Inuyasha

Inuyasha is the main character of this anime. The young priestess Kikyo bound him to a tree with her sacred arrow. He remained there for 50 years until the reincarnation of Kikyo, Kagome, stumbled upon his resting place. After he was freed by Kagome, he decided he would do anything to obtain the Sacred Jewel of Four Souls which Kikyo had burned in her death. Somehow the jewel burst from Kagome's body for the taking. He defeated the daemon chasing Kagome and even tried to strike Kagome down for the jewel. Luckily Kagome was able to tame him and could protect the jewel from his greedy claws.

While guarding the jewel, a daemon crow stole it in its beak. Kagome shot it with an arrow, and the Sacred Jewel shot across the world  into many tiny shards or pieces. Though they both didn't like it, Kagome and Inuyasha had to team up in order to find all the pieces of the jewel so it wouldn't be used for evil gain. Just one shard could give an evil human or  daemon immense power. As they find more and more shards their allies grow as well. They have a new enemy,    Naraku, who is found out to be the one who made Kikyo and Inuyasha betray each other. Inuyasha's skills grow with his new sword, but so does his temper.

Kagome

Kagome is an average 15 year old girl living in present day Tokyo. Her family always had a mysterious shrine on there property that Kagome only heard stories about from her grandfather. One day, Kagome wanders into the shrine to find her cat that her brother is too scared to find. She discovers there is a well deep inside the shrine. As she turns around to leave, a daemon pulls her inside in order to take the jewel inside her body. Kagome is taken into the old century Japan and discovers the resting place of Inuyasha. Another priestess, who claims to be Kikyo's sister, finds a resemblance of Kagome to look like her departed sister Kikyo. After a long struggle for the jewel, Kagome frees Inuyasha from his sleeping spell. She battle's daemons, struggles to find the jewel shards, and has to deal with Inuyasha's attitude. It's hard enough to do her work or even show up to school. Try telling your friends you're unprepared because you were battling daemons all week.
 
Shippo

Shippo is a young fox daemon and the cutest one ever seen at that! After his father was defeated by the notorious Thunder Brothers, he swore to gather all the jewel shards to be powerful enough for revenge. By lucky for him, he tries to steal the jewel from Kagome with little help of escape from Inuyasha. Kagome feels sorry for the poor orphan daemon, and decides to help him fight the Thunder Brothers. Shippo remains very loyal to Kagome and decides to stay with Inuyasha and Kagome for protection. He has many tricks and illusions and his famous fox fire. His attacks are child's play, but there enough to fool a daemon or two and help their group in times of need.

Miroku

There's only one thing to say about Miroku if you are a woman... Though he claims to be an honest monk on a quest to kill Naraku...he is much more than that. The black hole in his right hand, or known as his wind tunnel, is almost as scary as his appeal to women. His grandfather had been in a battle with Naraku himself. Before Naraku left the scene he struck a whole in the monk's right hand. This curse would be passed through his blood line as long as Naraku lived. Miroku received the curse as well. The wind tunnel in his hand grows after each use and threatens one day to consume him entirely. If Miroku kills Naraku, his life will be spared. His chances to defeat Naraku change when he meets Inuyasha and Kagome. He steals the jewel from Kagome and rides off with her bike. Of course Inuyasha has to go after him. After they battle and they realize they are after the same goal, to kill Naraku, they decide to join forces. The only problem is Miroku hits on every woman he sees, including Kagome, which does not make Inuyasha too happy. One thing is certain, Miroku's blood line is to be feared.

Sango

Sango is skilled in the ways of fighting. She was the most skilled daemon slayer in her village. She was also the only survivor from Naraku's attack of their daemon slaying group. Naraku used his sly tricks and greed to obtain jewel fragments in Sango's village. He tricked the daemon slayers to leave the village unprotected, the led them to a slaughter. Naraku trapped all of Sango's family in one day and even took control over Sango's gentle brother Kohaku. He made him kill the whole group of daemon slayers including her father. Sango saw behind his trickery and tried to destroy him..... but Kohaku stabbed her first. Sango was the only survivor and vowed to destroy Naraku for trying to control her in the same manner to kill Inuyasha. With her faithful companion Kirara (who is on her shoulder), she travels with Inuyasha's group to kill Naraku and get back her brain washed brother who should have never even been a daemon slayer in the first place.


Kikyo

Kikyo is said to be the most powerful priestess of her time. The Sacred Jewel of Four Souls was put into her care for protection from daemons. She was the only mortal with the power to purify the jewel. She protects villages from daemons seeking the jewel with her skill of archery and cunning. She knows a great deal of healing remedies as well. Villages are most grateful when she is around for her skill, beauty, and knowledge of healing.

