, Kagome successfully wishes the jewel out of existence. The only way this could make any sense is that Kagome was doing this out of desperation and neither she, nor anyone else with knowledge on the Jewel, had any idea this could work.
    • Kagome didn't know at the beginning that the Shikon Jewel would be destroyed by wishing it out of existence. In fact no one knows. It is only later that she gets a hint of this from her grandfather, who mentions a legend that the Shikon Jewel will disappear if someone makes the right kind of wish. She figures it all out in the final episode, only after being trapped by the Shikon Jewel.
      • Very few people are aware of the Jewel's existence, even less are aware of its origins, and practically no one knows that it has any sort of will of its own. Kikyou, Kagome and even Miroku were trying to purify it and Kikyou thought that using it to wish Inu Yasha into a human would cause it to disappear, but that wasn't the right wish and Inu Yasha wouldn't really agree to it during the short period they had the jewel prior to its breaking. Kagome couldn't even remember the wish aspect until Magatsuchi was killed, clearing the veil on her memories that was implied since the first chapter (where she says that she can never remember the story of the Shikon no Tama no matter how many times her grandpa told her, for some reason).
• What is the point of the Fox Demon Exam? Do kitsune need to get promoted in order to grow more tails?
  • Not sure the exact point other than to add a side story, but not quite a Non Sequitur Scene, it IS mentioned again later on in the final act episodes.
• In the episode where they thought Kirara ran away, why did everyone agree to beat Shippo up? I mean, it was Miyoga's fault everything happened, and Shippo had a reasonable defense. More importantly, why the hell did Kagome encourage it? She's usually the one who delivers the sit command whenever Inuyasha beats up Shippo.
  • It may have been Miyoga who borrowed Kirara, but everyone stewed and fretted over Kirara because shippo had conveniently forgotten that Miyoga had borrowed Kirara, and everyone had just found this out AFTER shippo had just got done with an accusatory laundry list of how everyone had been mean to Kirara and had driven him to run off.
  • Because despite sitting Inuyasha for giving Shippo a lump on the head all the time, Kagome knows that Inuyasha would never actually seriously hurt Shippo. Giving him a few smacks on the head is just Inuyasha's way of disciplining Shippo, and in this case he needed it.

• And speaking of Inuyasha beating Shippo, why doesn't he use his shapeshifting to turn into a rock or a statue? I'm not sure if it would still hurt Shippo, but at least he'll hurt Inuyasha in return.
  • Generally speaking, when Inuyasha punches rocks and statues, he's completely unharmed and the rocks and statues are gravel. Besides, Inuyasha is too quick for Shippou to react to when he's not prepared for it, Inuyasha usually only whacks him when Shippou already pissed him off once, so pissing him off the strongest guy in the party again is probably not a great idea from Shippou's point of view.
• How does Kagome not get kicked out of school? I mean, her relatives use the illness excuse, which is fine, but when it comes to such extended periods of illness, shouldn't she need to bring a doctor's confirmation? I don't know how such things are handled in Japan, and I know that it would be perhaps potentially insulting to ask for a confirmation because it would be taken akin to accusing her family of lying, but it still strikes me as odd.
  • My guess, seeing as only a year passed in Kagome's time (which, by the way would be impossible seeing as even if every chapter of the manga was only one day it still added up to two or three years in the feudal era) is that time passes differently on either side of the well. In all likelyhood she was gone for much shorter periods of time than it appeared on the modern side of the well.
• About Inuyasha's demon transformation, why doesn't he try to train and master said transformation? He goes crazy whenever he transforms because his human side isn't strong enough to handle it, so why not try and make his human side stronger? It's not like some humans haven't shown levels of strength comparable to demons before. It seems like the writers missed perfectly good Training from Hell and Charles Atlas Superpower opportunities.
  • Everything we learn about the transformation indicates that it's not something that can possibly be "mastered" - the whole point of Demon Inuyasha in a storytelling sense is to provide a means for Inuyasha to learn that becoming a full demon, which was his motivation for quite a bit of the early parts of the series, would not solve the problems he thinks it would solve. It paves the way for Inuyasha to accept his half-human nature and learn to use what he has instead of trying to become something else.

• Why do Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru have razor-sharp claws that serve as highly effective Natural Weapons? They're supposed to be dog demons, not cat demons. Dogs' claws aren't sharp at all, and are used solely to provide traction while running.
  • Dog claws are sharp. I've been cut up by my dogs when they jump up on me while I'm wearing shorts.
• Wouldn't the first thing you tried to do after getting a healing sword be to fix the arm you just had chopped off? Also, I can see why Sesshomaru things the sword is useless, but why does everyone else think it is too? Not one person thinks having a resurrection sword is awesome just because it can't cut?