Fanon InuYasha Essay
Apr. 17th, 2006 08:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
everythingismagicTitle: Fanon InuYasha Essay
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cowgirled
Email: kazenoyume @ gmail dot com
Fandom: "InuYasha"
Character: InuYasha
Spoilers: Blatant spoilers through volume nineteen, episode fifty-two. After that, the spoilers are subtle enough that you won't be spoiled if you haven't read it.
Notes: Thank you totailfluff for beta-reading this. Somewhat image heavy because I like pictures. xp This essay was originally written for the now obselete fanon_character. It's being posted here because I wanted somewhere to back it up on livejournal.
Introduction
I chose to cover InuYasha because I adore his character, and I simply wish people didn’t fanonize him as much as they do. When I got into the series, I disliked InuYasha quite a bit. However, that changed over time. Now it’s the opposite. I think he’s an absolutely extraordinary person, as well as a marvelously multifaceted character.
I’ve been into this series for several years, so I’ve come across the whole gamut of InuYasha’s fanon characteristics. I remember how surprised I was when I started reading fanfiction for this series. “Why does he keep calling Kagome bitch?” “What’s with the mating stuff?” I was quite scared, needless to say.
The essay is divided into sections, each one covering a popular fanon trait. In each section I’ve described ‘the fanon’ and then explained ‘the canon.’
I have chosen not to heavily touch on the fanon regarding InuYasha’s romantic relationships, as it is a whole new can of worms. However, I feel that what I do cover encompasses most of that oh-so-frightening entity known as fanon!InuYasha.
Glossary
Sengoku Jidai- or "warring-states" period, is a period of long civil war in the History of Japan that spans through the middle 15th to the early 17th centuries. It started in the late Muromachi period in 1467 with the Onin War (Onin no Ran 1467-1478), lasting through the entire Azuchi-Momoyama period, until final peace and order was achieved in 1615 of the Edo period.
Hanyou- Half demon
Youkai- demon
Kitsune- Fox
Shikon no Tama- Jewel of the four souls. A powerful jewel made up of the pure soul of a Miko and an army of evil youkai.
Basic Canon!Character Profile
Full Name: InuYasha (no surname known)
Home: Sengoku jidai, Musashi’s domain
Birthday: Unknown
Age: Fifteen
Family: Youkai father (passed away before InuYasha could manage to remember him), human mother (deceased likely within his childhood), older half brother (Sesshoumaru, full youkai on father’s side).
Short Profile: InuYasha is a hanyou, half human half youkai, or as Takahashi Rumiko describes him “a boy with the strength of a youkai and the heart of a human.” During the series, the abilities he holds due to his heritage work to his advantage more often than not. However, throughout his life InuYasha has been ostracized due to his mixed blood. “I wasn't a youkai. I wasn't human. I couldn't go with either.”
InuYasha is brash, gruff, naïve, and unsophisticated for the most part. He is also incredibly insecure, often using said behavior as a façade. His personality is intense. When he makes a promise, it is with absolute honor and sincerity. He is utterly compassionate, although it comes out often as rash demands. These are not behaviors we see at the beginning of the series, but attitudes he becomes more comfortable with displaying as the manga goes on.
InuYasha and Humans
The Fanon-
Humans are dirt beneath InuYasha’s feet. He’s proud of his youkai blood and often wishes to rid himself of his human blood.
To InuYasha the rest of his traveling group is full of ‘weak humans’ who are a hindrance to him.
Also, there is not much difference between a human and a youkai when it comes to battle. If a human appears to be an enemy, he will fight to the death with them.
The Canon-
InuYasha does not look down on humans. In fact, every person who he has considered a friend (and more) in his life (minus Myouga and Shippou) has been human. At the beginning of the series, he’d make a few offhanded comments about humans being weak. This was when he was still very bitter though after being unsealed. During that time, he searched for any manner to insult those around him. That was obviously an easy target.
But he doesn’t do it anymore, and it’s clear he does not consider himself ‘above them.’ If anything, he’s surprised that they were willing to befriend him because he’s spent most of his life being considered below them.
