Kagome Higurashi
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| Kagome Higurashi | |
|---|---|
| InuYasha character | |
 Kagome portrayed in the anime |
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| First appearance | "The Girl Who Overcame Time... and the Boy Who Was Just Overcome" |
| Created by | Rumiko Takahashi |
| Voiced by | Satsuki Yukino (Japanese) Moneca Stori (English) |
| Profile | |
| Age | 15[1] |
| Species | Human |
| Known relatives | Grandpa Mama (mother) Sota (brother) Kikyo (previous incarnation) |
| Weapon | Bow and arrow (sacred arrows) Spiritual powers (reiki) |
Kagome Higurashi (日暮 かごめ Higurashi Kagome?) is a fictional character in the anime and manga series InuYasha created by Rumiko Takahashi. The title character, InuYasha, is her love interest.
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[edit] Overview
Kagome is a protagonist of this manga and anime series. Her grandfather is the keeper of Higurashi Shrine, a Shintō shrine near Tokyo. On her fifteenth birthday, Kagome tries to save her cat from the shrine and is pulled into the Bone Eater's Well by a centipede demon, called Mistress Centipede. This takes her back in time to the Sengoku period of feudal Japan. It is here that she finds the half-demon, InuYasha, in a coma and sealed to the Tree of Ages by a sacred arrow shot from the priestess Kikyo for 50 years. Kagome removes the arrow from his chest, freeing InuYasha and beginning their adventures.[2]
[edit] Abilities
- Purification Powers (Hama no reiryoku)
- This ability means anything Kagome touches gets purified. By gathering an enormous amount of concentrated power into her right palm, she can direct it at her opponents.[3] She also uses this to purify the Jewel.
- Spiritual Powers
- Kagome can pass through barriers, spells, and/or illusions. Kagome is also able to sense evil auras and is unaffected by them. If possible, she is able to surround herself with her own spiritual powers to ward off any evil. It is later revealed that her powers to a great extent are sealed by the Shikon no Tama, so she may have other powers than these. [4] According to Rumiko Takahashi, Kagome is potentially much stronger than Kikyo herself.[citation needed] In the most recent chapters when Magatsuhi was killed by Sesshoumaru, Kagome's spiritual powers were released.
- Jewel Detecting
- This allows her to sense the exact location of the Jewel shards. While other characters have shown a vague ability to see Shikon shards, only Kagome and Kikyo are able to sense the shards remotely.
- Time Travel
- Kagome can travel back and forth 500 years between the present and the Feudal era using the magical well behind her family's shrine.[5]
- Beads of Subjugation (Osuwari/Sit)
- Placed around InuYasha's neck by Kaede and empowered to "subdue" him at a word from Kagome. This slams InuYasha into the ground whenever she says the word "sit". The effect wears off quickly and InuYasha is able to get up again.
- Kyūdō (literally meaning "way of the bow")
- Kagome uses a basic bow as a weapon. Once she infuses her powers into the bow, she can use it to reflect an enemy's attack. Kagome uses a shortbow. This changes when later on in the manga, when Kagome locates a longbow with special spiritual powers.[6] It has the power to strike evil spirits or the user's intended target bypassing others, if the opponent should happen to be using a hostage as a shield, the arrow will bypass the hostage and hit the enemy instead, only by using this particular bow.[7]
- Sacred Arrow (Hama no Ya)
- Kagome infuses her powers into her arrows. This allows the arrows to penetrate demonic forces and to purify objects.
- Sacred Backlash Wave (Hama-Bakuryūha)
- This attack is actually a combined effort between InuYasha and Kagome.[8] It consists of Kagome firing one of her Sacred Arrows into the center of InuYasha's Backlash Wave before it connects. When it hits the enemy there is a higher chance that he will be destroyed by the combined powers.
[edit] Relationships
- InuYasha
- Kagome and InuYasha had a rocky start. Being the reincarnation of Kikyo, Kagome has a very close resemblance to her. Consequently, the resentment InuYasha held for Kikyo at that time was carried over to Kagome. As the series progresses, however, the relationship between Kagome and InuYasha changes for the better. InuYasha’s tough guy facade slowly dissolves as Kagome helps him mature, and they even begin to fall in love. However, when Kikyo, InuYasha’s first love, is revived from the grave (using part of Kagome's soul) and InuYasha reveals that he still loves Kikyo. InuYasha encourages Kagome to stay in her own time so that he may save and avenge Kikyo, but Kagome, still in love, decides to stay with him anyway, knowing that she could never break their bond. In her own modern time, before she decides to stay with InuYasha, she strongly believed that she was second, and Kikyo was first. However, InuYasha is grateful to her and his love for Kagome grows while InuYasha still loves Kikyo. This intense love triangle becomes one of the main conflicts within the manga/anime. As kind-hearted as Kagome is, InuYasha can certainly test her nerves though it is not always InuYasha’s fault. Used as a comic relief, the two argue constantly throughout the anime, in some cases about Kikyo, which sometimes ends with Kagome saying osuwari ("sit" in the English dub) and InuYasha falling to the ground. However, as both characters mature the arguments slowly dissipate, something especially evident in the later chapters of the manga. Other characters, such as Miroku, Sango, and Shippo, often speculate that Kagome and InuYasha are in love. The two avoid discussing their relationship, but there are clear indications in the series of their bond. This includes displays of intimacy such as holding hands, frequent physical contact below the shoulder, and Kagome allowing InuYasha to rest his head on her lap. In Japanese culture, such gestures represent obvious feelings of love between two people. This is more evident after Kikyo's death when InuYasha asks Kagome to stay in modern Tokyo until Naraku is defeated, fearing that she will suffer the same fate as Kikyo. Kagome says that she will stay with InuYasha. In response to this, he holds her hand and tells her that he will protect her with his life. At this moment, they almost kiss, but are interrupted when Sota walks into the room.[9]
After Naraku's death, Kagome is sucked into a Meidou and transported inside the Shikon Jewel, where she experiences an illusion in which she lives out her normal life. Inuyasha cuts his own Meido and leaps in to resucue her, but is delayed by the soul of Magatsuhi, the demon trapped in eternal combat against the priestess Midoriko's soul inside the jewel. Once Kagome sees through the illusion, the Shikon Jewel appears before her and tempts her with the chance to wish that none of the past events had ever happened. Magatsuhi reveals to Inuyasha that, as a part of an eternal cycle of conflict, if Kagome was to preform a selfish wish on the jewel, her soul would be damned to fight the demons inside the jewel until the next miko over, with Naraku's soul replacing Magatsuhi. Inuyasha refuses to believe the demon's assurences that Kagome will doom herself to that fate, and continues to fight him to reach her before it is too late.
