Why Kagome is too good for Inuyasha

Inuyasha is a gore and romance (?) anime made in 2006. It has four movies, a 7 season series, and a final series called The Final Act.

After watching 6 seasons of Inuyasha, I get so mad at the things that happen between the two leads of the show and thought I would like to discuss their relationship. If you don’t wish to be spoiled, don’t read this article, but come back once you have watched up until season 6 or 7 ;)

For those of you who have not watched the anime Inuyasha, I will give a brief synopsis. This show is about a girl named Kagome that accidentally lands in an alternative universe where there are demons in feudal Japan. She runs into Inuyasha who is a half-human half-dog demon that was pinned to a tree for 50 years by a priestess named Kikyo. It is discovered later that Kagome is a reincarnation of Kikyo and shares similar powers to her and was able to release Inuyasha from his imprisonment. When the Sacred Jewel, which is a powerful relic that grants users power, whether demon or human, is broken, it is Kagome’s and Inuyasha’s duty to find the pieces and prevent the demon, Naraku, from getting the jewel. They meet other characters along the way; a pervy priest named Miroku, a demon slayer named Sango, a child fox demon named Shippo, and others along their journey.

So that is the main storyline. However, the relationship between Kagome and Inuyasha is sometimes too painful to watch, considering that Inuyasha is still in love with Kikyo. But Kikyo has a twisted outlook on her relationship with Inuyasha since both of them in their past lives thought that they betrayed each other and thus why she sealed Inuyasha with her arrow on the sacred tree. So she wants Inuyasha to die with her since she is technically not a living being but a ghost relaying on the souls of the dead to keep her in the living world.

Yet, Inuyasha sometimes (actually almost always) wants to protect her over Kagome's life. Kagome on the other hand is very much alive and has a very kind soul. She had to endure multiple times (whether Inuyasha was aware that she was there witnessing) him proclaiming his love for Kikyo throughout the seasons. The other characters have criticized him for this as well so it is not a subtle thing that he has done before. And despite that, Kagome remains loyal to him despite not actually being a couple, I think them becoming an actual couple at the end of the series is up for justification. At least for where I am in the series.

From my understanding, there are 6 seasons in Inuyasha and a separate series called The Final Act, where I think they finally get together as a couple. However, from what I have seen, he does care about Kagome but is unable to get over Kikyo, who is his first love. It is infuriating how divided he is on choosing whether he should be with Kagome or Kikyo that I think she should’ve just not continued to help him despite the fact that it would go against her character.

Despite all his shortcomings, I agree with Kagome that he is a noble hero who cares for those in need compared to when we first met him. At the start of the series, he tries to kill Kagome twice in one of the opening episodes to get the Sacred Jewel from her. Sooooooo…it is a relief that he has become a hero due to being with Kagome. He is a good person who, even though he does not like showing his softer side, does have one.

Not to say that it is ok to remain emotionless or cold towards others, at least it is a good start compared to where he was previously in the series. He has developed empathy for others, kindness towards those in need, and a crush on Kagome despite his love for Kikyo.

But that is where the problem lies. Kagome figures out that she is in love with him and chooses to stay with him despite that it is not equally reciprocated. This can cause some serious emotional damage on Kagome’s part. And who is to say that he doesn’t change his mind and chooses Kikyo over her repeatedly? It is unbearable to watch when Kikyo and Kagome are in the same episode with Inuyasha since he usually chooses Kikyo over her.

Now if there were no Sacred Jewel shards that they needed to collect, Kagome should just leave and never return. There was even a scene where she is telling her friends about him (sort of, she doesn’t reveal that he lives in an alternative dimension where she fights demons and whatever) and they (at least two of her three friends) get upset over how he treats her. They even encourage her to leave him and never to speak to him again, but she chooses to stay with him out of friendship. This is commendable on her part, but Inuyasha never attempts to apologize in some way for making her emotionally confused. He doesn’t even have the guts in one episode to 1. say that he is in love with Kikyo and won’t be able to protect Kagome to her face and 2. say that Kagome should remain in her world since being with him will only hurt her more emotionally.

Instead, what he does is remain silent, which to me is a sign of immaturity (which he is for most of the show) because he is unable to own up to the fact that he is unable to choose which woman he will prioritize over the other. This is the same trick that men use on women when they want to keep their options open, which I don’t think is the intent of Inuyasha’s character but it very much comes off as so. Kagome is a strong-willed, wise, emotionally supportive, intelligent, hard-working, and formidable young woman. She is only in middle school and is fighting off monsters while cramming schoolwork when she has time!