InuYasha has embraced his humanity. It’s remarked on in canon that he is unable to do certain things because of his ‘human heart.’ In the beginning he wished to become a full youkai in order to gain power and acceptance, but upon finding that acceptance with humans, he has (perhaps subconsciously) chosen to follow that path.
When it comes to the battlefield, InuYasha will always value the lives of humans over the lives of youkai. In the same manner that we (as people), would value the life of a person over the life of an animal.
It is worth noting that InuYasha has never actually entirely killed a human of his own will in the series. The time in which he was berserk and slaughtered a group of soldiers caused him tremendous guilt. Contrary to what occurs in fics, he would go to every length possible to avoid taking a human’s life.
He’s Quite the Baka
(Or is he?)
The Fanon-
InuYasha is stupid, simply put. Uneducated, reckless and idiotic.
…Or: InuYasha is a secret genius. He can memorize textbooks and his mother taught him to write his kanji with exquisite grace.
The Canon-
The reality is somewhere in the middle. InuYasha is no moron, but he’s not exactly a class act genius either.
It is highly unlikely that InuYasha is book smart. While it is possible he may know the basics of reading and writing, his mother died when he was very young and literacy was uncommon in the sengoku jidai. He is however, not stupid. There are a few aspects that spawn the fanon idea of InuYasha being unintelligent.
-He has been sealed to the Goshinboku for fifty years. Anything that has happened in the last fifty years, he is oblivious to.
-We often see his confusion regarding objects from Kagome’s time. He is unfamiliar with these and openly expresses as such.
-He is oftentimes reckless, not thinking before he leaps into a battle.
-A short attention span.
-And lastly he is naïve. Because he has not had much social contact before now, he is unfamiliar with some ideas and situations normal people would consider common sense.
In truth, InuYasha is a very perceptive person. He has trouble gauging people emotionally, but he can figure out the small details of situations quite easily. This shows that he has a fairly large mental capacity, even if he’s not Harvard Scholar material. He also displays a thirst to learn. If Kagome has something from her era, he wants to know about it. He’s even been seen looking at her textbooks.
Lastly, he holds an excellent ability to adapt to new situations. His quick acceptance of Kagome’s era, five hundred years in the future, is an obvious display of this.
Confidence and Sex
The Fanon-
InuYasha is a self-assured sengoku jidai Romeo. Well, except with a rather large asshole streak. It’s a wonder whoever he is paired with can stand how borderline abusive he is. Every once in a while he’ll have a short angst session about being a ‘filthy hanyou,’ but otherwise he’s the shit and he knows it.
Oh yes and he wants sex, and lots of it.
The Canon-
InuYasha is insecure. Very much so. Throughout the series he gains confidence in who he is, but he still is somewhat self conscious even now.
This carries over to his romantic life. He is easily flustered, especially by something he is unfamiliar with. There have been several times when Kagome’s given him a simple compliment and he’s blushed. Despite the bravado he may put on, it’s obvious he’s surprised that he’s done something right in someone else’s eyes.
As the series has continued, he has grown up a bit in this respect. He is not as shy due to so much positive time with others. He is more confident in his abilities because those around him believe in him as a person, and in turn he has begun to believe in himself.
However, he still carries quite a bit of insecurity and becomes bashful from time to time.
As for sex… err, well most fics at least have the dignity to portray him as a virgin. But he’s more than a virgin in the act of sex; he’s also unfamiliar with romance period. InuYasha acts on impulse when it comes to romantic actions, and he is very clearly unsure of what he’s doing. If it came down to a sexual act, he would not be confident. He would be afraid and hesitant, quite possibly needing guidance.
I personally find it rather charming and don’t understand why this attitude is so often altered in fanfiction.
As an addition, InuYasha is not horny. Either he just is not an overly hormonal person, or his hormones have yet to ‘wake up.’ His canon love interest rides on his back for hours almost every day. If he had overactive hormones, I don’t think he’d be comfortable doing that.
The Difference Between Human and Hanyou
The Fanon-
Once every new moon, InuYasha loses his youkai strength and becomes an ordinary human boy. (This part is canon. :p ) To many fans this causes more than a physical change in who InuYasha is.
