Kagura (InuYasha)
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Kagura (神楽, か ぐら, "the dance of the gods") is a character in the manga and anime series InuYasha.
History
Kagura the wind sorceress is the second detachment of Naraku, and is a wind-yōkai (demon). From very early on, her chief desire is to kill him in order to free herself from his control. However, because Naraku carries her heart, her defiance could lead to her death in a heartbeat. Like the wind she was born of, she wishes to be as free and will gain that freedom any way she can.
Naraku absorbed many souls from dead human girls before creating Kagura and her older sister. However, the characters attribute his new detachment-forming power to a large piece of the Shikon no Tama that he acquired around this time. A number of fans argue against Kagura having a spirit of her own, for a reason given later.
With her scarlet eyes and jade earrings, she was designed to resemble one of the Shinto dancers of her namesake, kagura. Like most of Naraku's children, she has a spider-shaped scar on her back which is the result of Onigumo's presence inside Naraku. Kagura's primary weapon is her fan, which allows her to create and manipulate powerful winds. The fan itself was created by Naraku using his bones similar to how he forged Abi-Hime's halberd. It is a rather durable weapon; in the manga, it has been used to block Sango's Hiraikotsu. Some speculate that even thought she is the wind sorceress the source of her power emanates from her fan and not from her, since she can't perform her supernatural abilities without it, though it is unlikely as Kagura can control the wind around her to her will, as she had done that to prevent InuYasha from using the Kaze no Kizu on her. Her fan is most likely used to direct her attacks more easily, like how Kagome shoots purifying arrows — the wind attacks come from her powers, not her fan.
Despite such impediments, she covertly works toward his death, mostly by manipulating the two camps opposed to Naraku, those of InuYasha (She finds out about his time period weakness, but chooses to keep it a secret so InuYasha can defeat Naraku) and Sesshōmaru for whom she has been speculated to have had deeper feelings. Some argue that this is proved in the manga and in the show. In the show, when Kagura believed that she was about to die due to a wound, she went to Sesshōmaru, who saved her. When asked by Rin if she went to Sesshōmaru to be saved, she said, "No, I just thought that before I die … I could see his face one more time."
Kagura works as a sort of double agent between the former and the latter. Slight arrogance and foolhardiness define her personality, and she likes to make wisecracks.
In the manga, Naraku charges her with her final job, which is to guard Goryōmaru at a prison. Hakudōshi convinces her to release him secretly, because he is secretly plotting with Akago to destroy Naraku. During this time, Kohaku inadvertently reveals to Kagura he has recovered his memory. The two end up becoming unlikely allies, sharing information as to Naraku's weaknesses and somewhat gaining the other's trust due to their common desire for his destruction.
Relations
- Naraku — Despite the fact Naraku created her, Kagura despises him because she is nothing but a dispensable tool to him. Because he holds her heart, she cannot hope to defy him without fear that he can easily kill her.
- Kan'na — The first detachment of Naraku, Kagura's older sister. Unlike Kagura, she is loyal, likely because she does not care about her fate. She looks younger than Kagura, but is often the wiser of the two. Kagura finds her somewhat creepy and submissive while Kan'na seems to consider Kagura foolhardy. They do not seem to have a particular opinion of the other, especially since Kan'na thinks nothing of obeying Naraku's orders to lure her sister towards Naraku when he separated into the countless demons and punished her for disobeying him. Of Naraku's detachments, they are the only two besides Hakudōshi to survive multiple battles.
- Goshinki, Jūrōmaru, and Kagerōmaru — Kagura's younger brothers, Naraku's third, fourth, and fifth detachments respectively. None of them last more than one battle against InuYasha and his friends. Kagura thinks that Goshinki is nothing but a brainless glutton until he reads her mind. No interaction is seen between Kagura and Jūrōmaru and Kagerōmaru.
- Musō — Another detachment of Naraku, who is actually Onigumo's heart. He is reassimilated into Naraku later on. There is no interaction between the two.
- Akago and Hakudōshi — Originally one entity, a baby that can read minds and find darkness in people's hearts and use it to take control of them. A priest slices the child in two and Kan'na and Kagura each take a half, Kan'na's half remaining the baby Akago while Kagura's half becomes Hakudōshi. Kagura does not trust Hakudōshi anymore than Naraku, despite the fact he appears to be defying Naraku as well.
- InuYasha — While Kagura is not exactly an ally of InuYasha, she has no intention of destroying him because he may be the key to freeing her from Naraku. When she learns that he will become a human during the night of the new moon, she chooses not to tell Naraku knowing that InuYasha could very well be her trump card. InuYasha, while initially he sees her only as an ally of Naraku, manages to gain some sympathy for her, particularly when he realizes she has been protecting Sango's brother Kohaku and she wishes for Naraku's destruction.
- Sesshōmaru — Kagura's feelings towards Sesshōmaru are ambiguous at best. At times it appears that she is using him like InuYasha, though at other times it seems as if she has deeper feelings for him.
- Kohaku — Sango's younger brother, who is resurrected by Naraku with a shard of the Shikon no Tama. After he secretly recovers his memory, he works to destroy Naraku by learning of Naraku's secrets. He inadvertently reveals the truth to Kagura and the two become allies because they are both in a similar situation. They seem to trust one another and have risk their lives for the other.
- Koga — The leader of the Yōrō-Zoku (wolf-yōkai tribe). He despises Kagura because she slew his kin and set him up to fight InuYasha (whom he already disliked) while she has a very low opinion of him and thinks he is weak.
