InuYasha

[doxiedachsie]

Inuyasha's demon vortex caught and held Magatsuhi when he held Tessaiga.

Magatsuhi blamed Inuyasha's energy for vanquishing him.

Sesshomaru noted that Kagome's spirit powers were able to dispel Naraku's aura with her mere presence.

Inuyasha tried to crack Naraku's shell to kill him before his traps for Miroku and Sango could spring.

This may have been a forced "Deus ex Machina".  We never had a hint that a demon vortex could capture and imrpison Magatsuhi, much less pull him out of a person he possessed.

We do get to see Sesshomaru develop a new appreciation for Kagome's powers.

Inuyasha was intent on fighting and defeating Naraku despite all the impediments placed in his way.

[DoxieMoxie]

Sango equated defeating Naraku with saving Miroku's life.

Sango listened to Naraku describe the false trail he left for Miroku and never considered that her situation would be the same?

When I first read this, I thought to myself that the author was making up something while trying to think up what she wanted to do next.  It just seems crazy that an intelligent demon exterminator wouldn't consider everything Naraku said as a lie and see through his appearance before her as just as much an illusion as he claimed to have done to Miroku.

[DoxieMoxie]

Naraku wanted to kill 2 birds with one stone by having Miroku suck in Inuyasha and Kagome while attacking an illusion.

Kagome realized that her released powers could purify from a distance.

Kagome could find Naraku and the jewel through solid materials.  The surprised Naraku didn't realize that she still had the ability that she displayed with Hitomiko?

Inuyasha was surprised by Kagome's vanishing arrow.  It was the first time he had seen it.

Here is where we see some of the awesomeness of the powers that were hidden in Kagome for the entire story.  Everything she did before now was just a hint at her real capabilities; and this is the first time she can consciously access them all. 

She still isn't trained beyond what Hitomiko showed her, though.

Inuyasha has finally met his true match; and Naraku has just encountered his worst nightmare.

[DoxieMoxie]

Sesshomaru threw Hiraikotsu at Byakuya, but his aim wasn't as good as Sango's.

Inuyasha dismissed the tearing Kazaana when Miroku was worried about it and presented the most positive outlook of all the group.

Byakuya did not dip his hilt in anything.  He just held it up near Meido Zangetsuha's track to absorb the residual energy.

Sesshomaru didn't understand why Sango would risk her life for Rin after nearly killing her.

Just a couple of incidental observations this time.  And one big difference from the anime.

[DoxieMoxie]

Totosai watched Naraku and wished Inuyasha to make it home safely.  (He didn't mention a thing about Sesshomaru.)

Naraku told Inuyasha and Kagome that the Jewel was alive, and clever.  He also said it had revealed that Kikyo had a lingering affection for Inuyasha that served as it's path back to the world of the living.  (Was it the complete truth, or just another partial lie?)

Naraku even revealed that the jewel used him and intended to survive his death.  He seemed to know that his soul would survive inside the jewel after his body had died.

Inuyasha saw his shared hanyo status with Naraku as a sign that he was predestined to kill him.

[DoxieMoxie]

Time to finish this thing up.  I keep neglecting it for other things. 

[DoxieMoxie]

Inuyasha had to unite with Tessaiga and the Meido to make it truly his own.  His personal Meido took a different form than Sesshomaru's.

Sesshomaru heard the commotion of Inuyasha's new Meido attack and decided to add his own destruction as a coup de grace.

Kagome realized that Naraku's soul was the thing that had to be defeated and she was the only one who could do that.  (Oddly enough, the jewel would not let Naraku kill her.  It wanted her alive.)

Inuyasha swung at Byakuya for daring to attack Kagome and produced a single Meido blade in this case.

Everyone's goal was to sever their ties to Naraku, any way they could.

Like the wind scar, Inuyasha's version of the attack was shotgun-like and sharp.  Sesshomaru's version matched his single-purpose and focused personality.  Inuyasha's was flamboyant.

It was almost like Sesshomaru was following Inuyasha's lead at this point.

This is where it becomes obvious that Naraku no longer controlled the jewel, if he ever truly did.  It is also clear that the completed jewel protected Kagome and that Inuyasha has a degree of control over his version of the Meido that is surprising.

Also, the Inu-tachi did not contribute to the jewel's bad karma because their only goal was to break away from Naraku's relentless attacks on their emotions.  If the only was to do that was to destroy Naraku, then that was a necessary job to be done.

[DoxieMoxie]

Next up, the final volume.

[doxiedachsie]

I HAVE  to come back and finish this off.  But not tonight. 

[gravekeeper]

The final volume!!!