It causes him to become ‘more emotional,’ because he can’t ‘hide his emotions behind his youkai blood.’
In this mindset, InuYasha is constantly cursing his human half for causing him to reveal his emotions. Kagome often brushes off anything sweet he does as ‘he can’t control it because he’s human.’
…Okay.
The Canon-
InuYasha is described by Takahashi Rumiko herself as ‘a boy with the strength of a youkai and the heart of a human.’ He supposedly inherited his ‘gentle heart from his mother.’
The fanon belief that InuYasha is different emotionally as a human seems to stem from the first new moon in the series. The infamous scene in which human!InuYasha, poisoned and near death, falls asleep on Kagome’s lap and tells her ‘you smell nice.’
Being that this is the first time InuYasha says something ‘sweet’ to Kagome, it’s understandable that it may be a bit jarring. However, not only is he slightly delirious here, but he tells her the same thing only a few manga volumes later to her face (volume eight).
In fact, a good ninety percent plus of all major sentimental scenes involving InuYasha with anyone have taken place when he’s in his Hanyou form. He is the same person in mind and heart on the new moon. This is canon.
Also, what causes InuYasha to dislike his human night isn’t that he’s human. It’s that he’s afraid. He is afraid because he feels like on that night he’ll be targeted and he won’t be able to defend himself. This doesn’t mean he loathes the actual form. He doesn’t ever exhibit a huge problem with actually being human. His dislike lies in the situations that surround it.
InuYasha’s Berserk Form
The Fanon-
When InuYasha’s youkai blood overcomes him, he goes into a ‘berserker’ mode. It’s exactly as it sounds. He’s a mindless killing machine, becoming pretty much his worst nightmare. (This is canon.)
In fanon he is also experiencing an enhanced sexual drive. This results in rape fics and other such unpleasant scenarios.
The Canon-
InuYasha’s berserk form does not have a sexual drive. As stated in the series, its goal is to simply survive; killing anything it sees as a remote threat. (This is essentially every human and youkai in sight.)
There is nothing sexual about this form. He can’t even recognize people, let alone comprehend that he wants to procreate with them.
The ‘Bitch’ Stigma
(Among other things)
The Fanon-
InuYasha is a very rough person in fanfiction quite often. It’s true there are authors that turn him into a pile of sappy goo who spouts sonnets of love. And while that’s quite silly, there’s another better accepted portrayal that’s equally far off.
‘Bitch’ is the favorite word of InuYasha in fanfiction upon fanfiction. Often this is tied in as something relating to his ‘canine’ attitude. (See Mates and Marks later on for that.) In these fics it isn’t actually an insult because he’s calling simply calling her a ‘female.’ Other times, it’s just an insult he constantly throws in Kagome’s face in an almost abusive manner.
‘Shard Detector’ is another one that falls here. How many fics do we find Kagome angsting in because InuYasha has told her once again she’s just his ‘shard detector?’ There’s a lot.
The Reality-
It is hard to debate use of the word ‘bitch,’ because one of the primary online translations of the manga has used it. Nevertheless, it is not correct. InuYasha has not once used this word in the series.
The ‘rude’ term he uses often is ‘temee,’ which would be best translated as just a rude way of saying, ‘you.’ Personally, I feel the best translation for this word would be something along the lines of ‘jerk.’ Not near as harsh.
One time towards Kagome, he used a term that would be translated as ‘damn woman.’ However, it’s necessary to note that the time he used this term, she was asleep (volume fifteen of the manga). He has also used this term regarding Kikyou before, but as with the previous situation, she was not present.
Regarding use of the term ‘shard detector,’ if I recall this phrase was only present in the Viz translation of the manga. However, even in that version it was only used once early on in the series. Back during the days before InuYasha ‘grew up’ a bit. The scene in which it was used involved Miroku directly confronting InuYasha regarding him being in a romantic relationship with Kagome. Flustered, he gave that excuse. It's classic denial. Nothing more. As such, using it as a character point is very much falling in the realm of fanon.