- Kikyō — Kagura often refers to her as "that woman" and Kikyō knows Kagura only as an agent of Naraku. While they have not fought, Kikyō is not particularly hesitant to attack Kagura while Kagura knows that she would be a fool to fight someone like Kikyō.
Abilities
She has at least three demonic wind attacks: She can trap her enemies within her demonic winds, rendering other wind attack useless. She has two feathers in her hair tie which are able to increase their size and fly on a breeze she has created. She also uses a war fan with some of her powers as well.
- Dance of Blades — with a sharp wave of her fan, Kagura flings multiple blasts of wind shaped like blades towards an enemy that can corrupt the Wind Scar. Her blades cause heavy damge, pierce objects, hold off Inuyasha's sword, and divert wind attacks.
- Dance of the Dead— She manipulates the dead or souless beings (done by Kanna's mirror) this used to pin enemies or be used as morbid messengeres. She then lets them collapse and dissolve or Kanna releases the souls from the victim's bodies.
- Dance of the Dragon — Her strongest attack, where she forms several twisters or one huge twister to launch at her enemies that is able to suppress the wind scar, hold off a stong assaul and trap a foe within the vortex. The twisters are at high speed and are entirely under control.
- Feather expansion — Expands her hair decoration(s)(feathers) and fly off on a breeze she has created herself.
- Wind control — Forms any type of wind and controls it.
- Dance of the Wind- she forms wind currents from a gentle breeze to a massive hurricaine.
Naraku's intent
After Hakudōshi's death, Kagura fears that Naraku would kill her too. Suspiciously, Naraku offers to give her freedom instead, but with a fatal catch. Naraku returns Kagura's heart, granting her freedom, but pierces her chest and poisons her with his shōki. Naraku could have killed Kagura at anytime, since he had her heart. The reason he gave it to her was to sadistically enjoy Kagura torment knowing that she was finally free but with her fast approaching death that freedom would be short lived. He was merciful in the fact that he allowed her choose her place of death. With the fatal wound and the poison running through her body, Kagura flees to a field of flowers. There she is found by Sesshōmaru. At first, Kagura believes he had found her trying to look for Naraku (for both Naraku and Kagura give off a similar smell), and would therefore would be disappointed. However, Sesshōmaru reveals he had come with the full knowledge it would be Kagura he would be seeing.Kagura's final moment and her spirit
Though Sesshōmaru's face shows little emotion during this (as always), Kagura is happy that he came knowing it was her. At this point he makes an attempt to save her life using his Tenseiga blade, but it could not (either because the nature of the wounds or the lack of a normal soul is debatable among fans). It is worth noting that this is one of the two times Sesshomaru saved someone (or attempted to at least) without the Tenseiga pulsating as his intiative. Kagura then slowly begins to become ash. In her mind she reveals that she's fine with her death, for she got to be with him in her final moments. Her body finally fails and breaks away as her end results in a gust of wind containing flower petals from the field. Later, when InuYasha asks Sesshōmaru if Kagura suffered, he simply tells InuYasha Kagura was smiling. The sword Tenseiga normally works by striking the pallbearer spirits who come to take a dying soul to the underworld, however, none were coming for her since she had no soul and thus the sword wasn't able to save her. It is for this reason that it is believed that Kagura never went to the underworld and instead ceased to exist altogether, as she had no soul to begin with.
Many fans have wondered why she had to die at all. Many claim that her painful death was one that was well deserved as even though she was mainly used by Naraku, she killed many people who didn't deserve to die; mainly Koga's Yōrō-Zoku brethren, and it was simply something that was destined to happen or because Rumiko Takahashi felt that Kagura had to pay for what she had done. Others claim that her death was necessary to aid in helping Sesshōmaru achieve a sense of compassion in his heart which resulted in him gaining a new attack for his sword Tenseiga, namely the Meidou Zangetsuha (which he has desired since the beginning of the series). Yet another theory is that she had to be removed in order to make room for Naraku's latest and most powerful child up to date, Byakuya.
Appearance
Her hair is black and her eyes are distinctly red. Her kimono resembles those worn by kagura dancers, her namesake. Her hair is typically worn up in a short ponytail with two feathers.She wears a kimono with at least two layers; occasionally, she will drop the right sleeve of the outer most layer to increase her movement in battle. The inner layer was initially red while the outer layer was blue with a white pattern. Her costume changes after her initial encounter with InuYasha; the inner layer is blue and the outer layer has a dark-pink and white striped pattern.
Her most distinguishing feature is a spider shaped scar on her back, the result of being born of Naraku while he was still a han'yō (half-yōkai).
Name
- Kagura (神楽, かぐら) means "the dance of the gods". Ka is from the word kami ("god(s)") and the dance is an ancient Shinto ritual — the oldest known to this day.
Voice actresses
- Japanese seiyū: Ōgami Izumi
- English: Janyse Jaud
- Spanish: Diana Pérez
- Portuguese: Raquel Marinho
- German: Tatjana Pokorny
- Italian: Cinzia De Cariolis
- Hungarian: Csampisz Ildikó
Music
InuYasha Ongaku Hen Ni- "Kaze Tsukai Kagura" (「風使い神楽」 "Wind-User Kagura") — Kagura's theme, a fast-moving piece that gives the effect of a strongly blowing wind.
- "Ubawareta Koromo" (「奪われた衣」 "Stolen Night") — An orchestration of Kagura's theme that plays when Kagura, Kan'na and Kaguya attempt to steal the sleeve from InuYasha's robe.
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Listed in approximate order of appearance.
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