[DoxieMoxie]

Volume 56 covers the reassembly of the Inu gang inside Naraku through the end of the story.

Naraku couldn't resist calling the Inu-tachi fools because of their friendship.

Sesshomaru stopped fighting to watch Rin and Kohaku give their gas masks to Sango and Miroku.  He had never been interested in such interactions before and Rin's quickness to forgive and help was interesting at the very least.

We are suddenly seeing Naraku's blind spot, the reason why so many of his plans have failed.  He underestimates human nature and the deep imperative for survival that keeps our bonds with each other strong.  He is the union of emotionless demons with individual agendas, that supersede that imperative, and a corrupt human who turned his back on that imperative and let evil settle into his heart.  He couldn't see that humans in a group make a collective whole that is greater than just the sum of its parts.

He thought that his plots would drive them apart and is only now discovering that it brought them closer together instead.  Too late, though.

Sesshomaru has seen a lot of surprising things of late, starting with his brother conquering the inner demon without the help of Tessaiga, then continuing with Sango behaving exactly as he did when Rin was kidnapped so long ago.  Now he tends to watch activities with interest. Rin herself found it so easy to forgive the weakness of another.  Will Sesshomaru follow her lead?

[DoxieMoxie]

Naraku tried to stop Inuyasha's attack by threatening Kaede's village, but it couldn't stop Sesshomaru.

Kagome realized that the Shikon was alive and controlling Naraku.

The jewel was the one thing Bakusaiga couldn't destroy.  Only Inuyasha and Kagome held that power.

Inuyasha was still surprised the second time he saw Kagome's arrow disappear.

Kagome's arrow striking the jewel purified all of Naraku's miasma, except the part immediately surrounding his body.

True to the end, Sesshomaru will sacrifice anything to achieve a goal.  Or was he just trying to psych out Naraku?  By that time, Kagome knew that it was for her to purify and destroy the jewel.  Even Sesshomaru couldn't destroy the crystallized soul that was the jewel. 

When it came down to the final battle, Inuyasha had become the most powerful fighter.  He had conquered his demon form through sheer will power and now had converted the meido attack into something more destructive and powerful than it was before.  Even the jewel's power couldn't protect Naraku from it.  It was up to him to destroy Naraku's body and it was up to Kagome's arrow to purify Naraku's soul, thus destroying his demon half.

[DoxieMoxie]

At the end, Naraku admitted that the jewel was controlling him and made him make the wish that IT wanted for ITSELF. 

Q:  If Magatsuhi was dead, how was there still evil in the jewel?  That is, an evil consciousness that was beyond his control and apparently did not come from him?

[gravekeeper]

Maybe Magatsuhi could never truly be destroyed; just the physical appearance could be?

[DoxieMoxie]

I have no idea.  I remember that the anime specifically mentioned that Naraku had so corrupted the jewel that Magatsuhi couldn't return' and so he took up temporary residence in Rin, and later Inuyasha.  But I just haven't had a chance to go back and read through the manga recently.

[gravekeeper]

Perhaps it is one of Rumiko's many plotholes.

[DoxieMoxie]

The only thing I know for sure is that the souls of the demons were still inside the jewel.  Magatsuhi was an evil spirit that amalgamated from their evil.  I don't know if the process was repeatable, or if the evil could still exist absent the composite spirit.

[DoxieMoxie]

Been doing some research.  In Shinto, there are many Magatsuhi.  They exist in nature to cause random disasters; and the accumulated bad karma from successive wrong choices can generate a Magatsuhi spirit inside a human soul, but that one stays with its human.

In the manga, when Kagome's powers were loosed 'her' light returned to the jewel and Naraku used 'his' darkness to push it out.  He generated his darkness by causing strife among friends, comrades, and lovers.

All of this could possibly mean that he could create his own personal form of Magatsuhi; but without the power from inside the jewel, he had no ability to use it against Kagome's powers.  That would explain why his best hope was to transport both himself and her into the jewel and battle it out there, a true "War of Souls".

None of this was explained to any satisfaction in the anime.  Maybe Sunrise assumed that a Japanese audience would understand it instinctively because of the way Shinto permeates their society.

[DoxieMoxie]

Inuyasha understood that Byakuya could have killed Kagome when he attacked.  He tried to divine Naraku's true purpose.  Why use a delayed meido on Kagome instead of killing her outright?  Why go to the well?  Why make the well disappear?

Inuyasha also understood that the jewel was after Kagome and kept her alive for some reason, even though it feared her.  He begged Tessaiga to find the same meido that Kagome was in and trusted the sword to do it.