Mates and Marks
The Fanon-
Fanon!InuYasha hosts a whole cavalcade of canine behaviors when it comes to romance. His ‘bitch’ of choice becomes his ‘mate,’ and in an often elaborate ceremony he ‘marks’ her (by either leaving a scar, infusing blood or both) as his one and only love of his life.
To fanon!InuYasha, marriage is often a non-existent idea. Despite the fact that he’s spent all his social life around human beings, the ideas of human traditions regarding love are not just scorned but he doesn’t even know them. He understands the youkai way of life, and heavily insists on following it.
If he was never taught about youkai mating, he frequently knows it by ‘instinct.’ (I’m not even going to touch this.)
The Reality-
There is nothing in the series remotely hinting towards this behavior. The word ‘mate’ is never once used by a character (not even Kouga, who uses the term ‘onna,’ which is ‘woman’), and InuYasha has not referred to any person, place or thing in animalistic terms at any point in the series. This includes use of the word ‘pup’ or ‘kit.’ He never uses any such language, and refers to children as… ‘children,’ or more commonly ‘brats’ for some of them. ^_~
The truth is that even if there were youkai ‘traditions’ regarding marriage, sex and reproduction, InuYasha would not know them. Recall that he was raised by a human woman and after that was on his own. He himself directly admits in canon (volume twelve) that he was on his own. Every significant positive relationship he’s had in his life has been with a human (minus Shippou and Myouga), as he does not remember his father.
This isn’t even touching on the implausibility of common fanon elements such as the ‘bite mark.’ I’ve never read of a type of canine that marks a mate by biting them and infusing them with their blood, so I’m not even quite sure where this fanon came from. It sounds more like Vampires to me.
For InuYasha, his mindset on romance is very human. His romantic actions, honor system, etc are all true to a person from his era. Anyone he chose to marry would be his wife, and there is nothing unusual that would be performed for him during a wedding ceremony or any sex thereafter.
Interestingly enough, the ‘mate’ phenomenon seems to be purely found in English speaking segments of the fandom. The Japanese quite clearly use ordinary terms like ‘wife’ in reference to romance among youkai- and of course among hanyou such as InuYasha.
Other Fanon Elements-
1-InuYasha on Kagome’s Time- Contrary to popular fanon belief, InuYasha does not dislike Kagome’s era. In fact, there we see him perhaps the most relaxed we do in the series. In later manga chapters, he happily assists at the shrine, picks Kagome up from school, meets her friends, and forms a rather endearing bond with her family. At times he has shown boredom and impatience when she is working on homework or is at school, but he does this in sengoku jidai just as often. He's just stir-crazy in general.
2- InuYasha’s ‘enhanced senses’ include hearing and his sense of smell. He does not have an enhanced sense of taste or enhanced vision. Recall that Takahashi based his ‘enhanced’ senses on that of a dog. They have poor (colorblind) vision and a weak sense of taste (fifty-five times weaker than a human). It’s obvious this isn’t the case with InuYasha, as his vision is obviously fine and he’s gone nuts over spiced curry being too hot before. However, they aren’t going to be enhanced.
3- Can InuYasha get sick? Sure he can! There’s a lot of fanfiction out there where he is literally unable to catch any kind of illness. That’s untrue though. While his immune system may be stronger than a normal human's (there's no evidence that it is or isn't), he is still susceptible to human inllness. After InuYasha’s second fight with Kagura (volume sixteen), he was stricken with not only injuries, but with a high fever. If we go by anime only, there’s an entire filler episode (eighty-nine) involving a medicine his mother made for him as a child to cure his ails. He makes it for Kagome.
Conclusion
InuYasha is an impressively dynamic lead character. It’s understandable that fans don’t take the time to grasp all of his character because there is so much to take in. However, the fanonization of him on a whole is unnecessary and rather… random at times. It boggles me as a fan as to why people would alter such an already fantastic character in such ways.
I hope this essay shed some light on the fanon elements of InuYasha’s character, as well as the truths behind it. To often in this fandom, fanon is so ingrained into people’s minds that they confuse it with canon. It’s rather unfortunate, because as far as I’m concerned, InuYasha is perfect just as he is.
