Artist and writer Rumiko Takahashi has had a storied career with amazing hits including Ranma 1/2, Rin-Ne, Maison Ikkoku, Urusai Yatsura, and of course, Inuyasha. Her ability to weave an interesting story through the lives of more characters than the creators of The Simpsons could imagine have made her one of the most well-known and beloved creators of anime and manga throughout the planet.
While she is amazingly talented at creating characters, not everything about the worlds she creates gets translated perfectly when it comes time to animate them. Inuyasha’s story was told over the course of 193 episodes across two series, one OVA, and four feature-length films. With so many episodes, certain aspects of the story and some of the characters’ traits are bound to lose some clarity. While most of the series was easy to follow and fun to watch, there were a few aspects of the story that didn’t make much sense. Granted, if you put a magnifying glass up to any show about demons, magical artifacts, and time travel, you are bound to find a few flaws.
That being said, there were a few things about Inuyasha that just don’t make a lot of sense when you get right down to it. We found 20 that defy explanation and made more than a few fans scratching their heads in disbelief. This article covers aspects of the anime that are a little wonky without going into the manga.
With that, we give you 20 Things About Inuyasha That Make No Sense.
KAGOME’S FAMILY’S DISINTEREST IN HER SAFETY
When the series began, Kagome had just turned 15-years-old and was living on her family’s Shinto shrine alongside her little brother, grandfather, and mother. She quickly found herself embroiled in the events of the series back in Feudal Japan, which seems like a rather risky affair.
While she would come and go as she pleased, back and forth through the well, her mother and grandfather barely batted an eye. In any normal family, it’s highly unlikely that a 15-year-old girl would have the freedom to go off and fight demons through a magical well in the past. However, her grandfather and mother showed little to no interest in her safety. They knew what she was doing and just let her do it.
WHY CAN’T KAGOME TRANSPORT PEOPLE THROUGH THE WELL?
The series quickly established who and what could travel through the Bone Eater’s Well on Kagome’s family grounds, but that list was limited. Kagome could make her way through to the past and back, but that was mostly it in terms of people. When it came to inanimate objects, she could take whatever she liked.
There was never a reasonable explanation given for why this was the case. Why could she transport things like her bicycle and schoolwork, but not another person? While this was obviously a plot device meant to limit who and what could make their way through the well, it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny without an explanation. The well should have worked to allow more people or demons to make their way through it, but that simply wasn’t the case.
WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THE DEMONS?
When Kagome first traveled through the well, she found herself within a world very unlike the one she just left. The land was rife with magic and demons, which remained the setting for the series. She even teamed up with a half-demon and battled many throughout her time in Feudal Japan.
With so many demons just out and running about, it seems strange that there aren’t any in modern-day demons in Japan. So, what happened to them? On the surface, it seems Takahashi was meant to separate the time-periods into two different worlds, and while that makes sense for storytelling purposes, it doesn’t make much logical sense. They didn’t destroy all the demons in the past so there really should be some demons in the 21st century.
THE SUDDEN DISAPPEARANCE OF MAGIC
Similarly, magic seems to have lost its overall effectiveness and barely has a presence when it comes to the modern world. In the past, Miroku demonstrated a number of spiritual abilities with his spells, but those abilities seem to be only available to people in the past.
In the present, Kagome’s grandfather has his various charms, but they don’t deliver the same level of effectiveness as someone like Miroku in Feudal Japan. There isn’t an explanation given as to why magic no longer exists in the modern world, but it could be that people like Kagome’s grandfather simply lack the skill and ability to properly use it. Whatever the reason, it seems that there should be as much magic available in the present as there was in the past.
This one may fall into the nitpicking category, but for anyone who struggled to learn to ride a bike, it was a bit odd to see someone like Miroku hop onto one and ride it about with little to no problems.
While most people learn to ride as children, even adults find it difficult to learn to ride a bike if they skipped their lessons in childhood. Knowing that, it doesn’t make sense that a person who was born and raised in Feudal Japan could pick up a bicycle and ride it about as if it were second nature to him. Granted, Miroku possessed many skills and abilities, but the fact that he could ride a bike without any trouble doesn’t make much sense when you think about it for more than a few seconds.
KAGOME NEVER CHANGED CLOTHES
Kagome was a 15-year-old Junior High School student and we all knew this because she wore the uniform…constantly. In some ways, this was a costume, which identified the character, but it really didn’t make much sense. The uniform is hardly practical when it comes to traversing the dangers of Feudal Japan while hunting down shards and battling demons.