- Kikyo
- Kikyo is the origin of Kagome's powers as she is her previous incarnation. Their relationship is uneasy due to Kikyo's past relationship with InuYasha. Kagome is upset that Kikyo still contacts InuYasha, often talking to him in private. In the beginning of the series, Kikyo tries to take InuYasha with her to hell. However, after learning the truth about Naraku's role in her death, she changes her focus from InuYasha to Naraku and the jewel. Kagome has saved Kikyo's life a couple of times. Kagome tried to save her life a third time but was unable to, Kikyo dies knowing that Kagome can finish her task of destroying Naraku and purifying the Shikon no Tama on her behalf. Her soul is reabsorbed into Kagome soon after.
- Shippo
- Kagome treats Shippo like a little brother, bringing him candy and toys from the modern era and allowing him to sleep in her sleeping bag. Shippo is quick to take Kagome's side in an argument, but never really states how he feels about Kagome. However, it is obvious he loves her very much as a sister-like figure.
- Miroku
- While Miroku is lecherous at times, he has great respect for Kagome and her power. Kagome is constantly trying to get Miroku and Sango together and confess their love for one another. Shortly after they met, he asked Kagome to bear his child, as he asks all attractive young women.
- Sango
- Sango and Kagome become close friends very quickly. Sango is the only other female character (other than Kirara who cannot talk) in the group. The two often consult and confide with each other about love interests and other important topics like the whereabouts of the Shikon Jewel's shards. In the Japanese anime and manga, they call each other using the -chan honorific – a sign of close affections between the two girls.
- Koga
- Koga is first introduced when he tries to kidnap Kagome for her unique ability to see Shikon shards. He then decides to make Kagome his woman after seeing that she was fairly pretty, something InuYasha resents still. Eventually, as the series progresses, Koga becomes a trusted ally to the group – often arriving in the nick of time to save someone (often Kagome) from danger. However, his claim that Kagome is his woman causes tension between Kagome and InuYasha. Kagome does not really have any romantic interest in Koga, and tries to tell him so, but he refuses to believe her and assumes that once InuYasha is out of the picture, Kagome will love him back. Koga continues to pursue her, and Kagome still appreciates his friendship.
- Ayame (anime-only character)
- Ayame is Kagome's "rival" for Koga's affection. Though Kagome tries to befriend her, Ayame asserts that she does not like Kagome. Ayame loves Koga and once made him promise to marry her when she was older. Ayame blames Kagome for displacing Ayame in Koga's affections.[10]
- Hojo
- Hojo is one of Kagome's male classmates, and often brings herbal medicines and similar items to treat her "sicknesses".[11] Kagome likes him as a friend, but is too polite to tell him she is in love with someone else.
- Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi
- Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi are three classmates of Kagome. They are very nosy about Kagome's "boyfriend" and wonder why she is not interested in Hojo. At the beginning of the series, they disapprove of InuYasha, after Kagome describes him, and encourage Kagome to "dump him". However, after meeting InuYasha, they change their minds. In the manga, they are unnamed.
- Naraku
- As the main antagonist of the series, Naraku was never liked by Kagome or the other characters. As of Chapter 552, it was Kagome's purifying arrow that pierced the Shikon no Tama that was inside Naraku. Although slain, Naraku made a wish for a meidou (formed due to a cut by Byakuya before the boy died) to appear before Kagome to send her to Hell, which he claims is also the wish of the Shikon no Tama as well. Naraku's soul is later seen comatose inside the Sikon jewel as a result of his selfish wish. The demons of the Shikon Jewel tell Inuyasha that if Kagome were to make a selfish wish, Naraku would reawaken and take their place in the eternal battle between the demons inside the jewel and the souls of those who made a selfish wish on it.
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Revealed in theInuYasha character guide, "Zusetsutaizen Ougikaiden" by Rumiko Takahashi.
- ^ As depicted in Vol. 1, chapters 1-2 in the manga.
- ^ Note: She only does this when the jewel is inside her body.
- ^ First revealed in Vol. 52, Chapter 511
- ^ Note: In the first part of the anime, Kagome seems to be only able to time travel when she has a Shikon Jewel shard with her or is with InuYasha. However, this restriction does not apply in the manga. Later on in the anime, this restriction is dropped and ignored.
- ^ Received in Vol. 46, chapters 457-458
- ^ Ability discovered in Vol. 52, chapter 511
- ^ Note: This has been used only in the movies and in episode 140 of the anime.
- ^ Volume Fifty, Chapter 494, of the manga.
- ^ Episodes 83 and 84 of the anime.
- ^ Note: Kagome's grandfather makes up various illnesses to explain her absence from school while she is 500 years in the past.
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