Sources
Ear-tweak.com
Sengoku o Togi Zoushi
Author:
cowgirledEmail: kazenoyume @ gmail dot com
Fandom: "InuYasha"
Character: InuYasha
Spoilers: Blatant spoilers through volume nineteen, episode fifty-two. After that, the spoilers are subtle enough that you won't be spoiled if you haven't read it.
Notes: Thank you to
tailfluff for beta-reading this. Somewhat image heavy because I like pictures. xp This essay was originally written for the now obselete fanon_character. It's being posted here because I wanted somewhere to back it up on livejournal. Introduction
I chose to cover InuYasha because I adore his character, and I simply wish people didn’t fanonize him as much as they do. When I got into the series, I disliked InuYasha quite a bit. However, that changed over time. Now it’s the opposite. I think he’s an absolutely extraordinary person, as well as a marvelously multifaceted character.
I’ve been into this series for several years, so I’ve come across the whole gamut of InuYasha’s fanon characteristics. I remember how surprised I was when I started reading fanfiction for this series. “Why does he keep calling Kagome bitch?” “What’s with the mating stuff?” I was quite scared, needless to say.
The essay is divided into sections, each one covering a popular fanon trait. In each section I’ve described ‘the fanon’ and then explained ‘the canon.’
I have chosen not to heavily touch on the fanon regarding InuYasha’s romantic relationships, as it is a whole new can of worms. However, I feel that what I do cover encompasses most of that oh-so-frightening entity known as fanon!InuYasha.
Glossary
Sengoku Jidai- or "warring-states" period, is a period of long civil war in the History of Japan that spans through the middle 15th to the early 17th centuries. It started in the late Muromachi period in 1467 with the Onin War (Onin no Ran 1467-1478), lasting through the entire Azuchi-Momoyama period, until final peace and order was achieved in 1615 of the Edo period.
Hanyou- Half demon
Youkai- demon
Kitsune- Fox
Shikon no Tama- Jewel of the four souls. A powerful jewel made up of the pure soul of a Miko and an army of evil youkai.
Basic Canon!Character Profile
Full Name: InuYasha (no surname known)
Home: Sengoku jidai, Musashi’s domain
Birthday: Unknown
Age: Fifteen
Family: Youkai father (passed away before InuYasha could manage to remember him), human mother (deceased likely within his childhood), older half brother (Sesshoumaru, full youkai on father’s side).
Short Profile: InuYasha is a hanyou, half human half youkai, or as Takahashi Rumiko describes him “a boy with the strength of a youkai and the heart of a human.” During the series, the abilities he holds due to his heritage work to his advantage more often than not. However, throughout his life InuYasha has been ostracized due to his mixed blood. “I wasn't a youkai. I wasn't human. I couldn't go with either.”
InuYasha is brash, gruff, naïve, and unsophisticated for the most part. He is also incredibly insecure, often using said behavior as a façade. His personality is intense. When he makes a promise, it is with absolute honor and sincerity. He is utterly compassionate, although it comes out often as rash demands. These are not behaviors we see at the beginning of the series, but attitudes he becomes more comfortable with displaying as the manga goes on.
InuYasha and Humans
The Fanon-
Humans are dirt beneath InuYasha’s feet. He’s proud of his youkai blood and often wishes to rid himself of his human blood.
To InuYasha the rest of his traveling group is full of ‘weak humans’ who are a hindrance to him.
Also, there is not much difference between a human and a youkai when it comes to battle. If a human appears to be an enemy, he will fight to the death with them.
The Canon-
InuYasha does not look down on humans. In fact, every person who he has considered a friend (and more) in his life (minus Myouga and Shippou) has been human. At the beginning of the series, he’d make a few offhanded comments about humans being weak. This was when he was still very bitter though after being unsealed. During that time, he searched for any manner to insult those around him. That was obviously an easy target.
But he doesn’t do it anymore, and it’s clear he does not consider himself ‘above them.’ If anything, he’s surprised that they were willing to befriend him because he’s spent most of his life being considered below them.