Inuyasha's meido connected to Kagome's end of the well, meaning the jewel had taken her to the future through the well and then closed the exit.

Inuyasha has started to show some very complex thinking.  He was the first to realize that he wasn't the only one protecting Kagome, at least from Naraku.  He also seems to have begun undrstanding that it is impossible to fully protect anyone.

We also see that he had completely united with his sword and seems to carry on psychic conversations with it.  He knows that the sword possesses either knowledge or sight that he does not; and he trusts it to find what he cannot, in this case Kagome's location.

It's ironic that the jewel took Kagome to her own time.  Does this imply that the jewel now belongs there as well?  It seems certain that it intends to begin its new existence in the 21st century.  Perhaps this is proof that the jewel has its limits.  For example, it can't change history and has to continue its existence from the future where it re-entered the world.

This also implies that the jewel was lying.  It does not have the power to turn either Inuyasha or Naraku into full and perfect demons.  There is also something of an implication that the circumstances leading up to Inuyasha's demon aspecte emerging were possibly orchestrated by the jewel, i.e., have Naraku keep attacking Inuyasha with detachments until Tessaiga broke and Inuyasha became desperate enough for his demon side to take over.  Was that how the jewel grants a wish?  The only time Inuyasha had the complete jewel in his possession he intended to use it to become full demon.  That was his wish.  And maybe the jewel granted it, in a roundabout way.

On thing is certain, after Tessaiga broke, Naraku never directly attacked with another detachment until he sent Kanna after the group; and the goal then seemed to be Inuyasha's demon side.  It was either kill Inuyasha or leave him as a mindless murderous beast.

This also fits in with the history of anyone trying to use the jewel becoming unhappy, or paying for it with their lives.  After all, Inuyasha was "killed" right after announcing to the jewel what he wanted; and even Naraku refused to use the jewel's full power until he was desperate.

[InuFan05]

Oh! I can't believe that it's almost over! What a long and incredible journey.

[DoxieMoxie]

Finally over.  Someone else can start at the beginning again; but I think I'm just about done with this thread.

[InuFan05]

How's it over? Kagome still hasn't made the wish, or returned home, or returned to Inuyasha.

I'd really love to host this time around, but I'm really busy. Someone should make a thread or a poll to discuss future possibilities. I think going into another reread immediately would be too much.

[DoxieMoxie]

We were originally supposed to discuss a volume each week for a little over a year.  Then everybody dropped out; and I only stayed here to finish it out of pure stubbornness.  It just gets away from me as I get busy and forget to update it each day.

Time to put this thread to bed and worry about reproducing it later.

[DoxieMoxie]

Inuyasha knew that the Shikon lived and survived Kagome's arrow.  It's ironic that he wound up inside the jewel.

Miroku realized that the jewel was sentient some time after Inuyasha did.

Inuyasha was surprised to see Midoriko fighting inside the jewel.  Interestingly enough, she ignored him and only attacked the demons.  Could it be that she regarded his soul as pure?

Irony of ironies, Inuyasha wound up inside the jewel fighting alongside Midoriko.  The boy who wanted to use the jewel to become full demon is now a man fighting it keep the jewel pure.  Oddly enough, Tessaiga knew where to take him so that he can be near Kagome.

[DoxieMoxie]

The jewel expected Kagome to make a selfish wish so it could take her whole and replenish its fuel of souls to battle on.

Inuyasha finally admitted to himself just how much Kagome meant to him and realized thay were destined soul mates.  He finally broke free from his Kikyo obsession.

Inuyasha warned Kagome to keep up her courage and not make a wish until he arrived.

Once Kagome said that she trusted Inuyasha to find her, the light appeared inside the jewel and Tessaiga reacted to it by turning meido black.  It seems that her belief and faith were the foundations of her special kind of magic.  It also seems that Tessaiga is connected to her almost as strongly as it is connected to Inuyasha.

Here it finally becomes apparent that the jewel is actually a malign entity that is primarily ruled by the demon souls within it.  Midoriko fights a losing battle holding them all in check and really needs the help of an outside purifier to keep the jewel inert; and that's the best to expect, an inert jewel.

Somehow, Inuyasha was finally sure of this once he saw the inside of the jewel, and he tried to warn Kagome.

This is where Inuyasha repeats his great speech to himself.  He never once uses the word "love"; but what he describes is obviously that and very specific in its references, which makes it much more powerful a statement than a simple "I love her".  He details what she brought to his life and what he learned about himself through knowing her.  Then he finally acknowledges that Fate sent her to him for a purpose.

Then we see that Kagome is also connected to Inuyasha's sword.  Their status as soul mates extends to every connection their souls have, as though they were actually one soul.