I do like this show, but it does get frustrating how a lot of the men in this series are pervy and non-commitment material or are secretly committed to one woman but will act pervy around other women. For instance, Miroku seems to have deep feelings for Sango, and Sango does feel the same about Miroku. Still, Miroku chooses to constantly go up to different women and ask them to bear his children, sometimes in front of Sango as a running “joke” throughout the series. It is funny when someone does hit him, or he gets his commapense, but it is a bad look for most of the male characters in this series. At least Inuyasha narrowed his view to two women instead of any woman he sees. But that doesn’t excuse him completely from the lineup.

The only one I can say who is exempt from this is Sessumaru, Inuyasha’s older brother. But he is also a heartless murderer who is cold towards others, even his servant. The only person he has ever shown mercy was Rin, an orphan that died and was revived by Sessumaru. But he is on his own lineup for doing fucked up things, including trying to kill Inuyasha to get a sword that was bestowed to him by their father. So he is not a totally good person in the show. Though he is a cool character of his own merit.

I guess it is good that no one character is completely perfect, as some animes have completely good and completely bad characters, thus making the characters more complex in a way. But it is a frustrating complexity that the audience, such as myself, sometimes don’t like to see. I am not a fan of love triangle stories, whether female or male, to begin with, so this show doesn’t help this case. But if that is what some of you like, this is the anime for you.

But getting back to the main point of this piece is that Inuyasha doesn’t deserve to be with Kagome since, from the 6 seasons I have watched, there has been little to no improvement on whether Inuyasha will finally choose who he will prioritize. It is implied multiple times that he would protect Kikyo over Kagome if he were ever forced to choose, so I am not sure going forward that will actually change in The Final Act arch. As far as I am concerned, Kagome should go out with the guy from her world that keeps asking her out on dates. Despite that he might not be as exciting as Inuyasha or as strong and fiery, but that is what Kagome should go for instead if she ever hopes to have a healthy relationship.

Understandably, you can’t control who you love or fall in love with, but you can control who you want to be in a healthy relationship with. Kagome deserves anyone who will put her first and is not stuck between her and another woman. If there is ever a guy who can’t decide between you and some other woman, just make his decision easier and take yourself out of the equation. A man who truly wants you will fight to have you stay in their life and won’t be thinking about another woman, even if they were their first love. Or at least don’t wait for them to choose you since how long are you truly willing to wait for them to decide? You could wait your whole lifetime and they still might not end up choosing you in the end. Then what?

Now there is an argument that can be made that since Kagome is a middle schooler, she doesn’t have to choose her life partner right now and maybe Inuyasha in demon years might be around her age demographic so the same can be said for him as well. However, by the end of the series they do end up getting together so there has to be some change in his character that makes him want to end up with her and even have a child with him. So…that argument wouldn’t apply.

Unless there is a big change that happens towards the end of the series then it would have to be a BIG change considering all the emotional torture he put Kagome through. Even though she didn’t realize it in the beginning that she was in love with him, she still was suffering. And then when she finally figured it out for herself, he still continued to show case his love for Kikyo in front of her. She has a strong selfless love that makes her strong and weak at the same time. Since I can understand that maybe Kagome’s love is supposed to represent what real love is like, the selfless kind of love that people want and should hope to achieve, while Kikyo’s is the selfish kind that only thinks about what they want from the person they “love” without considering their thoughts/feelings/desires/and needs. But Kagome gets the short end of the stick because Inuyasha (at least from what I see) does not acknowledge that what he is doing, especially in front of Kagome, is wrong and should be kept private. At least to spare Kagome the agony of watching him proclaiming his undying love for Kikyo. He switches from fawning over Kagome like a lost puppy when Kikyo is not around to being obsessed with Kikyo once Inuyasha figures out she is nearby. That is some emotional whip-lash that would send anyone into questioning their self-worth.

However, whether or not there is a big change or just a little change, the ending to the anime is them getting together as a legitimate couple. I am interested in seeing how this ending becomes so as I continue to watch the final two seasons and The Final Act arch.

If you want to watch this anime not for its romance, this is a good gore and thriller anime with lots of twists and turns the main storyline takes.