InuYasha has embraced his humanity. It’s remarked on in canon that he is unable to do certain things because of his ‘human heart.’ In the beginning he wished to become a full youkai in order to gain power and acceptance, but upon finding that acceptance with humans, he has (perhaps subconsciously) chosen to follow that path.
When it comes to the battlefield, InuYasha will always value the lives of humans over the lives of youkai. In the same manner that we (as people), would value the life of a person over the life of an animal.
It is worth noting that InuYasha has never actually entirely killed a human of his own will in the series. The time in which he was berserk and slaughtered a group of soldiers caused him tremendous guilt. Contrary to what occurs in fics, he would go to every length possible to avoid taking a human’s life.
He’s Quite the Baka
(Or is he?)
The Fanon-
InuYasha is stupid, simply put. Uneducated, reckless and idiotic.
…Or: InuYasha is a secret genius. He can memorize textbooks and his mother taught him to write his kanji with exquisite grace.
The Canon-
The reality is somewhere in the middle. InuYasha is no moron, but he’s not exactly a class act genius either.
It is highly unlikely that InuYasha is book smart. While it is possible he may know the basics of reading and writing, his mother died when he was very young and literacy was uncommon in the sengoku jidai. He is however, not stupid. There are a few aspects that spawn the fanon idea of InuYasha being unintelligent.
-He has been sealed to the Goshinboku for fifty years. Anything that has happened in the last fifty years, he is oblivious to.
-We often see his confusion regarding objects from Kagome’s time. He is unfamiliar with these and openly expresses as such.
-He is oftentimes reckless, not thinking before he leaps into a battle.
-A short attention span.
-And lastly he is naïve. Because he has not had much social contact before now, he is unfamiliar with some ideas and situations normal people would consider common sense.
In truth, InuYasha is a very perceptive person. He has trouble gauging people emotionally, but he can figure out the small details of situations quite easily. This shows that he has a fairly large mental capacity, even if he’s not Harvard Scholar material. He also displays a thirst to learn. If Kagome has something from her era, he wants to know about it. He’s even been seen looking at her textbooks.
Lastly, he holds an excellent ability to adapt to new situations. His quick acceptance of Kagome’s era, five hundred years in the future, is an obvious display of this.
Confidence and Sex
The Fanon-
InuYasha is a self-assured sengoku jidai Romeo. Well, except with a rather large asshole streak. It’s a wonder whoever he is paired with can stand how borderline abusive he is. Every once in a while he’ll have a short angst session about being a ‘filthy hanyou,’ but otherwise he’s the shit and he knows it.
Oh yes and he wants sex, and lots of it.
The Canon-
InuYasha is insecure. Very much so. Throughout the series he gains confidence in who he is, but he still is somewhat self conscious even now.
This carries over to his romantic life. He is easily flustered, especially by something he is unfamiliar with. There have been several times when Kagome’s given him a simple compliment and he’s blushed. Despite the bravado he may put on, it’s obvious he’s surprised that he’s done something right in someone else’s eyes.
As the series has continued, he has grown up a bit in this respect. He is not as shy due to so much positive time with others. He is more confident in his abilities because those around him believe in him as a person, and in turn he has begun to believe in himself.
However, he still carries quite a bit of insecurity and becomes bashful from time to time.
As for sex… err, well most fics at least have the dignity to portray him as a virgin. But he’s more than a virgin in the act of sex; he’s also unfamiliar with romance period. InuYasha acts on impulse when it comes to romantic actions, and he is very clearly unsure of what he’s doing. If it came down to a sexual act, he would not be confident. He would be afraid and hesitant, quite possibly needing guidance.
I personally find it rather charming and don’t understand why this attitude is so often altered in fanfiction.
As an addition, InuYasha is not horny. Either he just is not an overly hormonal person, or his hormones have yet to ‘wake up.’ His canon love interest rides on his back for hours almost every day. If he had overactive hormones, I don’t think he’d be comfortable doing that.
The Difference Between Human and Hanyou
The Fanon-
Once every new moon, InuYasha loses his youkai strength and becomes an ordinary human boy. (This part is canon. :p ) To many fans this causes more than a physical change in who InuYasha is.