Why didn’t she simply change into something more practical? She had more than enough time and she had plenty of opportunities to throw on some pants and clothes that made sense, but she rarely changed out of her uniform. Perhaps she liked wearing it, but whatever her reasoning, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to traipse around Feudal Japan in a short skirt.
WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THE MONSTERS?
Demons weren’t the only creatures present throughout Feudal Japan who seem to have vanished by the present era. The many monsters, or youkai, that roamed about the landscape throughout Feudal Japan are gone and mostly forgotten in the present.
There was never any sort of explanation given for the disappearance of youkai with only a couple of exceptions. The Noh Mask and the Soul Piper were still about, but they were lost or hidden for a long time so they were likely missed by whatever catastrophe befell the monsters of old Japan. Like the demons, they may have been separated from modern times to differentiate between the two worlds, but they may have succumbed to modern weapons as time advanced. Unfortunately, no explanation was ever given so we just don’t know.
THE FOX DEMON EXAM WAS POINTLESS
At one point in the series, we are introduced to the Fox Demon Exam, but the whole event seemed rather pointless and only served as a distraction or side-story that probably could have been left out of the series altogether.
The Exam is introduced when Inuyasha and his team hole up in an inn without knowing its the site of the Exam. Shippō ends up in a position where a good grade could be earned by getting revenge on Inuyasha, but there doesn’t seem to be much of a point to the whole thing. Was the Fox Demon Exam necessary for getting promoted in order to grow more tails? Other than that, there didn’t seem to be much of a point to it, rather than it being another side-story that the series could have done without.
INUYASHA AND SESSHOMARU’S CLAWS
Inuyasha and Sesshomaru’s claw weapons are some of their most devastating and useful, but they don’t make a lot of sense. When you think about it, these guys are dog demons, which means their claws should be similar to those of a dog’s.
Dogs don’t use their claws as weapons; their claws are used to help in digging and to maintain traction when running on various surfaces. They are also not retractable like a cat’s, which begs the question, why were they used as if they were a cat’s claws? Granted, they are demons and have abilities a dog wouldn’t normally possess, but it seemed strange that their natural claw weapons were much more cat-like than dog-like given they are dog demons.
THE LONG WAIT BETWEEN REINCARNATIONS
Early in the series, it is established that Kagome is the reincarnation of Kikyo, which is why she has the ability to travel through the Bone Eater’s Well and possess the Shikon Kewel within her own body.
This is one of those aspects of the series that is easily established, but it does beg the question, why did such a long period of time pass between reincarnations? Kikyo passed away back during the Feudal Japan period and likely would have been reincarnated soon after her passing, but hundreds of years passed before Kagome was born. This was never really explained in the series and there was no indication that others were born in the meantime. Given the long period of time that passed between reincarnations, it does make it seem like there was something missing here.
WHY DIDN’T KAGOME LEAVE THE SHARDS AT HOME?
Kagome and Inuyasha are the only people who have the ability to travel through the Bone Eater’s Well from the present and past. This was something of a strategic advantage nobody seemed to think of throughout the series.
As the group recovered shards, they were kept in Feudal Japan… Why didn’t she simply take them to the present and keep them somewhere safe? Presumably, the shards would have been safe in the present without the treat of some demon stumbling upon them and taking them for themselves. This not only doesn’t make sense, but it also seems like a missed opportunity. Kagome and Inuyasha could have banked on the security of the 21st century and ensured the safety of the shards, but nobody seemed to have that idea, which doesn’t make much sense at all.
SESSHOUMARU’S SWORD
Another nitpicking piece has to do with Sesshoumaru’s sword, which he somehow kept, but got rid of whenever he transformed. Technically, the sword was instrumental in his transformation, but that doesn’t explain what happens to it when he transforms from a human into his full-demonic form.
Does the sword get absorbed into his new body or simply disappear only to reappear when he returns to human form? It seems like this is one of those things the viewers accept because there is no explanation given, but it doesn’t make much sense when you think about it for more than a minute or two. Magical swords have to go somewhere when the person holding them transforms into a giant dog monster, but that doesn’t mean the series had to show what happened to them.
KAGOME AND HER BIKE
This one might be a bit more in the nitpicking category than anything else, but how did Kagome get her bike up and down the well without some sort of rope & pulley system helping her out? This is one of those things that doesn’t make any sense when you think about it for more than a second because we all know bikes aren’t something you can simply pick up and move easily.