After years of the jewel being under her protection, Inuyasha battled with Kikyo as well to obtain it. Kikyo would always triumph over Inuyasha with her great skill, but she could never find it necessary to finish him off. She realized Inuyasha was different from many other daemons she had struck down. After all, he was half human, and that was the fact that brought her closer to Inuyasha. A strong bond started to grow between them and eventually Kikyo had a weak spot because of her love for Inuyasha. She wanted to use the jewel to make Inuyasha all human and in doing so, the jewel would vanish form existence and no longer in need of her care. But as Kikyo was to bring the jewel to Inuyasha, she was struck down by Naraku disguised as Inuyasha. Naraku fooled Inuyasha in the same manner and disguised himself as Kikyo. Kikyo and Inuyasha both felt betrayed. Inuyasha stole the jewel because of this hatred and the wounded Kikyo shot him to a tree under a spell. She followed him in death and burned the sacred jewel with her so daemons could no longer retrieve it.
Fifty years or so later, when Kagome was brought back to the old Japan, a daemon revived Kikyo's body and stole Kagome's soul to make the priestess walk again. Kagome took back her soul and all that kept Kikyo moving was her hatred of Inuyasha. She walks among the earth, sustaining her body from the dead souls of maidens and plotting when she will finally drag Inuyasha into hell with her. Koga is the strong leader of the wolf daemon tribe. Having three jewel shards of his own jammed into his legs and arm, he is a powerful enemy to reckon with. Although he hates Inuyasha and has constant word battles with him, he is quite fond of Kagome. He kidnaps her when realizing she can see jewel fragments. This came in handy in order to defeat the Birds of Paradise who attacked the wolf dens and killed many of the wolf tribe. Shippo came to help Kagome escape, but in doing so, he put himself in danger. To save Shippo, Kagome let him fly away with his balloon trick, so she would face them alone. Koga thought that she was loyal and declared her to be "his woman". Well of course Inuyasha didn't like this at all since he totally despises Koga, so Inuyasha gets very protective of her when Koga is near. Inuyasha even thinks Kagome likes Koga because she protected him from Inuyasha when he was hurt.

Kohaku

Kohaku is the brother of Sango. His personality is gentle and kind hearted, but unlucky for him, his family is a group of daemon slayers. Kohaku would practice to become a slayer, but his skill wasn't focused and he would constantly compare himself to his highly skilled sister. His father thought it was time to bring Kohaku into a real battle with his new age older than ten. Their whole group traveled to a castle in need of slayers. What they didn't know was the fearful daemon Naraku was setting a trap for them to gain their jewel shards. Naraku controlled Kohaku and made him kill his father and the rest of the slayers in the group. The only one left was Sango, but she had seen through this trickery and tried to strike down the daemon in disguise. But before she could reveal the daemon to the guards of the palace...Naraku had ordered Kohaku to stab Sango in her back. As soon as his blade hit Sango, his spell was released and he was brought back to consciousness to see what he had done. The guards shot Kohaku with arrows thinking he had gone insane. They shot Sango too because she had tried to attack the daemon disguised as the lord of the castle. Kohaku had died there, but his body was still in Naraku's use. His soul wonders in darkness. And if he is awakened, he has to live with the painful knowledge that he killed and struck his entire family down, was used as Naraku's puppet, and attacked his beloved sister.

Sesshomaru

Sesshomaru is Inuyasha's full daemon older brother. Though Inuyasha and him are kin, they do not like each other at all. Sesshomaru is a much better fighter than Inuyasha. He does not fight with rage like Inuyasha does. Sesshomaru despises Inuyasha because their father left Inuyasha a powerful sword forged from his fang. This sword, known as the Tetsusaiga, could wipe out 100 daemons with one stroke. Sesshomaru couldn't understand why Inuyasha was so blessed and he only received a useless sword.

This sword Sesshomaru received from his father was known as the Tenseiga. This sword was not used for attack but used for saving 100 in one stroke. Sesshomaru tries many new ways to steal the sword from Inuyasha. He cannot touch the sword himself because the Tetsusaiga can only be used by those who wish to protect humans. This wont stop Sesshomaru though. Even when Inuyasha ripped his arm off, he used this as a strategy. Naraku even helped by giving him a human arm to use so he could wield the Tetsusaiga successfully. But at one of the battles with Inuyasha, Sesshomaru gets badly injured when Inuyasha can finally unleash the swords full power. The Tenseiga chose to save him though, and he escaped barely from loosing his life. Sesshomaru's compassion for humans is changing slowly. He chooses to save a young girl from death by wolves. (Koga's wolves actually). His hatred of Inuyasha is still strong and he tries with each attempt to steal what he believes should be his, the Tetsusaiga.

Naraku

Naraku is the cause of everyone's suffering. He enjoys laying traps for people entangled with the mystery of the Jewel of Four Souls. He purposely tries to make people betray one another so the jewel shard will become more evil. He believes the jewel becomes more beautiful when it is covered in hatred. He did this very thing to Inuyasha and Kikyo. He made them betray each other, and in doing so, he would retrieve the jewel that was covered in their hatred. The only problem was Kikyo took the jewel with her in her death to keep the Sacred Jewel dormant. He controlled Sango in the same manner. He put a jewel shard in Kohaku's back and tried to make Sango kill her brother. Sango couldn't do it, so she purified the jewel with her love for her brother.

Naraku is the cause of Miroku's wind tunnel. The curse Miroku must bare until Naraku is killed. Naraku is constantly using ways to get more jewel shards without physically taking them himself. Manipulating other people or daemons is his style which makes all of Inuyasha's group hate him more every day. Naraku grows stronger with each jewel shard he gains. With the piece Kikyo herself gave him, he is able to make carnations of himself. He can create Kagura and Kanna. He is becoming even more deadly and a real challenge for Inuyasha to stop.


All these characters are tied to the Sacred Jewel of Four Souls. The Jewel that can be used for good or evil, but there are no circumstances where it has ever been used for good. Everyone who comes in contact with the jewel has tragedy come to their life. This jewel is the cause of much blood shed and a single shard can give a daemon immense power. Every character in this anime has a tie with the jewel.


These pictures are mostly from Chuck's Anime Shrine. Inuyasha's chatracters, story, and artwork are all copyright Rumiko Takahashi