It causes him to become ‘more emotional,’ because he can’t ‘hide his emotions behind his youkai blood.’
In this mindset, InuYasha is constantly cursing his human half for causing him to reveal his emotions. Kagome often brushes off anything sweet he does as ‘he can’t control it because he’s human.’
…Okay.
The Canon-
InuYasha is described by Takahashi Rumiko herself as ‘a boy with the strength of a youkai and the heart of a human.’ He supposedly inherited his ‘gentle heart from his mother.’
The fanon belief that InuYasha is different emotionally as a human seems to stem from the first new moon in the series. The infamous scene in which human!InuYasha, poisoned and near death, falls asleep on Kagome’s lap and tells her ‘you smell nice.’
Being that this is the first time InuYasha says something ‘sweet’ to Kagome, it’s understandable that it may be a bit jarring. However, not only is he slightly delirious here, but he tells her the same thing only a few manga volumes later to her face (volume eight).
In fact, a good ninety percent plus of all major sentimental scenes involving InuYasha with anyone have taken place when he’s in his Hanyou form. He is the same person in mind and heart on the new moon. This is canon.
Also, what causes InuYasha to dislike his human night isn’t that he’s human. It’s that he’s afraid. He is afraid because he feels like on that night he’ll be targeted and he won’t be able to defend himself. This doesn’t mean he loathes the actual form. He doesn’t ever exhibit a huge problem with actually being human. His dislike lies in the situations that surround it.
InuYasha’s Berserk Form
The Fanon-
When InuYasha’s youkai blood overcomes him, he goes into a ‘berserker’ mode. It’s exactly as it sounds. He’s a mindless killing machine, becoming pretty much his worst nightmare. (This is canon.)
In fanon he is also experiencing an enhanced sexual drive. This results in rape fics and other such unpleasant scenarios.
The Canon-
InuYasha’s berserk form does not have a sexual drive. As stated in the series, its goal is to simply survive; killing anything it sees as a remote threat. (This is essentially every human and youkai in sight.)
There is nothing sexual about this form. He can’t even recognize people, let alone comprehend that he wants to procreate with them.
The ‘Bitch’ Stigma
(Among other things)
The Fanon-
InuYasha is a very rough person in fanfiction quite often. It’s true there are authors that turn him into a pile of sappy goo who spouts sonnets of love. And while that’s quite silly, there’s another better accepted portrayal that’s equally far off.
‘Bitch’ is the favorite word of InuYasha in fanfiction upon fanfiction. Often this is tied in as something relating to his ‘canine’ attitude. (See Mates and Marks later on for that.) In these fics it isn’t actually an insult because he’s calling simply calling her a ‘female.’ Other times, it’s just an insult he constantly throws in Kagome’s face in an almost abusive manner.
‘Shard Detector’ is another one that falls here. How many fics do we find Kagome angsting in because InuYasha has told her once again she’s just his ‘shard detector?’ There’s a lot.
The Reality-
It is hard to debate use of the word ‘bitch,’ because one of the primary online translations of the manga has used it. Nevertheless, it is not correct. InuYasha has not once used this word in the series.
The ‘rude’ term he uses often is ‘temee,’ which would be best translated as just a rude way of saying, ‘you.’ Personally, I feel the best translation for this word would be something along the lines of ‘jerk.’ Not near as harsh.
One time towards Kagome, he used a term that would be translated as ‘damn woman.’ However, it’s necessary to note that the time he used this term, she was asleep (volume fifteen of the manga). He has also used this term regarding Kikyou before, but as with the previous situation, she was not present.
Regarding use of the term ‘shard detector,’ if I recall this phrase was only present in the Viz translation of the manga. However, even in that version it was only used once early on in the series. Back during the days before InuYasha ‘grew up’ a bit. The scene in which it was used involved Miroku directly confronting InuYasha regarding him being in a romantic relationship with Kagome. Flustered, he gave that excuse. It's classic denial. Nothing more. As such, using it as a character point is very much falling in the realm of fanon.