Granted, they don’t weigh a lot, but that doesn’t mean she was able to easily move it into and out of the well in the way it is depicted in the series. This just seems like lazy writing when you get right down to it, but there is no way she could have carried that bike easily through the well each and every time she needed it.
EVENTS IN THE PAST HAVE NO EFFECT ON THE FUTURE OR PRESENT
Time travel is one of those storytelling tropes that often raises more questions than it answers. Paradoxes form all the time based on events carried out in the past. Inuyasha is no different seeing as the majority of the series takes place in Feudal Japan. Kagome’s actions in the past should have a huge impact on her present, but every time she returns to her time, nothing has changed.
This doesn’t add up when you consider all the events she has taken part in. How has she not affected her timeline and made everything different? These questions are the danger of time travel in storytelling, but they are also part of the fun. Her actions in the past could have resulted in her present as she knows it, but there was never an explanation given, so who knows?
KOGA IN THE FINAL CHAPTER
Like most anime, Inuyasha closed out with a pretty good explanation of what happened to the main characters in the series. Unfortunately, one character was left out without much said as to what happened to him.
Koga was notably absent when the series picked up three years after in the events of the final chapter. Where was Koga and what happened to him that we didn’t get to see? It seems plausible that he returned to his pack, but for a character who spent so long chasing after Naraku, it seemed like there was something missing when it came to his story’s conclusion. There was a passing comment by Kagome that he might have married Ayame, but that’s all that was said about what happened to him.
HOW DID THE SHARDS SPREAD SO FAR?
When the series began, the Shikon Jewel was shattered into pieces while it was high in the sky thanks to a crow demon. When it shattered, its pieces flew far and wide across all of Japan, which established the setting for the series.
The only problem that didn’t make any sense was why the shards fell so far from each other. Granted, it’s all about magic here, but reasonably, the shards should have dropped into a small area beneath where the jewel shattered. It’s one of those aspects of the series that only works if you don’t think about it much… or know anything about physics and gravity. Of course, the series would have been over and done with if all the characters had to do was scour a small area to locate the shards.
SANGO’S COSTUME CHANGING ABILITY
While we get that this is an anime and there are aspects of the series that shouldn’t make sense, there were a few things about Sango that just don’t work when scrutinized. The biggest flaw that drew our attention was Sango’s Supergirl-level of costume changing that made it seem as if her wardrobe was magically activated.
Sango demonstrated an ability to change into her Demon Slayer outfit in a manner that makes it seem impossible. She also, for some reason, whipped her hair into a ponytail to complete the ensemble, which was certainly impressive, but probably not necessary. How did she change so quickly throughout the series and why was it presented in such a way? There was no explanation for it.
KAGOME SHOULD HAVE BEEN EXPELLED
When the series began, Kagome was beginning her career as a Junior High School student. When the series came to an end, she graduated from High School, but that doesn’t seem possible when you think of all the times she missed school.
In any reality, someone who missed so much school should have been expelled… long ago. Nobody seemed to question why she was out of school so often (claiming to be sick). All anyone at school cared about was her boyfriend whom her friends incessantly bugged her about, but nobody seemed to care about all the school work she missed. When you think about it, Kagome is lucky she was able to complete her education at all given how much of it she actually missed. It is just one of those things that defies reason.
SHIKON JEWEL’S POWER
The series quickly established that shards from the Shikon Jewel could be used by demons to greatly increase their power. It appeared that a single shard could empower a demon as much as the entire Jewel in its completed state, which doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Why would a small sliver of the Shikon Jewel increase the power of a demon in a way comparable to the whole Jewel? This was never established as something that was going on, but it certainly seemed that way. Each demon the group found who was empowered by a shard appeared to be fully-powered and was a serious threat to anyone they came across. It simply doesn’t make much sense that a small sliver of the Jewel would work to empower a demon in the same way that the entire Jewel did.
INUYASHA’S EVIL SIDE
Inuyasha spent a lot of time suppressing his more evil traits, but he required his sword to truly keep it at bay. This begs the question, why didn’t he succumb to his evil side in the long period before he was able to get a hold of his sword?
The sword was used to seal his demon blood and keep his evil side at bay, but it had to be in his possession (after it was broken) to keep the seal active. So, because of this, it should have been much harder for him to keep the evil aspect of himself suppressed before he was able to get a hold of the sword. This was somewhat explained in the series, but it didn’t make a lot of sense looking back at it.
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Are there any other things about Inuyasha that make no sense? Let us know in the comments!