Mates and Marks
The Fanon-
Fanon!InuYasha hosts a whole cavalcade of canine behaviors when it comes to romance. His ‘bitch’ of choice becomes his ‘mate,’ and in an often elaborate ceremony he ‘marks’ her (by either leaving a scar, infusing blood or both) as his one and only love of his life.
To fanon!InuYasha, marriage is often a non-existent idea. Despite the fact that he’s spent all his social life around human beings, the ideas of human traditions regarding love are not just scorned but he doesn’t even know them. He understands the youkai way of life, and heavily insists on following it.
If he was never taught about youkai mating, he frequently knows it by ‘instinct.’ (I’m not even going to touch this.)
The Reality-
There is nothing in the series remotely hinting towards this behavior. The word ‘mate’ is never once used by a character (not even Kouga, who uses the term ‘onna,’ which is ‘woman’), and InuYasha has not referred to any person, place or thing in animalistic terms at any point in the series. This includes use of the word ‘pup’ or ‘kit.’ He never uses any such language, and refers to children as… ‘children,’ or more commonly ‘brats’ for some of them. ^_~
The truth is that even if there were youkai ‘traditions’ regarding marriage, sex and reproduction, InuYasha would not know them. Recall that he was raised by a human woman and after that was on his own. He himself directly admits in canon (volume twelve) that he was on his own. Every significant positive relationship he’s had in his life has been with a human (minus Shippou and Myouga), as he does not remember his father.
This isn’t even touching on the implausibility of common fanon elements such as the ‘bite mark.’ I’ve never read of a type of canine that marks a mate by biting them and infusing them with their blood, so I’m not even quite sure where this fanon came from. It sounds more like Vampires to me.
For InuYasha, his mindset on romance is very human. His romantic actions, honor system, etc are all true to a person from his era. Anyone he chose to marry would be his wife, and there is nothing unusual that would be performed for him during a wedding ceremony or any sex thereafter.
Interestingly enough, the ‘mate’ phenomenon seems to be purely found in English speaking segments of the fandom. The Japanese quite clearly use ordinary terms like ‘wife’ in reference to romance among youkai- and of course among hanyou such as InuYasha.
Other Fanon Elements-
1-InuYasha on Kagome’s Time- Contrary to popular fanon belief, InuYasha does not dislike Kagome’s era. In fact, there we see him perhaps the most relaxed we do in the series. In later manga chapters, he happily assists at the shrine, picks Kagome up from school, meets her friends, and forms a rather endearing bond with her family. At times he has shown boredom and impatience when she is working on homework or is at school, but he does this in sengoku jidai just as often. He's just stir-crazy in general.
2- InuYasha’s ‘enhanced senses’ include hearing and his sense of smell. He does not have an enhanced sense of taste or enhanced vision. Recall that Takahashi based his ‘enhanced’ senses on that of a dog. They have poor (colorblind) vision and a weak sense of taste (fifty-five times weaker than a human). It’s obvious this isn’t the case with InuYasha, as his vision is obviously fine and he’s gone nuts over spiced curry being too hot before. However, they aren’t going to be enhanced.
3- Can InuYasha get sick? Sure he can! There’s a lot of fanfiction out there where he is literally unable to catch any kind of illness. That’s untrue though. While his immune system may be stronger than a normal human's (there's no evidence that it is or isn't), he is still susceptible to human inllness. After InuYasha’s second fight with Kagura (volume sixteen), he was stricken with not only injuries, but with a high fever. If we go by anime only, there’s an entire filler episode (eighty-nine) involving a medicine his mother made for him as a child to cure his ails. He makes it for Kagome.
Conclusion
InuYasha is an impressively dynamic lead character. It’s understandable that fans don’t take the time to grasp all of his character because there is so much to take in. However, the fanonization of him on a whole is unnecessary and rather… random at times. It boggles me as a fan as to why people would alter such an already fantastic character in such ways.
I hope this essay shed some light on the fanon elements of InuYasha’s character, as well as the truths behind it. To often in this fandom, fanon is so ingrained into people’s minds that they confuse it with canon. It’s rather unfortunate, because as far as I’m concerned, InuYasha is perfect just as he is.
Sources
Ear-tweak.com
Sengoku o Togi Zoushi
